Damian and Danny have this thing they like to do when they really want to get out of something. it's turned into a bit of a game for them ever since they reunited.
They would start off by playing games, silly, harmless games that didn't really mean much. Things like, who could jump the furthest? Who could throw a knife harder? each time one of the twins one upped the other, it was a point in their favor. These points would later equate to something very important.
Ways to cash in a favor with one another.
Danny: remember last week how I managed to capture Killer Croc before you?
Damian: what do you want, Danyal?
Danny: I have an exam in English today and I didn't study for it, can you be me?
or
Damian: remember when you told me that you could hold your breath for thirty minutes and passed out at twenty nine?
Danny: you'll never let me live it down. What do you want?
Damian: father has asked that I attend a JLA meeting.
Danny: I'll get on the Robin suit.
No one ever notices. Years go by and the twins are never found out. No matter how crazy or weird the situation is, no matter how obvious it is to them, no one in the family can actually seem to tell them apart.
Not when Damian and Danny have an endless supply of colored contacts, not when the two were nearly identical twins who knew one another like the back of their hands. The twins simply switch places whenever they need, and no one has to know.
@dreamieparadise (also @lixenn wanted to know the first one) Behold, I have the answers you've been looking for.
Long post ahead to solve these three mysteries:
How and why Rio ended up in Team Fon.
How Takeshi felt about it.
How does Rio along with Hibari.
────── 〔✿〕──────
- WHY TEAM FON? -
Short answer: Fon asked first.
Everyone thought Rio was on board with the rest on Team Reborn, but nobody asked her directly during the day and she wasn’t expecting them to do it, since she would be a death weight, still adjusting to her vision problems.
But Fon did ask. He felt he needed some more calm energy if he wanted Hibari to fight for him. Rio is not just an emergency button to him, Fon has been observing her and found her low presence and fighting skills more interesting than Takeshi’s.
You'll see why Hibari can tolerate her on his team in the last question.
- HOW TAKESHI FELT ABOUT IT? -
Forgive me because I tried to write this more as an excerpt than an explanation.
It wasn’t until they were going to sleep that Takeshi remembered they were still trying to gather members for Team Reborn.
“You’re fighting with us, right?”
And before he could go on reciting the current and prospective members of the team, Rio interrupted him.
“Uh… Actually, someone already asked me and I said yes.”
When Rio showed him that she already had a watch, he was surprised for an instant but smiled and accepted it right away.
“Oh, I see. We could end up fighting each other. Sounds fun, I won’t hold back!”
“Yeah, me neither.”
They learned the bad way some time ago not to fight over being together or not. Deep down, both know they need to be apart to grow.
On a side note: You probably guessed that the one who felt utterly offended was Gokudera and even suggested Takeshi breaking Rio’s watch while she was sleeping if there were ever a battle at night.
- HOW DOES RIO GET ALONG WITH HIBARI? -
Apart from Ryohei, Rio is the one who has more contact with Hibari, they have known each other since the beginning from the council meetings. She’s in awe of him, the girls would say it’s a crush, but she doesn’t resonate with that word, so it’s just fascination, admiration, envy.
With enough time she becomes an expert on Hibari’s behavior, and he tolerates her the most because being with her is the same as being alone: she makes her presence unnoticeable when he needs it, it’s calm, quiet, peaceful… The predator can close his eyes knowing he won’t be attacked from behind.
In the future, as the family liaison, Rio’s the only one who has permission to come and go from the Foundation’s base, but she has to call in advance, duh, obviously.
Also, Nimo, I know you said Rio doesn’t feel like someone who would break the rules BUT she would actually do it to get his attention if he’s being acting differently as usual. Just small things like exchanging her bow for Takeshi’s tie, doing up her hair in the banned ponytail, skipping council meetings (apart from the morning ones)...
Not everyone could handle it when JJ was in the front seat. When JJ was fronting, his family seemed to edge away from him, not quite sure how to interact with the alter. Which was understandable, Junior was a lot to handle, he was a reminder of how Batman and Batgirl had failed.
That was why it was so nice that Danny didn't mind. He loved Junior just as much as he loved Tim. He didn't see Junior as a way that Tim was failed as a child but instead saw him as Tim's protector, as someone who loved Tim and cared about him.
So, when he fronted, Junior always went looking for Tim's partner. He would always be there, no matter what.
"Hey Junior," Danny said as soon as JJ walked in the room. That was another thing that Junior liked about Danny, he somehow always seemed to know that he was fronting. He always knew when it was Junior and when it was Tim.
Junior gave him a wide smile, his cheeks aching just a bit as he plopped down on the couch beside Danny and leaned back.
"Tim had a hard day," he said in lieu of greeting. "He doesn't want me patrolling tonight and I'm bored."
Danny's eyes flashed a bright green. "Well we can't have that, can we?"
The clown grinned even wider, his the scars on his cheeks pinching up as he did. "I knew there was a reason I liked you."
This is a future scene for Heaven is a place we can’t afford. Idk if I’ll keep it, but the idea has been sticking with me so I thought I’d share.
There were many things that Tim knew. He was the family genius after all. But there was one thing he knew for certain, one thing he that he knew would be the reason he stayed in Amity Park and never went home to Gotham.
See, Jason Todd may have been Batman’s biggest regret. But Tim knew, without a doubt that he was Bruce Wayne’s biggest regret.
He knew just by looking at his father that Bruce regretted the moment he ever let Tim step foot in the manor.
It was why it had been such an easy decision in the end. With Jason once again part of the family and Damian getting comfortable with the role of Robin, it was time for Tim to go.
His place with the Waynes was never permanent. He knew that deep in his very soul, but he knew the Waynes were far too nice to ask him to leave.
So Tim had done it himself. Better to leave where you were unwanted rather than force everyone to walk on eggshells forever.
Besides.
Amity Park was nice.
Danny was nice.
And for the first time in a very long time, Tim didn’t feel lost.
Me: I’m finally going to update my Dick/Danny case fic!
The weather: actually no, you’re going to deal with tornado warnings and be too stressed out to do anything but watch the weather and stress out over the storms.
I promise. I’m going to update Ghosts From Your Past. I just need one normal Tuesday so I can finish the last half of the chapter and post it.
Some of you may be wondering why I haven’t updated any of my fics in a month. Maybe you don’t care. Frankly I might be right there with you.
I am taking a hiatus. I’m not sure how long it’s going to last, not sure if I’ll come back (I absolutely will. I have plans to post some gift fics soon but tbh that’s it)
Recently I got a comment that told me that my having typos in my writing made them want to die. When I suggested that maybe they shouldn’t read my work any longer, they told me that I made them want to kill themself.
That was really fucking heavy.
As a fanfic writer, I write because I share stories that I would be excited to read. I share them because maybe there’s someone else out there who wants to see a similar concept and they’ll enjoy it. Even if it’s just one other person.
Frankly the longer I write the more happy I am with my writing. I’m not doing it for hits or kudos, sure I love to read the comments and bookmarks and know what others think but I’m doing this for me.
Im still writing. Hell some of my fics are nearly completed. I’m just not posting them anymore. Not for now at least.
I write for myself. So that’s what I’m doing. I do it for free and for my own enjoyment. The fact that someone told me that my typos made them want to die and kill themself is too much. The fact that they tried to place that burden on me, someone who is doing all of this without a beta and for free in my spare time after working 8-9 hours day, is insane.
All I wanted to do was write fanfic and now I’m being told I’m making people want to die.
So the hiatus might go on for a while. It might end soon, I haven’t decided. I just know that comment kinda broke something in me.
Thanks for reading my works, for supporting me, for commenting and leaving kudos, I appreciate it all and hopefully I can come back soon without feeling so incredibly self conscious about everything I write.
Hal smiled and rested his arms on the railing and glanced over at Phantom. The ghost was staring out at the sky with a soft smile on his face, he was beautiful.
"So, a space cop, huh?" the ghost asked, glancing over at Hal with those beautiful green eyes.
Hal grinned, the corners of his eyes crinkling ever so slightly. "Is that a problem?"
Phantom snorted, tapping his fingers against the metal railing. "Nah, I'm essentially a time cop."
"Oh?" Hal asked, tilting his head to the side. "What do you do as a time cop?"
"Who do you think Red Robin summoned to drag Batman out of the time stream?" He asked, fully looking at Hal now with nothing but amusement dancing in those sparking green eyes.
"I see, well, do you think I can see you again some time?" Hal asked, feeling his face heat up just a bit.
Phantom gave him a small smile. "I think I'd like that."
And yes, he was thankful for that space, honestly, he needed it more than he could even explain. Every time he closed his eyes he saw his parents strapping him down to the operating table. To his sister finding him when she came back for spring break three months later and trying to rip Jack away from Danny’s broken body, only for her to be thrown back. They said that she had hit her head on in just the right spot on the corner of the table. That her death had been painless. Danny had waited, hoping to see his sister come back as a ghost but she never did.
The anger had welled up inside of him, though, enough for him to break out of his bindings and run to Sam’s house for help. From there it had been quick. The Fentons had no proof that Danny was a ghost, Jazz was dead in their lab and Danny had a large vivesection wound held together by pins and needles.
From there it had gone by fast. Bruce Wayne had heard his story and opened his doors to him, an offer that Danny was quick to accept considering his only other option was Vlad and that was a major no for him. Danny had gotten stitched up rather quickly and the Fentons had been taken to trial where they had both been found incompetent by the courts and were sent to some prison for the mentally insane in the midwest. Thank the Ancients it wasn’t Arkham.
But things were starting to settle now. Danny was healed up. They had finally held a funeral for Jazz. And he was set to start school at Gotham Academy with his new little brother, Damian. Things were finally starting to settle.
Things were starting to settle and Danny was finally able to really look at his new family and notice the strange things about them. Honestly, coming from a weird family himself, he was more able to spot the bullshit from others. The first he had noticed was Damian. Apparently he hadn’t ocme to live with the Waynes until he was ten and Bruce had discovered he had a biiological son he had never known about.
Damian was fourteen now and he wasn’t normal, if Danny was going to be honest. Danny knew that the teenager had at least four weapons on him at all times. He had thrown a knife at Danny’s head one of his first nights here when Danny had made a joke that the kid didn’t like. He also struggled to understand common cues and comments, but not in a neurodivergent way. In a way that he had genuinely grown up without ever hearing about those things and it had Danny curious.
The others were strange too. Tim seemed like he had never slept, like he barely operated at all. Duke always looked at Danny like he had seen a ghost and tended to keep his distance more than their other siblings did. Cass looked at him the same way some of Danny’s rogues did, like she was watching his every single move. Jason reeked of death every time Danny saw him. The souls that latched onto him showed that he had taken quite a few lives. And not only that, but everyone in this family smelled and felt like they had all died and come back. He had never met a family so liminal outside of Amity Park.
Even Dick, the most normal of the siblings was liminal. It was throwing Danny for a loop because no one else in Gotham seemed to feel this way. So what were they hiding? Was this why they wanted Danny to join their family? Because like called to like and they knew Danny was something different?
Or was Bruce telling the truth when he had said that he had seen a teenage boy lose everything in a day and decided he couldn’t not help out?
It had been two months now and if he was going to be really honest, Danny was starting to grow bored. No more ghost fights, no more running from the Fentons, hell Bruce had even decided that he was going to go after the GIW and the Anti-Ecto Acts because even though he didn’t know Danny was actually a ghost, he found the acts ghastly and problematic. Danny nearly hugged him when he had said so. But the more bored he got, the more curious he seemed to get as well, he needed to know what was going on with this family.
“It’s not like they would know if I decided to take a look around. I live here,” he murmured to himself, staring at the fire crackling within the fireplace, still chewing on his thumbnail. “All I’m doing is seeing what kind of fruit loop my new dad is. All billionaires hide something and Bruce is definitely hiding something,” he reasoned to himself.
The halfa shook his head, the curiosity was going to drive him absolutely insane if he didn’t go and snoop. He stood from where he laid curled up on the couch and trekked back up to his bedroom. A room that was literally through times the size of his old bedroom.
It was still hard to believe that this was his life now. He carefully locked his bedroom door and felt the familiar rings of light wash over him before he transformed into his ghost form. The sixteen year old smiled at the familiar feel of intangibility wash over him and he slowly sunk through the floor, staying invisible as he went through each room of the house that was not a bedroom, looking through each one carefully to see if anything jumped out at him.
Then he made it to Bruce’s office just as Bruce himself stepped out of a door hidden behind an old grandfather clock and that’s when Danny knew he had caught him. Of course this was too good to be true! Bruce was far too perfect to not have something hidden deep inside.
He flew through the wall and found himself in an elevator and frowned before continuing down, down, down until he found himself in a large cave underneath the cave.
“Holy shit Batman,” he whispered as he started to fly around the stalacites, taking in the Batcomputer, the weird prizes the different vigilantes had one in their countless rogue fights. His eyes widened as he found Tim typing furiously at the Batcomputer, bags deep under his eyes and Danny took a look at what he was working on and held back a gasp.
When Bruce had said he was going to get rid of the GIW and the Anti-Ecto Acts he hadn’t really thought too much of it. It was Bruce Wayne, the playboy extraordinare who cared about all social causes that came across his desk.
But to know that the Bats were investigating it? With the Justice League? Danny’s mind was blown. He watched as Tim fought through the firewalls that Danny, Tucker, and Technus had set up to keep Amity Park a secret from the rest of the world and glanced down at his new older brother before back up at the screen and let out a sigh.
He could at least make their job easier.
He flew into the computer and started to break through each of the firewalls that they had put in place one by one before Tucker and Technus zoomed in on him.
Tucker had become just liminal enough to learn how to go into technology. He gave Danny a disapproving look as Technus stared at all the hard work they had done be ruined by Danny.
“What are you doing in here?” Tucker demanded, his eyes bright green as he stared Danny down.
“Red Robin is trying to get rid of the acts,” Danny said with a small smile. “Let him learn everything he can. I trust the Bats.”
Tucker and Technus scowled.
“Fine, Ghost Boy. Now get out of our territory before you destroy it even more,” Technus said, glaring at Danny over his sunglasses. Danny just grinned and flew out of the computer once more to find Tim dialing a number on his cellphone furiously.
“Babs! I finally got in! I don’t know what happened but all of the firewalls fell and Jesus Christ it’s worse than I thought. The Fentons recorded their experiments on Danny,” he said and Danny shuddered as he looked at the scream, hearing his screams fall on deaf ears. He had Tucker hide all of the video tapes as soon as he could to make sure that no one would see proof that Danny was more than just a human. But if they were going to get rid of the Anti-Ecto Acts then they needed all the proof that they could get that ghosts were sentient creatures.
He flew out of the Batcave quickly and made it back to his room where he turned back into his human form. Now he needed to decide. Did he tell the Waynes that he knew their secret? Or did he leave it alone?
He pursed his lips and fell back onto his bed as he fell into thought about it. Once Tim got through all of the videos, he was going to know that Danny was different, that he wasn’t just a normal human boy. Especially when he would get to the part where they cut Danny’s arm off and it grew back just a few days later.
Right now the ball was in his court, though. He knew that the bats were going to know that he was different, but he didn’t know if they were going to say anything about it. He could play with this. He grinned to himself.
He could have some fun with this.
…
“Danny! Dinner’s ready!” Duke called through his door and Danny grinned and headed out, already having come up with a plan for how he’s going to fuck with the bats.
He wanted to see how far he could push them until they admitted that they knew his secret and and that they were the bats. He wondered how long his new family could hold out before giving in and saying something.
So with that, Danny opened the door and grinned at Duke, who he now realized was the day time hero signal and explained why he not only kept his distance but looked at Danny like he had a second head most of the time. Now that he thought about it, Duke probably could see his true form and wouldn’t that be fun to mess with.
While Phantom was technically tucked away in Danny’s core, he was visible for those who could see beyond the veil. Duke was someone who could see beyond that veil and if Danny focused just enough he could alter his ghost form without even being in that form.
“Hey, thanks for grabbing me,” Danny said, imagining Phantom with ecto dripping from his eye sockets, his fangs grew longer and longer and his eyes turned pitch black. Phantom was looking like he came straight from a nightmare from what Danny could see in his mind’s eye and he smiled as Duke cringed away from him slightly.
“Of course,” he stammered out nervously. “Are you doing okay?”
Danny grinned, perking up slightly. “Yeah, I’m doing great actually. I’m really excited for school tomorrow. Why do you ask?”
Duke just shook his head and shuddered lightly. “No reason.”
The two continued down to the dinner table and took their seats. Tim trudged in just a few minutes later and his eyes immediately fell onto Danny’s form. His eye twitched slightly as they raced up and down Danny’s body, taking in all of Danny’s limbs and noting that his facial features were all there.
“Are you okay, Tim?” Danny asked with a frown, his lips twisting up slightly.
Tim just stared at him warily and nodded once. “I am, are you? Doing okay, that is?” He asked, nerves apparent in his voice.
Danny just smiled and tilted his head to the side. “Yeah, as far as I can tell I’m okay. It’s funny, Duke was worried about my wellbeing too. It’s really nice, though. I wish I had someone asking if I was okay when my parents had removed my eyes during one of their sessions with me,” he said just as Alfred set a plate before him, the porcelain clattering against the table as he tried to recover from shock.
“You mean like, blindfolded you, right?” Dick asked hesitantly, looking up from his own plate of food and Danny just grinned and shook his head.
“Nope,” he said, popping the P. “I’m pretty sure my da-Jack used a melon baller to remove them, it was very painful and weird experience,” he said with a slight shudder. It was the frist time he had mentioned out loud some of the trauma he had experienced at the hands of the Fentons. And if he was being honest, it felt rather cathartic for him to actually talk about the torutre he had endured. Sure, judging from the horrified expressions of his new family members, it might not be hte most comfortable conversation but for him, it was nice to just say it, out loud.
His parents had tortured him. Had ripped him apart molecule by molecule and his body just forced him to regenerate, the electric ectoplasm that brought him back that fateful day in the portal continued to live inside of him, continued to bring him back from death over and over. It had made him realize that there’s a good chance that he was immortal. That his human half may never actually die.
And that was a terrifying thought.
Danny just happily continued eating his dinner, ignoring the horrified stares all around him. Oh yeah, this was going to be so much fun, he could feel it in his core.
….
It was a few nights later when Danny woke up to his stomach growling at like three in the morning. And of course, that mean he needed to go down to the kitchens and rifle through the refrigerator to find something to eat.
In all honesty, he had a major hankering for some fruit loops. Which led to him digging through the pantry that Alfred kept stocked up on all of Dick’s favorite cereals since he was the one who primarily ate them. He let his eyes glow in the dark as he searched, too lazy to turn on the lights and not particularly wanting to have the light ruin his post sleep glow. He dug around until finally find the box of sugary, fruity goodness and silently cheered to himself. Now he just needed to get some milk and a bowl and he would be a very happy ghost.
Danny allowed the box to float to the kitchen counter before he skipped towards the fridge and hummed. Did he want oatmilk, almond milk, whole milk, ancients there were so many options for milk.
He let out a hiss as the lights flickered on in the kitchen and slowly allowed his head to spin around on his neck to glare at whomever was evil enough to turn on the lights in the middle of the night. An ear piercing scream shook through the manor as Dick scrambled away from Danny and oh what a sight Danny was to see. His hair was bird’s nest on his head, his eyes were glowing bright green and he had twisted his head around his neck one hundred sixty degrees and let out an inhuman hiss.
Dick slammed his back against the wall as Danny allowed his eyes to turn blue once again and his head spun back around to normal just as Bruce and Tim came running into the room.
“What is it?” Danny asked innocently, cocking his head to the side, blinking his eyes owlishly at Dick. The poor vigilante was white as a sheet as he stared at Danny in horror. Bruce looked between his sons curiously.
“Three am cereal?” He asked, the corners of his eyes crinkling slightly as he smiled at Danny. “I think I may make myself a bowl as well. How about you, Dick? Tim?”
“I-I think I’m going to go home to Bludhaven,” Dick stammered out, unable to look at Danny.
“Oh, well I hope you get home safe. Text me when you get home so I know you made it safely,” Bruce said cluelessly as he walked over to start making his own bowl of cereal. Tim gave Danny a wary look before he shook his head.
“I’m heading back to bed,” Tim muttered and Danny smiled to himself as he poured himself a large bowl of cereal.
“How are you doing, Chum? Are you getting settled?” Bruce asked, looking Danny over for a moment. Danny nodded and took a bite.
“You know that I know that you know,” he said simply as he chewed his cereal.
“I do,” Bruce said simply. “It’s pretty entertaining to watch the others.”
Danny swallowed his bite of cereal and grinned. “Glad you think so because this is the most fun I’ve had since you adopted me.”
“It will be good training for the others,” Bruce said as he poured himself a bowl of–
“You have your own brand of cereal!?” Danny exclaimed, looking at the cereal called Batman Crunch.
Bruce smiled. “Unfortunately, I don’t get any of the royalties for it. But it’s cookies and cream flavored,” he said before looking at the milk that Danny had pulled out, and poured some into his bowl. “Oatmilk, good choice.”
“I like the flavor,” he said with a shrug.
“Just so you know, if you ever want to join the nightlife, you’re welcome to it. But from what I understand, you never wanted it in the first place,” he said and Danny nodded his head.
“Too much work. For now, I just want to focus on school. Maybe when I graduate high school I’ll join you guys. But for now, I just want to focus on recovery and graduation. I appreciate all the space you’re giving me,” Danny said softly, stirring his spoon around in his bowl. Bruce just smiled and leaned his arms against the counter as he took a bite of his cereal.
“Of course. And when you’re ready to talk about it, without trying to scare your siblings, we can talk about it,” he said.
“You’re not mad?” Danny asked, glancing up at the older man. “That I didn’t tell you about me being, being dead? Or that I was a hero or how bad the Fentons,” he stopped and shuddered slightly. He couldn’t say the words out loud. It was one thing to joke about them removing body parts, it was easy to call them sessions. But to say out loud how badly he had been tortured? He couldn’t do it.
“Of course I’m not mad, Honey, you went through a very rough and traumatic time. Take all the time you need and we’ll be here for you as you heal and recover. And if any of your brothers or sister give you a hard time, I’ll tell them I was in on it.”
“How’d you know about me?” Danny asked before he took a bite of his fruitloops.
“Phantom disappeared the same time Danny Fenton allegedly ran away. Not to mention just taking one look at Phantom you can see the resemblance.”
“Phantom has blue skin!” Danny argued.
“And the exact same facial structure, Phantom just has a more prominent lichtenburg scar that you also have, just not nearly as noticeable.”
Danny hummed. “Guess they don’t call you the world’s greatest detective for nothin’,” he muttered before he picked up his bowl and started to drink the milk.
Bruce just chuckled and patted Danny’s back once he finished. “Get some sleep, Kiddo,” he said softly. Danny gave him a salute, a milk mustache on his face as he floated up in the air and through the ceilings to get back to his room.
…
Danny was bored again. He found himself haunting the manor late in the evening. Most of the bats were prepping for their night out on patrol. They were all under the impression that Danny was upstairs doing homework. He soon turned invisible and made his way into the Batcave where he found his siblings gathered around the Batcomputer watching one of the videos of Danny being tortured.
“Danny’s not fully human,” Tim stressed. “I’ve watched his parents remove his limbs and they just grow back in a few hours. Like good as new, no scar or anything! He wasn’t kidding when he said they removed his eyes!” He exclaimed.
Jason let out a hum. “It’s possible that the Fentons did it to him,” he reasoned. “Like their experiments turned him into a meta that let him regenerate.”
“How does that explain the fact that he was able to twist his head a hundred and sixty degrees?” Dick asked, shuddering slightly. “Or the way his eyes glow Lazarus green?”
“Or the monster that’s constantly floating behind him,” Duke whispered, looking like he had seen absolute horrors. Danny held back a snort, he still hadn’t even let Duke see his full eldritch horror form. It had been child’s play so far.
“He died in those experiments,” Dick said softly. “You can see him flatlining multiple times. Being killed and brought back so many times probably fucked up his body a lot. It probably did a lot to him.”
Danny hummed, that was a good theory. Wrong but made sense where they were coming from.
Bruce walked forward in his Batman suit and looked at Danny’s siblings. “Regardless of what you think is wrong with Danny, he’s our family and maybe one day he will feel comfortable telling us what happened to him. And if he doesn’t, that’s fine too. But until then, give him space and quit trying to investigate him. We’re trying to get rid of the anti-ecto acts, not investigate Danny,” he said seriously.
Danny smiled to himself and flew back up to his bedroom.
…
Jason sucked in a breath when he saw Danny asleep on the couch. He didn’t know why he was nervous. Sure, there was something slightly unsettling about Danny but he wasn’t a bad guy. The kid was insanely sweet and funny. He handled his trauma the same way Jason did, with constant jokes about his vivisection the same way Jason joked about his death.
But between the stories from Dick, Tim, and, Duke and watching the videos of what the Fentons had done to his newest littler brother, something about Danny just unnerved him. But Bruce had asked him to wake Danny up so that he can come down for dinner. It was simple, he just had to wake him up. What was the worst that could happen?
He padded over to Danny’s sleeping form and alost immediately realized something majorly wrong with the image in front of him.
Danny wasn’t breathing.
Jason rushed forward, shouting out for help, help from anyone really. He knelt beside Danny’s prone form and pressed his fingers to the pulse point on Danny’s wrist and frowned when he didn’t feel anything. He cursed before moving to start doing chest compressions, desperate to get him to open his eyes and breathe.
Dick and Bruce skidded into the room and ran over just as Danny sucked in a deep breath and opened his eyes.
“What are you doing!? Ow!” Danny shouted, slapping Jason’s hands away from him. “I think you broke my fucking rib,” he whined, rubbing at his side.
“What happened?” Bruce asked, looking between them concerned.
“He wasn’t breathing! He didn’t have a pulse!” Jason spluttered out, pointing at Danny who was frowning and pulling up his shirt to see if he was bruising yet or not. Beside Bruce, Dick let out a squeak, taking in the vivisection scar that still marred Danny’s chest. For some reason, all of Danny’s wounds from getting his body parts removed had healed just fine but the scar from being cut open over and over again stayed with him forever.
Bruce had given him scar cream to see if it would help but Danny had told him it would do nothing to help him.
“Oh yeah, it’s gnarly,” Danny said offhandedly. “The joys of having mad scientists for parents,” he said and sucked his teeth before he dropped his tshirt. “It’ll heal in like thirty minutes. Thanks for trying to save me I guess, but don’t stress, my heart just does that.”
“I thought you were dead!” Jason shouted, running a hand through his hair, utterly distraught.
Danny laughed and stood up, stretching as he did, his back popping a few times with the stretch. “Because I am,” he said simply.
…
Damian watched as his brother walked down the hall, texting on his phone as if he didn’t have a care in the world. He was not even bothering to raise his head to watch where he was going as he walked and Damian smirked to himself.
The idiot teenager was about to run face first into the wall and it would serve him right to break his nose for not paying attention to his surroundings. His smirk turned into a look of dismay, though, as Daniel walked straight through the wall without ever looking up.
There was something strange going on with his newest big brother and Damian was going to get to the bottom of it. It was clear that his siblings were not unfounded in their theories that Daniel was something other.
…
Danny grinned as he walked in on his final victim. He had managed to scare each of his siblings so far with his shenanigans and now he was finally going to get Cass. He had been trying to think of ways to throw her off kilter for a while now, but he had finally come to the perfect idea.
His family were gathered in the family room preparing to watch a movie together. Cass was curled up on the couch beside her girlfriend, the two talking quietly to one another. No one had noticed Danny walk in yet, which was rather typical.
He was lighter on his feet than any bat could ever dream. Even in his human form he had a sense of weightlessness to him that could only be attributed to his ghost form. Something that Danny had thought was interesting and also insanely thankful for considering it made it so much easier for him to sneak around when he was still living with the Fentons.
Danny creeped up behind Cass and Steph, a wide smile slowly growing on his face as he leaned down. “Mind if I sit with you two?” he asked, taking joy in the way both girls jumped in surprise, the rest of the family reacting similarly before giving Cass a shocked look of their own.
She turned to stare wide eyed at Danny and silently nodded once, unable to say a word.
“Sweet,” he said before hopping over the back of the couch and settling into the seat beside his sister. He reached over and grabbed a handful of popcorn from Tim’s bowl and looked at the large screen. “What are we watching?”
…
Danny took his seat at the dining room table for dinner a few nights later and looked around at his siblings. Each one looked to be on edge, sending Danny worried, concerned looks every now and then. Danny had upped the hauntings in the manor, feeling more and more comfortable with changing to his ghost form and giving in to his ghostly behaviors. He had never really been able to do it in Amity, too much of a risk to haunt the house when his family hd weapons to destroy him at every corner.
But in Wayne Manor? He was free to roam the halls, to stare at dark shadows and just do what ghosts were meant to do. Haunt the manor. And the fact that his siblings would catch him every so often and get the life scared out of them was honestly just a nice bonus.
His core had never felt so content in his life. He was finally getting to give in to all of his ghostly behavior and now it was time to make it known to the others that he knew.
“You know,” Danny stated, taking a bite of his oatmeal. “I wasn’t expecting you all to be so chill about the whole dead thing. I thought you all would be more on edge with my weirdness. But considering you all are vigilantes it makes a lot more sense now why you were okay with a dead guy moving in.”
Tim choked on his coffee, drips splattered onto the table. “I’m sorry what?”he wheezed out.
Danny sat up and grinned. “What?” He asked before he took a sip of his chocolate milk. “You’re telling me that you watched all those tapes of my parents having their fun with me and never once realized I was dead? No living human being can endure the things I did and live to tell the tale. I’m dead.”
“But you have a heartbeat, you breathe,” Dick breathed out and Danny looked over at Jason.
“Do I, though?” He asked and Jason swallowed harshly as he remembered the way Danny’s chest didn’t move, how he felt no pulse no matter how hard he checked. “I thought a family of detectives would figure it out pretty quickly.”
Bright rings of light surrounded him for a moment and he showed his ghost form. “I’m Phantom,” he said with a sharp smile. He changed back to his human form and looked over at Bruce. “Bruce had me figured out before he even adopted me. I thought you all knew as well.”
“How did you know about us?” Duke asked.
Danny hummed. “Got bored, decided to explore the manor and imagine my surprise when I found the Batcave in the basement! From there it was easy to put together and I decided well, if I’m going to be living in a family of vigilantes there was no point in me hiding who I was. If anyone was going to accept the half dead kid, it would be you guys.”
“This family just keeps getting weirder and weirder,” Dick mumbled, massaging his temples.
Bruce just smiled. “Danny, did I ever tell you that you have an alien starfish for a brother? His name is Jarro.”
I don’t plan on continuing this. Feel free to add if you want 💚💚
