Archive of Our Own ^beta

Chapter Text

“She sent me way too much Jazz! I don’t have anywhere to put it all!”

Now, Danny’s history of education did not have a good track record.

Off the bat, being raised by two ecto-biologists was not a good introduction to learning. Danny was pretty sure he learned how to say ‘Ghost’ before “mommy” or “daddy”.

Mom and Dad would of course help him with his grades whenever he asked. However Danny learned quickly that asking often led to a three hour affair of using patharogen’s theorem to triangulate the area of a ghost’s size to their ectoplasm volume. Which in the end- didn’t help.

(Even Jazz acknowledged that she herself had to go through more self-education herself to get her grades through middle and high school because of their parent’s shenanigans. That was a fun therapy session.)

Don’t get him wrong, Danny loved his parents. But their one track minds truly made them one of a kind people.

His grades: poor, shriveled, and starving for scraps of knowledge- began to wither even more between the late nights of ghost hunting and the stress of hiding everything from his parents for the longest time. Mild C’s began to husk and turn into D-’s and F’s.

The one time he managed to pull off a C+ was after a particularly adventurous assignment involving discovering the gender of a purple back gorilla.

In his defense, he also thought that Mr.Lancer had it out for him. I mean seriously? A C+ after saving an entire species??

There was also the tiny issue of Danny having quite the reputation throughout Casper high. Between being bullied, occasionally managing to pull off something awesome, and disappearing at random so often- at least half the student body thought that he was possessed, or secretly the son of the mayor.

To be fair, Vlad showing up to school for father’s day didn’t help. Unbeknownst to Danny, his dad had phoned in Vlad to show up as substitute, so now Danny had to deal with some wild rumors circulating. 

Vlad meant well, great arch nemesis turned godfather, but he really needed to work on his subtly. 

Sadly, even he was useless when it came to helping with his homework. The one time they tried ended in Vlad getting so frustrated that he began to do Danny’s homework himself, muttering about long term plans to forage Danny’s grades getting better in a long-con.

Danny appreciated it, he really did, but he wasn’t willing to cheat on his homework even back when his wildest dream was being a NASA engineer- much less the Ruler of All that Decays: High King of the Infinite Realms. 

“Your education as a king cannot be built if it has a weak foundation.” Were Clockwork’s words in explaining to Danny why his coronation had to be delayed until after he graduated.

Danny was more dumbfounded to find out that he needed a coronation at all. Almost every single ghost has been calling him “Your majesty” for months at this point!

Except Skulker, but Skulker was just peeved he couldn’t justifiably hunt Danny for sport anymore because he was now king. Take that, Sulker.

Sam and Tucker also took to jokingly saying “Of course, Your royal highness, the majestic king of the infinite realms” whenever he asked them for something simple like just pass the ketchup Sam, we don’t need to do this runaround all day.

So to be fair, Clockwork had a good point. 

However, aside from all those points, there was still the big issue of actually being King of the Infinite Realms.

Danny’s new title had pretty much sealed him to a fate of never finding a day of peace ever again, making him more upset that he became Ghost King at 14 and a not more non-hormonally convenient time. 

Glowing eyes and white hair probably wasn’t what his teachers meant when they said his body would be going through “changes”. 

Then again, how many people could say they learned how to fly at 14?

Well from the amount of young ghosts he’s met, a lot, actually.

It was already bad when ghosts knew where to find Danny in order to fight, but as soon as they got access to the King of the Realms it was almost like every single ghost and their cousin wanted something from Danny. 

The easiest ones were the ones that just wanted to try and challenge him to another fight for the throne, the worst ones were those who wanted to become his devoted followers, not to mention consorts. ick.

Danny would much prefer to have human sex before he tried ghost sex, thank you. 

ANYWAYS , all of the problems above were going to continue until he got a better hang of the whole ‘Ghost King’ thing and were able to successfully wrangle his subjects in a way that wasn’t fighting them constantly. Some fights were okay, but some were just… too inconveniently timed.

So Clockwork stepped in and put his foot down, saying that Danny couldn’t develop into a good ghost king until he developed into a good human being. 

Which was looking next to impossible with the way the lunch meat kept coming to life every other week. No offense to mom’s cooking.

Unless he went to a dimension where ectoplasmic activity was thinner, where he could practice his powers without too many people noticing, with a similar enough earthen society that he could still be a normal teenager.

Just like boarding school, only in the infinite reaches of space. A good thing that Danny loved space.

It wouldn’t just test Danny’s ability as a high schooler, but also his ability to live independently and inconspicuously. 

The independent part was easy, that part came with being his parent’s child. The inconspicuous part was going to be much harder- and god forbid mashing the two.

His new apartment was in a city named Gothem, Gotthem? Gothheam? Something like that. This dark and spooky place where Clockwork had portaled Danny and all of his stuff into an empty flat. Which he needed to thank the time god for, because it was on the fifth floor.

Pretty much all Danny knew about Gott’em 🖏 so far is that the city had a bunch of vigilantes in it, the crime rate was astronomically high, and that for this dimension- the occasional superpower was extremely common.

The way Clockwork had phrased it was “As long as you are careful, no one will question a slip up or two.” But even then he still pressed the importance of not getting caught as a ghost in Danny’s mind.

A win-win, enough ghost juice that he could live, but not enough known about ghosts that he could fly under the radar disguised as your average awkward sometimes invisible teen.

Despite it being the equivalent of getting shipped off to summer camp so that your next year of high school you won’t be as-behind, Danny was excited! His trips outside Amity had been few and far between, and usually were less vacation-y than he liked.

As he was leaving, Sam gave him a present as a parting gift- a giant box that was super heavy. She made him promise not to open it until he was in his new apartment, which got him excited to immediately shred the wrapping paper as soon as he got to his new place.

Inside was Candy! :D

Heaps of tiny chocolates stared back from their packaging. Big ones, small ones, swirly ones, round ones, white, black, caramel, brown, and every chocolaty color in between.  

Danny was a little ashamed to admit he immediately tore open a bag, unwrapped, and crammed at least 4 chocolates in his mouth before he realized “hey, wait. This tastes kinda weird.” Even then he swallowed at least one before spitting the other 3 out when the taste still wasn’t as good.

Finally he read one of the bags, ‘Plant based peanut butter cups’, and knew he’d been horrendously tricked.

It was Vegan Candy D:

Out of all the betrayals Danny had gone through, this one was almost the worst.

He sees now why Sam said not to open it until he was unpacked. Because if he hadn’t, he probably would’ve given it back.

It was also a good thing nobody had ever tried to poison Danny with candy before, because he’d fall for it in a heartbeat. But he avoided telling Jazz that as he complained about the now useless (to Danny) bag of Candy. 

And that’s where he found himself Sunday afternoon on the eve of his first day at school. 

All caught up now? Danny intergalactic space trip, goth-ham, new apartment, Sam sent over non-Danny friendly candy? Good. 

“It’s all chocolate too!” Danny whined. Pounds upon pounds of chocolate that tasted like bland cat food (in his opinion). “You know how much I love chocolate! Why would she torture me this way?” 

Jazz laughed, her voice coming through a bit tinny over the phone, interdimensional phones weren’t that good. “Well, if it's a prank then she got you real good!” Her voice was light and cheery.

“Jaaaazzzzz…….” he poured pathetic puppy dog eyes into his voice.

“It’ll definitely make sure you don’t forget to call her, that’s for sure.” Jazz laughed again, and Danny couldn’t help but agree. He already couldn’t stop thinking about everyone back home, and it’d only been two days.

Danny dodged two boxes and narrowly avoided tripping over the satellite wire. The bulky machinery and dish were set up in the corner of the living room, with the phone’s cord snaking around the moving mess to attach to it.

Even though it took up a quarter of the living room and one of the antennas was in front of the TV, Danny still appreciated his parents for inventing something that could help him keep in contact during his stay in another world.

“It’s just like studying overseas! Only further!” His mom had insisted, kissing his forehead. 

Then Dad came up behind her and said “And once you’re ready to begin reign as ghost king, we can research more about the ghostly connection to the real world, and then the fentons will be number one in leading ghost science research!” and clapped him on the shoulder, “I’m proud of you son.”

He wanted to say that they were probably already number one, but Danny was just happier to know how much they loved him. He couldn’t deny they’d given him a bonafide Fenton goodbye.

His first day had been spent getting all his fake documentation together and moving all the boxes in their right places. Day two was spent painting his room a nice otherworldly blue. And now that the paint had dried Danny was in the middle of unpacking his room.

“She’s trying to convert me, I know it!” Danny said “But I’ve tasted the plant based sloppy joes, she’ll never take me alive! Or dead!” Or halfway dead.

“Still, you should at least say thank you.”

“I will,” Danny grumbled, “I just have no idea what to do with all this candy. Jazz she sent me a whole box of it! And I know I’m not gonna eat it all so…”. He gestured uselessly to the box in front of him, with all it's colorful and decietful packaging.

He could choke down a few pieces, especially if he got really craving something in the middle of the night. But his teenage brain was far too addicted to the comforting taste of normal sugary foods to really appreciate the gift, and well… it made him feel a little guilty. 

“Well… think about it this way! It could help you make some friends, who doesn’t like free candy? Except for you, that is. But you’ll be a hit for anyone who’s into plant based products.” She reassured him.

“Clockwork told me I should focus less on making friends and more on my studies though.” Danny huffed. Part of the Being-Stranded-Away-From-Your-Friends-And-Family Deluxe package.

“Well Clockwork might say that, but science and psychology say that positive interpersonal relationships will help students communicate effectively and improve attitude when it comes to schooling.” The emphasis on his name told Danny exactly what kind of chewing out Jazz was going to give the ghost of time when she next saw him. 

“Heh, thanks Jazz.” Clockwork meant well, but being the overseer of all of time and its outer-reaching grasp wasn’t really a good icebreaker at parties.

“Of course, you might be galaxies away and studying to be a king, but don’t forget you’re still my brother.” Those words made him feel warm and fuzzy inside until the next words came through the phone “-and I’ll be waiting to get you back for hiding my ‘The Use of Self in Therapy’ book and swapping it for ‘How to Live with no Intelligence & No Ability’, Danny.” That last word held a glint of intention that made him briefly scared.

Oops, so she had noticed. The smile wiped itself off of Danny’s face. “A-Ahaha! Sounds funny but I don’t know what you’re talking about.”

“I have until you get back to plot my revenge~.” She sang.

“Ah, Gotta go Jazz! Still a lot of unpacking to do, love you!” He slammed the phone down on the receiver, right on the side of the satellite dish. A shiver made it's way up his spine. 

Yikes, he hadn’t thought she’d catch on to the missing book so soon. Jazz was gonna kill him when she finally found where he hid it. 

Buuuuuuuut that didn’t mean Danny had to pick up the phone when she did! He’d be gone so long that by the time she had the chance to get him back, she’d forget all about it. Easy peasy.

Danny glanced around the room and sighed, stuck with the very real reminder that the unpacking wasn’t just a convenient excuse. Boxes sat scattered around, full of both his things and everything new that he needed to live on his own. Even the kitchen alone was going to need all those new utentils and cookware being put away.

Well, at least his room was unpacked enough that he could finally put up glow in the dark stars. The nice part about having his own space (hah! Space) meant that he got to feed his own obsession to the max. 

Space themed curtains, space themed rug, space stickers on the side of the giant satellite his parents built for the sole purpose of communication that was taking up a quarter of the living room, and most importantly one of those space themed lamps that made stars go everywhere when turned on.

His core was practically purring in his chest with how satisfied he was. His stay in Gotthem was off to a great start!

( ☆○o。< He’s a Phantom! > 。o○☆ )

Danny’s first day was off to a great start, he was late for school, and got lost on his way there purely because when he first saw the building he was convinced he was in the wrong place.

You have to understand, Danny is but a humble small town county boy from Amity Park, in Middle of nowhere Illonis. To him, school was a red brick house about the same size as the town museum. They had lockers, seats, and free chewing gum if you were willing to scrape it off the underside of the benches. He had expected Gotham (spelled ‘Goth’am instead of Got-them like he’d first assumed) to be the same.

This was not the same, this was a landmark.

One look at the place made Danny think that maybe Clockwork took the term “Ghost education” too seriously. 

He was met with a building that effortlessly outsized the biggest building in Amity Park, tall and intimidating in its gothic (heh, goth-ic) architecture. A giant school clock loomed down on the entire school’s courtyard, seeming to stare into Danny’s soul. Maybe that’s why Clockwork chose it?

Danny’s rapid googling on the way over revealed that the school was the most prestigious one in the city. if he hadn't already been tugging at his collar, that would've done it for him. After years of wearing T-shirts to school, having to wear a uniform jacket was really uncomfortable.

The principal definitely not appreciated his tardiness but let it go with a snooty “It’s fine, go off to class now.” After that, Danny was whisked away by a student acting as a teacher’s aid.

By that point he’d missed homeroom entirely, and had to interrupt the first class of the day- English.

The teacher gave him a polite greeting, before ushering him to find a seat. Most of the students didn’t so much as glance up from whatever they were doing as he shuffled through.

Unfortunately, the only seat available was second to the back right corner. The spot right next to the corner seat, where one kid was staring holes into the blackboard as if he was seeing through the wall itself. As Danny moved towards him, the boy adjusted his eerie stare towards Danny.

Yikes. He did not look happy at the idea of a new seatmate. Better offer a peace offering.

Danny didn’t have an olive branch handy, but he did have the next best thing . After he plopped himself down, he reached into his bag and pulled out a (Vegan) mint chocolate ball. The wrapper kept the filled candy in pristine condition too!

He held the treat out like he was feeding a cat. “Candy?” he offered.

“I’m vegetarian.” The boy flatly responded.

Jackpot! Sam is the best friend Danny’s ever had.

“What luck! It’s vegan candy!” Danny grinned wider and pushed his hand closer to the wary kid.

He had olive skin, and striking green eyes that Danny almost could've mistook for ghost possession if Danny hadn't already been familiar with it. The slightly displeased expression on his face never wavered once as he watched Danny closely.

His new seatmate stared at him for a good few seconds. But just as Danny was about to retract his hand, the other boy finally took the offered candy and stuffed it in one of his pockets. He’d take that as a success!

“I’m Danny! Nice to meet you.”

There was a soft ‘hmph’ sound from the boy before he spoke one word. “Damian.” Alright! Now we're talking, one name down, an entire class-worth to go!

Danny was ready to ask his new seatmate all the questions he was too afraid to ask the teacher, but as soon as Danny spoke, Damian promptly looked down at his book and began ignoring him.

Alright fair, he could take a hint.

It wasn’t the first day of school, it was already about a month or so in. Combined with the fact he was apparently now at one of the most prestigious high schools in the state. Well… it was intimidating. If he hadn't already been in the school itself, he'd almost say he wasn't up to the task.

Seriously Clockwork, please don’t have such high study expectations for this poor boy. He is but the humble son of a family of ghost catchers.

But he wanted to do his best for Jazz, and for Amity park in general really. Who knows what kind of world ending problem would come up in the future if he couldn’t solve for X?

Even though he was really dreading it, for the future of the ghost zone and the sake of being a ruler, Danny sucked in his chest and tried his hardest to pay attention to what the teacher was saying!

“-As we go through this unit, I want you to look for the themes the author attempts to set. As we go through we will talk about how the concept of humor and tragedy shown in plays has evolved through the years.” The teacher said.

Danny’s attention was concrete, but after about a minute, a very familiar chill began to creep up his spine. Very carefully keeping his eyes on the board, Danny mentally searched for the source of the chill. 

It was his deskmate, so no cause for concern. 

No blue fog crept out of his mouth, but Danny could feel the weight of his deskmate’s suspension with his ghostly senses. And oddly enough, it was somewhat comforting.

Coming from a place where Danny was always looking over his shoulder for a ghost attack, it was a little nice to be able to immediately know who was looking at him and why. Danny couldn’t blame him for being interested in his new candy-giving seatmate. 

In fact, maybe it was a cold, intense, stare of budding interest! After all, who better to be friends with than the mindful guy who gave you sweets? Danny still needed to get a hang of where the school’s education level was first, but after that he bet this kid would love to be his friend!

Wait, school? Crap, school! Focus, Danny, Focus!

“...now turn to page 67. Does anyone want to begin reading?”

Whoops. He missed the whole speech.

( ☆○o。< He’s a Phantom! > 。o○☆ )

Danny successfully survived all of his morning classes. 

It might have not been a big achievement, but considering he managed to mostly fly under the radar without being horribly embarrassed or exposed as a half-ghost, he considered it a win!

Even though none of his teachers made him introduce himself, Danny was still feeling pretty whelmed. Not yet over whelmed, just whelmed. Pretty much all he’d done so far was make a bullet point list of things to study later!

By lunch, Danny was ready to set the whole “new school” thing aside for an hour or so, and smooth into friend-making.

All of the lunch tables had people sitting at them, so there was going to be no sitting alone even on his first day. 

Honestly, the academy was so big that it was wild to think all these people in front of him were just in his grade alone. 

Nearly half the table turned and stared at Danny, not a good outcome already.

Finally, one of the girls spoke up. “Ummm….” she drew out the word in an annoying hum, “Shouldn’t you be sitting over there? ”

She pointed a long, painted nail over towards the least populated table. The table Danny had first looked at, before looking away because it was clearly a place of exile.

One table in the back of the room, near the darkest corner, with one black haired kid sitting there. A single, short guy with a hilariously long amount of table to himself.

The girl must have been expecting him to do something worth making fun of, or maybe drop to his knees and yell “NOOOOOOO, ANYTHING BUT THAT!” so instead Danny just immediately accepted her words and walked over to said table with the blandest expression he could manage.

It was how he got through Casper high, whatever happened- he would just shrug his shoulders and do his best. Nobody really tried to bully him aside from Dash- honestly even Dash did his best to get a reaction out of him and usually ended up the one throwing more of a fit. 

(As he walked away, the girl and her friends immediately began furiously whispering about whether or not the boy was a Wayne. Danny, after all, hadn’t actually answered their question. There was only 1 other Wayne in their grade level, but nobody could get close to him.) 

Welp, Danny. You tried. Really gave it your best shot, but unfortunately the Fenton luck had cursed your irresistible charms to be overshadowed by bad luck for the rest of your life. 

Time to go sit with the weird kid.

Aside from the obvious popular kid ousting, Danny really didn’t want to sit with anyone who’d refer to someone in that tone of voice. Seriously! What did that poor kid do to deserve that kind of treatment?

Danny went over to the table where only a single black haired kid was… hey wait, it was his deskmate, Damain! Score. Or not if the guy ended up not liking him.

He looked exactly the same as he did that morning, nose deep in a book without the slightest reaction to the outside world. Surrounded by nothing but empty table and a single backpack. A quiet kid in their natural habitat.

Damian didn’t look up when Danny approached. It was only when a piece of candy was slid over his way by Danny’s hand that he finally looked up to meet Danny's eyes again.

“Can I sit here?” Danny asked, eyes gleaming hopefully at the wide space on both sides of the table. 

“Tt.” Damian made an odd noise, like a ‘tch’ but more stern and cut off. He grabbed the second candy, stashed it away, nodded once, then went back to his book. 

Relief flooded through Danny’s veins, he plopped himself down a couple feet away, happy to finally have a chance to relax and eat his lunch in peace.

As soon as started eating and watching ‘Galactiz Space raiders X’ on his phone, Danny felt eyes on the side of his head again. From Damain no doubt, so he paid absolutely no mind to it.

‘Y’know, not so bad for a first day,’ Danny thought to himself, taking another bite of his taco. 

Tacos, man’s greatest creation. The meat turned out great, not as runny as last time. Even though the lettuce was a bit dubious, it wasn’t bad for his first batch of “Danny away from home” meals.

In all honesty that was probably because Jazz and him had to forage around the fridge to make food themselves whenever the food got ecto-infected. But the chances of that happening with Danny making his own food? Zilch. Nada. He would keep the ecto in a proper cold regulating thermos, thank you.

Danny continued to muse on his day, his food, and his excitement over this world and it’s alien shows. Aware of the gaze boring a hole in the side of his head, but at the same time not at all aware of the depth it held.

( ☆○o。< He’s a Phantom! > 。o○☆ )

The first thing Damian did when he got home was head straight down to the cave.

He said a polite greeting to Alfred of course, but after that he didn’t even bother to change out of his school uniform as he went down to the bat cave and used the scanner to do a bug-sweep on his backpack.

Still nothing, all the detected amounts of metal were things he normally kept in his bag. 

Perhaps it was an inept move to accept candy from someone new, but at the very least if this boy turned out to be an enemy- all he would think of Damain is being gullible. Letting your foes underestimate you is the first step to getting the upper hand.

Both pieces were put through material testing and scanner. Entirely normal, plant based chocolate. Nothing additional was added, and the ingredients for dairy, honey, or butter were swapped out for appropriately vegan friendly counterparts. 

It was just… chocolate. That was it.

After a long look over the candy- a perfectly normal piece of chocolate, Damian took a bite.

No strange tastes, nor abnormal sensations and textures. It tasted good, mostly because Damian practically never ate sweets. 

Even though the candy was delicious, Damian just felt annoyed. He should have known better that no assassination or humiliation attempt would approach him so brazenly. Anyone who sought to kill him wouldn’t approach him at school, and anyone who wanted to tarnish his reputation wouldn’t show themselves so blatantly.

But then how had he known to give vegan candy? It was less likely a coincidence, and more likely that the new student had done thorough research into Damian before switching schools in an attempt to approach him. 

The most likely option was that the other kid was seeking to gain power through becoming an associate of Damian’s, which was what he had suspected from the start. Gifts for the Wayne family weren’t uncommon, but it was strange someone would go so small as to hand out candy.

Honestly, the idea that it was some kind of bribe was laughable, but it made the candy taste worse in his mouth.

Chapter Text

It was Friday, meaning Danny was one day away from officially surviving his first week of interdimensional school. 

Well, it was only interdimensional for him, but that wasn’t the point.

Over the days, Danny had done some more research- (actual research! It should count as studying, but sadly it was the bare minimum of what a citizen should already know) -on this world and the things considered the norm.

First off, this world had a lot of heroes. Danny had incorrectly assumed that there would be one or so heroes in each city, however in Gotham there were at least five. The most prominent ones being Batman and Robin. 

Batman, Robin, Nightwing, Red Robin- All of them were either bat or bird themed, except for Signal. Danny hoped his power didn’t relate to flashing people at all.

Danny would judge their names, but considering where he got the name Phantom from- it wasn’t really his place. If it worked, it worked. Maybe Batman had echolocation and was forced to choose between being Bat or Dolphin themed, it could happen to anyone!

Actually, Locator-man could work. Although that would be hard to put on a light in the sky.

Danny’s head was flooded with thoughts of a giant ear picture being projected with a skylight before he suddenly remembered he was supposed to be in math class and got back to work.

Yeah… so safe to say he’d need to do more research into what their powers were in order to figure out how to better avoid attracting their attention. 

He’d already known the reason Clockwork dropped him off at Gotham was because the area had a large ectoplasmic atmosphere for him to keep absorbing, helping him stay healthy without needing to Go Ghost as often. 

Halfa biology was kind of… unknown, mostly because they weren’t a naturally occurring type of ghost unlike all the others. And secondly because it wasn’t really known what happened when a Halfa got old enough for their human half to die of natural causes. Or if they even could die at all considering they were already dead!

Vlad may have kept aging, but his human body still seemed to mostly be in the prime of it’s life (except for the hair). And the same might not even happen for Danny considering he was the very first living king of the Infinite realms.

So he really hoped his stay in Gotham would be business as usual for his ghost powers, otherwise those bats were gonna be on him faster than a leftover mango.

He could reveal one or two of his powers and pretend to be a Meta. But from what he’d seen, Metas weren’t really accepted in Gotham, with more than a few people saying that Batman actively chased them out. Plus he needed the “secret meta” card handy just in case someone discovered his powers. 

Although that in itself was its own can of worms considering Batman seemed to hate metas and actively chased them out of the city! (Or so the news claimed.)

Danny was really hoping it was a case by case meta basis and that he could plead his case of not turning into a supervillain on account of being a teenage boy with no greater aspirations other than finishing algebra 1 and peacefully ruling the afterlife. But somehow he didn’t think that was gonna fly with The Batman.

But all that was on the backburner because Danny had bigger problems to attend to.

He had no friends.

(Wait. No. He had friends but they were kinda a few multi-galaxies away right now…)

He had no friends at school. The school he had enrolled in, specifically to get a normal human education. Normal human school- that school.

Danny supposed it wasn’t the worst thing in the world if he had to go through schooling without friends. But if he was honest, aside from Jazz’s speech on positive interpersonal relationships, having to go through more years of high school without any friends would suck. Really, really suck.

Tucker and Sam were practically all that got him through class at the height of his ghost hunting, and even then he only paid attention because he knew he sure as hell wouldn’t have time to study everything later. Ghosts were very prone to taking up most of his free time, even one ghost attack wouldn’t guarantee he had the next afternoon free.

It’d gotten better after he became ghost king, but the amount of time he spent in the ghost realm compared to how much he spent studying was still disproportionate enough that he agreed with Clockwork that he definitely didn’t know enough algebra to rule an infinitely expanding kingdom.

He wasn’t really sure he needed to be able to find the square root of x as a ghost king, but he’d rather not find himself in a situation where he regretted not knowing. What if a mathematician tried to blow up the dimension?

Internal math might not be super vital with calculators and computers nowadays, but it sure made things a lot easier to know what you were looking at!

(And also because, deep down, some disjointed part of him was very sad at the idea of being stuck feeling like a stranger in another world. A puzzle piece jammed into a puzzle it doesn’t belong.)

Danny flopped down in his bed that night, feeling like sinking straight down through the building and into the rock below because that seemed to be what people thought he deserved.

Not! One! Friend! Not one! All he had after a full week of school was the whole 0.2% of a friend with his quiet deskmate.

Every single day Danny had tried to go to a new lunch table and introduce himself, and every single day he’d been either shot down, turned away, or met with absolutely disbelieving looks. 

It was as if people here could not fathom the idea of asking to sit at an already populated lunch table!

(Danny had no idea how much of a school this was for snooty rich kids and genius prodigies, it actually was weird. Especially while the gossip mill pondered if he was a new Wayne child.)

He had no idea how lunch managed to get harder when he didn’t even need to fight the lunch lady anymore!

Because of Danny's precarious lunch table situation, he could not afford to lose the favor of the quiet kid before he made more friends. As such, he had to make sure that his rapidly deteriorating reputation wouldn’t affect the tentative rapport he built with his deskmate. 

It really really helped that the kid was vegan. Danny now had both a use for the candy, and a possible friend! Or so he hoped.

Well, it was kind of hard to tell because Damian really did not show much outward emotion other than frowning. And that was saying something because most days Sam did her best to be the queen of only showing broody and edgy emotions. 

Thankfully Damian didn’t chase him off, he just stared laser beams into Danny’s back when he thought the other wouldn’t notice. 

He was weirdly good at it too, every single time Danny turned his head to glance at Damian he was always politely looking down at his own things, or at the blackboard, or anywhere else that wasn’t Danny. It was strange.

Damian was so quiet, but gave Danny the impression of someone who was much smarter than they appeared. Especially with the way he was always diligently writing in his notebooks in class.

And no matter where Damian walked in the halls, or sat down in class, there was a two foot gap between him and the other students at any given time. Even the teachers barely called upon him. 

He’d only been at school a few days, but it was abundantly clear that the student body shied away from Damian. 

None of it made sense.

Unless…

Danny shot up at exactly 11:56pm as his tired, time-zone changing dimensional jet-lag-riddled brain made the connection. 

-Unless Damian had a hard time making friends too!

It made sense! He was always alone, always had his head in a book, and always scowling! That must also be why he hardly spoke either. 

Plus, Danny made friends with the outcasts of his school too! The three of them were the best of friends because they were never involved enough in anyone else’s lives to be questioned whenever they went off on ghost adventures! 

What was Danny thinking trying to make friends with popular girls or buff jocks? Bleh. What he’d needed from the start was to find the nerdiest outcast and shield them from danger! That way he could feed even more of his obsession with the sweet feeling of protecting something. 

He might not have a friend yet, but at least he could start with a target.

…Metaphorically of course. Just gotta clarify because too many people have used Danny as an actual target.

( ☆○o。< He’s a Phantom! > 。o○☆ )

Act: Literature class, Scene take 1: Enter stage right Danny.

He peeked at Damian from the corner of his eye again. His classmate was reading, but not overly enveloped in his work. Danny’s eyes darted around until he spied a pencil sharpener on the side of Dami’s desk.

Alright Danny, time to start slow! Don’t wanna scare off the kid with your amount of charm.

“Hey, do you have a pencil sharpener I can use?” Nice, that was a good opening for some conversation.

Silently, the small pencil sharpener was offered. Damian didn’t even look at Danny, just held out the sharpener as his eyes stayed staring down at his book.

“Thanks. Um, so this chapter’s pretty hard, right?”

Nothing. There was quiet chatter from other students as they worked on their own bookwork throughout the class, but aside from the scrawl of a pencil Damian didn’t make a sound.

Ah, this might take longer than Danny thought.

( ☆○o。< He’s a Phantom! > 。o○☆ )

Danny really needed to go shopping.

It was his bad, between school, unpacking, and the whole “friends” thing, he’d completely forgotten that he’d only gotten enough groceries to last him through till the end of the week.

Even then, all he’d grabbed was cereal, ramen, and taco ingredients. Cereal for breakfast, tacos for lunch, then nice hot ramen to top it off at the end of the night. Every night, for almost seven days in a row. It was a bit much, even for a teenager.

There were still a couple packs of ramen left, but Danny’s stomach was yowling unhappily at the idea of eating the same thing so many times in a row. And he was out of cereal, so if he ate ramen tonight he’d need to eat it again in the morning for breakfast before he went to the store…

The idea of just going without eating crossed his mind, but it was viciously attacked by a nearby bear called “Jazz would kill me again for not keeping my promise.” While the ambient ectoplasm here kept his form healthy, it wasn’t really enough that he could justify not feeding his human half. So he’d promised his sister he’d eat proper meals everyday while pretending to be completely human.

“Well that settles it, guess I’m going to the store.” He shut the empty fridge that he’d been staring at the inside of for the last two minutes. 

Danny grabbed his wallet, put on a hoodie, and began to head out in just a T-shirt and jeans. His phone showed that there was a 24 hour convenience store not far from where he lived, which would give him enough to eat until he got to a whole store tomorrow. 

For the week he’d been in Gotham, this would be his first time going out at night. As soon as he stepped out he could see why they called it “Goth”am. The city was so dark that it was practically black. Shadows loomed everywhere, and the architecture matched that of some areas of the ghost realm. Which was to say- old fashioned.

“Man, it’s a shame the Intele-phone can’t send pictures, Sam would love this.” Danny laughed at the sheer amount of darkness radiating through the city even with all the neon lights. It was like New York met the 1850s!

Ah, sadly the Intele-phone had to charge up between uses.

Intele-phone was short for Interstellar Telecommunication Phone. Clever wording by his mother. But for all its clever wording, it was essentially a satellite dish hooked up to a rotary phone.

Gotham’s streets reflected the aura of her spirit. A strange sort of hopeful melancholy, with a tinge of adventure intertwined with regret. Like the ending of a noir movie. 

Danny, in all his wisdom, decided to see if he could cut through one of the alleyways in order to avoid having to walk all the way around the corner to the other side of the block. 

His prize for that bright idea was running into a brick wall.

‘Ah, nope. Dead end.’ Danny thought. 

Coming face to face with the end of a dark alleyway at night should have at least prickled his fear that something would happen, but fortunately Danny’s fear of being murdered was kinda undone by being jumped via skulker tech so many times. If he ever got murdered, he knew exactly who it’d be, and he’d so haunt them as revenge.

Unfortunately, Danny really could use that whole “sense of danger” thingy back. He lost his, can he borrow one off someone, please?

As Danny turned, he realized that someone had moved and blocked the alleyway entrance, walking forward menacingly to close in on him.

It… was pretty much your standard mugger. Armed with nothing but a knife and the desire to pay off his late car payments by shanking people. 

Neither Danny or the Author really knew what else to say about him, he’ll be gone by the next 3 pages.

Overalls hung off the man, a grey shirt underneath them. He has a homemade ski mask (a large beanie with holes cut out pulled down to his chin). He was large and pudgy, but with quite a bit of muscle to him.

“Hand ov’er all y’ur money!” the robber spits at him, “Or be’ware my wrath.” He said, holding up the jagged meat knife. He said the word ‘Wrath’ as if it was going to be anything other than him stabbing Danny.

In that moment, with Danny thinking so much about being far from home and all the people he left behind… he made a connection.

This man in front of him held such alikeness to the box ghost, that instead of doing something clever or running- Danny starts laughing.

Not just laughing, like a little chuckle or a few giggles- he’s full on belly laughing in the middle of one of the dampest alleys he’s ever been in. Doing a rather spot on hyena impression, or maybe a mad clown.

The gothamite was… rather taken aback by this, he stuttered to a halt a few feet away from Danny, and almost shuffled a little bit away.

Danny didn’t think his laugh was that intimidating, but honestly he didn’t have much room to think considering how hilarious the idea was that he was getting shanked by the Box ghost’s human lookalike. Gettin’ duffed up by the Box ghost’s long lost brother’s great grandson. About to be done in like the UPS man when the box ghost finds who’s been ruining all these perfectly good packages.

So anyway, Danny keeps laughing.

It starts getting to the point where Danny might actually die a second death. Whether it’s from no oxygen or Box Not-Ghost stabbing him is to be determined in the next few seconds. He’s leaning on the side of the alleyway, holding onto the mortal plane for dear half-life.

“That's it! You-” Just as the man began to yell and charge, he was taken down by a strong hit to the back. He slumped forward, unconscious, revealing another silhouette behind him.

Danny finally got his laughing under control long enough to rasp in a few breaths of air, looking up to see who his apparent savior was. 

At the mouth of the alley stood a shadowy figure standing over the now unconscious mugger. Danny hadn’t even noticed their approach.

Light highlighted the edges of their frame, allowing Danny to see traces of yellow, red, and green in their dark outfit. Two white eyes gleamed back at him, as did the edge of a short curved blade. 

The blunt end of the weapon had just been used to knock out the assailant. It was only when they moved forward that Danny was able to get a better look at them.

‘A cape!’ Danny thought, confirming that this was definitely one of Gotham’s vigilantes. Combined with his speed of arrival and stealth, he felt impressed.

Danny’s vision wasn’t the greatest in his human form, but it was still good enough to make out short black hair under their hood. They were too deep in the shadows for Danny to make out very many distinctive features, but that was okay because their most prominent one already stood out.

This dark vigilante in the night was two inches shorter than him.

Danny had to bite his tongue to keep a “Revenge is short lived, but I didn’t think it’d be under 5’3” from coming out of his mouth.

Man, he really had to stop thinking up such great jokes if he was gonna successfully lie low. Otherwise this wasn’t gonna work at all. Maybe he could convince Clockwork to let him transfer to a comedy school? 

“Have you been gassed?” Robin asked, voice oddly hard for someone so small.

“What? No.” Danny asked, then immediately responded. Huh, maybe ‘gassed’ was a turn of phrase here in Gotham. Or it could be literal considering all of the fumes he could already sense in the air.

“Why the laughing then?” Robin demanded curtly, narrowing his eyes at Danny. Those white lenses turning to slits. 

He gets the suspicion, it probably wasn’t normal to laugh off something so serious. Amity was yet again another outlier where people just shrugged off ghost attacks like they were mild natural disasters.

Danny hadn’t been in any actual danger, but Robin couldn’t know that. Right now he was Danny Fenton, the totally normal exchange student. 

“Oh nothing, just that guy looks a lot like someone I knew.”

Robin stared at Danny for a few more seconds, then made an odd “Tt.” noise and leapt off. Just raised his hand and grapple hooked off into the darkness. So cool. Danny wanted a grapple hook.

Leaving Danny in the alleyway to step around the would-be robber and continue on with his night.

It felt weirdly thrilling to be on the other end of a superhero save. Danny resisted the urge to Go Ghost and give the other boy advice on his save.

First of all, trying not to scare the people you’re saving. Second, try not to sound like you’re interrogating them. But Danny totally got it, really. Robin just needed as much useful information as he could in a short period of time.

It was super easy to make the mistake of being snippy with civilians when you were running on three hours of sleep in the middle of the night chasing a mildly-inconvenienced ghost the day before your math final, which just so happens to be a 1/4th grade.

(Before you ask, yes, Danny got a D. It was not a good day.)

‘I wonder what his powers are,’ Danny thought to himself as he continued walking around the block to the store. ‘His name is Robin, so he’s gotta have some kind of flight power right? Wait, no, the article said Robin’s been around for years so maybe he’s immortal-?’

( ☆○o。< He’s a Phantom! > 。o○☆ )

Damian’s first assessment was wrong.

He had forgotten that because the boy was a transfer student, that it meant he was new to Gotham, he’d gone about the situation from entirely the wrong angle. This was not an assassin, a strategist, or even a poorly misplaced attempt at sucking up to the Wayne’s.

This was… an idiot.

In Damian’s defense, only one of two people transferred into Gotham- Rich kids looking for the best school, or people with exceptionally high marks looking for advancement and networking. Damian had assumed that Daniel Fenton was not the second because of his quiz scores in class, but now he doubted he was the first either.

For about 10 minutes Damian watched the other boy bumble about the store, hemming and hawing over what to buy before leaving with a couple of meger bags.

Idiot. This boy didn’t have a brain. Who would walk around Gotham at night with anything valuable? He practically had a sign on his head that said “Please rob me”. 

Everyone in Gotham grocery shopped during the day, it was just common sense. 

“Tt.” Damian made the noise under his breath, took a deep, stabilizing breath, and slowly began to jump from ledge to ledge as he followed the world’s dumbest classmate home.

It probably wasn’t a waste of time considering that Damain was just surveying what was sure to be an easy victim. If he so happened to gather some more information on his new classmate, it was between him and the wall.

His brothers might not care for the background and histories of whom they went to school with, but Damian was always on the lookout for potential gains and losses. He would need a solid network when the day came to uphold the Wayne mantle as future head of family. 

Thankfully Danny seemed to live close, it only took ten minutes before he was moving to enter the lobby of one of the nearby buildings. 

One thing was for sure, Danny was definitely not the son of a rich family, not if this was where he lived.

It was definitely a good apartment, for Gotham at least. Which meant not having paper thin walls, not a high amount of people per room, and proper insulation without mold.

However it wasn’t anywhere near the kind of proper space that a Gothamite with money to burn would live, most of the children in Gotham Academy certainly didn’t live like this. Noticeably, it was a one bedroom too, meaning Danny lived alone.

It was… entirely uninteresting. He was a transfer student, but from nowhere significant it seemed.

Whatever, Damain had the answers to his questions. As soon as Danny entered the apartment lobby, he turned and slipped away into the night.

( ☆○o。< He’s a Phantom! > 。o○☆ )

Danny finally relaxed when he felt Robin leave.

Man, Gotham vigilantes were really thorough! Following him home just to make sure he got back safe was nice, although it wasn’t necessary but Robin didn’t know that.

All Robin saw was a poor innocent teenager getting mugged late at night.

…well, technically he saw a teenager laughing his butt off at the person about to stab him, but that was here nor there. He doubted he would end up on any watchlists because of that. (Hopefully.)

Danny quickly made his way up to the fifth floor and inside his apartment. He hadn’t met any of his neighbors yet, nor was he eager to at this time of night. 

He didn’t bother to turn the lights on when he opened his door, navigating the dark apartment pretty easily even as it stayed pitch black.

Most of the groceries were shoved into the fridge or left on the counter. Hah, first grocery run in Gotham and only 1 mugging! Not bad. He’d have to tell Sam and Tucker about being rescued and the Box ghost’s brother from another mother.

Danny took a quick feel around with his senses, there was no one- ghost or otherwise, in the area. Good!

Putting a hand over his chest, he made a small grasping motion to cleanly tug his core out. It phased through, shining a small soft light in the darkness of his apartment. 

Over the months as Danny aged, the bottom of his core had begun darkening into black. Frostbite suspected that while it might ‘technically’ be an ice core, it would end up growing into something more advanced than just ice. 

Vlad backed up that theory too, revealing that his core was a fire core that later darkened with craggled spikes of red running up and down the side- giving him the electricity he occasionally fought Danny with.

Vlad also told him that he suspected Danny’s core would take on more advanced form considering the amount of powers he got in the timespan he got them. While part of it might’ve been due to the amount of ghost fight’s, his core’s strength was no joke. 

The boy happily took a look at his core’s progress. Frostbite and his family would be happy to hear that his stay in Gotham hadn’t affected his ghostly health at all so far, even with needing to stay confined to his human form all the time. That didn’t surprise Danny, he didn’t think Clockwork was going to send him anywhere his powers wouldn’t work.

Danny’s core was about halfway darkened. The initial blue slowly faded into a rich royal color halfway, and then near black at the bottom. But little blue and white flakes prominently stood out among its darkest end- giving the impression of twinkling stars. 

Cold wafted off of it, which wasn’t a surprise. His core had gotten much colder over time. He let it sink back in his chest with a happy sigh, everything looked okay. So theoretically he should be fine to do this.

For the first time in a few weeks, Danny let blue rings wash over his body, turning his hair and eyes snow white with two pretty green gems to accompany them.

The ghost boy popped open the jar of pickles he bought, letting the pickle juice drain into a tupperware. Then, he took a knife and cut open his arm just enough so that bright green could begin oozing out. 

Danny held the cut open with two fingers while ectoplasm drained into the jar, filling it slowly.

Once it was almost full, he grinned and iced over the wound, stopping the ectoplasm flow. It was a small, deep cut that would heal in less than a day. So Danny didn’t worry. He put the pickles in the fridge so they could soak up all the yummy ecto-juices and come out even better.

Was it weird to infuse his own ecto into pickles and eat them? Maybe. But as long as he didn’t leave them sitting for too long, they probably wouldn’t come to life.

( ☆○o。< He’s a Phantom! > 。o○☆ )

‘I’ll be alone forever,’ Danny decided, on day 11 of being in Gotham.

Monday night, four days off of being a full school week, and he’d already given up. Shame on you Danny, where was the famous Fenton persistence?

The search for friends was already worse than his grades were. Each attempt was getting more and more awkward than the last. At this rate he couldn’t even strike up a conversation before people were already moving away. 

The cherry on top was that it seemed the only person he could truly get near was almost dead set on ignoring his presence. Danny had to wonder if this was what all big city schools were like.

Solemnly, sadly, miserably, Danny has dragged himself outside to get a dose of fresh air before the next day began. The late night air was good for his brain, as was the quietness darkness of the park.

And pigeons made surprisingly good company.

He broke off another piece of vegan chocolate peanut butter cookie and tossed the crumbled bits towards the bird. They immediately swarmed the crumbly remains, pecking incessantly.

“Here guys, this is probably the best thing you’ve tasted in your lives huh? Go on, nibble, my loyal servants. And soon I shall amass an army.” Danny probably needed more sleep.

Actually wait, as ghost king, didn’t he technically already have an army…? He’d need to ask Clockwork.

‘Brrrrbblle…’ a blob ghost squished against his cheek, burbling with concern at the boy’s odd mix of sad and happiness.

“Aw, it’s no big deal blobby. I’m just laughing at my own loneliness, that’s all.” He raised a hand to pat the floating bubble of ectoplasm as it circled around his head lazily like a cat, before stopping to rest in his lap.

The one upside about Gotham was that the healthy population of ectoplasm plus the amount of crime meant a healthy surplus of blob ghosts. Almost half as many that typically wandered around the ghost zone too!

Blob ghosts weren’t exactly fully fledged thinking ghosts, nor were they just floaty water balloons without any thoughts. More like something in between, they were small pieces of heavy emotion broken off from beings and formed.

They didn’t really understand words, but they understood action and intentions.

It was very common for people to leave behind blob ghosts when they died, even when their passing was peaceful without any regrets. Death is a big experience! Even more common was the grief from their loved ones condensing to create even more blob ghosts. 

‘If the grief between 5 people creates 1 to 3 blob ghosts, and the emotions of one dead person may leave behind 2 to 5 blob ghosts, what are the minimum and maximum blob ghosts a funeral of 10 people for 1 person may create?’ Danny thought, trying to channel what he learned in math through his head. ‘At minimum, 4 blob ghosts would be created, and at maxim-’

“What are you doing here?”

Whipping around to face what he first thought was a nearby passerby, Danny was instead pleasantly surprised to find that it was his (lunch table acquaintance) friend Damian!

Damian was wearing a thick coat, one that enveloped him from neck all the way down to his knees. But faintly through the darkness Danny could see the annoyed expression of one (1) Edgy trademarked schoolboy.

The sight of him perked Danny right up like a watered flower. 

“Oh, Hey Damain! I decided to stop by the park after a nice walk!” Danny waved and gave him a smile.

Damian squinted at him in return, “It’s the middle of the night.” Precisely 2:35 am.

Danny frowned, opened his phone and- oh look, whaddya know! It was 2am. Meaning it was now Day 12 in Gotham with no friends.

But that was fine, it wasn’t like Danny needed constant attention and things to talk about with other people. He was only a high school ghost king who was used to either hanging with his friends, watching over Mom and Dad’s shenanigans with Jazz, or resolving ghost issues and being a good king to his subjects almost all hours of the day.

Oh who was Danny kidding? He felt super lonely. 

Being away from home was one thing, but this was officially the longest stretch of time Danny had gone without being able to spend time with family or friends. Not to mention without ghosts. 

It was… really eerie coming home to a completely quiet house, not being woken up in the middle of the night by a ghost attack, and not waking up to Jazz’s nagging or his friend’s texts. Even though they called often, the Intele-phone could only transmit sound. 

Not to mention cutting down on his power usage made Danny feel more awake than usual. He hadn’t slept in almost 3 days.

The attack from the other night was almost a little welcome, actually. The idea of being shanked by Not-Box-or-Ghost gave him nostalgia for when he first started ghost hunting.

Danny sighed and said “Yeah, I guess so.” He took another hunk of cookie out of his pocket and threw it on the ground where it was quickly swarmed by fat, pudgy birds.

“How new are you to Gotham to be walking around this late? You’d think someone would’ve told you that it’s a bad idea.” It was hard to see because Danny was under a streetlight and Damian wasn’t, but with Danny’s night vision he could make out the boy gritting his teeth.

Danny’s lips twitched into a smile at his concern. “Well, I only got here two Fridays ago, I’ve already been warned but it’s been fine so far.”

“So far?” There was a disbelieving edge to Damain’s voice that made Danny grin. See? This was bonding! Prime bonding time right here. 

“And what would you do if you got attacked?” The other boy demanded. “Gotham isn’t like other cities, you can’t just walk around and expect not to be mugged.”

Eh, Danny would probably notice he was there long before Damian actually got close enough to attack him.

He couldn’t always sense when and where people approached him, unless they were focused on him. Similar to the blue mist warning him when ghosts were near, Danny always got the vague feeling of being watched whenever a living being had their sights on him.

Plus, y’know, he didn’t think he stood a very good chance at bleeding out with the rate he healed. If his human half got stabbed then he’d just walk it off. It happened all the time back in Amity, every fight came with its bumps and bruises, no biggie.

Danny shrugged and said “I mean, all I’ve got on me right now is some candy. They can have it if they want. Oh! Speak of…” Danny took one out of his pocket and sat up to lean over the side of the bench. “Want one?”

Damian let out that frustrated sound again. “ Tt. ” He swiped the chocolate ball from Danny and said “You’re a fool for thinking all they want is money. These streets will want to see you bleed if you waste their time.”

Outwardly, Danny shrugged. Inwardly he thought ‘Oh. My. God. He is an edgy poetry kid. I knew it.’ That must be why Damain kept looking at his notebook doodles, he wanted to see if they’d get along!

Oh ho, well if it was poetry he wanted…

Danny put a hand to his chest dramatically. “If these streets desire my blood, let it run. If it is my destiny to be swept away by rain and ash, it is so. Those afraid of tempting fate will never grasp its horns.” He recited.

Personally, he’d say he nailed that delivery.

“...You’re gonna get killed.” Was all that Damian said in response. He took a bite out of the chocolate in his hand, looking at Danny like he was trying to figure out if it was his mother or father who dropped him on his head as a baby.

Jokes on him though! Can’t kill what’s already dead, and even if you could Danny was already top dog of the entire realm of afterlives.

Danny snorted at the thought of surviving electrocution, the GIW, Pariah Dark, and even his own parents only to die at the hands of a mugging. 

He imagined Clockwork handing over the ring of rage and the crown of fire to a very confused mugger, and had to lock the air in his lungs in order to not start cackling.

Damain watched Danny’s diaphragm shake with silent laughter, his brow furrowing at the strange boy. 

It took a minute for Danny to get his laughing under control, but he shook off one last snicker and took a deep breath of midnight air. This walk had been just what he needed.

Maybe Gotham would take a while to get used to, and maybe Danny was going to struggle to fit in again. However those were barely things that had ever stopped him in the past. If the normal wouldn’t accept him, then the abnormal it would have to be. 

“So, what are you up to ton-” but when he looked up, Danny realized that Damian was already gone. 

“-ight…” Danny finished lamely, looking around the suddenly empty park. Somehow the boy had left without him even realizing, he hadn’t even said goodbye. Once again it was just him and the pigeons. 

Embarrassing. Danny had just been making jokes while Damian stood there, hadn’t he? He guesses the boy just had to finish his walk, or maybe get home. 

Oh well. Danny took another chocolate out of his pocket and watched as the pigeons all lasered in on it.

( ☆○o。< He’s a Phantom! > 。o○☆ )

Damian had given up on trying to figure out Danny’s angle, mostly because there was no angle to be had. 

Danny was not someone acting dumb in an attempt to purposely be interpreted as a non-threat, he was just that inept.

Unless he wanted Oracle finding out about his activities, all he could do was some surface level digging through the school records. What he found in the emails between The Dean and Danny’s founder was that Danny going to Gotham was the result of a rich socialite attempting to smooth things over bad blood with Danny’s parents, or so the founder implied.

The third party arranging Danny’s transfer had then deposited a hefty sum into Gotham Academy’s pockets in exchange for the child being swapped in quietly.

Unknown to most of the students, this kind of exchange wasn’t unusual. It was common for the uber-wealthy to trade favors in order to keep certain people happy. It doesn’t always have to be money, just a show of good faith.

Both the socialite and founder were anonymous, the email led to a dead end: Which Damian was expecting. 

Danny wasn’t a prodigy child, and if it was an act geared towards satisfying the parents then it was entirely possible Danny had no idea his education was being funded by someone so high up.

Those types tended to not want to have proof of connection to anything considered scandalous. Preferring to close the curtains even in cases when the drapes were see-through.

It made sense, Danny wasn’t a player- he was a pawn.

This school wasn't a grand opportunity for the boy- it was someone sweeping Damy under a rug for the time being.

Damian almost felt pity for this boy. Many children were shoved into Gotham high via rich backers in an attempt to get highly educated heirs out of the mix, but worse were the children who had no real purpose being there. 

And looking at Danny’s grades: he had absolutely no idea what he was doing there.

Not just at that school, but in Gotham itself. Clearly nobody educated this boy, or even instilled a sense of basic danger into him. He was wandering around lunch tables asking to sit with random people in an attempt to make friends. 

Danny wasn’t a puzzle at all, he was a clean sheet of paper waiting for something to be stamped into him.

Normally Damian disliked those with exorbitant resources failing to educate themselves in the most basic of ways, but it was enough to make Damian feel pity for the boy. Danny clearly held a soft heart from the way it seemed to be offered to people he barely even knew.

Or maybe it was the cheery face he held. Damian’s glares would melt like butter off of the other teen, he’d just tilt his head a little bit and smile, as if he understood every little bad thing in the world and was saying “It’s okay”.

So clearly he was a dolt.

Still, curiosity gnawed at Damian’s mind. He almost wanted to poke and prod at the other teenager more, wanting to pick him apart piece by piece until he could predict his movements in the same way he could his other classmates. 

It helped that Danny was completely isolated. By his 7th day at school, word about the new student had already died down despite the mild rumor about him being a new wayne child. (Damian scoffed, Danny was so much softer than his siblings).

If not already confirmed by his own evidence, Danny’s strange attempts at social interaction made it apparent he did not come from lineage of any kind. He did not introduce himself in any way, simply going up to people and asking probing questions- when they did not reciprocate, he wandered away to the next person.

While this worked in smaller, uncultured circles, this was Gotham Academy. The most prestigious school in a city with almost 10 million people. Nobody just got into Gotham Academy by accident. 

Sure there were other schools of equal level of education, but Gotham Academy was the only one with the city’s name- attached to a history of politics and elegance that other schools couldn’t match. 

The next time Danny greeted him in the hall, Damian gave him his orders.

“Stop sitting at my table during lunch.” Damian kept it curt. “There’s an entire courtyard open for students at lunchtime. Go there instead.”

It’d do better for both him and Damian if the boy simply stayed away from the populated area. Sitting by oneself wasn’t unusual in the school's courtyard.  

Predictably, Danny reacted as he thought he would. He tilted his head like a confused puppy, and then rolled over like a trained dog. “Are you sure?” Danny asked, concern in his voice. Wait, concern!?

Are you sure???

“ I don’t want you there.” Damian poured venom into his voice. A little something to get the point across.

He was being gentle because Father had requested he refrain from putting his classmates in their place. (“Yeah, don’t bully them Damian, Jeez.” Dick had added.)

Danny was doing his best to figure out what Damain was talking about. He thought the two of them had gotten closer last night.

Thankfully he’d already dealt with years of Sam’s cryptic messages over text. 

Let’s see, if we put “I don’t want you there” through Danny’s edgy poet translator… then Damain must mean he wants to sit alone at lunch!

Makes sense, Sam mentioned that goths do love their ‘me’ time. At least, her occult book club did, saying something about soaking in the vibrations of the world- which Danny could totally understand. The vibes of the infinite realms were absolutely otherworldly, especially near the splintering flower fields. Far frozen kinda had them too, but that was probably more towards the preference of Danny’s ice core than anything else.

Besides, everyone had something on their phone they’d never show. Danny would never reveal to anyone that he made a ghost king playlist for when he has to read over kingly things. Consisting of songs such as “Somebody’s watching me”, “Ghost”, and the classic: “Ghostbusters”.

Poor Damian probably just wanted to listen to My Chemical Romance in peace without his classmate hanging over his shoulder. 

“Sure,” Danny agreed easily.

He watched Damian relax ever so slightly, “Good that you understand.” Clipped words fell from Damain’s mouth as he walked away.

“See you tomorrow!” Danny yelled after Damian.

The boy didn’t turn around, he just kept walking. But Danny knew he heard him by the way the boy made a soft sigh under his breath, intangible to anyone who didn’t have the hearing of a ghost king. 

It wasn’t much, but it was a start!

Chapter Text

By Day 15 in Gotham, Danny had stopped asking Damian whether or not he wanted Candy and had transitioned directly into just passing a piece into his hand à la drug deal style every time they so much as saw each other, no matter where.

Homeroom & English class? Candy.

Singular empty table in the busiest Lunch room Danny had ever seen? Choco-late for passin’.

Hallway in between classes? You better believe Danny had a crisp wrapped one in his pocket, ready to hand off. 

Damian never refused! Or even said anything, but just because there wasn’t an answer doesn’t mean it was a no.

(Actually, don’t take that advice.)

Ladies, gentlemen, mortal and non mortal, ideas barely bound to this human plane, Danny was entering his desperation arc.

He’d gone through nearly the entire grade at this point, yet his friend quantity still remained… stagnant. Even going for the shy introverted kids only resulted in them dodging Danny’s attempts to interact.

Danny had faced ghost dragons, ghost gladiators, ghost gods, bullies, ghosts possessing bullies. He’d faced a lot of ghostly issues, probably why he was having trouble dealing with normal issues. 

But the boredom he faced at school? Impossible.

To Danny’s begrudgement, he was getting a bit better now that he had the spare time to begin studying. But it was hard, especially since he was still lagging far behind last year’s curriculum from his old school- much less this new fancy up-to-date one!

Two weeks of this school was far more peace and quiet Danny had seen in the last year alone, disgusting.

Peace really didn't suit Danny anymore, neither did normality. Which is why he turned to his two least normal friends in order to get something moving.

“I don't know what to do! I feel like I'm wasting wasting awayyyy….~” Danny whined into the phone.

He was sprawled out on the floor of his living room, the cord of the phone being long enough for him to sprawl dramatically like a distressed widow in her nightgown learning of her husband’s mysterious passing, leaving the family fortune all to her. 

Man he has to get one of those dramatic ghost night robes, his life just wasn’t complete without them.

Tucker laughed on the other end. “I told you to get a hobby forever ago, and your response was ‘Computer coding isn’t a hobby tucker, it’s what my parents do to make more ghost machines’” he said, continuing to laugh at Danny’s misery.

In Danny’s defense, he already had his plate full at the time. A hobby on top of school, parental shenanigans, and ghost hunting? Asking for trouble.

“You’re still not converting me over to being your fellow computer nerd,” Danny said, expressing his heartfelt opinion. “It’d be useless anyway, the entirety of the ghost world uses parchment for all governmental duties.”

It wasn’t even that ghosts were behind on the times or anything, just that computer data was far too easy to corrupt. Old timey parchment was ghost proof, but Windows 11 was not and that’s why Danny was never upgrading.

“Couldn’t you make some ghost friends?” Sam suggested, “Gotham has a large ectoplasmic atmosphere, surely there are some ghosts around?” It was a nice thought, but sadly not a very practical one when he was trying to lay low.

“Well, yeah, but only normal ones still grieving their lives, and those tend to move on pretty quickly.” Or at least in Vlad’s words they did. 

“Pretty quickly,” could mean anything depending on the type of ghost and area of death.

The timeframe of how long a normal ghost would hang around depends entirely on their emotional connection to the world, and even then the easiest ones usually quit moping around and went to whatever afterlife they were tethered to within a few months.

Make no mistake- the ghosts from amity were the exact opposite, they had already mourned their lives and “moved on”. It’s just that nobody informed the humans that building a portal to the infinite realms let them move back. 

Seriously guys, you declare war on the ghosts for invading when you opened the door for them? 

His parents were geniuses, but with some serious screws loose. 

“Huh, well… if you’ve got nothing else to do, maybe now is a good time to read “The benefits of our ancestors: The herbivore dinosaurs and their plant based diet!”” Sam butted in from the other end.

“Sam. Buddy. We both know I don’t have anywhere near enough attention to read my own books. Much less the ghost law texts Clockwork gave me. Much, much less the books you gave me.” Danny just said it how it was.

There was a long pause before she finally said “...Fair.”

Tucker’s voice crackled through the mic, “No no Sam, you’re thinking in the wrong direction! Danny’s suffering from lack of stimulation, we need to enrich his enclosure so he’s more healthy and active!”

“Yeah! But don’t talk about me like I’m a hamster.” Danny would resent the idea of people talking about him like he wasn’t there, but becoming Phantom had pretty much killed any sense of shame he had about people gossiping behind his back.

Hearing someone say “I think invis o’ bill stole my tax forms and that's why they haven’t been turned in, officer.” Was probably the worst one he’d heard, only because the guy managed to get away with it for a whole three weeks.

Amazingly, most of the town tended to blame things that weren’t ghostly on ghosts meanwhile most of the stuff Phantom got away with was shrugged off as coincidence. How people manage to remain superstitious even when the supers were proven stitious was a mystery to Danny.

“So trying to make friends individually is going poorly… perhaps you need to branch out a little. What about unavoidable social interactions, like mental health seminars.” Tucker proposed. “Mental health speakers love feelings, and ghosts are pretty much made of them!”

Danny mentally shriveled in on himself at the idea of going to a mental health seminar. He may have just moved, but he really didn’t want to do any more unpacking than preferred. “Sam, any ideas?” he asked, ignoring Tucker’s squawk of “Hey!”

“Does your school have any clubs?” Sam asked. She herself had made several friends through her occult book club.

“Bad idea.” Tucker immediately cut in. Even though he couldn’t see him, Danny knew Tucker was shaking his head.

“What? Why?”

“Last time I tried out for one we ended up with the haunted orchestra chasing us, remember?” Danny poked in.

“That was you?! I thought it was the ghost of the famous small town musician from 50 years ago!”

“It was, he was mad I tried out for clarinet.” Pretty much the only reason for ghosts to have beef with Danny was him stopping their mildly-inconvenienced brawls. It was just how they say hello.

“...Were you any good?” Tucker questioned, realizing he’d never actually asked.

“Tucker, would he have thrown a snare at us if I was?”

( ☆○o。< He’s a Phantom! > 。o○☆ )

Damian had fully intended to put the issue of his strange classmate to bed with the knowledge that he was just a non-native gothemite being schooled as a favor to some high society member. 

But the more time he spent around the mystery that was Danny, the stronger the urge to try and crack Danny open like an egg became. He wanted to see what the boy spilled.

Damian knew that he had taken after his father in the regards that knowledge was power. They were both paranoid opportunistically crafty information hoarders. Much like Batman, Damian never liked to walk into a room without the upper hand.

Living under Bruce's roof had humbled him a bit from that mentality, begrudgingly. 

After all, it was quite hard to have the “upper hand” in a house full of other vigilantes much older than him. At least the equal footing made Damian feel more certain in his abilities with this mission.

But there were only so many hours in the day one could spend towards information gathering, and one of the best lessons instilled in Damian by Talia was that some things weren’t worth chasing. Unless you knew that a lead connected to something of importance, it was dead weight information. 

Unlike his nosy gossipy classmates, Damian knew for a fact he had better things to be than butting into the lives of his classmates.

Normally prying into the lives of his classmates made him want to know less and less about them, to the point it became annoying to have information about them popping into his mind every time he saw their face. But for some reason Danny was the exact opposite.

In fact, just as Damian gave up his idea that Danny might be some kind of info gatherer for a higher power set on taking out the Wayne’s- Danny immediately handed Damian several more questions.

Why on earth would he laugh at someone clearly trying to stab him?

Why would he go outside again after such an experience? Did he have some kind of death wish? Or was he really so arrogant as to think it couldn’t happen twice??

And more importantly, how does he have so much vegan candy???

As hard as he tried to keep these questions buried, he knew he’d lost the battle as soon as his dumb brother opened his big, fat, mouth.

“Damian doesn’t have any friends though, how could he know?” 

To rewind back a couple of minutes…

It all started over a stupid newspaper. Just laying on the table while three boys had their breakfast.

“Wayne enterprises set to gain new CEO??” The title was already nothing more than bait, but the opening sentence underneath was what really drew attention. “When asked who will take over when he retires, Bruce Wayne says this: “Any one of my kids could do well in the business! Why, Tim has been developing a new software for my phone so I can find my bugatti's keys easier!”

The article proceeded to spend another page and a half speculating on Bruce’s age, how many children were biological, if there were any secret baby-mamas, but it mostly focused on the idea of him handing down the baton. 

Which was ridiculous.

It was nothing more than a stupid comment made by Father’s celebrity persona, but the fact of the matter was that Damian was not so much as even mentioned!

Dick and Jason not being mentioned he could understand, as neither of them wanted anything to do with the succession. Barbara was going to remain the woman in the chair either way, and the rest didn’t want anything to do with the Wayne succession. But Damian was actually training in order to continue his Father’s legacy. 

He might’ve understood that they didn’t take him seriously when he was 10, but that was years ago! Why did they still underestimate his prowess even though he was already an accomplished member of the Wayne household?!

Sure Damian’s hacking skills might be a little bit behind Tim’s, and yeah maybe he couldn’t write computer viruses on the fly the same way he did. But none of what Tim specialized in was core to running Wayne Enterprises, all of it were things he did as Red Robin. It just wasn’t fair.

“What does Tim have that I don’t?!” Damian slammed his hands on the table.

“A legal driver's license,” was Dick’s lazy response as he poured healthy off-brand cheerios into his bowl. 

“Ummm…” Duke scratched the back of his head, “Well, I think it’s more so because between the two of you, Tim is… uh…” he struggled to find a kind way to say it. “...friendlier?”

“What?”

Dick bit down a chuckle as Damian prickled like a pissed off cat.

He decided to throw a life raft out for Duke before the younger one drowned in his own words and was eaten via Dami-shark. “Well, you gotta keep in mind that business isn’t all just efficiency and hard work.”

Already the venom radiating off of their youngest was shifting over to him, so Dick hastily got to the point.

“Part of the reason Bruce’s been in the game this long is because he isn’t just the industry giant, he’s likable. His persona isn’t just a way for others to underestimate him, it’s what keeps the investments coming and the business partners wanting to shake his hand.” Dick said, waving his fork around as he talked.

“Half of the best inventors at Wayne enterprises wouldn’t be there at all if they thought a snooty owner wouldn’t give their work the time of day.” Dick tacked on as an afterthought.

Well, that was only part of it. The other part was that Bruce clearly was trying to respect Damian’s wish to be out of the public eye. The other might not have voiced it, but he clearly hated people. And god knows what might happen if the wrong reporter ended up pushing Damain’s buttons a little too hard.

“I’m a far better negotiator than Tim. ” Damian growled.

Dick held up a hand placatingly, “I’m not doubting your abilities as a negotiator, all I’m saying is that hashing out relationships takes a certain finesse! You have to make people want to come to you for more than it being a good opinion. It’s more than just getting the upper hand, you have to be what they want. Getting the other person to like you makes work go as smoothly as possible- and you hate talking to anyone your age. People notice that.”

The eldest brother proceeded to laugh when Damian glared daggers into his face. He hoped Richard choked on his cereal.

Eventually the table settled into mild silence.

Five minutes went by.

Damian continued to glare, barely breaking eye contact as he ate. Dick on the other hand kept a steady gaze down at his own cereal bowl. It was like a cowboy standoff, complete with a tumbleweed and all.

Finally Duke was the one who broke. “Damian, it’s not that you aren’t fit to run Wayne enterprises, it’s not even that Tim is taking over! It’s just the fact of the matter is that Bruce is in his forties and has a lot of kids who are now adults. People are just going to ask those kinds of questions.”

Dick snorted, almost sending milk shooting through his nose. He coughed a little bit after swallowing his bite of cereal. “Yeah well he’ll never retire if he has anything to say about it.”

Be as Batman or Bruce Wayne, one thing was for sure: Father would never quit unless something forced him to.

But why name Tim as the most likely candidate unless there was a bias? Or perhaps it was that Tim would look the best in the eyes of the media.

“The other thing is that business people want to talk to Tim and be his friend.” Dick added unhelpfully, which clearly struck a nerve without meaning to. He kept munching on his cereal, one leg slung over the knee of the other as he lazed about.

“Tons of people want to be my friend.” Damian said flatly, it came with the Wayne name. Everyone wanted to know more about the Waynes. 

The amount of teenagers brought to galas specifically so they could try and make friends with Damian were obscene enough that he could put together a magazine catalog and go through them with a red sharpie like he was buying a new car.

“Well… there’s a difference between people liking you because you’re a celebrity or want to make business deals and people liking you as a person that they want to get to know better.” Duke said.

The fact they were having this conversation at all was still pretty insane to Duke. At least in the context of Damian being jealous of Tim’s friendliness of all things. Tim! Tim ‘would scam someone six ways from Sunday and leak their IP address if they teabagged him too hard in an online game’ Drake! 

And somehow Damian was still the more rich-raised and socially inept of the two.

Daimian had already accepted his brothers, even accepted that being blood heir did not automatically give him the right of succession. But that didn’t mean he had given up the idea that there was some kind of hierarchy. 

His ‘survival of the fittest’ attitude would persist for a long, long time. Perhaps it would never go away. It was only reinforced with each clone Talia sent after him. The idea that Damian had to be the best, or be replaced.

Tim being the Robin before him as well as the most involved with Wayne enterprises made Damian that much more competitive. Even if the boy was willing to treat him as an equal, it didn’t curb his urge to stomp his brother into the dirt on certain issues.

Honestly? Even besides the idea of “negotiation vs friendship”, Damian could stand to have some people his age to hang out with. 

He hadn’t made any yet, wouldn’t make any unless he managed to swallow his pride and not try to assert dominance over whoever else he met. Which was looking more unlikely as time went on, but a big brother could hope.

Or at least, that was Dick’s thought process. His mouth didn’t get the memo though, as it half-sleepily said “Damian doesn’t have any friends though, how could he know?” 

Duke froze, and then slowly turned to Damian with a wide eyed expression: Clearly worried he would have to testify as a witness for whatever happened next.

Thankfully there was no murder that day. Instead, Damian Wayne stood silently, pushed away from the table, and did not resolve to murder his older siblings. 

Said older siblings watched their little brother stomp away, probably off to go hatch some kind of plan of revenge. Duke didn’t know better yet, but Dick was definitely going to be checking his bedroom for harmless-but-vengeful booby traps.

Damian really didn’t want any help when it came to his growth as a person. And while it did fall in line with the traditionally self destructive behaviors of the family, it could get quite concerning when a lot of that mentality came from the idea of “becoming the best heir.”

He might never let go of the superiority complex, but letting go of the idea that he was supposed to be the best no matter if he was in a league or family was something they just had to give him time to learn.

Duke sighed a long, suffering breath, “I feel like he didn’t even register the ‘Any one of my kids could do well in the business’ part.” 

Dick finished slurping down the remains of his milk, swallowed, and said “Yeah. That’s our little monster for ya.” 

Ah to be Robin again- young, insecure, and full of strange ideas of how to prove yourself.

( ☆○o。< He’s a Phantom! > 。o○☆ )

Was it petty? Yes. Pathetic, possibly even stupid? Of course.

But was Damian still going to do it? Absolutely.

As the bell rang, Damian quickly made his way to the front of the school. He blended in with the crowd until he got outside, then stuck to the shadows in order to people watch.

His eyes scanned the wave of students leaving, looking for one head of hair in particular.

The mission was simple: make one friend as Damian Wayne.

Following his defeat and underestimation in the eyes of the media, it was clear that there was one aspect of “Damian Wayne, heir to the Wayne throne” that needed to be perfected. The art of ensnaring unsuspecting followers. 

Now, the Wayne empire was already large enough that Damian didn’t need to be picky about choosing any future underlings. But that wasn’t the goal of this mission. The goal of this mission was to prove Dick wrong as well as test the different methods that would lead to “Friendship”.

The requirements were as follows.

• Mission Target: One (1) Friend

Requirements: 

• Cannot use Wayne family name to attract friends.
• Cannot use status as Robin to attract friends. 
• Must not (blatantly) lie to obtain friends.

However, this challenge was made harder by one restricting factor: Gossip.

If he was to do this, his family must not find out by any means possible. (He would never live down the humiliation from his siblings, not to mention they might take it as a sign of something silly like loneliness ). In which case, Damian’s own reputation as someone who stood entirely independent would come back to bite him. 

Perhaps it was one too many times of informing students of their parent’s impending divorce before it was finalized and announced, but the students of Gotham Academy avoided Damian like the plague.

Once upon a time it was appreciated, but now it would actively work against him. Anyone he allowed to get close to him would be immediately spotted and noticed. 

So that meant the challenge of keeping this so-called “friendship” hidden from his family outside of school hours, which should be fine as long as it didn’t interfere with any of his extracurriculars.

All of this was unnecessary, and would probably be completely irrelevant in a month anyway. 

But Damian refused to admit that Dick had a point. He’d prove him wrong by any means necessary. 

Even if it meant sloughing away his free time to play house with an imbecile. 

By high school standards, it should have been impossible. Except for the one, slight, chance that it might be with a recent transfer student in Damian’s grade.

A boy by the name Daniel Fenton.

Danny, a transfer student from Illinois, was entirely oblivious to the circulation of wealth in Gotham, as made apparent by the way he aimlessly bumbled around school. He came walking out the front, entirely oblivious to Damian’s schemes.

To be honest, he seemed to be oblivious to a lot of things. Almost anything that wasn’t directly in front of his face, and even then that was untrue sometimes.

He was the perfect target.

This little experiment would bear fruit as long as Danny stayed entirely oblivious. 

( ☆○o。< He’s a Phantom! > 。o○☆ )

‘Who’s following me home?’ Danny wondered.

Normally he’d shorten the twenty minute trek back to his apartment by dipping into an alleyway and ghosting back home, but today he couldn’t because someone was watching him. 

Speaking of that, Gotham had a weird amount of alleys. Like, what the heck? They had alleys up the wazoo! Big ones, skinny ones, ones with ledges, and so many ones that were either built like mazes or ended in dead ends! 

Need a specific type of alley? Gotham’s got one right up your alley!

Part of him still wanted to tempt fate and see if he could disappear on them, but unfortunately now was one of the rare times Gotham decided to let sunlight filter into her city so the dark spots had all dried up.

‘She must be really happy today,’ Danny thought, ‘I wonder what the occasion is’.

The weather was ever so slightly affected by a city spirit’s attitude. He’d ask her more about that, but Danny would have to Go Ghost if he ever wanted to meet her.

Danny’s eyebrows furrowed as the sensation suddenly disappeared. Whoever was watching him from behind a moment ago was now gone, but in Danny’s experience that meant they were about to-

“Hey.”

Danny nearly stumbled as he stopped himself from running into another shorter person. “Whoop sorry didn’t see you there, I almost- Oh! Damian?”

His studious deskmate looked up at him on the first try for once. “Hello Danny,” The boy said, a weird kind of pleasantness in his voice. “Funny running into you here.”

The smaller boy’s voice held a slightly clipped posh accent that reminded Danny a little of how Vlad spoke. 

Damian almost never made eye contact in class, and the one time Danny saw him outside of school was when it was really dark. But right now, Damian’s eyes were shining clearly in the sunlight, bringing out their vivid green.

“Hm? Oh, this is the route I take home from school! Do you live around here too?” 

Absentmindedly, Danny reached into his jacket pocket and pulled out a slightly peanut chocolate bar to offer to Damian.

The other boy took it in one easy slide, not even breaking eye contact. Their fingers barely brushed as Damian talked.

“Aha… No. One of my favorite tea shops operates near here. Would you care if I took a stroll with you?” Damian sounded… significantly sweeter than before. The agitated tone in his voice that had been consistent with every interaction before this had completely evaporated. 

Weird, but not like Danny was gonna question it.

“Not at all, let’s go!” Danny agreed easily. This was already the longest conversation he’d had with any of his classmates all day. Two of them had actually ran when he got close to them.

Damian smiled, looking incredibly unnerving to the passersby behind Danny. However, Danny didn’t mind in the slightest as Damian quickly fell into step next to the ghost on his way home. “Wonderful…” The boy crooned, trailing off eerily. 

(At least, it would sound eerie to anyone else. To Danny- who dealt with eerie things on a daily basis- it was just plain old enthusiasm.)

“Honestly it’s the perfect day for a walk with the sun being out today! With all this darkness I felt like I was starting to become as pale as a ghost.” Danny chuckled a little at his own joke.

Damian did not laugh, but he nodded in agreement. “Yes, the sun is quite nice isn’t it? Most of the Metropolis population say it is their favorite part of their city.”

“Hm? Oh I’m not from Metropolis, I’m from a little town in Illinois.”

From the corner of his eye, Danny could see Damian’s brow crinkle the slightest bit before smoothing out again. “I see, so you are unaccustomed to big cities.”

“Oh you bet, back in Amity-” Ah shit, he forgot to google if Amity existed here “-you could practically hear crows eating the corn, it was that quiet.” Well, between the ghost attacks at least.

Something about that made a certain kind of satisfied aura drift off of Damian. “If you’d like someone to act as your guide, I would be happy to assist.” The shorter boy offered.

“Really? That’d be great! I keep getting lost around here.” Even with wall hacks getting around Gotham was no joke.

And really it was a nice offer. It sounded like just the enrichment that Tucker and Sam had been discussing the night before.

Almost a little too nice actually. It made Danny actually take a step back and think about how close he really was with Damian right now.

See, there was something Danny couldn’t really get out of his mind. This continuous question- why would Damian bother to try and chat him up outside of school while completely stonewalling him inside?

It wasn’t as though Damian was being unfriendly, he’d accepted all of the candy that Danny gave him. And Danny certainly wouldn’t accept candy from someone he hated (or maybe he would, it wasn’t like that had happened yet.) 

So either Damian did hate Danny and just wanted free candy…

…Or Danny’s theory was right!

In a flash, the scene appeared in the ghost boy’s mind. Damian, carrying a bunch of heavy books to class. A random faceless bully that just so happened to sport yellow hair and a white-red jacket comes out of nowhere and slaps them all out of the smaller boy’s hands. Forcing him to pick them all up before class starts, resulting in him getting late to class and earning detention from Mr.Lancer.

Okay, maybe it was a rephrase from one of Danny’s memories. But Danny could tell that’s the general experience that Danny dealt with on a day to day basis.

Damian, poor socially awkward Damian, was having trouble being skeptical with someone trying to approach him for friendship because he was too used to being bullied and alone.

‘He must be trying to push me away at school so that I don’t get bullied too!’ Danny thought. ‘I mean, all things considered, isolation is better than what Dash was doing to me, and I can handle getting shoved into lockers. But what if his bullies get bolder if I approach him? 

“-how does that sound?”

“Huh?” Danny looked up, realizing he had completely tuned Damian out. “Sorry, I spaced out, what did you say?” he asked, scratching the back of his head.

“Oh…” There was a tiny twitch in Damain’s face, almost looking like agitation, but it was gone in a split second. “I was just apologizing, I don’t like to talk much during school hours…”. The boy quietly trailed off.

Danny’s eyes widened as he processed that sentence.

Eh?! Danny was right!!! He totally was being bullied! Damian sounded so wistful and sad too…

Heartstrings having been successfully pulled, Danny was quick to reassure Damian. “Don’t worry! I completely understand, I’m behind you all the way!!” You go little buddy!!

It might have been a little too much enthusiasm from the confused look Damian gave Danny in response, but as long as it got the message across that was fine. “...as I was saying, I would like to talk more with you. Are you free tomorrow after school? I was going to get food.”

Aw, Damian wanted to simulate having lunch with someone properly because he can’t do it at school, that was even sadder than Danny first thought! T^T

He patted Damian on the back “Of course buddy! Just tell me when and where!” Actually, that was a bit too much like his father, he’d dial back on the back-patting.

Damian’s face was still smiling, but a little scrunched up at the human contact. Nonetheless Danny watched as the shorter boy quickly composed himself. “Thank you, I appreciate it. I… like it when things stay one on one. It’s easier for me that way.”

(Easier to back his opponents into a corner, that is. It wasn’t technically a lie.)

“I totally get that. Ah, this is my stop. Here, let me get your number!” Danny eagerly pulled out his phone to hand over to Damian.

Damian, pleased with an easy step 1, put in a disposable phone number that still routed to his civilian line but could be dropped at any time. He didn’t need Danny’s phone number (it was already traced and documented) but the gesture would serve as a social marker.

“Great! So I guess I’ll see you tomorrow then?” Danny asked. His mind was already restlessly going over ways to grow closer to Damian in order to soothe the other’s social anxiety and possibly get him to make more friends in the future before Danny left Gotham!

Ah, it appeared that the protective half of Danny’s obsession was flaring up with Damian around. 

The nice thing was that this way, Danny could kill two birds with one stone. Feeding his obsession and making friends.

“See you tomorrow.” Damian agreed amicably with a small nod. He tried not to let his grin grow too wide.

Danny waved goodbye as he opened the lobby door and began the hike up the stairs to the fifth floor. 

Finally! Day 16 in Gotham and he finally had a friend!

Damian walked away, a vicious grin twitching at the edges of his mouth. Danny walked away happily, with sunflowers and peonies floating around his mind as he thought about his successful friend to friend interaction.

As Danny finally went up the stairs to his apartment for some sweet chillax time, he finally realized what was off about that conversation earlier. “Wait… why was Damian headed towards school instead of away?”

He’d been headed the opposite direction as Danny when they’d ran into each other, so why do a complete U-turn just to walk Danny home?

He mused on it for a second, before immediately realizing he was a dunce. Damian probably just got lost. 

Danny pondered how to continue striking up a conversation over text before forgetting all about it when he opened the fridge and the pickles attacked.

( ☆○o。< He’s a Phantom! > 。o○☆ )

That was ridiculously easy. 

Damian smirked to himself as he devoured the last bit of chocolate from the bar, using his thumb to clean off his lip from the sticky melted bits. 

Danny ended up being a much easier target than Damian had expected, the boy was practically jumping at the opportunity to talk to someone else. All that Damian had to do was dangle the idea of meeting up and he agreed to absolutely everything.

For once, Damian understood why Father went out so much as Bruce ‘Brucie’ Wayne. It was a little thrilling to have someone underestimate him so easily. Though he imagined the adrenaline rush would soon get boring. 

Who knows, if this experiment went well then Damian could have the entirety of Gotham city eating out of his hand. 

The idea was tempting but Damian immediately scratched it. He would need a lot more data for that to work, not to mention he didn’t think he could stand to live if he acted half as obnoxious as his Father’s playboy persona. 

‘Soon, I’ll have the leg up I need on Tim,’ Damian thought gleefully.

Chapter Text

In all actuality, Damian wasn’t expecting step 2 to go as smoothly as 1 did.

Step 2 was holding enough of a successful outing with The Friend Candidate that Damian could officially be nominated as friend. If it failed, he’d simply do his best to keep them quiet and move onto another person.

That was what Damian rationalized as he munched on today’s Alter Eco chocolate coconut truffle. Thankfully Danny had continued to heed Damian’s order to not talk to him during school or sit with him at lunch even with the new invitation between them.

Throughout class, Damian had gone over a list of appropriate “Getting to know someone as a friend” questions. Harmless things like “What’s your favorite animal” in order to better understand what kind of a person Danny was.

Once he could narrow down Danny’s likes, dislikes, and weaknesses, then he’d know exactly what side of ‘Damian Wayne’ to show him.

Lying by omission didn’t count towards the “no lying” rule. It was more of a “no fabricating false information to seem more normal” rule. All Damian had to do was spin his life story into something that seemed more casual, then it would be hook, line, and sinker.

Danny F.

So do you want to meet up at the shop or find each other first and you walk me there?

Damian W.

I have sent directions.

Damian W.

< Attached >

Damian W.

Meet me in the south corner booth, the one away from the windows.

It was just a mild precaution, Damian didn’t want to get caught by tabloids of all people. Thankfully a hoodie and a little bit of ruffling his hair make him look like an ordinary school kid.

Danny arrived… oddly quick. Not two minutes after Damian sent the location, Danny walked through into the quaint coffee & teahouse. Odd, because it was at least a 20 minute walk from school. Damian had only made it ahead of time by using his Robin skills.

But then again Danny lived somewhere in the area, so it was of no concern. 

“Hey Damian! How’s it hangin’?” Danny asked, sliding effortlessly into the booth. Displaying a bit of that country tongue that he leaned into when he relaxed.

“The same as usual.” Damian murmured, “I admire this place for its peace and tranquility.” And also because the staff could not be paid off by reporters. 

For a moment Damain regretted letting Danny know the location of one of his favorite daytime places. There was a brief minute where he imagined Danny leaving and blabbing to everyone in Gotham city about how he went to a tea place with Damian Wayne, then the shop would be overrun with non-tea-appreciative hooligans trying to get pictures of him…

That fear disappeared as soon as Danny picked up the menu and went “Oh dang, I’ve never seen this much tea before…” squinting at the options like he was trying to read hieroglyphics. 

(In Danny’s defense, he actually could read hieroglyphics and those were actually more coherent than whatever this was).

The letters on the page were small and crammed together to list every available tea mix, additive, and all their ingredients. As well as whatever side snacks people often liked to take with their tea. Allergen alternative options were also perusable for customer’s leisure. 

“Which one would you recommend?” Danny asked, gawking as he flipped over the already lengthy menu to find a whole other side. 

“It depends.” Damian smirked to himself internally, “On what flavors you like. They have sweet, sour, tangy, bitter, and everything in between. Some teas have stronger flavor than others, and some have various biological effects.”

Danny paused and cocked his head like a roost, “Biological effects?”

“Relaxation, pain relief, muscle spasm relief, upset stomach relief, relief of constipation-”

The boy shuddered and his face scrunched. “Er, no thanks.” Danny said, “I don’t want a tea that’ll make me shit myself-” Damian bristled slightly at the vulgar wording “-just give me one that tastes good.”

Danny folded the menu and looked expectantly at Damian, who was fighting the urge not to scowl.

“I see.” So he was so lazy as to not even want to choose? 

Danny would make Damian choose for him like he was a flippant master shooing off a servant? Perhaps there was a reason he’d remained friendless this long if this was the kind of manners Danny had. Fine then, Damian would choose. 

“I think I know the perfect one.” Damian said, smiling as he got up to go and inform the counter of their order. His cheeks were beginning to hurt from all this forced grinning. But that was what friends did right? Smiled every time they saw each other…

It was after he ordered and had to reluctantly make his way back to the table Damian was struck with the sudden realization that this might be a challenge.

‘I know I can keep up the facade of being friendly and engaging,’ Damian internally grumbled. ‘But how long will I be able to stand his incompetence before impatience wins out?’

“Thanks” Danny said as soon as Damian got back to the table. “Gotta be honest, aside from the fancy stuff that my pops has most nights- I never drink tea.”

Damian wanted to sneer that it was abundantly clear from the way that Danny slouched in his seat and made Damian order for him that Danny didn’t have the slightest idea about the complexity of tea. He was one of those people who thought drinking boxed chamomile made them oh so different and unique. 

“I can tell.” Is what Damian politely (and backhandedly) said instead. “Lucky for you this place is extremely authentic. They have teas from around the world, and have been operating for over 20 years.” 

It was the one quiet and out of the way place that could brew an excellent enough cup for a butler and his adopted grandchild to have the occasional afternoon spent talking about the mundane. 

Danny looked a bit happier at his explanation, but didn’t seem to absorb a drop of it. “You sound just like my friend Sam, she’s always talking about the history of things. Mostly because her parents made her memorize it.” Danny leaned back thoughtfully, “Actually, there is something about Gotham I’ve been wanting to know more about…”

“Oh? Tell me more.” Yes Danny, foist all of your basic, googleable questions onto someone who is more knowledgeable than you will ever be. 

Danny smiled and leaned in, starting to look genuinely engaged as he opened his mouth and asked the last question Damain expected.

“Does Gotham have any ghosts?” 

Damian blinked. Ghosts…

What an odd question. Although admittedly, he was not immediately opposed to it. So long as the discussion revolved around the scientific theory of the afterlife and unusual resuscitation experiences.

But ghosts weren't real and most of those files (and dead man's existence) were classified. So Damian took the more logical route.

“Such as the lingering hallucinogenic experiences caused by fear gas?” Damian questioned, putting a hand on the table. 

It was common for those inflicted by fear gas to see “ghosts” of their earlier hallucinations out of the corners of their eyes for days afterward. Usually happening to those longer exposed. With the unintended side effect of convincing the more paranoid that Gotham is closer to the afterlife than other places on earth. An entirely ridiculous notion, (but not technically untrue).

“No. Like, ghosts. Souls. Y'know, spooky dead people haunting around?” Danny quirked a brow and raised both hands to make a sort of “thriller” gesture, wiggling the edges of his fingers as if they were creepy crawly spiders.

It was almost as if Danny was trying to make sure Damian knew what a ghost was.

Damian watched him do that and took a moment to realign his train of thought, near speechless. “...You're interested in the paranormal?”

What exactly was this topic of conversation supposed to be? He supposed there were quite a few supernatural cases within the records of the justice league, but those real-life horror stories didn’t really compare to anything that aligned with the kind tourist attractions that some cold cases turned into.

Still, Danny lit up like a Christmas tree. “Yeah, my whole family loves ghosts!”

“Do they now?” An assassination attempt was preferable to this. 

Honestly, Damian didn’t even remember what he was expecting from this outing. The corners of his mouth strained with the effort it took for them not to turn downward.

“The place where I’m from- Amity park, was full of them! It mostly started out as ghost legends because all small towns have those, there was one about a miner who-” 

Danny began to ramble about the small country town he came from while Damian mentally reviewed how the afternoon was going.

From an outside standpoint, everything was going splendidly. They had made it to the location on time, Danny was properly engaged, and no complications had sprung up. However on the inside Damian was already a baking soda volcano someone had poured too much vinegar into. 

He just didn’t understand where this went so wrong, shouldn’t he be feeling the satisfaction of successfully tricking someone?

Could it be the dissatisfaction of his efforts not yielding fruit yet? Nonsense, Damian had sacrificed far more time towards other types of obscure training. It had to be something else.

Objectively, Danny was an optimal Friend Candidate. He was harmless, isolated, and already friendly without Damian having to do anything to make the first move. And from the way he was enjoying this bland one sided conversation- clearly Danny already accepted Damain’s offer of friendship. 

So why did Damian feel like he was being forced to walk across hot coals?

Perhaps it was because Danny was too much of a fool, tricking him held little to no satisfaction. Damian tuned back into Danny’s chattering for a second. 

“-and for a while he was called Invis o’ Bill but that was just a fan name, he later introduced himself as Phantom! Sure there’s red huntress and the Fentons, but neither of them are as good at ghost catching as Phantom is! Once-”

Nope, still nonsense. 

Drivel poured and poured from Danny’s mouth, making Damian feel ready to upend the table and storm out.

This was exactly why he didn’t need friends, this was always the reason why he shut down any attempts at interaction. Because at the end of the day, all of it was entirely useless.

He sat there, stewing. 

Why was he bothering with this again? What kind of advantage did this give him anyways? If anything, a calm and cold demeanor would be a more effective face as family head. What did it matter if Tim had more personability if it meant that Damian could escape from this mind numbing-

Until suddenly Damian realized: This is exactly what Dick and Duke must have meant.

Memories of his brothers attempting to nudge Damian into personable conversations or introducing him to people ran through his head at lightspeed. At no point had he ever really ‘failed’ to communicate, because he’d shut down all communication as soon as the bare minimum was accomplished. 

It wasn’t that he couldn’t. It was that he didn’t want to.

‘So it isn’t that I don’t have the same ability as him, it is that he has developed the better ability to remain courteous during idiotic mingling…’. 

Tim had grown up as the only child to two very high status parents, so he had the practice of making polite conversation for years and years. Had this singular area really managed to give Tim such an advance?

(This is not accurate. Damian had more combat prowess, but Tim is by far a better engineer, programmer, and hacker.)

He took a sip of the complementary palette cleansing water to hide his own internal agony as it became apparent to him that his siblings were, gasp, right.

It poured over like a bucket of arctic cold ice water.

Damian didn’t have any friends.

How could he have overlooked such an obvious fault?! For years his family poked fun at the fact he refused to make any friends, all that time spent treating him with kiddy gloves was because he was choosing the most effectively brash method of socialization instead of practicing for the day he would have to brown nose and swindle from other socialites!

(No, it is because he was in fact: a kid.)

‘It’s not a test of my prowess, it’s a test of my patience.’ Damian realized with a grimace. He thought that just because he could sit in a room for three days without food, water, or sleep that his ability to be patient had been honed, but that wasn’t the case at all. 

Thirty minutes with a teenage girl talking about her celebrity crush would have him folding like an omelet. (Folding as in ‘stabbing’).

Danny was still talking as well.

“-Skulker’s pretty much the only one who still tries to fight Phantom on a usual basis, but it isn’t even because he wants to skin him anymore, it’s just that he hates that one of his rare catches is now off limits so he wants to-” Danny, what the fuck are you talking about? 

It must be some kind of book or movie, that was usually 30% of what high schoolers talked about anyways. Damian could occasionally understand the urge to envelop oneself so deeply in fiction.

But the idea of discussing basic books like ‘Twilight’ or ‘Harry Potter’ almost made his resolve wither.

‘No! I must persevere!’ Damian scolded himself as the waitress came over with their brewed teas. ‘This mission has not changed in the slightest, it is only that I have realized my faults.’ 

Completely unbeknownst to his tablepartner, Damian was silently reforging himself. 

Many things that Damian was taught during his upbringing had been disapproved of by Father and his brothers. He hadn’t considered that maybe there were also things they didn’t outright disapprove of, but still didn’t bring to his attention as issues. To his knowledge up until now, casual masquerading had been optional.

Perhaps it still was, but if it was acting as a ball and chain to Damian’s potential as heir, then he wasn’t going to let it stay. 

Be calm, be unmoved, they are beneath you. This was another one of mother’s lessons that had now been undermined by the Wayne household. He’d done it before, and he would do it again.

Damian would do better.

Silently, he squeezed his hands into fists underneath the table while Danny gestured wildly alongside a story that had gone completely unheard.

This can still be salvaged.

A beautiful red rosehip tea was placed in front of Damian. Its brew was a brilliant red color so clear he could see his reflection in it. A sprig of mint was placed beside it, completing the visage. 

In front of Danny was a mistake, a wrath filled order that Damian had gotten for the sole sake of getting back at Danny for not even so much as throwing out a single name of tea he’d like to try. 

Triple infused Peppermint tea, iced, and specifically requested to steep at a lengthy time so it would be as bitter as possible. The ice would only enhance the flavor of bitterness as the cold chilled your tongue. 

Many cold teas could turn bitter when infused for too long. But this was guaranteed to attack the nerves in the tongue and teeth. 

‘I have to stop him from drinking too much of that,’ Damian thought, ‘I’ll order him a sweetened Hibiscus when he rejects that one…’ His little tantrum was humiliatingly backfiring on him. But on the brighter side, it would test Damian’s ability to reconcile. 

He was, according to his siblings: bad at it.

Danny’s eyes lit up at the sight of the tea anyway, completely unaware of the trap set before him.

“You know what this calls for actually? More chocolate!” Danny, with his seemingly infinite pockets, grabbed several tiny wrapped mini-bars out of his jacket and foiested them at Damian. “Here, have some.”

The gift giving made something more uncomfortable than anger twist in Damain’s stomach. It served as a reminder as to why this was the one he first chose. He could fault Danny for being an idiot, sure, but he should at least take back the trap he set for him.

It was fine. Danny was sweet and dumb, he would not fault Damian for a bit of bitter tea.

“Thank you.” Damian said with a bit of struggle. After a second of hesitation, Damian spoke up “Actually, Danny I think that one might be too-”.

A loud smash of glass interrupted his (extremely) late attempt at rectifying things, but thankfully Danny paused just as he was picking the glass up.

Ah, there was a brick on the floor. A brick sitting a ways away from where the window had just been smashed in. A window that was right next to the perfectly openable door. A door that the goons were ignoring in favor of smashing their way through a window.

Goon logic, boys.

The leader of the group stepped forward through the hole in the window boldly. “Alright LISTEN UP! Here’s how this is gonna go, nobody move or we start shootin’!” Ah, a classic. Couldn’t get any more stereo unless we had a jukebox and couple of ghosts.

At least, that was Danny’s impression. Damian’s mind was filled with both relief and anger.

Relief because it saved him temporarily from the mortification of needing to perform an on the spot apology. Anger because it was now clear this outing was a failure and would likely need to be done all over again from square one. 

There were a hundred ways Damian could disarm them, if not for the one little problem at hand: Danny was with Damian. 

Danny, stupid, squishable, not at all aware of active danger Danny. If he were a bystander then he’d be a risk, but he was actively in the way of Damian and the threats, which was entirely worse.

The robber waved the gun around in a way that clearly spoke of in-experience. This guy was an absolute amatuer, picking both terrible location and time of day. 

“Everyone down!” The main one yelled. Three of them stood together, each of them stood back to back in order to make sure the entire teahouse was under their watch. “Nobody move a muscle.” They ordered. Like hell Damian was going to follow that order.

It would only take a moment to disappear and reappear as Robin, but that might not be a moment that those people had. Still, he was much closer than anyone on patrol might be right now, so it was time to take over the situation.

Danny idiot that he was moved as though to get out of the booth. Damian grabbed his shoulder and shoved him back down to use the booth as a shield.

Damian was definitely faster, so he couldn’t risk trying to get Danny out with him. 

“Stay here. Don’t move.” Damian ordered Danny. He prayed from the bottom of his heart that Danny was smart just this one time, and wouldn’t engage them.

( ☆○o。< He’s a Phantom! > 。o○☆ )

Danny was still new to Gotham and had yet to learn how high the city wide crime rate was.

The Gotham rule of thumb was: If anyone had a dollar on them, chances were that it had been stolen before. 

What Danny did know was that bad luck followed him like a storm cloud, and so, forgetting that he was not the only superhero in the city, Danny of course turned to face the robbers as soon as they smashed their way in.

He wasn’t Phantom at the moment, but he didn’t need to be! Most of his powers still worked in human form, if only at a lower strength. (Which was honestly still way more strength than he needed, but Danny didn’t realize that yet).

“Stay here.” Damian whispered to Danny. He felt the warmth of the other boy disappear from his side as he said “Don’t move.” and left.

He could sense worry in the other boy’s tone, even if it hadn’t changed in any way. But why else would Damian try so hard to protect Danny then move, risking getting shot himself?

Damian was like a bullet, shooting off into the darkened part of the tea house behind them before Danny could respond. He couldn’t even turn his head to see where Damian went, his eyes were laser focused on the robbers.

Because really… what were they hoping to achieve? This was, in all honesty, an overpriced tea shop. Call it what you may, but they sold glasses of tea for way more than their prices were worth. 

It was a fancy people place.

‘Well, I guess I’m fancy people now, so I have to get used to it,’ Danny groaned. Ignoring the fact that his new third parent was Vlad ‘Vampire Money’ Masters , being king of the infinite realms came with a boatload of cash. Like, seriously! Danny could buy his own planet!

The idea was cool, if he could- legally, he would love to own jupiter. That kind of real estate was gonna be HUGE in about 5000 years probably. But knowing his luck, it was already inhabited by Jupiterians, or something.

Wait, years in the future? No, Danny needed to focus on here, and now.

Robbery, being robbed, being robbed with guns, only person immune to bullets, but also can’t go ghost… ah, that might be an issue.

Danny grimaced, but got ready to put on his most charming disposition. He’d negotiated with worse, living people were more reasonable- right?

All of them had guns, so logically nobody was going to step up and be the negotiator because all of them would get shot. Fortunately for everyone else in the tea shop, there was one person here who couldn’t be affected by bullets at all, and he was very good at keeping people safe from death (and other adjacent dead beings.)

Danny stood promptly from the booth. At worst, he’d claim that he dodged the bullets neo-style if anyone asked. 

He put his hands in the air in a sort of “take me to your leader” position and tried to think of what would be the best way to defuse this situation.

As soon as Danny started approaching, turning intangible as he did, the robber immediately pulled out his gun and pointed it directly towards him. Danny lifted his hands even higher, looking like he was about to give two jump-high fives.

“Look man, I’m not here to cause trouble.” He tried gently, but the robbers weren’t having it.

“Then you better get down right now. ”

“But I just wanna know one thing-”

“Shut the hell up kid if you know what’s-”

So Danny took the logical option and started yelling at the man with the gun.

“Why are you doing this!?” Danny shouted. 

For a second, the air didn’t move. Danny was a skinny, immensely danger prone teenager, eyes locked in an intense staring contest with someone who had no idea their weapon was useless against that. But none of the goons knew that, all they really knew was that the charges for murder were probably higher when minors were involved. 

All three of them looked at each other, then looked back at the teenager who just asked why they were robbing a store in Gotham.

“...what?” the first robber asked. Because that was almost the dumbest question to ask in this part of the country. Almost, it was second to “can I please have my purse back.” 

“I said why are you doing this?” Danny reiterated in a calmer tone, still keeping eye contact and hands in the air. But with his foot, he nudged the brick that landed near his table. “I mean, a brick? Guys there’s a door right there.”

Goon 1# was still staring at him, while the two others exchanged a look through their masks behind his back. If Danny didn’t know better, he’d almost think they were asking each other ‘is this kid serious?’

He was offended. He was very serious, this was his serious surrender stance. 

“You’re just trying to stall for Batman. ” The second-in-command goon spat, also turning his gun on Danny. 

“I’m not stalling for anything! I just wanna know why you want the money, I mean maybe we can hash something out here.” Danny wasn’t actually sure how much cash was in his wallet, but he was sure if needed he could call a time-out and grab some from the castle vault.

“If you’re offering your life, you’re better off giving us the money.” The third goon said, sounding both intimidating… but also like he really didn’t want to put murdering a teenager on his criminal record for the rest of his life. 

Actually now that he thought about it, none of them had actually moved as he got closer. 

“That still doesn’t answer my initial question.” Danny pointed out, “I mean it’s one thing to just be doing this just because. But is there a specific reason? Robbing small places never gets anyone a lot of money, and they usually get caught, so unless this -” He gestured around to the tea house in all its tea-y glory “-is your one and done, there has to be a reason.”

The leader, who was getting increasingly aggravated at having both his motives and his (terrible) methods questions, finally gave into his building anger and yelled in a genuine frustration. 

“I HAVE RENT, SHUT UP!” 

That was… honestly the crummiest excuse he came up with. But it was probably true, they didn’t sound that much older than Danny was to be honest. Maybe Jazz’s age.

He still couldn’t help but judge them for it. Danny finally put his hands down to make a vaguely disappointed. “And your solution to that is robbing a tea store? C’mon man I bet some places are hiring!” 

“This is Gotham! Nobody is hiring!” The thief threw his hands up in the air in absolute disbelief at the child judging his choices in crime (still holding the gun though.)

“Well have you asked?!” Danny threw his arms out in frustration. 

The goon paused, turned to the manager who was huddled behind the counter, and asked in a very small and hesitant voice. “...are you hiring?”

It took a second, but eventually she gave him a very small nod. Her index finger hesitantly pointed at a hiring sign next to the smashed part of the window. A solid three seconds passed by without anyone moving an inch as that information sank in.

“Wait wait wait backup!” goon #2 yelled, “Deriek, all you needed this entire time was money?! I thought we was robbin’ the place for the good kush?”

“This is a tea shop, Blake.” goon #3 stated blasely. 

“Yeah, but you can gets high off those fancy tea leaves, right?” Goon #2 asked, scratching the back of his head, “That’s what my ma always did, she’d bake those tea leaves into brownies to help me and my bro sleep at night.”

There was another round of silence. 

“Blake, I think we gotta talk about your mom lying to you again…” goon #3 trailed off. His tone was a little quieter, and softer. Like he was trying not to scare off a stray cat.

Goon #2 immediately bristled at the indirect accusation of his dear mother. “Oh come on! It was just to help me an’ ma brotha sleep, what kinda lie could she possibly be tellin’ me this time!?”

“ Shut up you two. ” Goon #1 hissed loudly.

After a very long pause, he cleared his throat and said in a significantly nicer tone. “...do you know if anywhere else on this street is hiring?”

The manager sat up straighter, looked the criminal dead in the eyes and said “If you fix the window I’ll pay what it costs plus 300$” she said sternly, but earnestly. “Once we get that far, we’ll see if you can start monday.”

Goon #1 was skeptical, but after a second the woman got up and began asking about his resume and qualifications. He answered her every question, still fully ski-masked up, and his tone became shakier and shakier as the conversation went on.

She went back behind the counter to grab a form for him, and that was when the guy finally broke down. His shoulders hitched a bit, and his friends immediately went to hug him. “It’s alright man, we’re here for ya.” 

“I’m not crying, shut the fuck up!” 

“Deriek I was willing to rob this place for you, you really think I ain’t gonna loan you a bit of cash?”

“Blake, now’s not the time for this. We gotta find a plane of glass, quick.” 

The scene was so moving, Danny had to put a hand over his heart and resist the urge to say “aww…”. He wiped a tear from the corner of his eye, “I love happy endings…” he whispered.

Both his core and heart swelled from the happy sight, plus the satisfaction of successfully protecting the tea-drinkers from being shot. 

Because at this point the only people left in the place were Danny, the goons, and the workers. Everyone else fled as soon as Danny began arguing (and therefore distracting) the would-be robbers. 

Things felt pretty wrapped up at that point, it only really took three minutes to resolve so Danny was quite surprised when the door kicked open to reveal Robin in all his red and yellow glory.

He was much brighter in the daytime, dark cape no longer blending in and instead swishing dramatically when he entered. 

Robin looked hardened and ready for a fight, a batarang in each hand already pulled back to be flung. So he was clearly taken aback by what he actually walked in on. 

The vigilante looked at the goons talking things out pleasantly with the manager, Danny- who was clearly the only customer left, and the still-very-obvious giant hole in the glass. He could almost see the vigilante registering that the situation was now defused, but struggling to fit the pieces together in his mind.

Danny didn’t know what else to do other than to shoot him a thumbs up and say “Oh don’t worry, we’re good here man!” 

If he didn’t know better, he’d almost think Robin looked immensely confused for one whole second, before his face hardened into a very offensive look of disgust and irritation. Wow, rude. 

Whatever, the day was saved. (No ghost edition).

Then Danny simply strolled over to their table, threw back the entire glass of Icy peppermint tea in one gulp, turned to the waitress still hesitantly hiding under a table and said “Hey Miss? I’m ready for the check please.” 

( ☆○o。< He’s a Phantom! > 。o○☆ )

Danny had only gotten a block outside of the Teahouse before a firm stare pinned him to the ground. Someone with a very murderous gaze was staring holes into him from one on top of the nearby buildings.

‘Ah.’ Was the first thought that popped into his head. ‘They finally got me.’ Danny silently accepted his fate.

Even if he hadn’t Gone Ghost since he got to Gotham, he knew that some of the bigger ghouls would find him out eventually and come looking for a fight. Or maybe even someone from his dimension would track him down (Skulker).

He couldn’t find Damian after the guys left, so he just resolved to leave and text Damian back on the way. 

The waitress was still super nice, and had waved off his offer of payment by informing him that Damian already had a tab set up. On one hand Danny found it sweet that Damian took him to a place that obviously meant a lot to him, but on the other hand his single brain cell went “tab??? In a tea house????” Fancy people place.

Unsurprisingly, the gaze turned out to be from a certain vigilante who had walked in on Danny having a non-normal interaction with criminals. Again. That was two nickels now. 

Robin had briefly confirmed everything was truly alright with the manager before seemingly deciding to stalk Danny home again. Which, Danny normally wouldn’t mind except it was making him a bit nervous. 

He guesses he couldn’t blame the vigilante for being more than a little curious, but what was all this following? Surely Robin doesn’t give every Gothamite this treatment, or maybe just the ones he doesn’t recognize.

Not even a second passed with Danny meeting Robin’s gaze before the vigilante turned away. His dark hair was the last thing Danny caught as the vigilante vanished from the edge of the roof. Disappearing so cleanly despite the light of the late afternoon sun still shining. 

‘Okay? Cool beans man.’ Danny stared a little bit at the place where Robin vanished, wondering what exactly he was supposed to do. ‘I guess if he’s Batman's partner then he needs equally edgy disappearances.’

One very common type of video that floated around gotham were short clips of seeing batman disappear, the way that he melded into the darkness was near hypnotic. Danny hadn’t actually looked for any of these videos, but googling gotham related things pulled at least three onto his for-you page.

To be honest, despite all the differences, it was pretty easy to feel at home in Gotham. It really was the perfect city for a ghost. Toxic air, weirdly aggressive residents, swap out the ghost attacks for robberies and it’s pretty much the same.

Danny is most definitely bringing Dan and Dani here to visit during winter or spring break. He needed to get an up-close picture of them posing next to the gargoyles so he could claim they were just as ugly.

He was about halfway back when he remembered to text Damian.

Danny F.

Did you make it out okay?

Damian W.

I am fine. Robin intercepted my call to the police.

Danny F.

Obviously, you were the first one outta there.

Danny F.

Thankfully it didn’t come to anything! I think those guys might actually be turning their life around.

Danny F.

They actually apologized and promised to replace the glass, I think that one guy just really needed cash. You shoulda seen it!!!

Damian W.

Don’t be stupid.

Damian W.

Fraternizing with criminals is a fast way to be killed.

Danny F.

Yeah, but those guys were harmless.

Danny F.

Thanks for the tea you picked out, it was absolutely delicious! ^-^ the chill went right to my bones, it was great.

Damian W.

I am glad you enjoyed it.

Damian W.

I will contact you later about our next outing.

Danny F.

Alrighty, seeya

( ☆○o。< He’s a Phantom! > 。o○☆ )

The experience had, all in all, gone horribly wrong.

First he lost his temper, then they got attacked, then Danny’s utter nonchalance managed to make Robin lose his words again!

He could’ve contacted Duke or Oracle about the situation, but he needed the guarantee neither of them would see him with Danny. Any minor news about Robin showing up to a tea house was easier to kick under the rug than Damain Wayne going on an outing with a classmate.

A vein in Damian’s head twitched a little at the reminder of how obvious his flaw was. To be so apparent that everyone in the manor, even the unobservant ones, had caught on before Damian himself. Inexcusable. 

No wonder they insisted he needed things like “friends” and “people his age to talk to”. They weren’t just entertaining idealistic fantasies about him needing human companionship like a soft-hearted child, they were actively worried about Damian’s supposed inability to withstand interacting cordially with other people.

No wonder he’d heard them hushedly discussing things such as “ therapy. ”

The fact he hadn’t noticed it sooner made Damian feel… embarrassed for once. He was so used to catching his flaws as soon as they grew in, this one flew completely under the radar.

He’d need to get himself acclimated to making boring conversation as soon as possible. The main issue wasn’t the talking, but the ability to sit and (ugh) listen to what other people were saying.

Damian was not looking forward to that. But it was clear he was too easily aggravated by the mindless opinions of uncultured civilians. If he was to someday guide the empire that was Wayne Enterprises, he would need to build better defenses against mindless chattering.

It was a lucky coincidence that Danny’s taste in tea was absolutely appalling, chugging down some of the most bitter, freezing cold tea Damian had ever seen- even if it was presented nicely.

That kind of slip going forward would be inexcusable.

Damian sighed, running a hand through his hair. It was fine, things were in a fixable state. The fact that he was catching it now and not before it got him into a precarious situation was good, even. It was just like all his other defects, and would be trained away with time.

Aside from the obvious, there were several other things to note about the outing. Valuable data he’d collected even with how distracted he was by his own thoughts. 

One, he needed to let Danny control more of the environment next time. Danny was new to Gotham but not shy. His lack of engagement with the tea house hadn’t been disinterest in Damian, but rather an unfamiliar reaction to high quality tea places. 

So next time Damian would be sure to let Danny pick their outing places next time. The changes in scenery combined with the positive experience would help keep Danny open and positive, eventually leading to a “friendly” association with Damian. 

Two, he needed to take more care into actually listening to Danny. Damian could easily cover up the fact he hadn’t heard any of Danny’s fifteen minute rambling, but he did need more information on the boy. Actual information, and not the crazed ramblings of a ghost obsessed teenager.

So far, underneath “Danny likes and dislikes” there were two things- Space, and Ghost stories. Perhaps an interest in sci-fi and the paranormal. Danny was also wearing a NASA shirt the first time he had encountered Robin. Nothing was under dislikes yet because frankly, Damian had yet to see Danny express negative emotion towards anything besides homework.

However, all of these obstacles were miniscule in the long run. Because the first attempt at everything is never smooth, it takes patience to hone new skills into fine art.

First things first: Information.

Damian could feel a small grin threatening to overtake his face as he opened his notebook to begin planning a time-table. 

It would only take a minimum of 2 to 3 weeks, then Danny would be in the palm of his hand.

Extra:

There was a sound coming from down the hall.

It was quiet, but then it slowly ramped up in intensity, still faint enough that the person hearing it almost contemplated insanity. 

“Do you hear… laughing?” Barbara asked.

Tim turned, staring at Barbara with a wide-eyed, sleepless look. “I thought it was just me.” He whispered, suddenly filled to the brim with paranoia. Going on about day 3 with no sleep now, he thought he was just hallucinating sounds again.

Barbara took one look at the cup of coffee in his shaking hands, the laptop with about 30 programs up and running, and Tim’s eyes doing their best impression of a surprised owl. She plucked the coffee from his weak grasp with a terse “Alright buddy, you’re done.”

Tim’s protests went unheard and overruled as she took the coffee, then it was another fifteen minutes of hissing when she attempted to take his laptop from him. He coiled around it protectively.

Victory was finally had when she left the room and went to her own computer to manually hack and shut down his. Whatever laughter was happening upstairs got forgotten about in favor of her making sure Tim didn’t keel over from exhaustion.

The laughing was probably just Dick watching Golden girls again.

Chapter Text

The first outing had been something of a mess, so the second had to go well at any cost.

Somehow, the idiot had managed to luck his way out of two different criminal encounters. Damian hoped it would not give him an inflated self ego, otherwise this endeavor would become near impossible. 

Frankly, Danny did not seem to possess any of the tenacity or wit that came with most gothamites. It made him great for a trial run, but bad for everything else. Fortunately for Danny, he would soon become Damian’s friend. 

And for that, their relationship needed to become something more than artificial on Danny’s side.

Damain couldn’t call the incident at the restaurant “a good start” in any way. Perhaps later it could become a source of bonding, but right now from Danny’s perspective he had seen Damian run (like a coward) from a common robbery that Danny himself ended up (somehow?) ending. Not a good look.

Damain wanted Danny to like him, not pity him. Danny already had his ritual of passing along candy every single day. From Danny’s perspective, he was doing all the work and getting very little return.

That wouldn’t do at all. Even if Danny was happy with this exchange, it was less of a “friendship” and more of a sympathetic person feeding a feral stray cat who’d been out in the rain. 

So it was clear Damian had to provide something fruitful in return.

According to his research, Friendship was best characterized through spending time with someone else doing something fun. Much like family game night, but with less threatening of dying someone’s suit an unflattering color if they give you a +2 in Uno.

The main thing that frustrated him was just how vague the concept of “Friendship” was. It was so formless, with barely any standards set. Different people had different ideas of the line between friends and acquaintances, how was Damian supposed to know when he’d reached status?

Hm, he supposed he’d reach that milestone when Danny referred to them as “friends” out loud. Shouldn’t be too hard to reach. He only had to make sure the fool actually meant it instead of the business imitation of friendship a lot of wealthy families would claim through their occasional shared galas.

Nevertheless, all friendships start with spending time together. So that’s the route he would go down.

Tea had not been Danny’s forte, nor to his liking. So it was clear that Damian’s tastes could not be heavily factored into their next outing locations. From what he had seen, Danny’s mind was as simple as they came so he needed the simplest answer.

He needed information from the mind of an immature teenage boy.

“Outing? For Friends?” Tim stared at Damian like he’d just sprouted wings. To be fair, from the look in Tim’s eyes he had just gotten out of a 12 hour long sleep, most likely enforced by one of their other siblings. 

“I am just making sure my information is not wrong.” Damian crossed his arms.

“Your information is, uh… nevermind.” Tim scratched the back of his neck, attention clearly still torn between the documents open on his laptop and little brother. “...Why not the… zoo?” Tim suggested hesitantly.

No. The zoo was Damian’s favorite outing spot. He may want Danny to like him, but he would not risk sullying any zoo experience. 

Damian’s face crinkle must have let Tim know he was wrong, because he laughed. “-or the aquarium! Or go ask Alfred if you must.”

Ugh, it was hard to get any useful answers out of Tim before he’d had his first pot of coffee. No matter, Tim was exactly who he wanted to beat in this equation so getting his information was moot anyways. 

“Wait, are you trying to sabotage someone? At least tell me what this is for!” Tim tried to call after him as he left. 

Damian found Alfred in the kitchen.

“I believe most boys your age would enjoy physical activities such as playing sports or going on trips.” Was the batler’s response as he chopped up vegetables. 

“I am already aware,” Damian sulked unhappily. He was more than capable of keeping tabs of the majority of popular activities his classmates partook in at school, that didn’t make it reliable considering how much of an outlier Danny currently was.

Danny didn’t get along with the rest of the school’s populus, who’s to say he’d even enjoy the normal outings of an average teenage boy? He seemed average, below it, actually. But that was no guarantee that he’d appreciate any of Damian’s efforts.

“Have you tried riding bikes?” Alfred asked.

Damian kept silent, but mentally jotted it down. Even though all of these trivial activities… they weren’t real physicalities in his eyes. It was hard to see sports as anything other than an indulgent pleasure.

He had tried out some sports against other kids his age at school, but all of them were too easy to beat. Soccer, football, volleyball, it really didn’t matter what the game was, because Damian was “too competitive.” Danny probably wouldn’t enjoy that if the others hadn’t.

“Is there any reason for the sudden interest?” Alfred raised an eyebrow at Damian while he continued to prepare dinner.

“I am… re-evaluating my cover stories.” Was all Damian said, along with a curt goodbye before he left the room to go find Batcow.

“How is this so hard?” he later complained to her, “It’s just a single teenage boy, but somehow the situation is getting increasingly complicated.”

Verbal cues, physical cues, timing, location, interests… there were cases that took much less effort than this. Why couldn’t it all be objective?

She was attentive to his struggles as always, continuing to chew hay while he ranted. Very understanding.

“Moo.” Batcow said wisely, comforting her friend.

Well, getting frustrated wasn’t going to help, so it was time to go in with all he had.

( ☆○o。< He’s a Phantom! > 。o○☆ )

“Pick one.”

Danny was almost jumpscared when he turned the corner into the courtyard at school.

In his defense, he never had good experience with people jumping out at him from around corners. So it was just natural reflex to startle. The good news is that he only turned intangible and not invisible too.

“H-Heyyyy Damian, you almost scared me.” Danny laughed, happy that it was his friend and frayed nerves playing a trick on him instead of a random ghost fight. He quickly turned corporeal again before anyone realized he’d been half a step from flying away.

Honestly, he was starting to get a little bit jumpy. Going so long throwing hands bi-weekly to suddenly not fighting at all left him a tad all over the place.

Damian hadn’t said anything to him all morning, which was the norm, but Danny hadn’t expected to see him at lunch either.

“Pick one.” Damian held out several flash cards, all labeled with various words.

It took Danny a minute to realize that it wasn’t a random card drawing, all of the flash cards displayed their words face up without trying to trick him. They read things like “football”, “soccer”, “tennis”, and “Lazer tag.”

Unfortunately by the time he realized that, he’d already drawn a card and was staring down at it in confusion.

“Aquarium?” he read off to Damian, looking up at the smaller boy for more context.

Damian nodded sagely, gemstone green eyes also staring down at the card. “The fish are nice,” he said- not really answering Danny’s unspoken question. 

“Yep, fish. Totally.” Actually, Danny would say he preferred the feeling of lying on the bottom of the aquarium tank floor, pretending to be one of the fish while invisible and in his ghost form.

But what was this for? A school vote, perhaps?

Either way, Danny had yet to get an aquarium themed ghost fight unlike most of the other ones, so the Aquarium was actually one of his rare pure chill places. Deep sea had a similar effect to space, so it itched his brain in a very pleasant way that didn’t require a trek all the way out to the moon. 

Still, what was this about?? Danny would like to know what he was voting for before it got cast, it was his voters right, please.

Danny must have been squinting at the card a little too hard, because Damain broke the brief bit of silence to say “If you don’t like that one, draw another and we’ll go after school.”

OH it’s a hangout, that made sense.

“Sure! I like fish. I mean, the animal, not eating them.” Sushi was fine, but every single time Danny had eaten sushi it’d either come from Vlad’s super expensive tastes or been gas station sushi grabbed on the way home from school. 

Because really, sushi was not one of the foods he wanted to add to the “came alive and tried to eat me” category. He wasn’t eager to experience what it would feel like to be attacked by wasabi.

“Good. Then we’re in agreement.” Damian swiftly tucked the rest of the cards back into his pocket. “I shall find you at the main entrance.” With that, he quickly sauntered off. Leaving Danny alone to finish his lunch in the courtyard.

‘Did he even say what time we’re meeting up…?’ Danny absentmindedly wondered while he ate. Come to think of it, did he mean the main entrance of the school, or the aquarium?

Eh, Damian was still shy. They’d cross that bridge when they got to that sea.

( ☆○o。< He’s a Phantom! > 。o○☆ )

As it turned out, Damian had been too generous in his estimation of Danny’s time management skills.

It had been approximately ten minutes, and the boy was nowhere to be seen.

“Fashionably late” was a tactic used by the high status to purposefully bring attention to their entrance. Nobody ever found Bruce Wayne arriving first at a party, he never arrived earlier than a quarter into the party, if not always in the middle. A good time saving tactic for when their schedule in the suits ran overtime for fancy events, which happened a little more often than one might expect.

Unfortunately it was incredibly disappointing when you were the host left waiting. Damian scowled down at the concrete where cute little fish and sea shell patterns were carved into the walkway. Nobody left a Wayne waiting.

Unless they were Danny, apparently.

Damian took another look over at the large blue and silver building, just waiting for his entrance and reminded himself to be patient. No new skill was honed with sacrifice, and Danny didn’t know he was a Wayne anyway. No idea of the long history of pride he was completely besmirching by being eleven. minutes. late.

His fingers itched to pick up his phone and call Danny, but that kind of desperation wasn’t needed yet. Alongside the fact that in his current state, Damian would likely ruin this entire stage of the plan by demanding to know what was so important that Danny felt the need to skip out on their “bonding”.

He’d already gone over all of the failures of the last excursion to make sure that this one would be more tailored to Danny’s interest. 

He’d cracked open an academic book on sea creatures and been sure to cross reference which ones were cataloged in the Gotham aquarium so that he’d be able to keep up sufficient conversation. Danny liked fish, after all.

Gotham Aquarium had hundreds of fish species. He had been up all night.

But all this would be worth it in order to secure success. It was no different than your average undercover mission. The amount of effort put in might have been disproportionate, but that was only to make up for the previously lacking-

“ Damian!” came a distant call. One that both flared his irritation and made it immediately settle back down again.

Ah, so Danny wasn’t simply flaking Damian off. He was being a simpleton, as per usual. 

Danny ran over, stopping for a second to pant hard and then stand up to say, “Sorry about that! I was almost late, got caught up going the wrong direction for a block or two.”

(That was an understatement, he’d nearly gone four blocks in the wrong direction before quickly needing to ghost back to where Damian was to make it on time.)

Damian smiled, even though internally he crowed ‘Almost late?! Almost?! You were! YOU WERE LATE!!!’ . “It was no trouble at all.” He responded amicably. Soothing his nerves by reassuring himself that Danny was a test subject, and could be dropped back into his poor, pitiable, friendless life once this was all over.

For right now, Damian would distract himself by remembering his mission objective- alongside the hundreds of fish facts that remained fresh in his mind for both this and future outings.

Damian held a hand out to gesture to the doors of the aquarium. “Shall we?” he offered.

Danny’s face predictably lit up. “Yeah, let’s go!” he cheered.

( ☆○o。< He’s a Phantom! > 。o○☆ )

Damian hadn’t been to the aquarium in quite a long time. He used to visit on occasion by himself, but it had been at least several months since he’d gone at this point. 

The inside carried the damp, dark feeling that most aquariums did. The false rock underneath their shoes squeaked slightly in the areas that were meant to look like giant tunnels that the fish lived in.

Gotham’s heir was pleased to find that Danny seemed immediately fascinated by the fish tanks. His eyes opened wide and roamed over the darker corners with gleaming interest. It was like a balm to all of the agitation Damian had experienced in waiting for his time-inept mind to catch up. Yes, letting Danny pick from Damian’s selection of outings had been the perfect choice.

“The Gotham aquarium is specially funded so the animals here receive utmost care at the hands of trained specialists.” Damian said, “Unlike other aquariums the fish here receive the highest quality treatment.” 

“Observe.” The boy thrust his hand out to show off a specific tank. Inside sat a largely frilled orange and dark orange lionfish, whose fins held a shiny dark blue on the inside. “The beautiful color and top notch quality of the venomous spines on this black footed firefish- Parapterois heterura, or gurnard lionfish.” 

Danny Ooo’d and Aaaah’d appropriately as the fish swam closer. Its spines were equally colorful and threatening.

‘It almost kinda looks like that vigilante I saw the other day’ Danny thought. What was his name again? It was on the tip of his tongue. He knew it was a bird. Sparrow? Redwing?

No, Robin! Yes.

“That’s awesome to hear.” Danny smiled, watching the fish swam around a little. “Back in my home town in Amity, the zoo was nice, but they never got very close to some of the animals. So they didn’t even realize one of the purple backed gorillas was a boy!”

“Purple… backed?” Damian questioned, looking at Danny with the oddest mix of confusion and disgust. “I certainly hope you mean silver backed and they weren’t dyeing the animals.” Although, dyeing a gorilla would take a monumental amount of effort and tranquilizer. Not to mention lack of ethics. Someone would have to be a maniac to attempt such a thing.

“Ah…ahaha!” Danny laughed nervously, beads of sweat ran down his forehead as his eyes probably made the ‘Oh shit I forget this is another universe’ look. “You’re right, I did mean silver! Sorry.” 

Damian’s expression did that thing again. That thing where it didn’t change visibly in the slightest, but Danny suddenly felt the full force of a piercing intrigue. He’d gotten that feeling a couple of times from the boy already, and always felt bad that he couldn’t share more out of fear of overwhelming Damian. Man, it must suck being so shy. 

Instead of letting the moment turn awkward, the taller boy quickly pointed and said “Look! Pink fish!” and hurried over to the next tank.

Damian continued to act as Danny’s tour guide, presenting an impressive amount of information about ocean biology and sea life. 

The went through the shark tanks and shipwreck zone- Damian explaining more about the biological differences in shark population around the world while Danny nodded along. He also showed Danny some of the oldest recovered sea items in gotham, none of which really drew the boy’s interest except for some large fossils of shark teeth. 

Eventually when they were halfway through, they decided to take a break in front of one of the large aquarium tanks meant to act as a coral reef viewing spot. (Or rather, Danny sat down and Damian simply followed him because the heir to the Wayne throne didn’t need to take breaks for anything, certainly not an aquarium visit.)

They sat down on the varnished wood bench, sat in the middle even though no one else was sitting and they both had room to spread out.

As Damian watched, he heard the slowly-getting-familiar sound of a plastic wrapper crinkling as a chocolate truffle was held out to him. 

“Even here?” he questioned, furrowing his brow a little. Truly the inside of Danny’s pockets must be a mess if he carried candy around so often.

“Better to have and not need.” Danny quoted wisely, except it wasn’t wise at all because in what situation would chocolate be a necessity?

Damian sighed but took the offending object from him. That’s what friends do, after all. To reject was to reject an offer of bonding. God, this outing was exhausting him.

“Man, I still can’t get over that stuff you told me about volcanic vents and Yeti crabs. It sucks we can’t ever see ‘em” Danny lamented. During one of Damian’s incredibly large info dumps, he explained that there was a species of crab that lived at the bottom of the ocean and used its incredibly long hairy arms to eat bacteria. 

When Danny excitedly inquired where in the aquarium he could find such a crab, he unceremoniously informed the Yeti crab was newly discovered and also lived at the very bottom of the ocean, so any specimens brought back would probably die.

Damian actually felt a little bit of pity the way Danny wilted over that. “It is a real shame.” He agreed. On a more honest level, he felt a little bit the same way. So many interesting creatures down there, just waiting to be discovered. 

“I actually feel a little embarrassed,” Danny laughed, “You know and care so much about the ocean and its ecosystem, but I was honestly just here to look at the pretty fish.”

Just… here to look at the fish? “Just… looking?” Damian questioned. He thought that Danny liked fish, why wouldn’t he want to know more…

Oh. Right. Damian forgot that Danny was a simpleton. There was nothing to impress when the boy was content with the dust bunnies rattling around in his brain. Damian let his expression slip into a scowl for the first time that evening. 

“Yeah, I mean, nothing better than seeing the sights with someone, amiright?” Danny smiled. “That’s the best kind of time if you ask me.”

Yes. Damian supposed that if you took all the etiquette and social stancing out of the equation, spending time with other people was… nice. At least with his brothers, but even then they still had reputations to protect as the Wayne family.

“I think you’re perfect for this actually, you know so much more than me! We gotta go on more history visits, I might actually learn something in time for class!” Danny leaned back and laughed at his own joke. “You explain it much clearer than the professor does.”

“Tt. Memorization isn’t an easy concept to master.” Damian let the compliment slide over him like water off a turtle. He’d had easily a hundred people call him smart, it wasn’t really special if someone was pointing out the obvious. 

“You’re really kind and compassionate, actually.” Danny said absentmindedly. Like the fool didn’t even care about what he was saying.

What?

Damian’s thought process stopped in his tracks, turning from the floor over to Danny’s face. Danny hadn’t stopped yapping the whole time they were down here, what drivel was he on about now?

He squinted at the boy. Danny didn’t seem to be lying , but dear god he must be naive to associate “Damian” and “Compassionate”. 

Of course Damian was happy that his plan was working, he was just a bit unimpressed at Danny’s observational skills. 

“I mean, it’s kinda cheesy to say out loud but I’m amazed. You care so much about underwater environment and making sure ancient history is preserved, as well as making sure each fish is recognized individually, to be honest that takes a dedication I’m not sure many have!” If Damian were a ghost, he’d definitely be one that attacked people for not taking proper care of their animals.

“I’m glad I came to the aquarium today, you’ve taught me so much!” Danny finished happily. Just five minutes ago he didn’t know the name of the pretty blue fish that he’d always really liked until Damian told him. He was so smart!

Damian… wasn’t sure what to say.

He loved animals, sure. He was vegetarian for that very reason. Even the animal made products the Wayne household did eat came from verifiably humane home-kept animal farms. So it wasn’t like Damian could refute that.

It was entirely accurate, at least from Danny’s point of view. But that wording. Compassionate… wasn’t really a word anyone ever used to describe him before. He wasn’t quite sure how to feel about it. 

With nothing else to do but concede, Damian turned to stare into the large tank with Danny.

Seaweed swayed to and fro at the bottom of the tank, a shark or two swam by. Tiny fish peeked out of the cacophony of both fake and real coral that clung to the sides of the tank and glass. A tiny eel or two poked their heads out of the sand. 

The colors and movement were mesmerizing, and they made Damian feel just a bit more relaxed. It was like one giant elegant dance. A slice of the ocean, just mere inches away. 

“I really like the bottom of the ocean.” Danny whispered, just loud enough for Damian to hear.

Without looking away from the tank, Damian focused in on Danny’s story. He needed to listen more because the information was vital to continuing the next steps. “There was a lake in Amity that my dad tried taking me fishing to a couple of times. We never really caught much, but I really liked the feeling of being there.” Danny continued. 

“Sometimes I like to think about how dark and quiet it would be down there. Just nobody but you and the sea cradling your body as you float endlessly.” Danny stared into the tank, its blue depths reflected equally in his eyes. “No one to bother you, nothing to do, you simply sit there and be one with the infinity.”

To an extent, Damian could… actually understand what that felt like. The desire to drift peacefully for a while, almost like a deep, floating, sleep. 

Okay, perhaps this simpleton did know what he was talking about. Maybe one didn’t have to know everything about the fish to properly appreciate the view.

“Sorry, that sounds weird right?” 

Damian hummed in response. No, that didn’t sound weird at all. It actually sounded really peaceful, something Damian would do if he could breathe underwater. Like a natural form of sensory deprivation therapy. 

“Are… are you asleep?” Danny suddenly whispered.

Damian’s eyes snapped open. That made no sense- wait, when had his eyes closed? He was nowhere near sleeping, couldn’t fall asleep in such an unknown environment unless absolutely necessary, but how the hell had he managed to even close his eyes without realizing it?

Shaking himself out of the slightly meditative state, Damian said the first thing that came to mind. “Atlantic wolffish are voracious predators, and the large head, powerful jaws, and large canine teeth are all used to hunt and eat hard-bodied or spiny invertebrates, such as sea urchins, crabs, and large marine snails. They reach lengths of up to five feet, or one point five meters.”

Damian hadn’t even realized what he was spouting, or that they were nowhere near any kind of wolffish until Danny threw his head back and started laughing hysterically.

A tiny bit of heat went to his cheeks as the Al Ghul Wayne really had to hold back the urge to hit him. Just once. It wouldn’t even make a dent in that brick of a brain of his. What did this maniac think he was laughing at, he just called Damian compassionate a moment ago! 

With a grumble, Damian got up and got a head start walking to the Jellyfish tanks as Danny trailed behind giggling and promising he wasn’t laughing at Damian. What a lie.

(Damian would have to resolve to get more sleep before the next outing.)

( ☆○o。< He’s a Phantom! > 。o○☆ )

The rest of their aquarium visit was shockingly dull.

Danny continued to diligently listen to Damian’s fish facts, and even surprised him when he brought up another fish Damian had mentioned earlier. He was a bit pleased that the other boy had remembered to listen.

They made their way through the Jellyfish caves, the turtle cove, and passed the bigger shark tanks. The only bump along the way was a minor skirmish with the touch tank after a small octopus attempted to climb Danny’s arm and attack his face.

“It’s getting revenge for me fighting its ancestors,” Danny explained as two employees hurried over to detach the angry cephalopod. Damian would dein to argue, but unfortunately he had no good rationale for what else would upset the plate sized creature.

After that, they made their way throughout the stingray feeding area and out to where the exit and gift shop were. 

Danny was immediately drawn in by the lights and shiny baubles of everything hanging in the gift shop, in all its chintzy and tourist trap glory. He was much like a fish in the way he gravitated towards an easy lure.

There was a row of little round fish plushies that sort of reminded Damian of the face Danny made when he was confused. Damian considered getting one of them for Danny, but there would be no point. They were tacky and overpriced things, their only real use being to serve as a memory of the occasion instead of anything actually useful.

“I’m getting presents to send back home to my family, wanna help?” Danny turned hopeful goofy eyes back onto Damian.

Damian, of course, played the part of a dutiful friend. “I’d love to.” He said.

The total presents ended up being a fishing hat for the “fruitloop”(?), two matching mugs that had “For Of-fishal business!” on them for his parents, a comically large whale shark plushie for his younger sister, and a small reversible grumpy octopus plushie for his older brother.

Danny had gone through nearly all the octopi plushes, giggling when he found one that was mismade and had two grumpy sides instead of the grumpy-happy switch it was supposed to have.

Damian hummed over the wealth of information he’d just received. Good to know his suspicions about Danny’s circumstances getting into Gotham High were likely correct. If Danny’s mother was married but cheating on her husband with a wealthy socialite from Gotham, she could probably easily extort what she wanted out of them for the scandal.

Poor Danny, Damian could never even imagine not knowing so little about his own family affairs. He supposed that it fit as the middle child, Danny didn’t have to be as responsible as his older brother would be in the future.

It was later in the day than Damian had anticipated once they walked out, nearly three hours had passed. He wondered if the fish had made Danny’s presence a bit more tolerable. 

“Bye Damian! See you tomorrow!” Danny waved, struggling a little to not drop the plushie and bags while they parted ways.

“Have a pleasant evening, we shall meet again.” Damian responded, returning home to make his plans.

Absent-mindedly, he tucked the little fish plushie into the side of his jacket. Just so that it wasn’t seen by anyone on patrol while he made his way home.

It wasn’t really anything he needed, nor a fond memory of the outing. Just a tacky little decoration he got just because it amused him. And also because he didn’t want to make Danny purchase all of those tasteless souvenirs for his family by himself. That would just be embarrassing.

He looked down at the fish and its dorky little smile. Damian resolved to place it on a high shelf, out of noticeable sight, but still visible enough that he could point at it the next time Richard complained his room had no personality.

“You’re a teenager, you gotta have comic books or something at least!” Richard had needled the last time, lamenting on how Damian was “missing out.”

The joke was now on Richard, he now had a fish with a dorky little face. Oh how the tables turn.

( ☆○o。< He’s a Phantom! > 。o○☆ )

The first thing Danny did when he got home was shove everything into an unelegant heap onto the couch and toss himself out the window.

Not in broad daylight, goodness no. It was nearly sunset by this time, and he turned invisible anyways- but he let rings wash over him so that he could immediately begin a speedy pursuit into the sky. 

What was he pursuing you ask? Vibes.

Specifically, the right vibes to soothe his core and feed his obsession: Space vibes.

Gotham got little to no starlight most nights, so Danny had resorted to taking off into the sky and getting above the cloud line in order to get some of that sweet, sweet obsession feed for his core. Going to the aquarium was fantastic, but he couldn’t deny how much it was making him hunger for the stars.

As soon as Danny finally broke the cloud line, his core- which was thrumming from excitement, burst into a feeling of delighted glowing joy. 

There they were, there were the stars and planets that he missed so much. The connecting gravitational pulls, the waltzing galaxies, the mixing and mashing energies colliding to create and destroy. The cold, the hot, and the life born within. All of it, all of his needs met right here in a single view. 

‘Space’, Danny thinks, ‘Is so cool. ’

It’s big, it’s quiet, and it’s so beautiful. And somehow it sparks a deep feeling encompassing feeling of everything that ever is, was, and will be- deep within Danny’s heart.

Danny wanted to sit on the moon, but he’d have to be intangible to do that because of all the sensors set up by the justice league. And Danny wanted to do it with his own two feet when he got the chance to visit back home. 

It was odd, this wasn’t his space- or sky, but the feeling of familiarity was still there. 

Out in space was completely silent, which was what Danny loved. No sound waves could travel through its vastness, so all he could do was look. Look and feel out into the large empty everything. 

If he squinted, and looked really hard, he could watch a hypernova in the distance bloom open, releasing its energy out into the universe.

He could see Olympus Mons, the tallest volcano, on Mars. The boiling atmosphere of Venus as it rotated the opposite direction of the other planets. All of Jupiter's ninety two moons dancing around each other in an elegant waltz. Almost like they were at a fancy party!

Across the universe the dark matter churned, and Hercules-Corona wove its branches, while Andromeda stretched her hands out to meet the Milky Way in a dance. The numbers and charts and dates and times all bounced around the back of Danny’s head as he gazed out into the glittering sandbox that was the universe.

But at his core, Danny knows space is just really, really cool. 

He could stay up here for hours, absorbing the energy that came from its ambiance. Seeing freckles of history dot swathes of the present which would be shattered when the future came.

Up here, high in the sky, Danny felt like he could breathe better. Not being able to see the stars with his own two eyes was probably the only thing that made Gotham feel truly hard to live in. 

He doesn’t really know how long he floated there, near the lining of the thin atmosphere. Maybe a handful of hours. All he really registered was that his core was humming in satisfaction and he still had school tomorrow, so there wasn’t really a good reason to stay.

With a sigh, Danny flipped himself over and started floating back down to earth. If he floated at a rate that was slower than he’d flown up here, that was between him and the sky. Soon enough he was already back to seeing buildings, then streets, then people all while Danno 1 fell back to earth. 

Gotham was pretty from up above. Her long shadows draped over the city like the folds of a long, elegant dress. Once again Danny reminds himself that he’d have to sit down and have a proper conversation with her. He assumes she’s cool with him staying in her city, but he wanted to clear up anything just in case she thought that-

Huh? Wait, what was that?

Danny blinked, wondering if his eyes were playing tricks on him again. He could’ve sworn he just saw something-

There it was again! Something was jumping the rooftops!

Danny let himself fall much faster, speeding up to hover around the area he saw the flash of movement in. Hang on, that almost looked like a vigilante. Let’s follow it, gang!

He scooby-doo’d right on down to where he last saw them, zipping around a taller building to scope out a few flat rooftops.

There, right there! Look at that yellow flashy cape, look at that super quick escape!

Danny immediately recognized the vigilante who saved him from the Box-mugging as said hero continued running across the building tops. Moving so fast that from far away it almost looked like he was flying.

Not to toot his own horn, but he did some googling after the aquarium visit to figure out more about who his knight in shining yellow was. 

It was Robin! Batman’s loyal partner and local terrorizer of the Gotham City Police Department.

What made Robin more interesting than the other vigilantes was that Robin had been around for nearly 15 or so years. Most seemed to suspect that Robin was less of a person and more of a “title” that was passed down, because shortly after the first Robin disappeared, ‘Nightwing’ made his debut. 

Back then there wasn’t enough footage or cameras to really confirm if Robin was growing or not, but some claim that Robin did begin to look older as the years went on. Then there was no Robin for a while until suddenly a second Robin appeared! One that was Batman’s partner for about 3 to 4 years.

After this, the timeline becomes kind of muddled because all that people really know is that Robin disappeared again for a long time before his next confirmed reappearance.

Since then Robin has stuck around without any more unusual gaps. The only thing that would imply a passing of the mantle was the “Red Robin” who appeared, the name giving the most homage to the theory of more than one Robin.

The “multi-robin” theory is one of the most solid Gotham vigilante theories out there, except for two minor holes. One being that they can’t confirm if there have been any other Bat-men, and two being that they aren’t sure how to confirm how many Robins there have really been since they all look too similar and early photos are grainy.

Some even suspect that Robin has an element of shape-changing, that merely inheriting the title of “Robin” causes you to sprout black hair.

Yep. Danny listened to a forty five minute video essay on Gotham’s Robin. He knew everything now.

So, on seeing said vigilante, he immediately gasped and flew closer. Making sure to reign in his ghostly aura as much as possible, just in case there was any chance Robin had anything on him  that could sense it. 

He drifted closer, peeking around the side of a gargoyle to stare down at the boy.

It was probably rude, but it wasn’t like Danny was gonna get a good look otherwise! Even when he was face to face with the guy it was so dark he couldn’t really see him. 

Robin didn’t seem to sense him at all, checking around various parts of the flat rooftop for… clues? Danny didn’t really know what he was looking for, but the coast seemed clear. 

Danny let himself drift comfortably down to where Robin was listening to someone chatter on his comm lines. He wasn’t really paying attention to what all was being said- probably secret crime stuff. Instead he took the chance to get a better look at Robin.

He leaned in, almost less than a foot away- intangible and invisible, just to examine Robin’s face. 

Not in a creepy way, of course! He wasn’t trying to unmask the guy, he was just curious. Something about the crinkle of his brow looked familiar. 

The past two times he’d seen him, Danny had been in his human form. But now as a ghost, all of his powers were enhanced, including his night vision. Every detail about Robin was clear to Danny in this form, so he let himself take in a good long look.

The outside of his cape was black, which Danny already knew before. There were yellow highlights in the back of the cape too. Red and yellow were worn as a proud emblem across his chest. To his fascination, the yellow seemed to act more as a bright recovery jacket more than anything- especially for that utility belt. Probably for the best in case it ever got stolen.

His gloves, knee guards, and boots were all green- made of a thicker material that Danny had first expected with some plates in the mix. He had to hand it to Robin- it was all more functional than the mis-matched christmas getup he recalled from his hazy memory of the tea shop robbery. Probably better than a hazmat suit too.

Well, not that it was strictly a hazmat anymore, he’d tweaked it a bit after he got ahold of his ecto!

There was a good hint of building muscle underneath Robin’s frame. He looked scrawny, but was anything but. Danny knew he was fast, and Robin probably used that to his advantage.

He was still just as short. And now Danny was even taller because he was floating. 

Just like he suspected, Robin looked… young. Possibly the same age as Danny or younger. It should have been a little bit of a shock, but Valerie had already decided she wanted to ghost hunt at that age, so it shouldn’t have been as much of a surprise.

Despite the mask hiding his face, Robin’s face was smoothed into hard and calculated lines. The lenses of his mask were polarized, clear and reflective despite Danny’s closeness. 

Robin took two steps forward, putting himself nearly nose to nose with Danny, who floated to the side to let Robin walk past him. Their shoulders almost brushed. 

Danny bit his lip to stifle a laugh. It felt a bit like hide and seek, only one-sided. No doubt the vigilante wouldn’t be so calm if he knew Danny was here. 

“No signs of riddle, nor penguin’s cars. Should I pursue?” Robin asked.

‘ No. Head north, there’s a robbery on 35th’ A tinny female voice responded from in his comm. 

“Affirmative. Engaging now.” Robin wasted no further breath, taking off to the side of the rooftop and deploying his grapple in order to swing off into the night. Danny watched him dash away gleefully, zipping over to the side of the rooftop to get a good last look as the vigilante disappeared.

Man he was fast! You’d think it’d be easier to keep track of a guy so colorful! But that must just be a testament to how skilled he was. He could practically disappear just like a ghost. 

Danny kicked his feet a little in the air, chuckling at the idea of Robin popping into existence on top of a group of confused criminals. 

A robbery, wow. Danny had honestly thought that Robin was someone in training under Batman, but looking at it this way made him realize that Robin was probably already as good as any fully fledged vigilante. Just smaller. It almost made Danny a little bit envious that Robin so very clearly knew what to do in these kinds of situations.

Then again, Danny hadn’t been under the tutelage of older vigilantes. He’d been on his own, barely knowing what he was doing or when it would all come crashing down…

Hm. Danny put a hand over his chest, rubbing the spot he knew his core sat. He felt like a shaken soda bottle, so light and bubbly having seen Robin again. But something in him felt bad for Robin. It was hard to get an emotional read on the boy, they were so suppressed.

‘I should give him something,’ Danny decided. A gift for the save- both from the mugger and the three hooligans. Being a teen hero was a thankless job, after all!

Robin seemed to be a hard worker, and he was around Danny’s age as well. There was no doubt this kind of life took a toll on him, and Danny wanted to see if he could make that toll a little easier. 

Looking at Robin reminded Danny of how he used during the height of his ghost hunting days, back before Pariah dark. When Danny’s biggest concern was passing his math final and fighting ghosts.

Actually, Danny still had a lot of math to fight, so maybe things hadn’t changed so much.

But back then his life felt like a whirlwind of just surviving the day to day. The happiness, the sadness, the anxiety, it all swirled together into a mess he could barely parcel out. He wondered if it was something Robin also went through. Was going though, maybe. 

He hoped it wasn’t, because Robin should be able to live a happy and death-free life. So what better than to cheer him up with a gift? 

Plus, it would help foster good relations. Teen vigilante solidarity!

The ghost boy immediately started going over what gifts he could give the vigilante. Anything expensive was probably out of the question with that kind of tech. Maybe homemade snacks? Oh but if Robin had a diet he didn’t wanna ruin that. Maybe he could give some of the candy? No, that was a tacky excuse to offload it, and besides he’s already giving candy to Damian. What about…

Danny wandered off into the night, thoughts filled with colorful vigilantes and wrapped treats.

( ☆○o。< He’s a Phantom! > 。o○☆ )

Danny hummed as he made his way to lunch.

He was making good progress on operation ‘Blend in’, as well as operation ‘Don’t get bored of school’. But operations ‘Make more friends’ and ‘Give a gift to Robin’ were still in the planning stages.

Headway on both was slow going, especially the whole “give a gift” part because honestly Danny didn’t think Robin would accept aquarium souvenirs.

‘Ah well, at least I’ve got Damian,’ Danny thought to himself, still wondering about how to make the boy more open to him. He thinks they made some progress with the aquarium, it was really fun!

It was very clear from Damian’s stilted form of speaking that he wasn’t used to having friends. Danny wanted to make it easier for him, but honestly had no idea how. Jazz was good at opening people up, maybe he’d ask her.

“Pick one.” 

Speak of the devil-! 

Danny locking his heels in place was the only thing stopping him from jumping again. ‘Ah, so this is going to be a theme.’ he realized. “Hey Damian! Picking cards again?” Once again, Danny grabbed one without thinking and read it off.

“Rock…climbing.” Huh, interesting. Danny’d never been rock climbing before, but it probably wasn’t much harder than climbing up the side of a building, or phasing through things. 

Looking down at the card in his hand, Danny smiled and held out a candy from his own jacket pocket to offer to Damian. “Rock climbing sounds great!” he enthusiastically agreed.

(...hopefully he wouldn’t need to go ghost to climb.)

Chapter Text

Danny’s apartment was fully unpacked now, which meant that he had to start making an actual effort to keep things neat and organized. 

Good because it would teach him to be independent and alert to keeping his space clean- bad because he was Not Good at staying organized. Clean, sure. However items would inevitably end up all over the house from Danny’s pacing. Like right now.

“To be honest, after my rope slipped I just thought to myself ‘aw heck, I don’t have an excuse for this one’ and accepted my fate. I thought I was gonna hit the floor and die fully, but you’ll never believe what happened then!” 

Danny absentmindedly stepped over a half-assembled telescope and set his drink down next to a wobbling stack of comic books on the table.

“What happened next?!” Dani ushered. Even over the phone Danny could tell she was on the edge of her seat, which is exactly why she was the perfect person to tell all about Danny’s rock climbing experience.

“He caught me!” Danny pushed as much dramatic shock into his voice as he could in order to deliver the climax properly.

“NO WAY!” She gasped. “Like a princess?” Her voice went loud and squeaky at the idea. 

“Yeah!” Actually, for such a small guy, Damian was surprisingly strong! And amazing at rock climbing too. Danny had his fair share of time scaling stuff, but Damian took it to a whole other level- he was like a mountain goat! 

“Well, I don’t think princes catch princesses by their leg, but he still caught me!” Damian was impressive, no doubt.

Despite the way he’d scared the attendants when he first dived off the rock in order to catch Danny. It was sweet of Damian to go back for him even though he was already at the top.

“I wanna go rock climbing.” She pouted through the phone, probably already envisioning her own princess rock climbing save with the preferred guy of her dreams.

“Maybe if you ask Vlad he’ll take you.” Danny commented idly as he stepped over the intelephone cord for the third time. After all, that fruitloop was all for family outings. Rock climbing certainly wasn’t his cup of tea, but he’s bend just about any way for Dani. Dad would certainly be on board, but how enthusiastic Vlad would be remained to see.

Danny could 100% imagine him simply floating to the top of the rock wall to sit daintily with a teacup in hand as he waited for everyone else below to reach him. Like a princess. He snickered a little but continued his story.

“Two days later we went to the park, it wasn’t super exciting but I just liked the chance to bond, y’know? He seems like a really shy guy. I guess he doesn’t connect with people well because he’s always frowning and making elaborate plans in his notebooks.”

“That sounds like mom.” Dani interjected, thinking of her mother hunched over a table full of blueprints nearly growling while her pen scratched wildly.

“Hey, only when she’s been stuck on something.” Danny refuted, idly sitting back down on the couch. His leg immediately started bouncing after three seconds of stillness. “And Damian’s a really good artist, I think he might be into novel writing too.”

From the quick peaks Danny got, Damian liked writing down little bulletin points about hierarchies, assassinations, blackmail, and political corruption. He could totally pin down the shorter boy as someone really into sci fi. Which Danny understood, even if he couldn’t enjoy most sci fi movies as well after fighting his own fair share of battles.

He hadn’t meant to stare, but it was honestly a little hard to learn more about Damian without paying active attention to him. Damian seemed so focused on accommodating Danny that anything he said about himself was often short and clipped.

Danny wouldn’t say it was a bad thing, totally fine to not wanna say stuff! A lot of his ghostly subjects were silent types too. 

“I was actually thinking maybe one of these times we could go do a painting class, I’ve only gotten a couple glimpses of his art but it’s really detailed!” Danny had to say that he was totally jealous of any kind of person who could sit down and work on something that creative for so many hours in a row. 

“Can he draw ghost unicorns?”

“I’m not sure. I’ll ask, but I don’t think that the intelephone can send pictures.”

“Dangit.”

( ☆○o。< He’s a Phantom! > 。o○☆ )

Gotham Academy wasn’t just an elite school, it was the elite school.

But the thing about being the “best" is the amount of people you have to step over in getting there. 

Stepping into a snake's nest would result in less of a chance of getting bitten compared to the highest ranking members of the student body. 

Suffice to say, bribery was a very common practice. As long as it benefited the academy, the teachers were quite used to turning a blind eye to certain behaviors or boosting a grade here and there. What was a single student’s C- compared to a hefty bargain for an A?

The answer was nothing but a small, white, lie. They were rich anyways, they wouldn’t need math skills to get a high paying job.

On the upcoming curriculum was a simple, partner-studied science project. Work with another student to write a 20 page long paper.

It was a bunch of bunk as a project. The majority of the time the papers weren’t on anything particularly interesting, and there usually ended up being one student who did more work than the other. But it gave them two weeks of free period in science class, so Mister Pium treated it like a vacation.

Not to mention the bonus of bribes.

But Mister Pium had to admit, this was one of the strangest requests he’d ever seen before.

To: [email protected]

From: xkyjshj.0

You will pair these students together for the upcoming science paper project. Pretend it was generated by random.

Do as instructed and ten thousand USD will be waiting for you in your desk on the assignment’s due date.

Do not disappoint. 

<Attached.pdf>

Below was a list of student names and their pairings.

There was no clear pattern to it. Some students were friends, others were split up, a handful were even paired with partners who held clear disdain for one another. 

Clicking on the sender email did nothing, there wasn’t anything he could trace from it- the thing wasn’t even a proper email. 

Do not disappoint. What a choice of words. It almost sounded like a threat, only… what kind of retaliation could this kind of task pose?

It made him wonder if it was a parent who sent this list… or a student. A parent would have more of the brains to pull off an untraceable message, but why so much money for such a small project? A student would have the better means to…

The old fat professor leaned back and rubbed his eyes, what was he thinking? He was reading too much into things again.

Well, it wasn’t like O’riely Pium had anything against it. Once he might have worked against bribery in the name of science, but now as his retiring years grew closer he was content to let the fat cats of Gotham city carry him to the top as he aged. Goodness knows he wouldn’t be teaching at a school if anything else was the case.

Still, his eyes roamed down the list as he wondered which family it was who desperately wanted their darling boy or girl paired with a special someone. Or perhaps, they wanted two people to stay away from each other. 

He was a smart enough man to realize that if it was a grade they wanted, they would just ask him to boost the grade for a specific person. Perhaps even put in a favorable word with the other judges for their upcoming science fest. 

No, it was the pairings they were after, but why?

The thought lingered for a second or two, and then he opened his class roster to copy-paste the new pairings over what he already had planned.

It was none of his business to know.

( ☆○o。< He’s a Phantom! > 。o○☆ )

In a technical sense, the plan was progressing quite cleanly.

Danny might not have been enlightened or sophisticated, but he made for a decent enough outing partner once Damian knew what to expect. In turn, Damian also felt that he too was progressing in his ability to hold conversation and understand the modern teenagers that were of his age- despite the gap in training and formal education.

It would certainly do wonders to further his ability to learn how to emotionally manipulate conversations with the up and coming leaders of his generation. Staying one step ahead of his own age was easy, but important nonetheless. 

The science project was announced towards the end of class. Though he didn’t see it, Damian could feel Danny perk up and start glancing over at him.

“Your partners have already been assigned, be sure to read the list sent to your emails. See me after class for any clarification.” The professor announced, before getting into the details of the project. 

Out of the corner of his peripheral, Damian could see that Danny wasted no time trying to subtly get out his phone and open up their student email. The fist pump Danny did when he no doubt saw Damian’s name was decidedly un-subtle. 

The corner of Damian’s mouth twitched at that but he tampered down on smiling openly. In truth he was expecting a lot less to come from this little side project of his, but as of right now he was feeling uncharacteristically intrigued by the results even if he quite didn’t know what to do with them yet.

The partner project would only serve to speed things along, giving them reason to chat and be seen close together during study hall for at least two weeks. When you let one stranger approach for no reason, many more tend to begin swarming like flies. 

Thankfully for Danny, he would soon become Damian’s friend. 

And for that, their relationship needed to become something more than artificial on Danny’s side. Outings could happen with just anyone, what Damian needed was for Danny to consider Damian more than that. 

This relationship couldn't move forward into substantial friendship territory until it was clear that they had provided for each other. Damian had researched how common it was for friends to have stories about "being there for one another" in times of need. From what Damian had observed, Danny's new but already sinking grades certainly required the need of assistance. 

And what was more fruitful than knowledge?

There was a coil of satisfaction in Damain’s stomach as he thought about the two weeks of available interaction for their new science project. The professor had done his job, which meant phase one of his revised plan could move into action.

Damian took his phone out from under the desk and typed on it without looking away from the projector up front. 

Damian W.

It seems we have been paired together for our science project.

Damian W.

I would like to meet in the library during lunch if you are amicable.

Unsurprisingly Danny responded immediately.

Danny F.

Aw HECK YEAH

Danny F.

Sure i'm down to meet

Danny F.

You are literally saving me, you have no idea

Danny F.

Not to be overdramatic but just to warn you i am TERRRIBLE with writing papers

Damian W.

Perfect, see you then.

Satisfied, Damian put his phone face down on the desk and returned to thinking. A science project was just a hook, a hook that would be used to lure Danny towards the unsuspecting trap of psychological manipulation (friendship).

Outings were nice, yes. But Damian needed something more concrete than that. All of the locations chosen were places and things Danny could easily go and do on his own. He needed something that would have more of a lasting impact on the mind and memory. 

(Not to mention rock climbing had gone quite disastrously. Damian was not letting Danny anywhere near rope walls ever again.)

It wasn’t until two days ago he overheard one of the girls in the library thanking the other for helping her study that Damian realized forming more positive associations than just spending time together was the key to “Making friends”. 

Friendship was not an inherent give and exchange, but that doesn’t mean the elements of it couldn’t be there. Business partners did it all the time, why should it not apply to friendships? 

(And to be honest, the idea that friendship didn’t truly need to be 100% emotion based was a relief for Damian, it moved things back into familiar territory.)

While the relationship and interactions themselves should be grounded in “feelings” and “spending time together” the further points of deepening a relationship seemed to often involve doing things for one another. 

Friendship was often described as “Having a positive impact” on someone’s psyche, so all Damian needed to do was artificially recreate that while maintaining the facade of being actually invested.

Spending long periods of time together was out of the question, so the next best thing was utilizing the school hours they had together. He’d use this science project as a way to temporarily walk back their agreement to not interact during school in order to get closer faster.

The good news was that Damian now had a suitable amount of information on Danny, the boy was very chatty one on one. Especially so outside of school when they were on outings together. 

In turn, Damian was able to share some about his homelife as well. Vaguely, of course. Things like his large number of siblings, knowledge on animals, and even his love of painting. Which was what he mentioned after class on their way to lunch. 

“Nice, I’ve never met another painter besides Pandora. Can you show me sometime?” Hm, that was a new name. Greek in origin. Not one of Danny's two mentioned friends, perhaps a woman. 

“Of course.” Damian preened, very pleased with how intently he was drawing Danny in. The extra compliments didn’t hurt either.

“Do you wanna do the project on something art related then?” Danny asked while they walked towards the lunch hall. 

Damian resisted the urge to glower, he already knew more about historical art and its forms than most would know in their lifetimes. But he supposed that from Danny, the suggestion was considerate. However, it was a thoughtless suggestion because it was a science project at the end of the day.

Danny might not have been enlightened or sophisticated, but he made for a decent enough outing partner once Damian knew what to expect. In turn, Damian also felt that he too was progressing in his ability to hold conversation and understand the modern teenagers that were of his age- despite the gap in training and formal upper class education.

One step closer to dethroning Tim as family head. Soon, Damian would be a master of psychological manipulation.

But for now, he had a strict schedule to maintain. 

“Pick one.” Damian held out the cards again, which had grown into a deck of about 20 by now.

The deck was adjusting day by day as Damian gained more knowledge on Danny’s likes and dislikes. Some of Danny’s picks had been more adventurous than expected, like rock climbing. Hopefully the near save of catching the boy two feet before he face planted into the cushioned floor earned some of Danny’s trust.

If nothing else, it was impressive how Danny somehow ended up disconnecting his safety harness mid-climb.

This time Damian had gone through the motions of picking some appropriately thrill seeking cards to add to the stack. Dirt biking. Horsebacking. Bungee jumping (in case he wanted the real thing). Which is why the one Danny chose ended up surprising him.

Danny picked immediately again, he seemed quite impulsive with his picks. Never stopping to even consider a second thought or deliberate over the options for a section.

However, he’d positively lit up the moment that he read off this card. Damian smirked internally.

“Ice skating?!” Danny did a fist pump with the hand that wasn’t holding the card. “Aw yeah!”

Immense outward enthusiasm. Jackpot. This outing would certainly be the smooth segway into victory.

“You’re experienced with it?” Damian asked, because he hadn’t pegged Danny as the sporty type. The other boy was gangly, and frankly weak looking. He supposed that ice skating wouldn’t really require the muscular nature of other sports, it made sense.

“Of course! You’re looking at a three time ice skating limbo champion!” Danny proudly proclaimed. 

Wonderful, Danny was showing signs of both familiarity and looking forward to their excursion. “I look forward to seeing it.” Damian agreed, smile so sharp it was almost genuine.

( ☆○o。< He’s a Phantom! > 。o○☆ )

Damian is almost ready to consider this experiment over, since clearly it'll only take a few more outings for sufficient friend status to be reached.

While walking he thinks about the additional training he’s been putting on the backfoot in order to make time for this side project. Toying with the idea of how much he’ll be able to take it back once he doesn’t have to focus on the emotional status of another human.

Danny had been so excited for this one that it was pretty much a given for Damian to be considered a “friend” after this. The science project was just extra certainty on top of the obvious.

After that he’ll gather his data, promptly re-distance himself appropriately, and begin the experiment over again with a more high stakes candidate. 

Mentally, he thought about what strategies he could enact in order to minimize actual contact while maximizing friendship effect. The amount of in person effort was ideal for the initial data gathering, but would become less necessary once the correct patterns were found. Texting was effective he’d found, as it built relationship without interrupting much of Damian’s actual day. Danny seemed fond of setting Damian cat videos after the first time he’d responded to them positively. 

Part of him noted that perhaps it was quite cruel to build a relationship with a social outcast and then promptly abandon him once the social experiment was over. Those types of experiments done in animals always left long-lasting negative effects. 

Damian felt what could have been scientifically described as a twinge of guilt as he headed towards the entrance of the ice rink.

As he sat down and waited, Damian pushed around the idea of putting Danny in touch with a few other social pariahs in Gotham Academy once his purpose was served. It might help soften the blow, especially because Danny would be chatty and probably use those hinkydink small town stories of his to endear himself to whatever small group Damain arranged him to be within. 

He was good at that. Always waving his hands around to emphasize the real terror of the ghost crows in those stories.

In any case, it wasn’t as if Damian hadn’t already performed extensive research on their classmates. There was one girl in their class who had an interest in astrology, though she leaned towards only talking to other girls. There was a boy who sat in the courtyard by himself every day at lunch, but he didn’t share any classes with Danny. Perhaps the library club, but Danny couldn’t focus on books to save his life.

The batboy sat there, idly musing about whomst he might push Danny off towards once their experiment ended while he waited.

Damian had expected to need to rent skates for Danny, only to be surprised that Danny also brought his own pair. They were slung over one shoulder as Danny walked in with a large smile. 

“Hey Damian!” he yelled across the rink’s seating area, waving wildly with one arm. 

The boy lifted a hand and gave a small wave back, as a show of good friendship.

Damian's own skates were technically combat skates, built more like hockey skates than figure skating because they're meant for ice heavy missions and combat. They also had two concealed buttons on either side that could be pinched, allowing for proper blades to extend from the front and back of the skates.

Danny's skates were quite personable. Black but patterned in silvery star stickers with bright neon green laces. Of course they were space themed, if Damian knew anything about Danny by now: it was how much he loved space. The green laces were probably a nod towards "little green men".

“Sorry for being late, you would not believe how many alleyways I had to go through to get here. City streets are really something else!” There he went again with the dramatics.

“It’s no trouble.” Damian himself was ten minutes late because he knew Danny would be as well.

Damian considered how Danny was significantly less annoying once you considered how genuine he was. So straightforward all the time, while an irritation at first- it slowly became slightly refreshing to know that Damian didn’t have to hide much because Danny couldn’t read signals for the life of him.

Danny was quite approachable, he just needed to be set up with the right people in a proper initial meeting. Like letting cats smell each other before you drop them into co-habitation.

Said cat seemed to elect to put on his skates on the way over instead of on a bench like a normal person. He hopped over on one foot as he laced up a singular skate, then laced up the other and put his shoes down into a small cubby on the floor. 

“Give me a moment to lace up,” Damian told him. He pretended to lace up his skates slowly while observing how experienced Danny was on skates- and in turn, how Damian should present his own level of expertise.

Damian noted how confidently Danny stood in his skates, walking over to the skating arena without so much as needing a moment to balance himself. Instead he stood next to the stand and waited for Damian to lace up his skates.

“Cool cool, lemme just get a quick feel.” Danny grinned and went to the rink.

From the moment he stepped out, Danny was noticeably lighter on his feet than the rest of the ice's occupants. He grinned, sighing once with his eyes closed- as if taking in the silent pleasure or being at the ice rink.

Then, in one swift kicked motion Damny was flying, skating across the ice in a burst of experienced speed in order to do a quick loop around the rink and return to where he started.

Danny didn't move across the ice like the rest of the people on the rink. Others wobbled, flailed, barely managing to skate in straight lines. More experienced ones helped newbies, and a handful used triangular skate trainers to help them slowly shuffle across the ice. 

He came to a swift stop next to Damian, turning his ankles to the side so that the friction on his sideways skates would halt his momentum. It was so smooth and fluid, extremely different from the way Danny usually lumbered about. Damian felt his eyebrows raise silently.

Advanced skater then. He supposed Danny did grow up in Illinois. The amount of snow they got was considerable enough that ice skating was a common hobby, just not one Damian expected Danny to excel at.

Damian stepped elegantly onto the ice, supposing that he’d go for a more intermediate speed in order to match Danny’s clear experience. The outing was only useful if they could interact, after all.

“So have you thought about a topic for our science project?” Damian asked conversationally, knowing it would only take off a single question to kick off Danny’s near boundless

Danny made a face, caught between a guilty smile and a grimace. “It’s only day one, do we really need to think about that?” Because really- who thinks that hard about a project when they have two whole weeks left?

Damian immediately dialed back his academics, instead directing the conversation to what Danny had for lunch that day. (Chili and hard boiled eggs- shells seperate.)

It wasn’t hard to keep pace with Danny, they skated and talked even though Danny’s energy built as they kept skating. Danny’s skating style was aggressively speedy despite the flimsy look of his cheap skates. They were made to look like they had wires sticking out the back for some reason.

Damian found himself racing Danny back and forth as they circled around the rink endlessly. It was a surprisingly decent challenge for a boy who had little to no muscular training to speak of. Barely fifteen minutes in and they were weaving in between other skaters like salmon swimming upstream.

It wasn’t until Danny turned to Damian with a glint in his eye that suddenly sent the boy’s hackles up. That was an entirely new look.

"Do you wanna go really fast?" Danny's mischievous look spoke of trouble. Trouble like a cat staring at a glass sitting on the edge of a table.

But Damian was curious, because logically speaking they were already skating the fastest out of anyone in the rink. He would admit that Danny was quite skilled, but skill wouldn’t account for the small size of the rink or time spent turning. How exactly could they get faster than this without running into people..?

No. It was an immature childish idea that would likely result in Danny crashing into the wall.

"Try me." The words were out of his mouth before he could even think about them.

Before Damian could take back the immature words, or escalate what he’d already challenged, Danny was grinning. He skated inwards to grab at one of Damian’s arms. Now that was far too close.

“Wha-” But Damian didn’t have time to question.

Didn’t even have time to think as the fool grabbed both his wrists, flicked himself around, and somehow managed to start perfectly skating backwards.

Suddenly Danny was the only thing in his vision, grinning impishly at his accomplishment. Whatever words were about to come out of his mouth got garbled into nonsense as Damian initially tried to slow down to not crash into the fool- only to find himself being pulled!

There were a couple times in Damian’s career as a vigilante where he had to either hold on to a speeding vehicle, or hold onto a wayward grappling hook as it launched him much further than initially expected. 

That being said, the same kind of speed and inertia being exerted shouldn’t be anything comparable to Danny on ice skates. 

But somehow, it was.

If they were going twice as fast before, suddenly they were quadruple fast- lapping the other occupants so badly that they were turning the passerbys into marginal blurs.

He did his best to keep up with Danny, but in all honesty he could do much more than keep his skates rooted to the ground as his arms began to feel like he was holding onto a wayward bull. 

Damian was stunned speechless, unable to come up with any rational thought as he focused intensely on keeping his skates from flying out from under his feet as he was yanked around the edges of the ice skate rink. He could recognize they were going past people, quickly weaving in and out of the crowd before jerking around the bend to do it all again. 

He just didn’t understand how.

How was Danny doing this? No normal person could skate this quickly, not unless they were olympian level, and Damian certainly would’ve caught something like that in his quick dig around Danny and his past. He would’ve seen some kind of sign, this wasn’t the normal skating of a fourteen year old boy who just so happened to pick up a trick or two. 

Danny was saying something, but it was completely lost underneath Damian’s whirling tornado of mental questions and the realization that Danny was probably a way better skater than the entirety of the Wayne family put together. 

The scariest part was when Danny suddenly shifted, circling them inwardly until they spiralled towards the center of the giant oblong rink. They quickly went from orbiting the outer edges to using that momentum to a sort of co-orbital configuration involving Damian holding onto Danny so he wasn’t flung into a wall.

Now they were just spinning. 

Someone was blowing a whistle, shouting about them skating dangerously. This went entirely against his prerogative of not attracting attention on these outings.

But Damian couldn't really hear anything concrete past the sensation of spinning. Who was Damian kidding? He had lost control of this outing a long time ago. Nothing but the sound of Danny's gleeful laughter, loud and nearly maniacal as he had the time of his life. 

Danny was the only thing in his vision, careless, crazy, and entirely oblivious of the chaos he was leaving in his wake.

‘This can’t get any worse,’ Damian thought.

Which of course was when the wall burst open.

( ☆○o。< He’s a Phantom! > 。o○☆ )

Danny would like to think that if there was one thing he was gonna flex till the day he died again- it was his skating skills.

Even before he got his ice core he was always the kid who was eager to play in winter. Maybe not so much Christmas specifically, but general winter weather was one of his favorites. Whenever mom and dad started arguing too heatedly about Santa when he was little, Jazz would take him down to the rink so they kill some time. (After he got older he’d just carry headphones to block out the blaring christmas music at every rink.)

From there he’d developed something of a relationship with winter. He knew that his ice core came from his attachment to space, but Danny still fell into a category of seasonal spirit. He was pretty sure two or three of his titles were wintery, or something.

So pulling the ice skating card today? It was destiny! He had to do something cool! Come on! It was like the one ghost power he could flex openly without accidentally revealing himself. 

He already had sick-nasty ice skating skills, but the ability to be immune to ice just magnified them 10x.

Anyways, Danny was just launching into his finishing move- the tornado death spin then he’d use a hand to lift Damian like the ice skaters on TV and it would look so cool. Unfortunately right before the good part was when the wall exploded and people started screaming and running for their lives.

Now, Danny’s first thought was something along the lines of OH NO NOT SKULKER because come on, he knows that not all of his citizens are gonna follow the new “Don’t attack the ghost king during school days” rule. He especially knows that Skulker is going to do everything in his rule to defy it because that ghost knows no boundaries or fear of thermos time.

The only real question was how Skulker managed to cross the dimensional rifts to Gotham, but where there is a will there is a persistent ghost.

Danny immediately came to a hard stop, letting the spin die as they slid back from the blast zone. Chunks of concrete littered the ice rink as people started scrambling away from the smoke and brand new hole-in-the-wall.

He worried a little bit that he’d gone overboard on the spinning as Damian seemed to need a few seconds to reorient himself, shaking his head a tiny bit. 

The crowd of previously content ice-skaters started running as soon as the wall blast open. Many fell to the ground and had to scramble on their hands and knees to the exit, but all of them made it. Danny stood his ground instinctively, turning towards the destruction to see who would walk out of it.

The woman who walked through wore a shiny black stylized outfit with decorative feathers on the shoulders. She laughed, high and screechy like a bird as she came in. 

She was flashy looking, clearly modeled after some kind of black bird. However, Danny didn’t recognize her and she didn’t hold any kind of afterlife signature, so he relaxed just the faintest bit.

That didn’t mean he relaxed completely, but he mentally hyped himself to play ‘scared but stupid civilian’ instead of Phantom.

“Can you believe it?! A true find, hidden underneath this pile of garbage!” As she walked in, masked minions followed behind her. About five to seven-ish (Danny couldn’t see them all). They carried drilling equipment with them, clearly planning to dig into… what, the bottom of the ice rink?

Hang on, just what was the game plan here gang??

“There’s robbers here too?!” Danny could help himself, cause dawg when they said Gotham had the highest crime rate they really weren’t lying. They takin’ the goddamn ice rink, can’t have shit in Gotham.

“Spread out, this ice won’t drill itself!” She cackled again, saying something about ‘Soon the diamond will be hers’ and ‘people should pay more attention to their history if they don’t want it stolen.’ Danny was only half paying attention because he was trying to mentally map out the best place of action in this case.

Run? No, they were wearing ice skates. Fly? Can’t fly, can’t go ghost. Go ghost anyways? No, he’d only been in Gotham for maybe a month or two!

“Danny, let go.” Damian immediately ordered, making Danny realize that he hadn’t stopped gripping the other’s hands. In fact, he noticed their fingers had been interlocked and that his hands were actually warm for once because of Damians. When did that happen? Wait, no. Letting go now. Danny did as Damian asked.

Damian suddenly had a knife. Danny didn’t know where he got it from, but he did a double take after noticing it was there and sincerely hoped that Damian wasn’t going to try robbing the robbers back. 

“We need to get out of here.” Damian sternly proclaimed, contrasting the knife he was holding and the way his body had completely tensed up in preparation to fight.

Thankfully there were only a few people left, which the woman clearly noticed as the handful of men she brought started setting up a large drill in the middle of the rink. However, this clearly wasn’t her only goal.

The woman put her hands on her hips and looked expectantly at her hired help. “Well? What are you waiting for? Grab them! we need hostages for when Batman arrives!” She pointed towards the last few people.

At this point most of the occupants out on the ice had already ran out the door, unfortunately there were still a few who hadn’t managed to clear the ice yet. 

Before Danny could move, Damian had already lurched forward to grab an old woman who had slipped initially when the wall exploded and was too fearful to get back on her feet. By the time one of the goons made a grab for her, Damian was already yanking her back towards safety- actually growling at them.

When the man made a motion to continue, Damian used his knife to swipe at them while he pulled the elder woman back. The goons looked unsure of themselves, clearly not having brought any weapons because of the heavy mining equipment and author’s oversight.

A few meters away, the mastermind behind it all sighed to herself. “I have to do everything on my own, don’t I?” 

With a smirk, she let five wicked claws extend on either hand. Her eyes gleamed like a black and white bird spotting a shiny coin, and she lunged forward to paralyze them-

-and slipped. 

Falling flat on her face. Really, really hard too. 

Because Danny, in his panic, had put a hand on the ground and made the ice deliberately tread-mill itself backward on her so that she ate absolute ice rink with an audible crack. 

For a second none of them moved, both Danny and the goons stopped to stare at where the wicked lady with needle claws had landed face down in the ice. 

‘Fuck fuck fuck fuck fuck that was subtle enough right?’ Danny was sweating bullets internally. 

Most of the goons were still setting up the drill, one of the attackers fell back from getting close to Damian to turn her over and help her up. She stood- shakily getting her bearings back, while blood ran down from under her nose. 

Damian kept his front facing the men with a knife while the old lady escaped. Danny still had no idea where he got the knife from, but noted that Damian now had two of them. Okay, did he just carry that for these kinds of situations? 

But, what he did notice was that everyone but them off the ice. Just them, the ice, and the really angry lady who was now letting out a yell of rage and trying to stand so she could use her claws on them again.

Which is when Danny decides it’s a good idea to grab Damian and high-tail it outta there.

Thank goodness Damian didn’t notice anything in all the chaos.

( ☆○o。< He’s a Phantom! > 。o○☆ )

Danny had grabbed Damian and started sprinting almost as soon as Magpie was knocked out. No doubt Damian was going to be hearing about this from the rest of his family later. The other boy was firm in guiding them outside to run to where the authorities were arriving.

He was fast at running, even on ice skates. 

Damian kept his face turned towards the ice rink, staring at the place where Danny had made the ice move until he couldn’t see it anymore.