Chapter Text
Disclaimer: not mine
Chapter 1
Death Is Peaceful. Life Is Harder.
He didn’t remember who had said that but he’d kind of like to hit them. He grimaced as he slammed hard into the concrete. Why could he never remember to go intangible before he hit it? And he knew he needed to focus, but it was hard. He could feel ectoplasm dripping down his face, more soaking into his hazmat. He needed to get up, to move, something.
He looked around, taking in the pale faces of the few watching civilians. Things had changed in the last two years, people beginning to accept that he wasn’t a monster, that ghosts weren’t what the Fenton’s and GIW said, but it was too late.
Slowly, he staggered to his feet. And then he stared in shock as the GIW van nearby went up in flames.
“Yeah!” a familiar voice cheered and he looked over to see Flash and Star. Were those Molotov Cocktails?!
“Phantom go!” Star yelled.
She didn’t need to tell him twice. But what about them? Sure, they had bandanas on their faces but how…and then something was thrown from another position.
“Go,” Flash growled, so Danny went.
He sank through the ground and then took off dizzily for Tucker’s. He couldn’t go home, not now. He had to get one of the go bags, warn the others to run. It was over, they’d been found out. So either they ran or they stayed and ended up in a lab and then truly dead.
Tim fought the urge to rub his temples as he made his way through the school. Modern high schools were not meant for mind readers; too many hormonal teenagers shoved together in a smallish space. He was relieved when Duke moved to walk beside him, creating something of a barrier between Tim and the humans. All of the family had practice with mental discipline, to focus their thoughts and make it easier on him.
“Hear the news?” Duke murmured quietly, and Tim shot him a look, getting a smirk from his brother.
It’s not like he could have missed it. Transfer students didn’t usually arrive in their final year of high school so the new student was literally on all of their classmates minds and of course they were talking about him as well as thinking. He envied Dick who was playing Bruce’s half-brother at the moment and therefore didn’t have to attend school at all with Babs as his fiancé. Jason was studying at GothamU, leaving Tim, Duke, Steph, Cass, and Damian stuck in high school And Damian hated that he was stuck in the grade below them but it would be too strange to have them all in the same year. But Tim got it, Damian was older than him and Duke so really, one or both of them should have been the ones to be the year under. But Babs had insisted and no one argued with Oracle. Plus, they looked older than Damian, poor ‘kid’ had been stuck eternally with a little bit of baby fat around his face.
Thankfully, Steph was quite happy to not actually be one of them on paper. It was weird, when he’d met her Steph had been Stephanie Wayne but not this time. As far as everyone knew, she had an apartment and just spent a lot of time at the Manor since she was dating Cass. Bruce and Dick were known for charity work and taking in kids who needed it. Damian was Bruce’s son and the rest of them were adopted siblings, baring Tim and Cass who played at being twins. Maybe next time, he could use Drake even if hyphenated, but it was too soon. There were still people who might remember what had happened to the last Drake heir and they couldn’t afford that.
They made their way to the cafeteria and found their siblings already waiting for them. They got their usual trays of food and sat with them, Tim relaxing as they formed a barrier of sorts between him and the rest. Sometimes, he wondered which of them had it worse, him or Dick. Was it worse to read minds or feel everyone’s emotions and not know why they were feeling it? Tim couldn’t sense emotion but based of the person’s thoughts he could make a pretty accurate guess usually.
It was easier to tune out the voices in the room, those in their grade whispering about the new kid, the younger students chatting about a multitude of things.
“So…”
“Don’t,” Steph glared at Duke who smirked. “We’ve all heard.”
“Have they been in any of your classes?” Damian asked, trying to act like he wasn’t at all interested. He wasn’t for the same reason as others; he had B’s paranoia and anyone new meant a new risk of discovery.
So far it seemed, no one in the family had seen the new student. They’d heard all about him though, Danny Nightingale, just moved to Gotham from a small-town Iowa with his uncle.
Small town kid in a city like Gotham? Poor kid. And then a group of their classmates walked in, in the middle was a lanky teen with black hair, skin almost as pale as theirs, and bright blue eyes.
“Tim?” Cass asked.
Tim waited for the new thoughts, the new mental voice…and nothing. He frowned, staring as the teen gathered a tray with the rest and sat, his back to their table. He was confused; he’d never been unable to read someone before. Maybe he just had quiet thoughts? He could hear the others at the table just fine – Cassie thought Danny was cute but quiet, Bart’s mind was racing as it always did. Cissie avoided looking their way or even thinking about them but apparently had almost mistaken Danny for one of them at first. Not that Tim could blame her given the teens looks. And still nothing, no new voice.
“Well?” Steph demanded.
“Nothing,” Tim whispered. “I can’t hear him.”
That got all of their attention.
Danny stared at the massive building in front of him, so much bigger than Casper High. He could do this, he could. It was just high school…in America’s most crime ridden city and under a fake id but hey, high school. He hefted his bag and took a deep breath before heading to his doom. At least he only had to put up with it for a few months, then he could move on. He pulled at the tie around his neck, hating it, but the place had a freakin’ uniform. How he missed Casper.
He just wanted to leave but it had been made clear, he couldn’t just live in the Realms. His human half needed to spend time in the living world. No one knew for sure what would happen to him if he didn’t but he’d been getting sickly so it probably wouldn’t be very good. Honestly, he wanted to go back in time and stop his thirteen-year-old self from being so stupid or his fifteen-year-old self for getting tracked back home…both events had cost him so much.
He shifted his backpack and walked up the stairs. Why he couldn’t have just had a fake id that had already graduated…no, interfering old ghosts. Sadly, he couldn’t order them to do it, not yet. He knew he’d be the centre of attention, a transfer part way into the year and a senior at that. Hopefully in such a big school the interest would fade very quickly.
Danny made his way to the office and even managed a passable smile for the lady behind the desk. He accepted his class schedule, locker assignment, and thankfully a map from her before heading off to find his locker and then home room. He took an empty seat and mentally crossed his fingers.
As people noticed him, the whispers started. He tried not to listen but enhanced hearing really sucked in school…and in cities in general, any enhanced sense did and he had them all – hearing, sight, and smell. And everyone else thought locker rooms stank, he had really increased his personal hygiene habits after his accident. At least the teacher didn’t do anything as embarrassing and dumb as making him introduce himself, he did hold him back a few moments to ensure he knew how to read the campus map which was kind of nice?
He made it to his history classroom and took a seat when the teacher just waved a hand at him, sitting next to a blond girl who smiled at him.
“Hi, I’m Cassie,” she whispered.
“Danny,” he offered.
Class seemed to drag on forever, but at least it was stuff he knew, mostly.
“What do you have next?” she asked when they were packing up.
“English with a Mr Nygma?” Odd name, but hey, he’d heard odder.
“Great, that’s my next class, I can show you the way.” She smiled at him and Danny hesitantly smiled back.
He didn’t want to do this, to make connections, maybe even friends. But Frostbite’s words echoed in the back of his head, if his human half wasn’t physically and mentally healthy then both sides suffered. And humans needed other people.
“Cassie!” A guy’s voice called and then a lanky redhead was there, bouncing in place.
“Bart, this is Danny. Danny this is Bart, he’s on the track team and never runs out of energy,” Cassie introduced them.
“Great to meet you, Danny!”
“Uhm, hi,” Danny offered awkwardly.
They made it to English and Danny was dragged to a seat between them. He was thankful to Mr Lancer and Ghost Writer for being able to keep up.
He’d spent six months catching up on where he should be for school while hiding in the Realms. It was a lot easier when not terrified his secret would come out and having time to actually do the work.
And of course, as he walked into the cafeteria, he felt his ghost sense crawl up his throat but then kind of…stop. It’d never reacted like that before. He stayed in the middle of the group, letting his gaze move across the large room and then he saw them. A table of the most beautiful mortal humans he’d ever seen. And as soon as he looked at them the sensation faded. So it was them, or at least one of them that was registering as what, ghost adjacent? Liminals didn’t cause that reaction.
They were very pale for humans but so was Danny, well except for one of them but there was still something off about his skin tone. And…they all had the same eye colour. Yep, definitely something odd going on. But unless they were a threat then it was none of his business.
“Spotted the Waynes then,” Anita murmured.
“The Waynes?” he asked, unable to help the curiosity.
“The two facing us are the twins, Timothy and Cassandra Wayne or Tim and Cass. Next to her is her girlfriend, Stephanie Brown. The one on the end is Duke Thomas-Wayne, then Damian Wayne.”
“Adopted?” he asked, it made sense given the hyphenated names.
“Well, Stephanie isn’t, obviously. But the others are, except for Damian, he’s the only biological child of Bruce Wayne. Then there’s Bruce’s half-brother Richard Grayson-Wayne and his fiancé Barbara Gordon. And Bruce’s eldest adopted son is Jason Todd-Wayne, but he graduated last year,” Cissie explained, something in her tone…oh. The way she looked at one of the twins suggested rejected feelings. “But don’t bother, they only stick to themselves.”
“That’s a lot of kids to take on,” Danny murmured, glancing at them again.
“A single man taking on all those kids?” Someone at the next table sneered, obviously eavesdropping.
“Wow, jealous much?” Danny asked in return. “Some people have this pesky thing called a heart. No way CPS wouldn’t clock that with so many kids. My uncle had to go through sooo much paperwork and interviews to get custody, and we’re blood related.”
Maybe they were human, maybe they were something else, he didn’t know. But he knew what abused kids felt like and they didn’t match that.
Tim blinked as the new kid defended them and Bruce. No one ever did that. He could see his siblings surprise as well.
“Do you think he means it?” Duke asked.
Sadly, Dick wasn’t with them so they couldn’t tell. Or would Danny’s emotions be blank to Dick like his thoughts were to Tim? He wasn’t used to being so blind. Danny glanced their way and Tim found himself meeting his gaze. His eyes were almost an unnatural shade of bright blue...almost the shade of compact ice in a glacier.
Tim looked away, feeling…unsettled. That was a strange thing, Danny was just another human kid, right? He listened carefully, hearing him breathing steadily, his heart beating away, a little slower than average but still within the human normal range. But that didn’t rule everything out according to B. Maybe his brain just worked too oddly for Tim to be able to read?
It was a relief when lunch ended and they got rid of the food left on their trays. Usually, they made a game out of disposing of it to ensure no one realised they weren’t actually eating but not today. He had biology next and sadly with none of his siblings. They even had assigned seats but at least he had the table to himself due to odd student numbers…that were now even but what were the odds?
Apparently good. He’d just settled down when in walked Danny Nightingale along with Bart. Great. There went the little bit of space he had. He took a few deeper breaths before slowing it to barely noticeable. Just to be safe. It was better to not take deep breaths around anyone new, didn’t want to suddenly take a bite out of a classmate. His control was good but he wasn’t even in triple digits yet and accidents happened. He would not cause trouble for the family after everything that had happened back then.
As soon as he walked in the classroom door, he knew one of the Wayne’s was in biology with him, feeling the chill crawl up his throat again. A quick glance revealed the twin, Timothy…and the only empty seat beside him. This should be interesting. He checked in with Dr Isely and then headed for the chair, forcing his breathing to remain even. He was glad for his work with Frostbite, to ensure that he appeared as fully human as possible. Yeah, his heart was a little slow but it was in a human range now and not slow enough that anyone else would be unconscious.
He had to admit; Timothy Wayne was a very attractive guy. But the look on his face before he hid behind a hand ruined his looks. It’s not like he smelled! He knew the horrors better than most of strong body odours and was very careful to ensure he was as inoffensive as possible. And ghosts like Skulker could hunt via scent so it was best not to smell strongly of anything.
He took the seat and glanced over at Timothy who was now sitting on the far side of the table, his nose wrinkled in disgust and his body stiff and tight. Looked like he didn’t have much of a chance to get to know him, to find out why he set off his ghost sense. He turned back to the board, determined to ignore Wayne.
Thankfully, class went by quickly enough and Danny rolled his eyes when the other bolted as soon as the bell rang. Nice. Danny took his time, heading to his next class and putting Wayne out of his mind.
Steph wanted to check on Tim but she was stuck in class and…there was the issue of the day. He walked by her and she took a hesitant sniff. He did smell strange, thankfully not any more appetising than any other human. No…if anything he was less appetising, something on the edge of his scent, almost…acidic? That was interesting. Still, she didn’t think it was enough to have caused a reaction like Tim’s. Then again, everyone’s scent was slightly different to each vampire.
She was glad the newcomer didn’t sit anywhere near her. She’d learnt her lesson in befriending humans; she would not be the cause of another incident. If she had listened to Cass back then… Tim didn’t blame any of them, had settled so well into the family…but she still blamed herself. And she had no doubt that Kent did too, not that she’d seen him since that day. She knew he was still alive and suspected that Tim had limited contact, but she’d never say a thing. If Tim was able to keep something from his human life, then he was lucky.
Danny was relieved when the day was over, waving to his new…acquaintances. Too soon to call them friends and he wasn’t sure of all of them. Cassie and Bart yeah, but the others? More time was needed. He headed to the office to turn in the paperwork proving he’d found all his classes or something only to find Tim Wayne in the office, arguing with the secretary.
“Isn’t there anything you can do?” he asked, the first time Danny really heard him speak.
“I’m sorry Mr Wayne, but the only other option during that block with room is one already on your timetable and there is nothing you could then swap that one with.”
“I see,” he murmured, stiffening slightly, realising Danny was in the room? “Thank you for your time.” He turned and their eyes met for a moment before he quickly left the room.
Danny finished up in the office quickly and happily left the school grounds, heading for the apartment. “I’m home,” he called softly to the silent rooms.
His ‘uncle’ was a fabrication, he was on his own. It was for the best. No one would be in danger for living with him and no one could stab him in the back by alerting the GIW, his parents, or Vlad.
He went intangible, letting the uniform drop to the ground, pulling on casual clothes and then flopped on his couch. He wasn’t ready to begin his homework; he needed a little time to just de-stress. Should he move on?
If Tim Wayne wasn’t entirely human then it was likely the rest of his family wasn’t given their too-similar eye colour and paleness. Would they endanger his cover? Could they sense him in return? It might be safer to leave Gotham but…he’d come to the city for a reason. There were a limited number of American towns and cities with high enough ectoplasm levels for him to stay healthy and to help hide his own signature.
No, he wasn’t letting the Wayne’s scare him into running. For all he knew, they were using the ectoplasm to hide as well. They could co-exist; it would be fine.
He sighed and grabbed his bag; he needed to do his homework. He couldn’t afford to let his grades slip like he had before. There was no hero work here to mess things up at least. No portal and Technus was monitoring things for him. Apparently, he was now the better option to ally with given everything. That was nice. Skulker would likely still come after him, for himself or on Vlad’s orders. But he’d have to find him first and they’d all worked to ensure it would be as hard as possible for anyone – ghost or human - to track him down.
Bruce watched his children as they talked about their day. And one name came up frequently, Danny Nightingale. A new student this far into the year was odd but not entirely unheard of. And now Tim was complaining about having to sit beside him, saying there was something off about him. And of course, Dick decided to tease him about it.
He smiled slightly as he watched them all, his children. Technically, Babs and Duke weren’t his but in all ways that mattered they were. Damian may be the only one of his blood, but he loved them all. If he could go back in time, he would smack his younger self over the head for ever hesitating at turning Tim. The family would be so different without him but he hated that the poor boy had lost the first person he loved. Tim had shown no interest that way in any of their kind he’d met since waking but surely, he had a mate out there somewhere. If the Kent boy had been his one shot and being turned destroyed that… But his son seemed happy enough.
Tim glanced at him and smiled softly, obviously knowing his thoughts. It was a gift that suited his always inquisitive son, the boy who always wanted to know everything. But he hated the way it pained him at times. He hated the way emotions could overwhelm Dick or visions Babs…every gift had its negative side.
And Duke showing up only weeks after Tim was turned, terrified and looking for help…he’d almost turned him away, in the end he’d taken him in because he knew who would snap him up if he’d been found. The family was so much bigger than he’d ever dreamed of and he wouldn’t trade them for anything. He just wanted them all to be happy and safe.
Jason glanced at the clock and stood, stretching. “Time to head out,” he announced smirking.
Soon they were racing for the cave to head out for the night. It was time for the Bats and Birds to patrol. They were a myth, few every catching even a fleeting glimpse of them and that was for the best. What they did was nothing to do with Gotham’s human population.
TBC…