#its back

Di ka matiis, kapag inalis mo ika'y mamimiss~~

MY STICKER SHOP IS OPEN AGAIN! and this time with two new sets! A remake of the re8 lords and the bakers family in re7!

Check out my etsy and kofi if you are interested!

(Repost)

Shameless ao3 plug

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At first? Alfred was pleased to see that Master Bruce and Young Master Damian had been able to do a bonding activity together and both came back from it unscathed. The young boy had only recently joined the household and was having a hard time adjusting to life in the manor. The only thing Master Bruce had been able to get Young Master Damian to agree to before their trip to Amity Park was training and field work. But now…. there was Danyal.

Yes. The teddy. It was a problem. Not a big problem at the moment but it was something that Alfred was keeping an eye on. It wasn't much at first. Alfred was getting on in age and he knew that his senses weren't as sharp as they once were. He knew that eventually his mind was going to slip as well. At first he thought that maybe that day had finally come.

The teddy was always attached to Young Master Damian's hip when he thought nobody else was home. The boy only seemed to trust Alfred to see him with his new friend that he had lovingly named Danyal. For all the pride within the young master, he was still a young boy who had never been given the chance at a normal existence. Alfred knew that better than anyone. He recognized it in the young master’s eyes. He was scared and hardened. He had seen things no child should. Things he didn't fully understand when he started doing them in turn.

Now that he wasn't doing them anymore, he seemed to need something to hold onto. Danyal seemed to be that thing. Alfred knew better than to say anything about it. He wanted Young Master Damian to be as comfortable as possible in this new place with new rules and new people he had to learn to get long with at the very least. If Danyal was that thing that made the transition even the slightest bit easier then Alfred was glad that Young Master Damian felt comfortable enough with him to let himself be vulnerable and hold the teddy in his presence.

He would come to eat breakfast on his own, as it often was nowadays. The others all had their day jobs. Master Bruce would spend his day making a fool of himself for the press to see. Young Master Dick was off in Bludhaven most of the time now, hardly ever coming to visit lest Bruce wanted to buy a new window. Young Master Jason was still with the league (Alfred was well aware that the boy was alive once more as he had snuck into the Batcave on occasion only to be mistaken for a hallucination by Young Master Dick and Young Master Tim on several occasions). Young Miss Cassandra came and went as she pleased, not eating with others often. Young Miss Barbara spent her days in the local library. While Young Miss Stephanie was not one of Master Bruce's children, she was often in the manor in the evening to see Young Master Tim. Although she spent her mornings sleeping in. Thus, breakfast before school was a perfect opportunity for Young Master Damian to hug his teddy as he came down the stairs and into the kitchen as nobody was home by that time.

Young Master Damian did this every morning. Most days, Alfred asked if the young master had slept well and most days he got a glare in response. That was quite alright. He had plenty of time to wear the child down. Alfred knew that it was going to be a slow process. Young Master Damian was like his father in that sense. Alfred could still remember how it had taken a month for Miss Martha to convince Young Master Bruce make friends with one of the children he went to school with at the time. He had attempted it after she begged but Alfred never saw the boy again after the young master simply became... the master.

Sometimes while Young Master Damian ate his food, he would speak with Danyal, as if the teddy knew what he was saying. At first Alfred thought it was Young Master Damian embracing his young age in a rare moment of vulnerability. But after the events Alfred had started observing from the teddy, he began to think that maybe it did understand. Even if it was just the slightest bit.

It started with small things. Alfred would catch movement in the corner of his eye and when he went to look, Danyal would be sitting just as it was before but it was leaning a bit more than before, sometimes as if it were trying to cock its head to the side in confusion. Sometimes it was as if it were leaning to try and get a better look at something Alfred was standing in front of. The first few instances of this were far enough apart that Alfred had almost forgotten it had happened before. It was enough to make any normal person think that it was a one off, the bear leaning as gravity slowly pulled it down from it's position. Unfortunately for Danyal, Alfred was the farthest thing from normal so he had started to notice the pattern.

As time went on, Young Master Damian would often leave Danyal with Alfred for the day, claiming the bear had told him that it liked the butler very much and wanted to spend the day with him while Young Master Damian was at school or on patrol. So, Danyal became Alfred's little pal, coming along in Alfred's arm as he did his duties for the day, often setting him down nearby when he needed both hands. This was when Danyal began to do more than just lean.

On several occasions, Alfred would look away after placing Danyal on a surface to do some work only to turn around once more to find that the teddy had moved to another surface in the room. It was a curious habit for a stuffed bear to have. Curious indeed. Alfred made note of it. As long as the behavior, while strange, was no threat, he felt comfortable letting it continue for the sake of Young Master Damian who had grown oh so attached to it. For months, things went on this way.

Until, that is, when Danyal started talking. It made Alfred whip his head around the first time he heard it, thinking someone was in the house but all he saw was the teddy sitting there, staring back at him.

“The mice do not like the mist.”

While the message seemed to be quite random, the tone had that of an audiobook or somebody attempting to sound soothing while reading aloud. The voice seemed to be of a young man. The accent was slightly different from those in the household. Not a Gothamite to be sure. When Alfred took a better look, he realized that the sound came from a small voice box in the hand of the teddy. Alfred thought maybe the toy was malfunctioning for a moment but at this point it had gone too far and he had seen to many things for him to not at least suspect that it was somewhat intelligent. He simply had to inform Master Bruce.

He did try to at least. He had told his master that the teddy was simply unnatural. Something must have been wrong with Danyal, if it was really a teddy bear at all. Alfred suspected that it was far too intelligent to only be a stuffed toy.

“Alfred, I can’t take Danyal from him,” Master Bruce had said, “He loves that bear and I wouldn’t want to be on the wrong end of his swords if it were to go missing.” While Master Bruce was more than capable beating his son in combat, he felt it would be best if he didn’t do something to cause his son to want to fight in the first place, given he was still trying to gain his trust.

While he knew his master had a point, Alfred was still not entirely sure whether or not the teddy was any sort of threat. It hadn’t been so far but who was he to know the motives of a stuffed toy?

So after Young Master Damian left for school and the house was empty, Alfred placed Danyal on the table and stared at it for a long while before sitting down in front of the bear, and staring at it some more.

“What are you…” he mumbled mostly to himself. Alfred didn’t have much of a plan when it came to figuring out the answer to his little question.

“I’m me.”

Alfred watched the Danyal lean the slightest bit to the right.

“Ah yes. That was very helpful thank you.” Alfred rolled his eyes the slightest bit in response. That was until he realized he was talking to a stuffed teddy.

“I’m sorry.”

Alfred blinked. This was definitely a development. There was still the slightest bit of a chance that he was finally getting to that point in his age that he was simply hearing things. And while that chance did exist, Alfred rather thought it smarter to make sure that Danyal meant no harm anyways just in case the voice he was hearing was infact real.

“That’s quite alright. I assume you can only repeat things already saved in your voice box,” he said.

“Yes.”

Alfred nodded, “I will try and understand you the best I can.”

“Thank you.”

Alfred decided to start with his own questions, “Why are you here?”

“She has our hearts in her keeping.”

Alfred frowned, “I’m sorry, I’m not sure what you mean by that. Um… how about- do you wish us harm?”

“No.”

He could live with that at least. He could get used to Danyal in the home as long as it meant everyone was going to be safe.

A thought occurred to Alfred, “Are you- a boy? Like your voice box? What pronouns do you prefer?”

“I believe I was once a boy.”

“He/him pronouns then,” Alfred said, “I’ll try to respect that as long as you are here with us. Do you ever talk to Young Master Damian like you are talking to me?”

“She has our hearts in her keeping.”

Alfred furrowed his brow in thought. He still didn’t know what that meant but it must have been very important to the teddy if he kept on repeating it. He decided to try something else.

“Were you always a teddy bear,” he asked.

“No.”

“What were you then,” Alfred stood from his seat, realizing he was behind schedule on his daily duties due to the conversation. He lifted Danyal into his arms and began to head to the stairs.

A long pause.

“Phantom.”

Another pause.

“It comes to me that I certainly was a boy, now I do think on it.”

Alfred did not fully understand it. But he knew enough to be saddened by this answer. The only thing he could really guess was that it was ghost that was tethered to the bear in some way. Like the Annabelle doll two of his friends once found while they were traveling the country. While their charade was a scam, he still remembered how real that doll turned out to be.

“Are you… happy here? With Young Master Damian?”

“I suppose…. Interesting.”

Alfred nodded, heading up to Master Bruce’s room to tidy up, Danyal in tow.

“Bruce.”

Alfred’s eyes widened. He hadn’t excepted that name to be in the voice box or for the bear to recognize who was who in the home other than maybe himself and Young Master Damian, “Yes I usually go to his room first to check for laundry and tidy the bed.”

“Father.”

“Yes, Master Bruce is Young Master Damian’s father. He is also my employer,” said Alfred.

He found himself explaining more to the bear as they went about Alfred’s day. Telling him which rooms were whose and who everyone was to one another. There were lots of names in the voice box. And Danyal seemed to find one to replace the ones he couldn’t say when referring to each member of the house. Alfred was referred to as “old man” which he didn’t take offense to. He knew his age.

Master Bruce was still Bruce. Young Miss Barbara was Miriam. Young Master Dick was Jock. Young Miss Cassandra was Ophelia. Young Master Jason was Angus. Young Master Tim was Hamish. Young Miss Stephanie was April. Young Master Damian was Andrew. Danyal referred to himself as Phantom.

Speaking with the sentient teddy seemed to pass the time rather well, making the long days feel not as such when he was all by himself in the manor. The bear became a great listener when he wanted to speak about his frustrations on the few occasions he could not sit silently about them. The two of them became quite the duo when nobody else was home, the others no doubt noticing but no one ever made a negative comment about it with any real malice.

Just as Alfred had suspected, the toy would never speak around Young Master Damian but Alfred was starting to see why. When Danyal and Young Master Damian were together, Young Master Damian seemed to have an understanding with the teddy. He would talk to him and as if he were talking back and seemed to know when Danyal wanted to stay downstairs for the day rather than go back to his bedroom. On those days, the young master would shuffle to Alfred with a glare, telling him Danyal wanted to spend the day with him, handing over the bear.

Once again, Alfred found himself becoming quite the duo with Danyal, often having him around when the young master was busy. He didn’t mind it. It actually was quite fun. Especially since no one else understood why he was so respectful to the toy. Sometimes, the voice box would start to play while others were around but not within earshot which only made the everyone more confused when Alfred was the only one who could hear it and respond.

On more than one occasion, Master Bruce had tried to tell Alfred that perhaps a doctor’s visit was in order to which the old man could only laugh as he had tried to tell him several times that the bear was a peculiar little thing. On one occasion in particular, Alfred had seen Young Master Jason sneak into the manor to see Young Master Damian and the poor boy stared at Alfred as he conversed with Danyal while preparing the dough for some tarts he was planning on baking. Alfred had pretended not to notice Young Master Jason so he wouldn’t have to fetch Master Bruce and cause a very awkward family reunion neither of them were prepared for.

“Out of curiosity, is Danyal the name you had before you were a bear or was the name chosen by young Master Damian,” he had asked while prepping the ingredients. He had sat Danyal on the countertop, leaning against the tile on the wall while he worked.

"It's Coraline. Not Caroline. Coraline."

By now Alfred was getting better at understanding what the teddy was trying say despite the obvious limitations, "Ah. So your old name was similar but not the same."

"Yes."

"Interesting. Well I hope that the new name is comfortable for you,” Alfred said as began to mix the dry ingredients in a bowl.

“It is.”

He smiled, “I’m glad to hear that.”

The bear suddenly shifted the slightest bit, leaning as if looking over Alfred’s shoulder, “Angus.”

A laugh fell onto the old man’s lips as the teddy was just as perceptive as ever. Alfred had also noticed Young Master Jason standing there in the doorway to the kitchen. He was doing his best to ignore it, as the boy was only here to see Young Master Damian and he knew it wasn’t his place.

“Yes, he drops by from time to time. I must say you have quite the eye Danyal,” Alfred said, turning away from the baffled look in the doorway. Danyal’s speaker box was quiet so it most definitely looked as though he was talking to an inanimate object. He paid no mind to that simply continued mixing ingredients.

“Anyways, your tinsel looks very good today. Did Young Master Damian have you dry cleaned?”