Chapter Text
Prologue
At 7:00am, Danny woke to his alarm ringing. He groaned and squirmed to extract an arm from his blanket cocoon. His phone had shifted across the floor in the night, but he eventually managed to find it, flipping it open and silencing the alarm. He pulled it closer to check his texts, but there weren't any. The only people who texted him were the girls at Batburger, usually about swapping or covering shifts. He’d always take the extra hours and they knew it. He swore they gave him shifts they didn’t actually need off because they knew he needed the money more.
With nothing else to linger on, Danny sat up, his blankets falling down to his waist, pooling on the bare floor that was his bed. It took another moment to unwind his legs but then he was up.
Eyes still half closed he padded across the empty room to his closet. There'd been a few hangers left behind when he moved in which he'd hung his pants and hoodies on. The rest of his clothes were folded in milk crates on the floor that he'd taken from the garage he worked at. He pulled clothes on at random, his wardrobe was all thrifted anyway. The shirt today was a blue one, already oil stained from working at the shop. He threw his star patterned hoodie on over it, running his fingers along the now too small NASA hoodie hanging nearby.
Clothing sorted, he headed out though the small hall, past the bathroom door and into his bare living room, the only piece of furniture being a battered and patched gray couch he’d gotten at the thrift store. He’d had to sew the patches on himself and he’d washed it within an inch of its life. It was crap, but it was his.
The kitchen was on the other side of the living room, just some cramped counter space with the usual appliances, no dish washer though. Not that he used enough dishes to justify one anyway.
He pulled out a bag of store brand cinnamon crunch cereal from a cabinet and his carton of oat milk. Real milk was cheaper so he really should be buying that, but Sam had always given him oat milk when he stayed over. Cereal poured and drowned, he headed over to his couch. He didn’t have a coffee table yet, he was keeping his eye out for a good deal on one. If he could find one someone threw out and fix it that would be the best. But so far he hadn’t had any luck. It was fine. He could hold his bowl on his lap for now. He’d get one eventually. At least he had the couch to sit on, before he either had to stand at the counter or sit on the floor.
At 7:15 he headed out, locking the door behind him, not that there was any reason to, he didn’t own anything worth stealing. But he didn’t want anyone going through his meager possessions if he could help it.
The garage opened at 8:00, so he took his time traversing the autumn streets of Gotham. He walked as much as he could get away with. The bus cost money he couldn’t justify often. With two fulltime jobs he was making more than he needed, but he was saving every penny he could. If he had to leave and start over somewhere else, he didn’t want to live on the street again.
He made it to the garage with time to spare. John, the owner's brother, was already in, lounging behind the counter scrolling on his phone. The building had been a garage for decades, changing hands numerous times. The sitting area had been mostly abandoned when they hired Danny to do oil changes. The place mostly fenced stolen cars under the cover of night, but a few months ago Mark had decided to give the place an air of legitimacy and open from 8:00 to 4:00 offering oil changes and tune ups. Danny had enough experience working on the GAV and other Fentonworks vehicles that he was able to land the job along with Juan. He and Juan had given the sitting area a fresh coat of paint and found some mismatched chairs at the thrift store. It was run down, but clean. And Mark had even set up a TV and vending machines in there, giving customers a reason to stick around.
“Morn’n,” John grunted as Danny walked past him into the garage proper. Danny lifted a hand in greeting but didn’t say anything. He wanted to be as boring and unremarkable as he could. The less people that stuck their noses into his business, the better.
“Nightingale!” Juan greeted as Danny pulled open his locker to grab his tool belt. “You ready for another busy day?”
“You’d think people would go to a less shady shop for their oil changes,” Danny laughed.
“Yeah, but all the old ladies like to pinch your cheeks. You gotta stop giving them free tune-ups if you want to be less busy,” Juan teased. “They’ve started asking for you by name you know.”
Danny shook his head. “I don’t know what you’re going on about.” He hadn’t realized Juan knew about the free tune-ups. Hopefully he didn’t rat him out to Mark or John, but that didn’t seem to be Juan's style. It wasn’t like Mark actually cared about the legitimate side of his business; the oil changes were just to keep the cops off his back. Hopefully Danny wouldn’t get thrown under the bus if they ever came knocking. He stayed out of the shop’s evening activities. The less he knew about them the better.
At 12:04 he scarfed down a bag of chips and a granola bar from the vending machines. Sometimes he’d bring something to eat, or Juan would bring him something. His partner really liked baking so Juan usually had some kind of cookie or pastry they’d made to pass around, but not today.
At 3:14 Mark decided they weren't going to get anymore customers that day and told them to wrap up. Danny finished up the last car and sent the customers on their way. John shooed him and Juan out of the shop as quickly as he could, wanting to get home to the girl he never shut up about. Danny was just annoyed he hadn’t had time to mop the floor in the sitting room. He was going to have to come in early tomorrow to do it.
With nothing to do till his shift at Batburger at 5:00, Danny headed for the library. He didn’t have wifi at home, not that it’d do him any good with his brick of a phone, so the library was where he spent most of his free time, watching Youtube and working on his GED classes. He was doing self-paced classes, so he squeezed them in whenever he had a free moment.
The library wasn’t busy when he came, it usually wasn’t on weekdays. The woman behind the counter waved at him, used to seeing him around. He waved back and headed for the computer banks. He pulled his earbuds out of his pocket, a cheap dollar store pair, and plugged them into the first free terminal. These old computers always took a minute to boot up so he got comfortable while he waited. Eventually he was able to pull up his class and get some more work done.
At 4:43 he left the library and headed toward his second job. He was one of only a few people willing to work the full evening shift, so it was often just him and one other employee from 10:00 to 1:30. But he’d have more than that for the first few hours of his shift, usually Mandy and sometimes Jeff, though he was flaky and was probably going to get fired soon if Harold could pull his head out of his ass long enough to pay attention to his store.
“You’ve got oil on your face,” Mandy informed him as he walked in the door. Stupidly, he tried to rub it off, but she told him he’d just made it worse. He scrubbed at it in the bathroom for a few minutes until he’d gotten as much off as he could. He’d get the rest in the shower tonight.
At 9:00 he got 30 minutes for lunch. Batburger allowed employees one free combo meal per full eight hour shift, so that was usually Danny’s dinner. It wasn’t healthy by any means, but it was good. He usually got sent home with extra food on top of that because Mandy was a mother hen.
At 1:32 he locked up the restaurant and headed home. He kept a hand on his knife in case someone tried to fuck with him. He kept most of his cash in his combat boots, but it was actually safer to keep a twenty or two in his wallet. If you had nothing on you, muggers would get more violent. If they got something, they’d usually not beat you up as well as rob you. The ones that tried quickly learned why that was a bad idea, but Danny didn’t always have the energy.
At 1:50 Danny climbed into his shower. The hot water didn’t last, but at least he had hot water. His soap was cheap and usually left his hair dry and brittle. He needed to get some conditioner but he hadn’t had time to get to the store that week. He’d go later, maybe on the weekend when the shop was closed; or, he could go on Wednesday or Thursday when he didn’t have a shift at Batburger.
At 2:15 Danny rolled himself up in the blankets on the floor of his bedroom. The couch would have been a better idea, but Danny refused to sleep there. He’d rather pretend his life wasn’t as depressing as it was. He’d get a mattress eventually, once he had enough money saved up that he felt comfortable he’d be able to start over.
For now, this was the best he was going to get.
Little Brother, huh?
Danny sat back and admired his new coffee table. He'd found it in the dumpster outside his apartment building. It wasn't a nice coffee table, no one in his building had a lot of money. It was just one of those flat pack furniture kits that's made of glorified cardboard. Someone's dog had chewed one of the legs off, but Danny had managed to repair it with glue, duct tape, and a broken 2 by 4 he salvaged from a construction site's garbage pile and cut to the right length. With some paint it might even pass as new.
The sound of glass shattering broke the quiet as whatever was just thrown through his window landed on the coffee table. His newly repaired table buckled under the impact, fancy cardboard folding into unrepairable garbage.
It took longer than Danny would admit for him to react, scrambling backwards away from the impact site and struggling to get his knife out of his pocket. He flipped it open and warily pointed it at the mess that was once his coffee table. It didn’t move.
Slowly, he stood up and crept closer, knife held in front of him, trying to make sense of the thing that had destroyed his hard work. Finally, he picked out the shape of a green glove lying in the heap and the rest of the body became clear.
“Oh shit,” Danny muttered, rushing to Robin to check for a pulse. The kid was fucking tiny! What kind of dumb ass let this kid out of his sight long enough for someone to throw him through Danny's window to shatter his coffee table!?
The kid groaned as Danny got his fingers on his neck, so he was still alive at least. Danny looked to the shattered window, waiting to see if someone was going to come in after the hero, but there wasn't any movement. They were on the fifth floor, but that hadn’t stopped Robin.
Danny knew he shouldn't move someone if there was a chance of a spinal injury, but he figured Robin’s attacker coming after him was a bigger danger, so he carefully gathered the boy up and carried him into the bathroom, locking the door behind them.
After setting Robin carefully on the floor he grabbed his medical kit from under the sink. It was well stocked, anyone stupid enough to live in Gotham and broke enough to not have health insurance had a good medical kit, and Danny was more attack prone than most. His narrow frame gave muggers and goons the confidence to mess with him more than others.
Flipping the light on and popping open the kit, Danny got his first good look at Robin. There was a cut on his forehead, sluggishly leaking blood, the skin around the cut already blooming purple. Someone had hit him on the head pretty hard. He couldn't check the kid’s eyes with the mask on, and an experimental tug showed it was glued to his skin. Head wounds bled a lot and there wasn't much he could do for the probable concussion right then so he moved on to checking the rest of the kid.
His left wrist was definitely broken, so Danny gently peeled the glove off and got his splint on it. He caught sight of some kind of film on the kids fingertips, probably there to prevent anyone getting his fingerprints. He shook his curiosity away and looked for more injuries. There was a gash across his stomach, but the armor there seemed to have taken the brunt of the blow and the wound wasn't too deep. He flushed it with iodine and Robin flinched, hissing and trying to pull his broken hand up to cover the wound, but Danny was in the way. Robin hissed again as he bashed his broken limb into Danny's knee.
“Wh' ‘re you?” Robin slurred, that wasn't good.
“Danny,” Danny said as he pressed gauze against the wound. Robin hissed again.
“Wha’ ‘re you do'n’ ta me?”
“Patching you up after you landed in my apartment,” Danny tapped the gauze down. “You broke my window and my coffee table.”
“S'rry.”
Danny snorted. “Tell whoever threw you through my window to tell me sorry.”
“Was Manbat.”
That concussion was worse than Danny thought. “Batman threw you through my window!?”
Robin shook his head. “Man bat,” he enunciated.
“Batman has a villain called Manbat,” Danny muttered to himself. “Sure, why not. Woah! What're you doing?” Danny pressed a hand to Robin's shoulder to prevent him from attempting to sit up again.
“Gotta stop Manbat before he eats anyone.”
At least he wasn't slurring anymore, Danny was gonna count that as a win.
“You've lost way too much blood for how tiny you are. Just stay put till Batman comes to pick you up.”
“Batman's out of town,” Robin grabbed ahold of Danny's wrist with his good hand and tried to shake him off. Danny didn't budge.
“He let you fight bad guys without backup?” Danny demanded. Robin pouted, actually fucking pouted! Ancients, how old was this kid? Ten?!
“How old are you? Ten?”
“I'm twelve!” the kid declared, with the indignation only a twelve year old could muster.
“Ancients, kid,” Danny let go of Robin to rub at his face. He'd been too young when he'd started his vigilante career and this kid was two years younger than that.
He realized his mistake a second too late when a taser was jammed into his ribs. Lesson learned, don't take your eyes off Robin. The kid was a bastard. By the time he was done twitching on the bathroom floor, he fucking hated getting tased, the kid was gone.
Eventually he managed to get himself up and put his apartment back to rights. He scrubbed the blood off his cracked and stained tiles, threw the coffee table out, swept the floor, and duct taped several trash bags over the window. It wasn't great, the cold still got in, but that didn’t bother Danny too much. The lack of light was gonna be annoying though. He'd have to use more electricity to actually see anything in his living room. But it was cheaper than replacing the window. He doubted he'd be able to get his landlord to foot the bill.
Dejected and hurting, Danny made himself a bowl of canned soup, and sat on the ratty couch. He had to keep the bowl on his lap without the coffee table, something he'd thought he'd be done having to do. But it was fine, it was whatever. He'd find another one, or save up enough to buy one.
He finished his food and left his bowl in the sink before heading to bed. He was still sleeping on the floor, but he’d found a sleeping bag at the thrift store that was in decent shape. It gave him a little more padding until he bought himself a mattress. That was one thing he didn't want to pick up off the street.
…
Three days later, Danny came home from his shift at Batburger, and froze in his doorway. The first thing he noticed was that someone had removed the trash bags over his window. The second thing was that someone had replaced his window!?
He locked the door behind him and carefully made his way over to get a closer look. He cast his eyes around, but there weren't any signs of intruders, anymore at least. He pressed a hand to the unbroken glass. It was a nicer window than the one in his bedroom, double paned and insulated. Whoever installed it had done a good job, even replacing the molding around it.
He unlocked it and stuck his head out. There wasn't anything there but the fire escape and a half dead plant the previous resident had left. He closed and locked the window. He froze again when he turned around because he'd somehow missed the other new thing in his apartment.
A coffee table sat in front of his couch, new, solid wood stained a dark brown. It was out of place paired with the stained gray couch, but Danny wasn't going to complain. It even had a drawer to stash the remote to the TV he didn't own.
There wasn't a note on either gift, but Danny had a decent guess as to who had left them. It was a bit odd that Robin would tase him and then replace what he'd inadvertently broken. Unless he'd told Batman about it and he'd organized this, but something told him this wasn't Batman's doing.
“Not my circus, not my monkeys,” Danny muttered to himself and dropped his bag of fast food on his new coffee table. At least he didn’t have to eat off his lap anymore.
…
“What are you doing on my couch?” Danny asked, dropping his bag of food on the coffee table next to his medical kit, the contents scattered across the tabletop.
“Stitching,” Robin muttered, focusing on the gash in his thigh he was sewing with Danny's suture kit. Danny hadn't needed to use it yet, not that it'd be a good idea if he had. His biology didn't like regular suture thread and he'd left the ecto line behind with the rest of his life.
Robin didn't look up from his leg. His pants and boots were sitting near the window in a heap. The thinner pants he wore under the suit still on, but ripped open to access the wound
“Can't you do that at home?” Danny asked.
“Your place was closer,” Robin shrugged.
Danny sighed. “So you broke in to use my kit?”
“It's a well stocked kit, ouch,” Robin hissed.
“Let me,” Danny knelt next to the couch and took the needle from Robin. Robin let him, pulling his hands into his lap to pick at his fingers. The stitches he'd done so far were neat enough, if a little unevenly spaced. It was hard to do stitches on yourself.
“What was it this time?” Danny asked, more to distract the kid than because he actually wanted to know.
“Killer Croc.”
“Ancients, kid! What were you fighting him for?” Danny demanded.
“I wasn't fighting him!” Robin defended. “I just wanted to ask him something but he didn't like me being in ‘his’ sewer.”
“I don't want you in the sewers either,” Danny muttered, finishing off the last stitch and digging in his kit for a piece of gauze. Robin handed him one that he must have gotten out earlier. Danny pressed it to the wound and held out his hand. A roll of tape landed in it.
“How'd your wrist heal?” Danny asked. Eying the limb. The kid had taken his gloves off to stitch himself up and Danny didn't see anything wrong with it. It'd been a few months since he'd last seen Robin but that still felt too short a time for a bone to heal.
“It's fine,” Robin shrugged, poking at the tape on his leg. “It wasn't a bad break, just swelled up a lot.”
Danny sat back on his heels. “Anything else need patching?”
“Pulled my shoulder a bit, but it's fine.”
Danny braced a hand on the table and stood. “I've got some ice in the freezer, one sec.” He didn't, but he could make some.
Robin was back in his pants when Danny came back with a bag of ice wrapped in a towel in one hand and two cans of store brand cola in the other. The kid had one boot on, standing next to the now open window.
“Sit back down and ice your shoulder for a minute,” Danny said, plopping down onto the couch and setting his stuff on the table. He pointedly didn't look at Robin as he started pulling food out of the bag.
“Burger or nuggets?” Danny asked.
“You… you don't have to give me your food.”
Danny fixed him with a glare that had the kid ducking his head. What happened to the Robin who tased him and ran? Or was that a concussed Robin thing. He tried a different tactic.
“Mandy keeps sending me home with extra because she thinks I'm not eating enough. I keep telling her my metabolism is just wack but once a big sis always a big sis I guess.”
After a moment Robin finally answered. “Um, nuggets, please.” Danny set the box and one of the cups of fries next to the ice pack and picked up the burger. He'd had a lot of Batburgers burgers recently. They were no Nastyburger but they were pretty good.
“You work at Batburger?” Robin asked as he sat down next to Danny, pulling the nuggets closer and eyeing the bag like he was looking for something. Danny tipped the bag over and let the napkins and sauce tubs spill out. Robin grabbed a ketchup and pulled the top off, setting it next to his nuggets.
Danny swallowed his mouthful “Yeah. It's an alright job.”
“I've never actually been.” Robin drowned a nugget in ketchup and shoved it in his mouth.
Danny nearly choked on his food. “You're literally Robin and you've never been to Batburger?”
“Batman's really busy.”
“What about your parents?”
A dark look crossed Robin's face and Danny regretted opening his big mouth.
“They have really important jobs. I wouldn't want to bother them.” He didn't pick up another nugget, just folded his hands in his lap.
Danny held back a sigh. “You should come by sometime. Batburger is better fresh anyway. Superheroes eat for free on Friday's.”
“No they don't,” Robin asserted, but there was a hint of a smile on his lips.
“Sure they do,” Danny said, tossing a fry in his mouth. “I'm acting manager on Friday's so I get to make the rules.”
“Maybe,” Robin said, finally reaching for another nugget. Danny saw that was the best he was gonna get and let it go.
…
Robin didn't turn up that Friday, or the next. On Wednesday he decided to get some shopping done after his shift at the shop. He finally had enough money saved to justify buying a mattress. It was a little anxiety-inducing to be spending that much money at once, but he just had to keep telling himself it was fine.
He wasn't comfortable having someone deliver a mattress to his apartment though, not to mention the extra delivery fee. So he ended up with one of those ones that comes all compressed in a box. He'd sprung for a queen and it was heavy as hell. Riding the bus with it was awkward, getting it into his apartment without using his powers was gonna be worse. He was probably safe to use his powers again, anyone looking for him had to have given up by now, but he was paranoid.
“You need help with that?”
“Ancients, kid! Give a guy a heart attack, why don't ya?” Danny glared up at Robin, perched on the lowest fire escape of his building, a takeout bag over one arm and a red backpack slung over his shoulder.
“You're fine,” Robin dismissed with a wave of his hand. “Do you want help with that or not?”
Danny looked at the box then back up at Robin, it had to weigh more than he did.
“You can get the door for me.”
“Sure!” Robin bounced down to ground level, breaking his fall with a roll that somehow didn't disturb his takeout bag. Show off.
He held the door to the building open with a flourish while Danny lugged the box through. Then he followed him inside and up the stairs, the elevator had been busted since Danny moved in, probably had been for years.
“Here,” Danny tossed him his keys, the little red duck key chain glittering in stark hall lighting. “It's fifty–”
“Fiftythree, I know!” Robin interrupted.
“Stalker,” Danny muttered. Robin shot him a grin, walking backward to the door, unlocking it ahead of Danny.
“Bedroom,” Danny grunted.
“Where else would you put a mattress?” Robin snarked, heading to open the door.
Once Danny had set the box down, and they were both back in the livingroom, it was like a switch got flipped. The snarky little gremlin Robin vanished and the shy one who didn't want to take Danny's nuggets came back.
Robin stood in the middle of his tiny living room, dwarfed by his too big backpack, pulling on his gloves and struggling to make eye contact.
“So I brought Chinese, as a, you know, thanks for the nuggets the other day, because everyone likes Chinese food and I got a bunch of different stuff. But if you don't like Chinese food I can get something else. Pizza or burgers, though you're probably sick of Batburger by now right? Unless you're not–”
“Kid,” Danny interrupted, unable to bear the boy's nerves anymore. “I love Chinese, thanks. Lemme grab some drinks.” Danny headed to the fridge. “You didn't touch the soda last time, do you want lemonade or water instead?”
“Oh, I don't have to stay, I just wanted to say thanks and–”
Danny poked his head over the counter. “No way I'm gonna be able to eat all that by myself.” He could, but that wasn't the point. This kid had imprinted on him like a lost duckling or something, and was clearly allergic to asking for what he wanted. Danny didn't know why he wasn't out with Batman tonight, or his family. But he had to have a reason for wanting to spend time at Danny's run down apartment. And as much as that made Danny question the kids self preservation skills, he wasn't about to turn him away.
“Lemonade or water?” Danny asked again.
“Um, lemonade please.”
Danny poured two glasses of lemonade and dropped a few ice cubes into them. Real ice cubes. He'd bought an ice tray in case another muscle needed to be iced.
He brought the drinks to the coffee table along with two bowls. Robin had already laid out all the food. It was an impressive spread, orange chicken, fried rice, chow mien, some kind of beef, and a bunch of different rolls. Danny handed one bowl to Robin and grabbed some chopsticks, scooping a bit of each into his bowl. Robin watched him intensely, glancing between the other pair of chopsticks on the table and the ones in Danny's hand. There were also some plastic forks sitting next to the napkins, but Robin went for the chopsticks, carefully breaking them apart and trying to hold them.
“Here,” Danny said, setting his bowl and utensil on the table and reaching for Robin's hand. “You hold the bottom one like a pencil. It stays still while you use the top one to grab stuff.” Danny sat back and Robin experimentally clicked the chopsticks. His face lit up and he smiled up at Danny.
“Yeah, try picking something up. The chicken will be easiest.” Danny nudged the container closer and Robin reached for it, his tongue peaking out of the corner of his mouth in concentration.
“Damn,” the chicken slipped out of his chopsticks.
“You squeezed it too hard,” Danny explained. “Try again, gently.”
Robin nodded as seriously as a twelve year old could and tried again. This time he managed it.
“I did it!” Robin declared, holding up the piece of chicken proudly.
“Yeah, you did. Now you gotta eat it before you drop it.”
“Oh yeah!” With one hand under it, Robin managed to get it to his mouth. He smiled at Danny again, all teeth and dimples. Danny chuckled and picked his bowl back up.
“So what's with the backpack? You got homework or something?” Danny asked once Robin had successfully filled his bowl. He really hoped that wasn't all Robin planned on eating.
“Oh, uh,” Robin set his food down and reached for the backpack on the floor. He pulled it closer and unzipped it. There was an expensive looking laptop inside.
Robin cleared his throat. “So I know you don't have a TV, or uh, wifi. But I wanted to say sorry for uh, tasing you. I had this old laptop just sitting around so I downloaded a bunch of movies and shows on it, because everyone likes watching something right? And I figured it'd be nice to have and–”
“Kid,” Danny interrupted. Robin seemed to freeze under Danny's gaze, his fingers twisted in his lap, his shoulders hunched. Danny hated it, hated whoever had made this kid as nervous of adults as Danny was. But where Danny had run away from all adults in his life, this kid was still looking for one. Fuck and he'd chosen Danny hadn't he? Danny had figured that out earlier.
“That's really thoughtful,” Danny said, carefully setting a hand on Robin’s head, looking for any signs of discomfort. He didn't find any, instead the kid practically leaned into the touch, so Danny ruffled his hair for good measure.
Danny gestured to the laptop. “Show me what you got.”
“Okay!” Robin said brightly. He opened the laptop and navigated past the lock screen. “I'll write the password down for you. But there's not much on this laptop besides what I downloaded. You've got all sorts of stuff! I downloaded all the original and next generation Star Trek episodes and–”
“Star Trek huh? My family was into Star Wars” Danny mused. Jazz had watched Star Trek. She was always trying to get their parents to watch it with her, something about it having a better message.
Robin drooped. “Oh uh. I can download that and bring it back, or–”
“I didn't mean it like that,” Danny said, ruffling the kid's hair again and feeling him relax under his fingers. “I've seen Star Wars a million times, but I haven't gotten to see Star Trek. You wanna show it to me?”
“Oh! Uh, you don't have to watch it with me,” Robin's shoulders hunched till they were nearly touching his ears. “You can keep the laptop and watch whatever you want, I just wanted to… to say sorry.”
“Watching stuff is more fun with friends,” Danny assured, draping his arm across the back of the couch, not touching Robin but nearby.
“We're… we're friends?” Robin peaked out from behind his hair at Danny. Kid needed a haircut, not that Danny could talk. He'd taken to tying his hair back, it was so overgrown.
“Yeah,” Danny nodded. “So are you gonna teach me about Star Trek?”
“Yeah!” Robin lit up, kid was gonna give Danny whiplash with these emotional back and forths. “So we should probably start with the original series if you haven't seen anything before. The fights can be kinda lame and the effects are cheesy but they've updated them a few times over the years. But the story is really good and…..
….
It'd been nearly two weeks since they spent that Wednesday watching Star Trek till nearly two in the morning. The laptop was still sitting on the coffee table, its charger nearby in case it was needed. Danny had watched a few things on it, but nothing Star Trek. Watching the kid be so animated explaining the history of the show and how different things were changed in later seasons was more entertaining than the show itself.
It was really nice to be able to watch movies again, it'd been a while since he'd had the chance. These days the most TV he got was whatever sport was on at the garage, and he'd never been a sports guy. The most he'd ever enjoyed sports was when Dash got creamed by the visiting team's seniors.
It was Friday again and Danny was bored. It'd been threatening to snow all day, so most people were being reasonable and staying inside or swarming the grocery stores for milk and eggs. There wasn't a lot of traffic at Batburger.
“Sooo, are you in college?” the new girl, Jenica, ‘call me Jenny,’ asked.
“No,” Danny said, trying to hide his annoyance. She'd been trying to flirt with him all shift.
“Oh? Taking a gap year then?” She batted her eyelashes at him. He needed to find a way to get her to lose interest without it being an HR violation. He didn't like talking about himself, he didn't want anyone to get nosy. But revealing too little was turning out to be more dangerous than saying too much.
“No, I'm uh... Actually I'm working on my GED,” he admitted. It was slow going, but without constant ghost attacks he was actually able to absorb the material.
“Oh,” Jenny said, her voice still flirty, ugh. “You’re a self made man then?” Why was getting a GED attractive in Gotham?! This place really was insane.
“Yeah,” Danny drawled. “Kinda hard to finish high-school when your parents kick you out for being gay.” Danny wasn't gay. He was asexual homo-romantic, but ‘gay’ was easier to say and everyone knew what it was. Also his parents hadn't kicked him out.
Jenny's expression cycled through several things before landing on pity. “Oh, that's awful! If you need anything I–”
“You got Danny lore!?” Mandy demanded, poking her head into the kitchen.
Danny put his head in his hands and groaned. “Mandy…”
“Danny lore?” Jenny asked.
Mandy threw an arm around Danny's shoulder. “Yeah. Kid's been working here nearly six months and hasn't told us anything about himself.”
“I'm not a kid,” Danny muttered.
“You're a kid to me,” Mandy ruffled his hair. He swatted her away but didn't try to extract himself from her hold.
The bell over the door chimed and Mandy swore, ruffling Danny's hair again as she left. “I want to hear more about this GED later.”
Jenny chuckled.
A moment later Mandy called into the kitchen, “Danny! You have a customer!”
Danny's stomach dropped. He considered booking it right then, but he knew he should see who it was. Knowing who was after him would give him a better chance of evading them.
Slowly, he poked his head out, but he didn’t see anyone other than Mandy. And then he looked down.
“Hey! What’s up, Kid?”
Robin looked up at him and grinned, that confident Robin grin that never showed itself in Danny's apartment. He was beginning to realize it was more of a mask than the domino.
“Danny! Do superheroes still eat free on Friday?” The kid actually boosted himself up onto the counter so they could be at eye level. Danny reached across the counter to ruffle the kid's hair.
“Sure do. You want the nuggets?”
Robin nodded.
“Jenny! Can we get a nugget kids meal?!” Danny called into the kitchen.
“On it!” Jenny called back.
“I'm not a kid!” Robin pouted.
“You're twelve, not even a teenager yet,” Danny said.
“You're twelve!?” Mandy gushed. “You're just a baby!”
Robin blushed. “I'll be thirteen soon.”
“You know Robin?” Mandy asked, looking at Danny.
“He likes to raid my med kit and fridge,” Danny teased.
“There's nothing in your fridge to raid!” Robin snarked, a grin teasing the corner of his mouth.
“First you break my window and now you insult my food stock!” Danny pressed a hand to his chest in mock offense.
“I had your window replaced!”
“Why’d you break Danny's window?” Mandy asked.
“He broke the coffee table too,” Danny grinned.
“I got you a better one!”
“You got me an expensive one. I never did thank you for that.”
Robin blushed, there was Danny's shy Robin again. “I didn't do much.”
“So you've seen his apartment then?” Mandy asked. “Is it as sad as he is?”
“Hey!” Danny exclaimed. Robin looked between Danny and Mandy, picking at his glove.
“It's nice,” Robin settled on. “He doesn't have wifi though.”
“Doesn't have wifi!” Mandy exclaimed in mock shock. Robin giggled.
“Here's that kid's meal, oh!” Jenny stepped out of the kitchen. “I didn't know it was for, the Robin!”
Robin blushed, fingers tugging on his gloves again. “I'm just a Robin.”
Danny scoffed. “You're the current Robin so that makes you the Robin.” He took the bag from Jenny and handed it to Robin. “Eat up, Kid.”
Robin looked down at the bag in his lap, then over at the tables and back at Danny. He looked nervous again. Danny knew that look by now. Robin wanted something but was afraid to ask for it.
“Hey Jenny,” Danny started. “Can you make me a burger? I'm gonna take my lunch break now.”
Jenny shrugged. “Sure. It was nice meeting you Robin.”
“Nice to meet you too, Jenny!” Robin said, glancing at her name tag. Jenny giggled and waved as she went back to the kitchen.
“Go pick a table,” Danny gestured to the dining area. “I'll grab our drinks.”
Robin nodded rapidly and hopped off the counter.
“He really likes you huh?” Mandy asked quietly.
Danny fished out two cups and started pouring their drinks. “He's like a lost duckling or something,” Danny shrugged. “Seems like he really needs a friend.”
“Must not have any siblings,” Mandy mused. “Guess Batman doesn't make the best company.”
“The Dark Knight?” Danny snorted. “I doubt it.”
“You take care of him, you hear?” Mandy ordered. “Be a good big brother. If I hear otherwise I'll get Harold to fire you. You know I will!”
Danny chuckled, knowing she was only half joking. “I don't have any experience being the big brother, but I'll try.”
“I know you will,” Mandy smiled at him gently. “Now go have dinner with your brother.”
Danny rolled his eyes and fitted the lids onto the cups. He looked up and saw Robin waiting for him at the table in the corner away from the windows. It'd started snowing outside and the flakes were already sticking to the roads. Anyone with any sense, crook or otherwise, would be locked up tight in their homes.
Robin saw him looking in his direction and waved, that real grin breaking out over his face. Little brother huh? Danny would probably fuck it up. But he'd fucked up a lot of stuff and he was still kicking, so maybe even if he fucked up they'd be alright.
“I'm coming, I'm coming,” Danny said, grabbing the bag Jenny slid onto the counter beside him. Robin leapt from the table when he was halfway across the room to take a cup before Danny spilled them.
Yeah, maybe they'd be okay.