Possible trigger warning for mention of death in child birth. It's literally one sentence, and it didn't actually happen. It is the explanation for the twins' nonexistent mother.
“Okay, let me make sure I understand the situation.” Barbra looked around the cave at all of the bats save Damian and Cass. They had even woken Duke up early for this. “None of you knew Tim was in a relationship, let alone married? None of you?” She was frankly impressed with the unmitigated disaster playing out in front of her.
“No we didn’t.” Bruce responded “Why did you? Did he know you would find out regardless and tell you to get ahead of that? Make it seem like we all knew.”
“Okay I should establish something real quick because you are all very lost. Tim was in no way, shape, or form hiding his marriage.” Barbra started then had to speak louder to be heard over the sudden outcry. “Shut up I’ll prove it.” She went over to the computer.
She called Barry Allen. “Hi Barry, it’s Barbra. I need to ask you something to prove a point.”
“Okay? Shoot.” The speedster responded with clear confusion.
“Has Red Robin at any point asked you for relationship advice and if so what for?”
“I’m sorry what?”
“Just answer the question.” Bruce demanded brows furrowed.
“Yeah, about a month into dating Danny. He asked about balancing a relationship with a civilian and how to deal with twin babies as a hero.” He explained. “What’s going on?”
“Nothing important. I’ll tell you later." Barbra said hanging up on him. Barbra called a few other heroes and Lucius fox to prove her point of Tim having been fairly open about his relationship.
“Okay so we’ve established that this was never being kept secret so now let’s figure out how you all missed it.” She looked around the room.
“All of you read Tim’s report on the time stream investigation right?” She asked as she pulled it up. Upon getting agreement from the rest she continued. “Tim met Danny while he was in Chicago meeting Constantine’s contact that got us the information on when Bruce would emerge. Due to the contact, that we only know as Phantom needing access to someone with a close relationship with Bruce Tim stayed in Chicago for two months before giving us the information through Constantine.” She pulled up an alternate identity profile for Alvin Thompson. “Because of how long he was set to stay in Chicago he lived under one of his aliases. Tim didn’t include it in the main report but if you look at the other notable information he talked about what he was doing while in Chicago. While living there he made friends with another teen, Danny. They got pretty close. Danny’s ex girlfriend Melissa was expecting twins and she was going to sign her parental rights away leaving them in Danny and his older sister’s custody.” She pulled up a selfie of Tim and Danny in a skate park. “Tim decided to stay in Chicago even after Phantom got the information about Bruce. He and Danny started dating a month before the twins were born. Melissa had an unknown allergy to a medication used during the birth and passed away. The twins had some health complications that required blood transfusions. Those came from Tim. After the twins were stable enough Danny and sister moved here to Gotham and Tim returned.” She had been pulling up section after section in Tim’s report that explained this situation. That all of them had some how missed.
“Okay to be fair the other information section typically only has things like how many batarangs were used. Not an entire romance novel.” Jason joked.
As Bruce was about to respond to that they were interrupted by a call from Damian and Cass.
Bruce immediately answered with a grunted “Report.”
“Hello Father. We have been observing Timothy and his family and they have over all seemed to be a completely average family. Both Timothy and his husband are attentive to the twins as well as each other. All four seem to be openly affectionate with each other. However we have just observed that both Nightingale and the male twin have the ability to fly.” Damian explained.
“Well yes Danny is literally a known meta. So are both of the twins.” Barbra looked around again disappointed and tired.
“I see.” Bruce said seeming somewhat lost. “Cass what were your observations?”
“They are all happy. I have more but want to wait.” She explained in a short manner.
“Okay I think we have enough. Cass Damian come home tonight after they go to sleep. We will reach out to Tim to talk about this when he gets back to town tomorrow.”
-
Cass waited for Damian to be asleep as she flew the plane to call Dinah. She needed to ask some questions before she talked to her family.
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Runaways AU
Ultimately the Longphisers brought soup to Ilya and Shane's. Martha's knee was still hurting and Ilya had insisted that she take on no extra burden. The soup shouldn't go to waste, but Ilya refused to give Martha or Albert the work of cleaning up for or after a party.
Albert was the man Shane remembered, and Ilya was already smiling at him with warmth when he slipped the soups into the fridge.
"Want me to get those heated up?" Shane asked.
"That would be amazing, my love, thank you."
Shane got to work as Ilya settled the Longphisher's at the table with wine and non-identifiable stories about Anya's puppy days.
"I was just showing Martha the pictures from Mountain View Trail," Ilya caught Shane up as he placed the pot of soup on the table mat.
"Oh, yeah," Shane offered conversationally. "It was gorgeous."
Gorgeous was an understatement, but he didn't think a polite neighborly dinner really called for any confessions of the soul.
"Oh!" Martha squeaked.
"What?" Shane froze. Had he done something wrong? He couldn't think of anything. He started running through the whole interaction, combing for any social misstep.
"I haven't heard you speak English before," Martha continued sheepishly. "We thought you didn't-"
Ilya cackled. "Svoboda speaks better English than me!"
"Sloboden?"
"Just Bodi is fine," Shane offered in place of a correction of her pronunciation.
Albert smiled. "Bodi. Nice to officially meet you."
Heat rose in Shane's cheeks. He hadn't even introduced himself. Wow he was a bad neighbor. Three weeks in and he hadn't even spoken enough to anyone besides Ilya to have used English in public. That was… yeah that was just a fact. Speaking Russian made him feel safe. Every time he was in town he was either hanging back, letting Ilya do the talking, or gossiping into his ear in Russian. How embarrassing.
"My family back in Russia primarily spoke English," Shane said as easily as he could.
"Oh?" Albert prompted, ever curious. In some ways he reminded Shane of Rose. He was the type of person who you felt was really listening when you spoke, and really cared that you were entertained when he shared a story himself.
It hadn't occurred to Shane that he could just say he was from Russia. The plan was going to be something complicated to explain his shoddy Russian. His family moving there when he was a teenager, having roots in Russia but for some reason not teaching him it when was he was a kid. But no one around here spoke Russian enough to even realize his accent was terrible. What was just proposed made much more sense anyway. Shane had never been a good liar, but he'd practiced their story a minion times in the mirror so he was confident enough that he at least wouldn't be caught in a slip up, he trimmed off the parts about his immigration and obliged. Besides, it gave him an excuse to give his story out loud and make it real.
"Irene and I both come from fairly influential families in Russia, no one you'd really be able to know the names of but high up enough that they cared about their reputations. Having a gay or even bisexual," Shane nodded to Ilya, "son wasn't going to be acceptable."
Albert nodded along without judgment or urgency. Shane's fondness for the man was unquenched.
"We met at 18, and then we kept meeting." Ilya and Shane shared a smile. Martha and Albert shared a similar but different one. "But obviously our families would never approve, so. Even when we go serious we had to keep hiding. No one could know anything. It was constant hiding."
"That sounds tiring," Martha sympathized.
"It was," Ilya said, voice low.
Shane's chest twisted. He wanted to drop into Ilya's lap and wrap his arms around him. After the Longphishers were gone. He would do it then.
"Yes," Shane continued, "and so we made a plan to run. Irene had a friend in the US. She able to set us up with a life. We owe her everything."
"Technically," Ilya was always the one who had an easier time lying out of the two of them. "We are missing persons. But it feels more like we are fugitives. We cannot spend any of our own money in any way that is traceable, or appear in anything that could let government find us."
"If they find us we'll be kept apart. Sure there are other dangers, but that's the only one I care about." Ilya shot Shane a look that seemed to say 'good job at selling that one!' but Shane wasn't lying. No, his gut roiled at the idea of being caught, of being dragged back to the scrutiny. His mother rearing back into his life.
Yuna had always fixed him into the image of the perfect man. Scolded him away from desire and autonomy. Worst of all, without even knowing Ilya, she seemingly knew he was a threat. Like a sixth sense—she was obsessed. At home Ilya had been the source of all things warm, in Montreal his name was a cold snarl. It was like Yuna could somehow feel that he was the one thing that made Shane deviate from the image she curated. She had never missed an opportunity to tell Shane how improper the man he loved was. Oh how she would rive if she learned the depth of the only thing Shane wouldn't give up for her.
If god forbid they were found, they would be torn apart, Shane would be forced back into the spot light, and the last part of self he'd managed to shove under his fingernails would be ripped away. Ilya was laughing at something Albert had said. Shane would kill before he let that happen.
"What do you think, Bodi?" Martha called over.
Shane was ripped from his thoughts, still feeling a bit raw. "What?"
"Just say you think that would be a lovely idea." Ilya laughed in Russian. "They're offering to deal with the power company for us if they ever come out so we don't get seen."
I love your Freelance Inventor Au so much! (And, like, all your other work,, lol) I can't help imagining Danny finding out about the Batfam and turning to Bruce like, "You let our kids be vigilantes?!" Meanwhile Bruce is stuck on the fact that Danny called them "Our" kids. Or the reveal the other way, with Bruce finding out about Phantom first? He'd freak out- clearly he doesn't know Danny as well as he thought he did. And he can't believe Danny never told him! Meanwhile, Danny thought he mentioned the Phantom thing ages ago and that Bruce just doesn't care.
Since Jazz put the idea in his head, Danny has been unable to think of anything else. The idea that he might be in love with Bruce Wayne and had been for so many years but didn't notice because he assumed everyone felt that way for that one's best friend.
It was there whenever he was drafting new blueprints, when he traveled across the world looking for inspiration and investors, when he settled into bed for a good night's rest, and most of all, when he finished his weekly phone call with Bruce.
"Get some rest," Bruce's warm, smooth voice says over the speakers. "I'll talk to you soon. Goodnight, Danny."
"Goodnight," he responds softly. He has a request to stay on the line on the tip of his tongue, but with the time difference, he knows it's not a good idea. And have a good day, Bruce."
The call ended with a click, but he couldn't help but feel their goodbye needed something.
I love you.
That was it. That's what was missing. But did he dare? Could he? Was he confusing love for something it wasn't? Was Bruce even interested?
Danny places his phone on his chest, staring at the ceiling of the latest hotel he booked, wondering if Bruce is leaving for lunch with the kids. He said they were celebrating Tim's new clothesline and wished he was there to cheer the boy and his team on.
Danny is in Toykyo today, presenting his new hologram keyboards to a big company.
Of course, they were the second company allowed the selling rights. Wayne Tech was the first, and Danny kept the production and creation rights. It was one of Danny's most ingenious inventions, if he did say so himself, but the look on Bruce's face when he revealed it to him was far more exhilarating than creating the keyboard or gaining the fat paycheck.
Fenton's Ghost Touch was a set of two rings with a hologram keyboard inside. When someone needed to type, they would spin the rings and double-tab the inner lining, connecting to devices using the Bluetooth function.
A visible hologram would pop up underneath their fingers, or if they wanted (and were good enough typers), they could move their fingers in the air without it, which would still allow them to type.
Danny had chosen to release the line in black internationally with Toyko, but Wayne Tech would release an exclusive color line. The rings were of the same design, all using slick silver bands but with different colors as the activation inner rings and some elegant carvings, unlike the international releases, which were just one solid color.
Fenton's Ghost Touch would come in seven colors: blue, red, pink, green, purple, white, and yellow.
Danny had purposely designed them using each of the Wayne kids' favorite colors and sent them all a set with their corresponding colors. The morning they arrived, he got a picture of them showing off their new rings, smiling widely at the camera from Bruce.
He saved the photo as his laptop background. His phone background already had a picture of him and the Waynes at Thanksgiving. They had crowed around, holding their wreaths with Bruce and Danny in the center.
Danny had been facing the camera, beaming in pride at the kids' work. Bruce was half-turning, his gaze stuck on Danny's face with a strange, fond, soft smile, the kind he rarely saw Bruce give anyone else.
It made him hope. Oh, how he hoped, but it also scared him. What if this wasn't love? Danny has never been in love before, has never fallen to the urges that others describe, and had been so comfortable convincing his asexuality meant he would never have to be the kind of person staying up long into the night overthinking every interaction with another person.
Yet here he was, seeing Bruce in a whole new light and discovering how different everything was because of it. But at the same time, how nothing had changed. He spoke to Dani about this, but his clone-turned-sister had only shrugged.
"You raised kids with the man." She laughed. Dani wasn't like Danny, and although she was more informed than their parents, she had difficulty wrapping her head around not having those feelings. "I think it's past the point of having a crush on him. I think you should go for it. Make it official."
Danny reaches up, rubbing at his eyes. It was midnight, and he had a meeting with another with the Japanese board again at eight. He really needed to rest and be on top of his wits so that he and his lawyer could ensure the contact was in his best interest.
He clicks open his gallery on his phone instead of swiping through photos of Bruce and feeling his heart leap nearly out of his chest. He misses the man.
Since Jazz's conversation, Danny has been practically avoiding him. This is due to his being hyper-aware of himself and Bruce: the way Bruce laughed, the dip in his voice whenever the British accent he picked up from Alfred popped in, the slight facial expressions he made when confused about emotions, the shift from playful to professional in work settings, and most of all, the attention he always bestowed onto Danny.
How the world just seemed brighter whenever he was with the man.
Bruce was his sun, and Danny was nothing more than a flower seeking him out. It made the Halfa want to hide in a hole but dance around in public all at once, and he didn't know why.
He finds a video, tapping the play button before thinking further of it, and melts when the first sound he hears is Bruce's laughter. It's quickly followed by the loud noise of the Waynes' Children. It was taken at the last Wayne game night—at the time, Danny had been in England with Dani.
Tim recorded Damian standing proudly over a map covered in white trains, arms spread into a T position, and Duke screaming accusations of cheating. After Alfred banned Monopoly in the Manor, the game Ticket to Ride quickly took over as the new worst enemy creator.
Dick was in the background sobbing into his hands as Jason tried to confront him. Steph and Cass were each leaning on Bruce's two shoulders, laughing as hard as their father, and Alfred was out of frame but not out of hearing, so when he stated, "Master Dick, how could have gone in the wrong direction? It's the map of the USA, it hasn't change in years!"
"He has a concussion, Alfrie!" Jason protested hotly. "Leave him alone!"
"YOU CHEATED!" Duke raged as Damian continued his pose with the most serious expression he'd seen on the child. It made his heart swell to see Damian copying him.
Danny struck the same pose whenever he beat his sisters at a game, even at his advanced age. Once an annoying brother, always an annoying brother.
The video ends with Tim flipping the camera. His broad grin covered the whole screen as he shouted, "Love you, Dad! Miss you! Can't wait to see you!"
Danny turns to his side, feeling his heart flutter more as the word plays repeatedly in his head. A few years ago, the Wayne Kids—excluding Damian, who was polite to the point it hurt—switched from Danny to Dad when referring to him.
Bruce hadn't made a big deal about it even though they called him Dad. Would that mean the man was happy his kids saw him as a second father figure? Did it mean the man thought of him as....a husband?
Danny groans, burying his face into the cool sheets of his futon, begging his mind to stop for a few seconds so he can rest. After this deal goes through, Danny is going to face the music.
He would go to Gotham and figure out a way to tell Bruce how he felt. He just hopes he has it figured out by then. Danny has an idea, but explaining the mess in his head into words is going to be much harder than anything he's ever done.
Not to mention Phantom. That was a can of worms he hadn't ever touched in Wayne's presence. What was Bruce's stance on ghosts anyway?
Should he practice what he would say about the topic? Turning onto his back, Danny holds up his phone, clicking the screen so the lock screen image of a grinning Bruce appears.
It was from the surprise vacation Danny rented out the hut next to the ones the kids sent Bruce to. It had been taken at sunset, the soft orange and purples of the sky framing Bruce's grin and dancing on his wind-blown hair. It had been a spur-of-the-moment walk around the beach, but from Danny's perspective down below and Bruce climbing back up to his hunt, it had almost appeared like Bruce was descending from the heavens.
Danny had used every film skill he had ever heard Dani speak about to capture the beautiful sight.
It is the best picture he's ever taken.
"I love you," the words leave his mouth in surprise, even though he had meant to talk about ghosts. But when they are spoken, he ducks into ice water and realizes they are true.
He sits up, using both hands to hold the phone in front of him, hoping that somehow, in some unrealistic dream, the words will carry across the world, and Bruce will hear them. Maybe even feel them, too. "I love you, I think I do. Do you love me too?"
The screen goes dark, and Danny sighs. Ten years. Will he really risk ten years of friendship over these little feelings?
[Danny floating around a space station, inspecting glowing tech. Green Lantern (Hal Jordan) appears, constructing a giant glowing boxing glove with his ring.]
Green Lantern: [grinning] Who are you, Casper? And why are you messing with that?
Danny: [turning around] First of all, rude. Second, it’s Danny, not Casper. Third… this thing was glowing. I’m like a moth to a flame.
Danny: [looking at Hal’s ring] Cool toy.
Green Lantern: [smirking] It’s not a toy. It’s a highly advanced weapon powered by willpower.
Danny: Uh-huh. So, like… can I try it?
Green Lantern: [laughs] No way, kid.
Danny: [phases through Hal and tries to grab the ring] Come on, share the cool space bling!
Green Lantern: [yanks his hand away] Okay, definitely no.
[Danny watching Hal make constructs]
Danny: You’re telling me that thing can make anything?
Green Lantern: Yep. As long as I can imagine it and have the will to sustain it.
Danny: [grinning] So, like, a giant pizza?
Green Lantern: [sighs, makes a glowing green pizza] There. Happy?
Danny: [pretending to eat it] Meh, needs ectoplasm.
[Hal sees Danny go intangible to dodge lasers during a fight.]
Green Lantern: Okay, not bad, Ghost Boy.
Danny: Thanks. You’re doing great too—for someone using a glowing green mood ring.
Green Lantern: [narrowing eyes] It’s not a mood ring.
Danny: [grinning] You sure? It kinda screams “emotional support jewelry.”
[Danny tries to prank Hal mid-mission.]
Danny: [phasing into the cockpit of Hal’s spaceship] Boo!
Green Lantern: [not even looking] Saw your glowing trail. Nice try.
Danny: Dang it! Why do you space people keep catching me?
Green Lantern: Kid, you literally glow. Stealth is not your strong suit.
[Green Lantern tests Danny’s creativity with constructs.]
Green Lantern: If you had a ring, what would you make?
Danny: [grinning] A giant thermos to trap bad guys.
Green Lantern: …Why a thermos?
Danny: Because ghosts. Duh.
Green Lantern: [muttering] This is why I don’t work with teenagers.
[Green Lantern complains to the Justice League group chat.]
Green Lantern: Why is the ghost kid my problem today?
The Flash: He’s everyone’s problem, Hal. Welcome to the club.
Wonder Woman: Perhaps he’s a test of patience.
Batman: He’s surprisingly effective.
Danny: [joins the chat] Aw, Bats thinks I’m useful.
Green Lantern: Who gave him access to this chat?!
[Later, Danny with Sam and Tucker]
Danny: So, I met Green Lantern today. Cool guy, bit of a control freak.
Tucker: Dude, his ring can do anything! Did you try it?
Danny: No, but I did call it a mood ring. Pretty sure he hates me now.
Sam: Sounds about right.
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