Danny spent the next few days in his room. Some might say he was hiding, but he simply wanted to be alone. He emerged only in the early morning and late night to creep down to the kitchen and pick up the food Alfred would leave out for him. After the first day that he caught Danny rummaging through the fridge to no avail, they developed an unspoken agreement. The silent understanding was appreciated, and it kept him from running into any of the other members of the household. He would pass his time playing around on his phone, staring at the white ceiling, or idly drawing constellations in a notebook. Part of him knew he couldn't live like a ghost haunting the manor forever, but for now he went about his days like that.

It wasn't until that Friday that his little routine was interrupted by a knock at his bedroom door. He startled at the noise, having been too absorbed in thought to hear the approaching footsteps, and glanced over towards the doorway. Maybe if he pretended to be asleep, whoever it was would leave him alone.

No such luck, though, as he heard Duke call out tentatively, "Um, Danny? I brought you something."

Danny swung his legs over the side of the bed and approached the door, footsteps all but silent. His hand hovered over the doorknob for a few seconds before he gained the resolve to open it. Swinging the door open revealed Duke on the other side, fidgeting with something in his hands. Danny was intensely aware he hadn't spoken since his arrival at the manor several days ago and cleared his throat before asking, "What is it?" His voice was creaky and dry.

"I saw the NASA hoodie you wore the day you came in and thought maybe you liked space, and that your room must be awfully dull and unwelcoming, and that maybe you'd like something to make it more homey, and so I, um, got you this." Duke said in a rush, uncertain and rambling as if he thought Danny would cut him off before he had the chance to get everything out. He held out his hand, and Danny saw that it was a package of glow in the dark stars. The slight smile that upturned his lips was involuntary, but it made Duke visibly relax.

"Thanks," Danny said in a quiet voice, taking the package of stars from Duke. He was already wondering what constellations he should arrange them in. Maybe Alfred would even let him paint the ceiling black for a better night sky effect.

Silence stretched between them, as Danny's thoughts drifted towards considerations of stars and constellations. Eventually, shifting from foot to foot, Duke spoke up again. "So, I take it I was right, and that you like space?"

Danny nodded. "I'm really into astronomy. I wanted to be an astronaut when I was younger."

"That's cool," Duke smiled at him, "You know, Bruce has a telescope no one's used in ages. I bet he wouldn't mind if you gave it some love."

That made him perk up. A telescope had been one of Danny's possessions that were left at Fenton Works, much to his chagrin. The expression that lit up his face was one of eager excitement. "That'd be awesome!"

"I'll show you where it is later." Duke said, then glanced at his phone. He sighed and continued, "I have to get going to dinner before Alfred gives me his disappointed look for making everyone wait. But, I'll find you after?"

Danny surprised both of them with his response. "I'll come down to dinner with you." The words had slipped out before he registered them, but he found that he didn't regret saying it. He supposed that he couldn't hide from the Wayne family forever if he was going to live here until he turned 18.

"O-oh!" Duke intoned, "that's great!"

Danny wouldn't call it great, but he gestured for Duke to lead the way to the dining room, and the two headed off.


Attending dinner hadn't been a one off thing to thank Duke, apparently. As it turned out, the dinners with the Wayne family were actually enjoyable. Bruce, Duke, and Damian had a rapport with each other that was easy to slide into. The three Waynes were clever, with a quick wit that made conversation more engaging than Danny expected of a billionaire playboy and his wards. Enjoying dinner with them made his gut twist with an odd sensation of guilt scolding him for jumping into replacing everyone so quickly. That was quickly shoved down with the rest of the feelings he wanted to ignore.

Sunday night, Bruce casually slid a bomb into their conversation. "Danny, have you considered what school you'd like to attend in Gotham?"

"I dunno, probably the closest public school. Duke and Damian's fancy private school wouldn't want me." Danny responded, stabbing at a carrot with a bit too much force.

"Hmm," Bruce considered that with a raised eyebrow, folding his hands on the table. "I talked to one of your old teachers at Casper High–a Mister Lancer–and he seemed to think your grades were for a lack of trying, not a lack of intelligence."

Danny blinked, surprised, at that. He hadn't been aware that Lancer had survived the collapse at Casper High, nor that Lancer held that opinion. The teacher had softened towards Danny over the years, more often than not attempting to reach out to him and dig down to the root of his flakiness and 'troubled' behavior. It would have been endearing, had he not been hiding a huge secret double life he needed to keep Lancer from discovering.

Duke spoke up in a light voice, "There's no harm in at least taking the entrance exam."

Except for the embarrassment of getting rejected, he sardonically thought to himself, picking at the food on his plate. His appetite had left him with the talk of school. "It's unlikely anything would come of it." He said after stewing in his negative thoughts for a few moments.

"Tt, you value yourself too little, Fenton," Damian said with a derisive sniff.

Danny glanced over. "You try having always been the idiot in a family of geniuses."

The look that Damian was giving him was hard to parse. It wasn't pity, or even scrutiny. It was a look he had sometimes seen in Vlad's eyes when the older halfa thought that Danny had made a misstep. Never had he fully understood that particular look. That put a lump in his throat. He looked away from Damian and spoke up in hopes of making the younger boy stop giving him that very Vlad-like expression. "I guess I can do the entrance exam anyways."

Bruce gave a light smile, "I think that would be great, Danny."

"If only just to prove that I'm not cut out for this fancy rich kid school, alright?" Danny said.

"I regret to inform you Danny," Duke said gravely, "but you are now a fancy rich kid."

"Ugh," Danny grumbled, to which Duke laughed.

At least it wasn't Vlad's money, though. Sam would always remind him there was no ethical way to make a billion dollars, but Wayne couldn't be as cartoonishly evil as Vlad. He seemed a nice enough guy, and he funded Batman. That had to count for something.


The next night found Danny finally using the telescope Duke had shown him to. It was a model of Celestron NexStar–a bit old, but still very nice and more than acceptable for basic stargazing. The problem was that one of the tripod legs was a bit janky, and he needed to find a wrench to adjust it to be less annoying to work with. Of course, the easy thing would be to text Alfred and simply ask where he could find a wrench in this ridiculous mansion, but Danny really didn't want to bother him for something he could likely find on his own.

How hard could it be to find a single wrench?

It was that line of thinking that had Danny an hour into his "easy" search for a wrench with no idea as to where to find one. At Fenton Works, they had kept the tools in the garage, like sensible people would. That didn't seem to be the case in Wayne Manor.

Grumbling and defeated, Danny stalked back through the hallways to return to the telescope with his tail between his legs. He'd just have to deal with the wobbly tripod and suck up his wounded pride of having failed his mission enough to ask Alfred next time he saw the Waynes' butler.

He wasn't paying particular attention to his surroundings, and neither was Damian it seemed, as the two collided in the hallway. Both boys were sent tumbling to the ground with rather undignified noises of surprise. Meeting Damian's eyes, the younger boy seemed somewhere between annoyed, angry, and very sheepish to have been caught so unaware.

They stared at each other, both silent and embarrassed on the ground.

Eventually, Danny was the one to break the awkward silence. "Um, know where I can find a wrench?"

"You aren't even going to bother apologizing?" Damian asked, a sharp edge to his voice.

He half shrugged and then stood, "Not really. I mean, you weren't paying attention either. Besides, I need a wrench."

"You need a wrench." Damian echoed, picking himself up off the ground as well.

"Is that really such a weird request? What, I'm not gonna beat someone to death with it. I just need it for, uh, wrench things."

"Wrench things," Damian repeated again, almost sneering. "What are those 'wrench things' you need to do?"

Danny threw his hands in the air. "Oh my god, what is this, 20 questions for a wrench?"

"You can't deride me for being curious." Damian said.

Skeptical, more like it, Danny thought, but caved, "I need to fix the tripod on the telescope."

Damian raised an eyebrow, "I was not aware that father had a telescope in the manor, nor that you had an interest in such things." Danny could sense there was an unspoken or in anything that dug under his skin.

"I like astronomy, sue me." Danny said, dryly. "Duke showed the telescope to me. It's like maybe 7 or so years old from my guess on what model it is, so it needs a bit of love. Thus, wrench."

"Right, the wrench."

He crossed his arms over his chest. "If you're not going to be helpful, then shoo."

Damian looked offended at being told to shoo. The kid seemed to bite back a retort, before taking a steadying breath and instead saying, "I'll show you where the toolboxes are, Fenton, but I'd like to see this telescope."

"A-alright, yeah, whatever." Danny responded, taken off-guard by Damian's interest. "What, you want me to teach you how to use it or something?"

The boy examined him. "Yes, if you have the ability to teach such a thing."

"If I have the ability–" Danny bristled but stilled the sudden rush of anger and stomped it down. It wasn't like him to be so antagonistic to someone extending an olive branch in the form of a shared interest. Usually, when it came to space, Danny was nothing if not an eager teacher. "Yeah, I can do that. I know tons about telescopes and astronomy."

Damian nodded, said "Very well," and then curtly turned and walked in a direction, gesturing Danny to follow.

"Soooo..." Danny began as he followed, tone a bit stilted and awkward, "Any particular reason you're making me trade the knowledge of where the wrenches are for being taught how to use the telescope?"

"Tt, as if I need a reason," Damian muttered in a way that seemed to be a knee-jerk response rather than meant to actually be rude. He paused, brow furrowed, and glanced back at Danny over his shoulder. "The night skies were very beautiful where I was born. I was not allowed to be interested in banal things such as stargazing, but I couldn't help but appreciate the sky from time to time. Gotham's skies are much less clear, but I still hold that childish interest, I suppose."

That piqued Danny's interest. "Oh? Where did you grow up? I've only had the chance to stargaze outside of a city a few times."

Damian considered if he'd respond, before offering up, "Nanda Parbat, a city in the Himalayas."

"Huh," Danny intoned. "That's a lot further than I was expecting."

"Yes, indeed," Damian replied lightly but without further detail.

A bit of wistfulness gripped Danny, so he felt bidden to say, "Amity Park wasn't quite so large as Gotham is, so it has better viewing conditions than what I think we'll get from Bruce's telescope."

"Maybe you'll have to show me sometime," Damian said in a tone of voice that didn't actually indicate much interest in visiting Amity Park. Danny let that slide, of course no one would want to visit the ghost capital of the world.

"Anyways, learning how to use the telescope is pretty hard part is learning how to tell what you're looking at, but Bruce's telescope is pretty nice. It does a lot of the legwork for you." Danny offered up. Part of him liked using the simpler telescopes without the fancy computers, because the act of meticulously locating stars was soothing and enjoyable to him.

"Hm, you said it was old, though?" Damian asked.

Danny shrugged. "I guess, but it does what it does and only needs a little bit of adjustment on the tripod to function fine."

"You could always ask father about getting a new one, you know. He wouldn't mind, if you're so interested in astronomy."

"Uh, I don't really see the point. The telescope works, it's just not a recent model." Danny said, his nose crinkling. The telescope was certainly nicer than his in Amity Park. Damian only made that derisive noise he sometimes made, to which Danny rolled his eyes and spoke up again. "Not everything needs to be brand new and shiny."

"If you say so," Damian said with a wave of his hand.

Danny merely hummed in response, and the two fell into a more or less comfortable silence. Soon enough, they had trekked through Wayne Manor to the specific storage closet that Alfred and Bruce had deemed where the toolboxes would be held. Wrench in hand, they retreated back to the top floor where the telescope was out on a balcony.

Working with his hands felt good, Danny noticed. Something about fixing the tripod and checking over the rest of the telescope to ensure it was in working order was satisfying. Having something tangible to be doing with his hands kept his mind from wandering, instead remaining focused on the current task. Now that he had a wrench to fix the piece that was causing the tripod to be uneven, fixing it was easy.

Danny found that he and Damian could settle into a surprising rhythm. The younger boy listened with a rapt attention that Danny's space ramblings had rarely, if ever, garnered. It was clear that Damian didn't know much about astronomy besides the very basics one would be taught in a general science course, but he was a dedicated learner, occasionally voicing questions to ask Danny to expand on his instructions on how to use the telescopes and the sorts of celestial bodies they could observe.

Gotham City didn't have the most spectacular night sky to look at–no, the city was far too large and full of light pollution for that–but to settle into one of his oldest, most dearly held hobbies settled Danny's mind from the stresses and turmoil of the past few weeks. Damian asked about a few constellations he had heard the names of in passing, but most of them Danny had to tell the boy weren't visible from Gotham either because of the light pollution or seasonal timing.

Eventually, the teaching died down and the two sat mostly in silence on the balcony. Danny had never been the most social person outside of hanging out with Sam and Tucker, so he was shocked to realize that he enjoyed his foster brother's company. Damian definitely had some pent up issues along with social difficulties that Danny couldn't quite put his finger on where they might be coming from. Even with that, he could tell that the two of them would mostly get along during Danny's stay with the Wayne family.

When it came time to pack up the telescope and turn in for the night, Damian told Danny to rest well so that he might 'perform optimally' on his entrance exam the next day. However, he noticed that when he wished Damian a good night, the boy had to suppress a subtle smirk. That was a look Danny definitely recognized from Sam's face when she'd tell her parents they were going to do homework only for the trio to sneak out of her window for a late night patrol. Well, if Damian was going to sneak out of Wayne manor for a late night jaunt, Danny would be the last person to stop him.