Against the World
25 Aug 2022 18:00![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
telekinesis_killswith permission, cross-posting a segment of a comment thread with my private storyline partner red_hood_rat
"... if it was an option... would you leave?"
"It isn't an option, so I've never thought of it." Danny says quietly, "I've never had a reason to leave before, either."
"If you ever do... if you ever want out and those fuckers try to make you stay... let me know. We'll run together, and I'll burn any motherfuckers who get in the way."
Danny just stares at Jason for a while, looking like he wants to say something but the words won't come to him. And then he starts to laugh -- falls forward against Jason's chest again, wraps his arms tight around Jason's body, and laughs.
"You're the only person who ever asked me if I wanted to stay with the Bureau. You're the only person who ever offered a way out."
Not even the Teen Titans, for all that he'd been a member of their team. Not any of the other agents he'd worked with, who could have known of the arrangement to bring him back to life and tie to him the agency. Not even his parents, who believed so wholeheartedly in what they were doing and thought it was best for Danny to work there with them.
He chokes on the laughter, and starts to cry in silence.
Jason doesn't know what to say, so he just holds Danny, sitting with him as he cries.
"I've had too many people take my choices," Jason says eventually. "I won't let anyone take yours."
"There was no choice, there was never any choice for me." Danny looks up, and his eyes are frighteningly blank, his voice so flat that his next words are a recitation, "Do as you're ordered or be punished. Kill or be killed. Stay with the Titans because it's too dangerous for you on our current mission. Get the fuck out of the Tower. Fight the demon bitch or doom the world. Work for us or die."
Danny pulls at the bottom of his shirt, and then uses the hem to wipe off his face. "How fucking pathetic is it... the only time I was fucking free to do anything in my life, and I wasn't even me? I was a dying body stuffed with a thousand other souls, and we had to do everything by consensus, and that was still more choice than I've ever had before or since."
"It's not pathetic," Jason says. "It's bullshit you gotta deal with it. Got words I'd say to some people. Got a knife for a whole lot more. But... you're not pathetic. Never."
"... if it was an option... would you leave?"
"It isn't an option, so I've never thought of it." Danny says quietly, "I've never had a reason to leave before, either."
"If you ever do... if you ever want out and those fuckers try to make you stay... let me know. We'll run together, and I'll burn any motherfuckers who get in the way."
Danny just stares at Jason for a while, looking like he wants to say something but the words won't come to him. And then he starts to laugh -- falls forward against Jason's chest again, wraps his arms tight around Jason's body, and laughs.
"You're the only person who ever asked me if I wanted to stay with the Bureau. You're the only person who ever offered a way out."
Not even the Teen Titans, for all that he'd been a member of their team. Not any of the other agents he'd worked with, who could have known of the arrangement to bring him back to life and tie to him the agency. Not even his parents, who believed so wholeheartedly in what they were doing and thought it was best for Danny to work there with them.
He chokes on the laughter, and starts to cry in silence.
Jason doesn't know what to say, so he just holds Danny, sitting with him as he cries.
"I've had too many people take my choices," Jason says eventually. "I won't let anyone take yours."
"There was no choice, there was never any choice for me." Danny looks up, and his eyes are frighteningly blank, his voice so flat that his next words are a recitation, "Do as you're ordered or be punished. Kill or be killed. Stay with the Titans because it's too dangerous for you on our current mission. Get the fuck out of the Tower. Fight the demon bitch or doom the world. Work for us or die."
Danny pulls at the bottom of his shirt, and then uses the hem to wipe off his face. "How fucking pathetic is it... the only time I was fucking free to do anything in my life, and I wasn't even me? I was a dying body stuffed with a thousand other souls, and we had to do everything by consensus, and that was still more choice than I've ever had before or since."
"It's not pathetic," Jason says. "It's bullshit you gotta deal with it. Got words I'd say to some people. Got a knife for a whole lot more. But... you're not pathetic. Never."
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