Why did I decide that writing in English was a good idea? Because I hate myself.
If I have grammatical errors or any kind of mistakes in my writing I apologize, English is not my first language and I'm still not the best with it, I'm open to corrections because it drives me crazy to reread again and again to correct mistakes in a language that I still don't fully master but I use to post here.
Thanks for reading this. 😗✌️
Crying in "no soy bilingüe carajo, sólo tomo malas decisiones siempre".
A few days ago Bruce had a fight with his sons, now he doesn't even remember why, it was probably something stupid that escalated and he didn't know how to stop it, it was probably his fault.
He was alone at the mansion, Damian was at Dick's house, Jason was ignoring him more than usual and Tim was on a case where he didn't want help, not from him at least, even Duke was away, it wasn't a good week for Bruce.
He grabbed a phone he had hidden and only took out before going to sleep alone in his room, hesitated for a few seconds and sent a message to the only number added.
His "thing" with the boy, Danny Fenton, had started four years ago, the boy was lost and Bruce found him when he coincidentally went for a walk as a civilian.
Danny was so charmed by Bruce (for some reason) that he gave him his hotel room number to keep talking about the universe, and later his home number.
Danny was a good, funny and witty kid, a very smart too, with parents who didn't deserve him because they didn't notice their son's brilliance.
Danny was a good boy with a not-so-good life, a strong, independent boy who wasn't always positive but didn't always let himself fall apart.
That's why when Danny answered his message with a call with him crying and asking for help, he could only go to his rescue without looking back, barely remembering to tell Alfred of his departure.
When he arrived he found only tragedy.
His family and friends had died, an explosion at an unfortunate time, Danny had no one in the world besides his godfather and Bruce, and he didn't want to fall into Vlad's clutches, so he was desperate.
He also told him about Phantom, and Bruce could only hug him and promise him that no one was going to find him.
The first thing that came to his mind was to take him to his mansion, Danny was like his son, it was the most logical action... except that Danny still looked up to him and trusted him a lot, and wasn't that a scary thought?
Bringing Danny to the mansion would involve many things, Danny would meet his children, which might make Danny see him differently, goodbye to his admiration and affection, goodbye to spending time "together" watching bad movies to criticize them, goodbye to quiet conversations and asking for advice, goodbye to trust.
Bringing Danny to the mansion would mean having him physically close but keeping him away in every other possible way.
"Danny doesn't want anyone else to know about Phantom." Bruce repeated to himself as he took Danny to a small, hidden apartment in Gotham, a cozy little place where Vlad wouldn't find Danny (and neither would Bruce's family).
The key slides easily into the keyhole, though it does need a bit of a jiggle of the doorknob to get the door to open. He enters the room with more noise than he normally would, setting his keys on the kitchen counter with a tink. He’s shucking off his coat as footsteps hurry down the hall.
“Bruce!” Danny cheers, a big smile on his face when he sees who just came in.
“Hey, pumpkin,” Bruce grins. A feeling of relief and calm washed over him when Danny skips forward to hug his middle. Bruce is happy to return the affection, messing up the kid’s hair with a chuckle. Danny tries to fix it, but the effort isn’t really there.
“I gotta show you something!”
Danny rounds the corner and runs down the hall, Bruce laughing behind him at the boy’s enthusiasm.
“Wait up, Danny,” he calls, taking his time following him.
“You’re taking forever, old man!” He hears from one of the bedrooms, the one Danny had claimed as his own.
Old man. That reminds him of Jason.
Bruce’s smile falls a little.
His second son was avoiding him like a plague, ignoring any kind of contact, threatening to shoot him if he got near. It was disheartening and no one would tell him what exactly he did wrong so he can fix it.
He could try donating more money to a charity benefiting Crime Alley, but the last time Bruce did that Jason got defensive and even more hostile.
“See? What do you think?”
Danny expectant voice pulls him from his internal troubles. Blue eyes follow the boy’s presenting hands to the puzzle laid out on the desk meant for homework. Bruce had bought this puzzle box for Danny last week and the little mastermind has already figured it out.
“Good job, pumpkin,” Bruce praises with a proud smile. Danny grins back widely, practically beaming. “Did you find what was inside?”
The grin turns into a smirk, seeping playful arrogance.
“Of course I found your thumb drive, Bruce. Are you secretly Riddler’s assistant or something?”
Bruce snorts, “I think you would know if I was.”
“True.” Danny jumps onto his bed with a galaxy blanket and folds his legs underneath him like a child. “But anyway the drive had the library location on it. So naturally I went there and didn’t find any obvious clues, but then I talked with the people working there and surprise, surprise I have a new library card in my name.”
The teen gives Bruce a look and he feigns ignorance.
“Oh really?”
Danny hums.
“Well I’m sure you can make good use of it then.”
Danny’s eyes narrow.
“Whoever set that up for you must really care about your studies.”
Danny sticks his tongue out at the man, cheeks red. Then he reaches under his pillow to pull out a decent sized book titled Moonshot: A NASA Astronaut’s Guide To Achieving The Impossible. A second book follows the first, titled Astrophysics For People In A Hurry.
Bruce hummed in contemplation, looking over the books and their brief description.
“Good choices.” Danny smiles happily, blushing with his lip between his teeth. “Have you learned anything good?”
That was the signal Danny was waiting for to launch right into a monologue of all the things he’s learned in the short time they had been apart. Bruce directs the boy out the door silently as Danny keeps chattering. Bruce listens gratefully, just happy one of his kids will share their passion with him and just talk. It’s nice. He misses this.
Bruce takes them to the small Thai spot down the street. Danny only stops his ramblings to order the same thing he always does and lets Bruce pay, but as soon as they sit down he was talking again.
“The lady at the library was super helpful though. The one in the wheelchair? She has red hair, like Jazz. She reminded me of her. You know if Jazz was a lot more chill,” Danny chuckles but Bruce can tell he was saddened by the reminder.
“You don’t have to talk about it if you don’t want to,” Bruce offers, though silently hopeful Danny would open up and equally doubtful he would.
Danny gives him a pained smile, “Thanks but Jazz would tell me to talk about it. I just- it’s… easy to talk to you and I-… I know I’ve said it before, but thank you for taking care of me and just being there. It- it would’ve been really bad otherwise.”
Bruce straightens the napkin on the table. Why is he so awkward around his kids? Or maybe just with emotions.
“I’m just glad I could be of help,” he brushes off.
He has to look up at the snort from across the table. An amused expression is on Danny’s face.
“You really suck at this, don’t you?”
Bruce shares the smile.
“I do.”
“That’s alright. Jazz loaded me with lots of information on all the gross feelings we try to ignore. I’m sure we can figure it out together.”
Danny shrugs like it’s no big deal, but Bruce feels like an opportunity has arose. This was something none of his other kids had expressed to him. Danny was giving him a chance. A chance to at least try to be a good dad. A chance to be in his life.
“Yea. That’d be great.”
Danny smiles back, calm and relaxed in his presence.
He definitely needed this.
Meanwhile, Dick was pissed. Bruce has been ignoring his calls after he stole Dick’s case out from underneath him.
His bike skids into his spot in the Batcave, jumping off as soon as he’s able.
Tim doesn’t even look up from the screens in front of him. Damian pauses his solo training to glance over at him.
“Where’s Bruce?”
“Oh, someone’s in trouble,” Tim mumbles.
“Where?” Dick demands again.
Tim finally looks up to give him a deadpan look.
“I don’t know. Probably upstairs,” he waves off like the topic was unimportant.
“I was just up there and I couldn’t find Father,” Damian provides, furrowing his brows in thought.
“Well then where is he?”
“I… do not know.”
Dick can see the gears working in their heads.
A throat clears behind him and he sees Alfred silently step off the elevator with a cart of snacks and drinks.
“Alfred, where’s Bruce?”
Tim pushes himself out of the chair to come over and grab a cucumber sandwich. Damian rushes to shove Tim out of the way.
“Those are meant for me, Drake.”
“You should have been faster.”
“Guys,” Dick raises his voice, pinching the bridge of his nose. “I really don’t need this right now.”
“Yea, because everything is about you,” Tim scoffs, taking a glass of lemonade as he walks back to the computer.
Dick has to bite his tongue to not say anything in retort.
“Alfred,” he repeats with a restrained, quiet voice.
“I must confess I don’t quite know where Master Bruce has run off too,” Dick rubs his chin in thought, anger falling into a simmer, “but I can say he has been more absent as of late.”
Dick thinks about it for a moment and then gets an idea.
“Do you- You don’t think he’s been with Jason, right?”
“I haven’t talked to him,” Tim answers.
Dick sends him a look. Tim rolls his eyes.
“Nor have I,” Damian adds.
Truthfully, neither had Dick.
“Have you seen Jason lately?” He asks Alfred.
“About a week ago we had tea together. The topic of Master Bruce was carefully avoided, however.”
Dick hums and pulls out his phone. He’s a little embarrassed to say he had to scroll a bit to find Jason’s name.
“What do you want, Dickface? I’m busy,” Jason answers.
Dick doesn’t waste time beating around the bush.
“Do you know where Bruce is? Is he with you?”
“Why would I be with that bitch? Why are you even asking me, you know he can’t stand me?”
Dick huffs, “He does not hate you, Jason. He loves you. How many times do I have to say it?”
“Zero, but you keep doing it. Why are you calling me anyway? Seriously. Wouldn’t he be with the pretender or the demon brat?”
“Well they’re both here with me and Bruce isn’t here nor is he upstairs. Even Alfred doesn’t know where he went. I thought maybe he went to go talk to you.”
“Well he didn’t. Check his location.”
Dick was already walking to the computers and putting Jason on speaker.
“Tim, check his-“
“Way ahead of you,” the teen interrupts. “His tracker says… the subway?”
“That doesn’t make sense. Did he mention going undercover to anyone?”
There was a chorus of negatives.
“Maybe he was visiting Babs?”
“No, see, he’s on a train that going toward the docks. That’s nowhere near the library or the clock tower,” Tim points out.
“Are we even sure this tracker is reliable?” Damian inquires.
“I guess he could have planted to tracker to fool anyone looking for him, but that begs the question what is he trying to hide? Even from us?”
There is silence as Tim checks the trackers data and determines Damian was in fact right and this tracker was a decoy. He switches programs to start a facial recognition run for Bruce’s face.
“Maybe he’s with a chick,” Jason suddenly suggests.
“Ew,” Tim cringes.
“Gross,” Damian agrees.
“Jason, be serious.”
“I am! I heard the old man and Selena are on a break. It’s possible.”
“Then why didn’t he- okay, never mind. So he’s seeing someone. Maybe. Do we have any other theories?” Dick asks the crowd hopefully.
“A private mission?” Damian offers.
“He would have told at least one of us if it was night work,” Tim reminds.
“He could be meeting with another hero? He could be just chatting with Clark.”
“Except Superman is currently rescuing some pedestrians from a burning building,” Jason debunked. “Face it, the old man has a new lover. She probably doesn’t know about his double life and he doesn’t want us interfering.”
“I vote interfere,” Tim shrugs, looking for something to break up the monotony.
“I second the motion,” Damian adds, just wanting to break up whoever thought they were better than his mother.
“Third!” Jason yells over the phone, because he wants to mess with Bruce.
Dick sighs, but silently agrees they need to get involved. Also, he’s a nosey bitch.
“Do we even know where he is?”
“According to this he was spotted going into the planetarium about an hour ago,” Tim concludes, typing away to try to find a better angle but failing. “His credit card says he bought two tickets and before that was Thai food for two. Okay, this is sounding like a date. Bruce is totally on a date right now.”
“I need to confront this woman,” Damian decides, fully prepared to going into battle with this potential civilian woman.
“Let’s not get ahead of ourselves now,” Dick tries to calm them down.
“I’ll meet you there,” Jason says, the sound of a motorbike starting in the background.
Tim and Damian are on their feet in seconds, running toward their own bikes to catch up with their older brother. Dick sighs and follows after.
“Please do not give Master Bruce a hard time, Master Richard. I have seen an improvement in his mood and would hate for him to regress to a darker disposition,” Alfred adds before he leaves.
Dick nods and follows the others out of the cave and into the light, feeling the chilly rush of the wind compared to the burning anger in his chest.
Bruce is always keeping something from him- from them without thinking about how they’ll take it when they found out. There are always secrets around the man and yet Bruce gets mad at Dick for finding them out. It’s hypocritical and frustrating. Yet another secret has been revealed and Dick has to be the one to take responsibility. Not only that but keeping this person a secret was indirectly telling Dick he couldn’t be trusted with this information. He didn’t trust Dick with his secret, but expects Dick to share his own secrets.
He uses his breathing techniques to calm himself back down to a simmer. In public isn’t the place to blow up at Bruce.
Jason is waiting for them when they arrive, smoking a cigarette and leaning against his bike.
“Took you long enough.”
“Yeah, yeah, have you spotted them yet?” Tim gets to the point.
Jason drops his cigarette and smushes it with the toe of his boot. He grunts in a negative.
“Been waiting on you losers.”
“Aw, you shouldn’t have.”
“Now I regret my decision.”
They all walk into the large building, purchasing their tickets for entrance on the way in. However after ten minutes of looking around the entire building, no sign of Bruce.
“Are you sure this is where he was spotted last?” Dick clarifies to Tim.
He pulls out his phone with a scowl.
“Positive. Maybe he could have left before we got here.”
“Hey, what about that?” Jason interjects.
He waves a hand to the sign saying ‘Dark Observatory’.
“Huh. I guess,” says Dick.
Tim shoves Damian forward.
“Go check.”
Damian turns with a snarl.
“Why would I listen to you? You go.”
“I don’t want to see Bruce making out with some lady in the back of the theater, thank you very much.”
“What makes you think I would?”
“You’re a little murder gremlin. How am I supposed to know what fetishes you have?”
Damian literally growls and Dick places himself between the two to prevent an all out brawl where everyone can see.
“Stop fighting,” he whisper yells.
Damian throws a hand out to point at Tim.
“He started it!”
“Oh, cry me a river,” Tim rolls his eyes.
Dick has to physically restrain Damian.
“Tim. Knock it off,” Dick commands.
“Quit it, the session let out,” Jason interrupts, shoving the other three behind the corner so they can peek out.
It’s toward the end of the line of people coming out where they find Bruce. He’s dressed in jeans and a t-shirt, a plain windbreaker over top. He wears a hat to hide his face from cameras, but no one around him recognizes the billionaire.
Whoever comes out next would have to be his date. The siblings wait in anticipation, on their toes to see who it is. They were not prepared for Bruce to smile so genuinely to the teenage boy that appears by his side.
A black-haired, blue-eyed boy who beams back at Bruce like he hung the stars they were just learning about.
“That is a child,” Dick blinks, not quite understanding what he was seeing. It’s like his brain was performing a reboot. Glancing at the others, they were also going through their own internal battles.
“What-“ Tim mumbles to no one.
Bruce wraps an arm around the teen’s shoulders as the kid talks enthusiastically with his hands, letting the man guide him toward the front doors. They look so… relaxed together, so at ease in each other’s presence. Dick doesn’t quite remember the last time he felt that calm around Bruce.
They are slowly closing the gap between the two and the siblings on their way out the door, making it easier to eavesdrop on the father-son duo.
“…and NASA’s Advanced Composition Explorer, or ACE for short, collects data from all these little particles and analyses it so we can know more about the sun. Isn’t that cool?”
“Sure is, pumpkin,” Bruce agrees easily, using a sickening sweet nickname so naturally. It almost gave Dick vertigo how genuine he was being with this random kid, who might not be so random.
Pumpkin looks up at Bruce with the brightest smile Dick almost feels guilty for secretly wishing he’d trip over his own feet and fall on his face.
“Do we have time? Can we stop by the ice cream shop on the way back?”
The kid bites his lip in anticipation as if Bruce wouldn’t say yes to that.
“Are you going to try something new?” Bruce teases. Gosh, wasn’t that a feeling of nostalgia. He hasn’t been this playful with any of them for years.
The boy makes a point to think about it, humming in thought.
“That’s a solid maybe. So can we? Please?”
Bruce checks his watch over the boy’s head.
“We should have enough time.”
Danny skips with joy for a moment.
“Thanks, Dad!”
Bruce chokes. Dick winces. Jason swears under his breath.
“Are you okay?” Pumpkin asks, expression of actual concern.
“I’m fine,” Bruce waves off, trying to gain his composure. “I just wasn’t prepared for…”
The teen’s brows furrow in confusion until it clicks. His eyes go wide and cheeks turn a rosy pink. He ducks his head down in embarrassment, rubbing the back of his neck.
“Sorry, yea, it just slipped out. I’ve kinda been calling you that in my head for a while now so- but I’ll totally stop if you don’t like it!”
Bruce sets a hand on the boy’s shoulder.
“It’s more than okay, Danny. You don’t have to stop. I’m honored, really.”
“Yea?”
Jason turns and walks away, jaw clenched so tight Dick was concerned for his teeth. Damian follows him, eyes wet and expression murderous.
“Yea, kiddo. I… like it,” Bruce uncharacteristically confesses.
Dick is shocked by the effort. He didn’t even know Bruce had the capacity for what just happened.
Danny smirks, amused.
He pokes the man’s side.
“You’re just a big softy on the inside, aren’t you?”
Bruce chuckles and rubs at the kid’s hair roughly, throwing him off balance and needing to lean into Bruce’s side for stability.
“Tell no one.”
“No promises.”
And then they leave.
“What just happened?” Tim asks, sounding completely stumped.
“Bruce has a new son. A new son he didn’t want us knowing about,” Dick answers just as bamboozled.
“That kid’s a civilian! What is he thinking?”
“I don’t know, Tim, but he isn’t ready for the consequences.”
Tim pauses and then groans into his hands.
“Damian is totally gonna try to kill this kid too. At least I could fight back.”
“And I have no idea what Jason will do.”
Dick runs a hand through his hair, feeling a little flat-footed and not knowing what to do.
“I’m gonna call Babs.”
“You do that. I’m staying out of it for once,” Tim washes his hands of the whole thing and leaves Dick behind to mull over his thoughts.
Omg yes!! And then they find out that Danny literally can’t live in the Manor because of actual legit trauma. Or that it was Danny who requested prolonging the sibling introductions because he wasn’t ready to be around so many nosey and pushy bat-detective siblings who wouldn’t give him any privacy. Like half of what they’re blaming Bruce for are things Danny specifically asked for/needed.
And honestly, after 2 years, Danny and Bruce sort of liked the dynamic they had. Danny knew Bruce had other kids, but he was selfish and he wasn’t ready to share their dad during their one-on-one bonding time or have more family. The pain of the ones he lost are still there and he can’t bare to think he replaced them. The only exception being Bruce because they had met before the explosion.
As for the batkids, they are hurt. For Dick, it has been a long time since Bruce had treated him that way. Jason hates Danny because Bruce chose to have a good relationship with the new kid than to bother repairing the relationship he had with him. Damian also hates Danny because Bruce has never treated him the way he treats Danny.
The hurt and betrayal runs deep but the more they analyze the relationship Danny has with Bruce, the more they notice just how different they react. Bruce will fuck up and Danny will tell him what he did wrong before forgiving him. Anyone else would have lashed out and gone no contact with B for at least a few days until he figured it out himself. Danny though, he does everything a son should do, everything the batkids don’t do. Danny was the perfect civilian son, Bruce’s favorite, and they hated how Bruce hid Danny as if saying they would find a way to ruin Danny.
The sad thing is... They probably would, unknowingly but they would. In this, Danny has too much trauma to deal with people who is so emotionally constipated that the answer to their problems is to say hurtful things, fight or/and go no contact until they cool off just to never talk about it again. Jazz taught him better than that! Living with them would hurt him psychologically (and maaaybe physically if we're going for a stabby Damian)!
Is easy enough with Bruce, because Bruce is willing to fix things if given the chance, but what about the rest? They are already angry at Bruce for not fixing the bridge between them without acknowledging that it takes two people for that; from the outside, there is a very good reason to believe they would paint Bruce in a worse light than he actually is, albeit without meaning to, since that's the perspective of him they have.
Imagine Danny chewing out Jason for using a gun near Bruce. Or just for getting angry at Bruce because of their gun debate.
"Why do you have that near him?!? He has PTSD from the night his parents were murdered! He hates guns cause they took his parents, not cause he hates you! So stop being such a fruitloop! You are not the only one who died."
I also personally love that Bruce lets Danny go on tangents about space. I wonder if Bruce learns the interests of all his children and gets super focused on keeping up with them. Like, everyone agrees that he probably learned more about gymnastics, for Dick. It was Dick who was the first Robin, so Bruce probably made a lot of gear to protect his eldest son. Even learned Romanian, if he didn't know it already. Gave more funding and support to Crime Alley, rehabilitation centers, and kids in Gotham in general, for Jason. Probably got a bunch of Jane Austin for him in the library too. Tim wasn't his son at first, and Bruce regrets that to his core, but he learned about photography and loved to spend time with Tim on cases as they figure things out together. Bruce probably refilled Tim's camera roll film and made sure things got put up, without telling Tim of course, and Tim probably thought he put them away. Maybe Bruce even tries to make sure Alfred gets really nice coffee and snacks that either he knows Tim likes or sets up some new treats from around the world that are supposed to be good with coffee. Stephanie isn't his, as well, but he tries to encourage her quips and chaotic nature and makes sure her mother has support. Bruce learns multiple sign languages for Cassandra. He doesn't try to hold her or give her physical affection that she doesn't initiate because he's worried about not seeing her sign at him or feeling like he's trying to silence her. He makes sure there's always dummies, fresh weapons, and art supplies for Damian. Bruce also donated to animal shelters, animal cafes, and has personally eaten less meat since Damian showed more of his own personal preferences. He doesn't eat meat if Damian is around at all and makes sure that he does the same thing he does for Tim with Damian, just vegetarian or vegan. IDK if you'd include Duke, but the kid made it very clear he didn't want to be adopted and had loving parents. Bruce still tries to figure out the things he likes and accomodations Duke as much as possible. Like getting him magical sunglasses that make really bright spots not so harmful for his eyes.
And Danny, once given access to the Bat Computer, and all the files and domino mask footage, creates a continuously scathing review of each of the main boys.
Danny fully admits the man has his own issues, but he isn't the only one at fault. If he keeps reaching out to only get spat on, how's that supposed to help? And when he gives them space, they act as if he's cutting them off. He tries to communicate, and he gets interrupted or what he says gets twisted.
I, personally, love the idea Bruce is autistic. He doesn't know how to communicate well, given his childhood. And every time he tried to talk to his sons, they shut him down and shut him out. They stay around him longer when he's almost completely nonverbal. Brucie is him masking.
But with Danny, who's Ghostly nature learns more towards neurodivergent behavior, he's easily understood. Especially since Jazz was so concerned with mental health. I bet Danny got Bruce to try therapy.
I'd also love to see the second they realize Danny is not a civilian.
Personally, I want Danny to be revealed as Not A Civilian when he has to save their asses from some world ending threat. The Justice League is struggling, it doesn't seem like they're going to win this time, and then Phantom appears and beats the baddie with ease.
The Bats are all pretty beaten up, huddled together- for once putting their differences aside because they realized they might not make it out of this one- and Phantom lands, transforms back right in front of them, and frantically checks over Bruce with tears streaming down his face.
"Dad! Are you okay? Please be okay, dad, you're all I have- I can't lose another family, please-"
He ignores the rest of the family, even as they start glaing at him for "intruding upon their family". Bruce is bloodied and bruised and has several broken bones, but he smiles up at Danny and reaches up to wipe away tears.
"It's okay, Pumpkin, you made it in time. I'm still here- I'm not going anywhere. You did such a good job."
And while they may have seen this relationship from afar once already, seeing it up close curdles something in the Batkid's stomachs. Their Dad is different with the other kid, for some reason, and it hurts to see. Why can't they have that version of Bruce?
(They did, once upon a time, but the more they reacted badly and pulled away or pushed him away, the more Bruce closed himself off. He loved his babies, after all, and it seemed the best way to keep them happy was to limit the amount of 'Bruce' in their lives. It hurt to do, but he would do anything for his kids.)
Red Robin knocked the futuristic gun out of the perpetrator’s hands but not before it fired into the fight and hit Robin square in the chest. There was a rush of chaos and confusion immediately following. Nightwing takes the unconscious teen into his arms and retreats while the rest of the bats take down the rest of the thugs with brutal efficiency.
Red Hood and Spoiler stay behind to question the criminals and do some more investigating while Red Robin examines the gun used.
It’s hours later, with Robin still unconscious in the Batcave medbay, they figure out it’s an alien device originally used to find others of the same endangered race. Frankly, it didn’t at all explain why Damian was still unconscious, or why he fell unconscious to begin with. From the research they found, it shouldn’t physically alter or affect the individual. Which leads them to believe the device had been tampered with.
Tensions were high. Answers were scarce. Doubts were increasing as well as fear and anger.
It came to a head almost twenty-four hours later when Damian violently wakes up.
From one moment to the next, the teen goes from being completely unaware to gasping awake. Dick, who had been by his side through this ordeal, is so startled he shouts in surprise. He jumps from his seat to keep Damian from hurting himself as the boy thrashes in the bed.
Tim comes running in from where he was stationed at the Bat computer to see Damian screaming and struggling against their older brother’s calming hands. The heart monitor is going ballistic and if Damian keeps flailing he’ll rip out his IV.
“Tim!”
He already knows what Dick wants and dashes toward the medicine cabinet for a sedative. It doesn’t take long for the drug to do its job with Dick holding down Damian.
“It’s okay. You’re okay. I got you. I got you,” Dick reassures as Damian loses his strength and sags into the bed.
Tim is already texting Bruce about the situation, not wanting to leave Dick by himself.
“What was that?” Tim asks out loud.
He had never seen Damian act like that except for when he got fear gassed. They had run every test they could think of when he came in, he was clean.
Dick is running his fingers through Damian’s hair soothingly even though the teen is out of it.
“I don’t know. Something’s off.”
They only gave him a small dose, but Damian is out for another six hours. In that time they had ran all the tests again to find nothing abnormal and Jason had pulled in about four hours in to park his butt at the work bench to clean his weapons in front of Bruce and within hearing distance.
When Damian wakes again, it’s sluggish from the drugs. He blinks and groans. Dick is at his side immediately.
“Hey, Baby Bat. How you feeling?”
Damian pulls at the cushioned restraints around his wrists. The teen wrinkles his brows in confusion and looks down.
“You want them off? The first time you woke up you almost ripped your IV out,” Dick explains as he carefully unlatches the Velcro.
“Oh,” Damian mumbles and then thinks about the words. “What?”
Bruce walks through the door. Jason lingers in the doorway peering in to check on the kid.
“There you are. You had us worried,” Bruce says. He stands at the side of the bed to put a hand on the boy’s shoulder while his eyes scan the monitors.
“Sorry.”
That got their attention.
“‘Sorry’?” Jason asks incredulously as he pushes off the doorway to stand at the end of the bed. “Since when have you ever apologized for anything?”
“Jason,” Dick hushes. “He just woke up. Give him a break.”
Damian rubs his free wrists as he looks around at them and the room. The longer they watch him they can see the lack of recognition in his eyes.
“What- what happened?”
Dick and Jason give each other a look at the stutter, but it’s Bruce that responds.
“What’s the last thing you remember?”
Damian looks down in thought, a hand coming up to fiddle with the IV site. Dick reaches over to pull his hand away. Surprisingly, Damian lets him.
“Um, I was- I was-… sorry,” he says in frustration.
“That’s okay. Take your time.”
Damian rubs at his face in a nervous mannerism he’s never shown before.
“I think I was doing homework? I- There’s this stupid project in history class that’s due in like two weeks and I’ve been procrastinating,” Damian shrugs.
Damian hadn’t once mentioned a history project.
He looks up at Bruce.
“Did I pass out or something?”
Bruce squeezes his shoulder before letting it drop. Dick was right, something is wrong.
“First, can you tell me your identification code?”
Dick shoots him a look that he ignores.
Damian blinks up at him.
“My what?”
Tension immediately seeps into everyone present.
“Your identification code, Dami, you remember it, right?” Dick pushes.
Damian turns to him in confusion.
“What are you talking about?”
“Did he hit his head when he went down?” Jason demands. He turns to Bruce. “I thought you checked for a concussion!”
Damian actually shrinks away from the aggressive tone. Bruce raises a hand for silence. He bends to get eye level with the teen.
“Do you know where you are?”
Damian glances around with cautious eyes.
“…The hospital?”
Dick puts a hand over his mouth in disbelief. Damian sends him a look.
“Not the hospital?”
“No,” Jason answers. “Not the hospital.”
“Do you know who I am?” Bruce asks next.
Damian studies him too closely, looking for context clues. It didn’t leave a lot of confidence.
“My… doctor?”
Dick stands abruptly to pace.
“What is happening?” He demands to no one.
“That’s what I want to know,” Damian chimes in.
“Damian,” Bruce calls to get his attention. “Damian, look at me.”
The teen turns to him in bewilderment.
“Who’s Damian?”
That question freezes them.
“What?” Jason asks. “Who the- If you’re not Damian, who are you?”
“Me? Who are you?”
Dick intervenes with raised hands. He approaches the bed like the teen is a scared animal.
“Okay. We’re starting over. Hi. I’m Dick. What’s your name?”
Not-Damian looks him up and down suspiciously.
“I’m Danny. Fenton. Danny Fenton. You- I thought you called me by my name earlier?”
Dick thinks back and gives a tight smile. “I said ‘Dami’, short for Damian, not Danny.”
Danny slumps back into the bed. “Oh.”
“We’ll figure this out, kiddo. Don’t worry-“
Bruce’s phone rings with an unknown number. He glances at the teen and shows him the screen.
“Do you recognize this number?”
“Yea, it’s mine,” Danny confesses.
Bruce puts it on speaker.
“Damian.”
“Father, it seems I’ve switched bodies with a civilian,” comes the voice.
“Wait, what?” Danny pats himself down. “Switched bodies?!”
A few days ago Bruce had a fight with his sons, now he doesn't even remember why, it was probably something stupid that escalated and he didn't know how to stop it, it was probably his fault.
He was alone at the mansion, Damian was at Dick's house, Jason was ignoring him more than usual and Tim was on a case where he didn't want help, not from him at least, even Duke was away, it wasn't a good week for Bruce.
He grabbed a phone he had hidden and only took out before going to sleep alone in his room, hesitated for a few seconds and sent a message to the only number added.
His "thing" with the boy, Danny Fenton, had started four years ago, the boy was lost and Bruce found him when he coincidentally went for a walk as a civilian.
Danny was so charmed by Bruce (for some reason) that he gave him his hotel room number to keep talking about the universe, and later his home number.
Danny was a good, funny and witty kid, a very smart too, with parents who didn't deserve him because they didn't notice their son's brilliance.
Danny was a good boy with a not-so-good life, a strong, independent boy who wasn't always positive but didn't always let himself fall apart.
That's why when Danny answered his message with a call with him crying and asking for help, he could only go to his rescue without looking back, barely remembering to tell Alfred of his departure.
When he arrived he found only tragedy.
His family and friends had died, an explosion at an unfortunate time, Danny had no one in the world besides his godfather and Bruce, and he didn't want to fall into Vlad's clutches, so he was desperate.
He also told him about Phantom, and Bruce could only hug him and promise him that no one was going to find him.
The first thing that came to his mind was to take him to his mansion, Danny was like his son, it was the most logical action... except that Danny still looked up to him and trusted him a lot, and wasn't that a scary thought?
Bringing Danny to the mansion would involve many things, Danny would meet his children, which might make Danny see him differently, goodbye to his admiration and affection, goodbye to spending time "together" watching bad movies to criticize them, goodbye to quiet conversations and asking for advice, goodbye to trust.
Bringing Danny to the mansion would mean having him physically close but keeping him away in every other possible way.
"Danny doesn't want anyone else to know about Phantom." Bruce repeated to himself as he took Danny to a small, hidden apartment in Gotham, a cozy little place where Vlad wouldn't find Danny (and neither would Bruce's family).
Danny didn't have a good life, he didn't notice it until he grew up, of course, but he noticed it.
He noticed when Tucker's parents did remember his birthday (while his parents were still in the basement, creating the most important thing in their lives).
He noticed it when it was Jazz who healed his wounds when his bullies were especially cruel (and his parents were still in the basement).
He noticed it when he spent hours lost in one of the most dangerous cities in America and the only one who cared (and noticed his disappearance) was Jazz.
And so many more things, Danny noticed all the time that his life was not good, but he had good things.
He had Jazz, space, Tucker, Sam and, at a time that is now a bittersweet and painful memory, he met Bruce.
He knew that talking to and trusting strangers was bad (after Bruce told him so and Jazz repeated it to him), but it was easy to trust Bruce.
He was someone nice who listened to him prattle on for hours about the stars, planets, Nasa and space in general, listened to him with such attention and interest that he just kept talking until somehow they got to his hotel and Bruce left him with Jazz.
Of course, little Danny wasn't about to let his wonderful audience disappear from his. Life so soon after they met, and after quite a bit of insisting (and some crying), they stayed in contact.
Danny kept growing up, of course, and Phantom happened, because he thought meeting Bruce meant life would get better from there, but no, he only had momentary peace.
Bruce noticed his change in behavior (unlike his parents), Bruce who had a life of his own and several children he obviously loved more than anything (not that Danny is jealous of that, not at all), but he noticed the change in Danny.
"I don't even know why I can't-I just-" Danny doesn't finish speaking, she couldn't, not yet. "I'm sorry, I don't know what's wrong with me." His voice was tearful and shaky.
There is silence on the other end of the call for a few seconds, until Bruce's voice is heard. "You want to talk to me about constellations?" He asks quietly, non-judgmental, non-pushy.
And of course, Danny talks to him for hours about the stars, the shapes of the constellations, their names and their stories, forgetting for brief, wonderful hours everything else, just like when he was ten, and just like at that time, Bruce listened to him as if it was completely new information, as if he didn't already know all that.
Bruce was like... not a father, but like a male figure in his life whom he valued very much.
Danny was not blind, he knew Bruce was not perfect, even if they could only communicate by phone, they had had little disagreements here and there, but they did not walk away, because Bruce listened to him and did not immediately dismiss his words, because he wanted to improve, because Bruce was trying for Danny, and wasn't that a wonderful thought?
Of course, when he was finally planning to tell Bruce about Phantom is when it all goes to shit.
Losing everyone you love and having to run and hide from a freak so you don't turn into a bloodthirsty monster was, to say the least, fucking horrible.
Danny remembers the pain, the feeling of choking, the lump in his throat that wouldn't let him speak, the disbelief, the agonizing need to just disappear, Danny just wanted to close his eyes and die like his family and friends and-
And then his phone rang.
Bruce always had to show up when Danny was lost, right?
He doesn't even remember what he told him on the call or how he spoke in the first place, only that after four years he had Bruce in front of him, talking and promising that he would help him, that he would take care of everything, that he wasn't alone, not anymore.
Of course living in Gotham was quite an adjustment, the moving process made him cry several times, lately he would cry over anything and it was horrible, however, lately he also had Bruce there with him.
They still talked on the phone quite a bit, but now Bruce could also visit him, hug him, comfort him on a particularly difficult day.
Sometimes Bruce would talk to him about what it was like when he lost his parents, about when he lost one of his sons, sometimes they would both end up crying, but they were together and it eased the pain a little.
Speaking in a soft, gentle voice, Bruce would say that the pain would become more tolerable and that one day it would stop tarnishing the good memories, that someday he could put the pictures back on the shelves, that eating would no longer be horrible because eating meat would no longer feel like betrayal and eating vegetarian food wouldn't hurt, that someday he could open a tech magazine and play video games without feeling like he'd never enjoy anything again, that someday he could stop seeing his sister in every redheaded girl he saw on the streets, and that while that was happening, Bruce would be there for him.
And although the pain remained horrible, it became bearable.
There were good days and bad days, but he enjoyed when Bruce could visit.
Danny knew Bruce kept it from his sons more for what he didn't say than what he did say, but he understood and actually preferred it that way, because when Bruce came to the apartment they could both pretend to be father and son (not that they called each other that), without irreparable mistakes or painful loss, at least on particularly good days.
Danny also felt that he was special, that someone preferred him, that plain, boring Danny Fenton was special (even if he wasn't).
Life, for the first time, wasn't bad, it wasn't good either, the pain sometimes wanted to consume him completely some days, he still cried most nights but also... he felt accompanied, loved.
Obviously he felt loved before, his sister, his friends, he knew they loved him, but with Bruce he also felt understood.
He felt (and knew) that Bruce saw him, that he saw the little, idiotic, pathetic, troubled Danny Fenton and decided he was worth it, that when he found out about 'Phantom' he only talked about helping him hide it and, when some time passed, about how smart and talented he was in learning to handle his powers without guidance, that Danny was special because of who he was even before Phantom, powers were nothing without brain, that Phantom was what he was because of the guy behind it.
In turn, Danny saw (and understood) Bruce, the man was always overly worried about those he loves, every little thing, and he was smart, he worried and his treacherous brain wouldn't leave him alone (and that was painfully similar to Jazz).
How could he ask him not to worry when he already found a thousand ways for everything to go wrong and for him to be the one to ruin it?
How could he judge him now that he also knew how much it hurt to lose the ones you love?
So they would talk, it wasn't always easy because Danny was used to not being given so much attention and Bruce could be too controlling, but... well, talking helped a lot, because because they listened to each other, apologizing was easy after talking.
They almost always ended up watching B movies and judging them after they made up, or watching documentaries, because watching them with Bruce was interesting, he always had things to add, interesting fun facts that Bruce enjoyed saying and Danny enjoyed listening to.
Bruce was trying so hard and always seemed to feel it wasn't enough, that Danny couldn't help but resent his sons (the real ones) a little.
Danny knew they were not bad, Bruce always spoke of them with love and so, so much pride, it was always Bruce who was to blame for everything, the bad guy, the villain of the situation...
To Bruce his sons deserved a better father, but if anyone asked Danny, Bruce deserved a better family.
I was listening to "Creppy old guy" from the Beetlejuice musical and then I remembered "Lolita" by Lana del Rey while I was here and reading DPxDC stuff so…
Danny and Vlad meeting the Batfam.
Bruce knows Vlad is a somewhat harmless weirdo and his kids pick up on it almost instantly, so all good as long as they stay away from him, right?
Well no, because Vlad starts getting even weirder by talking about how one of Bruce's kids looks like his dear Daniel (the emphasis on his raises red flags even in people who don't go out kicking criminals at night), charmingly talking about how nice he is when he's not being a tantruming brat and then he calls the kid and there he is, the much mentioned "dear Daniel" appears, wearing heavily covered clothes (because he doesn't want his ghost wrestler bruises to show, thank you), looking very uncomfortable when Vlad puts a hand on his shoulder and dwarfing himself (he doesn't want to be here, but he's going to do it for Ellie, because she wants to go to school and he just has to avoid ripping Vlad's hand off with his teeth) while seeming to want to say something but noticeably clamming up while watching the older man out of the corner of his eye ("it's Danny, damn it" is what doesn't come out of his lips).
Bonus: someone from the Batfam "overhears" Danny and Vlad talking about a girl named "Ellie" and how Danny only stays with him because of the girl, because one of the two has to be a good father… Danny is 15 years old.
Or if this happens with Plasmius and Phantom I want the Batfamily to freak out because here they are meeting this adorable little dead teenager that almost everyone loves (because Damian tolerates him just because of Cujo, he doesn't like Danny, shut the fuck up) and then there goes the aforementioned teenager spouting things like "Plasmius keeps pestering me to live with him and I already told him that if our daughter ran away from him, what makes him think I'd want to live (heh) with him? " and "Who is Ellie? Oh, it's my daughter (they repeated that joke so much that now it's an automatic answer), it was a surprise, especially because Plasmius did it without my consent but I still love her" and we can't forget "Dan was the product of a horrible moment in my life that I hope doesn't happen and I don't want to talk about, I'll just say that the most shocking thing about him is that although he had things of mine he looked a lot like Vlad".
Danny doesn't say it with bad intentions, but referring to Dan and Ellie as his children helps him to overcome a little bit the trauma of his creations, neither is his intention to make Vlad look so bad, that's totally the other halfa's fault, no one told him to act (and be) like a freak.
Danny's pretty used to being followed by (creepy) people in matching outfits. Granted, usually those outfits are white, but hay, maybe the Guys expanded. The Black hair Blue eyes devision wouldn't be that out of the question.
No, no, no. Get that idea out of your head. Those are just the Wayne's. Remember, those reporters were talking about how they're a little odd. That's it. They're just odd.
Danny did a halfway decent job of convincing himself that until one of them asked his taste in blood? He knew it. They are vampires. As if ghosts, dragons, sirens, yetis, and time travel wasn't enough, now he has to deal with vampires. Why does Danny always have to be the target anyway? Unless they wanna recruit him to the Black hair Blue eye version of the Cullens. Is that what the Cullens were like? He couldn't really remember at the moment. They did have a red head who knew things, didn't they? Oh no. Is one of them a Confederate soldier? If so, it has to be the angry looking one or the one who aaked about blood. Why do they all look the same anyway? Everyone knows they're all adopted. It's not like Danny's parents went through the trubble of picking out babies that looked like them.
Meanwhile.
Tim, on 6% brainpower due to lack of sleep, has been trying to find out if Vlad has turned his kids yet. Right now, he can't really remember which hints he dropped, but he's sure they were subtle.
Damian has resting bitch face and is looking for the dog he could have sworn he saw.
Jason and Elle left for ice cream. She is 1000% dropping the vaguest most concerning lore.
"How many flavors can I get." She bounced excitedly down the street. Rather high for some her age and height. It almost looked like she was weightless. But surely she's just athletic.
"How many can you handle?"
She just grinned unnaturally wide.
Jason slapped two hundred dollar bills on the counter of the ice cream stand. "I want your biggest bowl filled with as many flavors as you can fit in it." He looked down at the flavors. "Leave out the alcohol flavors."
Elle looked like she could just about explode with anticipation.
"Dad never takes me out for ice cream. It's always. "If we're going to sneak out, there has to be a better reason." Or. "Vlad will catch us if we go at night."" Ellie kicked her feet back and forth under the picnic bench. "Usually, we have to wait until he's distracted like tonight, but Vlad keeps introducing my dad to random people. I think he's making sure he stays there."
Jason was concerned about the things she said. He was also concerned about the following:
How small she is for her age.
She's eating ice cream with her hands.
She had no qualms about leaving her home with a stranger.
When he reminded her to bring a jacket, she said she didn't have one, despite being at home.
On the way there, she pointed out three different alleys and four shooting galleries to rate them on how comfortable/uncomfortable they were to sleep in.
She was far too detailed for it to not be from experience.
She was wearing shoes when they left, but lost them somehow.
She seemed just as surprised as Jason was.
She hasn't said who her dad is, but it sounds like he's either another child or a captive.
"-the whole world. But it's OK because I got a brother out of it." Ellie shoved another handful of ice cream into her mouth. "Too bad he looks more like Vlad."
Wait, what? Jason was so busy mentally recounting the things turning more of his hair white, he missed the ultimate hair whitener.
"So, Vlad," Bruce put on his hoightyest "you and I are both rich assholes" voice. "How long have you been a father?"
Vlad gave a smugg grin. "It's not official yet, but I expect Daniels parents will be out of the way within six weeks."
It was hard to tell whether Bruce was holding back vomit or violence. It's usually the latter. "What do you mean "out of the way"?"
Vlad picked up two champagne flutes from a passing tray. "You've got strays of your own. You know." He handed Bruce one of the glasses and turned to leave.
Bruce has had more pleasant conversations with Ras, but he can't let him leave just yet. "Wait, Vlad," he grabbed his shoulder. "Daniel is clearly not used to all this, mine were like that at first too, especially Dick and Jason. It really helped the others to have some friends around. Someone they're already comfortable with." Vlad turned. Good, he might have a chance. "Maybe we could set up some play dates, your kids and mine, without all the formal Gala crowd."
Vlad looked confused and judgmental. "Aren't your kids grown? Young Daniel is only fourteen."
"Damian is 15." Please don't be familiar with Damian.
"The unsociable one? He's been looking for animals this whole time." Now it's all judgment.
"Yes, he prefers the company of animals, but that's exactly why they should spend some time together. They could both spend more time with some humans their own age." No caring parent could refuse that. "You could even send over the other two. My Jason loves kids." And no parent would turn down not having to deal with their kids for a while.
Rats, Vlad thought. No real parent would turn down such an offer. And from Bruce Wayne, no less. Everyone would be suspicious of him if he didn't let his kids go on "play dates," as he called them. Vlad turns back towards Bruce and seeks out Daniel hiding behind his go-to curtain. Luckily, they're all already there. "Very well. We can have them meet now. If they hit it off, with no interference from either of us, I will agree to your "play dates"."
As they shook on it, Vlad sent out an invisible copy of himself to the window to inform Daniel of his role. "Stay away from the Wayne's, especially Damian. Or you'll be spending a lot more time with these mortals."
No way did Danny want anything to do with anyone at this event. He wanted to be alone or with his actual friends. "Copy," Danny never raised his head from the wall he was facing. These events make him feel like his social battery has a leak in it.
Before long, Danny's ghost sense went off.
There's a cat here, too. A long hair. And Damian was going to track both of them down no matter what. *VV-VV* His phone buzzed with a message. Father had assigned him the task of befriending the eldest of Masters wards. Immediately, he exited the lab he had found, back through the secret entrance in the basement, up a spiral staircase, swiftly avoiding darts shot from the walls, through a hole in Vlad's office, and closed the painting behind him. He then headed back to the ballroom, where he spotted his father.
The message was rather vague. As though someone were looking over his shoulder when he wrote it
Bruce gestured with his eyes to where the boy stood, behind a curtain, forhead touching the wall. A pathetically vulnerable position to place yourself in. Damian approached, and though his steps made no noise, the boy looked around as if he were in danger. Perhaps he was not as vulnerable as he seemed. He crossed his arms and speed walked into the crowd like it wasn't there. Damian followed but was greatly slowed down by all the people. How does he move like no one is there?
Something caught Dan's eye. Suddenly putting live sardines in the punch bowl lost all its appeal. He phased his spray paint, capcaisin powder, and expanding bubblegum into a wall and slipped into the floor towards the boy following his younger self older brother.
As soon as the stanger stopped, Dan reached his hands up and pulled his shoes ever so slightly into the wood, tripping him.
I want Billy to be hooking up with both Steve and Eddie separately. Like he’s just getting dick all year round, able to go to Steve when Eddie is busy with his nerdy club and fool around with Eddie when Steve is swamped with work or the kids. He’s got a good system going. Plus, Steve was a sweetheart and great at sex, but Eddie has a real mean streak that gets Billy going like nothing else.
Neither boys asks him to be official, but both Eddie and Steve assumed Billy was their boyfriend. Their slutty, bad with affection, boyfriend who doesn’t ‘do dates’ whenever they talk about going out to eat or to the movies. Eddie doesn’t care if his ‘boyfriend’ is unfaithful, and fully knows Billy is fucking around with other people (he’s completely unaware there’s a word for that, but he doesn’t care to label his strange relationship either). He’s happy to have a piece of his apparently free-loving princess when Harrington’s not around.
So when Steve comes over to the DND club, looking for the boys so he can take them home, he is shocked when he finds what he assumes is his boyfriend bent over the arm of Eddie ‘the freak drug dealer’ Munson’s throne.
He would assume the worst if not for the fact that Billy was moaning like a fucking whore, telling Eddie to go harder, to pull his hair and choke him, really fuck him up. Steve’s been especially busy the past week and Eddie had been distracted by his campaign planning, so he’s pent up beyond measure.
To put a long story short, Steve tears into Eddie for fucking his boyfriend while he’s still inside said boyfriend, which is apparently a thing that really gets The Freak going.
Billy is forced to make things official with Steve since he does kind of like the guy (read: he fucking loves him) but by the grace of god, Steve has a cucking kink and it’s a lot easier to deal with that if he knows a total rando who doesn’t know a thing about Billy’s desires isn’t fucking his spoilt boyfriend.
Eddie, ever the theater kid, is happy to put on a show for one of the hottest guys in Hawkins by fucking the other hottest guy in Hawkins.
Then they all go for milkshakes <3 Win-win, baby <3
I’m imagine him saying this to a camera like he’s in the Office, and I can’t stop laughing. He’s just there looking all kinds of ruffled and marked up in a parking lot, a cigarette between his fingers on a fucking Wednesday. You can absolutely see Eddie and Steve cat fighting in the blurry background but no one says a thing until Billy looks over his shoulder and the camera focuses on Steve trying to headlock Eddie.
You can’t use the lactose intolerant argument, she probably doesnt even know what it means
He begrudgingly accepts it anyway because how can you pass up free ice cream??
this is like the continuation of this post originally this wasnt the idea that i had in mind but whatever this is cute anyway but i am going to make another continuation of this and its not fluff material (all im gonna say is that theres a reason why Billy is wearing shades)
I know that billy is suppose to be smoking but i just didnt wanna draw it…
They had found shelter for the night, it was only temporary though. It was an old abandoned church next to a cemetery.
"But it's all my fault."
"Hush. Hating you would be the same as hating myself."
"They could have separated us."
"That would have killed us both. I may not like sharing a body but we are meant to stay together."
Danny knew they were wrong. That's what happens when your conciseness was split in two. One remained alive the other dead. They had the same memories and emotions but they were so different. The other's logic just diverged when it came to ghosts vs mortals. More then that neither knew who was the original. If there even was an original. Maybe the Danny from before no longer existed and the split made them imprints of what was no longer there.
Now they were Danny. They both had to believe they were the original. Because if they weren't...what were they.
But after everything that happened at least they weren't alone.
"We ruined everything"
"We survived."
"I miss them."
"I'll protect us."
That's all that matters anymore. Survive.
They weren't heros or villains. They were just victims of a situation they couldn't change. They had to figure something out soon though. Gotham was their best bet so far. If there was anywhere where they could live normally it was here. They disagreed about how to do it though.
"Being a goon for a bit might get us enough money."
"And what? We won't be able to get out and who's going to hire a 16 year old?"
"Plenty I bet. What is your plan then?"
"Maybe join the league. We have powers and-"
"And what? Study us? Separate us?!"
"You don't know."
"You don't either."
So who could they go to? They looked like they were nothing more than a homeless mentally ill teenager. Talking to himself wasn't helping his case. At this rate they'll end up at Arkham.
Doing good in Gotham isn't just useless, it's dangerous.
Harvey Dent knew that well. Most would say that he's turned over a new leaf, got help, saw the light. He had opted out of full reconstructive surgery for...reasons. He had chosen to use prosthetics for the time being. It was a risk, they all knew if he didn't get the surgery he'd be back in the underground of Gotham as Two-Face.
He always had problems with his old life. Forced to be guided down a lane of moral grey when all things were black and white. There was good and evil, it was not relative. He still believed that. He still felt it etched into his bones.
So maybe Two-Face and Harvey Dent are still there, existing at once. But right now Harvey Dent was still the best lawyer in Gotham and no one can ignore that fact. So he's back on top. Still, the man who could save or condemn you.
But he still can't ignore his habits. Choosing becomes too hard and he knows he can never be just one thing. So the flip of a coin still makes it all feel so easy. Letting fate take the wheel.
And fate had something in store for him next.
He had a property acquisition to deal with. His client wanted to tear down an old church but I wasn't labeled a condemned. The property was still considered private property but the previous owner and their family couldn't be found. They were likely long dead. This a was all an oversight by the state which would be the owners by now if anyone paid attention. The church should be torn down as a public safety issue. The property line should have been pained in preparation of the demolition but apparently something went wrong. Now Harvey needed to take a look.
Remarkably the church was as dilapidated as he thought. Don't get me wrong the whole place would need to be gutted to be repaired but it could be repaired.
Inside he heard an echoed mumbling. A conversation.
"Just scare him off."
"Just kill him."
"We can't. We shouldn't."
"I know, but they won't leave us alone."
The mumbling stopped when Harvy stepped closer.
Behind the pulpit, a teenage boy hides.
Havey just needed to scare him off.
"This is private property. But let's make a deal. Heads, I let you go. Tails, I kill you and bury you in that cemetery." Two-Face said.
The boy stood and leveled a glare at the man. His posture was guarded.
"It's tails." Two-Face said.
"Double or nothing."
"What?"
"Double or nothing."
Harvey blinked in confusion. He was genuinely puzzled by this reaction but instead of listening to his alter ego he flipped the coin two more times.
"Heads....heads." Harvey repeated. "Heh...I guess you leave.
"No, we don't want to."
"We have nowhere else to go."
"Don't tell him that!"
Harvey watched as the teen argued back and forth with himself. A familiar scene and feeling to him. They called him schizophrenic and crazy but he knew it was real. This kid was just like him.
***
"Here." Harvey handed Danny the defaced coin.
"What is this?"
"You can't argue with yourself constantly. Whenever you can't agree flip a coin and go with that. Let fate decide."
Danny took the coin and passed it between his hands.
[EXUSE THIS IF IT’S BAD. I’VE NEVER WRITTEN HARVEY BEFORE.]
The strange man watched the teen fiddle with the coin, flipping it around and inspecting it. All while the man felt a strange sense of deja-vu.
What did you just do!
Two-Faced hissed in the man’s mind.
We’ll never be able to make a decision again!
They need it more than we do. We have more silver dollars.
Harvey thought as he watched the young teen— young was a more relative term, he looked sixteen at most— as he flipped the coin a couple times. Wondering if he was just testing it or flipping on something.
What if we need to make a decision before we get another one! We should just kill him and take it back!
He’s like us! We can’t kill him!
The man had been so caught in his own internal argument that he hadn’t even noticed the teen inch closer and move to a pace away. Presumably having said something.
“Excuse me, please, repeat yourself,” Harvey immediately jumped to motion for the boy to repeat himself. Before Two-Face could threaten him with bodily harm.
“I said thank you, mister,” The boy spoke with a politeness that was almost completely foreign to both Harvey and Two-Face by now.
Far too different from the harshness of New Jersey.
“Are you a transplant?” Came Two-Faced flabbergasted reply.
“What’s it to you?” The teen shot back, as quick as a bullet.
(Ooo, I love it. You did great. Harvey is complex and I'm still learning too.)
Living a double life isn't easy. Sure, he isn't running around doing petty bank robberies these days despite what his Associate wants. Harvey has been keeping up a good image with a few backroom deals. No better than any other lawyer in Gotham. He placates his other half with plans to kill Batman as it is still his nature to destroy order as he is chaos.
But one thing he knew that would improve his reputation is to take a page out of Bruce's book. Take in a ward. The bonus was that the teen is just like him. A matching set. A two of a kind. A perfect match.
Just like he liked it.
His new ward was guarded but he was offered a fair trade. He helps Harvey with what he needs the boy for and the boy gets room and board.
"You're not some rich fruitloop, are you?
He beared his sharp canines at Harvey be fore his face softened.
"We don't like being around rich people."
Harvey laughed.
"Me neither but their money is good. I'd say wealthy, but not rich. Enough that you will end up in private school whether you want it or not."
"He sure complains a lot." The voice of his Associate rang out internally.
After a few weeks of waiting and paperwork the (not actually) orphaned Danny was now Danny Dent or Double D as Harvey called him. Danny hated the nickname and the amusement it gave his adopted father.
Danny wasn't even surprised when Harvey was revealed to be a bad guy. It wasn't the first time a crazy rich guy wanted to adopt him. At least Harvey didn't want to kill his dad and date his mom. Harvey wasn't obsessed with him either and preferred to leave him to his own devices while he worked.
At least Danny wasn't nearly important enough to be on TV like the Wayne brats.
Harvey even gave Danny his own set of goons to order around when he took off that prosthetic and let his Two-Face persona out. Danny felt almost jealous how liberating it must have been.
Call it misguided but Danny helps Two-Face when he decides to hold up the Gotham art auction. It was money laundering anyways and Two-Face promised Danny a hefty allowance. But Batman had to show up and stop them. Sure, it was robbery but it's the rich, they don't count. They steal all the time and they aren't killing anyone.
It ended up being a face-off with Robin who was definitely surprised to see him.
"Who are you?" He questioned between blows.
"Call us Twofold." They said.
Twofold as in twice as great. A sort of jab at Two-Face but even that monster couldn't help but laugh when he heard it.
"Twice as great? You're just in two. You have to prove to me you deserve that name but I'll allow it. For now."
The heist went well and Penguin now had a nice collection of art to fence for them. The Dents get the money and none of the risk of holding the art. Harvey wasn't willing to stain his reputation with Two-Faces actions and warned Twofold to do the same.
"Be nice. Keep your other half quiet today. We are meeting with the Waynes today."
"Those brats?"
"Yes, Bruce has been my friend for many years and we will keep it that way. These may come a time we're you will find the Wayne children helpful to your career."
"And kiss their ass?!"
"Don't argue with us!"
"Sorry, mister Dent. We'll nice. Promise."
"I know YOU will but keep the other under raps, even if they make you mad."
"Fine, but if they call me Double D I'm punching them."
"Don't say that. We need to be nice. Just tell them to stop."
"But it's more fun to hit them."
Harvey ruffled Danny's hair. He guessed he could understand Bruce at least a little. A kid was at least entertaining.
Okay, so Harley Quinn is a combination of a Harlequin and a Jester and Joker is a combination of a Clasic and a Kingmaster.
So if we go with the au that Danny is Joker and Batmans sciencey tube baby and he gets kidnapped by Joker when he finds out then Danny can probably have fun with it and pick either Pierot, Mime or Acrobat to take inspiration from if not a combo like the aforementioned clowns.
Danny, of course betrays Joker and somehow escapes whatever contingency plan the killer bozo cooked up *cough cough ghost powers cough* anyway after Danny betrays Joker he spends the rest of the fight absolutely roasting both him and Batman. Just. No mercy. Its glorious.
I have a deep need for Danny having a star as his clown make up facepaint. He thought he was going to hate being a clown, especially with the Joker and Harley but he actually had a lot of fun. Turns out he was great at crime! Even without the powers :D
Actually it's giving the same energy as his brief stint in Circus Gothica.
I always felt like if it had been under his own power and agency, he might've actually enjoyed the less harmful and not illegal aspects of being in Freakshow's circus.
...wait that would make for a really good au basis hold on -
So im thinking he takes mostly after the mime aspect, really committing to the bit and only very rarely cheating with invisible items, mostly he uses this method to practice at home (whether that's an actual apartment or a secret hideout is TBD) and does actual mime work for his acts, both criminal and genuine performances for entertainment purposes. Obviously his criminal career clashes with the clown code so he can't register as an official clown, but he still puts on shows at Arkahm Asylum for the inmates sometimes, he doesn't really get sent there himself he just likes busting into the place. At first it was to annoy Jazz at work but he's become something of a favorite to a lot of the regular rouges there.
Now the thing about Danny is that Mime is a weird vibe for him to go with, right? I mean we know Danny, the guy cannot stop quipping to save his half life! So what's the deal? Why mime? Can't just be the black and white aesthetic right?
Well, I posit to you, dear Phandom: There's a very good reason why Dan only developed his ghostly wail when he did, and Danny should not have been allowed to develop his so soon.
It is made a big deal out of that he's even capable of this at the age of 14, but it is a power born out of necessity and desperation in its case and like a lot of drastic measures, it takes its toll.
Not only is this ability a strain on the rest of his ghost power, as we've previously seen it physically drain his energy, but it also wasn't meant to be used by anyone with a physical, mortal body. That's why Dan is able to develop this ability with seemingly no backlash, he takes the time to get to know his new form and learns how to harness its power to the fullest, studies his strengths and weakness and only then unleashes this destructive new power.
Danny didn't have the time to do all of that, so when he realized what he had been doing, how he was slowly destroying his vocal chords, he had to make a decision before the choice would be taken from him by his body's continuing deterioration.
Does he continue using the ghostly wail and eventually destroys his voice as Fenton, destroys his human vocal chords allowing only Phantom to be able to speak? OR! Does he take a vow of silence as Phantom, never again using his ghostly wail or speaking a word in his ghost form, so that Fenton could keep his voice?
Fenton only ever had his voice, and now he had Phantom too, but that couldn't always be relied on and was too often a hindrance as much as it was help.
So Danny made a choice, but that didn't mean he'd stop using his powers to help, in his own feral way.
He recalled enjoying the freedom of being a circus act, just not exactly loving the not freedom of being mind controlled into it, and seeing as the truth of his origins had come to light he figured he could lean into both the comedy and the darkness, become a goth clown, Sam would love it!
Gotham comes to know him as a whispered shadow, much like Batman once was when people weren't sure if he was even real.
Their Silent Knight.
(I don't have a concrete name for him yet, that's just what Gotham calls him the way Batman is the dark knight, but one name I'm playing with is Dead Air. Yknow cuz like, aerial stunts, and also ghosts, and also synonym for silence? There's precedent for names like that with Deadman... maybe he should be Deadair? That don't look right to me tho... anyway, workshopping it!)
He uses his powers of speed strength and flight to pull of literally impossible feats of acrobatics that make Dick jealous, ice and ecto blasts make for easy slapstick and can be shot discreetly enough that really only the bats and even then, only the bats who are actually there to witness it happen would ever notice, as ecto activity has a hard time showing on camera fully in tact if it even showed up at all.
And despite never using his voice, he never had an issue expressing his sass and roasting both bats and rouges through miming alone.
Anyway yeah that's all for now, let me know if you want more of this AU!
I've always read stories where Danny and the Bats end up together in many ways, but one story caught my eye, 'A Heart Worth Breaking', one chapter in that work on a03 has Danny snapping at the Bats for looking into him when he hasn't done the same, and it inspired me to make a prompt similar to that chapter
Danny escaped the horrors of both the GIW and his parents. They cut him open, seen what makes him tick. They run tests on the 'samples' they collect from him. They put him in a room and see what is best to work on him to hurt him. They put him in different Ghost Containment devices that are modified to inflict harm on him. They... they killed those he 'manipulated' (Jazz, Sam and Tucker) in front of him... just to see if he would reveal his 'true colors'.
He escaped to Gotham when the Justice League began a raid on the GIW base he was being held in. None of the heroes had shown interest in the calls coming from Amity, so why now? He wouldn't find that answer, as he just wants to live. He wants to be a person and not a 'thing' to be studied or a hero. Gotham has enough ambient ectoplasm for him to live in, so he had Technus Forge him some identification papers on the digital plane to be "Daniel Jasper Folson".
He did his best to avoid the radar of the Bats and Birds, but he couldn't ignore his obsession. He went out at night as Phantom to try and discreetly help those in need. He failed at being discreet and was discovered by the Bats and Birds.
He wasn't expecting to be requested to help them during some big hits on Trafficking Rings or gathering Intel on the big name rogues that are obviously hiding something behind the scenes. Sure, he only has Nightwing, Red Hood, and occasionally Signal to hang out with, but he's slowly coming to trust the Bats and Birds of Gotham.
He should've known that it was too good to be true. During a quiet night, where he was hanging out with Wing and Hood on a roof, eating Batburgers together, he overheard Oracle and Red Robin tell one of the two with Danny about their progress on finding more information on him or trying to get through the GIW logs kn him.
This causes him to snap on Wing and Hood, saying that they didn't care for him as another being, treating him as a thing to be studied and contained. He stops himself from revealing too much and runs away. He runs away to be with the lesbian couple that both remind him of his sister and best friend in some ways and who have helped him on occasion when he ran into them on the streets, trying to build up enough money to get a home for himself.
He is at their front door, waiting for one of them to open it after he knocked on it, tears still streaming down his face and looking heartbroken. They do let him in and do their best to comfort him. He is just staring blankly at nothing in front of him as the couple trues to get him to talk to them. He vaguely hears Harley tell Pamela something about flowers, someone called B-man, and about himself.
Before he registers Pamela coming into the room with the flowers, he sees one of the Bats or Birds land by the window. It's only after the Bat or Bird almost knocks on the window to be let in when he registered the flowers that Pamela has offered to Danny. Blood Blossoms. His body hurts, and with the bouquet of Blood Blossoms so close to him, his body begins to melt in a grotesque way into a puddle of Ectoplasm, and then thay puddle evaporated into nothing.
But that wasn't Danny. That was a duplicate he sent to Pamela and Harley. He couldn't fully trust them, as they were known to be, on occasion, working with the Bats and Birds, but he wanted to be with people he knew he could trust. And now he thinks that trust is broken, as he connected the dots, seeing one of the Vigilantes go to them, figuring out that B-Man is Batman, and the Blood Blossoms that Pamela had.
Maybe it's time for him to use his Ghost King title to the fullest. He can't trust the heroes of the world because of that trust had been betrayed by the Bats and Birds of Gotham, and he's going to make an announcement to the world.
It was almost a relief, you know? Knowing that they were never really his friends. At least if he's alone, no one can leave him. Or betray him. This was for the best, really. Now, he can't fool himself into trusting again. Danny floated above Gotham observatory overlooking the city. Curled up as tight as he could be. Intangible and invisible, like he didn't even exist. If only.
He looked up at the smog. This city couldn't even give him that much. All it did was take. All anyone did was take, take, take until there was nothing left of him.
It was time he stood up for himself. It was time for him to hit back.
Danny uncurled at the decision. And during this dark Gotham night, a light appeared beneath the smog.
Why should he be the one to hide? Why should he be the one to veer out of harms way?
High above Gotham observatory floated a green glowing boy. As bright as any star. And like the brightest stars, he would burn fast.
Slowly, it descended. The temperature dropped along with him. Soon, he was hovering shortly above the roof of the observatory, and all of Gotham reached zero degrees Celsius.
From his perch, he watched as summer turned to winter.
If all they want is a dangerous monster. He may as well give it to them.
He hugged his legs to him and let out a long frozen breath. The blue tinted white cloud became bigger and bigger as it moved further towards the city. At its exact border, snow began to fall. It was probably the cleanest snow Gotham had seen in decades. If anything, he'd be doing the world a favor by getting rid of it.
The cold stung his cheeks and nose. The tears trickling down his face froze solid. It stung even more, but he didn't wipe them away. It should hurt. He wants to hurt.
In the distance, he hears a crash and screams as the first snowflakes reach the ground, and giant icicles burst out of the ground where they land.
He peeked up from behind his knees at the cries for help.
He doesn't help.
That's not who he is anymore.
A slight creaking sound behind him cought the Ghost Kings attention.
"It was easier, before," Phantom said slowly closed off. "I could keep the cold in, then." He turned to the sorce of the sound. "When someone was worth the warmth."
From just below the horizon of the metal dome, Nightwing climbed into sight. "You can still stop. We can call it even."
"Even?" He spoke in a whisper, but he wasn't quiet. "I'm not the one who needs to earn forgiveness."
Nightwing cringed at the accusation. Did they really go too far? Staying low, he creped closer. "I'm, I'm sorry. We should have trusted you."
"That's not true." Phantom paused and gestured to the chaos unfolding on the city. "That's clearly not true." He floated into a standing position. "I don't need your trust. I don't want your trust."
A chill went down Nightwings spine when their eyes met.
"I was wrong to give you mine." He let his foot touch the roof, and in an instant, a thick sheet of ice spread out from all around him. He looked up at Nightwing, frozen through, with a look of shock on his face.
Phantom slipped through the metal sheeting and into the observatory. He couldn't even turn tangable in there. The whole thing was covered and filled with ice. At least then, no one can disturb him.
Phantom spent hours wallowing at the star maps and research that would now be lost. He mourned the astronomer who was on shift that night. Alone. Just like him. He looked through the framed photos around her station. Unlike him, she had a family to come home to.
He had fully taken stock of his dome when the whole thing started shaking around him. He, of course, stayed was still.
Outside the Batmobile, treked through the ice and slush. This version looked more like a tank than the usual sleek design.
Through a pair of heat sensing binoculars, Red Robin spotted a figure inside the frozen observatory. It was so much colder than the ice around.
What stepped out wasn't Danny, the joke cracking ghost boy who could talk about space for literal hours on end. The gentle soul desperate for a community was gone. In his place was something else. His skin was almost as white as his hair, except his lips, nose, fingers, and toes had all turned dark gray from what had to be 3rd degree frostbite. Two streams of tears stuck frozen to his cheeks. He had dark circles around his eyes, which were only half open.
There has been a series of murders across the country. Each death was varied and self-inflicted. At first, they all seemed like suicide but each had a strange range of symptoms before death.
Sudden paranoia, incoherent mumbling, screaming or yelling, going in and out of their homes sporadically, random fixations, and finally self-harm.
The victims were teachers, parents, businessmen, truckers, and even a crime novelist. All unrelated and in different states.
Each victim didn't seem to have a connection until an investigation discovered that each one had been an active serial killer. The body counts ranged from as little as 5 to as much as 23. The killer was named the Serial Serial Killer which wasn't creative but it was catchy. Some called them the Angel of Vengeance but most thought it was cringy and overdramatic. Many people didn't want them to be caught but others hotly debated letting a killer dispense justice when their crusade could easily turn into them killing people for innocuous things.
The police were still questioning whether this killer even existed. One thing was clear, there was a trail and it led straight to Gotham. A goldmine for them. Naturally, Batman had gotten a hold on the case and began an investigation.
The biggest question was how the killer found their victims and how they knew that they were killers.
The answer was obvious. They didn't need to figure it out. They just needed to wait. Why just in the effort to investigate when a serial killer tries to convince you to leave with them? So bars are the obvious place. But that's shaky at best since there is a period of torment that takes place that allows the victims to return home. The killer doesn't care if the victims could call the police, perhaps because they know their victim won't.
Bruce started to build a profile. He saw a pattern here. Each of the victims had a preference for their victims as well. They targeted young people, mainly boys. Odds are the Serial Serial Killer matched that description or age range. So bars weren't the hunting ground. So parks were more likely to go unnoticed and boys tended to hang out there longer after dark.
The killer was more than likely a victim himself so he may have a few scars but probably not noticeable enough that his would-be assailants would be turned off. There is no ignoring the predatory nature of the victims. Each killed children for gratification in some form. It's not that the boy is attractive but he probably has traits that the victims found attractive in children. So babyfaced, short, native, and polite.
There was much else Bruce could get. There was nothing concrete and he still didn't understand the method that was used. So far this was guesswork.
It wasn't until a few weeks later while he tracking another killer that he found his answer.
Dr.Kinder a Biologist by day and a killer who experiments on his victims at night had picked up a promising new lab rat a week ago. He had intended to slowly dissect the boy. He had gotten so used to the screams he stopped using anesthetics besides he wanted to see how the fear response caused the organs to shift.
To his surprise the boy didn't fight, in fact he seemed to jump to the table and say he didn't need restraints. Disturbing. But he was restrained anyways.
As the doctor cut him open the boy didn't react, only humming to himself as he watched the doctor.
"What are you hoping to find?" He asked. "I'm getting bored and this bearly hurts."
The boy annoyingly never stopped talking and never missed a chance to ruin the moment. There were never any screams or cries but incessant talking.
Dr.Kinder found the boy disturbing so he simply took an axe and chopped the boy into pieces. Not once did he make a sound. The doctor thought it was over but the next day the boy was back. He sat on the autopsy table kicking his feet in nothing but his bare skin.
"What the hell are you?" The doctor gasped in horror.
"I'm bored. Play with me again." The boy purred.
Bile crawled up his throat as the doctor restained this...thing again.
This time the boy spoke differently.
"You cut me up last time. Did you do that to the last boy. After you...you know." A sick grin spread across his cheeks.
The doctor cut open his neck this time and let him bleed out.
Everyday he came back and every day the doctor killed him until the time between his death got shorter and shorter. The days began to blur and he had no idea how long he had been doing this. But that thing kept talkimg to him.
Dr.Kinder stared down at his desk at the papers trying to think of anything but-
"I wonder what people would think about what you've done. You're a disgusting and depraved man doctor. Look at what you've done to me." The sing-song voice of that demon called out.
He could feel those blood-soaked arms wrapped around his neck.
He flinch as he pushed the thing away.
"Oh, are you going to beat me or stab me this time? Ooo, or are you going to put me through the woodchipper again?" The demon asked as the doctor wrapped his hands around his throat.
He just kept squeezing until the boy went limp. It never ends. The blood never goes away. It covered every surface of the room. Dripping, conjugating, and spreading into every corner. Whenever he turned his head he could see body parts spread across the room in the pools of blood he could they the faces of the others that he had killed. Each face wretched in agony.
"You hold on better than the others. I've been eaten, torched, and disemboweled before but after coming back a few times they usually end it after a few words. But every time they don't feel guilt. They just don't want to face consequences." The boy said. "Do you even remember my name? The one I told you when you picked me up on the side of the road or was I just another body to use and discard? I used the name of your first victim. I hoped you'd notice."
The doctor knew he couldn't kill the boy but he could end himself. He had tried it once but just like the kid he came back without a scratch.
"Not yet. This is your life now. Come on, let's taste death together. Again and again and again and again and-" he repeated over and over.
This was hell. This was his hell.
But it came to an end eventually. Dr.Kinder put an end to himself in a gruesome display.
Batman had only caught the tail end as he faced a young boy standing an a pool of blood.
****
"Yeah, that thing is like a worse version of a revenant. Doesn't really have a name yet to describe it. It's undead for sure. You kill it and it just comes back." Constantine said "Why did you bring it here?"
After a long bath and some new clothes, the kid looked normal as played on a phone given to him.
"Look, I didn't know what else to do." Bruce explained.
"You leave it alone!" Constantine said exasperated "Look they are harmless to anything they don't bear a grudge towards. Think of it as a force of nature." Constantine said.
"I just want to know how to stop him." Bruce said.
"Well you can't kill it but you can't bring him back entirely. You can just soothe it 'till it stops targeting its victims. It must have died pretty gruesomely to go to these lengths. You need to find where it died and lay it to rest. Properly." Constantine sighed knowing that appeasing this soul would be more than just difficult.
"Danny, come on. Let's go." Bruced said putting a hand on the boy's head as Danny stood up to leave.
Vlad has always been able to do nasty things to satiate his obsessions and wants, he tried kidnapping and trapping Danny and Maddie. Hell, he cloned Danny and tortured him in the process! It is canon that he willingly risked earth in the finale in order to get what he wants. And he wants Maddie more than anything.
But he can't have her...not in the traditional way... but then here comes Danny.
Danny, who grows to look like his mom more and more everyday. He gets her height, her lithe form, her sarcasm, her smarts. Sometimes, Vlad thinks that with a few tweaks, Danny would be the spitting image of his mother. And Vlad gets more obsessed, fixated on that point. He reasons that it technically is Maddie since Danny has her DNA, then those tweaks come to mind again. What if he just did this, a slight hair cut and a dye job, and he'd have Maddie's hair! Then it escalates. It escalates until there is little left of Danny.
ok when you mentioned Vlad an idea came to me but not at all the same as yours:
Vlad cloned Danny again but this time the clone is screwed up in a new way: his body is functional, he clearly lives/ n It's not an empty envelope (like what will be given to Dan) but his personality.... is problematic. But Vlad doesn't care about that, no the problem for Vlad is that his new Danny can't seem to transform into a ghost form, even though they have access to these powers without much problem, he is stuck in human form.
Vlad tries to correct this. with scalpels and other unethical experiments but continues to call the clone by sweet name as well as Danny
thus the Danny clone assimilated that: Vlad behavior is normal behavior to have.
when the real Danny saves him by punching Vlad and giving poorly worded advice then letting him go explore the world like he did for Dani...
New Danny then integrates that it is normal to take revenge if he is harmed and that as Danny he must in some way save people... but his sense of normality is more than messed up and the absence of guidance he ended up being the killer killer who relaxes in Gotham, enjoying the latter's atmosphere and its ghostly nature so as not to have eaten.
ho and he apparently got the Fenton luck as a bonus which means he doesn't really hunt, he just waits for trouble by vibrating quietly in his corners
Little guy has probably never been on his own and trying to do what feels natural to him. Which would be waiting for someone like Vlad to tell him what to do.
In a twisted way, he loves Vlad but only because Vald is all he knows. He unintentionally attracts adults like Vlad who hurt kids because he feels at home there. When bad people lure him in they call him with sweet words and praise that remind him of his creator. He plays with them until they are all used up and dead because he's a child who doesn't really understand what he's doing.
He likely followed Bruce because he smelled like dead children (Jason and Damian) and thought he found someone new to play with. But Bruce doesn't try to kill him, or hurt him. He didn't even try to physically touch him. All of this is new and weird.
Now all I can imagine is him doing all those weird poses that kids do when they're playing with their iPads. I don't want him to be one of those gross smelly sticky kids that smear everything they have on their hands on the screens 😭
Also what are the reactions of the batkids to Davey?! Like are they weirded out? Some of them are definitely concerned and curious. But what about Damian and Jason(the aforementioned dead children) are they hostile, ready to brawl like the other ghosts with Danny, or are they just wary of him being another loa spy?
Kinda wanna see Dani and Danny's reaction to Davey tho. Like Danny fully thought that he's just going to travel around the world like Dani and he did travel but with the additional adventure of tormenting child murderers/abusers/rapists(I love Davey for that! Good for him!!).
Would Danny blame himself for leaving Davey and letting him go and assuming that he'll be like Dani and then Dani finds out that she got another clone brother but this one is a little more unhinged and wouldn't hesitate on tormenting criminals to their deaths. What would their meeting be like? Is it angsty, fluffy, a perfect mix of both or just a plain mess? Idk...
Bringing back another black-haired and blue-eyed boy was met with a round of sighs but acceptance.
Little Davey looked only a few years younger than Damian. 12 years old at the most. The boy was pale, slightly gaunt, with large eyes and matted black hair.
Davey was strange. He didn't understand social cues or how to exist in public. He knew next to nothing about how the world works or how to stay safe. Cars were familiar enough but only because he would be dragged into them or put in the trunk. He was very excited when he was allowed to touch the buttons.
Damian wasn't ready to be an older brother especially not to something like that thing. Davey felt wrong to Damian. Something that shouldn't exist.
Damian was proved right when the boy looked him right in the eyes and said.
"Play with me." He pulled Damian's drawn sword to his neck. "Cut me open!"
Bruce snatched Davey back from the blade and told Damian to put it away. Davey was forbidden from entering the Batcave and any dangerous items.
Damian was freaked out. Davey was too mentally disturbed to be here. However, the revenant is fond of his older brother and follows him around and begs him to play. Damian has to try pawning him off on the others but Davey is like glue.
Then there was food.
Davey didn't understand food. He had been fed a mostly liquid diet for his short life by Vlad. The liquid was made from nutrients and ectoplasm. After escaping Davey didn't know what food looked like. When strangers came up to him offering candy he took it. So he learned that candy was also food. But that wasn't enough to make him full, so he resorted to the closest form of ectoplasm he could find. Human blood. He learned that he could drink it for sustenance.
Feeding Davey for the first time was...sad. He was like a toddler learning what different flavors were. Sour, salty, and savory. All so new a wonderful.
Tim let him him have a sip of soda and Davey was hooked.
Tim is also banned from giving food to Davey after letting him try coffee and making him sick.
Stephanie is also banned after giving him spicy chips. Mostly because of Davey's need to harm himself caused him to eat himself sick.
Davey's issues are more than concerning. Dick was supposed to watch him while Bruce was investigating the last suicide linked to Davey. Davey didn't know how to talk to someone not trying to kill him. But Dick felt like him. The blood on his hands was the same as his. But the lingering scent of another pulled Davey elsewhere.
The other revenant.
One that felt a similar drive.
Bruce debated if Jason should meet Davey. It could help them both but it could easily make them worse. Davey was impressionable, to say the least, and Jason didn't need to bring someone else on his crusade.
Jason wouldn't use Davey like that but Davey would surely agree to it.
But Davey wasn't like Jason. He didn't kill. He gets killed. He lets himself be tortured until he drives others insane. Jason could never use him to kill the Joker. In fact, the clown must never know of Davey's powers or Davey might find his eternal playmate.
But it doesn't change that Jason and Davey will meet.
"Yeah, he's coming with me," Jason said picking up the boy under one arm.
"You can't just take him!" Dick yelled
"Do you guys think you can control him? That he'll stop wandering around looking for more targets. He can't and he won't. It's a part of him. At least I can get to his targets before they can kill him first. If he can sniff out any predator then he can use his powers for good." Jason said .
"He's not like us. He's a child and mentally he isn't ready for the outside world yet. I love you but I can't let you drag him into your mess." Dick said.
"And what? Fix him? He is a revenant and he's going to seek out his obsession. In a place like Gotham, he will find another target. He needs it." Jason barked.
There is no clear answer. They could try to preserve any innocence Davey had left but that same innocence led him to being tortured. They could also tell him what he's actually doing and he'll then do it on purpose knowingly killing others. What was better for him mentally because they all knew by this point Davey would strike again? It's his nature.
The only answer they had right now was finding where Davey died originally and calming his spirit. If they could find his original killer or make a grave for him then he'd settle.
Constantine was firm that Davey couldn't leave even if they calmed his soul. His life and death were too traumatic for him to disappear.
On the other side of the country, Danny had a bad feeling. He knew he should leave his clones to themselves and wait for them to come home on their own but his most recent clone brother bothered him. He wasn't like Elle at all. He was...odd. Danny decided not to worry too much since the clone was stable.
But then Vlad talked non-stop about losing his "precious boy". The word made him feel sick. Then there was the first death. Some offender that lived on the outskirts of town ended their life. The only reason anyone talked about it was the state he was found in. Blood was everywhere more blood than a single human body had and unknown chunks of meat scattered the ground.
Danny brushed it off but more started happening and they led a bloody trail.
Of course, Danny knew something was up. This all lined up perfectly with the clone's escape. But at the same time, all the victims were serial child murderers. It was hard to feel bad about it. He had found his obsession and it was such a bad one.
But Danny was still worried. A bit of investigation wouldn't hurt.
ok, several ideas that I don't yet know how to organize:
*Danny can't really leave his town but on the other hand Dani is already traveling. Dani takes finding the new clone/cousin as a part of "Where's Waldo?" life size
*Davey is a sort of lightning rod for getting kidnapped (literally next to a Wayne in public, at a gala etc) or other crime (found by chance in the middle of a shootout when lost at the mall, random assault, wandering by chance in a place trapped by bombs while walking, hostage situation ect)
*he's also incredibly easy to lose, even with all the bat concentration . This ultimately adds to his supernatural abilities
*luckily for the batfam it is also ok to wear trackers H24 (Davey doesn't know what a tracker is but doesn't care enough to ask)
*Davey releases interference when he uses his ghost abilities, usually his regeneration. The batfam quickly learns to rush to its location when it happens
* The first time Davey sees dialysis he seems to become extremely happy then jealous: Davey associates dialysis= "game" with Vlad or just after a session. He thinks they "played" without him >:( not fair
*Dani finally shows up and checks on Davey quickly and thanks his adoptive family and plans to leave as well. The batfam interrupts her in her lightning thanks to ask her who she is, she replies: uh, sister or cousin I guess? then turns to Davey waiting for his opinion
*giving a name to a supernatural entity seals a sort of contract between the entity and the person who gives this name if the entity accepts this name (fae rule). By giving him the name Davey the Wayne family tied Davey into a bond that neither party is aware of and therefore defined. Constantine groaned upon hearing this.
*Davey can see the weak but vengeful ghosts of children, that's how he knew the name of the first victim in the first post. Mayba Danny/Dani/Vlad can not do that
*Davey gets along surprisingly well with street children. Subconsciously the children know that they are safe with him because if anything bad happens it will ALWAYS fall on Davey
When Ellie visits they sense she is also a ghost (probbaly showed up in Phantom form.) and they ask about her relation to Davey (I say he never told the Bats his name which is why they named him Davey. Or even a scene where he starts to say his name, gets as far as “I’m Da-! Hmmm….I forgot! :D” so they call him Davey.) Anyways, they find out his relation to Ellie and the bats are digging for some more information about their past and home life to see if they can find out what happened to them, and while asking about more family either Davey or Elli could mention Danny. About how they still had one other brother. The bats ask where he is and if they could meet him but Ellie makes a strange face and says that he’s a little busy. And it comes out that he’s currently dealing with Vlad. (Or they could use code names like Plasmius or the Fruitloop)
Who’s the…fruitloop?
Davey: He’s the first person who played with me! He played with Ellie too. Danny’s so lucky because Mr still wants to play with him!
So now the bats think that all three are siblings and two of them were murdered by this Fruitloop guy (technically true?) and their last brother (who is still alive) is now this guy’s next target. Cue panicking.
The reason Danny can't leave Amity had less to do with obsession and everything to do with his ghost half's appearance outside of town. Danny can travel just fine but his transformation appears differently without the ambient energy that Amity provides. The portal releases for much that ghost fall over themselves just to exist there. But ghosts don't manifest the same where there isn't enough ectoplasm.
Ordinarily, normal people in places not marked with death's essence would never see a ghost. They'd likely only feel the brief flash of cold or the feeling of being watched but never really know ghosts were real.
Gotham had more than average but not enough. And that was somehow worse.
***
Davey wondered off again.
This meant that he was probably hunting someone. Constantine had told them that it was just something revenants do.
Bruce pulled up the tracker and watched as Davey's location glitched out and rendered the screen useless. Which meant he was using his powers and found his target.
Quickly Bruce notified the anyone not busy to get to the location and subdue the target and save Davey.
Dick and Jason were the first to get there. Tim and Damian were still reluctant to get too close to the revenant boy.
The location was a dilapidated hospital. It had shut down a year ago after not being able to recover from a attack during Halloween a few years prior.
It didn't take long to find Davey in the children's wing. He was tracing his hand along the wall of one of the waiting rooms. It was a wall mural of children playing together and parents hold their hands.
It was hard to understand what Davey was thinking. He paused at the part of the painting that depicted a child and a teen standing over him and smiling. Davey touched the teen's face forlorn.
"Dan-ny..."
Then Davey was gone. Disappearing again from the light of Bruce's flashlight.
The sound of light footsteps where the only sign to follow.
They followed. Usually, Davey was more preoccupied with finding a target or watching his iPad. Now Davey seemed to...feel things. No one would accuse Davey of being complex when it came to thinking. He was simple-minded the way kids often are. He had likes and dislikes and was more worried about playtime and snacks than he was about the origin of his existence. All things they wanted to preserve.
"Danny..."
It came from lower in the hospital.
They followed deep into a research lab area. The hall was dark and dusty. Davey looked straight ahead at the dead end of the underground hallway.
"Danny!"
Footsteps. Louder than before came towards them. Lights began flickering on and off like a power surge had happened.
Davey hopped up and down in excitement as he reached his arms out towards it.
Dick lunged forward to pull Davey back to the group as Jason too stared into the dark.
Davey fazed out of Dick's hold.
A loud ear garbled mess of static, sounds, and words came out of comms. Like tuning a radio.
Whatever this was was getting closer and faster as its footsteps ran towards them. The temperature dropped as their breath turned visible. Then all the light bulbs exploded and they were in the dark again.
When they grabbed another flashlight and shined it on where Davey had been they saw... something. It was human, or what was left of one. It's body was charred, red and black flash marbled on a rotting corpse. It's eyes hollow and what skin was unmarked was dry and thin. It flickered in and out of existence as it stood over Davey.
Davey reached up towards it with grabby hands, no fear in his eyes.
A shallow gasping weeze was heard and the comm picked up an unknown garble of words in a language only Jason could just barely understand.
"Danny." Davey called out again.
"little other" Jason heard.
The flashlight flickered and the spirit now appeared younger and undamaged. A teen boy that looked like another version of Davey hugged him.
"Safe." Jason heard
"I missed you too," Davey said burying his face face in the spirits neck.
Davey giggled as Danny hugged him. Just like before Danny told him to go free. Davey didn't understand why he had to go but he listened very well and met lots of people and played lots. He went to where it felt right and now he had lots of friends here. But he wanted to see Danny and now he was here.
The teen ghost looked at the group now. His eyes were a bright green against blacks, greys, and a sickly paper white. His body still phasing in and out of existence. His skin had glowing burns that ripped open his skin appearing and disappearing like before and after pictures. He said something but it couldn't be heard from his mouth that moved soundless.
"Safe. Keep. Protect." The words came over the comms through the garbled mess of sounds.
The ghost hugged Davey one last time.
"Again? Can't we play?" Davey asked but the thing responded in the unknown tongue in what you'd guess was him saying no.
And then it was gone. The footsteps went far away.
Davey didn't protest when he was picked up and taken away.
He just watched the direction Danny left in over Bruce's shoulder.
They had never heard Davey cry before. He never expressed many emotions. He was also really quiet most of the time. But Davey did cry.
It was a small sound. Echoing and distant like coming from all directions in an empty house.
Then it was over and Davey was back to normal. Like this never happened.
They had barely any time to try to comfort him before he was back to playing videos on his iPad.
Bruce Wayne had been many things in his life: billionaire, businessman, vigilante, father. But a long-lost uncle? That was a new one.
The SOS from a small town in Illinois had sent him racing against time, but he had been too late. An accident had taken the lives of an unknown distant cousin and their entire family—except for one. The sole survivor was a boy named Danny, left blind from the incident. When Bruce had arrived, he saw no other option but to take him in, to give him the support he needed.
Months passed, and Danny quickly found a place within the Wayne family. He was kind, gentle, and an overall bright presence in the manor. But grief had its way of clinging to people, and Danny was no exception. He had his sad days, times when he retreated into himself and let silence be his shield. Even so, the Batfamily took to him, each in their own way.
There was just one thing about him that none of them could ignore: he gives out cryptic warnings.
It had started small. He would mention the weather, and it would turn exactly as he said. He would casually hand someone an item—a band aid, an extra set of gloves, a lucky charm—and say, "Be careful." And without fail, later that day, they would end up needing it. It might have been coincidences at first, but the pattern grew undeniable.
Danny could see the future. Or, at least, something close to it.
The family, skeptics that they were, had tried to prove otherwise. They set up small tests, all of which Danny passed without even realizing he was being tested. Eventually, they stopped trying to disprove it and started trying to understand it instead. Bruce, being Bruce, documented everything. Tim, ever the investigator, compiled data. Damian remained skeptical but watched his cousin with a hawk’s eye.
Then Danny was kidnapped.
It had been a random act—a desperate group of criminals seeking to ransom Bruce Wayne’s newest ward. They had no idea what they had walked into. The moment Danny went missing, the Batfamily mobilized. It was Red Robin who found him first.
Tim had worked swiftly, dismantling the criminals with precision, tying them up before they even had a chance to process what was happening. He had moved quietly, intent on assessing Danny’s condition before alerting the others. But before he could even speak, Danny, bound and blindfolded, tilted his head slightly and murmured, "...Tim?"
Tim froze.
It wasn’t a confident statement; it was uncertain, questioning. But Danny, who should have had no way of knowing, knows.
"Red Robin," he corrected, doing his best to lower his voice.
Danny scrunched up his nose, but repeated the name. He sounded just as uncertain as he did saying Tim's name.
"Stay still," Tim commanded, reaching for Danny's binding. His wrists were pink from rope burn, and there was a scab forming on his lip, but otherwise Danny was unharmed. As soon as Danny's hands were free, he ripped the blindfold off.
Tim stared into Danny's milky eyes. What ever explosion that had taken his sight had left a nasty scar across his face. And while Danny said the only thing he could detect was brightness, Danny gazed right at Tim.
Tim swallowed and forced himself not to react. The Waynes had already tested Danny thoroughly, accepted his odd sense of precognition and way to always know where they were, but it was still very unnerving to lock eyes with that milky blue gaze.
Danny held out his blindfold to Tim. "You'll need this."
Tom pocketed it. If Danny said he'd need it, he'd need it.
"Take my hand. I'll guide you out."
"I, thanks."
Without his cane, the only real stirring Danny needed was around the bound kidnappers and hints on where the stairs were. He moved steady and sure up the wooden staircase, pausing at the top. It always impressed Tim, how smoothly he moved. He'd take to the few ballet move Cass taught him beautifully.
"Stay here," Tim guided Danny toward a chair. "I'm gonna call the cops, and then your father."
"No need, he knows I'm safe."
Tim snapped his gaze to Danny. Had he not convinced Danny he wasn't Tim? Had he known their identities? Was Batman, or Bruce, seconds from bursting into the abandoned shop.
He stared at Danny, who stared at the door. After a minute, Tim asked. "Something I should know?"
"The boss is coming."
As soon as Danny said it, a man walked through the door. He took one look at Tim and then turned to flee. Tim was on him in a heartbeat - it took seconds to knock him out and use the blindfold Danny had handed him to tie the man's hands behind his back.
Job done, Tim wiped the sweat off his forehead and looked at Danny. He hadn't moved, other than to watch the fight. And watch felt like the right word for the blind teen, how even feet away and through the noise of a fight Danny tracked him exactly.
It struck Tim suddenly, that with his abilities, Danny could have predicted his kidnapping and prevented it. But he hadn't. He'd allowed this to happen.
What’s funny about this is Tim basically outed himself and the family never said he knew that they were vigilantes. Tim just assumed that. Home’s blind right so he can recognize him from the sound of his voice. Maybe there’s a mole on his wrist basically using his other senses. Or it could could be he sees the shapes of souls so yeah he sees him and now Tim is telling him I’m red Robin.
Like if you were given a cookie that tasted like snickerdoodle smells like a snickerdoodle and texture wise is a snickerdoodle and then the next day someone just cause a brownie now your snickerdoodle just has a nickname .
I can imagine them confronting him about it.
BF: When you learn that we were vigilantes?
D: I didn’t… you just told me
BF: What?
D: I know you guys know the way you talk, the way you walk, you’re overpriced colognes. Just because you tell me different name doesn’t mean I don’t know it’s you. Your mask means nothing to me because I can’t see them. 
BF: …
D: yeah so Tim outed himself and you guys just confirmed it’s the whole family.
A few days ago Bruce had a fight with his sons, now he doesn't even remember why, it was probably something stupid that escalated and he didn't know how to stop it, it was probably his fault.
He was alone at the mansion, Damian was at Dick's house, Jason was ignoring him more than usual and Tim was on a case where he didn't want help, not from him at least, even Duke was away, it wasn't a good week for Bruce.
He grabbed a phone he had hidden and only took out before going to sleep alone in his room, hesitated for a few seconds and sent a message to the only number added.
His "thing" with the boy, Danny Fenton, had started four years ago, the boy was lost and Bruce found him when he coincidentally went for a walk as a civilian.
Danny was so charmed by Bruce (for some reason) that he gave him his hotel room number to keep talking about the universe, and later his home number.
Danny was a good, funny and witty kid, a very smart too, with parents who didn't deserve him because they didn't notice their son's brilliance.
Danny was a good boy with a not-so-good life, a strong, independent boy who wasn't always positive but didn't always let himself fall apart.
That's why when Danny answered his message with a call with him crying and asking for help, he could only go to his rescue without looking back, barely remembering to tell Alfred of his departure.
When he arrived he found only tragedy.
His family and friends had died, an explosion at an unfortunate time, Danny had no one in the world besides his godfather and Bruce, and he didn't want to fall into Vlad's clutches, so he was desperate.
He also told him about Phantom, and Bruce could only hug him and promise him that no one was going to find him.
The first thing that came to his mind was to take him to his mansion, Danny was like his son, it was the most logical action... except that Danny still looked up to him and trusted him a lot, and wasn't that a scary thought?
Bringing Danny to the mansion would involve many things, Danny would meet his children, which might make Danny see him differently, goodbye to his admiration and affection, goodbye to spending time "together" watching bad movies to criticize them, goodbye to quiet conversations and asking for advice, goodbye to trust.
Bringing Danny to the mansion would mean having him physically close but keeping him away in every other possible way.
"Danny doesn't want anyone else to know about Phantom." Bruce repeated to himself as he took Danny to a small, hidden apartment in Gotham, a cozy little place where Vlad wouldn't find Danny (and neither would Bruce's family).
Danny didn't have a good life, he didn't notice it until he grew up, of course, but he noticed it.
He noticed when Tucker's parents did remember his birthday (while his parents were still in the basement, creating the most important thing in their lives).
He noticed it when it was Jazz who healed his wounds when his bullies were especially cruel (and his parents were still in the basement).
He noticed it when he spent hours lost in one of the most dangerous cities in America and the only one who cared (and noticed his disappearance) was Jazz.
And so many more things, Danny noticed all the time that his life was not good, but he had good things.
He had Jazz, space, Tucker, Sam and, at a time that is now a bittersweet and painful memory, he met Bruce.
He knew that talking to and trusting strangers was bad (after Bruce told him so and Jazz repeated it to him), but it was easy to trust Bruce.
He was someone nice who listened to him prattle on for hours about the stars, planets, Nasa and space in general, listened to him with such attention and interest that he just kept talking until somehow they got to his hotel and Bruce left him with Jazz.
Of course, little Danny wasn't about to let his wonderful audience disappear from his. Life so soon after they met, and after quite a bit of insisting (and some crying), they stayed in contact.
Danny kept growing up, of course, and Phantom happened, because he thought meeting Bruce meant life would get better from there, but no, he only had momentary peace.
Bruce noticed his change in behavior (unlike his parents), Bruce who had a life of his own and several children he obviously loved more than anything (not that Danny is jealous of that, not at all), but he noticed the change in Danny.
"I don't even know why I can't-I just-" Danny doesn't finish speaking, she couldn't, not yet. "I'm sorry, I don't know what's wrong with me." His voice was tearful and shaky.
There is silence on the other end of the call for a few seconds, until Bruce's voice is heard. "You want to talk to me about constellations?" He asks quietly, non-judgmental, non-pushy.
And of course, Danny talks to him for hours about the stars, the shapes of the constellations, their names and their stories, forgetting for brief, wonderful hours everything else, just like when he was ten, and just like at that time, Bruce listened to him as if it was completely new information, as if he didn't already know all that.
Bruce was like... not a father, but like a male figure in his life whom he valued very much.
Danny was not blind, he knew Bruce was not perfect, even if they could only communicate by phone, they had had little disagreements here and there, but they did not walk away, because Bruce listened to him and did not immediately dismiss his words, because he wanted to improve, because Bruce was trying for Danny, and wasn't that a wonderful thought?
Of course, when he was finally planning to tell Bruce about Phantom is when it all goes to shit.
Losing everyone you love and having to run and hide from a freak so you don't turn into a bloodthirsty monster was, to say the least, fucking horrible.
Danny remembers the pain, the feeling of choking, the lump in his throat that wouldn't let him speak, the disbelief, the agonizing need to just disappear, Danny just wanted to close his eyes and die like his family and friends and-
And then his phone rang.
Bruce always had to show up when Danny was lost, right?
He doesn't even remember what he told him on the call or how he spoke in the first place, only that after four years he had Bruce in front of him, talking and promising that he would help him, that he would take care of everything, that he wasn't alone, not anymore.
Of course living in Gotham was quite an adjustment, the moving process made him cry several times, lately he would cry over anything and it was horrible, however, lately he also had Bruce there with him.
They still talked on the phone quite a bit, but now Bruce could also visit him, hug him, comfort him on a particularly difficult day.
Sometimes Bruce would talk to him about what it was like when he lost his parents, about when he lost one of his sons, sometimes they would both end up crying, but they were together and it eased the pain a little.
Speaking in a soft, gentle voice, Bruce would say that the pain would become more tolerable and that one day it would stop tarnishing the good memories, that someday he could put the pictures back on the shelves, that eating would no longer be horrible because eating meat would no longer feel like betrayal and eating vegetarian food wouldn't hurt, that someday he could open a tech magazine and play video games without feeling like he'd never enjoy anything again, that someday he could stop seeing his sister in every redheaded girl he saw on the streets, and that while that was happening, Bruce would be there for him.
And although the pain remained horrible, it became bearable.
There were good days and bad days, but he enjoyed when Bruce could visit.
Danny knew Bruce kept it from his sons more for what he didn't say than what he did say, but he understood and actually preferred it that way, because when Bruce came to the apartment they could both pretend to be father and son (not that they called each other that), without irreparable mistakes or painful loss, at least on particularly good days.
Danny also felt that he was special, that someone preferred him, that plain, boring Danny Fenton was special (even if he wasn't).
Life, for the first time, wasn't bad, it wasn't good either, the pain sometimes wanted to consume him completely some days, he still cried most nights but also... he felt accompanied, loved.
Obviously he felt loved before, his sister, his friends, he knew they loved him, but with Bruce he also felt understood.
He felt (and knew) that Bruce saw him, that he saw the little, idiotic, pathetic, troubled Danny Fenton and decided he was worth it, that when he found out about 'Phantom' he only talked about helping him hide it and, when some time passed, about how smart and talented he was in learning to handle his powers without guidance, that Danny was special because of who he was even before Phantom, powers were nothing without brain, that Phantom was what he was because of the guy behind it.
In turn, Danny saw (and understood) Bruce, the man was always overly worried about those he loves, every little thing, and he was smart, he worried and his treacherous brain wouldn't leave him alone (and that was painfully similar to Jazz).
How could he ask him not to worry when he already found a thousand ways for everything to go wrong and for him to be the one to ruin it?
How could he judge him now that he also knew how much it hurt to lose the ones you love?
So they would talk, it wasn't always easy because Danny was used to not being given so much attention and Bruce could be too controlling, but... well, talking helped a lot, because because they listened to each other, apologizing was easy after talking.
They almost always ended up watching B movies and judging them after they made up, or watching documentaries, because watching them with Bruce was interesting, he always had things to add, interesting fun facts that Bruce enjoyed saying and Danny enjoyed listening to.
Bruce was trying so hard and always seemed to feel it wasn't enough, that Danny couldn't help but resent his sons (the real ones) a little.
Danny knew they were not bad, Bruce always spoke of them with love and so, so much pride, it was always Bruce who was to blame for everything, the bad guy, the villain of the situation...
To Bruce his sons deserved a better father, but if anyone asked Danny, Bruce deserved a better family.
