Ghosts Don't Exist

Chapter 18: Frosty Wonderland

"Danny! Calm down. Shh," Vlad said in slow motions.

He watched Danny sit legless (but somewhat crisscross) floating above the floor staring blankly in front of him. His body coated in a thin casing of frost while the surrounding was tightly packed with ice. It didn't spread like it had the first time, if anything, it compacted itself in a small area around Danny. It protruded outward to ward off any enemies in a pitiful display of defense.

His eyes were glossed over in white, any form of an iris or pupil wasn't there. His brow was tight and pointed toward one another. His face looked dark and threatening, like he was about to launch an attack any moment.

His hair glowed a soft white hue that flickered lightly. His fists held in front of his face holding a spiked circular ice ball. Flakes, frost, ice, etc swirled and connected to it, adding to its size. Vlad crouched down in front of Danny, he didn't seem aware of others observing a contained tantrum. Bruce crouched beside Vlad. "This is one of those contained outbursts he has subconsciously?" Bruce asked quietly. Vlad nodded and sighed with a frown. "He doesn't look like he knows others are here with him, yet he guards himself. Peculiar." He whispered.

Danny's face tightened and bent his finger tips around his ice ball. Hastily and harshly, thick threatening ice formed spikes protruded from the ground in the direction of the two men.

Vlad and Bruce fell back just before being hit. "Ice is a very stressful piece of power to have. I've only dealt with this once, first hand experience. He'll have to tire himself to exhaustion." He stated with a grime face. Bruce frowned staring at Danny as he stood.

Tire himself? To exhaustion? His frown deepened and he tore his eyes away.

"At least that shows that he knows we're actually here." Damian said forcing a smile. Comforting people was not his strong suit. Bruce gave a weak smile and sighed.

"Um, Damian," his voice cracked, "stay here with him until he, I guess, passes out." Damian nodded and sat a safe distance away. "Vlad, you and I have a lot to discuss." He said and waved him to follow. Damian huffed and decided sleep was the best option, not like Danny was leaving this state for a while.

___ time skip

Danny woke up groggily on the floor. The air was cold, but he wasn't freezing. He rubbed his eyes and yawned. He looked around and noticed... the entire living room was encased in frost. He stood up slowly before noticing Damian freezing on the floor asleep.

Why was he on the floor? When did he fall asleep? Why was there frost everywhere? Where was Bruce? Where was Vlad?

"Damian! Wake up! I don't like this, wake up, please!" (The fucking Chrissy tik tok) Danny shook Damian who didn't wake up. Danny wasn't freezing in his human form because it was barely freezing to him, but Damian wasn't half ghost. His body didn't think he was dead. Neither did Vlad's. Was Vlad okay?!

He calmed himself and transformed into his ghost form. He wasn't too experienced in temperature powers but thank God he knew how to make himself a human heater! He wrapped his arms around Damian and pulled him close to his body. He was shaking like a leaf.

Danny had learned what it was like being human from antimony books in the library. Assuming Damian fell asleep from the cold, his brain forced his body to sleep to conserved energy. It knows that the body will die from freezing temperatures but the brain doesn't really care (that's an actual fact btw).

Damian was close to hypothermia, thank goodness Danny woke up when he did. Danny hugged Damian close carefully criss crossing his legs and placing Damian in his lap to hug him tighter. He needed heat. Badly. Danny stuffed his head in the crook of Damian neck, he needed heat everywhere, he was still shaking. He wasn't waking up either. His teeth chattered and his lips were pale. His hair had a fragile layer of frost in it. Danny dusted it out and upped the heat he was producing. His hands glowed a faint orange. He felt Damian's head lopped to falling to his shoulder.

"Please wake up, Damian."

Danny sat there hugging Damian closely. It had been thirty minutes and his brother had stopped shivering. He still shook every once and a while but otherwise he was warmer. Danny had wrapped his hands around Damian's to keep them warm, they were awfully pale from the cold. Danny watch Damian closely, his breathing was steady and he looked peaceful.

He sighed and looked up at the surrounding area, the frost wouldn't leave. The snowflakes in the air weren't leaving either. They weren't even moving, they sat frozen in time (that's a snow pun for ya).

"Hm?" Danny looked down at his shoulder as Damians faced scrunched up. He very groggily opened his eyes and hazily looked around. "Wha?" He slurred out. Danny gasped and right away wrapped his arms around Damian. "You're awake! You finally woke up!" He said. Damian, half awake, looked around rubbing his cheek. "What are you- woah. What happened?" He said rubbing his eyes.

"I don't know, I woke up on the floor and it was like this. You were shivering so I warmed you up." Danny said after pulling away and showing his hands emitting an orange hue. Damian looked around more. "Where's Dad? Where is everyone else? How long were we out?" He asked grabbing his hands for warmth. He stood up and Danny floated up. "I don't know, I can't move when I heat people up, it takes too much energy. And, for some reason, my energy is very weak." He explained solemnly.

The thing about these subconscious contained tantrums, Danny can not be told about them. He has to figure them out for himself before so. That was how it was with Vlad, he'd only had two and he was rather unsure of what he wanted to do when he found out he'd had them. This was Danny's first time having them. If Danny had been told, he didn't want to imagine what he'd do. That's why he decided it's best if he found out by himself.

Damian looked away and over towards the kitchen. The frost flowed freely. They both rushed to the kitchen to find Alfred at the stove with the oven door open trying to fend off the frost. Danny couldn't get this to go away like he had last time.