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Chapter Text

The first time it all happened so fast that neither of them really had any time to process it. Danny was simply gripped by the sudden sensation of sliding through nothingness as his very molecules stretched and squeezed through every iteration of existence. His perception narrowed to that singular sensation as it overwhelmed him.

And then there was a brush of something against his very being, molecules entangling with other molecules, equally disorienting as the immutable flood of Time swept them along.

Together, then apart, then together again, tangled, still tangled, trading pieces back and forth until the current sent them sliding through-

-and two bodies hit the ground, one a boy and one a man.

Danny (his name was Danny, he could see-hear-smell-taste again, he was WHOLE again) looked over and found a pair of equally confused blue eyes staring back at him from beneath the tattered remains of black mask. He drew in a sharp, glorious breath, preparing to speak but then he was gripped once more, pieces of him sliding away as the man cried out in horror, reaching for him...

But he was back in the flood, alone once more, reduced once more to the basest essence as he was pulled-squeezed-stretched back through existence-

-and his head hit his desk, the solid thunk of bone on wood drawing eyes away from Sam's impassioned speech about the misogyny of The Taming of the Shrew. Mr Lancer barely looked away at the sound, too focused on Sam's points, and a few of his classmates snickered, but none seemed to notice his pale face and wild eyes. None except Tucker, who learned over to whisper.

"Dude, what was that? You looked like you were a glitch in a videogame for a second there."

"I don't know, Tuck," Danny managed to wheeze out, his mind haunted by terrified blue eyes and the man he'd left behind, "I really don't."

The second time it happened, Danny wasn't any more prepared, but at least he was alone in his room getting ready for bed when his hand began to slide in and out of existence before his eyes, sometimes bigger, sometimes smaller, sometimes ghost-toned, sometimes skeletal.

He only had a moment to panic before he was sliding-stretching-squeezing through existence again. The current spat him out into a desert, the air thick with smoke and the smell of destruction. Danny's first instinct was to get away from the fire he could feel blazing behind him, but then he heard it.

A heart-shattering howl of grief cut through the smoky air. Danny whirled around and saw them; the man with the strange black mask, now whole and clearly a pointy eared cowl, cradling a battered, bloody and brightly dressed body. Danny gasped as he realized he could feel the boy's death in the very air; could taste his last moments of terror and shattered hope at the back of his throat.

The man's head shot up at the sound of his gasp and familiar blue eyes widened.

"Danny," the man croaked (how did he know his name?), voiced wrecked by the force of his grief, "is...is he...?"

"He's gone," Danny confirmed gently, guessing at the question the man couldn't bear to voice. Fresh tears spilled down the man's face and Danny felt his own eyes welling up in sympathy, grieving with this man for a boy he didn't know.

"Find him," the man begged, "please, please find him on the other side. Make sure he's...make sure he finds peace. Make sure he knows that I..." the man choked on fresh tears. Danny knelt at his side and put a comforting hand on his shoulder.

"I...I don't know if I can, but I'll try," he promised, "if I can find him, I'll make sure he knows he's missed. That he's lo-"

Forlorn, devastated eyes met his as Danny was pulled unceremoniously back to his bedroom.

He stared up at the ceiling, the plastic, glow-in-the-dark constellations bringing little comfort as he silently wept, his heart aching for the poor man he'd once again left behind. Dust and smoke still clung to his pajamas, the only solid evidence that anything strange had happened. He hadn't even had a chance to ask his name, or that of the ghost he'd vowed to search for.

Danny grabbed his pillow and screamed into it, letting out all of the frustration and sorrow tangled up inside him. Once he'd let out all that he could and his tears had dried, he stumbled to his feet, heedless of the late hour.

If he was going to have any chance of finding that kid's ghost, he needed answers.

It was time to go and see Clockwork.

Chapter Text

"You broke it."

Danny shuffled his feet and rubbed the back of his neck nervously.

"Well, uh, I mean, technically, if you think about it, actually my, uh, my dad broke it."

Clockwork's youthful face remained impassive, but green light crept over the crack in the amulet Danny held out and after a moment the crack was completely gone. Danny breathed out a sigh of relief.

"Thanks, Clocky. Randomly slipping through time wasn't exactly a joy ride."

Clockwork hummed. "Yes, I imagine it's going to become quite bothersome."

"Become?" Danny parroted. "What do you mean it's 'going to become bothersome'?" He waved the amulet. "Didn't you just fix it?"

"The amulet, yes," Clockwork explained, infuriatingly implacable, "but not even I can unravel temporal entanglement this…knotted. I'm afraid you and your fellow time traveller must be the ones to unravel yourselves from each other."

Danny's heart sank.

"What, so this is just gonna keep happening?"

"Until your temporal potentials have been completely disentangled, yes."

"Well, how long is that gonna take?" Danny demanded, staring down the barrel of possibly spending the rest of his life randomly popping into the life of somebody else.

Clockwork gave him a pointed look over his beard and Danny threw up his hands in frustration.

"Can you at least tell me how to untangle our tempura potentials, or whatever?"

"You've already begun," Clockwork explained. "Think of it like this; temporal energy builds up inside you until it's strong enough to bridge the gap between your timelines. Once the two of you make contact, the energy discharges and breaks one of the bonds connecting you. Eventually, all of the bonds will be broken and your timelines will be completely separate once more."

Danny remembered kneeling in the desert with a hand on the man's shoulder, making a promise he now wasn't sure he could keep right as he was pulled back to his own time. He had no way of knowing if the kid was dead at this point in time or if he'd even been born yet.

"Okay. Okay, so we're just gonna pop in and out of each other's lives, shaking hands to get home?"

"Not exactly. The amount of energy required to move against the passage of time is immense. My amulet allows you to move through time more easily, reducing that cost. You will always be the one to jump into his timeline simply because you require less temporal energy to do so."

"Huh. Glad I won't have to explain some guy popping in and out of existence next to me." Danny groaned. "It's gonna be hard enough explaining me flickering in and out of existence. I'm just lucky Sam was so quick to run interference today."

"I'm sure you'll manage," Clockwork said unhelpfully as Danny felt a newly familiar sensation grip his phantom form, dragging him through time once more.

Bruce wouldn't remember the first time he met Danny.

Martha, however, would never forget it. She may have brushed it off as a sleep-deprivation induced hallucination, but it was impossible to forget.

It looked as though he had somehow been pulled into existence in front of her, parts of him shifting rapidly back forth in size, like some kind of Frankenstein's monster that couldn't decide which parts of it came from an adult or from a child.

He stabilised after an eye-searing moment into a teenaged boy with snowy white hair, glowing green eyes and almost metallic skin that blushed a vibrant green when he looked to her nursing newborn and noticed her very bare breasts.

To his credit, he'd immediately covered his eyes and practically shouted a tumble of apologies before simply fading out of existence as though he'd never been there.

Martha stared at the spot where he'd been for a very long time, Bruce nursing obliviously at her chest. By the time he was done, she had decided that she should perhaps let Thomas and Alfred help with the night feedings more often.

Clearly, she needed to get more sleep.

She didn't notice the cold spot she passed as she shuffled tiredly out of the nursery. Had no way of knowing an invisible, gentle hand brushed back Bruce's wispy black hair, a soft goodnight whispered where only her sleeping son might hear.

When her son's future babblings about an imaginary friend occasionally matched the description of her strange hallucination, Martha would think back on that night. She began to wonder if perhaps it hadn't been a half-awake dream, but a glance of something beyond this world that was watching over her son.

Chapter Text

Danny wasn't exactly thrilled to go from sitting in a booth at Nasty Burger to landing hard on his butt on a wooden floor, suddenly face to shirtless abs with the object of his conversation.

"What is it with your family and not wearing shirts?" Danny exclaimed, spinning around to hide his blush. The man seemed to find Danny's sensibilities amusing, chuckling as he lazily folded out of the handstand he'd been holding. Thankfully for Danny's nerves, he put a shirt on before moving to sit in front of him.

"Hi," Danny said awkwardly once he could meet the other man's eyes.

"Hi," he parroted back, still looking lightly amused.

"I'm Danny."

"I know."

Not exactly the answer Danny had been hoping for.

"And you are?" he asked pointedly.

"Bruce," Bruce answered.

"Okay, uh, nice to meet you, Bruce." When Bruce didn't respond other than to raise his eyebrows in surprise, Danny soldiered on. "So, uh, you're probably wondering how I got in here? Well, it's gonna sound crazy, but bear with me here…" Danny proceeded to explain in broad strokes what had happened, and what little Clockwork had explained about the whole process.

"I know," Bruce said simply once Danny was done.

"You do?" Danny blinked. He looked around the room he'd landed in. It was small and very spartan, it's minimal wooden furnishings all worn yet sturdy, a single window looking down into some kind of courtyard. Was this what college dorms looked like? "Are you like, studying temporal physics or something?"

Bruce huffed in amusement. "No. You told me when I was eight to explain why you couldn't go back in time and save my parents."

"Oh," was all Danny could say to that. Bruce didn't comment further, just watched him pensively for a few moments.

"How many times have we met, from your perspective?" he asked.

"Um, I think this is technically the fourth? Though this is the first time we've actually been able to properly talk," Danny admitted, "how many times have we met for you?"

Bruce's mouth twitched up into the ghost of a fond smile. Danny got the impression that Bruce wasn't the most outwardly expressive person, but what he was feeling was clear as long as you knew where to look.

"I don't know," he answered honestly. 

"So, like, a lot then?"

"Yes."

"Do I ever seem older? Please tell me you haven't been hanging out with old man me," Danny winced.

"No," Bruce assured him, blue eyes glittering with mirth. "You always look the same to me, so you probably won't have to do this for too long."

Danny let out a sigh of relief. He opened his mouth to ask more questions but Bruce twitched, cocking his head ever so slightly like he was listening to something. Danny froze and listened himself, the barest sound of movement outside the window reaching his ears.

"You need to go," was all Bruce said before he rolled to his feet, touching Danny's shoulder on his way up. Danny barely had time to gasp at the sight of a freaking ninja sliding through the window, Bruce squaring up to fight, before he was flung back into the booth at Nasty Burger. 

Or more accurately, underneath it, as Tucker's response to his flickering form had apparently been to just shove him under the table. He popped out from under the table and glared at his friend.

"Seriously?" 

"Sorry, man, Paulina and Star were about to walk past us and I panicked."

Across from them, Sam rolled her eyes as Danny looked around wildly and saw that, sure enough, Paulina and Star were just leaving.

"Whatever, can we get back to what you were saying? Because I'd really like to know how the hell holding hands across time and space somehow fixes 'temporal entanglement'."

Danny sighed and dove back into the explanation he'd literally just finished giving Bruce.

Chapter Text

Danny was finally getting used to the impossible feeling of slipping through time, which is probably why the kick to his face took him completely off-guard.

"Oh shit! Danny, I'm so sorry!"

Danny blinked away the stars in his vision and saw that while Bruce was there, hovering with a worried frown, it was actually someone else who'd just walloped him. It was a boy a bit above Danny's age and height, with tan skin and floppy black hair. Based on the way he and Bruce were dressed, Danny had materialised right in the middle of a sparring match.

"Whu-who are you?" Danny managed to groan, massaging his jaw. To his surprise, the boy's blue eyes lit up.

"Ohmygod is this our first meeting for you?"

"Uh, yeah," Danny confirmed, finally finding his footing. A well-dressed older man appeared out of thin air next to him and offered him some ice for his smarting cheek. "Oh, uh, thank you, sir." The older man's eyebrows rose.

"An early visit indeed," he commented in a smooth English accent, "a pleasure to officially make your acquaintance, Master Danny. My name is Alfred Pennyworth, and please, call me Alfred." Despite his polished and professional demeanor, the man's voice was warm and fond.

"Nice to meet you too," Danny answered a little sheepishly, settling the cold pack against his cheek.

"I'm Dick," the boy introduced himself eagerly, "and the one and only Robin!"

"Hi," Danny managed, a little intimidated by the kid's energy. Colour caught his eye, and he focused on the suits lined up along the wall behind the sparring area. Bruce's black cowl was familiar, but so was the smaller suit of red, green and gold next to it, though it lacked the blood and soot Danny had last seen covering it. His eyes slid back to Dick, horrified understanding turning his blood to ice. That suit was sized perfectly to fit him.

He finally knew the name of the boy who would die in the desert.

"Dick, give him some space," Bruce chided gently before turning to Danny. "It's good to see you Danny. It's been a while."

Danny snorted, eagerly latching onto the distraction to run from his spiraling thoughts. "For you, maybe. I was hanging out in your college dorm yesterday."

Bruce looked a little confused at that, but Danny was quickly distracted by Dick. 

"Last time you were here you promised me embarrassing Bruce stories," he informed him eagerly. 

"Sorry, dude, future me is gonna have to make good on that promise, I don't have any good stories yet. But I'm sure you've got a few for me?"

Dick was delighted to retell every gaff and snafu Bruce had ever had both in the field and at home. Bruce played up being embarrassed, but Danny could see the fondness in him as he watched Dick's exuberant and no doubt embellished retelling, his love for his son shining through despite his reserved demeanour. Danny drank it all in, trying very hard not to think about how this vibrant young man's life was rapidly ticking towards it's end and Danny had no idea how to stop it.

Later, when Dick had been sent upstairs to finish his homework, Bruce gave Danny a tour of the cave (it had taken Danny embarrassingly long to notice they were in an actual bat cave!) and Danny couldn't help but say something.

"Why do you let him do this?" Danny asked softly, interrupting Bruce's explanation of why exactly he had a robot dinosaur in his secret lair. "Dick and the whole vigilante thing, I mean. He's just a kid."

"Dick's not much older than you," Bruce pointed out archly.

"Yeah, but I didn't have a choice. No one else can do what I do, and if I let the idiots who think they can do it, more people get hurt."

Bruce was quiet for a moment. "Do you know why I do what I do?"

Danny winced. "Yeah. Not hard to figure out."

Bruce just nodded. "Dick is much the same. I took him in because I knew what he was going through. Of course, I didn't realise quite how much like me he was until he snuck out to hunt down his parents killer with nothing to protect him but a leotard and a lot of rage." Bruce gave a tired sigh. "It's not that I let him do this, Danny. He was going to do this with or without me. I couldn't stop him, just like Alfred couldn't stop me."

"Even though it's gonna get him killed?"

The question left Bruce utterly stricken, the blood draining from his face. Danny forced himself not to look away.

"You've seen it?" The question was barely audible, as though Bruce was terrified to acknowledge he'd dared to speak it allowed. Danny just nodded, not trusting his voice. Bruce just stood there, trembling, and it took everything Danny had not to offer him a hug.

"You shouldn't have told me that," Bruce finally broke the silence. Danny flinched.

"I…I'm sorry."

"No, I'm sorry. You're usually so careful, I should have known it was because there was a time when you weren't. I should have warned you." Bruce's words were cold and clipped. Danny didn't take it personally, it wasn't hard to see how hard Bruce was fighting to hold it together.

"No, you're right, I should have known better," Danny admonished himself, wrapping his arms around himself in a self-soothing gesture. "No spoilers is like, the first rule of basically every time travel movie. I…I'll be more careful," he promised. Bruce nodded mutely in acceptance.

"I, uh…I should probably go," Danny suggested, offering Bruce a tentative hand. Bruce remained still for a moment and Danny wondered for a second if Bruce was going to force him to stew in the mess that he'd made. But finally he reached back, clasping Danny's hand in his.

"It's okay, Danny. It's not your fault."

Danny couldn't reply to Bruce's heartfelt reassurance before he slipped back. He also couldn't shake the feeling that he'd irrevocably broken something.

Chapter Text

Danny was nervous about when he might next have to see Bruce and face the consequences of his disastrous meddling. It turned out he should have been nervous about something else entirely.

The next slip happened in the shower.

Thankfully, he was so alarmed to be feeling the slipping sensation whilst utterly naked that he went invisible entirely on instinct. Which was very lucky as the slip dumped him in the middle of a very busy ballroom. Bruce was there, dressed in a sharp tuxedo and a vapid smile on his face as a crowd of people chattered at him, packed far too densely for Danny to be able to just touch him and dip. He could have used his intangibility, but the idea of going through someone whilst naked felt very uncomfortable for some reason.

Instead, Danny shivered as he snaked his way through all the overdressed people, praying he'd be able to find a discarded coat, or at the very least a towel to cover himself with while he waited for a good time to slip back. He'd almost made it to the large doors at the end of the ballroom when a voice spoke at his side.

"Hey, man. You Danny?"

Danny looked over in horror.

A black boy in a nice suit was casually strolling next to him, pointedly looking down at a flat rectangle in his hand and not at Danny.

"Please tell me you can't see me," Danny whispered futilely. The boy smiled apologetically.

"Uh, sorry, I kinda can. And I can definitely see the trail of soap suds you've left across the dancefloor. So I figured you could use a hand?"

"Yes, please," Danny begged weakly, both relieved and mortified.

"I got you, man. Follow me, you can use my ensuite to rinse off and I'll find something for you to borrow while we wait for Bruce to escape the vultures," the boy offered with a compassionate smile, and started leading Danny towards a side door.

"Thank you, thank you, thank you!"

Once they left the crowded ballroom, Danny relaxed a little.

"So," he asked his saviour, "you know me, but, uh…"

"Oh! I'm Duke," Duke replied with a sunny smile, "I'm Bruce's latest stray."

"Bruce takes in more kids?"

Duke seemed surprised by the question. "Yeah, there's officially, like, six of us now, but I'm pretty sure Bruce sees basically everyone he mentors as one of his kids."

Danny thought back to how fondly Bruce had looked at Dick and how heartbroken he'd been when he died.

"Yeah, I can definitely see him doing that."

Duke opened a door in a hallway Danny recognized. This was definitely where he'd escaped away from Bruce's mom while she finished feeding him, which meant that huge ballroom full of people was in Bruce's house.

"Ensuite is through there," Duke directed him to another door, " go ahead and help yourself to the towels, I'll find something that fits you."

Danny gladly escaped into the bathroom leaving a trail of thank yous behind him. He spent a little longer than necessary under the shower's hot spray warming up after his impromptu bout of streaking. He finally exited the bathroom, back on the visible spectrum and wrapped in the biggest, most luxurious towel he'd ever seen.

Duke was sitting on what Danny realized was probably his bed, tapping away at his flat rectangle like Tucker would often do on his PDA, but there definitely weren't any buttons on that thing. A suit had been laid out on the bed next to him.

"Found you one of Tim's old suits, it looks like it should fit," Duke said absently, looking up from his rectangle with a speculative look. "Hey, you don't show up on camera when you're invisible, right?"

"No, but the photo will come out all weird and distorted," Danny answered, shuffling over to inspect the clothes. There was some clearly new underwear, still in its packaging, and a pristine black suit and white shirt that probably cost more than his house. "Do I have to wear a suit?"

"If you want any of the good desserts, you gotta brave the ballroom, and that means a suit."

"Are the desserts really worth it?"

"Oh yeah. It's the only reason I was there."

With a groan, Danny took the clothes back into the bathroom to dress. The suit fit surprisingly well, being just a little wide in the shoulders. He stepped back out with a twirl and deadpan jazz hands, making Duke laugh as he got to his feet.

"Looking good, man! Hey, do you mind if I take a photo with you while you're invisible?"

"Why?" Danny asked, baffled.

"To mess with people," Duke stated like it was obvious. Danny shrugged; made sense to him.

"Sure. Want me to leave the suit visible?"

"Hell yeah, that'll be perfect!" Duke grinned and slung an arm around Danny's shoulders. He held up his rectangle, so Danny could now see it was a screen reflecting Duke's smiling face, the top of his suit and a whole lot of static. There was a bright flash and a shutter sound, then Duke was showing him what he'd captured. "Wow, you weren't kidding about it looking all weird. That's so cool!"

Danny peered over his shoulder at the picture. It looked like someone had taken a photo of a badly tuned tv, static distorting the area around where Danny stood, some of the effect bleeding over to Duke, warping the lines of his face. Before Danny's eyes, Duke began typing. The words 'a wild phantom appeared!' materialised over the photo, unaffected by the distortion.

"Is that thing some kind of camera?" he asked. Duke looked at him in confusion for a second before realization lit up his face.

"Oh man, I forgot you're, like, Bruce-old,-"

"Hey!"

"-this isn't just a camera; it's a computer and a phone too. Go ahead and tell your math teacher to suck it because actually everybody is gonna have a calculator in their pocket in the future."

"Oh, so it's like a suped up PDA?"

"Sure, old man, it's a suped up PDA," Duke said with a cackle, slinging his arm back around Danny's shoulders, "now come on, we gotta get to the mini cheesecakes before Steph steals them all."

The phone(?!) in Duke's hand began to make little noises as they made their way back to the ballroom.

"What's that mean?" Danny asked, curious. He wondered if it would be bad for the timeline if he told Tucker how much better technology was going to get.

"Probably Tim losing his mind. He's wanted to get an invisible man photo of you forever," Duke explained, not exactly answering the question. He swung open the door to the ballroom dramatically and made a beeline for a specific table, which was indeed laden with a mouthwatering array of desserts.

"Ladies and gentlemen, the guest of honour has arrived," he announced in a fake British accent to a specific group gathered at the end of the table. Danny recognized none of them, but they greeted him like an old friend.

A blonde squealed and straight up hugged him, miraculously managing not to drop any of the desserts piled high on her plate as she did so. She was followed by a very tall and scary looking guy who offered his hand only to tug Danny into a half-hug when he took it. The pale guy behind him just mock-glared at Danny and hissed "Betrayal!", leading Danny to believe this was the Tim who's suit he was wearing and wanted an invisible man photo. On the other side of the table, a tall black man nodded a greeting to Danny before returning to his conversation with a wheelchair-bound redhead, who also waved cheerfully at Danny. Finally, a dark haired young woman stepped forward.

"Cass," she stated with a smile, indicating herself. The scary guy frowned at her.

"He knows that, Cass."

"No," she stated, giving the big guy a condescending look that reminded Danny of Jazz, "he didn't."

"Have we got a bitty baby Danny?" the blonde gasped in delight. Danny took an instinctive step back as she actually bounced with excitement.

"Oh, definitely," Duke confirmed with a smug grin, "he asked me how many kids Bruce had like it was weird he had more than one."

"Too fucking many," the big guy scoffed, "don't matter though, all you need to know is I'm Jason and I'm the favourite."

"In your dreams, everybody knows Cass is the favourite," the pale guy countered, "I'm Tim by the way and it is very weird introducing myself to someone I've known for years."

"Yeah I feel like I'm gonna have to get very used to that feeling," Danny agreed with a shrug.

"I'm Steph," the blonde introduced herself, "and you and I are gonna pull some master pranks together. Or have pulled? Man, I already suck at grammar, why's time travel gotta make it harder."

"Sucks to suck," Jason told her smugly and swung a companionable arm around Danny's shoulders, "but here's the real question: have you tried any of Alfred's food yet?"

"Why would you ask such an imbecilic question, Todd? Of course he has!"

Danny turned to the imperious voice of yet another person who clearly knew future him. It was a kid about Dani's age, glaring at Jason with green eyes that were a striking contrast to his brown skin.

"Who's Todd?" Danny asked, even more confused now. Wasn't he talking to Jason? The others cracked up at his question, confusing him even further and making the kid's scowl deepen into fury. Danny half expected him to stamp his foot.

"Don't mind Damian, he just refuses to chill out and calls us all by our last names," Tim finally explained.

"Except Dick," Cass piped up. Steph snorted.

"Oh yeah, he gets to be Richard," she added, in a tone that implied she didn't think it was much of an improvement. Privately, Danny thought it was sweet that the overly proper kid made an exception for the brother they'd lost.

"Nice to meet you Damian," Danny greeted with a little wave from where he was still firmly tucked under Jason's arm. "I'm guessing you already know my last name?"

To Danny's surprise, Damian's eyes widened like he'd just been offered a rare gift.

"Actually-"

"Uh uh uh," Steph butted in with far too much joy, covering Damian's mouth with a hand that the boy quickly shook off with a look of disgust, "you know the rules, Damian." She learned forward and spoke directly at his face, radiating glee. "No. Spoilers. And that means…" she waved a prompting hand at Tim, who scowled.

"No research," he grumbled, clearly not happy about it.

"Which means?" Steph continued, looking pointedly back at Damian.

"Tch…no identifying information."

"Such as…?" Steph refused to relent.

"...no last names."

"Ding ding ding! Give that boy a prize!"

Damian actually did stomp his foot then, face red with annoyance. "Do not patronize me, Br-Blonde!" he snapped, clearly stumbling over his choice of epithet. He and Steph began to bicker further as she tried to cajole or trick Damian into calling her Steph, and Jason took the opportunity to pull Danny away and closer to the table.

"All right, enough of that! Let's focus on the reason literally any of us are at this boring ass party; food!" He handed Danny a plate and gestured expansively at the dizzying array of delights Danny had almost forgotten about. "So, what do you want to blow your mind with first?"

"I recommend starting with the croquembouche or the creme brulee," Tim suggested as he selected multicoloured little sandwich biscuits for himself.

"I don't know what those even are," Danny admitted, a bit overwhelmed by what was on offer.

Cass took it upon herself to begin her own selection, holding up each item, stating it's name and what it was made of using the least number of words possible before placing it on her plate. Danny followed behind her, selecting the things that sounded good, whilst Jason occasionally butted in with extra trivia like how some of the seemingly basic dishes were actually really tricky to get right.

"And Alfred made all this?" Danny asked in disbelief as he licked the remains of 'vanilla custard, crunchy sugar top' off of the tiny spoon it came with. He had the sinking feeling that Jason had been right and pudding cups just weren't going to cut it after this.

"Well, he does get in a little help for the big events because he's only one man with two hands, but yeah, most of it's him," Duke answered.

They were all seated at one of the round tables from the dinner portion of the event that Danny had apparently missed. Danny was sat between Duke and Tim, who was having a good-natured debate with Steph about what Danny thought might have been energy drinks? Cass was on her other side, engaged in some kind of intense cutlery battle with Damian over the last 'sweet puff, hazelnut-creme centre' on Damian's plate, while Jason provided commentary from between Damian and Barbara, the redhead who'd waved earlier, who was watching the whole thing with amusement.

Damian crowed in victory at finally getting his treat out of Cass's clutches only to go for Jason's throat when he just stole it with his hand and showed it directly in his mouth. Danny laughed along with the others at Damian's outrage and Jason's struggle to fend him off, and found himself filled with a strange feeling he could only describe as being completely at ease. He was comfortable here, surrounded by these people who treated him like family, to whom he was family even if he didn't remember it yet. Despite Danny's strange circumstances and half-ghost nature, they had all accepted him.

For the first time since he'd begun slipping through time, Danny felt hopeful. Despite Danny's interference and their loss, Bruce and his family were happy. That was all Danny could hope for after accidentally forcing them into a lifetime of Danny crashing into their lives.

He'd just slipped one of the 'simple yet complicated' cookies into his mouth and wondered who the hell came up with the idea of flavouring cookies with flowers, when he heard a familiar voice behind him.

"I thought I saw you hiding away over here."

Danny turned and smiled up at Bruce. This was so far the oldest he had ever seen him; the were lines at the corners of his eyes and flecks of salt in his black hair.

"'course! Had to get to the desserts before Jason steals them all."

"He is correct, Father, Todd is a thief!"

"And proud!" Jason interjected unrepentantly.

"He stole my last profiterole!"

"There's a literal mountain of them right over there, Demon Brat, you can get more!"

"It is a matter of honour!"

Bruce tuned out his bickering children, focusing on Danny.

"I'll need to step out soon, so I thought I'd ask whether you planned on staying long?"

"Oh, uh, I hadn't thought about it," Danny admitted, "I got a little distracted meeting everybody and then the food." He pouted. "Crud, I just realized I've gotta go to school once I get home. Cafeteria food is gonna be like eating garbage after this." He looked forlornly at the remains on his plate.

Bruce chuckled. "Alfred will be more than happy to make you something anytime you visit, I promise. But I'd better send you home sooner than later or you'll be falling asleep in class." He jerked his head towards the exit and Danny stood with a sigh.

"Boo! Who's the thief now?" Steph jeered as the table realized they were about to lose their guest.

"See you some time, Danny!"

"Yeah, see you some time!"

"Adios!"

"Farewell."

"Hopefully you're a little less underdressed next time!"

Danny flipped Duke a middle finger for that, earning a cackle. Cass signed her farewell and Danny waved back before following Bruce towards the exit.

"Looks like you had a good night," Bruce commented once they were alone in a corridor.

"Yeah, I did," Danny admitted. "Tell Alfred I said his baking rocks. And your kids are pretty cool, too."

"Cooler than me?" Bruce asked with faux-shock and Danny laughed.

"Oh, definitely. Sorry, Bruce, you're old now, you're not allowed to be cool, it's, like, the law."

Bruce chuckled with him. "Yeah, I know, my kids won't let me forget it." He held out a hand. "Have fun at school, Danny."

"Have fun doing…whatever it is you do when I'm not butting into things," Danny responded, clasping his hand.

The slipping always felt alien and near indescribable. Somehow, the feeling of his hand slipping out of Bruce's grasp made it feel just a little bit worse.

As did finding himself standing under the shower spray dressed in a full suit.

Chapter Text

"Got you a present," Sam announced as she slapped something against Danny's chest.

"Stationery, you shouldn't have," Danny deadpanned as he grabbed the flimsy notebook and attached pen before they fell to the floor.

"Your welcome," Sam huffed, rolling her eyes. "It's small enough to fit in your pocket so you'll always have it whenever you slip." She paused and waggled her eyebrows at him. "Unless, of course, you have another nudey slip. Can't help you there."

"Ugh, don't remind me," Danny groaned as he went back to rummaging through his locker for the math homework he could have sworn he'd done. "Why do I even need a notebook though?"

"To keep track of things, duh. That way, you won't accidentally talk about something you're not supposed to know yet."

"I thought you guys were doing the whole 'don't ask, don't tell' thing?" Tucker joined their little huddle.

"Which is my whole point," Sam explained, hands on her hips. "This way, it'll be easier to keep track of what you can and can't say."

"I guess," Danny acquiesced, finally pulling the worksheet he'd been looking for out of his English textbook, of all places. He closed his locker and turned to lean against it. "Might be a little hard to keep track though, I've been trying not to look at any dates."

"I still say it can't hurt to know exactly how far in the future your new bud is," Tucker added.

"You just wanna know when you can expect that sweet PDA tech," Sam grumbled, "you were the first person to bring up time travel rules when Danny told us what happened, but one mention of a camera phone and you're all for bending them."

"It's not like I can make the time move faster, I just wanna know how quickly I need to start saving up," Tucker defended himself.

"I think it's better if I don't know."

Sam and Tucker paused their bickering at Danny's unusually somber tone.

"I'll still try and keep track," he assured Sam, waving the little notebook, "it's a good idea, so, thanks. But I…I don't wanna know when they are. Not yet."

"Why not?" Tucker asked. Danny hunched in on himself a little

"I don't know. What if I find out and it turns out not even Alfred is born yet? And he's old old. Or if it turns out Sam is right and they're on a completely separate timeline and won't ever exist in ours?"

"Or it turns out Bruce is already alive, and that means you know a bunch of bad shit is gonna happen to his family but future you did nothing to stop it."

Danny blanched at Sam's bald yet not unfeeling assessment. In fact, her voice had sounded far too understanding.

"If you know when you're slipping to, that makes it more real, right? Right now it's like a little vacation, but if you know when you are…it's real. And that means you were either around and did nothing or you couldn't be there at all."

Danny swallowed thickly. "Damn, Sam. Why don't you just stab me? It'd be kinder."

"I already killed you twice, we all agreed, next time it's Tucker's turn. And I'm not trying to be mean. It's why I gave you the notebook." She nudged his hand. "To give you the chance to be there if you know you're gonna be needed."

"I…thanks. Also, I feel very exposed right now."

The shrill ringing of the school bell announced that their free time was up.

"Still not as exposed as in that ballroom," Tucker joked, clearly trying to lighten the mood as they shuffled towards their next class.

"Can't hide from me," Sam added breezily, nudging her shoulder against Danny's. He shoved back a little with a smile to show there were no hard feelings.

The next slip was surprisingly relaxed. After the last one, Danny decided it was a good idea to initially go invisible every time he slipped, rather than risk popping up next to Bruce in front of a crowd of witnesses who might have pesky questions about how he got there.

It turned out to be unnecessary, as he and Bruce were definitely alone in the room.

"Danny! You gotta help me escape!"

"Escape what? Your moon-boot?" Danny asked, stepping over to where Bruce was propped up in bed to examine the offending article.

Bruce, who didn't look any older than twelve, scowled with an adorable pout that made him look eerily like Damian.

"I'm fine!" he huffed. "Alfred is just over-reacting!"

"Yeah, and I'm sure the doctor who gave you this was overreacting too," Danny said glibly, leaning against the end post of Bruce's bed with a smirk. Of course Bruce had a four-poster bed; the guy practically lived in a museum.

"Exactly!" Bruce agreed, clearly missing the sarcasm. Danny just chuckled at him.

"So, what'd you do?" Danny asked, tilted his head towards Bruce's injured limb. Bruce crossed his arms and looked away, a light blush of embarrassment on his cheeks. He mumbled something Danny couldn't hear.

"What was that?"

"I said, I was doing parkour. And I fell."

"Ouch. And you decided parkour was a good idea because?" 

"It's the most effective way to cross complex terrain at speed," Bruce stated haughtily.

"'Complex terrain', ha, you sound just like Damian," Danny chuckled.

"Who's Damian?"

Whoops, abort! Abort!

"Uh, just some kid I met once," Danny said, which wasn't technically a lie, "real proper for a kid, called his dad 'Father' and everything. Anyway, how long are you out of commission with this thing?"

The distraction worked, sending Bruce off on a rant about how ridiculous it was he would need to wear the thing for weeks. 

Alfred arrived just as Bruce was losing steam, with not a hint of surprise at finding Danny lounging at the foot of Bruce's bed. In fact, the tray he carried had two plates on it. How Alfred had known Danny was even here was beyond him, but he wasn't about to complain when he was handed a bowl of delicious soup that had zero chance of the chicken rising from its depths like a kraken to try and drown him in the bowl.

Danny spent the rest of the afternoon entertaining Bruce, who, it was plain to see, was bored out of his mind on bed rest. Kid Bruce was a lot more expressive than he would be as an adult and Danny had a lot of fun getting a rise out of him. Danny learned all about the current drama at Bruce's school, most of it seemingly centred around some kid named Ollie.

Danny didn't mean to stay as long as he did. But Bruce was funny and smart, a lot like Sam and Tucker, making him easy to talk to. He was also clearly bored and lonely in this big house with just Alfred for company and Danny didn't think it would hurt if he stayed a while to keep him company for a bit. It's not as if anyone would notice he was gone. Now that he thought about it, Danny could probably hang out here for days if he wanted, taking a break from all of the stresses of high school and ghost fighting.

The afternoon turned into evening and Alfred arrived with a tray of even more delicious food. The combination of good food and a comfortable bed led to Danny falling asleep right there at the foot of Bruce's bed. He woke up in a guest room, with no memory of how he'd gotten there.

"Good morning, Master Danny," Alfred greeted him, his knock at the door having been what woke Danny in the first place, "I hope you don't mind; I took the liberty of moving you somewhere a touch more comfortable."

"Oh, uh, thanks Alfred," Danny said with a yawn. Alfred placed a pile of cloth at the foot of his bed.

"These may be a bit short in the leg, but they should suffice while your current clothing is laundered. Feel free to make use of the ensuite, and when you're done, place any used towels and your clothes into the laundry hamper for collection. Breakfast will be served in 30 minutes and I'm sure Master Bruce will be thrilled to have you keep him company again today, if you so choose."

"Thanks, Alfred," Danny said again, with more feeling now that he was a little more awake, "yeah, I think I'll stick around for a bit longer. If I don't, Bruce might actually die of boredom."

"Quite so," Alfred's mouth quirked into a smile, "I was rather relieved not to have to thwart yet another escape attempt yesterday."

"Yeah, he did kind of look like he was ready to climb the walls."

"I do believe you're not far off," Alfred mused, his expression becoming a bit more serious. "He wants to be just like you, you know."

"Me?" Danny asked, pointing to his own chest.

"Yes," Alfred sighed and perched himself on the edge of the guest bed. "He wants to help people. To protect them, much like you. He is convinced that the only way to do that is to personally challenge every wrong-doer in this city. He has a list of skills he thinks he will need and trying to learn them all at once is exactly how he managed to injure himself." Alfred looked off into the distance, and Danny saw the worried parent just below the surface of the competent servant. "I have tried to explain that your circumstances were extraordinary, that it was likely impossible for anyone else to be like you, to do what you do, but he wouldn't hear of it."

"Oh. I'm sorry, I didn't mean to…"

"Don't be sorry, Master Danny, it's hardly your fault. Young boys have been trying to emulate their heroes since the dawn of time."

"I'm his hero?"

Alfred seemed deeply amused by Danny's surprise. 

"A magical boy from another time, who brings tales of fighting the fantastical and beating them against all odds? My boy, of course you're his hero!"

"I'm not, I mean I guess, but I'm not as cool as all that," Danny insisted, rubbing the back of his neck self-consciously, "most of the time I only win because I have my friends helping me or I get my parents' tech to do something it's not supposed to do."

"You speak as if teamwork and ingenuity are not admirable qualities," Alfred said archly, "and I did not bring any of this up to admonish you, my dear boy. What you do is quite admirable. I simply worry about where this path may lead Master Bruce if he continues to try and follow you."

"Would you feel better if I told you he goes to college?" Danny offered, hoping that was vague enough not to have any major consequences. Alfred blinked, apparently surprised by that.

"Truly? Yes, actually, that does make me feel a bit better. I'm quite relieved to know he will eventually give up on this vigilante nonsense."

Danny didn't speak but apparently he had an appalling pokerface, because Alfred took one look at him and sighed deeply.

"He does both, doesn't he?"

"I...I'm really not supposed to say, like, specifics about the future." Alfred gave him a sharp, disappointed look and Danny caved immediately. "Yeah, he does both. But! He's gonna be okay!" Danny scrambled to add in the face of Alfred's quiet despair. "And I think part of that is because he has you."

Alfred smiled softly at his reassurance, though there was still a touch of sadness in his eyes.

"Thank you, Master Danny. I appreciate that." He stood, smoothing out his waistcoat and wrapping himself in his usual composure. "Now, I really must make a start on breakfast before Master Bruce thinks I've quite abandoned him."

"Bye, Alfie, thanks for the clothes" Danny called out awkwardly as Alfred took his leave, and got up for the day. He prayed that their conversation wouldn't have lasting consequences. Considering Alfred would still be baking up a storm for Bruce when he was starting to go grey, Danny was at least a little hopeful that he hadn't horribly messed things up. Still, as he got dressed after his shower, he fished Sam's little notebook out of his jeans and made a couple notes about what Alfred knew at this time.

Bruce was indeed thrilled when Danny returned to his room in too short sweatpants and an oversized t shirt. The two boys fell right back into their rhythm from the day, before trading teasing and stories, and Danny finally started to feel like the old friend Bruce always treated him as. Just like the day before, Alfred slipped in and out to bring their meals and take their dishes. He mentioned to Danny at one point that he'd left Danny's cleaned clothes on the guest bed he'd used the night before. Danny thanked him but didn't bother to change, deciding it would be better to have clean, fitting clothes to put on tomorrow morning.

"What's the hardest part of time travel?" Bruce asked idly at one point.

"Hmm," Danny thought, staring up at the Grey Ghost poster on the canopy of Bruce's bed, "probably fighting my evil future self."

"WHAT?" Bruce squawked. Danny cackled at his reaction.

"Nah," he added breezily, like he'd just been joking,"it's probably the fact that I never know how much you know. Or anybody else, for that matter. Like Alfred; clearly he knows about the ghost thing, he knows I'm Phantom, but I have no idea when I tell him that. And it's like," Danny sat up, getting into a rhythm with his rant, "I know you, right? I mean, I've met baby you. But everyone else? I have met so many people for the first time who, for them, they've known me for ages! And it's so weird because to me they're basically really friendly strangers. And again, I never know what they know so I never know what I can or can't say without messing with the timeline, which is super stressful, by the way."

Bruce was frowning at him. "I thought we were only gonna introduce you to close friends and family. Is that really that many people?"

"I mean, kinda?" Danny answered, intentionally keeping it vague.

"Oh." was all Bruce said, but a little incredulous smile was on his face.

"What, did you think you were gonna be alone forever?" Danny asked, aiming for teasing.

"Of course not, you'll always come back."

"Can't argue with that logic." 

Danny ignored the sudden thickness in his throat that came with the realisation that he truly would always be Bruce's lifelong friend. It hadn't really hit him that while this whole arrangement had an end date for Danny, it never would for Bruce. Not until the day he died.

And yet Danny had never seen himself. Had never seen any hint that he might still be a part of his friend's life even after they'd become disentangled. What happened to him? Did Danny choose to stay away for some reason? Or was there something keeping him away?

"So, what's the weirdest part of having a time travelling buddy?" Danny asked, trying to distract himself from his dark thoughts.

"Mostly the fact I never know when you're gonna show up. The one time you popped into the bathroom right next to me has made me so paranoid!"

"Yikes! Sorry in advance for that, but you know I got no control here!"

The conversation moved on, and Danny once again found himself nodding off at the foot of Bruce's bed, Bruce himself barely keeping his eyes open. Danny made the executive decision to head to bed, bidding Bruce a sleepy goodnight as he shuffled off to the guest room. He was out like a light the moment he crawled under the covers.

Pain woke him.

Danny felt like his entire body was trying to stretch apart in every direction at once. Every part of him felt wrong, like it was the wrong size and in the wrong place. Danny thought he might have cried out in pain, but even that sounded wrong. He tried to go ghost, but the light of his transformation stuttered, winking in and out along with the rest of him, he could now see. The strange glitching Tucker had described seeing when Danny first slipped was happening and it wasn't just for a second, now it wouldn't stop.

Danny was certain only Bruce would be able to stop it.

He dragged his twitching, endlessly mis-shappen form out of the bed, reduced to crawling along the floor when his shifting limbs couldn't carry him. He heard shouting once he reached the hallway, and he tried to call out. He managed at least some kind of noise because he heard rushing feet and then the usually prim and proper voice of Alfred swearing like a sailor. The butler's hands hovered over his grotesque, glitching form, hesitating before scooping him up and bringing him to Bruce's room.

Bruce had dragged himself down out of his bed and was crawling his way over to…Danny.

Another Danny lay writhing on Bruce's bedroom floor, his body just as inconstant as Danny's was right now. Seeing it for himself, Danny was astonished that Alfred could even stomach touching him right now. Neither of them were in a state to do much of anything, but the other Danny managed to grit out a handful of words.

"...s-stayed…too long…ca-can't…can't b-be two!"

Alfred laid Danny down next to his double just as Bruce made it across the room. The last thing Danny saw before the unbearable pain was replaced with the slipping sensation was Bruce's tear-streaked, terrified face.

Danny jerked against the side of the car. In front of him was Jazz, learning forward through the gap between the seats to talk to their parents, blocking their view of Danny with her body. Danny was incredibly grateful to his sister at that moment, and hoped that his parents wouldn't notice his complete change in outfit when he got out of the car.

Danny took a few shaky breaths to compose himself, reassuring himself with the feeling of being whole and static. His hands shook as he reached into the pocket of his borrowed (now stolen) sweatpants and pulled out the notebook and wrote at the top of the first page in big letters.

1) There can't be two

2) Stay no more than 24 12 hours

Danny shut the book and leaned against the window, not really seeing the passing scenery. It wasn't hard to understand now why he'd never seen himself in Bruce's future. It was because he could never be in Bruce's future, not without unraveling every time his current self popped in on Bruce. Bruce would have a friend for a lifetime, but one day Danny would slip for the last time and never see his friend again.

Chapter Text

Despite how the last one had ended, Danny would have liked another relaxing slip where he just got to hang out with Bruce for a few hours.

That's not what he got.

What he got was a punch to the face.

The hit was hard, and Danny counted himself lucky that he was in his Phantom form or it might have killed him. As it was, his invisible form was sent flying over the hit's actual target; Bruce. Danny hit a wall and might have been winded if he actually needed to breathe. Instead he just blinked through his blurred vision to see Bruce pull a green stone out of his belt right as the big guy dressed in primary colours punched him right in the chest.

Despite the thick layers of armour Bruce wore, Danny could still hear the sickening crunch of breaking ribs.

Oh hell no!

Danny launched himself off the wall at Bruce's assailant, no thought in his mind other than to get him away from Bruce. He reached his opponent and pushed him directly into the concrete wall behind him, and punched him back. Unfortunately all he seemed to have achieved was moving the guy, who didn't seem at all confused, just angry, to have an invisible opponent. As an intense red light built up in his eyes, Danny went intangible on instinct just in time to feel the incredible heat of two lazers go right through him. Danny responded by shooting his own ecto-blast right at the guy's eyes.

He cried out in pain and managed to hit Danny with a wild swing of his arm. Danny hit the dirt and rolled, losing control of his invisibility as he went. Even so, his enemy was blindly going for Bruce, who had staggered to his feet, wheezing. Danny floated up and blasted ice at the enemy's feet, trying to restrain him, but he just walked through it. Danny lurched forward, barely reaching him in time to turn him intangible as he took another swing at Bruce.

Bruce, upon seeing that his assailant couldn't physically hit him, shoved his hand in his face. Danny could now see that the green stone he'd pulled out of his belt was actually set in a ring, and as soon as it was in close proximity to their enemy he clearly began to weaken. Taking the chance, Danny spun him around with telekinesis and threw an ecto-charged punch right at his jaw.

The man dropped, groaning in pain as Bruce made sure to keep his glowing rock within a certain distance. Danny restrained him in ice for good measure.

"Manhunter, what's your ETA?" Bruce asked brusquely, and it took Danny a moment to realise he wasn't talking to him. "Negative, Phantom provided back-up. Superman has been neutralised. We should be able to hold him until you arrive." Whoever he was communicating with must have ended the call, because the next question was definitely directed at him.

"Are you injured?"

Danny gaped at him.

"Am I injured? I heard your entire rib cage crack, how are you even standing?!"

"I've had worse."

"That-is that supposed to make it better? You probably have a bunch of broken bones, internal bleeding, we need to call an ambu-"

"Phantom!" Bruce interjected, aiming for stern but somehow landing on tiredly fond. "Med-evac is on it's way. I'm familiar enough with injuries like this to know they're not immediately life-threatening. I'll be okay," he assured him with heavy emphasis, an effect mildly ruined by his wheezing. "Now, are you injured?"

Danny scowled at him, still not entirely happy with Bruce's assessment of his situation, but mentally took stock of himself.

"Just a few bumps and bruises. Nothing that won't heal on it's own."

Bruce seemed mildly impressed by that.

"Not many people can say that after fighting Superman."

"Superman, huh?" Danny kicked idly at the chunk of ice he'd encased the guy in. "What is he, some kind of supervillain?"

"He's my best friend."

Danny was rattled by an unexpected jolt of jealousy. It was stupid; of course Bruce had other friends, friends who were actually his age and didn't show up randomly at the most inconvenient times. He swallowed the ugly feeling down.

"I think maybe you need better friends." Okay, maybe he hadn't managed to hold it back entirely, but to be fair, Danny had just watched this 'Superman' crush Bruce's bones with his bare hands.

"We suspect mind-control," Bruce explained succinctly.

"A likely story," Danny grumbled under his breath, glaring down at Superman. Who went from groaning in pain and weakly trying to escape to dead asleep right before his eyes.

"Damn, looks like Phantom got that showdown he always wanted!"

Danny looked up to see two people flying down towards them, one green-skinned and one dressed in green with a faint glow around him. If it wasn't for the lack of his ghost sense activating, Danny might have thought they were ghosts.

"Batman, I have put Superman to sleep," the green-skinned one explained in a strangely accented voice as they touched down, "kryptonite exposure is no longer necessary. Phantom, you may release him from his bonds now."

"Do I have to?" Danny grumbled. Bruce put his glowing green ring away and Danny came to the sudden realisation that his friend had chosen, and willingly answered to, the name Batman . At least the emblem on his chest made sense now. He made a mental note to tease Bruce about it when they weren't surrounded by green strangers and Bruce's best friend/worst enemy.

Green-dressed man barked a laugh, earning a glare from Bruce. "Oh man, I would have paid to see this fight! Bet you had the time of your life, didn't ya, Sprite?"

"Lantern," Bruce growled warningly.

"Well, I mean-wait, what'd you just call me?" Danny started before the man's words caught up to him.

Glowy green man, Lantern, looked confused. "What I always call you? C'mon, you've been Spooky and Sprite since the first League meeting."

"Spooky, huh?" Danny sent a sly look to his friend, "better than Batman , at least." Bruce's hunched posture and bracing arm around his middle reminded Danny of why they'd been waiting for these two in the first place. "Who needs med-evac. Which one of you is that?"

"Oh, yeah," Lantern didn't even move, he just conjured a stretcher next to Bruce out of what looked like ectoplasm. He gestured expansively towards it. "Your chariot awaits."

Bruce scowled, tried to sigh deeply only to wince sharply, then relaxed his posture as much as he could. The stretcher moved to brace against his back, restraints and a neck brace forming around him to hold him in place, before the stretcher flipped back horizontal, taking Bruce with it.

The green-skinned man, who must have been Manhunter (wow, not an ominous name at all) knelt at Superman's side.

"Phantom? His restraints?" he asked pointedly. Danny grumbled about it but went ahead and let the ice melt. Manhunter easily lifted the large man in his arms, floating up. "Thank you for stopping our friend before he did something he couldn't take back," he said to Danny solemnly. "Superman is a formidable foe. You did well today."

"Don't sweat it. I'd say call me if he does it again, but," Danny shrugged in a 'what can you do?' gesture.

"I'm pretty sure you'd find a way to be here somehow if it meant you got the chance to kick Supes' ass," Lantern joked. "And don't you worry, Sprite, I'll make sure he never forgets he got his ass kicked by a teenager."

That wasn't quite what had happened, but if he really was mind-controlled, then Superman wouldn't know that.

"You're the best, Lantern."

Bruce made a grunt of annoyance and Danny floated over to his stretcher, wanting to check him over one last time.Bruce offered his hand as much as he could while strapped down.

"You sure you're gonna be okay?" Danny couldn't help but ask. Bruce nodded.

"We got him, Sprite," Lantern assured him, "we'll get him to the best docs in the business."

"Okay. Just make sure he actually rests until he heals," Danny said with a pointed look at Bruce, who looked greatly unamused, but that might also have been the pain. 

Danny gave Superman's sleeping form one last glare, complete with an 'I'm watching you' gesture that Lantern found hilarious, before taking Bruce's hand.

"Thank you," Bruce said softly, earning him an equally soft smile from Danny. If he could, Danny would always be there to help him when he was needed. As it was, he would settle for, as Bruce himself had said, always coming back.

"See you some time."  

The slip took hold, and Danny left behind the rubble of the urban space they'd fought in to return to the rubble of wood-working class. He went intangible to avoid taking yet another hit to the face from the box of nails flying at him.

"Dammit, Boxy! I know some of us built pretty flimsy boxes, but this seems excessive!"

"They insulted the integrity of the box! I, THE BOX GHOST! Shall show them the error of their ways!"

Danny groaned and went back to the fight he'd kind of forgotten he'd been in before the slip had sent him to a more intimidating foe.

Later, when Boxy was souped and the class was doing their best to repair the damage to their wood-working projects, Danny pulled out his notebook.

Other superheroes!

• Superman = very powerful (do not trust!)

• Lantern = light (ectoplasm?) powers, seems cool

• Manhunter = sleep powers? also cool, ask about the name/what he is (unless that's rude)

"I'm pretty sure it's generally considered rude to ask someone 'what' they are," Tucker pointed out, reading over Danny's shoulder. His box had apparently been up to Boxy's standards as it had escaped the ghost's destructive rampage.

"Well, yeah. But he had green skin, red eyes and superpowers," Danny countered, a little bit of wonder seeping into his voice, "so I kinda think he might be an alien."

"An alien?" Tucker's eyes lit up. "An actual alien from outer space?"

"I don't know, that's why I wanna ask! But I don't wanna be rude."

"Well, was he hanging out with Bruce?" Danny nodded. "Then why don't you just ask Bruce?"

"That still feels kind of rude. Eh, I'll figure it out."

"Why's it say 'do not trust' next to the Superman?" Sam asked, apparently just giving up on her box, which had been completely obliterated. She actually seemed to have broken it down a bit further, turning it into wood-chips fit only for a garden.

"He was trying to beat the crap out of Bruce when I got there," Danny explained, "and apparently, he's supposed to be Bruce's friend!"

"Why would he be fighting him then?" Tucker wondered.

"They think it was mind-control, but they didn't have any proof yet, so I figured I should keep an eye on him, just in case."

"I guess, but we've all dealt with mind-control before," Tucker pointed out.

"Yeah, you can't really hold that against him," Sam added.

"I'm not! I'm just, y'know, keeping my guard up until I know it was mind-control." Danny's hand clenched around the pen in his hand. "You guys didn't see it. If I hadn't been there, he would have killed Bruce."

Both of his friends looked somber at that.

"What…what would that do to you?" Tucker asked after a heavy moment.

"What do you mean?"

"I mean the whole, 'temporal entanglement' thing. What happens to you when Bruce dies?"

Chapter Text

Danny's next slip provided no answers, not least because Bruce couldn't talk yet.

Danny slipped into Bruce's nursery just in time to see a very industrious toddler figuring out how to climb out of his crib. Bruce was just wiggling over the edge, heedless of the fall on the other side and Danny reacted without thinking.

Before Bruce's inevitable fall, Danny scooped him up and lay him back in his cot before the contact sent him back to his own time.

He didn't see Thomas Wayne behind him, also rushing to his son's rescue, only to see his boy levitated back into his crib by some unseen force.

Thomas stood frozen in the middle of the room, trying to make sense of what he'd seen. Maybe Bruce had just fallen backwards into the crib? Very slowly? Bruce's giggles as he prepared for escape attempt number two shook Thomas from his stupor, spurring him back into action.

Yeah, Bruce must have fallen back into his crib, Thomas thought to himself as he cradled his son, his heart still racing. That's definitely what happened.

It was a little bit frustrating, never knowing when Danny would be yanked out of his daily life or what he'd be landing in.

Even for someone who can fly, suddenly finding yourself in mid-air was incredibly jarring. Danny tumbled through the air for a few seconds, a slave to the jetstream of the plane that had just zipped past him. After a nauseating few seconds of feeling like a leaf on the wind, Danny managed to right himself and put on a burst of speed to catch up to the jet that was quickly leaving him behind.

It certainly wasn't easy. The jet was fast and its black paint job blended in almost seamlessly with the night sky. But the thing about intangibility was that it made drag optional, and Danny was soon sticking his head into the cockpit like they weren't flying hundreds of miles an hour.

Inside was Batman and Robin (still questionable hero names in his opinion), Bruce helming the controls and Dick appeared to be typing something on a small onboard computer. Leaning further into the cockpit, still invisible, Danny read a little. It seemed to be some kind of mission report? It was kind of mean of Bruce to give his sidekick homework, but it also meant they probably were heading home, not off to face some emergency.

And that meant they might be up for a little fun.

Danny flew to the front of the plane until he was reclining on the tip, and dropped his invisibility in full-view of the cockpit. He turned and gave the pair inside a jaunty wave, laughing to himself at their initial shock. He then hopped up and flew in rings around the nose of the plane before zooming off ahead.

He whooped in delight when they followed him, the plane swooping through the clouds on his tail. Danny did a few loop de loops just to see if they'd follow and was delighted when they did. Not wanting to drag them off course or waste too much fuel, Danny only played with them across the night for a minute or two before diving into the cockpit.

"Danny, that was awesome!"

Danny laughed and leaned against the back of Robin's seat.

"After the effort it took to catch up to you guys, figured I deserved to put you through your paces. This thing can move !"

"Exactly! I've been trying to convince B to actually have some fun while flying forever!"

"Do not unbuckle your safety harness," Bruce ignored their byplay to pre-emptively chide Robin, who had indeed been reaching for his harness.

"Why not? Danny's not even in a seat!"

Danny's brow furrowed as the boy's rough Gotham accent thickened as he complained. He remembered Dick having a slight European lilt to his accent, something Danny couldn't place slowly being stamped out by his years in the states. This Robin was smaller, younger, than the Robin he'd first met; so why did he sound more American?

"Danny gets to opt out of gravity. You don't. And we're almost there."

Bruce dropped the nose of the plane, sending them below the clouds. 

The glittering lights of a dense city greeted them. Danny had never seen a city that managed to combine the old and new into such a cohesive identity; gargoyles stood guard even atop sleek, modern skyscrapers, artistry covering the architecture from carved stoic figures to vibrant graffiti that stood out like neon against the muted stonework.

"There she is," Robin said wistfully, following Danny's gaze, "home, sweet shit hole."

"Jason," Bruce chided, startling Danny out of his revery.

"Oh, come on, B! Yeah, Gotham's home but she's also a fucking shit hole and you know it; otherwise you wouldn't be dressing up as a bat every night to punch people!"

Danny could hear it now; the youthful timbre that would deepen into Jason's rough baritone. He could see how that scrawny yet square build might grow with the right nutrition and exercise into a frame that would rival Bruce's. 

Doubt began to seep through Danny's mind. Dick had called himself the one and only Robin, yet here Jason sat, wearing his colours. Had Jason taken up the mantle to honour his brother? Or had Dick passed it down when he outgrew the uniform? And if Dick did pass it down, what would stop Jason from doing the same? Danny thought of Tim and Damian, and how similar four of Bruce's boys might look in that suit when smeared with blood, sand and soot.

Who died in the desert? Had Danny even met the son Bruce was destined to lose?

Bruce and Jason were oblivious to Danny's spiraling anxiety as they lightly bickered through the landing of the plane. Danny almost missed them flying through a waterfall to land within the underground cave network Bruce had commandeered. As they disembarked, Jason spotted a figure stationed at the oversized computer and groaned, all his joy and excitement dissolving.

"Great. Dick is here to yell at Bruce some more."

"Fuck off, you little shit." 

Dick turned in his seat to level a truly hateful glare at Jason that surprised Danny. The Dick he'd met had been cheerful and friendly, but there was none of that on display here. It looked like Dick had grown into a hard, stern young man. Danny was relieved to know he would live past his teen years, but it seemed to have come with a concerning shift in character.

"Whatever, Dickwing." Jason's response was just as malicious on the surface, but Danny could also see a tired resignation in him, how he hunched in on himself. It reminded Danny far too much of what he felt whenever Dash singled him out to whale on yet again. "I'm gonna hit the showers."

Danny watched Jason use the excuse to leave the situation as quickly possible, his trepidation rising.

"What do you need?" Bruce asked, pulling Dick's attention away from Jason.

"I don't need anything from you," Dick answered with no less vitriol than he'd directed at Jason. What had happened here? How did Dick go from following at his father's heels like an acrobatic duckling to apparently barely able to stand him? Then Dick's gaze landed on Danny and it was like a switch flipped. His whole face lit up as he grinned and he flowed up out of his seat to wrap Danny in a hug.

"Danny!" he exclaimed. "I've missed you!"

"And apparently I missed a lot," Danny said carefully, returning the hug for a moment before hesitantly extracting himself. "What was that about?"

Behind him, Bruce slipped off to the side to begin disarming himself; far enough to give the illusion of a private conversation but still able to hear.

"I don't know what you mean?" Dick asked guilelessly, though his smile became a little more strained. "I'm just happy to see you."

"No, yeah, I got that part; I'm happy to see you too! I meant before; are you mad at Bruce and Jason or something?"

"Something like that," Dick answered obliquely, "don't worry about it."

"Its just, I know siblings fight, but that sounded a little harsh-"

"He is not my brother!"

Danny took an involuntary step back at the vehemence in Dick's statement.

"What? I don't I understand, didn't Bruce adopt-"

"Bruce replaced me the minute I stopped being a good little soldier who followed his orders," Dick said bitterly. "He took Robin off me and literally gave it to some kid off the street!"

"That doesn't make any sense." Danny cocked his head to the side in confusion.

"I know right! How could he?"

"No, I mean, Bruce knows he can't take Robin away from you. He figured that out when you were a kid, so why would he try and take it away now? And it clearly didn't work," Danny added, gesturing to Dick's dark blue suit in all it's high-collared, v-neck glory.

"I don't know, Danny," Dick said with a frown, "Bruce never explains anything he does, it's just his way or the highway."

Danny really, really wanted to get the other side of this story because it was looking like he was going to send himself home by smacking Bruce upside the head.

"Okay. So I can see why you're mad at Bruce. But what did Jason do?"

Dick looked confused. "What do you mean? I just told you?"

"No, you told me a bunch of stuff Bruce did. The only time you even mentioned Jason was when you said Bruce gave him Robin."

"Yeah, exactly."

"Were you there when he did that?"

"Obviously not! Or it wouldn't have happened!"

"Okay, so Jason was supposed to know this was the ultimate betrayal…how, exactly?"

Dick opened his mouth to answer but paused, looking thoughtful. His shoulders rose, his posture becoming defensive.

"Okay, maybe I was a little hard on him, but he hasn't missed a single opportunity to rub it in my face that he's Robin now."

Danny sat himself on the edge of the computer desk and thought. Yeah, he could see adult Jason lording something like that over his brother, but then Danny thought about the exuberant kid who had completely deflated in the face of Dick's anger. Adult Jason had been comfortable in his place, completely at ease with himself and his family. This Jason wasn't there yet; he seemed to be half made up of bravado. He actually reminded Danny a bit of Dani.

"Did I ever tell you I was cloned once?"

Dick seemed surprised at the non-sequiter, shaking his head as he got comfortable back in the computer chair. "No. Who cloned you?"

"Some rich, crazy fruitloop who was obsessed with my mom and making me his son. When both me and my mom kept telling him to take a hike, he decided he'd clone the perfect son instead. Only, he sucks, so most of the attempts failed, except one. She was also the only clone that came out a girl, so obviously she wasn't good enough for the stupid fruitloop. But he realized he could still use her. At first, I was suspicious of her, thinking she was just another enemy. But then I found out who she was, to me, to him, and I learned that she wasn't trying to hurt me because she hated me. She was doing it because she wanted him to love her. He was all she had and he taught her that love had to be earned. So she did anything he asked of her, even when she knew it was wrong.

She wasn't bad, not really, she was just a kid who wanted to be loved and was trying to hold onto that the only way she'd been taught how.

Look, I don't know what's going on with you and Bruce but Jason? I think he's just a kid trying to be what he thinks people want him to be so they'll keep caring about him. And if you thought Bruce was replacing you with him, which, for the record, I don't think he is, then Jason probably thought that too.

So maybe, just, cut him some slack? Give him a chance before you decide you hate him."

Dick was quiet for a long moment following Danny's speech.

"You know what, Danny?" he said eventually, "sometimes you make it really easy to forget that you're only fourteen."

Danny's brow furrowed, not quite sure whether that was a compliment or not. Dick stood up and gathered up the domino mask and USB he'd left on the desk, a thoughtful furrow in his brow.

"I've got a case I really should be following up on, so I should go. It was good to see you, Danny."

"Good to see you too," Danny said to Dick's retreating back and hoped he hadn't just made things worse. He'd been so glad to realize that Dick wasn't dead that he hadn't stopped to wonder why Dick hadn't been around in his jaunt to the future. 

Steps approached Danny as Dick's motorcycle zoomed off into the night. Danny realized somewhat sheepishly that he'd forgotten that Bruce had been there the whole time. Bruce sat heavily in the chair Dick had vacated and scrubbed a hand down his face. To Danny, he had never looked so tired.

"Thank you," he said gravely, "for sticking up for Jason."

Danny gave his friend a hard look. "I shouldn't have had to."

"I know. I know I messed up," Bruce admitted.

"Okay, and what are you gonna do about it? Because to me, it kind of looked like you were just gonna accept that Dick hates you now."

"I've tried, but-"

"They just end up screaming at each other," Jason piped up from over by the suit stands. His hair was suspiciously dry and Danny suspected Bruce wasn't the only one who'd eavesdropped on his and Dick's conversation.

"So get someone to mediate. Or write what you wanna say out in a letter so you can't get derailed." Danny hopped up off the desk, needing to move, to pace. "I don't know, just do something, anything so that he knows you're still trying! That you still care!" Danny didn't know why he was getting so worked up about this. "You can't just let him walk away thinking he wasn't enough!"

Thin yet small arms wrapped around Danny's torso.

"Sorry," Jason said into his shoulder, " you just looked like you needed a hug and Bruce can't do it without making you go poof, so…"

Indeed, Bruce was half reaching out towards him, a heartbroken look in his face. Danny let himself lean into Jason's hug, appreciating the comfort he hadn't known he needed. He didn't know why; this was between Bruce and Dick, it had nothing to do with him, so why was he getting upset?

If Jazz was here she would have known. She would have talked them all through it with that infuriatingly calm and understanding voice of hers.

"You shouldn't have to worry about my problems," Bruce said quietly. Danny and Jason disengaged from their hug to give him matching derisive looks.

"I'm getting a front row seat to your entire life, Bruce," Danny pointed out dryly, "you can't expect me not to care."

"I don't. But, Danny, it's not on you to fix my mistakes. I'm the adult here. I'm the one who made Dick feel replaceable and Jason feel like a replacement," Bruce looked to his younger son as he said that, all his sorrow and regret clear on his face, "I'm sorry you got pulled into this and I'll try…no I will, I will do better. For them, and for you."

"I know you will," Danny said, because he'd seen it. With Jason, at least, Bruce would be able to repair the damage before that bridge burnt completely. With Dick, Danny wasn't so sure.

"Good to know. Does Dickface actually listen to you and get his head out of his ass?" Jason asked, clearly trying to lighten the mood.

"You'll just have to wait and see, sorry dude," Danny answered with a shrug, not wanting to let on that he actually didn't know. He felt drained from the emotional conversations, and there was definitely another on the way for Bruce and Jason that was probably needed. "Anyway, I got homework I really should get back to, so I should probably go."

"Sure you don't want to stay for post-mission hot cocoa?" Jason asked hopefully, probably also seeing the heavy conversation in his future.

"Nah, maybe next time. You two should probably talk."

"We will," Bruce assured him, placing a warm hand on Danny's shoulder. "See you some time, Danny. And thank you."

"Any time," Danny said with a smile, waving goodbye as he slipped away.

He returned to the kitchen he'd left, that day's homework strewn out in front of him. His father sat at the table across from him. He hadn't looked up from the gadget he was tinkering with long enough to even notice Danny slip away.

Chapter Text

"Sooo," Jazz began as she sidled up to Danny where he was reading The Odyssey because Mr Lancer is a sadist, "how's the whole time travel thing going?" 

Danny plopped his book down on his lap and gave her a deadpan look.

"Oh, it's going great. Last time I slipped into him using the bathroom and then moved so quickly to get out of there that I accidentally slapped him."

"Yikes," Jazz commiserated, flopping down next to him, "I bet that was traumatizing."

"Yeah, for both of us. Poor Bruce is gonna remember getting slapped on the john for the rest of his life."

Jazz giggles at the mental image in spite of herself. "Oh man, you are gonna have so many embarrassing stories once this is over."

"I've gotten some pretty cool stories too. It's not every day you get to race your buddy and his jet !"

"You never mentioned a jet," Jazz said, her brow furrowing, "just how rich is this guy?"

"He makes Vlad look middle class," Danny stated with a snort.

Jazz was quiet for a moment, thinking.

"Circling back to embarrassing stories," she began gently, a tone of voice that Danny found immediately alarming; it was Jazz's awkward conversation voice, "I had a thought."

"Do I wanna know?" Danny groaned.

"Well, I just was going to suggest that next time you timeslip, maybe you and Bruce should work out a system or protocol or something for avoiding…extra embarrassment."

"What, you didn't like my slap technique?" Danny joked. "Besides, what could possibly be more embarrassing than catching him in the bathroom?"

Jazz grimaced and sighed.

"Danny. Bruce is an adult sometimes when you visit him. Statistically, there is a chance that at some point you might arrive when he's in the middle of…," she paused, her hands rolling on her wrists as she searched for the right words, "…doing something with someone else that neither of you want you to see."

Danny blanched.

"JAZZ!" he exclaimed, clutching his book to his chest like it was a pearl necklace, utterly mortified at the possibility she was suggesting.

"It is a possibility, Danny, you know that," she continued sternly, "which is exactly why you need to discuss it with Bruce. It's a part of the reality of your situation and you need to have an agreed upon plan for how you both want to handle the situation if it comes up."

"I hate you," Danny announced as he tried to smother himself with his book, "why would you even make me think about this?" 

"Because the last time you were in an embarrassing situation, you slapped him," Jazz reminded him glibly, "and because you're my little brother, and I care about you, and I don't want you to be any more stressed out about this whole thing than you already are."

"I'm not stressed," Danny denied.

"Danny, you already had a lot on your plate before the whole time travel thing started," she reminded him, "and I know it's been a struggle sometimes. This is yet another unpredictable stressor dragging you out of your routine and making things harder."

Danny scowled down at his book. He hated that she was a little right. But not entirely. 

"Sometimes it's nice," he admitted quietly, "I can just be away from all the stuff that's, ugh, stressing me out here," he emphasized the word stress, admitting without stating that she was right, "even though sometimes what Bruce is dealing with is…a lot. It's nice because all of his problems are…human. And they're not mine. I have zero responsibilities or expectations on me when I'm there. And no ghosts to worry about. So, in kind of a weird way, yeah, the slipping is inconvenient as hell, but it also…helps."

"I'm glad," Jazz said, knocking her shoulder against his, "I gotta admit, I've been a little worried. The time slipping is pretty much the one thing I, well, me, Tucker and Sam, can't help you with."

"You guys have been doing a pretty great job distracting people when I start my crazy glitching," he reminded her.

"Yeah, but we can't help you on the other side. We got lucky that Bruce seems like a good guy; can you imagine if he'd been another Vlad?"

"Ugh," Danny groaned with a shudder, "you're right, I don't even wanna think about that."

"Exactly. And he's your friend, right?"

Danny shrugged. "Yeah? Kinda. It's weird. I mean, what do you call the guy who's life you randomly jump in and out of?"

"Yeah, I can see how it might be weird. Just promise me you'll at least try to talk to your kinda weird friend about this? I promise the conversation will be way less embarrassing than the scenario actually happening."

"Fine!" Danny huffed, because, as usual, Jazz had a point. Even if the point made him want to curl up and die. "But only if his kids aren't there, I refuse to have that conversation around them…or anyone else for that matter!"

Jazz gave him a pointed look. "The kids are kinda proof that the conversation needs to happen…"

"Nuh uh, at least two of them are adopted, they could all be adopted, you don't know! Now please let me study for English class instead of reminding me of the horrors of Health cla-"

Danny slipped off of his family couch onto what felt like hard, cold plastic. The briny smell of the ocean slapped him in the face, conjuring memories of family vacations to the seaside. Looking around, he realized he was sitting on the roof of a very large boat, the sound of revelry drifting up from the deck below. 

Next to him lay Bruce, staring up at the stars.

"Why are we on a boat?"

Bruce flinched at the sudden voice next to him. He looked over at Danny.

"It's, um, Ollie's eighteenth birthday. He said it had to be on a boat because there's no legal drinking age in international waters. But, uh," Bruce looked towards the stern of the ship and when Danny followed his gaze, he saw a distant coastline lit by twinkling electric lights and cool moonlight. "We're definitely not far enough out to count as international waters."

"Doesn't sound like that's stopped him," Danny pointed out as he lay down next to Bruce on the roof to join in his stargazing, raucous laughter rising up from below, "or you, for that matter," he added, gesturing to the bottle in Bruce's hand.

Bruce huffed and shrugged, holding up the bottle to toast the stars. "Well, when in Rome."

"Drink roman beer?" Danny joked, making Bruce chuckle. "So, if the party's down there, then why are we up here?"

"Kinda got sick of it."

"Sick of partying?"

"Sick of all of it. The noise, the smell, people trying to touch me, talking to me like they know me."

Danny frowned. "Aren't they your friends?"

"They're Ollie's friends, mostly," Bruce answered with just a hint of bitterness, "There's a few that went to school with us, but they're still more Ollie's friends than mine."

"Yeah, I guess a party where you don't actually like most of the people there would suck," Danny commiserated, remembering his own disastrous experience at one of Dash's parties.

"Yeah. It all just feels so…pointless," Bruce sighed.

"What's pointless?"

"This," Bruce gestured expansively with his bottle, "parties, the pageantry of it, pretending to like people just because of what being associated with them can get you. It's all so pointless. There's so much more important things I could be doing, that we could all be doing. The net worth of everyone on this stupid boat could feed multiple countries and what are they doing with it? Buying boats and stupidly expensive drinks that taste like shit!" Bruce sat up and punctuated his point by flinging his bottle out across the water where it made an unsatisfying plop before it floated away. Danny raised a brow.

"And littering in the ocean is better?"

"No. That's my point." Bruce flopped back prone. "I could be somewhere else actually helping people but instead I'm here."

"So…then why are you here?" Danny asked, trying to understand Bruce's frustration.

Bruce sighed again. "Because Ollie asked me to."

"So then it's not pointless," Danny pointed out, "you're here to celebrate your friend because you care about him. And yeah, you could be doing something more…productive, I guess, but that doesn't mean you can't take breaks or make time for other people."

"I guess," Bruce didn't sound convinced. They stared up at the stars in silence, the muffled music from below in odd contrast to their pensive mood. Danny linked his fingers over his chest, feeling a little awkward and once again wishing that Jazz was there to help him figure out the right words. Then again, hadn't he already found those words talking to Jazz a few minutes ago?

He cleared his throat.

"Y'know, my sister's been worried about me. She thinks this whole time-slipping thing is just another, what was it…? Oh right, another 'unpredictable thing dragging me out of my routine'," he quoted, "but I told her it's actually usually the opposite. When I'm hanging out with you, all my deadlines are on pause, no one's out to get me, and if there is a problem, you're always gonna be there to help me face it. And because of that, I actually kind of feel like things have gotten, not really easier, but I guess manageable? Anyway, my point is, it can't be all work all the time. Sometimes, taking the time to just rest and hang out is just as important as the work. Once you step off the boat, you can go back to fighting the good fight, but right now? It's not a crime to just stop for a bit. Maybe do some stargazing with a friend?" he suggested with a hopeful smile. 

He looked over at Bruce and saw he was smiling back gently.

"That…that sounds nice. Let's see if I can still remember all the constellations you taught me."

It turned out Bruce remembered most of them, though Danny still ended up rambling about all the ones they couldn't see at that time of year in that hemisphere. The conversation had dropped into a lull when Bruce abruptly shifted it away from the stars.

"I'm older than you."

"Yes?" Danny agreed with a shrug and a furrowed brow, confused by the statement. 

Bruce gave a thoughtful hum, trying to find his words.

"I know my timeline is all jumbled to you, but to me you're always just…you, as you are now. And for most of my life, you've been older than me. Wiser. You've done and seen so much, are capable of things most people can't even imagine. It never occurred to me that this could be hard for you. That you were just a kid like me, trying to figure this out. But you are and now I'm older than you and I'm always going to be older than you."

"Huh. You're basically a different age every time I see you. I never really thought about how it was from your perspective. I guess I am just a kid to you now, huh?"

"You're not just a kid, Danny, you're my friend," Bruce reassured him gently.

"Yeah but I'm not your wise older friend anymore, now I'm your cool younger friend who reminds you just how old you're getting," Danny teased, hoping to lighten the mood. He didn't want to think about what him being frozen in time compared to Bruce meant.

"Wow, what a wonderful future I have to look forward to."

"If it makes you feel any better, you totally rock the salt and pepper look."

"Yeah and I'll bet I'll have you to thank for those grey hairs."

Danny almost quipped that his kids could probably claim most of them, but held back before he let it slip. The thought of Bruce's kids and his aging into adulthood reminded Danny of the awkward conversation he'd been having before he slipped there. His stomach squirmed as he took a fortifying breath.

"So…on the subject of you being older than me…"

"What about it?"

Danny was very glad he had the excuse of staring up at the sky to avoid looking Bruce in the eye.

"Well, there have been times, you'll remember, when the timeslip drops me into…an awkward moment."

"Yes?"

"So, like, my sister thought it might be a good idea to have, uh, a plan, or something, beforehand? So things are less embarrassing for both of us…"

"Okay. That's a good idea. Though I'm not entirely sure what that has to do with me getting older."

Danny sighed deeply, resigned.

"Think about the sort of things neither of us want me to see you doing, I'm sure you'll figure it out."

Danny glanced over at Bruce just in time to see him cringe.

"Oh. Right. Yes, we should plan for that."

"Yeah, I was thinking I just leave immediately while invisible and find somewhere to hang out until you're...uh, done, and we both pretend I definitely only arrived once you saw me and never discuss it again."

"Acceptable plan, works for me."

Awkward silence reigned now that that had been hashed out. Somewhere on deck there was the sound of breaking glass followed by rowdy hollering. It was no wonder that Bruce had escaped up here, despite being so close, their hidden spot felt disconnected from the rest of the vessel.

"I'm sorry."

Danny heard Bruce shift beside him.

"What are you sorry for?" Bruce asked, his confusion evident.

"I never… I never really thought about what this has been like for you. For me it's kinda inconvenient but I get mini vacations from my life by diving into yours. But it's your life . And I'm…kind of invading it? Jazz said I got lucky you're not another Vlad but you've just had this stranger who's been there your whole life whether you wanted me there or not. You can't even use the bathroom without wondering whether or not I'm gonna pop up!"

Bruce hummed thoughtfully again.

"If I'm honest…there are aspects of this situation that are…inconvenient. I'm given to understand most people don't need to make contingency plans for people magically appearing next to them at a bad time. But I've never seen it as you invading my life. You've always been a welcome presence. And a comforting one. After I lost my parents, you have no idea how comforting it was for me to know that there would always be someone in my life that would always, always, come back. I don't know what my life would have been like without having you in it, but I don't think I'd be as hopeful for my future as I am without you to show me things can get better. You give me hope, Danny. To me, at least, that's worth a little inconvenience."

"Oh." Was all Danny could say to that. He had thought that his presence in Bruce's life was a novelty at best. It had never occurred to him that Bruce might see his presence as a comforting reminder that no matter what happened in the future, Danny would be there with him then come back to let him know he would survive it. Death would never rip Danny away, only time, and even then it would bring him right back. Bruce might even go to his grave with Danny at his side. Bruce would never lose Danny, but Danny…one day Danny would stop slipping. Time would rip Bruce out of Danny's life as surely as death.

"I…I'm glad you see it that way. Not sure what I did to deserve it, but I'll do my best to keep it up."

"Just keep being you, Danny. Though maybe drop less hints about the future; I have to go to college next year thanks to you!"

"What?" Danny spluttered. "How is that a bad thing?"

"I wanted to go and study with Tibetan monks, but Alfred insists I have to go to college instead because YOU said I would."

"So go to college and then go to Tibet? I don't know what you want me to say, dude, both my parents have PhDs. Also, monks? Why?"

"There's a long tradition of-"

"Brucie?" An unfamiliar voice slurred through the night air. "Bru-bru, where are you hiding?"

"Who's that?" Danny whispered and Bruce grimaced.

"Ollie. Guess he finally noticed I was gone. I should head back down before he comes up here."

"Okay. I know it's not really your scene, but try and have fun; you do like at least one person there."

"Most of the time," Bruce deadpanned as Ollie's calls became more and more outrageous and obnoxious. He sat up and offered Danny a hand.

"See you some time."

Danny took his hand and this time when he slipped off the couch it was onto the thin carpet of his family living room, his knee knocking the coffee table.

"So? How'd it go?"

Danny glared up at Jazz from where he was now sprawled on the floor.

"It went fine," he stated, fumbling for the notebook in his pocket to note down the bare bones of the encounter. "Awkward as hell, and we ended up talking about some heavy stuff thanks to you, but it's done. Satisfied?"

"Yes. And I bet he will be too without you interrupting," Jazz noted slyly. Danny sat up just to throw a couch cushion at her.

"Jazz, I swear, if you don't stop talking about Bruce's sex life I'm gonna strangle you!" he threatened over the sound of her unrepentant cackling.

Chapter Text

Really, it had only been a matter of time.

Danny had had many bad wake-up calls in his life, usually ghost or ghost-hunting related, but being woken from a dead sleep by slipping from his bed onto a cold hard metal floor was particularly unpleasant.

"Ow," he groaned eloquently, clutching his aching head.

"You okay, Danny?"

Danny squinted his eyes open, looking around for the source of the voice. He grabbed the metal table leg next to him to help haul himself to his feet. Only once he stood, realized he hadn't landed next to a table.

It was a medical cot, and on it lay Bruce; battered, bandaged and unconscious. Danny gasped, his hands hovering over Bruce's prone form as though there was anything he could possibly do for him right now. His only consolation was the quiet, steady beep of a heart monitor, and the distinct lack of grey in Bruce's hair; whatever had happened, Bruce would survive it.

"Danny?"

The second query reminded Danny that there was someone else present who was also conscious. His head jerked up, tearing his eyes away from his gravely injured friend to fall on Tim.

Tim was clearly younger than the last time Danny had met him, possibly even the same age as Danny. He sat in a chair next to Bruce's bedside, a larger version of Duke's weird flat PDA in his lap, its screen lit up with a mile of text. The bags under his eyes hung heavy, suggesting he'd been sitting vigil here for some time.

"Hey, Tim. Sorry if I scared you."

Tim shrugged. "It's fine. Can't ever really be surprised when you pop up around Bruce."

"Huh, I guess it makes since you guys would always kinda expect me," Danny mused, a little disheartened by yet another way this predicament affected not just Bruce but his family. His eyes drifted back down to Bruce's sleeping form. "What happened?"

Across from him, Tim straightened out of his slump, his exhausted eyes alight with sudden interest.

"Bane happened," he said, with emphasis on the name that Danny didn't understand. Danny blinked dumbly back in the face of Tim's laser-focused stare. After a moment, Tim slumped back in his seat once more, the hope in his eyes extinguished. "You don't know who that is, do you?"

"Not a clue." 

"Which means you haven't slipped ahead of this moment yet."

Danny frowned, knowing for a fact that he had definitely slipped ahead of this moment.

"...was there something you were hoping I could tell you?" Danny guessed. Tim nodded.

"Leslie, I don't know if you've met her, she's Bruce's doctor, she said…she said he might not walk again."

Danny sucked in a breath through his teeth. "And you wanted to know if she was right?"

"Yeah. I'm not allowed to just ask you that though," Tim explained with a put-upon pout. "'The timeline is fragile, Tim! Danny's situation is already precarious, we can't risk irrevocable consequences, Tim!'. Like Bruce has never taken something you've said and run with it!"

"To be fair to Bruce, that definitely went horribly wrong when he did."

"I know, trust me, I know. But would it really hurt to have a little hope?" Tim's eyes fell on Bruce, naked worry on his face. "I've seen him when he has no hope." Tim looked up at Danny, his blue eyes once again sharp and assessing. "You will too," he stated with unsettling certainty that Danny hadn't yet. "I don't want to see him go back there."

Danny worried his lip, considering. If Bruce as he knew him had always known Danny, had spent his whole life having Danny pop in and out, then it stood to reason that anything he did early in Bruce's life had already happened when he saw older Bruce. By that logic, he didn't think there would be any harm in giving Tim a bit of hope. It wasn't as if stating it would undo Bruce's eventual recovery. 

When their entanglement had begun, Tucker had spent hours going over all the theories around time travel and its many potential paradoxes. By the time he'd relayed this to Danny, it was a bit late to take back anything Danny had already done, but Tucker had simply used the knowledge of what Danny had done to discount some theories and add weight to others. By now, Tucker was fairly confident that Danny was in an 'inevitable' time travel scenario; his actions in the past wouldn't change the future he had seen because as far as the future was concerned, his past actions had already happened, even though Danny himself hadn't been to the past yet.

It didn't mean Danny couldn't affect the future, more that he didn't know entirely how he had affected the future as he saw it. 

"He won't," Danny settled on, "well, not because of this, at least." He offered Tim a hopeful smile. "I may not know who Bane is, but I know he'll recover. I promise."

"You're sure?" Tim asked with barely restrained hope.

"I've seen him schmoozing around a ballroom with grey hairs. He'll be okay."

Tim slumped again, though this time it was clearly relief instead of defeat.

"Thank you," he said quietly, "I know you're not supposed to tell us much, so, thank you."

"Don't sweat it. It helps me too, sometimes. Knowing no matter what craziness I slip into, he's gonna be okay."

Tim eyed Danny speculatively.

"You must have a lot of crazy stories about him, huh?"

"A few, and you're gonna have to work harder than that to get blackmail material outta me."

"Worth a shot." Tim shrugged, unrepentant. 

With both their fears for Bruce assuaged, Danny's exhaustion returned and he fought to reopen his eyes with each blink. He indicated to the empty cot next to Bruce's.

"Mind if I get a couple hours shut-eye while I'm here? I was actually sleeping when I slipped here."

"Go ahead," Tim waved him off, lifting his PDA back up. "I can't imagine how annoying it would be to lose sleep to random bouts of time travel."

"Yeah, it's not the greatest," Danny agreed with a grimace, hopping up onto the other cot and getting comfortable. "You should get some sleep yourself."

"I…might have been napping in this chair when you got here."

"Then I bet your neck hates you. Find a bed to sleep in, I'll be here if Bruce wakes up."

Tim seemed to deliberate for a moment before nodding. "I guess you're right. I'm not much help just sitting here." He got to his feet, his limbs notably stiff. "I'll be back down in a few hours to wake you. G'night, Danny."

"'Night, Tim."

Tim had barely left the medbay before Danny was asleep once more. 

He was woken a few hours later by Alfred, who was pleased to see him, but Bruce remained stubbornly unconscious. After a quick catch-up and light breakfast with Alfred, Danny slipped home with a squeeze of Bruce's hand. 

Returning to his room, Danny lay in bed, trying to fall back asleep. The glowing face of his alarm clock stubbornly asserted it was 4am, despite his rested body's claims to the contrary. Instead of getting an extra long night's sleep like he'd hoped, Danny lay there staring at the stars on his ceiling, willing them to wipe away the image of Bruce laying battered and prone on death's door.

Bruce would be fine, Danny knew; he'd said as much to Tim. But that didn't stop the worry, nor the aching desire to help somehow. So as irrational as it was, it was a relief, the next time he slipped, to see Bruce whole and hale, standing tall and pacing next to his desk, an earpiece of some kind in one ear that he seemed to be talking to.

It took Danny less than a second of listening to realize that Bruce was probably on some boring business call, so he left him to it without bothering to reveal his presence. He took the opportunity to explore Bruce's mansion while he could, drifting invisibly through the rooms, feeling very much like a museum visitor as he inspected the antiques and experienced the harsh shifts between Old world extravagance and modern practicality.

The only other living souls he passed were Alfred and someone he assumed was a maid or housekeeper, largely based on their conversation around adjusting the cleaning schedule of certain rooms. He had explored most of the house without seeing anyone else, until he finally found the library.

Danny had to hold back an audible coo at seeing the little boy curled up with a pile of books. His small body was almost drowned by the ratty red hoodie he was wearing, a sharp contrast to the tall, broad man Danny knew he would grow into.

"Hey, Jason! What ya reading?"

Danny had maybe been trying to startle the boy in a harmless little prank. To his great surprise, Jason responded to his words like a threat, a knife appearing out of nowhere in his hand and striking out towards where he'd heard the voice. Danny backed up and dropped his invisibility, his hands up and open in surrender.

"WHO TH'FUCK'RE YOU?!"

Jason was staring at him, wild-eyed, his body trembling with fear and tension, ready to spring at the first wrong move. Danny felt terrible. He hadn't meant to actually scare him. He'd clearly gotten far too used to the easy acceptance everyone in the manor had shown to his ghostly side, it hadn't occurred to him that a Jason this young might not have even been told about him yet, much less met him.

"I'm Danny!" he introduced himself hastily, "I'm sorry, I'm not gonna hurt you, I promise! I was just trying to be funny and was accidentally an asshole instead. I really am sorry!"

The shaking tip of Jason's knife got slightly steadier as Danny rambled his apologies, but Jason still looked one twitch away from stabbing and bolting.

"'the fuck do you want?" he grit out, not letting his guard down an inch.

"I…honestly, just to say hi? I'm sorry, I should have realized you hadn't met me yet."

Little Jason sneered.

"What are you, stupid? How the fuck would you not know if you'd met me?"

"Well, uh, because I have, actually. Met you, that is. You just haven't met me." Unfortunately, that seemed to be a terrible explanation as Jason's breathing sped up rapidly.

"The…the fuck are you talking about?" Jason asked between gasps, his mind clearly jumping to worst-case scenarios Danny couldn't even fathom. He could, however, recognise the symptoms of a panic attack.

"I kinda time travel?" Jason didn't appear to have heard him. "Damn it, I should get Bruce, he can help. I'll be right back, okay?" Danny didn't wait for an answer, he just flew off straight through the wall before he could put his foot any further into his mouth.

Bruce picked up on Danny's panic the moment he flew through the wall of his office.

"Sorry, Lucius, I'm gonna have to call you back," he said hastily before hanging up on his unfortunate colleague. "What happened?"

"IdunnoIsawJasonandIwasjustplayingbutwasaccidentlyadickandnowhesfreakingoutwhatdoIdo?" Danny babbled, tripping over his own tongue.

"Where?" Bruce's response was clipped and efficient.

"Library."

"Okay. Stay here." With that, Bruce strode quickly out of the room.

Danny flopped dejectedly down onto the couch in Bruce's office, berating himself. How could he have gotten so complacent? At home, he was far more careful with his powers. But here, he'd let his guard down and forgotten a fundamental truth; people were scared of ghosts. Now he'd accidently traumatised a kid. It was a miracle that Jason would ever talk to him again. 

He lay there for a while, contemplating the feasibility of smothering himself with the couch cushions, when a voice from the hallway startled him.

"Might I offer you a spot of tea, Master Danny?"

Danny sat up and attempted to look less sorry for himself.

"Uh, yeah, sure."

Alfred stepped into the room, apparently prophetic as he was already carrying a tray with tea. Danny accepted the cup, gratefully mostly for the warmth of it in his hands.

"I hear you met Master Jason," Alfred stated, making Danny cringe into his teacup.

"Yeah, and immediately scared the crap out of him. I'm so stupid; of course he's gonna be scared if a ghost pops up right behind him!"

"Well, if that's the case, you are in good company. Both Master Bruce and myself have managed to scare the poor lad since he came here. Fear, I'm afraid, is likely what has kept him alive until now. So don't take it too much to heart, though I'm certain Master Jason would appreciate an apology."

"Yeah, I should do that." Danny agreed, staring into his tea as though he might divine the future in it's depths. "Alfred…have I ever scared you?"

The butler blinked, apparently taken aback by the question.

"I would say so, but perhaps not in the way you might expect. I take it you have not yet experienced our first meeting?"

Danny shook his head, curious yet dreading what Alfred might say.

"That day, I did not know you to be a ghost, only a stranger. I feared you not for myself, but for my young charge. The truth is that fear is a mundane thing. It is simply our subconscious minds alerting us to the possibility of danger. It is the work of our conscious minds to identify the reality from possibility. The reality is that you are no threat to us and the only time since our meeting that I have been afraid in your presence, it was because I feared for you.

Jason will learn that you aren't someone to be feared, just as I did. Don't you worry."

Danny sipped his tea, feeling warmed by it and by Alfred's words.

"I am dangerous, though," he admitted into his tea, hunching in on himself and carefully not looking at Alfred.

"Not to Jason, not to me, and certainly not to Master Bruce. In fact, by certain metrics, I'd wager that I'm far more dangerous than you."

Danny doubted that, and the clear scepticism on his face made Alfred chuckle.

"I wasn't always a butler, dear boy. As a young man, I was a soldier, and after that I was a spy. I have fought in wars of every variety and though I had no love for it, I was very, very good at it. You should fear me. Do you?"

Danny looked at him, truly looked at him; the kindly old man in his perfectly pressed uniform, his immaculate mustache and receding hairline, the small scars on his face so faint you wouldn't notice unless you really looked, the crooked cant of his fingers that suggested a few had been broken, the unflappable, unbreakable bearing that he brought to everything he did.

"No," Danny decided, because he couldn't look at Alfred without remembering him barely hesitate before taking Danny's grotesquely glitching form into his arms.

"I'm glad to hear it. And if I am not to be feared, then why on earth should you be?"

Danny couldn't really argue with that logic, even if a small part of him rebelled against it.

"I see your point," he admitted.

"That is all I ask," Alfred responded warmly. 

The low sound of a throat being cleared drew their attention to the doorway, where Bruce stood, a small shadow glaring out from behind his legs.

"Oh, uh, hi again, Jason," Danny greeted him awkwardly, still huddled over his teacup trying to look as unintimidating as possible, "I really am sorry I scared you before."

Jason seemed to get a little bolder at that, shuffling further out from behind Bruce as he shrugged his shoulders."S'fine. Sorry I tried to stab you."

"It's cool; you didn't try to shoot me, at least, so you're doing better than most of my family," Danny offered with an encouraging smile. The thunderous looks on the other's faces told him he'd missed the mark by a mile.

"Excuse me?"

"Dude, what the fuck?" Jason was far more direct than Alfred.

"Hn." Bruce's concerned growl sounded pained.

"It's fine!" Danny insisted hastily, "they didn't know it was me…mostly?"

"Danny-" Bruce began, but Danny cut him off.

"I promise, it's fine, it's just complicated. Like I said, they don't know it's me, they don't know I'm Phantom, they just think they're hunting a normal ghost."

"Your family…hunts you?" Bruce asked weakly. Danny groaned.

"You make it sound so much worse than it is. They're not good at it. Heck, my best friends have a better track record for taking me down than them!"

"Your friends are hunting you too?!" Jason exclaimed.

"No, there was mind-control involved…mostly."

"Master Danny, are you quite certain you're safe at home?"

"Yes!" Danny snapped through his teeth. "I am handling it! And besides, for you guys my life is in the past, so there's nothing you can do about it anyway, so just leave it alone!"

Silence followed Danny's outburst and he realised he was breathing hard.

"Okay, Danny," Bruce said finally, "we'll leave it alone." 

Danny's shoulders slumped. "Thank you."

"Bruce says you have ice powers."

Danny blinked at Jason's non-sequiter, along with Bruce and Alfred.

"What?" Jason scowled. "You said drop it, so I'm dropping it. Ice powers, yes or no?"

"Yes?"

"And it doesn't melt right? Not 'til you let it?"

"Right."

"And you can shape it how you want?" Jason seemed to be getting a gleam in his eye, his earlier fear of Danny forgotten.

"Yeah, pretty much."

"Can you make me an ice knife?"

"Sure-"

"Absolutely not!"

"C'mon, Bruce! This way if I try and stab him, he can just melt the knife," Jason wheedled.

"Ha, I like your logic, dude," Danny said, a smile forming on his face now the tension in the room had been thoroughly bled by Jason's juvenile request. Danny's hands slipped behind his back.

"We already talked about this, Jason. I know the knife makes you feel safer, but stabbing can't be your first reflex in a tense situation-"

"Here ya go, kid, have fun."

Danny dropped a child-sized knife of pure ice into Jason's excited hands and then clapped Bruce on the shoulder with a shit-eating grin. Bruce just sighed tiredly as Danny slipped out of sight, leaving him to deal with his newly-armed child who was already running off down the hallway.

Chapter Text

"How the fuck would I know?" Dan sneered, obnoxiously crunching down on another corn chip, "you're Clockwork's little pet, not me. Only time I ever time-traveled was landing my ass back here."

Danny slouched in his seat with an exasperated sigh. He couldn't believe he actually willingly went anywhere near Vlad's house for this. At least Vlad wasn't home right now, instead he was off being terrorised by Jack in the name of friendship. Danny had hoped to use the opportunity to get some help from his future self, but Dan was proving to be exceedingly unhelpful.

"Really? You don't know anything?" Danny tried plaintively.

Dan swayed his head side to side in a thoughtful motion.

"I mean, I'm pretty sure I killed him. Didn't do anything to me, but I didn't have your whole time tangle deal going on."

"Wow, real helpful."

Dan rolled his eyes at him.

"You're overthinking it anyway."

"What do you mean?" Danny frowned.

"Well, the whole deal is you ping back and forth across his timeline, right? So if he dies, his timeline ends. Which either means you just stop time-hopping, or, more likely, you just end up at a time when he's alive the next time you slip."

"What if he becomes a ghost?"

"Then you'd probably have met ghost-him by now. Either he won't become a ghost or you can't slip across dimensions, just time and space."

"That's…actually a really good point," Danny found himself agreeing. He stole a corn chip before Dan could snatch the packet away in time.

"Get your own, twerp!"

Danny ignored Dan's squawk. "Okay, so what if he dies and I'm there? Would touching him still send me back? Or would I be stuck in the future?"

"Doesn't matter, you'd just go crying to Clockwork and get him to send you home."

"That's assuming there's even a portal for me to get to the Ghost Zone at that time."

"What? You can't even form your own portals yet?" Dan scoffed.

"Some of us haven't had an extra decade to figure out our powers, old man," Danny shot back with a sneer. He went to swipe another chip, only for Dan to manage to yank the bag back in time. They ended up tussling on the couch, powers largely forgotten as they devolved into a pair of petty teenage boys fighting over a bag of chips.

Danny had Dan in a headlock, who was still managing to hold the bag out of Danny's reach while elbowing him in the ribs, when he felt the sensation of being squeezed through existence, but this time it was different. 

Where he was used to sliding, this time he felt like he was being dragged whilst dragging something impossibly heavy behind him. His existence was stretched almost to breaking point before snapping back together as he and his anchor were slingshot into their destination. Habit meant Danny went invisible before he landed.

Dan did not.

"WHAT THE FUCK!?" Dan very eloquently demanded as he dodged the body that had just been tossed in his direction. Out of spite he sent an ectoblast at the strange creature that had thrown them, making it howl.

"Danny?" a slightly shaky Batman asked as he staggered to his feet, frowning at Dan's long hair and red eyes.

"Dan," he was forcefully corrected. Dan almost lazily pulled up an ectoshield to keep the angry beast back. "How the hell am I here, twerp?"

"No idea," Danny admitted, appearing in all his Phantom glory to freeze the beast in a block of ice. "I thought you said this never happened to you?"

"It didn't happen to me, it happened to you! You just dragged me along for the ride!"

"The two of you can settle this when there isn't an alien invasion happening," Batman interrupted through gritted teeth, "so are you going or are you helping?"

Dan actually looked to Danny, a silent offer to follow his lead. Danny took in the destruction surrounding them, the flashes and sounds of fighting permeating the air.

"I'll help," he decided, looking to Dan for his input.

"A chance to let loose against aliens ?! Hell yeah, I'm in! I never got aliens."

Batman nodded, activating a comm. "Two new friendlies joining the fight, Phantom and…?" He gave Dan a questioning look.

Dan's grin was downright feral. 

"Reaper."

With that he went ghost, discarding the lanky teenage form that matched Danny's for his towering ghost form.

"Phantom and Reaper." Batman didn't miss a beat, though Danny just knew his eyes were flicking back and forth between the two ghosts beneath his cowl. 

More aliens were heading their way and Dan didn't wait to be told. He launched himself at them, cackling madly as he tossed them around like dolls. Bruce's head turned to look at Danny, clearly questioning.

"Yeah, he's sort of an alternate, future me," Danny admitted with a shurug. "I'm pretty sure I told you about him? But he's less evil now and more just annoying."

"Your…evil future self?"

One of the aliens tried to escape Dan's rampage only to be pulled back by telekinesis. A trail of claw marks in the concrete was left in his wake.

"I thought you were joking."

Apparently these aliens could scream in multiple pitches at once.

"Only in that my life is a joke. Somebody should probably keep an eye on him though. Make sure he doesn't backslide."

"Understood. Reaper!" Bruce barked, striding forward. "Superman is holding off a section of their fleet due east, above the clouds. Go back him up."

"Whatever, Batboy," Reaper snorted with a sarcastic salute.

"Have fun with the Big Blue Bozo!" Danny called out as Dan flew off. "Where do you need me?" he asked Bruce.

"Green Arrow and Black Canary are pinned down a block north of here, come at them from the southeast side and you'll catch their opponents in a pincer."

"Got it!" Danny affirmed, zooming off. 

In retrospect, he probably should have asked for a description of who he was looking for. It hardly mattered, as it wasn't hard to spot the man dressed as Robin Hood, or the lady in black next to him. Danny fired a barrage of ectoblasts to match the archer's shots, pressing their opponents into forming a convenient column for Black Canary to flatten with a wail. Danny was definitely going to compare notes with her later. The aliens still capable of standing began a hasty retreat.

"Phantom! Perfect timing!" Green Arrow called out, and there was something familiar about his voice.

'Happy to help!" Danny called back.

"Batman says to corral them towards the landing site," Black Canary informed him, Danny being the only one without an earpiece, "we'll take the main street; Phantom, think you could make sure the buildings are clear?"

Danny nodded. He wasn't used to being commanded in combat like this and while a part of him chafed at it, another part was grateful not to have to be the one calling the shots for once. 

Between the three of them they managed to herd the clearly demoralised aliens back towards their ships. Along the way Danny occasionally caught sight of a red blur that he was sure might have waved to him at one point. By the time they had fought their way to the ships, it was clear that whatever leadership the aliens had had called a retreat, as they seemed to have given up on fighting in favour of running aboard.

As the alien ships began to rise and fly away, Danny marvelled at the future he would one day get to live in. Sure, invasions sucked, but aliens were still objectively cool.

"It is good to see you again, Phantom."

Danny turned towards a tall, muscular woman who looked like she'd been carved from marble. 

"Oh, uh, y-yes, nice to meet you," he stuttered, much to his mortification.

Her eyes widened a little in surprise and delight. "Ah, I see. In that case, it is an honour to make your acquaintance, young warrior. I am Wonder Woman. You may call me Diana." 

The others introduced themselves as well, more members joining as the invasion wrapped up. Danny learned that the red blur was actually called the Flash, the winged woman who dropped down out of the sky was Hawkgirl and the big friendly guy in red and white with her was Captain Marvel. Bruce rejoined them alongside a cyborg aptly named Cyborg and Danny learned that Lantern was actually part of a faction called the Green Lanterns when he met another Lantern who cheerfully told Danny to call him Kyle. 

Bruce was directing everyone to begin cleanup and rescue efforts when a wild-eyed Superman landed alongside a grinning Dan.

"Oh man, I needed that!" Dan exclaimed with a big stretch. He thumped a friendly clap onto Superman's shoulder, making him stumble a step. "Nice job keeping up, big guy! I think you'd actually be a challenge at this age."

"Are we sure he's a friendly?" Superman asked Batman weakly.

"At this time, yes," Batman answered, very un-reassuringly.

"Please do not start reminiscing about murder," Danny groaned, "nobody wants to hear about your planet-wide temper tantrum."

"Oh come on, you can't tell me you're not a little bit curious about how I did it," Dan countered with a smirk.

"I'm sorry, but who is this?" Flash piped up, frowning at Dan. Danny finally realised that just about everyone was now eyeing Dan warily. He sighed deeply as Dan's grin just widened.

"This is…Reaper, I guess. He's kinda my future self from a destroyed timeline."

"Future…self?" Superman murmured in disbelief.

"Howdy," Dan greeted glibly with a little two finger salute and a grin full of fangs, absolutely aware he still had alien blood on his hands.

"Potential future self," Danny clarified flatly, "from a future that won't happen."

"Don't be so certain, twerp," Dan teased, "I am inevitable."

"Yeah, well so's me kicking your ass then," Danny shot back.

"Can we circle back to the part where he lightly implied he'd murdered Superman?" Kyle asked, still frowning at Dan.

"Eh, wasn't that hard, he was just a kid really; didn't have a great handle on his powers," Dan stated nonchalantly, ignoring the paling of several faces, "you, though," he pointed at Wonder Woman, "you were the real challenge. Took me like, three tries to actually take you down, and you had me on the ropes every time. One of the last worthy opponents I had 'til the kid showed up."

"I…you're welcome?" Wonder Woman seemed unsure of how to react to what Dan clearly meant as a compliment.

"You killed Wonder Woman," Bruce stated slowly, eyes narrowed at Dan, who shrugged.

"I killed everyone."

Bruce turned his head slowly to look at Danny who cringed.

"Like I said, future that's not gonna happen. He's on probation."

"He murdered the world and got probation?!" Cyborg exclaimed.

"Everyone he killed never died and he promised not to do it again. So yeah, probation with Vlad for a probation officer," Danny explained with a snicker at the reminder Dan was stuck with Vlad. In his peripherals, he could see several people sharing very incredulous looks.

"Who's Vlad?" Captain Marvel asked.

"A fruitloop," Danny and Dan answered in unison.

"Literally?"

"Of course not! You really think his probation officer is a sentient piece of cereal?" Green Arrow scoffed at Marvel, then seemed to think better of it. "They're not, right?"

"Oh man, I wish! Then I could just eat him again and then never have to hear his annoying voice ever again."

"Eat him again?! What do you mean, again?" Canary exclaimed. Even Bruce was starting to give Dan uneasy looks.

"Can you please stop saying out of pocket crap out of context?" Danny begged Dan, his head in his hands. Dan snorted in amusement.

"Do you really think the context would help?"

"No," Danny admitted after a moment's thought, "how about we just go and hope you never meet these people ever again?"

Dan shrugged and scooped Danny up, getting him in a headlock.

"Get off me!"

"This is what we were doing when we got here, I'm not risking getting left behind."

"Excuse you, you were the one in the headlock, not me!"

"Close enough," Dan responded, unrepentant as he stepped over to Bruce, "all right, Batboy, send us home."

Behind Bruce, Canary mouthed 'are you safe with him?' at Danny, who reluctantly nodded as much as he could with Dan's meaty arm around his neck.

"Thank you for your assistance today," Bruce said very professionally, even as he was essentially ruffling Danny's hair, since his head was the most convenient place to reach.

"Let's never do this again," Dan replied as Danny dragged both of them back through time and space to the couch they'd been tussling on. Dan released him and they both sprawled on the couch in their mortal forms once more.

"So that was Bruce, huh?" Dan said idly as he looked around, "seems like a stick in the mud to me."

"Well what did you expect? He was basically on the clock. Some people actually take stuff seriously," Danny defended, frowning at Dan, "what are you looking for?"

"My chips."

"Yeah, unless you stashed them somehow, I'm pretty sure they're on a battlefield a couple decades from now."

Dan glared at him. "You owe me chips."

"What? It's not my fault you dropped them!"

"It's your fault I got dragged through time again! "

Their tussling started up again, and Vlad was woefully unsurprised to find them wrestling in a half destroyed living room when he finally escaped Jack.

Chapter Text

Danny became incredibly grateful for Sam's gifted notebook, coming to rely on it as the slips began to blur together in his memory over time. It helped to note down events and people, along with estimated ages and general thoughts, just to keep everything straight in his head. It became something like a travel journal for him, and was also nice to read back over it and be reminded of everything he'd experienced with Bruce and his family.

Slip Nineteen

 …threatened at gunpoint by Alfred. Now I know what he meant about being terrified when he met me! At least I got apology cookies…

Slip Twenty One

…not sure Tim is gonna forgive me for what Steph and I did to his bike. Wait, yes I do, he definitely won't hate me after this. Also a brick was a weird choice, but an ice weapon is an ice weapon I guess…

Slip Twenty Five

…not 100% sure Cass isn't part ghost, it's not humanly possible to be that sneaky…

Slip Twenty Seven

…I WAS IN SPACE! ACTUAL SPACE! THE WATCHTOWER IS SO COOL, IT…

Slip Thirty Three

…note to self, find a way to introduce Damian to Cujo, he'd lose his mind…

Some slips were particularly memorable on their own, like his first time on the Watchtower. Although some were memorable for less than pleasant reasons, like the thirty fourth slip.

Danny had seen Bruce fight before.

This wasn't a fight.

This was carnage.

The air was thick with the sickening crunch of breaking bones, joints popping out of their sockets, the ragged moans and cries of the thugs he was carving his way through. Danny wanted to be sick at the sight of it, unable to reconcile his quiet, gentle friend with the shadowy figure carving a bloody path across the warehouse.

Soon, every criminal present was left either unconscious or incoherent with pain until only one remained standing and he had the good sense to run, despite not having a chance of outrunning his pursuer. When the vigilante gave chase, Danny shook himself from his horrified stupor and followed behind. He made it out into the shadowy alleyway just in time to see the man being thrown into the wall, a bloody black fist aiming for his jaw.

The vigilante barely flinched when his fist hit brick instead of flesh.

"Run!" Danny commanded the man he'd yanked out of danger, letting go of the intangibility he'd leant him. The man wasted no time on thanks, simply sprinting away. 

"Danny."

The voice was jagged, like the word had to fight through shattered glass to get out. Like his voice hadn't been used much lately, if at all, except perhaps to scream.

"Did you find him?"

Such a soft, hopeful plea, a harsh shift from the violent machine he'd been just moments ago. Danny took a sharp, painful breath in as he realised what he was witnessing. The memory of his second slip, of the promise he'd made, barrelled to the forefront of his mind, along with the implications. Danny had seen him not long after losing his parents in a previous slip, when he'd been a pale slip of a boy filled with a mountain of grief and rage that seemed to crush him from the inside out. That small boy was now long gone, replaced by a beast of a man who had found a bloody outlet for all of the pain he was drowning in. Danny gave the only answer he could, trying his best to be gentle.

"You know it doesn't work like that, Bruce. He's not dead in my time yet."

Any hint of softness that had been there moments ago was snuffed out. He had barely reacted to punching a brick wall at full force, but Danny's words made him flinch like he'd been struck.

"Don't call me that right now."

Danny frowned, his already rampant worry spiking higher.

"Why not? It's your name." 

He didn't respond to Danny, instead turning away to stride back towards the warehouse. For the first time in his life, Danny wished that Dan was here. Dan had been through exactly this; it was clear that grief was destroying his friend just like it had destroyed Dan. He'd know how to get through to him, to show him the path out of the black pit of his loss. Danny could only sympathise, and thankfully it wasn't too hard for him to figure out where his friend's head was at.

"It's because it's easier to be Batman, isn't it?," Danny called after him, something sparking in him that he couldn't name, fueled by something somewhere between betrayal and understanding. "Batman doesn't have to feel, he just has to fight."

Danny pushed out with telekinesis to slam the door in his face before the vigilante could walk through it.

"And if you're always Batman, if you just keep fighting, you never have to face what you lost."

Batman whirled around with a glare and lunged at Danny, clearly intending to send Danny away. Danny didn't let him, flitting just out of reach, startling the shadows of the fire escape.

"And if you keep fighting, maybe someone'll get lucky and you won't ever have to feel again."

"Stop!" he snarled.

"I'm right, aren't I?" Danny snapped back, the fire inside him rising into a blaze. "Well, I got news for you, Bruce! You're going to live!" He yelled at him like it was a threat. "You're going to live and you're going to keep the promise you made to me, to Jason and to yourself! You're going to try! If not for yourself, then for me! For him and all your other kids!"

Batman had frozen when Danny had started yelling at him. 

"...other…kids?"

Danny risked floating a little closer, hoping the cracked little murmur meant he'd finally gotten through Batman to Bruce.

"Yeah," he said. His eyes flicked up to the fire escape, where a small shadow watched from behind the glint of a lens. "They're waiting for you."

"...no. No, no, I can't, not after…" Bruce's voice and hands shook, seemingly at the very thought of being a father to more children. Danny ached to give him a hug.

"They're going to need you. And I think you need them too. Especially now." He directed that last part towards the shadow. Slowly, it shuffled forward until Tim's features finally caught the moonlight, so young and uncertain, but still with that undercurrent of determination that Danny had always seen in him.

Bruce's eyes followed Danny's gaze and it was a testament to how caught up in his own grief he'd been that he was genuinely surprised to see that they were not alone.

"No," he murmured, his face twisting in denial, "I can't, I can't do this again, I won't!" He seemed to be both begging and ordering Danny, as though Danny had any actual say in the matter. Like he'd forgotten that Danny was just a witness and the future he beheld was inevitable.

"You can. I've seen it," Danny reminded him gently. "I'm not saying it'll be easy. I'm not saying you don't have a lot of work to do. But you're not gonna give up. I don't think you're actually capable of quitting anything," he joked weakly, "and you're just gonna hurt yourself if you try. And a lot of other people," he added, recalling the groaning bodies in the warehouse behind him. 

"He's right. Your hospitalisation rate has gone up by a lot," Tim added quietly, seemingly unsure if he was allowed to intrude.

Bruce took a shaky breath, and Danny wondered how many tears had been caught by the cowl. 

"Please don't make me do this," he begged softly. His whole body seemed to scream fatigue.

"I'm not making you do anything. I'm reminding you who you are."

Tim clambered silently and nimbly down from the fire escape, coming to a hesitant halt just out of reach on Bruce's left.

"Would you like some help getting home, Mr Wayne?"

Danny wasn't surprised to learn that Tim already knew who Bruce was, and Bruce currently seemed incapable of anything that wasn't regret or resignation. For tonight, at least, it looked like Danny had successfully drained all of the fight out of him.

"...yes. I could use some help," he admitted finally, though Danny doubted he meant just being led back to where he'd parked the batmobile.

Tim glanced at Danny, who gave him an encouraging nod and apparently the courage to reach out and take Bruce's hand. The bright ruby smears he left on tiny, delicate fingers forced Bruce to finally acknowledge the blood on his hands. He tried to tug his hand back, but Tim held firm.

"It's okay, I have wet wipes and sanitiser in my backpack. We'll get you cleaned up." If he wasn't so clearly broken, it would have been comical to see someone half Bruce's height treating him like a messy toddler. 

Danny floated forward slowly, making his intentions obvious as he wrapped his arms around Bruce's shoulders in the first hug they'd ever shared. 

"Its going to be okay. Take care of him."

He felt Bruce's free arm cling to him, returning the hug for just a moment before he slipped out of his arms.

Danny went from a barely lit alley to the harsh fluorescent lights of a high school hallway. The hand that had been fisted in his shirt abruptly let go, dropping Danny the few inches he'd been held above the ground. Dash Baxter staggered back, his face pale and looking distinctly like he was about to throw up.

"The hell was that?" he managed to wheeze out. Danny was distinctly not in the mood to walk Dash through whatever crisis seeing him time-slip had caused. He just stalked up to him with a scowl, snatching his notebook from Dash's shaking hand.

"That's what happens when you touch things that don't belong to you," he hissed in Dash's face before turning on his heel and walking away. The wet sound of Dash vomiting up his lunch echoed through the empty hallway behind him. He was lucky no one else had been around to witness anything, the bell having long since already rung.

Danny didn't realise that his own hands were shaking until he sat down heavily in the quiet corner of the library that Sam and Tucker had staked out for their study hour.

"Woah, Danny! Are you okay?" Tucker gasped, eyes wide and glancing around for the latest ghost to ruin Danny's day.

"Where are you bleeding? Hold still, I have my kit," Sam instructed, already rooting around in her bag for the first aid kit she never went without anymore.

Danny looked down and realised that their hug had indeed imprinted the blood of Batman's victims upon his once white shirt.

"It's-" he paused to clear the croak from his voice "-it's not mine." Despite his best efforts, his voice still trembled and his eyes felt hot and itchy, signs of tears to come that Danny was doing his best to fight.

"Danny," Tucker gently pried Danny's crumpled notebook from his hands, both of his friends now bookending him either side with warmth and support. "Are you okay?"

Danny lost the fight against his tears.

Chapter Text

Tucker tried valiantly to math out the frequency of Danny's slips in a vain attempt to predict their timing. He did manage to narrow down the window; Danny was guaranteed to slip within the next 11 to 52 hours of the last one. Considering that was just the shortest and longest gaps they'd noted between slips, Danny wasn't hugely impressed with that deduction. They seemed to happen entirely randomly within that 41 hour window, defying Tucker's every attempt at prediction.

Still, knowing he had at least half a day's reprieve before he had to slip again helped.

In the end, he got over a full day. Sam and Tucker had put together a Friday night movie marathon to help cheer him up, and blessedly, no ghosts had come along to ruin it. To his credit, Danny was doing his best to be cheered, nestled between his friends with a lap full of snacks as the sights and sounds of D-grade horror movies washed over him; though he couldn't tell you the plot of anything they'd watched if he tried.

Abruptly, the fake groans of zombies slid into the silence of a bedroom in the dead of night. Danny's eyes saw well in the dark, allowing him to take in the opulent yet tasteful decor and the large form lying still in the four-poster bed. Silently, Danny floated over and sat on the side of the bed, back against the headboard but floating an inch above the mattress to avoid disturbing it's sleeping occupant.

It wasn't the first time he'd slipped while Bruce was sleeping; often when Bruce was young and still had enforced naps. The Bruce sleeping beside him seemed to be in his early twenties, looking much as he had when Danny originally explained their situation in his college dorm. 

This was Bruce before he lost a child, yet even in sleep, there seemed to be something like worry twisting his features. It was something that had been there for a long time and Danny wondered how he'd never noticed it before. He'd known Bruce as a child, an adolescent and a man, yet he'd never noticed the cracks that Bruce held closed by sheer force of will until the weight of grief tore him apart. 

Then again, perhaps he could see it now because this was a Bruce entirely unguarded, with no older friend to impress or younger friend to reassure. This was Bruce as he was when alone and vulnerable, unable to escape the depths of his fear even in sleep. The same man who would light up around his children, who would destroy himself when he lost them.

Bruce was achingly human and all Danny wanted to do was protect him from all the horrors to come.

All of the bitter frustration and pre-emptive grief that Sam and Tucker had done their best to ease came flooding back. To be forced to slide in and out of someone else's life, seeing them at their best and worst, sharing all the good and the bad yet never being able to help, never being able to just be there for his friend, tore at Danny's core. There was so much Danny wished he could protect Bruce from that he knew was inevitable. He ached to soothe the fears that chased Bruce even in his sleep, but all he could do was watch.

Was that the point of all this? Was he just meant to be an observer, like Clockwork in his tower, never able to truly interfere, just bear witness? Danny felt immense pity for the ancient spirit if this was how he'd felt for eternity.

A sliver of dim light sliced through the darkness, pulling Danny from his wallowing. He tensed, ready to spring against a threat, until the size of the silhouette slipping inside registered.

It was a child.

A little boy who tiptoed hesitantly through the darkness, unaware of his invisible observer. As he approached the bed, Danny was able to make out the tear tracks on the face of an impossibly young Dick. He stopped just shy of the bed, eyeing Bruce's sleeping form with uncertainty.  

Not that Bruce was sleeping anymore. He'd likely woken the moment Dick opened the door, but he made a show of blinking his eyes open.

"Chum? What are you doing up? Is everything all right?"

Dick looked down at his feet, hands clenched in a well-loved elephant plushie.

"...had a nightmare…" he admitted to the floor.

"Oh, chum. Did you want to stay in here-"

The half finished question was all the permission Dick needed to clamber onto the bed and curl up against Bruce's chest, sobs renewing. Bruce was clearly startled, but instinctively wrapped his arms around the boy, crooning reassurances into his hair. From the dumbstruck expression on Bruce's face, this was probably the first time Dick had felt comfortable coming to Bruce for comfort like this.

It was an intimate moment between father and son, and Danny felt terrible for witnessing it without their consent. He regretted his earlier decision to wallow in the dark, since now he couldn't send himself back without Bruce noticing. So he remained, curled up in a cold corner of the bed while Dick cried himself to sleep in Bruce's arms.

Danny didn't mean to fall asleep himself, yet the next thing he knew, daylight was valiantly trying to wrestle it's way past the blackout curtains. Danny was still curled up in his corner, but now Dick was sprawled across the space between him and Bruce, one outstretched hand just inches from Danny's nose, like he'd been reaching for him. As Danny blinked sleep from his eyes, he saw Bruce on Dick's other side, watching Danny with soft, bleary eyes.

"Good morning," he whispered, clearly trying not to wake Dick. "When did you get here?"

"Not sure," Danny admitted sheepishly, voice just as low. "Sorry,I didn't mean to fall asleep, but Dick needed you and I was just gonna wait for a good time, but I guess everything sorta caught up with me." 

"It's okay," Bruce assured him, "you know you're always welcome here."

Danny still felt wrong-footed. "I didn't wanna intrude."

"You're not." Bruce's eyes drifted to the little boy snoring between them. "Besides, I'd been hoping to introduce the two of you soon."

"He hasn't met me yet?" Danny asked, grateful for the distraction talking about Dick provided.

"No. I wasn't sure if he'd believe me if I told him and you weren't here to prove it either."

Danny gave Bruce an unimpressed look. "Okay, now I feel even worse about intruding."

"Why?" Bruce looked baffled.

"Because now the poor kid is gonna wake up next to a complete stranger."

"Oh. I didn't think about that." 

"Yeah, I didn't think so. You're too used to me popping up whenever. You gotta remember that absolutely nobody else is. Except maybe Alfred."

Bruce chuckled softly. "I don't think anything surprises Alfred. If I didn't know better, I'd think you warned him about things in advance."

Danny rolled his eyes theatrically. "Jeez, you mention college to a guy's guardian once and you never hear the end of it."

Bruce's eyes crinkled as he continued to laugh at him, an open smile on his face. Lying here in the early morning gloom, with Bruce happy and carefree and Dick sleeping peacefully between them, Danny felt something settle in his core.

This was what mattered.

The peaceful moments, the happy moments, the rare exciting moments when Danny got to fight at Bruce's side. Yes, there would be pain, and yes, one day Danny would lose Bruce and his family forever, but he would always have these moments. He would hoard these memories like precious jewels through all the hardships, through the loss, and that would be enough.

"Danny? You okay?"

Danny realised he'd been quietly staring at Bruce and Dick for far too long as he basked in the peace and acceptance he'd just reached.

"Yeah, sorry, just thinking."

"Oh? What about?"

Danny shrugged as best he could while lying on his side. "A lot of things. Like how Dick's gonna be just as used to me popping up as you and Alfred soon. And I'm only just now realising how much changed for you when he arrived."

Bruce's brow furrowed questioningly.

"You're a parent now, Bruce. Everything is gonna shift now, because of him. Its not bad, I guess I just now realised how much more responsible you're gonna get."

"Implying I wasn't responsible before?" Bruce raised a teasing brow at him.

"Considering what you get up to at night, is that a serious question?"

"How exactly does that make me irresponsible?"

Danny huffed. "Ask Alfred, I'm sure he'll be happy to explain."

"I'm taking responsibility for the city."

"At the expense of yourself."

"Its a price I'm willing to pay," Bruce insisted, getting defensive. Danny sighed sadly.

"What about him?" He nodded his head down towards Dick. "Do you think he'd trade you for Gotham?"

That got Bruce to shut his mouth with an audible click, eyes falling pensively on the child beside him. Apparently the full ramifications of taking Dick in hadn't occured to him yet. Danny offered him a comforting smile.

"Like I said, you're about to get real responsible. Whether you like it or not."

Bruce stared down at Dick's sleeping face for a moment. Danny could only assume he was watching Bruce decide that the responsibility was worth it.

"I suppose responsibility comes for us all eventually." Bruce looked up at him, eyes teasing again. "Even you. You won't be fourteen forever, you know."

Danny snorted. "Please, responsibility came for my ass the day I decided going inside an unstable experimental machine was a good idea."

Bruce paled as he stared at Danny, wide-eyed.

"You did what?"

Danny frowned. "Haven't I told you how I got my powers already?"

"You told me it was a lab accident."

"Yeah, it was. I went into my parents' lab and they had this portal they'd been trying to build to the, like, dimension that ghosts exist in, only it seemed like it hadn't worked," he explained sheepishly. "I was messing around trying to take a picture for my friends, tripped and accidentally hit a switch that turned it on on top of me." Danny curled up a little tighter, fingers twitching at the memory of being flooded with electricity and ectoplasm for the first time. "One crazy electrocution later and I'm basically Schrodinger's Cat with a side of ghost powers."

Bruce's hand hovered in the space between them, unable to offer the comforting touch he wanted to without sending Danny away.

"Danny…I'm so sorry."

Danny's heart warmed at the sentiment, unnecessary as it was.

"It's okay, I'm still here. And it's the reason I'm here here. Your house, I mean. Or your time? You know what I mean. A lot has majorly sucked since it happened, but," Danny smiled at his friend, "a lot has been majorly awesome too. I wouldn't trade it."

That melted some of the devastation from Bruce's face, though there was still an air of sadness to his smile.

"Still. It's a miracle you sur…that you're here at all. I'm grateful. I just wish it hadn't been so painful."

Danny snorted. "You and me bo-"

Danny was cut off as he was abruptly whacked in the face by an elephant plushie.

"Who are you?!" Dick demanded, scrambling back and away from Danny, colliding with Bruce. "Bruce! Who is this? Why is he in your bed?" Bruce's presence seemed to have calmed Dick's alarm a bit, though now he sounded scandalised.

"This is my friend Danny. It's a long story, but he's temporally displaced at the moment."

Dick blinked at him. "I don't know what that means."

"Time god gave me a magic item that got damaged, I slammed into Bruce once and now I time travel to a random point in his life every few days," Danny explained for him as he sat up, "it's completely random, so neither of us get any say on when or where I land."

Dick looked skeptical, glancing at Bruce as though waiting for him to reveal this was a prank and give a less outlandish explanation.

"That is the gist of it, yes," Bruce confirmed instead, "I've known Danny my whole life. You can trust him, I promise."

Dick still seemed hesitant, eyeing Danny warily.

"You're really a time traveller?"

"Yep. I've actually already met you before. You kicked me in the face. You got a mean right foot on you, dude."

Dick giggled in spite of his clear suspicion.

"But I can see you're a smart kid and you're gonna want proof. Plus, I should be heading back anyway," he added to Bruce, who nodded in understanding and offered a hand.

Danny fistbumped him and gave Dick a cheerful little wave. "See you some time."

"See you some time."

"What's gonna ha-aargh!"

Dick's cry of alarm grew an echo as Danny found himself back in Sam's entertainment room, both of his friends scrambling away from him.

"Oh god, I think I'm gonna throw up!" Tucker wailed.

"That felt so nasty! Nasty and wrong!" Sam added vehemently, even paler than normal. 

"What?" Danny asked, looking between them both in confusion.

"Dude! How messed up it looks when you glitch is nothing compared to how it feels to be leaning on you when it happens!" Tucker explained, looking aghast.

"Like lying on a flailing sack of meat and bones that's somehow sliding through your skin," Sam added, gagging.

"Ew," Danny grimaced at the visceral imagery, "I'm sorry. No control, you know?"

"Yeah, we know. It's whatever," Sam shook it off, retaking her seat on the couch next to him, "though I maybe kinda really wanna slap Clockwork the next time he shows. There has got to be at least something he can do about this. I bet he's holding out on you."

"Yeah, but you just know he's gonna have some crappy 'big picture' excuse if you call him out on it," Tucker agreed, flopping back down on Danny's other side.

"Oh definitely. Classic Clockwork," Danny added with a sigh, though he was smiling. His friends eyed him.

"You seem a lot more chipper," Sam commented.

"Fun slip?" Tucker guessed.

"Not really fun," Danny shrugged, "but…good. We talked, I met his eldest kid for the first time, his first time, not mine I mean, and yeah, it was just…good."

Sam and Tucker nodded like they understood, though perhaps they were just glad Danny was happier now.

"I'm glad," Sam said, bumping their shoulders together.

"Did this one try to stab you too?" Tucker joked.

"Nah. He did try to knock me out with a plushie though."

"Man, what is Bruce teaching his kids that they always choose violence?" Sam asked with a snort.

"I'm pretty sure you'd choose violence too if you woke up next to a complete stranger. He was asleep next to Bruce and I accidentally woke him up."

"Fair enough, I withdraw my judgement."

"I'd hit first, ask questions later too if I woke up to your face unexpectedly," Tucker teased, earning him getting pounced on and put in a headlock by his friend.

Sam was rolling her eyes and Tucker was crying uncle, but they were both laughing, and Danny along with them. He may not know what the future held, but Danny wasn't alone. He knew he'd make it through, and make a lot of good memories along the way.