Disclaimer: not mine

Chapter 13

He frowned at the news. Blast Spectra! She could have killed Daniel's beloved. What would that do to his little Badger? She had returned to the Realms so he would need to ensure others knew to deal with her. It was hard, to keep watch over Daniel without his spies getting caught, the boys' ghost sense had increased as he grew up.

But he had found out enough, of course Daniel would find another vigilante to date and work with. Amusing that no one had found him when he was using the call sign Banshee, any who knew of his powers should realise. It just proved how blind the GIW was, why had he ever worked with them?

The agency was having a lot of issues now as one Lois Lane aired their dirty laundry, he suspected young Foley was supply at least some of her information. Since they were part of the reason that he had faked his death, he wished her luck.

And it seemed his little Badger was actually leaving America with his love. Venice would be much nicer in the warmer months, silly boys. Still, let them have their romantic getaway, when they returned all the pieces would be in place. He just needed to make a call to the Zone and an ally.

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Danny packed his bag, not entirely sure what he should be taking. He was excited but also kind of nervous. He'd never left the US before and was a little worried about how his identity would hold up, but Tim had assured him that it would, it had fooled the bats after all. Unlike Tim, he didn't have to pack suits since he wasn't the one going for work.

Really, getting out of the country would probably be a great mental health break…for both of them. Tim had been having nightmares since Spectra (Danny was fighting the urge to find her and End her), and everywhere Danny looked there was opinions on Phantom, the Realms, the Anti-ecto acts…it was getting too much for him, too many reminders of his old life. It was nice that public opinion was more and more firmly on his side but it was also scary.

He dropped down on the bed as his phone beeped with an alert…another opinion piece, this one obviously sponsored by the idiots in white or their backers. And then a warm body was pressed to his, gentle hands taking his phone from him.

"Stop reading it Danny," Tim chided gently.

Not that he could talk, he kept reading the articles on the fundraiser until the Wayne lawyers had slapped the papers with a lawsuit over pictures of a minor without permission and that Tim had been under the influence of fear toxin. As more and more nutcases and metas had appeared throughout the country, laws had been brought in to protect people exposed to things like fear gas, mind control, joker venom, etc. And the Gotham papers had broken them to try and air what they called the Wayne dirty laundry, mainly that there were obvious issues between the two youngest as well as Tim and Dick.

"Finished packing?" he asked, and Danny shrugged.

"I don't really know what to pack," he admitted. "Outside the obvious like underwear and toiletries."

"Pack one suit," Tim told him, "cause we are going on one fancy date while there. For the rest, nice clothes so nothing too worn or holey. Jeans, shirts…layers. It might not snow very often, but Venice is cold in winter. We'll have to go back in the summer one year."

"Okay," Danny agreed.

Tim kissed him and then got up to help him pack, his own bags already waiting for the car that would be picking them up in the morning. Red Robin and Banshee weren't going out tonight, they'd barely been seen since the fundraiser. The sightings there had been, had actually been Danny with a duplicate pretending to be Tim.

Tomorrow, they would take the private jet to Venice for two weeks and then come back to Gotham in time for Christmas. Thankfully, Tim was fine with Danny refusing to have anything to do with the holiday.

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Bruce stared at the sample he had taken when at the apartment. He knew he was risking angering Tim, but he had to know. Too many comments had been made about how much Danny looked like the various members of his family. He had seen the resemblance himself; he could see some of his own features in Danny…but also Tim…and he was not related to Tim. And that had his paranoia threatening to spiral out of control. Tim would have done some level of research into Danny before they dated, Bruce had done his own too, it was too good to be fake which meant he couldn't be a clone made from them…which was very creepy to even consider.

He put the sample into the machine, he had to know. Even if Danny was related to him, it wouldn't change things between Danny and Tim, there was no blood relation and they hadn't been raised as family. But if he was related to Tim? He didn't want Tim to have to try and deal with that.

He'd made sure everyone else would be kept busy while the tests ran, waiting impatiently. Having an error alert sound was not what he was expecting. He checked and frowned, corrupted sample? He brought it up, staring at the chemical formula, something about it tickling the back of his mind. So, he had to split the DNA from the sample but the two appeared…bonded? He suspected Danny might be a meta, was this part of that? A chemical bound to his DNA would seem to indicate either something like a lab accident…or experimentation. But he had been struck by lightning as a young teen…

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Tim smiled as the jet took off, relaxing back in his seat, watching Danny stare out the window. Danny had been on a private jet before, but Masters' did not have the same money as the Wayne's.

"Yes, your jet is better," Danny glanced over, grinning at him, before shifting to rest against Tim's side.

"I didn't say anything," Tim mock pouted, and Danny kissed it away.

"At least you know if the plane goes down you won't go with it," Danny promised.

"Considering my life, that's a very big weight off the mind." He wouldn't put it passed someone like Ra's to sabotage a plane, it was part of why he always used the jet, he didn't want to risk so many civilians. If anything happened, Danny would simply carry him and the two pilots to safety.

"So, what do you do while flying?" Danny asked.

"Well, it's just under nine hours so we can watch a movie or two, read, sleep," Tim shrugged, and Danny glanced around.

"Let me guess, there's an actual bedroom back there," he smirked, and Tim chuckled.

"Good guess. We even have a shower so we always appear fresh upon disembarking."

"Crazy rich people," he grumbled, and Tim laughed.

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So, Venice was cold. The pictures had him imagining somewhere nice and warm, this was not it. Good thing Tim had packed layers; Danny only wore them to keep from getting weird looks. He didn't mind the weather at all, but he kept an eye on Tim…though he'd been handling the cold better than last winter. Was that because of him? He'd known the added exposure of being around him could push Tim towards being liminal but he'd thought it would take longer. There weren't a lot of liminals in Gotham even with the city's high levels of ectoplasm so he hadn't thought Tim would show signs this quickly, then again, he had been closely touched by death…and Jason was definitely liminal, not quite a halfa with the way he'd been brought back but closer to it than most got.

The hotel was very nice, way beyond anything he'd be able to afford. The Hotel Danieli was the kind of place he might expect Vlad to book into. And of course, they had the Doge Dandolo Royal Suite. He thought the gold was a bit much, but it had the most space and balconies, something they both preferred as extra exits. Despite not planning to patrol, they'd both brought their gear just to be safe.

Good thing Ghost Speech meant he could understand and even speak foreign languages, it made understanding those around him a lot easier. Tim knew a smattering of Italian, not enough to hold a true conversation but enough to get by in a hotel or restaurant.

The suite really was incredible though and the bed…it was like lying on a cloud. Even better when Tim flopped down beside him, his jacket over the back of a nearby chair.

"I booked us the day tour on the Riva Aquariva in three days, I've got meetings tomorrow till two, but we're free other than that for the rest of the week."

There was only three days left in the week. Most of Tim's meetings were next week but it gave them time together before he got busy.

"Want to go to a restaurant tonight or order room service?"

"Honestly? Room service," Danny admitted.

"You get used to international travel eventually," Tim assured him.

"Did we really need a suite this big?" he asked, genuinely curious.

"No," Tim admitted, rolling onto his side to look at Danny. "It's a status thing, people expect me to stay in a room like this. Plus, it has multiple balconies to help assuage the vigilante paranoia."

"Figured. Careful, I might get used to the high life," Danny teased, tugging him down into a kiss.

"Good," Tim murmured.

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Bruce stared at the results, not sure what to think or feel…he was relieved that Danny was not related to Tim, that would have really complicated things. But he hadn't expected this at all. Danny was related, just not to who he expected.

He reached for his phone and then hesitated, what exactly was he going to tell Dick? He'd mourned so deeply for his parents; would it be good to know he had a distant cousin? He knew Danny and Dick had met, knew it hadn't gone well, would knowing they were related make things better or worse? Dick and Danny shared great-great-great-great-grandparents; most people didn't bother that far back unless they were interested in family history.

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Tim jerked awake, hand reaching for a weapon as a piercing tone rang through the room. He heard Danny swear, scrambling for his phone and the noise quit. "Danny?" he asked, heart racing, but Danny was holding the phone to his ear.

"You alright?" Danny demanded to whoever was on the other end.

Tim reached over and turned on the lamp, watching as Danny listened to someone.

"You're sure?" he asked, sounding frustrated. "Yeah, well, good thing I'm out of the country," Danny sighed. "Yeah, wipe it. Thanks Tuck."

Tuck…as in Tucker? Tim swallowed, he knew the only reason Tucker would call, and obviously override Danny's phone settings to do so…was if it was something very, very urgent.

"Danny?" he asked.

Danny dropped his phone and sighed, looking up at him with tired eyes. "Someone in Gotham ran my DNA. Someone with access to sophisticated tech since my DNA is bonded to ectoplasm."

Tim frowned and then his eyes widened. "Danny, I would never,"

"I know." Danny lent in and kissed him. "My money's on Bruce honestly. Guessing he's not going to be happy to find all the data wiped, but the GIW are still out there."

"But why would…oh. Well, I think his intentions were good?" Tim offered, and Danny just stared at him. "When we first met, honestly, the first thoughts to cross my mind were clone or long-lost Wayne relative. And others have mentioned we look a lot alike too. Bruce was probably just making sure we weren't accidentally dating our own cousin or something." And yeah, ewww, not as bad as it would be if one of them was a girl and able to get pregnant, but still not a good thought. "He wouldn't have run it through the government systems or anything though, he would have kept it in house for just the family."

"It'd still ping their alarms, anything to do with me does. Tucker and Technus' way to make sure I'm not locked in a private lab somewhere being dissected."

"I'll call Bruce and yell at him. He should have at least spoken to me before doing that." He'd been doing so much better lately, actually attempting to talk about things. So why go behind their backs? He never used to see any issue with their paranoia but since learning about Danny, he could see that their need to know and protect their own secrets could put others in danger.

He flopped back down, adrenaline fading and with it, jetlag creeping back in. He reached blindly to turn the lamp off only for the light to go out before he could find it, Danny handling it telekinetically. Then they curled together and went back to sleep.

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Danny smiled as they walked along the waterfront, holding hands and dressed down like any other teenagers. With a hat on his head for warmth hiding his hair, it was very doubtful anyone would recognise Tim. They ducked into a café for coffee and then kept exploring. Tomorrow, they had their day on the water in the fancy boat Tim had booked. It was great getting to do touristy things as well as go on proper dates.

Hearing Tim yell at Bruce for going behind their backs with the DNA test had been nerve wracking, he didn't want to get between Tim and his family, not when he'd been healing his relationship with his adopted Dad. But…it had also felt wonderful to have someone mad on his behalf. Though…finding out he was distantly related to Dick? That he could have done without. The guy really lived up to his name as far as Danny was concerned, he had treated Tim terribly and refused to see it.

"Wish I'd brought me camera," Tim murmured as the sun began to set.

Danny grinned and slipped a hand under his jacket as if something was hidden, his hand slipping inside his body. "This camera?" he asked, and Tim blinked.

"How…oh, right." He shook his head, smiling, before kissing Danny's cheek. "Thanks." He checked it over and then raised it, taking some very nice photos. "One day, we'll make a list of all your powers so you don't forget them," he murmured, and Danny laughed.

"Tucker and Sam tried that, didn't work." It still hurt to talk about her, any of them, but not as much. He missed them and always would. He'd always held out hope that Sam and Jazz might appear in the Realms, but if that was going to happen then it already would have.

Tim reached out and took his hand again, pulling him close and lifting the camera. It wasn't exactly designed for selfies but he snapped a picture anyway, making Danny smile. He knew he'd done that to cheer him up.

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Bruce had been shocked when all the data on Danny had been wiped from the Batcomputer. But then Tim had rung and actually yelled at him for daring to take Danny's DNA and running the test without permission. He…hadn't expected that at all.

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Considering the amount of time that they'd spent sitting together in the back of the boat, Tim felt worn out as they made it back to their suit. It had been a wonderful day, the weather cool and crisp but not too cold even with the wind. It had really been a great idea for exploring the area. They'd even picked up some very nice Murano glass, both for their apartment and as gifts.

Danny gave him a kiss, set his heavier share of the bags down and headed for the shower. Tim set his own down and collapsed on the bed, considering joining his boyfriend. He wriggled as he felt something under him and reached under his back to find Danny's tablet. Why had it been left on his side of the bed…and still on…with no code needed to bring the screen up since it lit up when he brushed it. Danny usually used the security features…he knew that image, that file, because he'd made it. There were some alterations to the original he'd given Danny back then to look at. Did this mean what he thought it did?

"I'm not Phantom anymore," Danny spoke quietly from the bathroom door, and Tim realised he'd never heard the shower start. "Even if the acts are repealed and I'm free to be myself. The kid who became Phantom…isn't me anymore. But being Banshee, your partner, that I can do, if you want."

Tim dropped the tablet and flung himself at Danny. "Yes!"

Danny caught him like he weighed nothing, smiling at him, and Tim laughed. He had to admit, he loved the fact that Danny could catch him like that, could toss him around easily. Could explain why he'd had a brief crush on Kon (well, not so brief) and then that thing with Cassie, though that one was mostly the grief for Kon and Bart that they shared.

They kissed as Danny backed into the bathroom, the shower starting without either of them touching it. Tim shivered as he felt the chill of Danny's intangibility run through him, their clothing dropping to the floor even as Danny moved into the large shower. Hands wandered as hot water ran over them, kisses becoming deeper, needier. They washed each other eventually and stumbled back over to the bed.

Only this time, they didn't reach for clothing.

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Jason read the message from Tim again, wondering why he felt so shocked at Bruce's actions. But the old man had been doing so much better with boundaries lately, especially when it came to Tim and him. This was a major backstep and one that may cause a permanent rift, depending on how badly Danny was taking it.

He hoped they were having fun in Venice despite Bruce's actions. And he was going to have to talk to Dick, great. But if Bruce told him, he'd likely try and approach Danny and Jason doubted that would go well. Not with what he'd heard of their first meeting anyway. They were only distantly related but Dick was always so eager for family, welcoming everyone who dated his siblings so easily. At least the boys were out of range for the immediate fallout.

And he'd have to wait to talk to Dick because he was taking the brat to therapy today and there was no way he was going near that.

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Danny woke slowly to find Tim's head resting on his chest, his boyfriend still deeply asleep. He stretched slightly, just enjoying laying around in such a big, comfy, bed. Not that the one at the apartment wasn't big and luxurious cause it was, but this one was even fluffier. It was the weekend, so they had one week left of the best bed ever. And it was also the best bed cause of last night, that had not been planned at all, but he'd definitely say yes to doing it again. He now understood why people liked sex but he was also glad they'd taken things slow and not rushed into it.

Tim stirred sleepily, mumbling about mornings and demons, making Danny laugh, earning a whine. Danny kissed him and shifted, tugging the blanket up to hide Tim from the sunlight coming in through the curtains. Tim sighed and cuddled closer, going back to sleep.

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Kon lunged, covering Lois with his own body as blasts of green light hit where she'd been standing. He wrapped his TTK around her to keep her safe even as he looked up to see a group in white suits and sunglasses. Seriously? "Superman, GIW attacking Lois," he murmured. They just had to attack when he was there as Conner Kent. Ugh.

But the idiots had actually attacked! What did they think would happen when word of that got out? Even if they'd killed her, there's no way people wouldn't have put it together.

And then Superman crashed into the room, taking them out easily, ignoring the shots that hit him.

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Tim smiled and shook hands with the others in the room, just wanting the day to be done so he could get back to the hotel and get out of his suit. Sometimes he envied Danny not having to dress up for work. But that was the last meeting! Tomorrow they were heading back to Gotham.

He had really enjoyed most of the time in Venice but it would be good to be home, back in their apartment and Nest. He'd put in the orders, everything needed for Banshee's uniform should be there when they returned. And…he'd been playing around with the design program himself, pondering at least a shift in his own uniform…maybe even a full change of identity. He wasn't the same person as the one who had taken on the Red Robin mantle and maybe it was time to retire it, time to fully move beyond Robin and the bats.

Bruce taking that sample had really hurt, especially when he didn't seem to get why Tim and Danny were angry about it. It hadn't even been a bat thing; it'd been Bruce worrying Danny was related to one of them. Why did it even matter? Not like they'd be having biological kids or anything. He remembered that night on the roof, when Bruce promised he'd always be his son, even if he went independent, and maybe it was time.

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Jason watched the jet as it came to a stop and then finally two familiar forms disembarked. He waved at them, and they waved back. It was amazing to see Timbers looking so well rested, even taking time off patrol since the fundraiser he'd still looked sleep deprived, not surprising after fear gas.

"Hey Jay," Tim grinned at him, and Jason gave him a brief half hug.

"Hey kids. Your ride awaits." He waved at the waiting car.

"We were going to use a cab."

"Figured, but I borrowed this one from B instead. Figured you'd want the privacy." He tossed them two newspapers once they were in the car.

Front page of the main paper was the repeal of the Anti-ecto acts and disbanding of the GIW. Front page of the gossip rag was a picture taken from a distance of two figures walking beside one of Venice's famous waterways, the headline announcing them as Timothy Drake-Wayne and his mysterious beau. The headline got a noise of frustration from Tim even as Danny cheered at the first…which was interesting. He knew Tim had passed on information to Lois about that stuff, but what did it have to do with Danny? Was he, what was the word, liminal?

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Danny watched as the Christmas shopping began, ignoring it. Tim knew he didn't celebrate Christmas and he was fine with it. He'd go to the galas for the season but other than that, they weren't doing anything since Tim didn't feel comfortable going to Wayne Manor for the family Christmas. He wasn't sure if Tim had even spoken to Bruce since they were in Venice.

He hated the late shift but he ended up with lots of them in winter since everyone else would half freeze on the way home. And he still needed to talk to Tim about that, how hadn't he realised he was handling the cold better? Was it exposure to Danny that was pushing him towards cold tolerance as part of becoming liminal? Or was it natural?

He smiled as a customer approached, taking their order.

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Tim unlocked the front door and headed into the apartment. He toed his shoes off and headed for the stairs, wanting to change. He wanted a shower too before patrol. Danny had another late shift tonight but tomorrow Banshee would be debuting properly.

He paused at the base of the stairs, glancing around, something felt…off. But none of the alarms had been triggered, everything in place. So, he moved up the stairs. And then he felt a hand grab his shoulder and Tim went to move but there was a flash of blue and suddenly he couldn't keep his eyes open.

"Sweat dreams, little human," a strange voice came from far away as Tim slumped, fast asleep.

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Danny paused, looking around in confusion. Something felt…off, but there was no sign of anything. His ghost sense was quiet too so it wasn't that. He shook it off and went back to work.

TBC…

So, they had some time in Gotham and then a week and a half in Venice before trouble found them again.