I have no bones, just brain worms
Y’know those fics where Danny was the older, better brother who ran to protect Damian? What if Damian was the older, better brother, who, to protect his brother, sent Danny away?
I mean, what Talia are we using here? The one that watched her son whisk his brother away, or the one who’s so consumed by her father’s wants and preemptive grief that she missed it entirely?
Does Damian feel the safest place for Danny is as far away from him as possible? Does it ever get back to the rest of the bats? Have Damian and Talia had this conversation by candlelight, over who can know about Danny? No one, right? The tighter the circle, the safer he is.
But what about when Ra’s is dead? Is it considered too big a risk, to chance that Ra’s won’t somehow resurrect? Did Damian go to see Danny, and bring him home, and instead find a beaming pre-teen, with solid friends, a great sister, and loving parents? Did he leave Amity without even saying hi? Does he know Danny is Phantom? Has he decided that anyone even tangentially knowing of Danny is too much of a risk? Is Damian apart of the media blackout?
What would happen if he caught wind that someone found Danny? That they were planning an attack? What lengths would he go to, to protect his little brother?
dude im LISTENING! i love this subversion of popular fandom tropes
Dp x Dc short idea
Jason is Danny’s dad
Warning: Language
Jason had just returned to the family publicly about two weeks ago. It hadn’t even been that long for him to settle before something happened. The press weren’t even off his ass and he has Alfred requesting he return home for an urgent matter immediately, which is butler speak for get your ass here right now!
The family was happy but adjusting to everything. They had mandatory family dinners at least twice a month and voluntarily got together more frequently, mostly just the siblings, but every once in a while Bruce would sneak in for a movie in the family room.
Alfred was pleased with the progress the family has made over the course of many years. It finally felt like everything was coming together and maybe settling down. He knew he thought that too soon when he answered the buzzer at the front gate. They weren’t expecting any visitors and looking at the video feed it was a young woman with hands on her hips glaring back at the camera. There were two large bags with her and surprisingly enough a young child playing in the grass just a short distance behind her.
“Wayne Residence, Alfred Pennyworth speaking, how may I assist you, ma’am?”
“Lettin’ me in for starters,” she says back with venom on her tongue.
“My apologies, but you do not have an appointment.”
She snorts, “Nah, but ya see, I saw that bastard on the news and thought I’d drop off what he gave me.”
To get her point across, she turns and looks back at the little boy not paying her any attention.
“Danny!” She snaps and he jerks his head to look at, who Alfred is assuming is, his mother. “Come here.”
He hops up at his own pace and dusts off the grass on his knees before trotting over. She leans down to angle the young boy away from the camera and pushing back his hair.
He couldn’t see it well before by the way the boy was positioned before, but Alfred could clearly see a prominent patch of white hair on the left lower section by his neck. Just like the white batch on Jason.
“You gonna let us in now?” She asks rudely.
Alfred has already determined he did not like this woman. He still buzzes them in. He contacts Jason immediately followed closely with Bruce.
Alfred then helps the two carry in the bags, while subtly checking for any weapons or explosives. Instead he finds things meant for a child.
He really didn’t like this woman.
Bruce is the first one to arrive down the stairs, pausing towards the bottom. He glances at Alfred and can see the displeasure in the butler’s eyes.
“Hello, ma’am. I’m Bruce Wayne, nice to meet you.”
“Fuckin’ everyone knows who you are, Brucie Wayne,” she huffs with a roll of her eyes.
Bruce glances down at the very young child who is hearing the foul language. He couldn’t be more than five, and completely oblivious as the little boy runs a hand along the wall and looks around at everything. He particularly keeps going back to the shiny chandelier above their heads.
“Who might you be?” He asks the woman, coming back to her as she almost touches the vase on the entry table. She draws her hand back to fold her arms across her chest.
“Grace.”
The name seems ironic compared to her behavior.
“And how can I help you, Miss Grace?”
“Your thought-to-be-dead son left something of his. I’m here to return it.”
It took no detective to determine she was talking about the boy currently using the door frame to the sitting room as leverage to rock back and forth, holding on with his tiny hands. Bruce could see the splash of white among the dark hair from this angle.
Bruce hums.
“Is that so?”
“I’ve already contacted Master Jason. He should be arriving soon. Shall I prepare some refreshments in the drawing room?” Alfred informs.
“Thank you, Alfred. Right this way,” he says to Grace, directing her toward the left while pulling out his phone to ask Tim to prepare the proper equipment downstairs.
“Danny!” The woman calls with impatience. She glares at the little boy who calmly turns to look at her, then skips behind them.
Grace huffs but doesn’t say anything else as they enter the room. She sits herself in the middle of the love seat and Bruce takes one of the chairs across from her. The boy, Danny, explores the room thoroughly, walking around without pattern and investigating every nook and cabinet to keep himself entertained. Very curious little child.
Bruce tries to engage her in conversation to dig up more information, but she firmly wanted to wait for Jason before divulging anything. He did however find out that Danny is four and needs to be enrolled in kindergarten next turn. Grace works night shift but wouldn’t say where.
Alfred came with three waters, one in a smaller plastic cup for Danny, and a plate of crackers and cut up fruit.
Grace eyes the butler with a raised brow. However, the first words Danny has spoken in their presence is a cute, “Thank you, mister,” before munching on a cracker and sipping from his cup. His curious eyes flick over the fruit and wanders over to his mother who picks at a rip in her jeans. He taps her knee and she sighs.
“What is it?”
“What’s that?”
Danny points to the fruit.
“What’s what?”
He creeps forward to point directly at the blackberries mixed in with the blueberries and strawberries.
“Blackberry,” she answers shortly.
“What’s it taste like?”
“Why don’t you try it and find out?”
He must have approved of that suggestion and reaches in to clumsily wrap a tiny hand around one of the dark berries. He flips it over in his hand for a minute, observing it at all angles, feeling the texture of the little bumps, before shoving it in his mouth. Danny leans his body over the coffee table to drag the bowl closer and rummage through it for more goodies.
Really looking at him, Bruce could see Jason’s freckles and the few other similarities like his square jaw and lip shape. He hasn’t seen it yet but Bruce bets Danny has the same crooked grin as his son.
He has the woman’s pale complexion and nose shape. His hair was straight like hers instead of Jason’s curls, but Danny took his dark coloring compared to her light brunette.
The boy was an adorable mix of both his son and this woman. He almost felt the test was unnecessary, but he didn’t stop Alfred from replacing the plastic cup and take it back to the kitchen where he knew it would be handed off to Tim.
Thankfully it was a day where there weren’t any meetings for either of them to attend.
Surprisingly, it isn’t Jason that enters the room first, it’s Damian coming home from school. The fourteen year old, almost fifteen, holds a leash in one hand with Titus standing patiently next to him, ready for his after school walk.
“Father, I heard we have guests.”
The teen stops in the doorway and Danny turns with interest until he spots the animal, then his eyes bug with excitement.
“Mommy, doggie,” he whisper shouts.
She just hums in affirmative, looking the new arrival up and down.
Danny grabs a blackberry from the bowl and trots over to Damian. He holds out the piece of fruit.
“This is a blackberry,” he states proudly.
Damian blinks down at the small child. Titus tilts his head, his nose working hard.
“I’m aware.”
“You can have it, if you let me pet your doggie,” he negotiates like he needed to give something in order to receive permission.
Damian looks up to his father for answers.
“Jason will be here soon,” is what he gets instead, his father’s lips twitch.
Damian looks back down in sudden realization when he sees the similarities between the man and this boy. He sighs tiredly.
“Pennyworth. A wet washcloth if you please.”
“Right away, Master Damian.”
“Next time, you only need to ask to pet Titus, you do not need to give me anything in return,” he tells the child.
Danny looks down at the berry sitting in his stained hands.
“So you don’t want it?”
“…Maybe later.”
“Okay!”
Danny skips back to carefully set the berry off the side on the tray, as if to save it for Damian for later like he said. He jogs the short distance back to them.
“Can I pet your doggie now, please?”
Damian takes the washcloth Alfred hands him with a nod and crouches down to get level with the boy.
“We must wipe our hands first. We don’t want anything sticky in his fur,” he explains as he holds out the washcloth for Danny’s hands.
The four year old looks down at the stains to see what he means and then places his hands on the washcloth for Damian to get the juices off.
The teen then calmly explains how to properly approach a dog he does not know by letting Titus smell the back of his hand first and then to always stay calm and confident.
Titus, the gentle giant that he is, had no problems letting the tiny child pat him and run small fingers through his short fur. It was endearing to hear the giggles when Titus used his big nose to sniff at the child’s face and neck. Sitting down, Titus was taller than the child standing up, which would have been scary to some kids, but Danny seemed to love Titus instantly. The little boy easily telling the dog what a good boy he is even with the dog sitting there doing nothing.
“Titus needs his afternoon walk now,” Damian informs.
Titus stands at the word walk, clearly ready to go.
“Oh, okay.” Danny turns to the big dog to reach up and pat his head twice. “Bye-bye, Titus. Have a good walk.”
The two leave and Danny skips back over to hang over the arm of the love seat his mother sits in, typing on her phone.
“Mommy, did you see the doggie? His name is Titus. He’s a good dog.”
“Uh-huh,” she comments without really listening.
“Do you like dogs, Danny?” Bruce asks with a smile.
Danny looks at him like he forgot the man was there, tilts his head as he studies him for a moment. Bruce waits patiently until Danny deems him okay and perks back up with bright eyes.
“Uh-huh! I love dogs! Mommy says we can’t get one ‘cuz our ‘partment is too small and they’re dirty. You’s guys are lucky,” the boy rambles as he wanders around the coffee table to get closer to Bruce and away from his distracted mother.
“How do you feel about cats? Damian has a black and white one around here somewhere.”
Danny shrugs and they continue to have a rather pleasant conversation about different animals and foods and each of their houses. It takes up the amount of time for Jason to walk through the door, seemingly already informed of the situation from Alfred.
Jason was… flabbergasted. Bewildered. Caught unprepared. He was a lot of words. Mostly he was scared.
Did he really have a child? A son? If that was true then he missed so much. He missed all of his firsts. First words, first steps, first laugh, first everything.
Would the boy even like him? What if he saw all his scars and was scared of him? What if he didn’t want anything to do with Jason after not being in his life this whole time?
But the boy might not be his. There’s that. That could be… Jason didn’t like the disappointment that thought brought.
Grace was the first one he noticed. Her ripped jeans and low cut top being out of place among the antique furniture and Persian rug. She scowls at him, putting her phone down.
“Finally decided to show up?”
He bites back a comment. He broke several traffic laws to get here, it wasn’t his fault he was fourty minutes away at the time he got the call.
He glances over at Bruce and instead his eyes zero in on the child standing by the armchair Bruce was sitting in.
Just one look and he knew the boy was his.
He looks to Bruce anyway for confirmation, since he has no doubt he sent off a sample to Tim hiding like the troll he is in the basement. The man nods. Jason sucks in a deep breath and suddenly needs to sit down.
He sinks heavily in the matching armchair next to Bruce’s, separated only by a round end table. Jason can’t stop staring at those big, blue eyes that are filled with such curiosity and innocence he almost breaks down right then. But he can’t. He has to be strong. He can’t just walk away to get a handle on his emotions. He’s a dad now.
“You’re a hard man to find,” Grace folds her arms over her chest.
“I’ve been busy,” he answers lamely.
She humphs and looks away with a shake of her head.
The boy, Danny Alfred said his name was, creeps around Bruce’s legs to get closer, obviously seeing something in Jason enough to investigate. The room is quiet as they wait to see how Danny will react.
Coming to a stop right before his knees, Danny stares up at the large man with lots of scars and muscles from what he can see. He wasn’t scared. There was just something familiar that he couldn’t quite put his finger on. He looks… he looks like… and he also feels almost like…
Furrowing his brows in a pout, he knows his Mommy doesn’t like it when he does it, but he still makes his eyes burn with green.
The man gasps and his eyes also swirl into an angry green.
“Daddy?” Danny asks with hope and joy.
Daddy swallows and then nods.
“Yea, buddy, I’m your dad.”
“Daddy!” The boy cheers, jumping in place with a wide smile. “Daddy! Mommy, look! It’s Daddy!”
Danny wastes no time climbing into the man’s lap and wrapping his arms around him as far as they’ll go (not very far) to press his ear to Jason’s chest over his heart. He’s practically vibrating with excitement and Jason makes sure to set a large hand on his back to hold him close.
“I fuckin’ knew it,” Grace hisses, her eyes wide at the display earlier. Both of their eyes had returned to their calmer blue and teal color, but everyone in the room saw it. “I knew he got it from you.”
His eyes narrow in warning, pulling the boy closer to his chest. He sets a hand over Danny’s exposed ear to protect him from the harsh words he’s probably already heard before.
“Do you have any idea how creepy it is to deal with a tantrum when your kid has fucking glowing green eyes?”
“Did you hit him?” Jason growls, the vibrations seeming to settle Danny even more.
“Please, I’m not my mother,” she dismisses with a sneer.
Could have fooled him.
“Everything was fine until he started doing freaky shit. I don’t know how to raise a meta kid, alright?”
“What are you talking about?”
Now he was just confused. What stuff was Danny doing that Grace thought he was a meta?
“Don’t try to pretend you don’t have powers too,” she points viciously.
“I’m not pretending. I don’t have powers. I don’t have the meta gene. What can he do?” He demands while being transparently clear.
She just glares back at him, obviously not believing him. That didn’t exactly matter at the moment.
“What can he do?” He repeats with emphasis.
She puckers her lips like she’s tasted something sour and then lifts her chin.
“Why doesn’t he just show you, huh? Danny- Would you stop babying him? Danny, show him the things you can do.”
After Jason takes the hand off the boy’s head, Danny turns to his mother warily.
“But you don’t like it,” he reminds, like she forgot.
“He wants to see it, so show him,” she waves a hand at Jason like he just asked for something he would regret.
Danny leans back to look up at his dad.
“You won’t get mad? Or scared?”
He sounds so unsure and scared. As if Jason could ever hate him. Jason really wants to punch something. Preferably something with her face on it.
“I promise I won’t.”
Another parent might have something more profound to say to reassure their child, but Jason was just starting out and honestly, it was more than Bruce would ever say.
Danny thinks for a second before wiggling to get down. He looks back once more at his mother who gives him a ‘get on with it’ motion.
The boy fidgets a little before covering his face with two hands like he’s playing hide and seek, then- disappears. Jason jerks at watching his son blink out of sight like a Martian.
“Boo!” Danny pops back into view, exactly where he was standing before with his hands out like any child on Halloween.
Jason blinks and then starts laughing. This was karma. Danny could literally become invisible, something the Bats train to do for years.
“That was good, buddy,” Jason chuckles, ruffling the kid’s hair.
Danny hesitantly smiles back, a bit of hope and pride in those eyes.
“There’s more,” Grace interrupts, seemingly uneasy with how well Jason reacted.
“Yea?” Jason directs to Danny, his focus on his son.
Danny gives a shaky nod, glancing over worriedly at Bruce who is just silently watching. Jason could see the tension in his shoulders but also the intrigue.
The boy places a hand on the coffee table and focuses on his hand. It took a few minutes of concentration before Danny’s hand went through the table like he was just dunking his hand in a pool instead of through a solid object.
He pulls his hand out and they could see it be slightly translucent.
“That one’s harder to do when I want to,” Danny mumbles.
“You mean it mostly happens on accident?”
Danny nods.
“I drop a lot. And get stuck sometimes.”
Yea, Jason can see how that could be a problem. He can’t imagine how terrified Danny was the first time a body part got stuck in an immovable object. He really wishes he could have been there for him in his panic.
“The last thing is hard too. But I’ve been practicing. Watch!”
Danny jumps once, twice, and on the third time he lingers in the air, coming down slowly like someone in water or astronauts on the moon. Danny pushes off the ground a fourth time, this time floating steadily higher like gravity meant nothing to him.
Despite the kid obviously have done this before and enjoying it with his giggles, Jason stands under him in case he falls. And falls he does. Suddenly, like the strings being cut and gravity taking hold of him again, Danny plummets into Jason waiting arms. The boy grunts on impact and then smiled sheepishly up at his dad.
“Sorry, Daddy. I promise I’m doing better.”
“That’s okay, squirt. I’m glad I was here to catch you.”
Jason plops back into the chair with his child in his lap.
“Anything else up that sleeve of yours?” He teases but is equally as serious.
Danny shakes his head enough to make his hair fluff. Jason looks to Grace for confirmation and sees she is still recovering from Danny’s fall out of the air. How many times has she had to catch him? Or wasn’t able to catch him?
She clears her throat.
“I don’t know if it’s part of it, but he never gets sick. Never even had a cough.”
Children always get sick, that’s how they build immune systems. For Danny to have never gotten even a cold, Jason doesn’t know if it’s worrying or a good thing.
“Any allergies?” Is the first thing on his mind, thinking of what Alfred will need to know.
She shakes her head with a negative hum.
“In one of the bags is a folder with all of his documents. Birth certificate, immunizations, doctor visits. I also made a list of some favorite things and things he hates. It has foods on there too.”
That was… honestly more than he was expecting from her. But it also cements the fact that she intended to drop him off with him and then never see them again. She raised him for four years and she doesn’t even want visitation? Does she not understand there are legal documents she needs to sign to transfer custody properly?
“There are some things you need to sign, but it will take some time to get it sorted,” Bruce chimes in all business.
Long nails swipe through the air like signing her rights away was trivial.
“My phone number and address are on one of the documents. Just tell me when and where.”
She stands to leave and Jason can feel Danny tense up.
“Are we leaving?” He asks worriedly, climbing down from his seat on his dad’s lap. He didn’t want to go.
“You’re staying here. With your dad,” Grace says shortly, not once looking at the boy.
“Are you going home to get the rest of our stuff?”
“No. I’m going home. You’re staying here. End of story.”
Danny visibly thinks on that for a second then scampers after his mother as she leaves the room.
“Is it like Robbie where his mom lives in one ‘partment and his dad lives in a different one?”
Grace sighs and runs a hand through her hair. She’s clearly flustered and is showing it as irritation, but Jason can’t help but trail behind in case she says something that she shouldn’t.
“No, Danny, it’s not like Robbie. I- I am leaving you here and I’m not coming back, okay?”
Jason takes a step forward to draw her attention and send her a look that says ‘choose your words carefully, this is a conversation he will remember for a long time’.
“But- but why? Is it ‘cuz of my things? I’m sorry I scared you, Mommy. I didn’t mean to. I won’t do them again, promise.”
Jason grits his teeth at how desperate his son sounds, trying to keep his mother with him. Even making a promise he can’t keep.
Grace finally looks at her baby. Sees the turmoil and tears in his baby blue eyes. She gets down on her knees to get level and places her hands on his tiny shoulders.
“You will do them again and that’s not a bad thing. Your things are part of you. That’s okay. You’re not in any trouble. I just- I’m in over my head here, Danny. I can’t take care of you the way you should be taken care of, okay? But your dad can, I hope. So I’m leaving you here. With him.”
Danny’s lip wobbles and she has to restrain herself from not hugging him like she always does when he’s upset.
“Then- then you’ll visit, right? Like Chase’s grandma visits him?”
Why is this so hard?
“I don’t think so, baby. I don’t think you’re gonna see me again. I’m sorry.”
Danny is silent for a while. He wipes his eyes and sniffs.
“Are you goin’ ‘way like Jamal’s dad?”
The ten year old in the same building as them lost his dad in a wrong place wrong time type situation. Jamal had told Danny his dad went away forever so he couldn’t see him again. Grace had told him that when people go away forever, they get put among the stars he loves so much to be remembered.
Grace wears such a pained expression Jason half thought she was about to burst into tears.
“Kinda,” she nods. “So give me a big hug, okay?”
Danny was in her arms before she finished speaking. Jason didn’t exactly know why she wanted to stop all contact, but he had a theory that if Danny really was a meta (and with his powers he was leaning toward believing it) then Grace would want to distance herself as much as possible to protect them both. He met her in Crime Alley, he knew they didn’t live in a good spot. If any one of those crooks saw Danny use any of his powers, they could steal him easily from his single mother. She didn’t want to give those kind of people leverage to get Danny and sell him off. She wasn’t trying to be cruel, she was just trying to do what was best for her kid, even if that meant cutting her out of his life.
He had a strange new respect for her he didn’t want to acknowledge.
Grace takes a heavy breath and pulls away showing Danny’s tear stained cheeks. She wipes them like it would do anything.
“I gotta go now, Danny.”
“No,” he cries and Jason’s heart breaks a little more.
“We gotta say goodbye now. Please.”
Grace is just barely hanging on. Jason knows as soon as she walks out that door she’ll break down.
“I don’t want to. Don’t want you to leave,” Danny whines, trying to keep a strong grip on his mother.
She holds his hands in hers and gives him a serious look.
“You’re going to be fine. You’re gonna be just fine with your dad.” She leans in and whispers, “You’re not alone, Danny. You are never alone. Just look up. Look at the stars, baby, and you’ll be okay.”
Danny pouts, but thinks about those words.
“I like the stars,” he mumbles.
She smiles, probably the first one in a while.
“I know you do.”
She kisses his forehead one last time and stands. Danny whines. She steps away.
“Bye-bye, Danny. I- I love you.”
“Mommy,” he cries, tears and snot coming full force now.
Jason can’t take anymore and picks up his son to hold on his hip.
“It’s okay, buddy. I got you,” he assures. He turns to Grace who is having the internal battle of her life in the foyer. “I got him.”
It’s an assurance to her too, that he will take care of Danny, that he would be there for him. It was a promise.
Grace sees it for what it is and leaves out the front door without another word.
Danny screams and cries and struggles, but Jason holds on tight, scared he’ll fall or use his powers to get away and disappear. The man walks back to the drawing room so his son wasn’t staring at the door longingly.
As soon as Jason sits down, Danny struggles harder since they stopped moving. So Jason stands again, adjusting the boy in his arms and starts pacing a path around the room.
Bruce has already disappeared, not knowing what to do with a heartbroken child crying his eyes out. Alfred has cleared away the tray of snacks, leaving two waters on the table, one in a small, plastic cup. Jason spies Damian poke his head in for a second to see what the matter was, and upon seeing no immediate threat went off wherever. Other than that, father and son were alone to figure themselves out.
Danny was going through a lot for a toddler and Jason didn’t exactly know how to handle what happened either. He tried his best with speaking reassurances into the boy’s hair, but he didn’t know if Danny even heard him over his own crying.
It was a rough first meeting to be frank, but after a while (what felt like ages) Danny cried himself to sleep and Jason felt it safe to finally sprawl out on the loveseat with the boy laying on his chest. Compared to a grueling patrol, that was definitely worse. He never wanted to have to go through that again, but knew as a dad it was part of the job description.
Arthur: So you have magic?
Merlin: Uh… yeah?
Arthur: for how long?
Merlin: Since birth.
Arthur: And you’re a dragon lord?
Merlin: Yeah my father was and it gets passed down.
Arthur: Sounds like royalty.
Merlin: No? I don’t think so.
Arthur: Yes it is, that means you’re a noble, a lord. We can get married now.
Merlin: WHAT???
Prompt: Danny goes to Gotham U for college. Whether or not it’s for engineering he has a tinkering habit when not busy with homework. He is also quite broke and doesn’t want to start dismantling the coffee machine in boredom. Slightly sleep deprived he goes around Gotham and unknowingly dismantles many of Joker’s traps. Including the ones that are supposed to go off if his heartbeat stops.
Jason had never understood why Bruce had taken so many kids under his wing. It was more trouble than it was worth. He knows that he was a fucking riot as a kid, hard to contain and control. Dick was a bit better from what he heard, but still hard.
Tim was probably the worst of them all. Then Damian and Duke... Really, it made no sense. But Jason never bothered to ask, why should he care?
Well...Maybe now he understands. Because as he stares at this tiny kid, skinny and a gun put to his head by the Joker, he feels a weird pull towards him.
Maybe it's time for him to get a side kick of his own.
Jason has started giving online cooking classes for free for a bit of fun relaxing community service thing. It goes real well, but there's this one student who one time out of two, closes the camera half-way through and sometimes leaves all together.
Now, Jason's not gonna be offended or anything, he gets it, but he's curious. Is the guy maybe shy because his dishes don't turn out right? Or is it just that he's really unlucky and keeps getting called away? Anyways, one day the guy is clearly going for the close camera button again, but it somehow doesn't work without the guy noticing.
Jason himself doesn't noticse at first but then he looks up from the sauce he's making and sees a green glowing fish trying to maim the guy who's fending it off with a knife. After that, the whole class is treated to a very intense battle between the zombie fish and the guy that looks epic and probably sounds like a warzone.
Finally, the guy manages to skewer the fish to the cutting board and trap it there, still struggling. As if noticing the silence from Jason (who's stopped everything to gawk like all the other students), the guy looks to the computer. Then his eyes grow wide as he realizes they can still see him. He flushes bright red before scrambling for the computer and then his camera feed is gone.
Jason is left reeling, "what the hell was that?"
(I have garnered enough self-confidence where I can put my weird ideas in a post without dying in a hole with self-doubt)
Danny's a heavy coffee drinker and he has his reasons. Ever since the half-fatal accident at 14 his heart beats at a very slow rate like 32 beats per minute type of slow
He fell asleep in class and didn't wake up automatically to a pencil dropping once (he fought six big ghost attacks in a span of 3 hours that day give him a break) he nearly caused Mr lancer a heart attack it took 10 minutes to convince him to not call the hospital.
Ever since that day he's been drinking coffee with enough caffeine in it to kill a horse, both for the energy when ghost fighting and faster heart rate.
His parents decided that they needed to take an emergency trip to Gotham to get rid of its ' Shadow mimicking human mocking echo scum ' which was apparently Batman & Co. . . .
3 days, a shit ton of research, 37 cups of 'I am living human' coffee, more research (not batfam related) and a 253 slideshow presentation that I lovingly called Gothampedia. I managed to convince them that the furry vigilantes aren't ghost ( they don't believe that humans can do the things that the bats do, so there metas) and that Gotham has many many more dangers then ghost doing its thing there
It worked. . . .sort of
" why are we packing again I thought the Gothampedia was enough"
"oh sweetheart it was" mom says she heaves a large trunk (most likely goes weapons/technology) inside the GAV " the meta vigilantes may not be the ghost haunting gotham but it is certainly haunted, the dark and dreary weight over the city must be nothing else."
Dad comes over with a mouthful of fudge swallowing " your mother is right Danny-O, Gotham needs our help and what better help is there than the Fenton's! plus with how informative your slides was,"you were barely awake for the majority of it "you know the ins and out of the place so we don't need to worry."
The probability of Ghosts aren't the problem here, it's the fact that you dress in the neon hazmat suits carrying around bulking handmade weapons that will put you on Batman's watchlist faster than you can say Going Ghost! Gotham has plenty of mad scientists you don't need to mingle with them!!
After trying and failing to get them the least postpone this adventure he looked on with Dread
There's no way to get out of this isn't there. . . .
Maybe Gotham has less restrictions on the amount of caffeine I can get in coffee.
Bruce has to go off-world for something since he does not trust his children to not destroy Gotham while he is gone, he calls up his cousin to watch the kids. (Grown up) Danny shows up and has to wrangle his cousin’s children. Danny is full-on expected to be babysitting a bunch of little kids, he is surprised when most of them are adults.
Bruce's kids didn't expect to have a babysitter---they are not pleased. So they decide to make Danny's job 10x worse.
Danny wasn't originally going to butt into their patrols, but they're being annoying. So Danny messes with them on patrol.
(Alfred is on vacation and the thing Bruce has to deal with is short notice. Bruce did not want to cut Alfred’s vacation short)
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"Why don't we all head inside, yes?" Mr. Wayne suggested, waving his arm in the doors general direction.
"Yes, that sounds great," Ms. Clance agreed, turning to Danny like she was debating whether or not she should drag him inside. Danny was very against that idea and glared at her. She huffed but turned and started making her way up the stairs.
The other, he can't really say kids because he's pretty sure half the people standing in front of him were over the age of eighteen, but they still lived with Mr. Wayne, apparently, so kids it was. The other kids continued to try to stealthily watch him as they made their way into the building. (He refused to call this place a house; it was bigger than Sam's manor for Ancients' sake.)
The gray-eyed girl waited for him, the not-so-happy but happy sparkle back as she watched him approach. Pausing for a moment, Danny turned and gently patted the bush closest to him, it had been practically begging for attention for the past ten minutes and Sam would have throttled him if he had just ignored it.
She treated them like demented puppies, and it's against every unspoken law (in danny's books, atleast) to ignore a puppy.
The gray-eyed girl (man, he was going to have to learn their names, Ancients, why were there so many people here?) tilted her head curiously, eyeing the plant he just patted.
"My friend has plant powers," Danny huffed, which was true. Sam still had lingering plant control and a connection to the green because of Undergrowth. Danny was just leaving out the fact that he also had plant powers. He wasn't sure why he always got new powers after beating new powerful ghosts, but it happens, and now he needs to pet the plants because they get sad if he doesn't.
(Jazz theorized once that the new powers were due to his half-a nature, but then they looked at Vlad and decided it was probably something else.) (Also, why in the world did he get ice powers and then almost immediately plant powers? like, seriously, why?)
"Close friend?" Gray asked, turning to follow Danny inside.
"One of my best friends," Danny agreed. Man, he missed them. He'd have to figure out how to get out of here soon; there was no way he was going to just not see his friends on Tucker's birthday. Which meant he had about a week to bust out of here and get back to Amity. Oh, and stay under the radar so Vlad doesn't find him.
Glancing around the entry hall, or was the term foyer? like, the place was fancier then most five star hotels he's seen (which he wants to make clear, was against his dying wishes. fuck vlad and his not hard earned money.) like, sure, it wasn't all white modern minimalist like the hotels, but he's pretty sure the vase just sitting a little too close to the edge of a table was worth more then a human heart on the black market.
"Welcome to Wayne Manor," Mr. Pennyworth started, closing the doors with a heavy thud. He didn't lock it, though, Danny noted. Probably because Ms. Clance still needed to leave.
"may I have your coats?" he asked, holding out his arm to Ms. Clance and looking over to Danny. Ms. Clance immediately started to shrug off her jacket and dropped it onto his arm without a second glance, trying to talk to Mr. Wayne about an office or something.
Danny shook his head, "No thanks. I prefer to keep my things with me." especially in a new place, who knows what they'd do to his stuff. last time he handed anything over it had been locked up and never returned. (or well, not returned until he stole it back right before leaving, but that's getting into semantics.)
"So, Daniel was it?" the older guy from the first three asked, smiling brightly and trying to act casual. He was failing.
"It's Danny," Danny huffed, glancing around to study the others.
Gray was nice, he had a feeling they'd get a long fine. she was like an open book, all her opinions and emotions right there for him to see. Though that just meant she was awear of them and could easily hide them.
The others not so much.
Eyebags looked tired but alert, watching Danny like he was a new puzzle. Which was fine, Danny could deal with that. He probably wasn't as bad as Jazz or his parents were when obsessed with new things, so he goes lower on the list but not off.
Mr. Casual over here was watching him AND the others, which meant he was probably the peacekeeper. That or he was the one who antagonized the others into acting without them noticing. Same as eyebags, then.
Blondie looked like she was planning how to prank him right then and there, but also like she was evaluating him for something. Like he thought earlier, she'll probably stick around until she gets bored. So, hmmm. Keep an eye on more than eyebags, but probably not a problem.
there was a kid maybe two-three years younger than him trying to hide on the stairs out of view, he looked pissed off and annoyed. Something was telling Danny he should stay away from him. So, definitely going to the top of his list right next to butler man.
And finally, Mr. Wayne. He was smiling and chatting with Ms. Clance like he didn't have a care in the world. And it would have been believable if it wasn't for the fact that the man was easily steering the conversation away from the stuff Ms. Clance wanted to talk about, without Danny around, before leaving. Which means Mr. Wayne wanted Danny to be part of the conversation, probably to get both sides of the story.
He was smart and knew how to manipulate situations without people catching on.
Also, top of the list, then.
"Only people who want to kill me call me Daniel," Danny added, watching as Ms. Clance tried to bring up his file and fell for another diversion.
"Really?" Eyebags asked, actually surprised for some reason.
Oh, wait, murder isn't normal. Ha, to live a normal life. It must be boring. Couldn't be him, even if he wanted it. There was nothing normal about growing up with mad scientists, and nothing normal about being half dead and a vigilante.
"Yeah, my friends and I made a chart and everything. Granted, we didn't have many people to add to the list to compare with, but it's checked out so far." Danny admitted, turning to face Eyebags.
Honestly, it was just Vlad, his parents, a few GIW agents, and those very few times his friends almost killed him. But come on, they all called him Daniel at some point. Therefore, it totally checks out.
"Huh," Mr. Casual blinked, glancing at his siblings before shaking his head. "Right, so uh, why do people want to kill you?"
"Because they're Fruit Loops," Danny grumbled, finally deciding to approach Ms. Clance. Might as well get this done and over with. The longer she stayed, the less time Danny would have to scout the place by himself later, after all the introductions.
Next (to be written)
Part 4.5: all night
After HG mess, Grian had to pull an all nighter to finish his job
(Clothes inspired by @schwepsee fanart!)