Chapter Text
It was taking everything in Danny not to cry in happiness at the sight of his children playing together in the courtyard of his castle.
Damn, how long had it taken to be his castle?
He knew the answer, as he looked down from the window to the courtyard. Dani was showing her younger siblings how to fly in the ghost zone. The newer children were struggling a bit, but it wasn’t anything that their older sister couldn’t handle. It was so weird to refer to them as younger and older siblings. Technically, the baby of the family, Vidar, was the oldest at 23 years old while the big sister, Dani, was physically only 17 years old.
It was such a strange situation that they had, the children decided that the first adopted child would be considered the oldest while the most recently adopted child would be considered the youngest.
Children. He has 13 beautiful children. Sam, Tucker, and Danny have 13 amazingly strange children. They’re married with 13 children.
Jazz is an aunt.
His parents are grandparents.
That should freak him out, but it sincerely doesn’t.
It did in the beginning when he adopted his second “oldest” his 13-year-old son Ramiro. He could still remember that summoning like it was yesterday, he even had his memories of those first few years encased in a looking glass just to remember the chaos of his first living contract.
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It was a dark day in Metropolis, it was cold and raining. Normal for those unaware of what was happening under their feet. Deep underground, in the sewers of Metropolis, was a group of people who believed that while under everyone’s feet, they were as close to god as people could get. Every single member thought of themselves as gifts to humanity, when they were nothing more than trash among people, and sadly, in the middle of their circle was a small child of only 3 years of age crying out to his family.
Ramiro was a normal child before all of this.
He could’ve sworn that he was a good kid before all of this happened. He didn’t understand why his father was doing this. He didn’t understand why his mother was just looking at him as these strange people tied him to this strange circle stage.
Earlier he was just playing in his living room watching a dinosaur documentary, throwing around his soft plush dinosaurs to allow them to fly. They didn’t even get the chance to hit the ground as he turned to the sounds of cheering from the door.
His father was cheering as he was going through a stack of green paper, the smile on his face was unnerving. If Ramiro didn’t know any better he’d believe his father had traded places with the Joker. His mother wasn’t sharing in his father’s happiness tears ran down her face as she looked at Ramiro.
The boy waddled over to her and was able to get out the words, “What’s wrong momma?” before another man came into the living room from the hallway of their complex. He was in a suit and tie and was eyeing Ramiro up and down as if he were a new toy that had just been announced. He kneeled to his height before grabbing his cheeks and forcing his head side to side.
Ramiro could feel the tears start to flow as he tried to push away the stranger's hands but that only made him hold on tighter.
“So you weren’t lying when you said you had a child as white as milk" The stranger grinned as he snapped his fingers which seemed to summon more men like him. People started to pick him up and carry him as Ramiro tried to scream and call for help. He called out to his mother and father, but both were silent as he was dragged away from his dinosaurs.
Ramiro tried to think back to what the men were saying but all he could focus on now was the pain in his wrists and how his blood was flowing out of him. He was trying to strain his eyes to look around but it was too bright for them, his momma always said it was because he was albino. His eyes were sensitive she said, it hurt to be in this circle.
He wanted to go home. He was tuning out the men’s chanting and singing as he pleaded for someone, “Please. Please someone help me! It…it hurts!” He tried thinking about the prayer his grandma taught him, he tried praying to god to help him, for any god to help him!
That was when the bright red flames began to turn bright green, the chanting got louder as Ramiro began to cry harder, pulling with all he could to get out of his restraints, and that’s when it appeared above him.
His momma would always tell him stories about the angels up in heaven, and how beautiful they were, and now he was pretty sure he was looking up at one. The angel’s skin was dotted with stars and he glowed with a crown atop his head that looked like the fire all around him. His hands were sharp and so were his teeth but the most interesting this was that he had the same hair as Ramiro. He looked a lot like Ramiro, he was just older.
Was that why the men wanted him?
The angel looked down at Ramiro as the stranger from before called out to him, “Oh Ghost King of the Infinite Realms! We offer you this vestige of youth! May you drink from this child and grant us the power that is rightfully owed! We beg of you!” The angel didn’t seem to be listening to him as he floated down to Ramiro. He delicately reached out and wiped the toddler’s tears from his cheeks, he was so nice to him.
“Do you want to get out of here?” The angel asked as the chains around Ramiro’s wrists and ankles disappeared in the green flames of the circle. He didn’t have to ask twice as the child brought his arms up to him.
“Yes, please”, his voice echoed through the room as he was picked up.
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Danny was beyond pissed, this child was injured, they used this child in their summoning, who did they think they were?!
His face was blank as he brought the child into his chest, he already went through so much, that he didn’t need to see what Danny was about to do. The king kissed the top of the child’s head as he whispered, “Cover your ears okay? I’ll let you know when you can listen, okay?” With the child’s ears covered, there was no need to hold back. Danny’s scream echoed through the sewers as one by one the cultists dropped to the floor as they attempted to cover their ears.
He raised his volume, how dare they do this to a child, how dare they involve this child in their stupid crusade!
Heads went rolling as bodies dropped to the floor, these people didn’t have enough substance to stay but his ring glowed as he assigned each to a worse hell than the last.
May they suffer for what they did.
Danny let out a sigh as he looked down at the child in his arms, still dutifully covering his ears with all he had. It was cute watching the boy’s face screw into a face of concentration. Danny nudged the child with his chin with a chuckle, “It’s over champ, you can uncover your ears now.” His hands slowly went to Danny’s chest as he whispered, “Is it over now?”
“It’s over now, why don’t we get you home-?”
“NO!” The child screamed as he hugged Danny so tightly that if Danny was human, he’d wonder if his ribs were cracked. It was confusing until memories of the boy’s night flooded into his head via their soul contract.
His parents did this?
His parents abandoned him for money. Money of all things?!
The more he watched, the angrier the king became. Oh, he was not giving this child back to the living, could he even give him back? He’s never cut off a soul contract with someone so young.
“This is something I gotta ask Clockwork.”
“Who’s work?”
Danny looked down at the curious child as he gave a nervous laugh. “He’s someone you’ll meet soon. What’s your name?” The king began to open a portal, shifting the child to his left hand as he did.
“I’m Ramiro! I’m…I’m this many!” The child exclaimed as he held up three fingers to Danny, he chuckled and nuzzled the child in his arms, who could endanger such a sweet little boy?
“Well Ramiro, we’re gonna go to a new place where you can stay with me okay?” The ghost and child began to float through the portal as Ramiro giggled, he loosened his grip on Danny as he looked towards the glowing green circle.
He was nodding as he answered, “Okay Mr. Angel!”
“Oh my name’s Danny, I’m not an angel, I’m a ghost!” The boy then proceeded to pinch the king’s cheek as if to test his claims.
“Ow!” Are most 3-year-olds this strong?
A thought then passed through the King's mind.
Oh. Oh, Sam was going to love this little boy.
They flew through the portal, dead bodies in the sewers as they went towards their new life together.