For the new Nanny Danny AU- does he ever reflect back and regret what Jazz must have dealt with when he was a kid? For example, showing up to get Tim from school and he's nowhere to be found?
Secondary question- Alfred and Bruce's reactions to Tired!Mom Danny and Menace Tim?
I think I'm going to call this au Nanny herding geniuses.
I think Danny doesn't look back on his childhood and feel bad for Jazz. He just sighs because it wasn't Danny who would randomly vanish from school, it was Jazz. She was convinced she was already mentally above her classmates and would leave the school grounds for "enlightenment". Danny would be waiting in the principal's office, sipping juice, while his parents, the school staff, and the police tried to figure out where she had gone, and Jazz was walking through the history museum on a recorded self-guided tour.
She's high-functioning autistic in this Au, and it took much longer for her to be diagnosed (for those not aware, it's a common thing for girls to have to fight for their autism diagnoses because people believed "girls can't have it"), so until she identified it herself at seventeen, Jazz was just a little silly as a kid.
Tim reminds Danny a lot of his sister, so he's able to handle him beter then most, but it's still a humbling experince espically when Tim bluntly tells him things like "I hacked the Pentagon. If the FBI shows up, don't answer the door" in the same breath as "I saw a frog today. It was swimming in the pond in the backyard."
He can only reply with "Did you touch the frog?"
Now for the Waynes' reaction:
Dick and Bruce are in the middle of a heated argument that had them screaming until they turned red. Bruce tried to walk away from it, but Dick followed him, and somehow they found themselves in the backyard.
"-I fight the same fight! Take the same risks!" Dick sneers, "Why can't you give me the same respect!"
"It's different!"
"How!?"
"I don't have time for this, Dick."
"You never do! You- is that the Drakes' nanny with a net?" Dick squints over Bruce's shoulder, his face smoothing into confusion, the wind knocked out of his sails. Bruce turns to find that yes, Danny Fenton is at the edge of their property, tiptoeing towards a bush with a net in his hands.
Before their eyes, they watch the man slowly creep closer, utterly concentrated on the biggest bush, sitting on the invisible line that separates the Waynes from the Drakes. He held still for a moment, as if he was afraid of whatever he was attempting to catch, one foot raised in the air for the final step. His blue eyes were fixed on the ground, and Dick barely made a noise of confusion before the man launched forward, throwing the net in one smooth motion.
A series of growls is heard as a small boy stumbles out of the bush, struggling in the net. He flips and flops like a fish caught, while the Nanny watches him, hands on his hips. Eventually, the boy stops, lying flat on his back and staring upwards at the nanny with a hiss.
"Young man, what did I say? No taking photos until after you get all your updated shots."
"But that takes too long!" The boy whined, "I want to collect them now!"
"I know, but it's important you have your shots before running around in the bushes. What if you catch something? Then you'll spend days in bed and take no photos."
The boy considers this, then flops about a little more, obviously trying to get loose. Danny watches him struggle for a moment until the boy tires out. He reached down and swung the net over his shoulder, the boy going with it like a sack, and he ignored the demon-like screech that little Tim made as the pair tracked back to the Drake manor.
Dick is utterly horrified. "What was that!?"
"Hm? Oh, just guardian netting their child." Bruce replies, looking relaxed despite having just watched a child dragged back like a wild animal. "You know how it is."
'Ugh, no, I do not know how it is. Who does that?"
Bruce twists to look at Dick, seemingly lost on why Dick was reacting this way. "Alfred did that to me."
"What?!"
"I see Danny is taking my net throwing tips to heart," Alfred comments. He's carrying a tray of tea, beaming at the retreating man like a proud teacher whose student had surpassed them. "It's all in the wrist, you see."
"Alfred, you used to net Bruce up?!"
"Yes." The butler put the tray down on a nearby outdoor table. "Before Master Bruce decided on a bat, he had considered the idea of being Mole-Man."
"Mole-Man?"
"I was going to use the cave system in Gotham to leap up and drag people down," Bruce admits sheepishly, rubbing a cheek. "I tried to practice by running the moment Alfred got distracted and leaping into the holes."
Dick's jaw drops even as Alfred sighs, staring into the distance like he is experiencing war flashbacks. "He always somehow got into the sewers. It takes days of tracking to get Master Bruce out of there."
Bruce smiles. "Ah memories."
"I can't believe it." Dick gasps, "Batman was the saner option....."
Alfred laughs. "It was a relief after all the other ideas Master Bruce considered. Have I ever told you about Beaver Man?"
"No?"
"Pull up a chair. This one is a dozy."
And for the first time in a long while, Wanye Manor wasn't choking on tension. It was filled with evening laughter as Dick listened raptly to tales of Bruce's childhood and teenage years. Across the yard, in Drake Manor, Tim was watching Danny carefully develop the photos he took of Dick yelling. He liked how silly Dick looked, since the pictures paused his movements at the best of times.
His favorite was the one where Dick was midturn, mouth wide open, and the skin of his cheeks rippling like someone had used a leaf blower on his face. It was when Dick yelled the f-word so loudly that Danny made him put a penny in the swear jar just in case.
hi love the dick story but I don’t get why he’s so adamant on liking kori?? wtf is his problem is it really that big of a deal if he likes the reader more?
ahahahahahahaha omg okay i knew this question was coming up at some point lmaooooooo so let me get INTO it
ive read a lot of character analyses of dick & i think while he is all the things that people already think of him -- charismatic, good looking, charming, etc etc -- i think the one thing they really miss out on is that he is very controlling, but i don't mean it in the sort of "he needs to dictate everything i do", but rather he is controlling of himself.
i think dick doesn't allow himself to 'let loose'. there's variations where dick does lose control & essentially he goes on a sort of rampage. he needs to be in control at all times and i think canonically, he even has a higher, very strict self-imposed standard of conduct. he consistently holds himself to a higher relational standard than anyone requires of him.
(although, he is famously known to be super frustratingly expressive about his emotions. he falls hard, he declares it early and he is romantically forward in a way that makes his life even harder at times, but let me continue with my point)
in this case, he is trying (and failing) to do the right thing -- pursuing kori.
and why is this so important to him?
because in his eyes, kori is the right decision. he saw her first, he liked her first, he pursued her first. that is the ETHICAL thing to do (in dick's opinions. we can argue many other reasons why it is not ethical and rather may be more immoral, but let's continue on). he suppresses his feelings towards mc because he is committed to doing right by kori first.
secondly, his feelings towards mc make him feel an enormous loss of control. in canon, his origin story starts with that very feeling - his parents falling to their deaths - & it serves to show that the world is fundamentally unsafe. he then goes on to live with bruce and who is my lovely bruce wayne if he is not the very definition of control and self sacrifice?
ive tried to keep many things as canon consistent as possible with a few caveats as this is set in a no superhero/vigilante, normal college au, so it is still consistent that bruce went to adopt/take in dick at 8 years old. at 8yrs old, any child is very impressionable and dick has grown up internalizing bruce's framework -- if you can prepare enough, if you can control enough, if you are disciplined enough, that is all that you need.
throughout canon, i have found that dick is someone who has always and repeatedly shown that he has a very deeply internalized need for control and preparation. he may be the most emotionally available person throughout all of the batman comics, but that does not mean he has disregarded his obsessive need to maintain this high internal locus of control.
reader is the complete opposite of everything he has spent his entire life building towards. she is NOT part of the plan. he has no idea what to do with her, how to categorize her, and he has never planned for someone to come into his life and completely destabilize him. dick cannot control the intensity of his feelings, nor can he control the specific quality of how he feels. how terrifying is that to someone who spends his entire life obsessively coming up with contingency plans?
wanting cannot be measured. wanting cannot be contained. dick is someone who goes all in -- as seen in canon many, many, many times.
kori is a management strategy. mc is a genuine pursuit. in other words, if you put everything on the line for something you truly want and it does not work out, you feel crushed, so you will go for the safer option -- which is what i believe dick feels in this situation.
the entirety of wanting something wholeheartedly and with all your breath, to have to have something fully and completely and then lose it is what terrifies dick.
it's why i named chapter 12 'to love someone is to confess i am prepared to be devastated by you.' that chapter is the closest dick gets to letting himself be near what he truly wants but can't say that he has consented to.
it's also why the story is named 'icarus to the sun' - because, just like icarus, dick is well aware of the warning to stay in the safe altitude, to never venture far into what is much more thrilling and exciting - and yet, he cannot help himself.
kori is the safe altitude. kori is controlled. kori is appropriate.
but kori does not make him feel alive. the feeling that reader gives him, the feeling that you give him, is all that he truly wants. no matter how much you plan, no matter how much you sit there and control every little detail, nothing can ever come close to how much warmer the sun actually feels when he is actually outside.
and notice how i chose 'to the sun' rather than 'too close to the sun'. the sun has its own gravitational pull, as all bodies of space with mass or energy typically do. the sun has its own gravitational pull. the sun is not telling any planet to orbit it. the sun simply is.
this story (despite all the choices that dick makes) is not about whether or not dick will go to the sun, but when he will go. you are not telling dick to orbit you, nor are you telling dick to come towards you. you have always been the same as you were since the beginning and dick has turned towards your warmth the same way planets follow the sun.
ANYWAYSSSSSSS, this is sooo long and i apologize for my rant but like tldr: dick doesnt want to pursue reader bc the magnitude of his feelings are too much & he needs to have a sense of control otherwise it scares him & so that's why he sets out to continue pursuing kori because she is not 'uncontrollable' & also in dick's eyes, he set out to pursue her first and so he will follow through on it because that is 'ethical' to him
ok ok ok i could literally go on about this forever let me end it here anyway i hope this cleared everything up!! pls let me know if u have any other questions, i am honestly sooooo happy to talk about this all day!!!
also i'll be posting another chapter tmr idk when but yes be on the lookout ! and the reasoning as to why im posting like crazy will be mentieond in my next chapter tmr, whoop!!
Dont get him wrong, Danny had some big feelings about finding out his mom had cheated on his dad. He had even bigger feeling about the divorce and the whole shipping him off to live with his bio dad.
He wasn't going to lie. The new school was actually really nice and he had made friends quickly, though at first it was tough to weed out the ones who just wanted to get close to the Wayne family name and not him as a person. He didn't get to chat with Tucker and Sam a whole lot due to thier schedules but he and Jazz always made time for eachother.
His life had surprisingly taken a massive upturn. Vlad had been arrested soon after Danny warned the Waynes about him, making Danny believe either his dad it felt wierd calling him that but da-Jack made it perfectly clear he should never call him that was Batmans sugar daddy or somthing or maybe the Waynes got kidnapped so much that the bats bugged the whole place. Danny hoped not, he had done a whole karaoke thing with Jazz during thier video call the other night and he really didn't want anyone to hear thier shared cat screeching.
Jazz was super happy to learn Danny had joined the Volleyball team and Astronomy club. He used to play Volleyball in middle school and played defense a lot. He was even the best on the team but he stopped playing after one too many times of his parents forgetting to show up or causing a ruckus whenever they thought a ghost was nearby.
But it was better now
The portals were shut down by the bats. The GIW where expertly obliterated from existence. His parents are getting court mandated mental help. There are no more ghosts. No more ghost hunters.
And no need for Phantom
Danny doesn't think he's ever felt this free. He could go out to eat with friends with his way too big allowance that his...dad gives him and he didn't have to worry about having to ditch them to go fight a bad guy. He could eat dinner with a family who was a little awkward but surprisingly open to him and the food was delicious and didn't attack him. He could actually sleep at night and feel safe doing it. His siblings liked spending time with him and getting to learn anout him and thier "bonus sister" Jazz.
He had no reason to use his powers.
Until the grandfather clock he was walking past swung open like a door and he locked eyes with Nightwing coming out of it. They just stared at eachother before Danny just said, "I don't want to know which one your dating. Just know I have a bat and im willing to use it in the most ungodly of ways." And walked back to his room.
He wouldn't be a superhero, but he was willing to be a supervillian to protect his new family. Or in this case make sure Nightwing, a rumored playboy, knew better than to go breaking hearts in this household.
Sam dragged Danny to a gala in Gotham. While he'd been excited to go, he was exhausted from fighting a few of his rogues. Make-up helped hide the bruising under his eyes, but not his overall tiredness.
Meanwhile, Tim and Jason are both just as sleep deprived as Danny, but still being forced to go to the gala. Tim is just tiredly allowing himself to be dragged along, and Jason is growling at everyone the entire time. Neither are happy.
Skip to the Gala. Danny loses Sam after she gets dragged off by her parents to meet another person. While searching for her he ends up bumping into Tim. Tim offers to help look, but they both end up just silently standing at the edge of the room hoping no one talks to either of them.
In comes Jason, absolutely seething, eyes almost green. Tim tenses, getting ready for a fight, while Danny just looks at him and is like "this dude is hangry af" and grabs a small thermos(smaller than the Fenton Thermos so he doesn't accidentally try to drink one of the ghosts.) He takes a sip and then hands it to Jason, telling him to drink.
Jason and Tim have no clue where Danny just pulled this thermos from, but figure that he's too sleep deprived to be attempting to poison anyone. So Jason takes a small sip. Then he's downing as much as he can because, damn, he didn't realize he was so thirsty until now. He doesn't even realize the stuff he's drinking is neon green.
By the time he's finished, he's calmed down significantly but is still very tired(that's what happens when you don't go to sleep for a few days.) So he sits down on the floor next to them. They all end up sitting on the floor after a bit, and Jason asks if Danny could get him more of whatever was in the thermos. Danny agrees and becomes Jason's ecto dealer.
Red Hood gets caught lacking and is get interviewed.
Reporter : Mr.Hood, what do feel about these recent rumors of Bruce Wayne being in a relation ship with Batman? Are those true?
Red "feeling little shit" Hood : At least Bruce makes a better father than that bastard does.
Reporter : .....ahem....I see...what about your now extended family?
Red Hood : The Waynes are fine. I like Tim. He's a smart kid. Richard really need to make better jokes. Damian seems like he could use more hugs and love from the public.
Reporter : What about Jason Todd?
Red Hood : He can crawl back into his grave for all I care. Hating on Bruce for something that he cannot control.
Chapters: 7/20
Fandom: DCU, Batman - All Media Types
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence
Relationships: Tim Drake & Dick Grayson & Jason Todd & Bruce Wayne & Damian Wayne, Dick Grayson & Damian Wayne, Jason Todd & Damian Wayne, Tim Drake & Damian Wayne, Bruce Wayne & Damian Wayne
Summary:
The Executioner has been dropping bodies. Damian Wayne is missing. And the bats are stretched a little too thin to realize these two things are connected.
I need everyone to know that while all the batkids and all the rangers apprentice would be friends, Horace and Duke would be besties. I don't know why, but their vibes feel the same. You mean to tell me the guy who went around Gallcia beating people up with one of his many pseudo fathers (Gee Horace, why do you get 3+ dads?) to get his best friend/brother back and the guy who was part of a child gang, jumps off bridges, and is a Vigilante wouldn't get along?! Alright, what other lies do you want to say to my face.
