#birdritch

“They deserve it Hummingbird and you know it,” Danny said as he turned. He smiled at the pair in the portal. “Thank you again for helping, Wulf.”

“Yeah, thanks,” Tim said. He dropped smoothly from his ghost form to his living as he exited the portal. “I’ll see you in two weeks, right? For the duel with Pandora.”

Wulf agreed with a little huff and gave them both a wave before he let the portal close.

“A duel with Pandora?” Danny asked. He was so very proud of how far Tim had come in such a short time. Being a Robin helped, of course, but so much of it was also just Tim finding his way within the Infinite Realms. Danny hadn’t even had to (or been able to) help much over the last few months due to how little time was wise to stay transformed.

“Oh, yeah! Since she had her spear and I use my quarterstaff, you know?” He practically bounded forward to take a cookie off the plate that Danny held up in offer. “Thanks. But she’s giant and has four arms so Wulf gets to be on my team too.”

“You better watch out for those four arms too, she can be brutal.”

“But that’s what’s going to make it so fun!

“You’re getting cocky, Hummingbird,” Danny said. He reached out to brush back some of Tim’s hair. It had gotten long. “It’s a good look on you.”

Tim shoved the cookie quickly into his mouth so that he could bat away Danny’s hands. “Daaaaad stop.”

“No,” Danny said cheerfully. “If I’m your ghost dad then I get to be proud of your progress. Give me another month or two and we’ll do a real tour of the Realms so that I can show you off.”

“But your health—”

“Is better every day,” Danny said. “I’m going to be better than I have been in years soon with the way that Bruce and Alfred both hover. Moving into the Manor is going to be the best thing for my health.”

“And Bruce’s too,” Tim said as he took another cookie. “You’re making him actually sleep in some. And he goes to work more just so that he can stare at your ass when you’re working.”

“Tim!”

“It’s true!”

Danny rolled his eyes and picked up the pruning shears. His shrimp roses had thrived a bit too much in the new settings and needed a bit of work. “Speaking of Bruce being better… when are you going to talk to him? It’s has been months now.”

Tim dropped down into a seat and chewed morosely at the cookie. “You know why I haven’t.”

“I do, that’s why I didn’t bother you before now, sweetheart,” Danny agreed. “You weren’t wrong that Bruce has been dealing with a lot of different thing, and he did need time to be able to compartmentalize them and work through them one by one.”

Tim winced. “Those few weeks of him actually dealing with my having die were not pretty.”

“He did get a bit stifling.”

“A bit?”

“Alright, a lot,” Danny said with a chuckle, “but I think that he’s gotten through the list now.”

Tim gave a little snort and started picking at his nails. “So what, I just… throw another thing at him now that he’s better?”

Danny came and crouched down in front of Tim. He reached out to stop the picking before Tim made himself bleed with the nervous tick. “So you be honest with him about a really, really big secret that you’ve been keeping, because he deserves to know. I get why you waited, but it’s time, Tim. I’m here with you, I’ll be next to you the whole time, and I’ll still be here when it’s dinner time. And the breakfast the next day and the next day…”

“I get it! My dads are sleeping together.”

Danny laughed and pressed another cookie into Tim’s hands as he stood. “How horrible for you.”

“What’s horrible for Tim?” Bruce asked, almost absently, as he wandered into the conservatory with his attention on his tablet.

“That you and I are sleeping together,” Danny explained. He pressed a kiss to Bruce’s cheek and took his tablet as he whispered. “Go sit down with your son.”

“Right,” Bruce said, brow raised in curiosity. “…how horrible for Tim.”

“Isn’t it? To have his dads together,” Danny said with a pointed motion at Tim from behind Bruce’s back.

“A truly tragic life,” Bruce agreed somberly as he sat down next to to Tim.

They looked good there in those wicker chairs, surrounded by the happily growing greenery. They looked happy, despite Tim’s nervous mood. Danny pondered if he could talk Alfred into letting them have lunch out here one day, like an indoor picnic.

Tim looked down at his hands. “You know that I do think of you as my dad, right?”

“I do, and I’m always honored,” Bruce said, brows pinched together in confusion. He was clearly trying to work out where this question came from. “I know there were times that I more than messed up with you and—”

“No, it’s not about that,” Tim said quickly. “We’ve talked about that.”

“Alright…” Bruce glanced from Tim to Danny. “Is this about you calling Danny your dad also even though we aren’t married yet?”

Tim gave a little snort. “I’m not as formal as Damian, waiting for it to be all official or anything. I mean, you two are already engaged. Besides, Danny was my ghost dad first.”

The humor made Bruce relax a little. “That is true. Something that Damian will always be jealous of, I fear.”

“Yeah… well, that, um, might not be all he’s jealous of,” Tim said.

“I’m afraid you really have me at a loss here, chum. What’s bothering you? I promise we’ll work through whatever it is, even if it means more therapy.”

“Yeah, it might mean more therapy,” Tim mumbled. He glanced up at Danny, and Danny made sure to smile back. It seemed to help, because Tim finally started actually getting to the matter. “So, when I went to Danny’s for those days, before I was taken… it was because I learned something that I had trouble… processing, I guess.”

“And it was no problem to help you work through it,” Danny assured Tim.

“He did too. I was going to coming and talk to you about it that Sunday when I was taken by the Court,” Tim said. (Danny had to resist the urge to growl at the name.) “But then, I mean obviously all of that happened and there were a lot of other things to deal with. And… I guess I’ve also been putting it off, which I hope you’re not mad about.”

“Telling me whatever it is now is alright,” Bruce assured Tim. “You’re right that there has been a lot to deal with.”

“It’s just that… like, you were already my dad, but the others were teasing me and I got curious, you know? And so of course I looked into it because I’m me, which is a mess I know, but—”

Bruce reached out to stop Tim from picking too hard at his fingers. “Tim, breathe.”

“Right,” Tim said before he listened and took a deep breath. He let it out slowly. “What I’m saying is that I ran our DNA. You’re actually, biologically, my dad.”

Bruce blinked several times, like he was trying to reboot his mind over what he had just heard. Danny covered his mouth so not to laugh. This was a very serious moment, after all. Then, suddenly from the doorway, “What the f old man, did you sleep with a married woman?”

“It wasn’t the first time I did, wait, what I mean, she was separated from Jack at the time,” Bruce said, head swiveling from Tim to Jason at the door to Danny and back to Jason. “And I of course wore protection—”

“I really don’t actually want to hear about you sleeping with my mom,” Tim said with a wince. “I just… I mean whatever happened it doesn’t change that, um, I mean… biologically…”

Bruce reached out and pulled Tim into a hug. “You’re my son. Biologically or not, you were already my son and this does nothing to change that. I am just… I’m sorry. I’m sorry that I didn’t know, that she didn’t tell me if she knew. I’m sorry that I wasn’t there for you all of those years.”

“That’s sickeningly sweet,” Jason said and then winced when Danny elbowed him.

“Leave them alone, this is a big thing for both of them,” Danny said softly.

“Damian is going to freak out, in both bad and good ways,” Jason warned, just as softly.

Danny nodded. “I know, Tim talked about it some. I’ll help handle him.”

“Sure.” Jason rubbed at his side as he looked back at the father and son pair. “Christ, all those jokes and they really two peas in a pod…”

Danny hummed. Jason was right, but he also wasn’t. There was certainly much of Bruce that came through in Tim’s personality, but Tim had grown up removed from that and very much into a young man of all his own. This was just a new connection to explore. “Come on, I’ll go with you to pick up Lian. Those two could use some time alone.”

“Who said you were invited to come pick up Lian?” Jason asked even as he turned to start walking.

“Lian, because she loves me,” Danny teased. He traded the pruning sheers for his cane by the small table at the door. He didn’t really need the cane much right then, but he’d gotten used to having it with him over the last few months. And it was a rather stylish looking cane that Bruce had made for him, what with the swooping heron head that made up the handle.

“Yeah, yeah, her grandpa Danny,” Jason said. “She just loves you right now because of the night light you gave her. Which, thanks, by the way, she’s never slept better.”

Danny nodded. “Good. I hoped it would help. The ghost in it loves eating nightmares.”

“…you’re fucking with me.”

“Just a little ghost. Itty bitty.”

“Danny…”

“It’s basically the intelligent of a hamster.”

“Danny—tell me your fucking with me and that you did not plug a ghost into my daughter’s wall.”

Danny gasped dramatically. “Jason, are you being anti-ghost?”

“Danny!”

Danny just laughed and kept heading for the doorway. Maybe it was a little mean to pick on Jason, but that was slowly becoming part of how they interacted with each other. It was just a little piece of the puzzle that was Jason and Tim and every single one of the children—official and unofficial. It was all just a little piece of this wonderful family that Danny was becoming part of.

“No, but I like the horde,” Danny said.

“Thanks ghost Dad,” Tim yawned.

“Yeah, thanks ghost Dad.”

“Stephanie?” Bruce asked. “When did you get here?”

She hummed from somewhere near the foot of the bed. “Early morning I guess, after, you know.”

“Right, well, maybe you can take another child with you and go see about breakfast,” Bruce suggested over his shoulder as he carried Danny towards the bathroom.

Danny rested his head against Bruce’s shoulder. “Thank you,” he said softly.

“For what?” Bruce asked.

“For letting me into your home. Letting me close to your family. I know how important they are to you and… it’s just… it means a lot to me, especially as a ghost,” Danny said.

“Is this another thing to talk about when we go into details about being a ghost?” Bruce asked. “And you’re very welcome.”

“It will be, yeah,” Danny agreed. He knew that Bruce or the children wouldn’t be upset at him for his ghostly needs, but he didn’t want to cause them any unease over it either. It was bound to at least be awkward.

“Alright,” Bruce said and pressed a kiss to Danny’s temple before setting him down on the counter. “But first cleaning up and then there are some… Wayne things that you should know about. It’s past time. Do you think you’re up for a shower? You don’t have to stand, there’s a bench seat.”

Danny tilted his head, curious, but did his best to stay focused. “A shower sounds down right hedonistic right now.”

Bruce chuckled and moved to turn on the water for it to warm up. “A shower it is then.”

And wow did a shower feel amazing. It was a little weird at first to need Bruce’s help getting clean, but Bruce’s touch was gentle and intimate in a way that settled Danny’s nerves. After drying off one very long shower later, Bruce slipped out of the bathroom in a robe only to come back with a stack of clothing sitting on a wheelchair.

“A wheelchair?” Danny asked, head tilted. “No, I mean, that makes sense, but you just have a wheelchair?”

“Dick was a very active child,” Bruce said with all the tired resignation of a parent who had seen it all. “The easiest way to keep him off an injury was to put him in a wheelchair. It just became a thing to keep in the manor’s medical supplies.”

Danny chuckled as he put on the clothing that Bruce passed him. “It worked for Jason and Stephanie too, didn’t it?”

“Oh, absolutely,” Bruce said with a small smirk. “It still works on Dick.”

“Of course it does. I don’t know if it will work on me, but I can’t go far anyways,” Danny said. He accepted Bruce’s help into the chair and sank gratefully into the surprisingly comfortable surface. He hated that he was exhausted by a simple shower, but he was exhausted.

Bruce kissed his cheek. “Remember, you’re a sickly Victorian maiden, let yourself be taken care of.”

“Well, in that case, onward to breakfast, my good man!”

“Your wish is my command.”

And onward they went, down a tucked away elevator that Danny assumed had been put in for Barbara, who had shown up for the meal. The table was full of chatter, stolen food, and so much life. Danny didn’t have the energy to participate much, but it didn’t matter when he was surrounded by all of that. Best of all, Tim didn’t seem hindered in the least from what he had been through. He was still Tim, just with a little extra. It was the better than Danny could have hoped for when he found Tim on the edge of death due to those damned false owls—

Tim stopped what he was doing and jerked his head towards Danny so suddenly that all the rest of the table froze. It was like everything had suddenly died away and Danny hated it.

“I’m okay, Hummingbird,” Danny tried to soothe. “I was just thinking that I have some clean up to do once I’m well enough.”

Tim frowned. “You’re going after the Court of Owls?”

“Is that what they’re called? I like false owls better,” Danny admitted.

“False owls?” Dick asked. “Why are they false?”

Danny blinked at Dick. “Because they aren’t real, not like you are. I—sorry, that’s…” Danny rubbed at his eyes. “Ever since this transformation of mine started, I’ve been thinking of certain people in terms of birds. I hadn’t really put it all together until after… everything.”

“Put what together?” Dick asked. “I… am I an owl?”

Danny hummed in confirmation as he tried to put everything into words that they could understand. “Ghosts… and halfa’s aren’t immune from it, we just get away with more, have haunts. Just like you would think in a traditional sense, a place or sometimes a thing, that we are attached to. With our haunts might come ‘fraids, a group of people or souls that are… ours. Ours not in so much a possessive way as a protective way.”

Some of the table nodded as Danny paused. He had to say this, he knew, but he still wasn’t ready. “I haven’t had a haunt since I left my home town which I used to protect. My sisters and two friends are still in my ‘fraid, as are my sister’s family, but it’s a different sort of thing with them so far away and out of my haunt. Frostbite seems to think… and well I don’t think he’s wrong… that I’ve started counting many of you as part of my ‘fraid. It’s why when Tim was taken I noticed so quickly and went so… feral about it.”

“We are that important to you?” Damian asked in a small little voice.

It made Danny look up. “Of course, chickadee. I—it may have started with the attack at WE or perhaps… you all are rather liminal. It likely made it easier for me to form that connection… and though it still feels sudden I know…”

“Danny,” Bruce interrupted. “I think that there is something we need to show you, before things go any further. It might clear up a few things.”

“I—okay?”

Bruce chuckled. “Says the man who we followed a werewolf through a glowing portal for.”

“You have a point,” Danny agreed. “But believe me that he’s one of the better options.”

“Wulf was very polite,” Bruce said. “Damian was sad that he missed out on a chance to meet a real werewolf.”

“I’m sure Wulf would happily meet Damian.”

Bruce hummed and then gave a pause before he felt the need to add, “Damian is not allowed to insist he be turned.”

“No?” Danny asked through barely contained laughter. “I’m sure I can make that clear to Wulf. Though logistically I don’t know if he could turn a living as a ghost? Or if it even works like that. Oddly it’s never come up.”

“Oddly?”

“You don’t know my friend Tucker.”

“Ah.” Bruce wanted to say that he was sure that there would be the chance to get to know this Tucker, but considering he was about to reveal who they were… he cleared his throat. “Well, I’m sure that Damian will ask many interesting questions if he gets the chance.”

“Doubtless,” Danny said absently, distracted as he watched Bruce open the door to a disarming linen closet. Bruce stepped in and moved a stack of towels so that he could press a piece of wood to reveal the hidden keypad. A moment later, the back wall slid open as part of the elevator door. “I think it’s even more ominous now.”

“Really? I think all mansions should have secret passages,” Bruce argued as he pulled Danny into the elevator.

“Oh, no, absolutely,” Danny agreed, “but it’s never worked out to well for me. My godfather was fond of secret passageways… and experimenting on me.”

Bruce gripped the handles of the wheelchair tightly. “Pardon?”

Danny hummed. “My youngest sister is actually my clone. I just call her sister because it’s easier.”

“Yes, I imagine so,” Bruce said tightly. “Please know that if I ever meet your godfather, I’m going to punch him.”

“Vlad would deserve it,” Danny said. “He was always a… oh.”

Bruce pushed Danny out of the elevator in silence.

The kids were gathered around the meeting table, each one nervous though they showed it all differently. Even Jason, for all his feet were up on the table, was tapping at the arm of the chair. Bruce needed this to go well for them. He needed this to go well for Damian and Tim especially. The older ones wouldn’t have any large issues moving on, but Damian was already so attached. And it would be good for Tim and even Duke to have another adult to talk with. Bruce wasn’t concerned about Danny leaving Tim stranded without help or training, but it would make things tense. Of course Bruce would do everything he could to make things easy despite the awkwardness—

“This explains so much,” Danny said, interrupting Bruce’s thoughts.

“I—what?” Bruce asked.

“I just—Ancients!” Danny gestured. “You’re—that means—you all! I met you before I met you! The first time I met you I basically…”

“Brooded us,” Tim supplied shamelessly.

Danny dropped his face into his hands. “Brooded you. The first time I met you I basically brooded you all!”

“Well, not Bruce. You preened Bruce’s little bat ears,” Dick said. He stuck his pointer fingers on either side of his head and wiggled them around. “I think we can say totally now that it was bird flirting.”

Bruce cleared his throat softly, not knowing what to say back to that. It had been, hadn’t it?

“Ancients, no wounder I wanted to protect you all!” Danny said into his hands. “And it’s probably why I felt safe to you! I’d been at, I guess, Ancient status in the middle of your—is lair offensive? Is that only a rogue word?”

“Depends on how much Bruce is brooding down here,” Jason said.

“How how long it has been since Timothy had slept,” Damian agreed.

“Boys,” Bruce sighed and started to push Danny over to the table. Room had already been made for the wheelchair at the table. Bruce took the seat next to Danny, who finally peaked up from out of his hands.

“And Jason,” Danny said, voice softer. “You were wary of me from the start, because you could feel what I was already.”

Jason shrugged, though the motion was a little hunched. “Maybe, I guess.”

“He kept trying to escape your feathery embrace,” Tim said. “Dick just embraced it.”

“Says the one who went to sleep,” Dick said.

Tim stuck his tongue out at Dick. “Yeah, well, Damian threatened to stab Danny.”

“A threat I sincerely regret, not that I would have harmed an animal… who turned out not to be an animal,” Damian said with a little frown.

“It’s alright, Damian, it had to be a really weird circumstance,” Danny said.

Cass smiled. “Was fun.”

Danny squinted back. “Is that why you found me right away?”

“Yes.”

“She cheated,” Tim grumbled.

“I… so…,” Danny looked down at the table, “how much research did you do on me? How much did you know before you ‘knew’?”

“None,” Bruce said instantly. “Well… none after I made the children stop in the limo after the ballet.”

Danny started. “Wait, none?”

Jason gestured to Danny. “See, even the guy in question thinks it’s weird!”

Bruce sighed and pinched the bridge of his nose. “Lucius looked into Danny before he was promoted to where he is now. And he looked into Danny even further when he was considering bringing Danny in to help with tech for us. He told us not to. I trust Lucius to only say that if he was certain that Danny was no threat.”

“He wanted me to work on tech for the Bats? So cool—wait, how much does Lucius even know? Bastard, I bet he somehow knows, like, everything,” Danny grumbled an pulled out his phone.

‘How much do you know?’

‘Hello, Phantom.’

‘Fuck.’

“Fuck.”

“He knows everything, doesn’t he?” Bruce asked. When Danny sighed, Bruce added, “This is why I trusted his word.”

“That, and he threatened us if we scared away his best people in R&D,” Tim added.

“…that too,” Bruce agreed. “Jason, not unwisely, didn’t like that as you grew closer to the family, but… to be blunt, I did not want everything I knew about you to be from a report. I wanted to actually get to know you.”

“The old man has gone soft,” Jason stage whispered to Damian who nodded gravely.

Bruce gave them a fond glare. “I don’t know about that. If it hadn’t been Lucius who had looked into Danny, things would have been different. And, may I point out, that Danny has been extremely honest with us—and very trusting.”

“Counterpoint,” Tim said and steepled his fingers. “Stalking is my love language.”

“Love languages are made up by a controlling misogynistic tradwifer, Timbird,” Jason said.

“Timbird,” Tim mouthed more than said.

Danny just frowned. “So, when I called you after Tim was… when I pressed the panic button and when you said that the Bats had been in contact…”

Bruce glanced away towards the emptiness of the of the Cave where the structure ended. He didn’t know how to explain everything that was wrapped up in this secret. Being Batman was… almost unexplainable at this point. But he had to at least try and explain some of the why. “I didn’t want to have the conversation like that, over the phone. And it wasn’t as important at making sure that Tim was safe, or that you were safe. Of course, then as soon as we could have it you collapsed…”

“Oh sure, blame the guy in a wheelchair,” Danny teased. He reached out and squeezed Bruce’s hand. “Hey, look at me. I get it. I was a hero too. There were times when I had to have this same sort of conversation. I mean, I didn’t have a cool lair to have it in or anything, but I get it. I don’t blame you for not telling me sooner or for trying to find the right moment now. Thank you, for telling me. Thank you all of you, I know how much trust this is.”

“Yeah, well, we’re already trusting you with Hummingbird here,” Jason said, arms crossed, “so this is just like the other side of it.”

“Thank you, Jason,” Danny said again, because he understood.

Bruce didn’t know how much of it was their first meeting or being liminal or just Danny being who he was, but Danny understood them. It something that Bruce had given up the hope of finding in someone, but there Danny was, caring for Bruce’s family, laughing with them, smiling. He was still there after blood and pain and suffering. He was accepting their other sides like it was nothing.

Danny glanced at Bruce, mid laugh over something that Damian was saying to Tim. He tilted his head, smile still on his lips. “What?”

Bruce twisted their fingers together. “Just thinking about how sometimes, when one gives up hope, it has a way of finding them.”

“Yeah? Thinking about keeping hope around then?”