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Danny was meeting his boyfriend’s kids today. And he had a lot of them.
Danny had moved to Gotham years ago, after becoming King of the Infinite Realms and seeing the GIW disbanded. The Anti-Ecto Acts were thrown out with the passing of the Meta Rights Act. Once he no longer had to worry about Amity Park and the ghosts that still roamed there and visited, he was able to move. He’d namely wanted to move to Gotham because he’d been wanting to study Aerospace Engineering at Gotham U and possibly score an internship and later job at Wayne Enterprises since they were second only to NASA in the aerospace department. They even had contracts with NASA for some of their products.
Valerie had moved back to Amity after finishing college and was still operating as the Red Huntress so she was there to take care of any rowdy ghosts. And his parents were a lot better about ghost fighting, not hunting, after he’d finally come clean about being Phantom. They’d taken it extremely well, to his pleasant surprise. And he’d also outed Vlad to them so he no longer had to see the creep.
His parents had made portal guns so they could all visit each other easily. Though Danny eventually didn’t use his as much once he was able to make his own portals.
Sam and Tuck had also moved to Gotham for different reasons. Sam moved to study Environmental Studies and possibly work with Poison Ivy on activism (which she’d been able to do and hadn’t stopped talking about it for a week after it first happened), Tucker had gone to Gotham U and scored an internship at WE before eventually getting a job somewhere in their tech division.
Jazz moved out to Gotham shortly after Danny once she got accepted to a grad program at Gotham U that had internships at Arkham. She then became a psychologist at Arkham, which constantly had Danny worried and the only thing that somewhat lessened that worry was the fact that she could hold her own against some of the worst ghosts Danny had ever faced and they were far worse than whatever Arkham could throw at her.
Danny did get to study and get a degree in Aerospace Engineering and did land a job at WE in that division, which Tuck was happy about since they were now working together. Danny was just happy he got to see Sam, Tuck, and Jazz so much. He also got to see his parents, Dani, and Val a lot too because of their portal guns and his ability to open his own.
His king duties still sucked.
Clockwork helped make sure that they wouldn’t conflict with his daily life, unless it was something urgent, so he didn’t miss many days. The Realms were mostly peaceful, but sometimes issues with other dimensions required his attention to prevent something catastrophic from happening. And he got to fight any of his former rogues whenever wanted or needed.
And to soothe his Protection Obsession, Danny started going out in Gotham as Phantom after about a semester of college. He first had to just establish the city as his Haunt, which led to him running into Batman.
That was an interesting meeting.
It mostly just consisted of:
“No metas in my city.”
“I’m not a meta.”
“Then what are you?”
“I’m a ghost. I’m dead, it’s a medical condition.”
“...I still don’t want you in my city.”
“Too bad, it’s my city too. I live here.”
And he’d eventually been (begrudgingly) allowed to help the Bats (Batman kept acquiring more mentees) which soothed his Protection Obsession immensely.
And working at WE had led to him meeting Bruce Wayne.
He’d literally walked into him while heading to his desk with coffee.
He’d spilled coffee all over himself and Bruce fucking Wayne.
“Ah, shit, I’m so sorry Mr. Wayne,” Danny blubbered as he tried to clean up the coffee on his fucking boss.
He heard a chuckle
(a pleasantly deep chuckle)above him and saw Mr. Wayne watching him with humor in his eyes.Fuck his boss was even hotter up close than he was in pictures.
“No harm done,” Mr. Wayne said, despite the fact that his suit must’ve cost a fortune.
“But I got coffee all over your suit,” Danny said, still trying to clean up the coffee despite it being a moot point now. Mr. Wayne gently stopped Danny’s frantic hands.
That skin contact wasn’t helping.
“You also spilled it all over yourself,” Mr. Wayne said, causing Danny to look down at himself and see that it really was all over him. His shirt, his pants, and it looked like it got on his shoes too and his nice fucking bag. “Plus, it wasn’t hot, so no burns. I also wasn’t paying attention,” Mr. Wayne said, that Brucie tone coloring his voice as he chuckled a bit nervously and rubbed the back of his neck like Danny tended to do. Danny couldn’t stop his blush from heating across his cheeks and even up to the tips of his ears.
Bruce had ended up asking Danny out a couple weeks later after getting to know him here and there. Danny had (briefly) panicked, not because Bruce was technically his boss (aka why Bruce thought he panicked), but because Bruce was way hotter than Danny thought he could pull and he didn’t know how to cope.
Now he and Bruce had been dating for a few months and Bruce had determined it was time for Danny to meet his kids. Bruce had already met his parents and Jazz and separately met Tuck, Sam, and Val. Tuck had just stared in shock for a moment and then freaked out to Danny a bit about how Danny was dating their boss. Sam had learned that Bruce, the only billionaire she could stand, was actually not a complete airhead.
Danny had met Alfred prior to this and Alfred had accepted him immediately.
Driving his motorcycle up to the Manor, he was immediately let in the gates and drove up the driveway, parking in the garage that Alfred had opened for him. He got off and went into the Manor, Alfred telling him that Bruce was currently in his office and Danny thanked him (after greeting him with a hug) and headed off to Bruce’s office. Luckily, Danny didn’t run into any of the kids on the way, though he was pretty sure most of them didn’t live at the Manor full-time anymore.
Knocking on the door lightly, Danny heard a soft “come in” from inside and immediately opened the door, walking into the study and over to where Bruce was, sitting at his desk. Bruce looked up to see Danny and smiled, standing up as Danny reached him.
“What are you doing working when family dinner is soon?” Danny asked, voice a little chiding, as he looked up at Bruce. Bruce looked away, huffing a little. Danny rolled his eyes. “I think whatever you’re working on can wait until the weekend is over.”
Bruce smirked and turned to look back at Danny. “Sounds like you just want my attention.”
Danny just blushed in response, once again cursing the fact that he blushed so easily, in human form and ghost form. Bruce saw the reaction and crowded Danny, wrapping his arms around him and pulling them flush together. Bruce was warm against Danny and he blushed even more at the feeling.
“I will neither confirm nor deny,” Danny responded, finally getting his bearings, still looking up at Bruce.
Instead of responding, Bruce just leaned down the short distance to meet Danny’s lips in a bruising kiss, which Danny immediately reciprocated, wrapping his arms around Bruce’s neck and deepening the kiss.
They stayed locked together like that, trading kisses and barely breaking apart to breathe, when a sudden yell interrupted them and caused them to fully break apart and look around, dazed.
Danny was met with a child holding a sword up to him, looking murderous, while a few others were just standing outside the still open door of the study, mouths agape.
These must be Bruce’s kids.
Fuck.
This was not how Danny had wanted to first meet them.
And it looked like the blonde girl had her phone out, likely having taken a picture for what Bruce usually referred to as “blackmail” and which Danny had experience with due to Sam.
Like that picture she took of him and Tuck.
Danny felt his cheeks heat back up, and a quick glance over at Bruce showed he was in the same boat, but his attention was brought back to the child when he moved closer, the sword centimeters away from his neck. He raised his hands instinctively in surrender. While he wouldn’t really get too hurt by being stabbed with a regular sword, he hadn’t planned on revealing his half-dead status to his boyfriend just yet.
“Father, who is this man accosting you?!”
“Uh, Damian,” one of the people at the door said, “I’m pretty sure that’s who B is dating.”
So the one with the sword was Damian. He didn’t seem inclined to move until Bruce literally grabbed him by the back of his shirt and moved him away from Danny. He put his arms down and breathed out a bit as he saw Damian try to hide a pout and lower his sword.
A very familiar sword.
Wait a minute…
“Bruce, are you guys the Bats?” Danny said before his brain could catch up with his mouth to keep him from just blurting that out like he just did. Damn his lack of filter.
Bruce looked over, surprised, at Danny and Danny noticed that Damian and the three people in the doorway also had looks of surprise on their faces, even if they were hiding it well. Danny, apparently, couldn’t keep himself from talking more.
“Because I’ve seen that sword before and it was being wielded by Robin and was, at one point, pointed at me just like it was just now,” Danny added, watching Damian narrow his eyes at him. The room was silent.
“When or why would Robin have threatened you with his sword?” the young man just inside the doorway asked. The young woman was still holding her phone up and the other young man just outside the doorway was just staring with wide eyes at Danny. Danny realized his slip up a bit, seeing as he’d never met the Bats as Danny. But if they were the Bats…
“Well, I may have looked… different when I encountered the Bats,” Danny started, trying to gauge how the others would react. Now that he was paying attention and looking for it, he could tell that the Wayne were the Bats based on their liminality being exactly the same. No two liminals were the same or had the same feeling to their low-level ecto.
While most of the room seemed to be thinking over Danny’s statement, the young man just past the doorway, who Danny was clocking as Signal, spoke up.
“You’re somehow Phantom, aren’t you?”
Everybody turned to look at him and then look at Danny, who was both surprised the young man put it together so fast, and impressed. He nodded.
“I am. I’m actually a little surprised you got that so fast,” he said, a small smile on his face. He saw Bruce pinch the bridge of his nose out of the corner of his eye.
“Why don’t we shelve this for dinner with the rest of the family so we don’t miss it and so the others don’t get upset that they weren’t here for this,” Bruce suggested, to which the others looked sheepish.
“That’s actually why we came over here in the first place,” the young man inside the doorway said. Red Robin, if Danny was correct, and he looked like he hadn’t slept in days. Danny would know, he used to be well-versed in not sleeping for days on end. “Alfred wants you guys to make your way to the dining room since dinner will be ready soon.”
Bruce nodded and the four children left, leaving Danny and Bruce behind in the study. Danny hesitated for a moment.
“You’re not angry that I didn’t tell you about Phantom, are you?” Danny asked, a little unnerved at the silence. Bruce looked at him, actively showing surprise.
“Of course not. I didn’t tell you about Batman yet for likely the same or a similar reason you hadn’t mentioned Phantom. Though I did suspect some sort of relation at least because of how similar you two look,” Bruce replied, moving closer to Danny now that his sword-happy son wasn’t in the room anymore. Danny rubbed the back of his neck.
“Most people don’t think to connect a dead vigilante with a very alive civilian. It’s worked out for me all these years so I think the distinction works pretty well in my favor,” Danny said, smirking, though the smirk fell as he remembered his situation. “Your kids won’t be upset, will they?”
“They may be upset that they didn’t figure out who I’m dating or your vigilante identity, but they won’t be upset that you’re Phantom. If anything, they may want to spar with you or get a full display of your powers.”
Danny chuckled at that and Bruce kissed him before leading him from the room and taking him to the dining room where the horde Bruce had for a family was likely waiting.
~~~~
There were multiple pairs of eyes on them as soon as they entered the room. The four people from earlier were the only ones not looking at them as intensely as the others. Except for Damian as he was trying to glare at Danny.
Too bad he didn’t know Danny was not affected by glares made by small assassin children.
Bruce led Danny over to his seat, right next to the head of the table where Bruce was presumably going to sit. The person in the chair right next to him was who Danny assumed was the eldest of Bruce’s children, Dick, who was supposedly the nicest. Though from what Bruce said, Cass and Duke gave him competition at times, though Danny still doesn’t know exactly who is who. Bruce told him but because he hadn’t actually met them yet, his brain didn’t fully retain the connection between their faces and names.
His boyfriend pulled out his chair for him and then pushed him in once he’d sat down. Danny had experienced him do this often enough to not blush each time like he’d done the first few times Bruce had done so.
He looked around the table at all the staring eyes while Bruce took his seat. There were eight people staring back at him. One of them was Damian, and there was also who he assumed was Dick sitting next to him, but there were a number of others and a lot of them had black hair. Quite a few also had blue eyes.
There was one man who had a white streak in his hair and his eyes were an interesting mixture of green and blue. He almost set off Danny’s ghost sense, so he was probably Red Hood since Red Hood had died and come back. There were the three from earlier (one with black hair and blue eyes and eye bags, one with blonde hair who’d filmed or taken pictures of what happened earlier, and the young black man who Danny clocked as Signal), a young woman with black hair who was just staring at Danny with her head cocked as though she was reading him, and then a young woman in a wheelchair with red hair that made him think of Jazz.
He was pretty sure Bruce didn’t have this many kids but then again he couldn’t match everyone to their name so he wasn’t the best source of info on the subject right now.
But if you asked him about how the Realms judiciary system was being restructured from what it originally was, he could tell you all about it (because fuck the Observants for trying to decide everything, even though he was king and had power over them. Now they were still annoying but with practically no power anymore).
“Everyone,” Bruce started, causing everyone to turn their attention to Bruce instead of Danny, “this is Danny Fenton, my partner. Be nice.” Bruce shot everyone a look, especially Damian. Danny just did an awkward little wave at the table while Alfred came out and started putting food on the table and the smell of it was making Danny’s mouth start to water.
“I’ll go first with the introductions. I’m Dick,” the man next to him said rather cheerfully. “I’m B’s oldest.”
Danny looked at him. “You’re the one who’d swing from the chandelier, right?”
Dick just laughed. “Yeah, that’s me. B told you about us?”
“A bit. There’s a lot of you, though.”
“Too many,” the man with the white stripe said from his spot. “I’m Jason. The second one B snatched.”
“I did not ‘snatch’ you,” Bruce muttered as he rubbed the bridge of his nose.
“You sort of met me earlier, I’m Tim, B’s third son,” one of the young men from earlier said, looking at Danny with the same calculating look he had earlier when Danny figured out they were the Bats. Oh yeah, they were supposed to be discussing that new tidbit of info during dinner and probably after the introductions.
Fuck.
“I’m Duke, who you also met earlier,” Signal said, nodding at him. “I’m B’s newest kid, though that started out with him just fostering me.” The blonde girl next to him spoke next.
“I’m Steph. I’m not actually B’s kid. I just take his food and money and sometimes crash here, but I very much have a mom that I love and live with.”
Ah, the one Bruce still claimed as his daughter despite her not actually being adopted or fostered by him. He always pouted about it, too.
“Cass,” the young woman with black hair said, “Bruce’s daughter.”
“I’m Barbara Gordon,” the woman with red hair said. “I’m not Bruce’s daughter, either. I’m just family-adjacent. He’s friends with my dad. And since he doesn’t seem to want to do anything other than glare at you, the youngest is Damian and is the only one who’s B’s biological child.”
Danny nodded at that. Now that he’d met them, he was hoping his brain wouldn’t automatically forget their names like he did with a lot of other people.
Forget the Observants, remembering names was his true enemy.
“Now that we’ve gotten through introductions, can we talk about him knowing our identities and him being Phantom now?” Tim asked, nearing vibrating with unasked questions. Jason nearly choked on the drink he’d been taking a sip of and Barbara’s jaw dropped open a bit. Cass looked completely unaffected, like she already knew somehow.
With the look she sent him, she probably did.
“How the hell did he find out so quick? Who gave it away?” Jason asked, equal parts surprised and amused.
“Damian did,” Steph immediately said, ignoring as his glare shifted to her. “When he, Tim, Duke, and I went to B’s office to get him for dinner, he and Danny were making out and Damian got so pissed he pulled out his sword and held it up to Danny as a threat. Accused Danny of ‘accosting’ Bruce and Danny recognized his sword as being Robin’s!” Steph finished with a laugh and Jason cackled in response.
“How did you recognize the sword as Robin’s?” Dick asked, looking over at Danny. That caught Jason’s attention too, as he realized that was a good question. Danny shrugged a little sheepishly.
“I’m Phantom, and have worked with you guys as the Bats for a number of years now. I know what that sword looks like,” Danny responded, watching as those who didn’t already know looked shocked.
“Isn’t Phantom supposed to be fucking dead?” Jason asked, ignoring the reprimand about his language from Bruce.
“I am. Half. I’m half-dead and half-alive. It’s weird and doesn’t really make sense but I’ve been that way since I was fourteen. And before any of you ask, I’m not going into how I died right now, all I’ll say is it was a lab accident.”
The whole table was just staring at him in shock, Bruce included. Danny just smiled and transformed into Phantom for a few moments and then transformed back, watching chaos unfold and smiling as it did while he started eating some of Alfred’s cooking.
~~~~
Once everybody had pretty much calmed down (and Alfred had glared at the family to tell them to not talk about this topic any more until after dinner), they started the typical questions that normal people ask when meeting someone for the first time: Where are you from, what do you do, etc. Watching the kids snicker upon hearing how Danny and Bruce met was great. Damian’s glare had also lessened over the course of the dinner, but not completely.
At least until Danny mentioned Cujo.
When they were eating dessert, Dick spoke up again.
“I’ve gotta be honest, B, we sorta thought you were dating Selina again.”
The rest of the table chuckled at that when Bruce whipped his head to look at Dick, who just shrugged.
“You thought Selina and I were together again? Why?” Dick rolled his eyes at the question, as did the rest of the table.
“Because the two of you have been on and off dating for a number of years. We could tell that you were dating someone, but you were being cagey about it. It just made sense.”
Danny laughed, laughing harder when Bruce looked at him with a betrayed look on his face that Danny was laughing at him along with his kids.
“Bruce, you have to admit that it makes sense,” he said, trying to get a hold of his laughter. Bruce just sighed in (fond) exasperation.
~~~~
“That went better than I planned,” Bruce said later when the two of them were laying in Bruce’s bed. He’d already decided he wouldn’t be patrolling that night when it was decided that Danny would stay over rather than head back to his apartment so late. Danny was snuggled into his side.
“It was about as chaotic as I expected, though I wasn’t expecting to find out you’re Batman or for everyone to find out about me being Phantom so quickly,” Danny responded, shaking his head slightly.
They just laid there for a moment.
“You know what our fairly calm meetings with each other’s families means, right?” Bruce said, breaking the silence. Danny sighed.
“Yeah, it means that when our families meet each other all hell is gonna break loose.”