AN: You guys are so nice! Thank you to everyone who wished me well, it really means a lot!
Also, yeah. Apparently I'm having a hard time getting back into a regular writing schedule. Even though I'm technically not in school right now, I'm still really busy somehow. Fun, right?
Anyway, enough with excuses. All you guys care about is the story! So here ya go. Enjoy!
I don't own Young Justice or Danny Phantom. I do own five cats though. Which I would argue is better.
Dick stumbled up to the door of the apartment. He blinked rapidly, trying to get his vision to clear. It didn't really work, and it took him multiple attempts to insert his key into the lock and open the door.
He stumbled inside, closing and locking the door behind him. God, he was so tired. He didn't need Danny lecturing him to know that he had made a mistake. Luckily nothing too exciting had happened at work. He just didn't have the mental facilities to do anything harder than blinking right now. Still, at least his shift was over. As long as nothing unexpected happened, he could take the whole evening off. All he wanted to do was collaspe onto his bed and sleep for a week.
A slight sound banished all thoughts of sleep from his mind. He straightened out of his tired slump as adrenaline rushed through him. There shouldn't be anyone in the apartment right now. Danny didn't get off work for another three hours, and he would contact Dick if his plans had changed.
Dick inched his way toward the sound, making sure his steps were silent. He grabbed a bat from beside the door that he and Danny always left there for emergencies, testing the feel of it. Feeling prepared, he lept into the living room, only to immediately relax.
"Oh. It's you."
Bruce raised an eyebrow, setting down the book he was looking at. "Is that any way to greet your father?"
"What are you doing here." Dick ignored Bruce's question, leaning the bat against the coffee table and crossing his arms. "Also, would it have killed you to call ahead?"
Bruce sighed. Clearly Dick wasn't interested in playing along. He dropped the 'Bruce' persona, and Dick straightened slightly when he recognized that it was Batman that he was with now.
"It's about your note. I wanted to talk to you about the man you ran into."
"In person?" Now that they were talking business, Dick felt a bit more comfortable. Still, the entire situation felt off. Normally Batman wouldn't have come all the way to Bludhaven just to have a discussion like this.
"Yes. This is a… delicate situation. I need to be careful."
Dick squinted at Batman, suspicious. "What's that supposed to mean? Did you come here just so you could more accurately read my body language? What, did you think I would lie to you?"
"Of course not." Batman growled. "I was more worried about the transmission being hacked and this information getting out. Which you would have realized if you had just thought with your brain for three seconds."
"Oh." Dick deflated. That did make more sense. He wasn't sure why he had assumed… He groaned, rubbing his head. He was too tired to be dealing with his and Batman's weird relationship.
Batman sighed, his expression smoothing out slightly. "Look Dick, I didn't mean-"
"No, it's alright. It was my bad. I'm just… I'm just really tired at the moment. Could we reschedule this talk? Just until I can get a couple of hours of sleep in?"
Batman looked like he was about to protest, but he took in the obvious bags under Dick's eyes and the pleading in his tone and relented.
"Fine. Get some rest. It's nothing that can't wait a few hours."
"Thanks. Danny should be home soon; we can all talk then. Until then… make yourself at home, I guess."
Batman nodded, picking up the book he had been looking at before. Dick watched him for a moment before retreating to his room. He longed to go to bed immediately, but he took the time to change into some more comfortable clothing, knowing he would regret it later if he didn't. The last thing he did was send Danny a text warning him about Batman's presence before he finally allowed himself to fall into sleep's embrace.
Danny apologized to the person he had bumped into, but he didn't slow down. He couldn't. It was imperative that he get home as soon as possible.
He tried to keep his panic to a minimum, but it wasn't really working. Batman was at his house. Batman. The Batman. Was in his cruddy little apartment that still had dirty laundry sitting on the couch, and uneaten ramen on the table (he knew he should have cleaned it up last night!) and was in a rundown part of town with peeling paint, and a broken air conditioner, and oh lord, Batman was going to kill him. Batman was going to kill him for letting his son live in such filth. Batman was going to kill him because he didn't have a fancy butler that could clean the house and cook fantastic meals and not leave uneaten ramen sitting out on the table why did he do that and-
Danny's thoughts cut off as he reached the apartment. He swallowed nervously before approaching the building. He fumbled with his keys for a moment (and no, he wasn't stalling, he was just clumsy sometimes, alright?) before entering his home. He made sure to lock the door behind, maybe taking a bit longer to do so than normal. It was almost funny. He had been in such a hurry to get here, but now that he was, he was trying to stretch it out as long as possible.
Finally, he could delay no longer. Danny turned toward the living room, bravely accepting his fate.
Bruce looked up when he heard the front door open and close. It took a while, but Danny finally slunk into the living room. If he were anyone else, Bruce would probably laugh at the obvious fear on Danny's face. But he was Batman, so instead he merely gave Danny an unimpressed look.
"Manga?" He asked, holding up the book he had been looking at for the past couple of hours. Danny laughed uneasily.
"Ah. Yeah. Garfield got me into it a couple of years ago. You know, there are actually some really intriguing story lines in manga that wouldn't be told in more traditional media, like the Tokyo Ghoul series, or…"
Danny trailed off, turning bright red. Bruce had to bite the inside of his cheek to hold back his laughter. Danny rubbed the back of his neck sheepishly, glancing around the room.
"Of course, you wouldn't really care about that, would you? Um. Right. Uh… do you want something? We're kinda short of groceries at the moment, but I could probably figure something out."
"Actually, there is something I would like from you Danny." Bruce said coldly, setting the manga down. Danny gulped, hiding his trembling hands behind his back.
"R-really? What would that be?"
"An explanation." Bruce said bluntly, making eye contact with the terrified halfa. "On why you know where the Batcave is."
Danny turned several different colors in a manner of seconds. His blush drained away, leaving him almost white, before Bruce's words seemed to really sink in and he turned an ill looking gray. He looked like he was about to faint. His mouth opened and closed a few times, but no sound came out.
Bruce kept up the facade for a few more seconds before smiling. He laughed, patting a still terrified Danny on the shoulder.
"Relax. I've always known that you knew about it. I would have done something if I was upset about it."
"Oh." Danny said faintly, a bit of color coming back into his face. "That's… good."
Bruce nodded congenially. Abruptly, his entire demeanor changed. The slight mirth in his eyes faded away to become deadly serious.
"But just to be clear. If anyone ever discovers the location of the Batcave because of you, there will be consequences. Understood?"
Danny went white again. "Y-yes sir."
Bruce smiled, playing the affable billionaire again. "Good! Now, why don't you go wake up Dick? We have a lot to talk about."
Danny made some kind of strangled sound that sounded vaguely affirmative before fleeing into Dick's room.
Dick woke abruptly when he heard his door open. He jumped up, but relaxed when he saw it was just Danny. Upon closer inspection, he tensed up again. Danny looked awful, pale and shaking.
"Danny? What's wrong?"
Danny blinked a few times, seeming to pull himself together a bit. At least, that's what Dick thought until Danny opened his mouth.
"Your dad is going to kill me."
Dick relaxed again, this time more fully. He chuckled a bit, ignoring Danny's scandalized look.
"Bruce isn't going to kill you. He actually really likes you."
"He knows that I know about the Batcave!" Danny whisper-shrieked. "Also, he saw how we live! He saw the ramen!"
"Dude, he lived with me for years. He knows that I'm not clean. Trust me, it's fine." He paused, his brow furrowing as he took in all of Danny's words. "Wait, what ramen?"
Danny stared despairingly at Dick for a moment before seemingly giving up.
"You know what? Whatever. Let's just… get this over with."
"Something we can both agree on." Dick said grimly. He felt a bit better physically, but he still wasn't ready to deal with Bruce. He wasn't sure if he would ever feel totally ready, but ignoring the problem wouldn't make it go away. Time to bite the bullet.
The two young men emerged from Dick's room, Danny 'subtly' hiding behind Dick. Bruce looked up at the both of them before gesturing for them to sit on the couch. Dick bristled a bit at that, but he let it go, slouching onto the couch, tugging Danny down until he was sitting as well.
"Tell me about the man you met last night."
So. No more playing around then. Bruce was gone. There was only Batman now. Dick was fine with that. He could deal with Batman.
Dick did as asked, detailing exactly what happened the night before. Batman didn't interrupt, simply listening. When Dick was finished, he nodded once.
"Is that all?"
Dick was about to say yes when Danny nervously interjected.
"Um, actually, there was one other thing."
Dick looked at Danny in surprise. What was he talking about? Danny was by no means oblivious, but Dick was generally the more observant one of the pair. Batman seemed a bit surprised as well, if the slight tilt of his head was anything to go off of. He gestured for Danny to continue, which the halfa did, albeit nervously.
"Um. Well, I don't really blame Dick for not mentioning this, but he said something kind of weird. I don't remember exactly, but Dick said something about him being a ghost, and he said that Dick was close. Which doesn't really make sense at first, you know?"
Dick frowned at Danny;s word choice. It seemed that Batman had caught it as well based on his next question.
"At first? So you're saying it makes more sense after some consideration?"
Danny shifted uncomfortably, looking away. Dick recognized that look. That was how Danny looked whenever he had to talk about ghosts and his own place in that world.
"Well, I'm sure that norma- uh, I mean, most people wouldn't notice. But that man… he didn't feel… human."
"An alien?"
Danny shook his head rapidly. "No! I mean, he was definitely human. Not even a meta I don't think. And he wasn't a ghost, or even a halfa, I would have recognized that immediately. But… there was definitely something off. If I had to describe it, I would say it was like someone who'd had a near death experience that just… never stopped. If that makes sense."
Seeing Dick's blank look, Danny left out a frustrated huff. "Sorry. I really can't explain it. I'd never felt anything like it before."
Dick set his hand on Danny's knee, trying to calm him. He knew how hard this had to be for Danny. Danny really didn't like talking about ghosts, or even some of his own abilities. The ghost sense was one that Danny prefered to ignore. Like all of his powers, it had grown stronger as he aged, until it worked on almost everyone. It was never as obvious as it was with ghosts, but Danny could generally tell what people were, even on a first meeting. It was actually incredibly helpful in their line of work, not that Dick would ever tell Danny that. If his friend wanted to avoid the topic, he could do that for him.
Batman didn't afford him the same courtesy.
"Try. Don't think about, just talk. What did it feel like?"
"Like someone who came back from the dead." Danny spat out. His eyes widened as he realized what he had said. Dick stared at him in shock, but Batman just looked resigned. Like that was what he had thought Danny would say.
"I'm sorry for bothering you both. I'll be going now."
"Wait!" Dick yelled, jumping up from the couch and grabbing onto Batman's arm. "You're just leaving? You aren't going to explain what's going on?"
"What makes you think I know what happening?" Batman asked dryly. Dick scoffed.
"Is that even really a question. Danny obviously just confirmed something for you, don't even deny it. If you don't know for sure, than you at least have an idea."
Batman said nothing for a moment before sighing.
"You're right. I do have an idea. And what Danny said added more evidence to it being true. But it is still just an idea. I don't want to say anything until I know for sure, because if it is true…"
Batman looked incredibly sad, staring at nothing before finally looking Dick right in the eye.
"Can you please trust me, just this once?"
Dick stared into Bruce's eyes, torn. There was so much he wanted to say, so much that he wanted to explain.
"I've always trusted you Bruce." He finally managed to say. Bruce's eyes widened, before he looked away. He grabbed his jacket off a chair and slipped it on, heading toward the front door.
"I'll contact you when I know more." There was no emotion in Batman's voice. Whatever moment the two Wayne's had had, it was now over. Dick didn't say anything, not even nodded to confirm he had heard Batman's words. The man didn't hesitate, walking out of the apartment and leaving tense silence in his wake.
Danny looked at Dick nervously before standing and walking to the door. He locked it carefully, once again taking a bit longer than strictly necessary in the task. Once finished, he turned back to Dick, hesitating before speaking.
"What… what happened between you two?"
Dick said nothing, staring blankly at the floor.
"I'm going to bed. I'm tired."
"Oh." Dick felt instant regret when he heard Danny's wounded tone, but he just couldn't talk about it. Not right now.
Danny walked over to the coffee table, picking a bowl of ramen. He carried it to the kitchen sink, and washed the bowl quietly. Dick didn't move the entire time, still standing in the middle of the living room.
Danny excited the kitchen wearing his jacket. "I'm gonna go get some groceries. When I come back, we can have a late dinner. Sound good?"
"Danny-"
"Don't."
Dick closed his mouth abruptly at Danny's word. Danny smiled, a little strained maybe, but still genuine. When he saw that Dick wasn't going to interrupt, Danny continued.
"Don't apologize. You're clearly upset, and I should have known not to push. Just… take this time to get your head on straight, alright? I'll be back soon."
Dick didn't try to speak again as Danny left the apartment. Soon he was left in silence, but it didn't feel stifling. It felt… peaceful almost.
Dick let out a rueful laugh. He really didn't deserve Danny. But thank god he had met him. In that moment, he promised to explain everything to Danny. But first…
When Danny got home, it was to find Dick completely passed out on his bed. He smiled at the sight before retreating to his own room. Food could wait until morning.
AN: I don't actually read manga. Sorry. I'm honestly a bit afraid to get sucked into such a large fandom when the ones I'm already in are ruining my life. Though I have read a bit of Tokyo Ghoul, which is why I mentioned that one.
Yep. Conflict between Batman and Nightwing. As you've probably noticed, the theme of this story is family. Jason is a part of that, obviously, but there is also Dick and Danny's relationship and Dick and Bruce's. I will explain why Dick and Bruce are fighting, but prolly not for a while. Just as a heads up.
If you thought Batman was out of character… yeah. At first, it's just because he is a. Putting on the Bruce Wayne mask and b. Messing with Danny. He shifts into more 'just Batman' later. So I hope it wasn't too bad.
Anyway…. Bye guys!