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Waking up in a different apartment from his own - safe houses excluded - is, admittedly, new and strange for Jason. He’s never gotten this far in a relationship before and he’s honestly still a little unsure of how he made it to this point.
Anyway, what better way to chase away his doubts and insecurities than by making breakfast?
The kitchen is small, but well enough equipped. Jason delights in finding that by the looks it, Danny must actually use it to make their own food regularly. He’s cooked for them before and they’ve told a story about a birthday cake they’d made for their younger sister - an inside joke, something about there being less candles on it than matched her real age - but they hadn’t mentioned much else about it.
It’s mostly Jason’s fault for running out on them too many times on what should have been dates, but turned more into short catch-ups, but he does have to admit that even when they talk longer, delve into deeper topics, Danny can be a little shy on telling him about things they’re good at.
As he starts to crack a few eggs into a bowl - he definitely saw a waffle iron in the cupboard - Jason wonders if one of their secret talents is sniffing out secret identities. Or maybe he really is just that bad at hiding it. To be fair, he doesn’t have that many people in his life who are close enough to figure it out without already being part of the gig in one way or another.
Danny stirs on the couch where the both of them had fallen asleep the night before and blinks over at him with those pretty eyes of theirs.
“Huh?”
“Hey there,” Jason calls, smiling ridiculously through the light warmth in his cheeks at the strangely domestic scene. “Sleep well?”
Squinting between Jason and the blanket they’re buried in, Danny’s brows furrow adorably. Yeah, Jason is a goner, because that’s his partner right there and they haven’t run to the hills even knowing he’s Red Hood.
“Hmn,” Danny replies, shrugging out of their cocoon and sitting up to run a hand through their messy hair. It looks like it might be long enough to braid at this point. Jason’s fingers almost itch at the thought. “Are you making food?”
He lifts the bowl slightly with one hand, using the other to stir the batter. “Waffles. I didn’t want to wake you and then I found the waffle iron- I, um, hope I didn’t overstep or anything?”
Danny shakes their head. “No, you’re good. But be warned, the waffle iron is, uh, customized.”
Before he can ask what they mean, Danny’s phone interrupts their conversation with an incoming call. Danny takes a single glance at the screen and back at Jason apologetically.
“I'll finish the waffles, you take that?” he asks, gesturing towards the vibrating noise.
“Yeah,” Danny agrees, smiling back at him. “Thanks.”
Jason watches them accept the call and hurry to their bedroom, talking excitedly to what seems to be both of their sisters on the other end. For a moment he asks himself if Danny might have told them about his identity, but he dismisses it quickly. They aren’t the type to break someone’s trust like that and Jason got the feeling Danny was smarter than to endanger the lives of their sisters by letting them in on it.
The batter is soon finished and Jason pulls out the waffle iron, setting it on the counter to plug it in. He’s just found a ladle for portioning when he opens the top and pauses.
“What is this even supposed to be?” he mutters, though obviously not quietly, enough judging by the laughter he hears from behind him.
Danny comes closer and drops their chin on his shoulder to watch him get started on the first waffle.
“It’s obviously a ghost,” they say, but it sounds a bit unserious to Jason.
“Sure it is,” he agrees anyway.
The blob shaped waffles turn out well and they both sit on the couch to eat, ignoring every house rule Alfred has ever tried to instill into Jason. Danny’s ghosts are drowning in syrup and Jason tries not to smile too much over the rim of his coffee mug as he watches them try to eat without making a mess.
There’s a nervous energy that creeps into their movements the closer they come to finishing their plate. It’s visible in the fidgeting and the tense shoulders and there’s this strange feeling that Jason remembers from the night they first met, when lightning would strike overhead and Danny would flinch, eyes wide and failing to conceal panic.
“Let’s go out, do something fun.”
His partner startles, their own coffee mug stopping right before meeting their lips.
“What?”
“It’s the weekend and I already slept over at your place. We could… extend our date. Make up for the time I made you wait here while I was out shooti- I mean, definitely not. Shooting. Anyone.”
“Not shooting anyone, how Batman of you,” Danny teases, shoulders relaxing slightly.
Jason snorts, poking them in the biceps. “Don’t compare me to my old man, you heathen!”
“Wait- Batman is actually your dad?”
“O-o-okay,” Jason says, getting up and setting his dishes in the sink. “We are going to go out and we’re going to have a great time and we’re not going to mention any vigilante related subjects until dinner.”
His partner sighs, relieved. “Yeah, okay. We can do that”
The rest of the anxiety seems to bleed out of Danny as the day goes on. They go to an arcade - making an unspoken game out of dodging Justice League or Batman related games - have lunch at one of Danny’s favourite little restaurants, take a walk through a cemetery that does not have a grave with his name on it and overall have a wonderful time. They sit down on a bench between rows of graves and admittedly beautiful gardening work and Jason finds that he really hasn’t thought much about vigilante things all day.
The evening light peaks through the tall grey buildings surrounding them and casts a golden glow on his partner’s calm face, eyes closed and a few strands of hair curling around their face. Jason’s eyes trace their features, from their soft lips to pale cheeks and the subtle strands of light gray that he refuses to ask about but thinks make Danny all the prettier - and maybe they also make him feel a bit less self conscious about his own hair. The moment feels calm, happy, and generally like something he used to only read about in novels.
“You weren’t actually that bad at hiding it, by the way.”
Danny opens one eye to peek at him, the corners of their lips twitching into something of a teasing smile.
“What happened to not talking about it until dinner?” he ask, setting one arm onto the backrest of the bench to better look at Danny.
“Didn’t you know? I actually have the ability to photosynthesize, so I’m having dinner right now, through the sun. If I do it long enough my eyes turn green,” Danny jokes, smiling at their own joke.
“Must have forgotten to ask about it during our round of twenty questions.”
“You suck at twenty questions,” they say, shuffling a tad closer, eyes still closed and relaxed.
“Just because I asked normal people questions?” Jason shoots back, pretending to be offended.
“Well, they were boring!”
“Oh yeah? Well, who asks a person if they’d rather have finger sized legs or leg sized fingers on the second date?” he asks, thinking back to the feeling of his crush growing with every ridiculous question Danny had asked him during their turns.
Danny laughs silently, head dropping against him in a way that makes Jason’s heart go a little faster.
“Sorry, I’ll wait until date three next time.” There’s a content bit of silence and Jason almost things they’ve dropped the topic again after all. Then Danny shifts and grabs the arm Jason had set on the back of the bench and pulls it around their shoulders to hold onto. “What I meant was, if, like, I was just any regular civilian, I probably wouldn’t have figured it out that fast?”
Jason’s eyebrow scrunch together almost automatically at the words, his brain catching up fast.
“Wait, so- What are you saying, exactly?”
“Um.” Danny’s hands cling to his sleeve and he’s pretty sure they positioned themselves in a way that would limit any possible eye contact on purpose. “That I’m… not? A regular civilian?”
For a second, Jason’s brain zaps back to their very first conversation and he rethinks what he assumed had been a joke on Danny’s part.
“You’re not a supervillain or something, are you? Because that would be a real pain to explain to the family. Not that it’s any of their business, but they’re a bunch of nosey bitches and I already have been doing extra work to keep Dick-face off my back about who I go out with-”
“Clockwork help me,” Danny mumbles. “I’m not a supervillain, Jay, oh my god.” Then they add, “Although it’s nice to know you’d still date me, I guess? Or maybe that’s concerning. I might have to sleep on that, actually.”
Jason shakes his head slightly, his nerves limiting his ability to laugh about it as he usually might.
“That’s what you get for making a joke about being on the run from the government,” he defends, knocking his leg against Danny’s.
“Ha, uh, yeah. How about I leave that bit of lore for another time, huh? Maybe our tenth date? Or the twentieth?”
Jason is not a fan of how Danny shrinks into his side at the words or how it plants a kind of anxious churning in his gut, but they have never pressed him for information and so he would extend that same level of trust back.
“Hey, you said it yourself, we have time. I can learn about that extensive lore in time, right?” He uses the arm that is still in his partner’s possession to nudge them gently. “Also, if you’re hiding from the law, I can’t exactly judge.”
“Right, because you’re a vigilante.”
“Yeah.”
Danny is more quiet when they speak next.
“I used to be, um, a vigilante.”
Jason freezes. Then he deliberately unfreezes when he practically feels Danny’s anxiety rising and tries to keep his voice calm and reasonable collected.
“What the fuck?” he asks, as reasonably collected as one can, at least.
“Um, I mean, just- just sort of? It was really the ghosts’ fault. But- Well, I don’t really do that anymore,” Danny tries to assure, turning their head in a half-hearted attempt to glance at Jason, though clearly still uncomfortable looking him in the eyes. “I’m retired!”
“You’re a retired vigilante because of ghosts,” Jason repeats, staring somewhere into the distance, like it might tell him what to say. “Okay.”
“Okay?”
“Sure. Um. If you're retired- Who- I mean, sorry, you don't have to say.”
Danny does look at him now and there's a pained sort of tension there. The last bit of sunlight hits their eyes and Jason thinks about the joke they made and for a moment he thinks their eyes really do glow green.
“It’s complicated. And- I'm only… partially retired. I mean, um. Ghosts! They can't help but haunt me, you know? Uh. This is so hard. Why is this so hard? Jazz makes it sound so easy.”
“Oh my god,” Jason breathes, suddenly unable to stop his chest from trembling with laughter. “Oh my god.”
Danny sits up straight, causing his arm to slip from around them as they turn around to face him properly, confusion evident on their face.
“Jason?”
“I'm sorry,” Jason laughs. “I can't stop laughing! I'm a horrible person - you shared something huge with me and I can't stop laughing, oh my god.”
“You're right,” Danny says, struggling not to get infected, lips twitching. “You're horrible. You're awful, even.”
“The worst, right?”
“The worst.”
It takes a minute for them both to calm down and as the last of the sunshine hugs the horizon, Jason can't help but just- look.
His partner averts their eyes, almost-maybe blushing.
“What?”
Jason huffs one more laugh and leans forward to kiss them on the forehead, like he's been wanting to do all day.
“Nothing, just.” He rubs a hand over his face and shakes his head. “I think we're gonna be fine.”
And when Danny smiles back and their eyes sparkle somewhere between blue and green, Jason can feel it's true.
“Yeah,” they say. “Although I have to point out that I am not ready to meet your dad if he's the actual Batman anytime soon.”
Jason groans.
“No promises, unfortunately.“