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Danny Fenton knew a lot of things about the world and about himself. He knew that he was a halfa. A half ghost, half human hybrid. He knew that he died when he was fourteen. He knew that he was a vigilante. And he knew that his parents now thought that the sixteen-year-old teenager was a monster and had just kicked him out of the only home he knew.
But Danny knew one other important fact about himself.
He knew that he was adopted. And that somewhere in the world he had another family waiting for him. Danny knew that things were likely going to go bad when he told his adoptive parents about his ghostly nature and he had made sure to prepare as best as he could. It was why he made sure to get his birth certificate, his social security card, and all of the important information that he needed to be able to survive in the world without his parents taking care of him.
And that was when he found the adoption records.
It had been difficult to figure out who Danny’s biological parents were, but eventually, he and Tucker had been able to track it down. Apparently, his biological parents had left him in a safe haven box at a Gotham firehouse. But that meant nothing for Tucker Too Fine Foley to find more information. One DNA test run through a system later, Tuck had found a match to former Gotham Prison Inmate Willis Todd. Otherwise known as Danny’s biological father.
Willis had been a petty criminal, which considering it was Gotham City, was completely unsurprising in Danny’s opinion. He had also learned that Willis died in prison. Willis was married to a woman named Catherine Todd and had one other son, Jason Todd. Danny had been heartbroken when he realized that Catherine had died of an overdose and that Jason was adopted by the billionaire Bruce Wayne.
He had also learned that Jason had apparently faked his death as a teenager, around the same age that Danny had actually died, and had just recently made his comeback to the limelight. Which was perfect! Because now Danny found himself being kicked out of the only home he knew and was on his way to Gotham where hopefully his older brother would be interested in getting to know Danny and helping him out until he could figure out what the hell he was going to do.
Because while there were a lot of things that Danny Fenton knew, what was going to happen in the future was not one of them. The future was terrifying and unknowable and Danny hated it. He hated the fact that he didn’t know what he was going to do with his life now. He hated that he was a half-dead, sixteen-year-old high school dropout who had no real future.
Because what kind of future did he have now? His parents were going to declare him legally dead. He was homeless and alone and his only bet right now was to find his biological brother and hope to the Ancients that he would accept him with open arms.
Sure, he could probably go to Jazz and ask his older sister for help. But she was all the way in California going to Stanford and living in a dorm room. She didn’t have space for a pesky little brother. Not only that but Danny wasn’t going to ruin his sister’s relationship with their parents. And he knew that there was a good chance that would happen. She would choose Danny every time and that wasn’t fair to make her choose between him and her parents. No, it would be easier to just leave as quietly as possible and hope that things would be okay between Jazz and the Fentons.
The flight to Gotham was thankfully rather quick, it, thankfully, only took him three hours but it had presented another problem for the young teenager.
He had absolutely no idea what he was going to say to Jason, how to explain any of what happened, or why he wasn’t welcome back at his home. He had been able to escape his parents before they could even hurt him and now he was safe from them. But now he was facing an entirely new issue and that was a lot scarier than he thought it would be.
And it was how he now found himself sitting awkwardly in one of the large sitting rooms of Wayne Manor as Mr. Wayne himself called Jason to come over to the manor as fast as he could. He also found himself being stared down by four of the other Wayne kids who were all sitting across from him.
“You look so much like him,” Duke Thomas said, hand to his chin as he took in Danny’s features. The eighteen-year-old looked like he was doing mental gymnastics as he took in Danny’s features. “It’s so weird, I mean it’s like a baby Jason.”
“Tt, he looks nothing like Todd,” Damian Wayne said, crossing his arms over his chest as he glowered at Danny.
Danny gave the fourteen-year-old a nervous smile as his knee bounced anxiously.
“Are you kidding? It’s like looking at a baby Little Wing!” Dick Grayson exclaimed, a wide smile on his face. “You’re so adorable, Danny! I can’t believe Jason has had a baby brother out there all this time and you’re home!”
“How did you even get here?” Timothy Drake asked, his brows furrowed. “I mean, do your parents know that you’re in Gotham? Or that you’re looking for your biological family?”
Danny nervously cleared his throat. “They ah, they don’t actually care about what I do. They decided they didn’t want me anymore,” he said carefully, unable to look the four men in the eye.
“But it’s fine, it’s totally fine! And you know, if Jason doesn’t want anything to do with me either, that’s fine too. I mean I can probably crash with my adoptive sister in California or you know, maybe I can find a place that’ll let a technically dead teenager live with them,” he said awkwardly.
“Technically dead?” Duke asked, squinting his eyes suspiciously at Danny.
“Can I just wait until Jason gets here so I can explain everything once?” Danny asked, rubbing the back of his neck when he heard the front door to the manor open and the quiet voices of Bruce Wayne, Alfred Pennyworth, and who he hoped was Jason Todd before their footsteps started towards the large sitting room.
He watched the door open and gave the three men a small, anxious smile. Jason Todd really did look almost identical to Danny. From the dark black hair to the freckles that were smattered across his nose. He even had the same ocean-blue eyes that Danny had! It was uncanny.
“Hi Jason,” he said carefully. “My name is Danny Fenton, but I think you remember me as Noah Todd.”
“Noah?” Jason said quietly, coming towards Danny. He took the teenager’s face in his hands and looked him over. “You have Willis’ nose,” he said with a soft chuckle.
Danny snorted. “It’s the same as your nose,” he said with a shrug. “I uh, I have a DNA test and the adoption records if you need the proof. I don’t want you guys to think I’m some weird gold digger claiming to be your long-lost brother. Especially since you know, you just made that whole announcement that you’re alive. Um, I didn’t know about you until recently but things happened and I was wanting to see if I could possibly stay with you until I get things figured out.”
Jason took a slow, careful seat beside Danny, his brow furrowed. “What’s going on? You were supposed to have a better life. I mean, that’s–that’s why I dropped you off at the fire station in the first place was so that you could have a better life.”
Danny stared up at the man with wide eyes. “You dropped me off at the fire station?” He asked incredulously.
Jason nodded his head. “Yeah, I just, I needed you to be safe and Catherine came home from the hospital with you and you were just so small and tiny and the first thing she did was shoot up,” he said, his eyes flared just a little green as he said it. “And Willis was drinking his weight in whiskey every goddamn day and that wasn’t the life for a newborn baby! You weren’t going to be safe there,” he said as he looked at the documents that Danny had brought with him for just a moment before setting them behind him where Tim snatched them up quickly.
“What happened?” Jason finally asked, looking Danny over with a careful eye.
Danny sucked on his teeth and let out a slow breath. “It’s a very long story and it sounds really unbelievable but I have proof and I just need you to trust me,” he said softly.
“Of course,” the twenty-four-year-old said, his brow furrowed.
“So, it started when I was fourteen, and I… died,” he said carefully, watching his brother’s expression the entire time. Jason’s eye twitched at Danny’s admittance and he heard each of his brother’s family members suck in breaths at that. He closed his eyes and let out a breath before he launched into how the last two years of his life had gone down.
“And then this weekend, I decided to tell them about the whole ghost thing,” Danny said, now in his ghost form as the Wayne family eyed him warily. “And they acted like it was fine like they were really accepting of it and had no issue with the fact that I was the very ghost they had spent the last two years hunting down and attacking. But it felt off like they were being too nice if that makes sense?”
He pursed his lips for a moment, his brows furrowed. Jason was sitting there with his jaw clenched and his eyes a bright, ectoplasmic green that was a bit too familiar in Danny’s opinion. He would have to ask Jason about it later on.
“So, I turned invisible and I floated down to the lab and they were preparing an experimentation table. I mean there were scalpels and forceps. There-there were dissection hooks and rib cutters and they were talking about how they were going to drug my dinner to bring me down there. They were my parents and they were planning on how they were going to vivisect me like I was some fucked up experiment of theirs,” he said, trying to hold back the tears that threatened to spill over. “And I knew that if I stayed they were going to finish the job, they were going to murder me. They were my parents and they were planning on experimenting on me, Jason. And so I decided I needed to leave. I destroyed their portal to the ghost zone and the GAV and anything they could use to track me and then I took off. And you were the only person I could think of to help. I mean, the Fentons are probably going to declare me legally dead. And I understand if you don’t want me to be around. I mean it makes sense, you made sure I got adopted and got taken out of Gotham in the first place.”
He looked from Jason’s glowing green eyes to each of the Wayne members for a moment, each one was looking at Danny with a different level of horror on their faces. “And I’m a freak, a half-dead fucking monster. I really wouldn’t blame you for not wanting me around either, I just cause trouble and–”
“And you’re staying with me,” Jason said roughly. “I’ve got a two-bedroom apartment in Crime Alley. The second room is a guest room but we can fix it up for you and you can just stay with me,” he said, taking Danny’s face in his hands. “Noah—Danny, I’m so, so sorry that happened to you. I can’t even imagine how terrifying that must have been for you. All of it, I mean dying fucking sucks, and then to be stuck being a hero and treated like shit by everyone in your town, that must have been so hard Kiddo. But you’re safe now. You’ve got me and all of these bozos here to help take care of you.”
“You’re more than welcome here any time, Danny,” Bruce said with a small smile on his face as he came over to sit beside Danny. “And we’re going to do everything we can to make sure you’re safe from the Fentons and that they can never hurt you again. Do you understand?”
Danny nodded his head. “I’m sorry I’m–”
“Don’t apologize,” Jason said, cutting him off. “I’m happy you’re here Squirt. You’re right where you need to be and we’ll take care of you. It’s what family does, you hear me?”
The teenager just nodded his head, feeling just a bit overwhelmed. He didn’t know what he was expecting when he came to meet Jason, but he hadn’t let himself think that they would accept him, that they’d welcome him with open arms and keep him safe. It was insane to think about. But here he was with a new family who was going to protect him.
“Besides, you’re in good company kiddo,” Jason said with a smug smile. “We Todd men are resilient, and we can’t seem to stay dead, no matter what the world throws at us.”
Danny gave his big brother a wide smile. He had a feeling he was going to like it here.