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Danny Fenton had a problem. A big, annoying, frustrating problem. When he first died and became a ghost living with ghost hunters, he thought he had a problem, he thought there would be nothing worse than living with ghost hunters and trying not to die.
But he was so horribly and terribly wrong on that aspect. The real problem was the fact that now he was adopted by Batman of all freaking people. Why was that a problem? To put it simply, living in a manor full of detectives would make keeping Danny’s secrets a lot harder to keep.
Bruce Wayne, otherwise known as Batman had learned about Danny and his situation after the Justice League had gone on a mission in Amity Park after a distress beacon from Tucker and Sam alerted them of Jack and Maddie Fenton’s experiments on their son. It ended with Batman seeing a teenager who was being neglected and abused by his parents and deciding that it was up to him to step in and do something about it. Jazz, the lucky duck, had already gone off to college and managed to slip through the cracks and not get adopted by the vigilante. (Although, she was given an invitation to come over and call Bruce whenever she needed or wanted.)
Danny, on the other hand, was in deep shit. Because while Bruce knew that he was an abused kid, he didn’t know that he was a halfa, nor did he know what all that entailed and it left Danny in quite a conundrum. See, being a halfa meant more than just being a half-ghost, ghosts had an entirely different type of gender dynamic than humans and it resulted in Danny having quite a few new quirks and differences from the average human.
In the ghost zone, his new secondary gender was an Omega, and that came with an entirely new set of issues that Danny had to learn about. His new biology and habits caused quite a few changes in him that the Fentons, thankfully, never noticed. He had a feeling, though, that an entire house full of detectives would be harder to keep it from.
Especially the nesting and heats, that was going to be hard to keep from the others. Not only that but he was going to need to figure out how to create his needed fraid bonds with his new family. Now that Sam, Tucker, and Valerie were so far from him, he was going to have to create new fraid bonds with his new family and that was going to be difficult to do.
Part of him wanted to just bite the bullet and tell his new family about his omega dynamic and what came with that. But the prickling fear that they would throw him in some kind of meta prison had him choking on the words each time he tried to bring it up. There was no reason to believe that they wouldn’t approve of him being a ghost or an omega, from everything he had seen, the Wayne family was honestly a little overbearing they were so welcoming. It had him disoriented considering he had gone so long used to just being ignored.
There was just something about sharing this part of himself with someone who had him feeling raw and vulnerable and had a grip on his core.
Which was how he had decided to just try to act like nothing was wrong and wait to mention it to any of his new family until he was ready. If they thought he was strange and eccentric, well what could they do? His parents were locked up in Belle Reve and it was already established that the Fentons were weird and eccentric and it was a good way to let them think that maybe it was just genetic.
He leaned back on his heels as he looked over his bed, the blankets and pillows and stolen clothes were arranged artfully in a large circle, reminiscent of a large nest. It was beautiful and nearly perfect. Danny bit his lip as he looked over it for a moment before he grabbed the bag of things he had been given before he left Amity and carefully placed each one in a corner of the nest. A bright yellow tank top, a red cap, purple tights, and Danny smiled a little as he placed the last piece in his nest, pressing his nose to its head as he breathed in the familiar and comforting scent. Bearbert.
Danny smiled at his now-perfect nest and let out a content sigh before he laid his sleep blanket over the top of it and left his room to get started on the day. It was the first day of his preheat and he needed to prepare himself to be locked in his room for the next few days. He needed to get some bottles of ectoplasm, prepare some snacks for himself, and make sure to give each member of his fraid some attention to ease the part of his brain that told him he needed to make sure that they were all good and taken care of. Was it annoying? Yes, but necessary for him to be able to spend his heat in peace.
He skipped down the steps towards the dining area where the rest of his family was already seated, eating their breakfast, and held back the happy trill that threatened to come out of his throat. There was just something highly comforting about seeing such a large amount of his family actually spending time together. He wasn’t used to something so nice and comforting. The Fentons very rarely spent time together, Danny spent most of his time with his friends, his parents were scheming and working on their newest invention and Jazz was typically holed up in her room trying to focus on her schoolwork, her only way of getting out of the shitstorm that was their life.
“Good morning,” he said, rather than letting the noise out of his throat, and took his seat between Damian and Duke. He had learned the last month living with the Waynes that not everyone lived in the manor but they did have a tendency to come and go pretty frequently.
From what he gathered, Duke and Damian were the ones who lived here full-time with Bruce. But Tim and Jason were here most days. Tim because Bruce was highly concerned that the seventeen-year-old couldn’t actually take care of himself on his own. Jason because he had been bullied into spending more time in the manor now that he was rebuilding his bonds with the family after his ultra-dramatic ascent as a crime lord. Dick came by at least once a week to check in on everyone and to relax a bit before going back to Bludhaven. Steph visited pretty often for someone who was just a family friend and Cass came every month or so from Hong Kong to visit and spend time with the family. But, since Danny was still new to the family, everyone had made sure that they were going to be here for a few months to help him ease into things.
It was a little overwhelming.
Duke had given him a commiserating smile when Danny learned that they were all going to be there. The guy had only been in the family for a year himself so he was closest to understanding Danny’s new plight.
“Good morning Danny!” Dick said happily from across the table where he sat sandwiched between Jason who was glaring at his eggs like they personally offended him and Tim who was currently downing a giant mug of coffee as though his life depended on it. “Did you sleep okay?”
Danny hummed in response as he started to cut up the omelet that Alfred set in front of him. “I did, I’m finally getting used to my room and making it more personal and it’s making it a lot easier to get comfortable,” he said with a slight smile.
“That’s good! I’m so happy you’re getting comfortable here. Are you ready to start school next week?” He asked and now Bruce was looking up from his newspaper to stare at the halfa curiously.
Danny just gave him a tight smile. “Not really, I mean, it’s my senior year but I didn’t really fit in when I was in school in Amity and I have a feeling it’s going to be worse here.”
A frown covered the entirety of Dick’s face at that. Both Tim and Jason looked up from their breakfast to give him a searching look.
“Why do you say that?” Tim asked, tilting his head to the side.
“Well, I was already picked on for being the weird Fenton kid in Amity. Here I’m going to be the poor, pathetic Wayne kid whose parents got locked up in Belle Reve for being mad scientists and supervillains, so you know, not the best start to my senior year,” he said before he stabbed at his omelet. A plate of untoasted bread was set beside it which had a small smile light up on his face. It was nice to know that Alfred had already figured out Danny’s hatred for toast.
“No one is going to-” Dick started before Jason glared at him.
“If anyone gives you problems, you let us know. You just gotta make sure they know not to fuck with you,” Jason said with a sharp smile as he leaned on his forearms to look Danny over. “When I started that pretentious shithole of a school it took them a week to get their heads out of their asses and they made sure to not forget who they were fuckin’ with after that.”
Dick frowned. “Don’t do that,” he told Danny.
“Just hack into their school accounts and change their grades, systematically destroy them,” Tim said thoughtfully.
“Don’t listen to the high school dropout, Danny, he doesn’t know what he’s talking about. Where are you going to school at?” Steph asked, smearing strawberry jam on her toast.
“Gotham Central,” he said carefully. “I asked Bruce to not make me go to Gotham Academy, Gotham Central was a happy compromise.”
“That’s where I go,” Steph said with a bright smile. “We can go together and I’ll kick anyone’s ass who messes with you.”
“I’ll be there too,” Duke said, nudging Danny’s shoulder with his own. “Kids of villains stick together,” he said and Steph grinned in agreement.
“It’s true, we won’t let anyone fuck with you,” Steph said, leaning back in her seat.
Danny just gave them a small smile. They said that but just wait until they realized how much of a freak Danny was, unfortunately.
The rest of breakfast went on rather nicely, Bruce asked about anything Danny needed for his room. He requested more blankets and pillows if possible, eliciting a slightly curious look from everyone at the table. Soon everyone went to start their days and Danny found himself following Bruce around the manor like a lost duckling. He wanted to create a fraid bond with the man but he wasn’t sure how he would go about it.
Batman was so aloof and elusive and Bruce seemed to be the same way. Despite the fact that all of his siblings had told him over and over that Bruce was just a giant mess of an adult.
He didn’t seem at all like someone who would be willing to bond with his new weird son. But Danny had to try, the longer he went without creating new bonds, the sadder he would start to feel. Besides, it’s not like his new fraid members wouldn’t benefit from him creating bonds with him. Fraid bonds with humans turned them into liminals. They would have better vision, and heightened hearing, and would be stronger than the average human being. It would be a handy tool for them when they were out on patrols. Not to mention they would require less sleep. Danny himself didn’t need more than an hour or two of sleep each night. The liminals wouldn’t need more than four.
One of the things, though, as an omega was that Danny needed to make sure that his fraid was taking care of themselves. As he followed the older man around the manor, he was quickly starting to realize that his new adoptive father was the worst at taking care of himself and it had Danny’s core stressed beyond words.
“Do you need something, Danny?” Bruce asked, glancing over at Danny who was hovering just behind his elbow as he flipped through a case file.
Danny tilted his head to the side and observed the man. “Are you sleeping enough? Because it doesn’t really feel like you’re getting enough rest and it’s starting to concern me. Also, are you eating enough? I know Alfred brought you that tray of snacks like an hour ago and you haven’t touched them at all. You aren’t drinking enough water, either, Bruce, and I’m starting to get worried for your kidneys. I mean what if you get a kidney infection from being dehydrated? Then you won’t be able to go on patrols and then someone could get hurt because they won’t have Batman there to save them and it would be all my fault because I didn’t make sure you were taking care of yourself.”
Bruce startled and gave Danny a surprised look. “What?” He asked faintly, looking genuinely surprised.
“I just, I worry, ya know?” Danny said, wringing his hands together. “And I would feel better if you started to take care of yourself more. I mean you’re a mortal human, you can’t just not take care of yourself,” he said carefully, wincing a bit at the mention of being a mortal human. Was that too obvious that he wasn’t? Hopefully not.
Everyone knew that the meta rumor about Batman wasn’t true. He didn’t actually care if metas were in Gotham and Danny doubted that would be why Bruce didn’t like him. If anything, he wouldn’t like Danny because he was a monster. Or at least, that’s what his parents thought. He had the vivisection scars to prove that.
“Danny, Sweetheart, you don’t have to worry about me. I know you felt like you had to take care of your parents but that isn’t your job. It’s my job to take care of you,” Bruce said kindly, resting a hand on Danny’s shoulder. A whine threatened to come out of Danny’s throat. He didn’t get it. Danny needed to take care of his fraid. It was obvious they weren’t taking care of themselves. Tim was falling asleep in his bowl of oatmeal this morning! That was not a comforting sign to Danny, it meant that his fraid mates were unable to make sure that they were taking care of themselves and no member of Danny’s fraid was going to do that.
“It would make me feel better if you took care of yourself,” Danny said slowly. “It’s stressing me out to see you not properly take care of yourself.”
Bruce gave him a soft smile and took a sip of his water. “I’ll try my best.”
Danny nodded and his eyes darted between the bowl of fruit and cheese and back to Bruce a few times. Bruce finally got the hint, a twitch of a smile hit the older man’s lips as he grabbed a grape and popped it in his mouth. Danny hummed and nodded his head and gave Bruce a tight hug before he rushed out of the office.
Danny stared at Tim with narrowed eyes as the teenager typed away on his computer. Every so often his typing would slow and the boy’s head would dip for a moment before he sat back up, shaking his head, and started typing like a crazed man once again. He hadn’t been sleeping like he was supposed to.
“How long have you been awake?” Danny asked after floating over to stand curiously behind Tim’s shoulder. The vigilante jumped awake and looked at Danny with wide, bloodshot eyes, the bags under them were a deep purple color.
“That depends, what day is it?” Tim asked, arching a brow as he stared up at Danny quizzically, his fingers inching towards a can of Monster beside his laptop.
“Thursday,” Danny said blandly, disapproval clear in his voice as he crossed his arms and stared down at his brother. Tim winced and looked at his fingers, quietly counting to himself. Danny let out a huff and without another word grabbed the seventeen-year-old, hefted him over his shoulder in a fireman carry, and started out of the Batcave, the teenager kicking and screaming as he did.
“I don’t want to hear it, if you have to start counting, you’ve been away way too long and that’s not good for you, Tim. I can’t let my brother die from lack of sleep just because you’re as stubborn as a mule. If you’re that determined for the case to be cracked, I’ll look into it myself,” Danny said as Tim let out a huff and flopped against his back.
“You said you didn’t want to be a vigilante,” he said, his voice already heavy with sleepiness. Danny hummed in response.
“I don’t, but if it means you’re taking care of yourself, I don’t mind looking it over. I’m not a total idiot, you know, I know how to look at case files,” he said as he made a beeline towards his own bedroom. It would be better to have Tim in his nest rather than in his own bed. This way Danny would be able to provide the boy with the ultimate comfort and he could also make sure to keep an eye on the vigilante to make sure that he’s not actually getting out of bed or anything of the sort. He wasn’t about to sneak out while Danny was keeping watch.
Not that he would want to. Once he got in the nest he likely wouldn’t want to leave. It was a very nice nest if Danny was being honest and the halfa just knew his brother would be comfortable. He pushed the door open, carefully set Tim in his beautiful nest, and shut the door. Tim looked around the nest confused, his nose crinkled in confusion.
“What is this?” He asked, taking in the walls of the nest. He grabbed a t-shirt and held it up with a frown. “Is this Bruce’s shirt?”
Danny let out a growl and Tim dropped it back on the nest, a look of surprise on his face. “It’s just how I like to sleep,” Danny told him before he rushed over and fixed the blanket back onto his nest like how he originally had it set.
Danny shut the door before he climbed into the nest with Tim and forced his brother to lie down. “Sleep,” he said, with a huff, resting his head on a pillow. Tim looked around at the nest again, confusion still on his face and Danny let out a huff before he started to let out calming and comforting pheromones. Slowly Tim’s eyes started to droop down and he curled up next to Danny in the nest and closed his eyes.
“There you go,” he crooned before closing his eyes and allowing himself to drift to sleep, feeling comfortable knowing that one of his fraid members was safe in his net with him.
Danny invisibly followed behind Damian and Dick down to the Batcave, a pinched look on his face. DIck and Damian were stressed about something and Danny didn’t like it. He was probably two days away from his heat now and he needed to do something to make sure that his family were all taken care of before he would allow himself to be locked up in his room for a week.
“I’m telling you, there’s something wrong with Jason, he’s been acting weird ever since Danny came home and I don’t know what to do about it,” Dick said with a stressed sigh. “He’s different around Danny. It’s like he’s just ultra-protective of him, which is great. Like I’m happy that he likes Danny so much, but he growled at me this morning when I tried to grab something off of Danny’s plate. Like it personally offended him.”
Danny tilted his head to the side as he thought about everything he knew about Jason. The guy had apparently died when he was a teenager and he came back in a weird, unexplainable way. Even the bats weren’t sure what it was that brought him back. They mostly just knew that he came back without his mind intact and that a dip in the Lazarus pits healed him the rest of the way.
The sixteen-year-old let out a hum and looked over the two brothers before he flew out of the Batcave to go looking for Jason. He had a theory and now he just needed to test it. But to do that he needed to check a few things first.
He flew out to the Wayne cemetery and started searching for Jason’s grave. After a few minutes of searching his eyes landed on the undisturbed grave and looked around before he dunked his head through the dirt and squinted for a moment. There were traces of ectoplasm in the ground. Danny narrowed his eyes, he would need to look into this more. But first, he had a poor revenant to take care of.
Danny flew off back to the manor and went towards Jason’s bedroom. He made himself visible once more and knocked on the door.
The door swung open a few seconds later to reveal Jason, a small frown on his face.
“Danny? Are you okay?” He asked, his brows furrowed.
“Can I have a hug?” the teenager asked, looking up at the hulking giant of a man.
“Uh, are you sure you don’t want to ask Dick for something like that?” He asked, arching an eyebrow at the teenager in confusion.
Danny smiled and shook his head. “Hug,” he said before reaching his arms up.
Jason let out a huff but leaned down nonetheless and gave Danny a tight hug. A soft purr slipped out of Danny’s throat as he wrapped his arms around Jason's waist and rubbed his face against Jason’s shirt, thoroughly scenting the man.
A quiet rumble slipped out of Jason’s throat and Danny couldn’t help but grin. His poor brother seemed to be an alpha and he had definitely been neglecting that part of him. Which made sense if Jason didn’t know what he was.
“Do you wanna take a nap?” Danny asked, craning his head back to look up at his big brother. Jason furrowed his brow, looking beyond lost but at ease.
“What?” He asked and Danny didn’t say a word as he grabbed Jason’s arm and dragged him to his own bedroom and pushed him into the nest.
“You need cuddles and scenting right now. I can’t believe it took me this long to realize that you were being neglected,” Danny tutted, arranging his nest around Jason, making sure that the alpha was comfortable and situated before he hopped into the nest himself and let out a sniff, the soft, happy, comforted scent that was now wasting off of Jason had his omega purring in delight. A few minutes a knock sounded on the door and Danny looked up to find a half-awake Tim staring at Jason and Danny in confusion.
“Can I nap in here?” He asked bleary-eyed. Danny grinned and nodded his head excitedly and moved over, Jason already fast asleep in the middle of the nest. Tim shut the door before he hesitantly walked over and slipped into the bed on the other side of Danny and curled up on the bed.
Danny simply let out a content sigh and got comfortable with his brothers on either side of him.
Now he just needed to get the rest of his family to learn how to take care of themselves and he would be doing great.
“Okay, I don’t know what’s going on with Danny but I haven’t slept this good in my life,” Tim said with a happy sigh as he walked across the roof of a building with Dick beside him. Dick furrowed his brow and looked over at his little brother.
“What are you talking about?” He asked, tilting his head to the side in curiosity.
“Danny keeps dragging me to his room to take naps. At first, I thought it was weird but now I don’t care. He’s got the comfiest bed ever and it’s just so nice. He’s a good cuddler too, I’m surprised he hasn’t dragged you into his bed yet. It’s almost like a nest or something, I dunno how to explain it but it’s amazing,” Tim said with a happy sigh, feeling more awake than he had in a long time.
He didn’t know what it was about Danny and his weird nest but he wasn’t sure he was ever going to be able to rest without it. At this point, he was tempted to make a nest thing on his own bed but didn’t know if he would be able to do it as good as Danny’s. It was the most comfortable thing he had ever laid on in his life.
Dick pushed his lips out in a pout. “Cuddles?” he whined. “Danny hasn’t tried to cuddle with me! Or nap with me!”
Tim shrugged his shoulders. “That’s weird. I’m pretty sure Jason goes in there and sleeps in Danny’s bed all the time now too. It’s just more comfortable and even when Danny’s not there it’s just really nice,” he said, looking over the skyline.
“I want Danny cuddles! I’m going to have to do something to get in there,” Dick said determinedly. He was going to get in that comfy bed one way or another. Or else he would die trying!
“Damian,” Danny said, staring at his little brother. The twelve-year-old was glaring at his homework, his bottom lip tucked in between his teeth. Danny had been watching him glare at his homework like he had laser vision for nearly half an hour now and he was starting to get a bit concerned.
“What?” he bit out, his nostrils flared in frustration.
“Are you okay?” He asked, tilting his head to the side as he looked the boy over carefully.
“No,” he bit out. “I have to write an essay about the importance of familial bonds and I do not know how to do that,” he gritted out, snapping his pencil in half.
Danny frowned and moved to sit beside the boy at the table and scooted his chair close to his little brother. “What is it that you don’t know how to do?”
“Most of our life is a secret, how do I explain that my brothers drive me absolutely insane but also I trust them with my life? Or that Richard spent two years deprogramming the brainwashing I got from Mother and Grandfather and believed in me when no one else did? Or how Timothy is the most forgiving and gentle person who accepted me into his family despite the fact that I tried to kill him so many times? Or how Cassandra has had so many bad things happen to her but she is still so strong and kind despite all of it? Or how Jason died because of his own mother and it has caused him to be so overprotective and caring of us and how he lets us vent to him whenever because he knows what it is like to not have someone to do that? Or Duke who understands what it is like to have an immortal megalomaniac as a family member? Or Father who has been here and strived to be better despite the fact that he has messed up so many times? Or you, my newest brother who has taken all of my weird differences in stride and loved me anyone. I don’t–I cannot talk about any of the parts of you that mean so much to me and I do not know how I can write this to accurately showcase how important you all are to me.”
Damian finished rambling and looked up at Danny with wide, sad eyes, his chest heaving just a bit as he gripped the broken remnants of his pencil.
“Hey, it’s okay,” Danny said, wrapping his arms around Damian’s shoulders carefully, resting his head on the kid’s shoulder as he held him close. “What if we find a different way to talk about those things?”
“How?” Damian bit out, still glaring at the notebook full of crossed-out notes.
Danny let out a hum. “Well, how about for now, we take a break from the essay so you can calm down because I think right now you’re going to struggle to be able to write anything. But we can frame it in a way that isn’t showcasing that your family is full of vigilantes,” he said thoughtfully, combing Damian’s hair back carefully.
“I need to focus, Danny. I cannot just take a break because I’m frustrated,” Damian gritted out. Danny chuckled.
“Of course, you can,” he said and grabbed the paper that listed the information on the assignment. “Besides, it looks like you still have a month to write this paper. That’s more than enough time for us to think about what we need to figure out for the paper and for you to calm down.”
Damian pursed his lips. “I suppose so,” he said with a sigh. Danny let out an excited trill and dragged Damian out of the room and up to his bedroom to his giant nest.
“What is that? Why are we in your room?” Damian asked as Danny ushered him to the nest.
“You need to brainstorm about your family bonds. What better way to do it than cuddling your new favorite big brother?” Danny asked with a wide smile as they climbed in the nest and he wrapped his arms around Damian and let out a happy purr. He was slowly but surely getting all of his family in his nest and it was doing so much for his little pre-heat omega core.
“You are as bad as Richard,” Damian said with a huff. He said nothing, though, as he let Danny get comfortable and situated himself in the nest. “This is oddly very comfortable. Danny, you are an odd person. Do you know that?”
“My parents are crazy supervillains, what did you expect from me?” Danny asked with a shrug. “Besides, have you seen the rest of our family? We’re all freaks. You’re twelve and you have a sword collection.”
“Tt,” Damian scoffed before resting his head on the pillow. “Now, let us discuss our family.”
Danny smiled. “Sounds like a plan.”
Duke and Cass had been easy. Both of them had been more than a little willing to jump into Danny’s nest the first time he invited them in for a sleepover. They had both agreed to climb into his nest and watch movies with him after they came back from a joint day patrol where the two had been stuck fighting with Condiment King and Kite Man of all villains.
The two of them were comfortable and happy and Danny’s core was at peace knowing that his fraid bonds were slowly starting to come together.
Dick watched with narrowed eyes as Damian allowed Danny to pull him in for a hug as they cuddled up on the couch. Something in his heartstrings was tugging at him right now as he looked them over. What was it going to have to take to get Danny to cuddle with him like that?
Didn’t he know that Dick was the resident family cuddler? And yet he was somehow the only person in this godforsaken family aside from fucking Bruce who hadn’t been able to nap with Danny. He couldn’t believe this.
The thing was, though, Dick Grayson had a plan.
See, the last week he noticed that each member of his family was invited for Danny snuggles when they were obviously distressed or not taking care of themselves. Bruce got an entire hug from Danny each time Danny saw him taking care of himself. Tim was welcome to nap with Danny any time in an effort to curb his insomnia and it was surprisingly working.
The hugs and naps and snuggles with Danny had also eased some of Jason’s overprotective behavior that he had been exhibiting ever since Danny showed up in the manor. Hell, he even got Damian to relax and destress when he was overthinking things.
So that had to be it. Dick had to be distressed to get Danny to give him those amazing hugs of his. And he could do that.
This was why Dick flopped himself onto the couch, his head now pillowed in Danny’s lap. “I’ve had a bad day,” he whined, looking up at his little brother with the most pathetic, pouty look he could muster.
“What’s wrong?” Danny cooed, immediately ignoring Damian to look the older man over. It elicited a grunt of annoyance from Damian but Dick chose to ignore it now that he had his brother’s attention.
“I didn’t sleep all night last night because I hurt my ribs on patrol and then I got to work late because I was so tired. So my boss yelled at me and said I acted too much like Bruce. And then I was stuck in a meeting all afternoon and I’m just so tired,” he said with a whine and ignored the disapproving look from Damian.
It seemed that his baby brother was seeing right through his shit. But it didn’t matter, because Danny seemed to eat it up.
“Do you wanna come take a nap? We can go relax in my room and just relax. Dami seems to be pretty tired too so we can all just go relax and sleep,” he said and gently pushed at Dick’s head to let him up.
“Are you sure? I’m not going to be intruding?” Dick asked, letting his eyes go wide and watery and pitiful.
“I’m sure,” Danny said with a wide smile before he managed to drag both Dick and Damian up the stairs and into his bedroom.
Dick didn’t know what he was expecting. But a giant nest of blankets, pillows, and clothing in the middle of Danny’s king-size bed was not at all what he was expecting.
“It looks weird but it’s amazing,” Damian told him earnestly. “Father slept through the night last night when Danny dragged him in after a bad patrol.”
“Bruce?” Dick asked, his eyes wide as he watched both Danny and Damian climb into the large nest.
“Bruce,” Danny confirmed with a wide smile as he motioned Dick to climb into the bed. The vigilante smiled and followed suit and got comfortable before he wrapped his octopus arms around Danny and pulled him in for a tight hug.
“This is amazing,” Dick whispered, holding both of his little brothers tight to him. This was actually a dream come true. He couldn’t believe he finally had a brother who was just as tactile as he was. But he had to wonder, what was with the rest of this?
The purrs, the quiet growls that came from Danny, the giant nest, the weird habitual need to take care of each member of their family. Was this just his way of trying to connect with everyone in the manor? Or was there something more to it than that? Dick wasn’t sure and a part of him didn’t know if this was something he needed to investigate more. But for now, he was going to just try and enjoy the fact that Danny was so willing to just spend time with him and so far, despite his weird idiosyncrasies, he seemed to be the most well-adjusted in the family.
He knew how to take care of himself, knew how to give himself limits, and he was the only one who wasn’t interested in their insane nightlife as vigilantes.
Yes, Danny was a little odd with the weird purring and the nest and everything else. But he also had crazy scientists who cut him open to experiment on him. So maybe he got a pass.
Danny’s heat was now in full force and before he locked himself away in his room to sleep and cuddle his stuffed animals that Sam, Val, and Tucker had gifted him along with Bearbert, he figured it was important to tell his family exactly what was going to happen. They were going to be concerned and considering they had all done so well with his pre-heat and didn’t question him too much.
So maybe it was a good idea to explain everything to them and hope that they would understand that Danny was going to be clingy like this every six months when his pre-heat and heat came upon him.
Danny wrapped his large comforter around his shoulders and made his way down to the living room where the rest of his family were all already gathered for movie night.
“I have an announcement,” Danny declared from within the cocoon of his comforter.
“Is everything okay, Danny?” Bruce asked, looking concerned as he looked Danny up and down.
Danny nodded and shifted on his feet nervously. “Yes, I just thought that it was a good idea to share with you all the real secrets,” he said carefully. “My parents were right to want to experiment on me.”
“Danny,” Dick said, looking concerned. “That isn’t true, their actions are not justified no matter what. They tortured you.”
“I know that. But you know how they thought that I was a ghost?” He asked, his face neutral. “They weren’t wrong,” he said before a bright flash of light blinded his family momentarily before they blinked away the spots in their eyes to find a different person standing in front of him.
He was standing in front of him with pale green skin, snow-white hair, and glowing green eyes. He gave them a nervous smile, showing off sharp canines. “Uh, surprise,” he said awkwardly, spreading his hands wide. “I’m a ghost!”
“But you’re alive,” Duke said slowly, squinting as he stared at the halfa. “How?”
Danny shrugged. “How did Jason come back from the dead? How do you have meta powers?” He asked simply. “I went into a portal and it turned on with me inside of it and electrocuted and killed me. But it also brought me back to life too,” he said with a simple smile. He launched into the story of how he became the halfa, how he was a vigilante for two long years, how he managed to avoid anyone finding out for two years only to finally get caught by his parents. How his friends found out and got the Justice League to come to Gotham to save Danny and everything from there.
The halfa carefully explained how becoming a ghost had not only changed that part of him but also his physiology and that ghosts had a secondary gender that had strange effects on them.
Finally, he told them about the heat and how it had him feeling clingier and needier and desiring to create fraid bonds with his new family so that he would feel more secure and that the last week had been him desperately trying to establish those bonds with each of them by trying to take care of them and bond with them.
His family stared at him in relative silence as they absorbed all of the information that Danny had just dropped on them and nodded along with the explanation.
“So what you’re saying is that you need cuddles or else you’ll die,” Dick said slowly.
Danny snorted. “Maybe not cuddle or die, but cuddle or be extremely upset and grouchy for two weeks every six months,” he said wryly.
“That’s kinda cute,” Steph mused, a small smirk on her face.
Danny made a face at the teenager. “Shut it,” he grumbled. “Anyway, I’m in heat and I just feel really needy and I’m starting to get kinda crampy and annoyed and–”
Danny let out a yelp as Dick reached forward and yanked Danny onto the couch between him and Jason, the two immediately throwing a blanket over him and getting close. Domain moved to sit in front of his legs as Tim lay across the three brother’s laps.
“Do I have a secondary gender?” Jason asked, his arm wrapped around Danny’s shoulder.
“Yes,” Danny said simply, his core humming in delight at his pack being close.
“What is it?” Jason asked, crinkling his nose.
“You’re an alpha. I bet twice a year you spend a week super grouchy and frustrated. More irritable and shooter than usual,” he explained as Bruce brought out a heating pad and set it on Danny’s lap, another purr escaped the teenage boy.
“Yeah, that would be right,” Jason said lightly.
“Cuddles help, and spending time with family. You get irritable because you can’t tell if your family is safe or not and you want to make sure that they are. You’ve been acting like that for the last week with me too. I think you got a sympathy rut because of my heat coming along. I mean you were obviously trying to take care of me but didn’t really understand how,” he said simply. “We can go more in-depth about it later.”
“So, we’re not going to talk about the dead thing?” Duke asked, resting his head on Dick’s shoulder, trying his best to get closer to the cuddle pile.
“We can talk about it more next week,” Danny said sleepily, resting his head on Dick’s other shoulder, smiling to himself as his fraid stayed close to him. He couldn’t wait to tell them about the perks of being in a fraid with Danny. “I’ll tell you about all of your powers you’re gonna get when I’m feeling up to explaining the rest of it to you,” he said with a happy smile, content to just stay right where he was and never move again.
“Powers?” Tim said lightly.
Danny let out a chuckle. “Just you wait,” he said with a small smile and he let out a soft snore, sleep finally taking him fully.