Chapter Text
Damian’s phone buzzes as the professor starts the biochemistry lecture. He peeks at it – Danny telling him where he found a spot – before slipping the device back into his pocket.
Halfway through the lecture, it buzzes again. Danny doesn’t text him during classes unless it is important, and ‘important’ is usually a ghost, of the full or halfa variety. Vlad Masters isn’t that far outside Madison and has an appointment in the city that night. He could have tracked Danny down and -
The text is from Todd. Did you tell him I was coming?
A second buzz from an incoming photo.
Damian ignores it to pay attention to the lecture.
It’s interesting, going to school in Madison. The student body is relaxed, not primed for an attack. Madison doesn’t have many rogues, and none extreme enough to warrant a full-time hero. Sometimes, he dresses in black and patrols the shadows to keep in practice, but most of whom he finds are similar to Crime Ally thugs. Danny has only fought a ghost thrice in their three months here.
A less stressful city means it’s easier to focus on schooling and, more importantly, Danny.
His phone buzzes again as the lecture wraps up. The students around him gather their stuff, but he stares at the photo his older brother sent earlier.
It’s Danny, sitting straight up in a chair and turning toward the camera. He’s alert, watchful, hand reaching for his bag. Sun from the library’s café window lights up his hair. It’s healthy and clean. His arms are exposed in a grey t-shirt, revealing a subtle hint of biceps.
It’s such a contrast to how he looked under the ice rink.
Such a contrast to how he looked laid out on that hotel room bed afterward, Manson and Foley forcing him to down half their supply of ectoplasms like trained EMTs.
Two months, Foley said. For two months, Vlad Masters controlled Danny, tortured him into submission. Two months of making sure Danny didn’t die, tracking his ectoplasm needs, but not much else. Danny hadn’t been healthy – underweight, nerve damage, small stress fractures on his bones. His ghost half could only heal and sustain him so long. Danny’s existence had never been in danger, but his health, his happiness…
Damian is almost glad Masters attended the Wayne Holiday Gala because of the opportunity it gave them. Who knows what the older halfa would have done as Danny’s health deteriorated.
His phone buzzes again. He flips to the ‘kid chat’ though Danny is the only one under eighteen.
Ghost range 40ft, Todd captioned a photo. It’s selfie of Todd and Danny at the library café, grinning broadly. Danny’s skin tone is too dark for them to be mistaken as relatives, but there’s a similar sheen to their eyes, a flush to their cheeks.
Todd looks healthy too. He doesn’t smile more but snaps out less. Doesn’t look so wan. He’s not a halfa nor dependent on ectoplasm, but he’s healthier when he gets it. Lyne Lines offers an ectoplasm subscription box to select people, and Jason is on that very short list. He has an aversion to drinking it however, Damian blames it on Brown originally teasing Jason about air-sipping Danny’s blood, and right now Madison is the only city in the world with strong ambient ectoplasm.
Damian suspects that’s not why his brother has come to visit.
Tonight is Danny’s monthly dinner with Masters.
The chat fills up. Greyson congratulates Danny on his ghost sense hitting its pre-Masters’ range. Thomas sends a sad face because he’s not there. Cain hearts the image, and Damian suspects Greyson has already downloaded it. Damian saves his own copy. Danny has a photobook filled with photos from his time in Amity Park. Damian wants to create one of their time in Madison.
Damian stuffs his laptop away and slips his phone in his coat pocket before zipping up for the short trek to Grainger Hall. Drake and his father are standing near the chemistry building’s exit.
It is not uncommon for someone from the family to visit and help supervise the monthly dinners, but three is excessive.
“Father. Drake.”
“Damian!”
Damian allows his father to give him a quick squeeze. Being away from the family is something he’ll admit, to himself, he misses. Not enough to regret moving. He’d been an awful brother in the League, which wasn’t entirely his fault, but he’s desperate to make up for it. He would trade being Robin for being Danny’s big brother any day.
“How’s school?”
“I’m enjoying my classes, but am eager to move beyond basic lectures. It’s a pity I transferred too late to have a spot in the animal science lab, but they will offer it in June.”
He refuses to leave Danny alone in their apartment all summer, not when he’ll spend his days as a Dalv, Co intern. It’ll be too easy for Masters to do something. Thankfully, Cain and Drake are creating a surveillance map of the company’s main buildings, noting camera blind spots, ducts large enough for humans, the type of security on particular doors, and soon, any hidden rooms like the lab in Masters’ house.
“You’ll graduate early at that rate,” Drake points out.
Damian decides he’ll pad every semester with electives.
Their compromise with Masters is fragile, but the plan is for Danny to finish his high school diploma online, go to school at the University of Wisconsin, and then work for Dalv, Co. It’s a five-year plan, and Damian only has two and a half years left in his bachelor's. Maybe he’ll get his masters here too, the extra years allowing him and Danny to graduate at the same time.
Ra’s had expected Damian to grow up and lead a cult of assassins, and then for several years Damian expected himself to take up the cowl when his father retired. It’s odd, planning for a future that doesn’t feature a sword in his hand or requires replacing someone. Damian isn’t the heir to anything.
It’s a freedom he relishes, and wishes his baby brother could be free of the same burden.
Masters hovers from afar. He asks about Danny’s grades and mails him books on business. Damian has found cameras in their apartment he quietly crushes because Danny is too comfortable with them.
“You can’t say no to obsessions, anki. Vlad needs to know I’m working toward taking over Dalv, Co, and I’m not going to stress his core more than necessary.”
Danny sympathizes too much, but he is genuinely eager to get involved in Lyne Lines. Thankfully, Masters doesn’t care about obedience so much as inheritance and mentorship. Danny doesn’t have to act on Masters’ lessons, just acknowledge them. Danny will run Dalv, Co his way.
Eventually.
“Why are three of you here?”
Drake shrugs his shoulders. “Jason won the Mario Kart tournament this month, but we wanted to… present more leverage to Vlad.”
“Spring Break is next week,” Bruce cuts in. “I would love to host Danny in Gotham, as well as his friends.”
Damian cocks his head. Manson, Foley, and Danny chat daily, but it doesn’t completely relieve the pressure on Danny’s core. It’ll do him good to see them in person. Danny is probably healthy enough to leave the rich ambient ectoplasm of Madison for a week, but as a safeguard, they’ll need extra ectoplasm.
Which explains Drake. His unique position as a fellow CEO, coder, and roundabout relationship to Danny makes him the Wayne Masters respects the most. Damian and Danny could have asked for the extra supply themselves over dinner tonight, but Masters would request something in return to remind them of his control over Danny’s health. A request Danny would have been quick to accept.
Damian still hasn’t figured out if it’s due to empathy over core stress or a conditioned abuse response. Either way, he appreciates the extra family support.
“I’ll update our reservation to six.”
“Anki!”
Damian gets a thrill every time Danny claims him. Damian treasures the opportunity to call him the same. Danny flinches at any version of his full name, but ‘anki’ is untainted. It’s possessive, it’s a lost bit of their childhood, it’s the future they’re building.
He turns toward his brother with a smile, ignoring the stares from his father and Drake. Had he truly smiled so rarely in Gotham? He cannot help it; civilian life, civilian life with Danny, is a fresh start. An unlocked dream.
Todd trails after Danny, trying to shoo away a blob ghost. They are frequent escapees from Masters’s portal. Not everyone can see the low-energy ghosts; it’s an ability granted to those who have died, even for a second, and those contaminated with high enough levels of ectoplasm. On the University of Wisconsin campus, it is a rare trait thanks in part to Masters’s higher portal safety. The Fentons’ portal had leaked so much radiation the entire city saw them and paid the blobs as much attention as sparrows.
Learning blob ghosts were not hallucinations from the Pit had been a huge relief for Todd.
It’s only been an hour, and he’s been with Todd for that entire time, but Damian still gives his brother a once-over as gets close. Danny returns the favor, also scanning Drake and their father. Obsession soothed by their health, he goes in for hugs. Damian first, then Drake and Bruce.
The Fentons had been an affectionate family, and Damian is glad, not for the first time, Danny found a family that loved him.
“We’re going to Babcock’s,” Danny declares excitedly. Campus is still chilly in mid-March, but Damian can’t bring himself to note the weather or potential spoilage of dinner. Danny likes cold treats.
Danny slides up next to Bruce and leads the way, updating his father about his classes. Damian follows behind. Danny’s face is upturned and open, Bruce’s soft and warm.
“So what leverage do you have on Masters?” Damian asks Drake. Todd matches their stride, hands behind his head as he whistles auditory cover.
“Steph kept Beth’s, the watcher maker’s credit card, and keeps buying things. It belongs to Masters’s secretary, and making all those expensive jewelry purchases is such a misappropriation of company funds. Especially if some of those pieces ended up in the hands of people with influence.”
“He hasn’t canceled it?”
“Nope.”
That explained the large earrings Cain wore in her latest nightlife celebrity photo.
“If we are to be in Gotham all week, Danny will need two extra vials.”
“Anything you’re willing to give Masters if the threat against Dalv, Co isn’t enough? I hate how he can overshadow people and get them to mislay paperwork.”
Like Bruce’s attempt to prove Danny is his biological child. And a restraining order against Masters. Drake running corporate rings around Masters would be more effective if the halfa couldn’t rig the game. Danny, unfortunately, remains a bargaining chip they both leverage and will remain so until Drake figures out how to build a portal to break Masters’s monopoly on consumable ectoplasm. Danny developed several modified designs, but it is too risky to build them on the edge of Masters’ haunt. Danny’s core splinters are nestled into his chest, but they haven’t fused to his core. Masters can still remove them.
“Danny has to conduct a science experiment of his choice for his online class. Masters can approve the topic. And perhaps, we can have Danny shadow you for a day as a learning opportunity.” It would cut into his time with Manson and Foley, but shouldn’t stress Danny.
“Half day,” Drake amends, “And he won’t be privy to any company secrets.”
“Naturally. Wayne Enterprises and Dalv, Co are competitors.”
They’ve managed to minimize Danny’s media exposure, but it’ll come out eventually and Damian likes to image the tabloids pitting Danny and Drake against each other as rival CEOs. Both his brothers are smart in different ways. He’ll root for Danny, of course.
“Should be enough,” Todd breaks in. “Not like we’re asking permission to take Danny to Gotham, we can just do that. All we need is the extra ectoplasm.”
Damian darts his gaze to Danny, skipping up the steps to Memorial Union to grab the door. Bruce is chatting about things in Gotham they can do, all overtly touristy.
Danny’s free now, and in a way, Damian is too. Free to be a big brother, to pursue a career as a veterinarian. Free of elders willing to break them into shape, free to smile and show their affection.
“Masters will agree,” Damian declares. “He’s as invested in Danny’s health as us.”
He jogs forward, leaving his adopted brothers behind to join the conversation with his father and baby brother. Bruce turns to him. “What do you think, chum? What should we show Danny in Gotham?”
There are museums and galleries and restaurants, but what Damian wants Danny to experience is not the city. Danny talks about the Fentons but cannot share them so Damian wants to show off his family, their family, and the things that make Gotham more of a home than Nanda Prabat ever had been.
“The Manor, of course,” Damian says, wrapping his left arm around Danny’s right. “And then, perhaps, the art museum.”