Tim faked having an uncle but the batfamily has called him out and now want to meet this so called “Uncle Ethan” (idk if the uncle had an actual name I can’t remember).
Tim, being a young feral gremlin of a child, does the rational thing and summons the ghost king instead of going out and hiring someone to act as his uncle.
Tim offers coffee, some of Alfred’s cookies, and astrological charts, and Danny comes sweeping through the portal in all his semi-Eldritch glory.
He quickly downscales to a more comprehensible form, and floats there munching on cookies as Tim explains the situation. He promises a place to live, financial support and the general freedom to do whatever he wants so long as he doesn’t actively harm Gotham.
Tim’s nervous that Danny’s going to request his soul or something. In hindsight he probably should have slept before deciding to follow the summoning ritual he found in one of his parents old books. Danny meanwhile takes one look at Tim and is like “this sleep deprived kid is mine now.”
He excepts Tim’s deal, but also adds his own stipulation of actually becoming Tim’s legal Guardian until Tim is a legal adult himself. Danny’s spent a good couple centuries vibing as king in the ghost zone and he’s been told he needs to have a vacation, and Tim very clearly needs someone looking after him.
So Danny adopts his human form, being able to keep himself perpetually in his mid 20’s or early thirties, has the Ghost Writer create him an air tight identity in this dimension, and then gets going in giving Tim all the stuff he’s missed.
Tim wakes up in the morning to Danny cooking him an legit non frozen breakfast and a pantry and fridge stocked with food of every variety. He gets a smile and a “good morning” and Tim almost cries because something like this has never happened in this cold mosoleum of a manor. Tim tells Danny he’s a vigilante because he doubts that Danny’s not going to notice Tim disappearing at night and Danny just nods.
“Cool, runs in the family,” he jokes, ruffling Tim’s hair affectionately. “I was also a teenage vigilante.”
This leads to a sit down between the two where they set some base rules. Danny doesn’t doubt Tim’s abilities, but he also doesn’t know what they are yet, so he wants to shadow Tim for a few nights to see his capabilities. Danny promises not to intervene unless he see’s no other choice and this is more for Danny’s peace of mind over all.
Danny makes it very clear that as soon as Tim accepted the terms of the deal that the two of them “in simple terms.” Where bound to each other. As Danny’s ward, he’ll always know when Tim is in trouble and where he is. Danny has to actively check the bond to know where he is, but it’s an added protection and if Tim ever needs immediate help all he has to do is yell his name.
He makes Tim promise not to hide injuries. And actually will force Tim to rest when he’s hurt. The supernatural ice may accelerate healing, but nothing really beats good ole fashion rest. On nights where Tim can’t sleep, Danny summons one of the many Therapy ghost dogs he’s adopted and the lay on Tim like a weighted blanket and never fail to get him to eventually pass out.
Upon the designated meeting with the bats, Danny shows up with Tim all smiles and jokes with a Tim who is already really comfortable around Danny, which is important. If the bats thought Tim’s uncle was a threat of any kind to Tim they’d have picked up on the subtle body language. Tim, who’d slept for like 16 hours after being up two days straight is practically leaning into Danny’s side, but there’s a small content smile on his face.
Dick immediately thinks he’s drugged and moves to pull Tim away in a friendly sort of non suspicious way. Danny keeps his arm firmly around his wards shoulder until Tim gives a subtle little nod then let’s him go without breaking conversation with Bruce.
Dick asks after him and Tim kinda just laughs because he just woke up from one of those naps that leaves you forgetting the year. Explains how Danny got him a therapy dog who sleeps on him and it’s some of the best sleep he’s ever gotten.
Danny introduces himself as Daniel Drake. Bruce is suspicious because Tim said his name is Ethan. Danny just laughs it off.
“Daniel Ethan Drake. My parents thought it would be hilarious to name my twin sister Danielle so I went by my middle name.”
Bruce accepts it for now, and they have dinner. Over all Danny’s a pretty easy going guy. Smart as a whip too. Easily able to keep up with Tim on one of his tech rants, and seems to have a keen eye for engineering. Claims he came from one of the Drake lines who live overseas and that when Jack died it had been requested of him to head back state side, where he had a duel citizenship, to look after Tim. Naturally family is important so he readily agreed. He’s still looking for work, but he has enough in savings that he’ll be set for a good year without ever having to touch any of the drake money being allotted to him specifically for his emergency custody of Tim. Most of that would have gone to Tim’s care anyway, so…
Bruce is still suspicious, but as time passes Tim seems to be more…stable. Better sleep, seems to be eating enough, he’s slowly becoming more accustomed to accepting affection and that’s probably because Danny is a present fixture in the Drake household. One night Tim quietly admitted that his house finally feels like a home.
Everything was going well…until Jason showed up at Titans tower.
Now, Danny is still king of the realms, so every now and then he has to disappear into the realms to deal with business. When he’s gone he asks Bruce if he can watch Tim. Except with Red Hood, Bruce sends Tim to Titan’s tower hoping he’ll be safe out of the city. It didn’t work.
Jason has Tim pinned in the tower, about to slit his throat and in one desperate bid Tim screams out for Danny. It’s a whirlwind of chaos after that. A tear in reality opens between Tim and Jason and Danny shows up in royal regalia, claws out, fangs bared, death rolling off him in waves as he stares down this baby revenant.
Despite the heavily contaminated ecto, Jason still rings out as “mine,” to Danny’s senses. His subject. His Rogue. His species. So with a power laced voice, one he rarely uses, he orders Jason to stand down. To sit still and don’t move until permission is given. And Jason is ecto enough that he can’t disobey.
Danny immediately starts fussing over Tim. He’s in bad shape, but he’ll live. Danny holds him tight and let’s him cry because for Tim, Danny rings out safety and Tim’s safe now. He cries himself to sleep and Danny gently sets him on the couch so he can deal with whoever the fuck attacked his kid. As far as Danny is concerned Jason is an unknown assassin. Some entity who dislikes Danny being on the throne sent him after Tim in an an attempt to hurt the king.
Danny’s fully prepared to wipe Jason from existence until he actually takes account of that vile ass ecto he’s surviving off of. Then he order’s Jason to take his helmet off and recognizes enough of Jason from the photos Bruce has around his house. With a scowl he rips a new portal into the far frozen and hands off Jason to the yeti’s with the order to fix him, because if Jason stays in front of Danny any longer he’s not convinced he’ll be able to contain his fury.
With the threat gone, Danny begins to calm down some. He takes Tim to the cave because he’s hurt enough that Danny doesn’t care about poorly kept secrets, and also Danny knows if he just takes Tim to the hospital, Bruce will use it as a means to petition for custody.
So he floats into the cave, scares the shit out of the bats, let’s them stabilize Tim, and then tears into them because *why* was Tim alone when you knew some weirdo was after him?
Bruce is clearly more curious about the full royal regalia his neighbor is sporting as well as the new color scheme and also the floating? Danny rolls his eyes and changes back. “Nice to meet you. The names Daniel James Fenton, Ancient of Space and High King of the Infinite Realms. Tim Drake summoned me because he hadn’t slept in four days and needed a pretend uncle. No he didn’t sell his soul to me. The deal was that I remain his legal guardian until he’s a legal adult, and no I will not sign custody over to you, Bruce, no matter what you think. I’ve imprinted on the kid. He’s mine until he no longer wants to be. I will wage dimensional war if you try to steal custody of him from me.”
Bruce is still confused, but before he could sort out his thoughts Danny continued talking.
“By the way, your son, Jason, isn’t fully dead. He’s the one who attacked Tim. Whatever Ecto was used on him was the equivalent of sewage and heavily polluted his obsession. Honestly probably completely reversed it. Either way, he’s ecto enough to be a subject of the infinite realms and you’re damn lucky I like you as a person Bruce, because I was this close “ll” to erasing him from existence for attacking and trying to kill Tim. Honestly I thought he was an assassin sent by Hades. That Bastard would try something like that. God forbid anyone be happy, not my fault he lost a bet and became a miserable asshole.”
Danny takes a deep breath and gets back on track. “Jason’s being treated by ghost doctors and I’ll bring him back when he’s stabilized, and not a moment sooner. I’m the meantime, can you watch Tim for me. Unfortunately contaminated Ecto like what was inside of Jason only happens when there’s a major breech in the veil, and it’s sorta in my job description to handle breeches like that.”
Bruce decides to latch onto that, because that was a lot of information that he was not able to fully comprehend and “what is ecto?”
“Glowing green plasma,” Danny holds up his hand and allows some to materialize in his palm. It’s what infinte realm denizens survive off of. It gives them power. It’s the same reason why spirits are more noticeable in places where the veil is weaker. Theirs more ambient ectoplasm in the air and it gives them a power boost. Let’s them interact with the physical realm more easily.”
Bruce then explains the Lazarus Pits and Danny just nods along because that sounds about right. Super gross anyone is bathing in that shit, but it’s not about to be a problem.
So Danny storms the league base all by his lonesome and oh? Is that a Mini Bruce? Looks close enough based on the photos he’d seen at Wayne manor from when Bruce was a kid. Ain’t no shot he’s leaving him here with these weird cult assassins.
So with one Lazarus pit closed and one child acquired, Danny returns to Gotham before Tim has a chance to even wake back up.
“Think I found one of your kids.” He explains dropping a probably 8 year old Damian into a chair in the cave.
Bruce is having a weird day. A really weird day. But I’m the long run Jason comes back Sane, Damian has more time to learn how to be a sibling and accept love (which Danny and Dick play a major role in), Tim and Danny are unofficially adopted into the family, and when Bruce “dies” later Dick has another adult to rely on, and also a way to confirm that Bruce is not actually dead because if he was Danny would for sure know.
