Dan had many feelings. Sure most of them were negative and hate was a very big one of his many emotions.
But another one was pure and simple ecstatic euphoria.
Because...he was himself again. Gone was a big and bulky form, back was his...normal self. He had forgotten what it had felt like to look in the mirror and see himself, not the twerp or the clone, not some demented memory screaming in horror at what he had done.
No. It was his face, thr soft curves that he got from his mother, the dark hair and blue eyes from his father, the eyebrows that matched Jazz's, not a single lick of Vlad was in him, not the scars from his global dominance, no deformed fangs that bit into his flesh, no flaming hair that he couldn't shape.
It was just Him.
And he couldn't help but feel great about that.
---
Danny watched as Dante (they all couldn't be named Danny) stare at himself in the mirror. He himself didn't have the personal need to preen as much as the teen was doing, so perhaps it was just the quirk of his other self.
Stopping behind him, Danny couldn't help but smile a bit, the teen looked happy, sure he wasn't smiling but Danny knew his teenage face well enough to know that Dante was majorly pleased.
Blue met blue through the mirror, and Danny nodded to the teen, Dante had been given an old clone body after a long rehabilitation, so it was set in Danny's teenage years, even though the man had aged a decade.
Smirking as he ruffled Dantes hair (which earned him a snap of teeth and a jab to the kidneys) Danny nodded to the door, "Come on, your going to be late for school, it's your first day so you can't miss it."
Dante gave a glare and a huff, but the glare softened as he looked at himself in the mirror, and Danny was struck at just how young the teen looked at the moment.
Apprehension and tension was clear on the boys face, but behind that was worry, panic even Danny knew the face well, having had it many times before.
"Do I really have to fucking go? Doesn't being a war criminal exclude me from such things?" Dante snarked, turning to actually properly look at Danny, who could only chuckle.
"We both know you actually want to, cant be an astronaut without a PhD and cant get that withour a high-school diploma...You quit before graduating...last time." Danny said with a stiffness.
The teens eyes hardened "Well excuse fucking me, seeing everyone I loved and cared about die in an explosion made me not really feel up to going to god damn fucking school."
Shoving past Danny, Dante stormed past him, a trail of steam and the sent of smoke following him out of the house and onto the streets of the new city.
Some ecto filled, low life having, bat infested city...called Gotham.
---
Damian tugged at his tie, fixing it into place after touching up his hair once more, frowning as he fiddled with it, making a mental note to trim it soon.
Grabbing an sponge, the teen dabbed it into a small tub of tan makeup, before softly applying it to his face, his touch light as he goes over the back eye he was trying to hide.
Yes the Robin mask did offer some protection, but not nearly enough to fully stop a Venom junkie that just got a new dose.
And while he was thankful to get the new lead on Banes operation selling Venom, a deep nagging part of him hated that his face had payed the price for it.
Damian hated that he cared about his appearance, and hated that he associated it with his mother.
Learning how to do disguise make up had been one of the only times during his training he had spent extended periods of time with his mother, skills that he was still using to this day.
Putting down the sponge, Damian got a fresh one and dabbed it onto his face, blending the colors until the purples and blues of the black eye disappeared completely.
"Master Damian, the car is pulled up to the front, though i shall be taking you Master Richard has offered to pick you up. I must tend to your idiotic father, as he seems to be trying to stand again on both his broken legs. Perhaps this time I shall leave him in a straight jacket before hiding the keys, that should keep him down for longer..." the old butler muttered to himself at the end, but Damian could only sigh as he stepped away from the mirror.
"Just invite Miss Kyle or Eamm Clark to keep him down." Damian said, toeing on his shoes as he steps out from his room, taking the offered backpack from Alfred as he walks by him.
"Ahh...that might solve the issue of him staying in his room...but both of them have a possibility of causing more harm to him.." the elder butler said, walking close behind his youngest charge as he made his way to the front of the house.
Damian pulled a face, "Disgusting Pennyworth, please do not discuss my fathers...promiscuous relationships with those two, I do not want to dig out my ear drums just to burn them but I shall if you continue."
The old man gave a not-smirk, the kind thst was more frown but held a jolly feeling. "Oh of course Master Damian..."
Rolling his eyes, the teen got to the front steps, even half way through them in blissful silence before Alfred spoke once more. "Ah. I was set it inform you yesterday day but as you had an injury I had forgotten, you will be receiving a new classmate today, your father had done a screening of course, and they stood out because of their parents, who happen to be inventors that like making things go...to steal a phrase from Master Jason, Boom."
Damian just nodded, "I shall research them. I will know everything about them by the time I will come home."
"And that is all I can ask you Master Damian" Alfred said, opening the car door, "I do hope thst the day is not wasted, it is not every day that one starts highschool."
