Work Text:
Sitting in his desk at Wayne Enterprises, Bruce was bored. He was reading through legal paperwork; focusing mostly on contract agreements and the fine print at the bottom of said contracts.
He had just signed off on a new pay raise for his companies legal team when he felt it: THE tingle.
There were many instinctual feelings and sensations he had gained over the years to tell him when something important was happening. His left foot tended to itch when there was going to be a bomb threat in the next few hours. He knew he sneezed when his butler, Alfred, was mad with him.
This particular tingle was one he had only felt every so often. He had felt it three nights before a tragedy at a circus act. This was the tingle he felt when his future adopted son Dick had entered Gotham for the first time. He had felt it during parole a few years later; only to find someone stealing his tires off his superhero transport. This was the tingle he had felt when Jason had decided to steal the batmobile wheels and Bruce met his future son. He had felt it for months, night after night, as someone was taking pictures of him that he wouldn’t find out about until years later. This was the tingle he had felt every time Tim had snuck out of his family’s home to follow Bruce and his Robins through Gotham. He had felt this tingle when there was a string of robberies happening in Gotham. This was the tingle when Cassandra’s father had been hurting the girl that would soon be Bruce’s adoptive daughter. There was a tingle 15 years ago, in the middle of the night that had been strong and he hadn’t known why until Damian had come to live with Bruce and they had celebrated Damian’s first birthday with them; it was the night Damian had been born.
This was his ‘New Kid’ tingle; a warm sensation shooting up his spine and making his chest ach with the need to hug someone.
He grabbed his phone, calling for help.
Ring- ring ring -Ring – ring ring-CLICK “Master Bruce. To what do I owe the pleasure?”
Bruce put his head between his knees and tried to calm down. “Alfred, help. I am gaining a new child.”
The old butler laughed at him. “Well, sir. This may be a record. You haven’t taken any new charges in years. Now, have you met them yet?”
Bruce groaned. “Don’t tease me. This is serious! And, no. At least I don’t think so?”
Alfred hummed as he thought. “Well, do you have any meetings with any black haired or blue eyed individuals?”
Reaching for his computer, Bruce started to scan through his meetings for the rest of the day. “I… don’t see any? There is a meeting I am scheduled to have with a Mr. Jackson Fenton. But he is an adult; 42 and married. No way is that it. Everyone else is people I already know.”
There was a chuckle from the old man, and Bruce frowned. Alfred finally cleared his throat. “Ah hem. Sorry, sir. Now, would Mr. Fenton happen to have any children?”
Bruce pulled up the man’s file…. And groaned. “Nooooo. Alfred! He has two children. One red headed girl and one black haired and blue-eyed boy!”
Alfred laughed. “I will prepare their rooms, sir. Please send everything we have on them to the house computer. I will prepare extra dinner and dessert. Where are they from?”
Bruce checked the address in the parent’s file. “Illinois.”
Alfred hummed. “Apple pie, strawberry milkshakes, and salted French fries. Wonderful. See you for dinner, sir.” Click.
--
Danny sighed. His parents were so stupid. They had been offered a meeting with Wayne Enterprises to go over some of their inventions for sale. Danny, silly him, had finished his schoolwork for the year and refused to start his following years workbook yet. So, unlike his sister who had gotten to stay home with their mother and study, Danny had been dragged to the meeting. His parents didn’t want him to do anything dangerous while unsupervised.
He wasn’t going to do anything dangerous; he was going to do something very specific that would have been dangerous if he hadn’t been prepared for the potential outcomes. He had a fire extinguisher. But NO!
So he had been loaded into the car and they set off. The meeting was at 2pm. So they had left at 9pm the night before, and his dad had just kept on driving.
Pulling up to the front of the very tall building, Danny tried to care. It was cool; W.E. was the top of the tech industry. The building managed most of the most advanced labs in the world and had some of the best labs for internships. The problem wasn’t with the building. The problem was that Danny’s dad hadn’t stopped talking the whole night. And they weren’t new or interesting topics of conversation or bonding conversations that a dad and his son might have to grow closer to each other.
All Jack Fenton had ever cared to talk about were ghosts. So; ghosts were what Jack talked about. He talked about how ghosts are evil. He talked about the different legends around the world that had ghosts involved. He talked about his many dissections of ghosts he had captured and how he had experimented on said ghosts for hours as the entities fake screamed in pain to try to fool Jack and his wife into releasing the scum.
Danny, having been made half ghost last year during a lab accident that killed him and resurrected him hundreds of times until he became a living God, did not have the same opinions as his father. Danny, being smart, had never told his ghost obsessed parents about this accident and its outcome, though. So, he had sat and counted cars, 4817 by the way, as they drove. Yes, he included cars on the other side of the road and on side roads and parked. No, he did not include planes, 17, or trains, 11, in his car count. He did include motorcycles, though.
He should have just started his next years schoolwork. It would have been bad, doing advanced trigonometry at his kitchen table; nothing was as bad as this.
But, they had finally made it to the meeting place.
Cool building. Very tall.
Cool lobby. Very shiny floors.
Cool elevator. The music was k-pop. Very nice.
There were two men waiting for them when the door opened. One younger, 5’9” with black hair and blue eyes who introduced himself as Timothy Drake-Wayne. He shook their hands, and gestured Danny’s dad into an office.
Jack looked down at Danny. “Come on, Danno! Let’s go!”
The other man cleared his throat. “Actually. If you are alright with it, I could keep the young man busy. Maybe a tour of the building? I am sure the meeting will get boring for those of us not filling out paperwork.”
Danny looked up at his dad. “Can I? I am sure I will be safe with Mr…. sorry, what was your name?”
The man, also with black hair and blue eyes but much taller at 6’4”, smiled. “Call me Bruce.”
Danny looked back at his dad. “Can I go with Mr. Bruce, dad?”
Jack nodded, slapping Danny on the back and pushing him towards Bruce. “Great idea! Have fun, and remember the rules!”
Danny nodded, rolling his eyes as he turned to look at his dad. “I know. Be safe: check the date on the peroxide before bringing it near any open flames. It was one time. And it was intentional! I will be careful.”
Mr. Drake-Wayne was laughing as he walked into the meeting room, calling out: “Chemicals! Perfect!” like it would make sense.
It didn’t.
Jack walked into the meeting room, and Danny turned to Bruce. “So, what are we doing?”
Bruce hummed. “How about pizza and soda and a talk? Then, maybe I will know enough to know where you want to see?”
Danny nodded. “Sure. Sounds good.”
Bruce smiled, turning and walking deeper into the office hallway and away from the elevator. “Great. I had a feeling so ordered pizza and soda; this way. So, I am Bruce. What do you want to be called?”
The hallways was long and boring, but the room they were going into was great. It was a big room, two long couches on either side of a coffee table absolutely filled with pizza boxes and soda bottles. The far wall was a floor to ceiling window that was high enough in the air to look out onto the tops of the clouds, so all Danny could see was a carpet of white clouds and blue skies. “Oh. I’m Danny. It is nice to meet you.”
Bruce nodded, passing Danny an empty plate and grabbing a slice of pizza. Danny took a minute, looking through the boxes and finding one he wanted. There were over a dozen kinds of pizza. Danny smiled, filling his plate and kicking off his shoes to sit cross legged on the couch across from Bruce.
--
Bruce was loosing his mind. He had thought the conversation would be straightforward.
He was wrong.
Bruce: “So Danny, tell me about your home life.”
Danny: “Oh, sure. Well, I live with my mom and dad and sister.”
Bruce relaxes.
Danny: “With scientist parents in the house; it can get a bit explosive.”
Bruce tenses.
Danny: “But that is ok. Jazz and I each have our own bedrooms.”
Bruce relaxed a bit.
Danny: “And the explosions are mostly kept to the science lab in our basement, so I only really get burns and stuff in the evenings when I am trying to get homework help or bringing dinner to my parents.”
Bruce tensed, leaning forward.
Danny: “I like school. My sister is really smart and has been helping me with my homework for a long time.”
Bruce tried to breathe.
Danny: “I was having a really hard time with school attendance; with the nightly explosions and laser gun wounds, so my sister pulled me out of school and I am homeschooling now.”
Bruce stopped breathing.
Danny: “Our house is really safe. Mom and Dad make weapons, and we have them set up around the house as security.”
Bruce tenses.
Danny: “They only go off and shoot us sometimes.”
Bruce starts pulling out the adoption papers from his back pocket.
Danny: “But it is safer now. The bugs are all fixed.”
Bruce lowers the adoption papers.
Danny: “But the weapons do come in handy, we have a lot of rogues in our town.”
Bruce raises the adoption papers.
Danny: “But our local hero handles them.”
Bruce lowers the adoption papers.
Danny: “Too bad my parents keep trying to dissect Phantom, that is the local hero by the way.”
Bruce raises the adoption papers.
Danny: “But they can’t catch Phantom.”
Bruce lowers the papers.
Danny: “I mean, I have been hero-ing for over a year now, you would think my parents would notice that they are trying to kill me.”
Bruce leaned forward, setting the paperwork on the table. “So, Danny. I was thinking-”
-
Danny and Bruce had the paperwork done in under an hour. Danny was a bit hesitant at first but Bruce had finally found out what the boy was interested in learning more about. The tour of the aerospace lab was what had Danny sold.
Getting Jackson Fenton to sign the paperwork went much better than Bruce had any right to think it would go.
Danny and Bruce were waiting outside the office that Tim and Mr. Fenton were in. When the door opened, Danny had hopped forward and smiled as he held up the paperwork to Mr. Fenton. “Hey, dad? Can you sign this form for me? In it is everything I need to start living in Gotham and studying aerospace here and at Gotham University.”
Mr. Fenton smiled, ruffling Danny’s hair. “OH Danny! THAT IS WONDERFUL! Absolutely! Right here? Great! Does your mother need to sign?”
Danny nodded. “Bruce is going to bring me back to the house, and we are going to grab my stuff and maybe Jazz and get mom’s signature.”
Mr. Fenton nodded. “Great idea! We can all ride togeth-”
Danny cut him off. “NO! We need a way to get back to Gotham. And, if you drive us back you will be missing more time in the lab. Can’t have that!”
Mr. Fenton nodded, smiling and ruffling Danny’s hair again. “You are right. What a smart kid, just like your old man. Well, I love you and I will see you later. Bye, Brice. Bye, Mr. Dragon Wine! Thank you for the meeting.”
Mr. Fenton got on the elevator and the doors closed. Danny gave a sigh. “Sorry, he really can’t remember anything other than ghost facts. Mr. Drake-Wayne, it is nice to meet you. Please, call me Danny.”
They shook hands. “Please, call me Tim. I am guessing you and I will be having a lot of time together from now on.”
Danny cocked his head, for all the world like a cute puppy. Bruce smiled, patting his head as he spoke. “This is your older brother. One of my sons. Tim, here, is the smart one and spends his time running my business.”
Danny looked up from under Bruce’s hand. “Your business.”
Tim laughed. “Oh! This is great. Danny, this is your new father, Bruce Wayne.”
Danny groaned, shoulders slumping in defeat. “Not another billionaire!”
Bruce frowned. “Another?”