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Danny met Bruce when they were both 17.
It felt like love at first sight. Bruce was a little… withdrawn, but Danny couldn’t really blame him for that. Losing your parents at a young age like that…. Danny was just surprised that Bruce liked Danny at all.
But every time Bruce laughed at one of Danny’s jokes, or smiled when Danny smiled, it felt like a victory.
Danny was in love.
When Bruce and Danny first started dating, life felt…. Wonderful. Bruce was kind, funny, and smart. Danny could almost forget the life that was before Bruce, the desperate fighting, the fear that came with it. Danny was safe.
….It started to fall apart a lot sooner than he expected.
—
When Bruce and Danny were 18, Bruce said that he was leaving to travel for a long while. Danny offered to go with him, but Bruce declined.
“You sure?” Danny asked. Traveling was boring when you did it alone, he had always thought.
“I’m sure, Dear. You have college to finish, I can’t make you run away with me. I’ll be back before you know it.” Bruce smiled then, and Danny’s worries floated away. Why should he worry? Bruce would always be there for him, no matter how far.
While Bruce was gone, Danny finished college. Then he had free time.
A LOT of free time.
So Danny did things.
Danny got his own apartment (he felt weird about living in Wayne Manor without Bruce)
He visited Alfred weekly to have tea and biscuits, and he avoided Vlad’s calls at all costs!
It was great!
He missed Bruce though.
Danny felt a little codependent towards Bruce, so it was probably a good thing that he was gone for a little while. Danny needed to stop having Bruce represent everything that he’s ever wanted.
Danny will work on that.
—
When Danny turned 20, Bruce returned to Gotham.
Bruce was… different. Not necessarily in a bad way. He was more reserved, that Danny was used too, but in public, Bruce acted like a drunk party boy that Bruce used to roll his eyes at.
Bruce would almost never be in bed when Danny went to bed, and was never there when he woke up.
It was odd, but not the worst. Especially when Bruce had proposed to him the second he had arrived home. Danny was a little distracted by whirlwind that was wedding preparations.
When he got a green sticky note stating that Bruce cannot know about anyone in his family and to not invite them, he was a little…. Upset.
But… Clockwork had a reason for this, and he didn’t talk to his parents or Vlad, so he just had to explain to his friends and Jazz.
This was fine.
Besides, Bruce didn’t have a lot of family either, maybe a small quiet wedding would be nice.
—
the wedding was the most perfect day ever, in Danny’s opinion. It felt quiet, but meaningful. Bruce had evened booked a
venue under the stars. They read their vows at sunset, and danced the night away under the constellations that Danny adored.
Danny felt at peace.
This might become more obvious later, but Danny disliked Gotham.
A lot.
He came originally for college at Gotham U,
And he stayed for Bruce. But he hated that constantly cloudy sky.
Maybe one day he convince Bruce to leave Gotham with him.
But as he watches Bruce make a call to someone promising that they would be back in Gotham the next day, he starts to doubt it would ever work.
Danny knows what Bruce would choose, if it was Danny or Gotham.
Danny thinks that he’s always known.
It’s only now that he can admit it to himself.
—
The first time everything changed was when Bruce brought Dick home.
When Bruce asked if Danny wanted to go to a circus with him, Danny nearly screamed no.
Danny had to explain to Bruce very slowly that clowns were the devil and Danny would rather slit his own throat than get near one.
Bruce smiled at that, kissed him, and told him that he would return with a souvenir for Danny.
Danny didn’t think the souvenir would be a whole child.
A very traumatized child.
“Uhm… hi, I’m Danny, what’s your name?”
“…I’m Dick.”
Danny tries his best to appear non threatening, and is rewarded with Dick throwing himself into Danny’s arms and sobbing.
Maybe things will be alright.
—
As Dickie grew older, things started changing.
Some good, some bad.
There were more bad than good though.
It was nice that Danny had a friend in Dickie, he was a sweet kid, and it was nice to be a bit of comfort in this strange new world that is the one percent.
Danny knew better than most how hard it was to adjust to it.
Bruce still wasn’t coming to bed at night and Danny was starting to think that maybe he did something wrong.
Daddy, he didn’t know what he could’ve possibly done wrong though.
Dickie also started to grow a little distant as did Alfred. It was like they all had some big secret that they weren’t telling him, but Danny didn’t know what it could’ve possibly been.
Danny sighs as he looks in Bruce’s study, hoping that he could find him there, but it was empty. He sits down on the ground in front of the old grandfather clock. Danny didn’t know why Bruce kept it, but it was probably sentimental value. Bruce didn’t tell Danny much these days. Danny rubs his eyes as a tear slipped down his cheek.
When did all of this go wrong?
—
Danny was better now.
He was great!
Of course Bruce wouldn’t be with him all of the time, nor would Dickie. He was just being clingy because he was a little lonely.
So, he had devised a solution!!
Danny needed a vacation, away from Gotham.
“B, I’m only gonna be gone for a month, I’ll be back soon. Besides, you and Dickie need to spend some quality time together.”
Danny never bothered to mention that he was visiting Sam and Tucker, Bruce and Dickie didn’t know that they even existed, and Clockwork told Danny that he needed to keep it that way.
Danny things trekking the Amazon with Sam and Tucker will be a blast!
Bruce frowns. “But what if you get hurt, Danny, sweetheart, I think it’s safer if you stay Gotham for a little while longer…”
“Nonsense, Hon, I’ll be fine, I might be short but I can handle myself.” Danny’s eye does not twitch at the thought of staying in Gotham, thank you very much!
Dickie looks up at Danny with big watery eyes. “You promise you’ll be back??”
“I promise Bud, I’ll always come back for you.”
And Danny means it.
—
Danny spent one wonderful month with Sam and Tucker, exploring the rainforest that Sam fights to preserve, and meeting ghosts along the way. It was the first time Danny had turned into Phantom in…. Years, had it been years already??
Huh.
Danny felt his core purring. He was in heaven, the stars, his friends, the ghosts that he had come to love, and the culture that gives him life. If Bruce and Dickie were here, this would have been perfect.
No! Bad Danny!
He was not supposed to be thinking about Gotham while away, this was a nice long break.
Until Sam started talking about Gotham.
“Sooooo Danny, what’s your opinion about the Batman??” She asks with a grin, already suspecting his answer.
Danny’s eye twitches.
Danny didn’t mention this earlier, but he does not like Batman.
Danny can…. Understand where the man is coming from though.
Batman understood something that nearly everyone in Gotham understood.
Gotham wasn’t going to fix itself.
Danny just didn’t approve of Batman’s methods.
Showing your villains mercy and letting them live, great!! Wonderful even, shows that Batman was compassionate.
Putting them back in Arkham, now that, was stupid.
And using a child as a sidekick makes Danny twitch just thinking about it.
There were other superheroes in other cities that he liked more.
Like Superman.
—
Well…. The month was over, it was time to go back home.
It was strange, thinking Gotham as home now, but really, he didn’t.
Bruce, Dickie, and Alfred was his home.
Just like the Amazon would be his home as well, cause his best friends were there.
As Danny boarded the plane, he couldn’t help but get a strange… foreboding feeling.
Like the calm before the storm.
He just didn’t know what to expect
—
When Danny turned 25, he realized he might have a slight… drinking problem.
Danny has had alcohol before, but whenever he’s been feeling sad or lonely lately, wine all of a sudden became his best friend.
He really should go sober.
…
He’s fine.
Dickie was 15, which was the age where he fought with Bruce.
A lot.
Danny didn’t really know what to do. He loved his boys and both of them were fighting like his mom and dad used to over Santa Claus.
Danny wished that they would stop fighting over something he didn’t even know.
He wish they would tell him.
Oops, time to drink a little more.
—
When Dickie was 18, everything fell apart.
The fighting got much, much worse.
So bad that Dickie and Bruce rarely spoke to each other.
So much so, that Dickie left for a different city to live in with his friends.
And Danny was really glad that Dickie has friends to support him, he really does!!
He just misses his buddy.
Bruce is becoming even more distant, hanging out with people Danny had never even heard of!
Like, who even was Pamela, or Selina!!
It seemed fishy.
Maybe Danny should call Vlad.
—
When Bruce brought Jason home, Danny was…. A little bit excited.
Don’t get him wrong!! Danny knew that Jason couldn’t replace Dickie, and he didn’t want him too.
But… Jason was a sweet kid, who had instantly latched onto Danny and Bruce in a way that Dickie did not.
Jason was very different from Dickie. Dickie was very active, swinging from chandeliers, singing songs, and doing gymnastics, but Jason wanted nothing more than to hide away and curl up with a good book, or bake with Alfred.
And Danny was always happy to indulge him.
Danny started drinking less, he didn’t want any of his bad habits to rub off on Jason.
Things started to look up again.
—
Danny called Vlad…. 2 weeks ago?? 3, maybe??
A few weeks ago.
Danny wasn’t… indulging Vlad, he just… he needed someone to talk to, someone who knew Danny better than he knew himself.
Normally he would talk to Bruce…
But Danny was starting to suspect that they really didn’t know each other at all.
So he called Vlad.
It was… it was nice.
Vlad remained mostly polite, and gave Danny some advice about coping with love life issues without drinking himself to death.
Danny suspected that Vlad’s advice might not be the best, you know, his silly old habit of kidnapping him and his mom.
But that’s all in the past, Vlad now recommends doing something that Danny loves.
But Danny can’t do what he loves, because of all the STUPID SMOG IN GOTHAM!!!
Woah.
That was a lot.
Danny needs to take a break….
—
Danny was about to cry.
Jason has started acting weird, and all of a sudden, Jason was apart of the big, mysterious secret that was RUINING HIS LIFE!!
Jason, was now avoiding Danny, not a lot, but enough for him to notice.
But Danny was not going to cry, because he was an adult, and adults did not cry.
At least, not in front of others.
If Danny cried himself to sleep last night,
No one would tell.
—
Jason, Danny recently found out, loves Theater.
Jason also really liked to perform.
And Danny, Danny really liked to watch.
Danny would see the happiness in his eyes when Jason would monologue, and he would almost forget his loneliness.
Almost.
Danny watched as Jason tried to explain ‘A Midsummer’s Night Dream’ to Danny, keyword being tried. Danny was still not good at English, even to this day.
But it was nice connecting with Jason again, Danny was starting to think that he was destined to fail at this whole family thing.
But now, maybe not.
—
Jay was 15 now.
Bruce and Jay were fighting.
And Danny DIDNT KNOW THE REASON.
Danny sips his glass of wine, trying to calm down.
It worked, mostly.
Yay.
All that he knew was that Jason and Bruce weren’t talking, but if he asked either of them, they would close up and wouldn’t talk to him.
Danny drank more wine.
Danny looked down at his phone, which was ringing.
He sighs and answers.
“Hello?”
“Is this Daniel Fenton?”
“It’s Wayne now, but yes. Is there a reason for this call?”
“We regret to inform you that Mr. And Mrs. Fenton have unfortunately passed.”
Oh.
Oh my God.
“I-I… how did they pass…?”
“A car accident sir, your father was driving and wasn’t watching the road.”
“Was anyone else injured??”
“No, thankfully.”
“O-okay… thank you for telling me… goodbye.”
Danny ended the call, and looked for a place to hide for a little while.
He couldn’t let anyone see him cry like this.
—
The straw that broke the camels back was surprisingly, not his parents death, but the death of another.
Jason.
Danny screamed when Bruce told him, he didn’t know what else to do.
He sobbed for what felt like hours, his grief filling him up and leaving him empty.
Jason’s death.
His parents.
His loneliness.
His drinking.
The fact that he went to college and did nothing with degree.
He couldn’t even see the stars anymore.
He didn’t keep in touch with his friends or sister, some days he barely spoke.
He was a shell of what he once was.
Danny sobbed and sobbed, letting as much as he could out, even as it kept coming. The loneliness he felt all alone, the secrets that the people he considered his family kept from him.
Danny was tired.
He was lonely.
And, yes, maybe a little bit pathetic.
When the tears finally subsided, Danny looked up, to find an empty room.
Of course Bruce left.
He was never there for Danny.
Danny wonders if he was ever there at all.
—
It took Danny three days.
Three days of 4 people in Wayne manor mourning for Danny to decide what he needed to do.
God it hurt.
Bruce was everything Danny ever wanted.
At least, he used to be.
Danny isn’t so sure anymore.
As Danny watched Dickie yell at Bruce again, he felt… at peace.
This was the thing that needed to be done.
He had everything ready, all he needed was to…
Danny got a sudden sick feeling in his stomach, and he walked (he did not run, running would alert someone that something was wrong and he did not want that) over to the bathroom and quietly locked the door.
He then puked his guts out.
Oh no.
He instinctively knew what was happening, he could feel their cores near his, deep within him.
“Hi Dan… Hi Ellie…”
He smiles.
“Welcome back.”
—
When Danny approached Bruce in his study, Bruce didn’t even look up at him. He just… stared into space.
“Bruce.”
No answer.
Danny tried again.
“Bruce!”
Bruce jolted.
“I… yes, Sweetheart??”
“I think… I think we should talk.”
“About what, Love?”
Here goes nothing…
“I want a divorce.”
Pause.
For a moment, there was nothing. Utter silence.
Like it hadn’t fully clicked in Bruce’s head what he had just heard.
Didn’t fully understand it.
“A… divorce…?”
“Yes Bruce, a divorce… this has been coming on for some time now… and… I don’t know, with what happened with Jason…. I can’t take it anymore Bruce!”
Danny takes a breath.
“I don’t need anything, just… please sign the papers and let me say goodbye to Dickie, okay?”
“I-I don’t understand, did I do something?? Did I hurt you??”
“It wasn’t just you, Bruce, it was a lot of things. But you staying out late every night with people I don’t know, and keeping secrets from me doesn’t help!!”
Bruce opens his mouth, and for a split second, Danny thinks he’s gonna say it. Say the big secret that has kept them apart for so long.
And then he closes it.
Well.
That was that.
“…I’m gonna leave, can the papers be signed… soon? Then I’ll say goodbye to Dickie, and you all can forget I’ve ever existed.”
Danny turns and leaves, hiding the tears in his eyes, not noticing Bruce reaching out to take his hand.
—
The divorce proceedings go by quickly.
Danny didn’t want anything out of the settlement, even if Bruce offered.
It felt like using Bruce, almost, taking anything.
So, the divorce was easy.
What wasn’t easy, was leaving Dickie.
His son, who had grown into a kind, strong, young man, was screaming at Danny.
Danny can’t remember the last time Dickie screamed at Danny.
“YOU PROMISED YOU WOULD NEVER LEAVE ME!!” Dickie screamed. “YOU SAID YOU WOULDN’T LEAVE US!!”
“I know.” Danny replied softly. “I’m sorry I lied to you.”
Danny left Wayne manor that day.
And he didn’t look back.
—
Danny moved to someplace quiet.
A lakeside cabin, in Norway, of all places.
Surrounded by nature, the freezing cold, and the stars, Danny felt at peace for the first time in years.
Danny Nightingale, age 32? 33?
He didn’t know anymore.
He didn’t care.
He was at peace.
It felt wonderful.