Bitch You Live Like This?
He’s looking at him again, the blue eyes that carried gentleness and love, hands tattered with scars that hold Damian up, and the blood he shed out of his brother, crying in pain before silence. He turned away from the platform as he sees in the corner of his eye, Danyal, being dragged away into a bag. He’s looking at his dead brother, he’s supposed to be dead.
Damian did the deed himself, it haunts him, but now he sees the living nightmare in his phone. “Damian, are you alright?” Dick asked, he knows Damian is hiding something by the way he’s looking at the screen with an expression Dick hasn’t seen before. Damian crashed into his place at night during patrol and spent the rest of the day enjoying each other company in silence, until Barbara texted them about a kid and Tim talking about someone in WE.
The kid looks exactly like Damian besides the pale skin and the adult, he looks like him, not a carbon copy/clone but he has the same eye shape, nose, and chin but the hair and eyes are brown with tiny freckles spotting around his cheeks. Peter looks like a possible love child he could’ve had back in his teenage years, holy shit.
“No.” Damian said with no further context, he can be sure, it might be a clone trying to kill him again, but what if— no. He saw Danyal breath until no more, there’s no way it was him.
“We will look into it later, let’s start patrolling.” Dick said as he puts a hand on Damian shoulder, still staring at the crappy photo from the surveillance cameras. They put the phones away and start to suit up, each minute they’ll think about those people during the night, in the cave, and into their dreams.
—
“I’m so fucking bored.” Danny said as he plays around with the blob ghost he found on his dumpster, it was too young to be souped up so he was gonna keep it and send it off later. ‘You’re going to get attached.’ Shush Jazz! I will not! I have Cujo I don’t need another pet.
The blob ghost gurgles in response, he just signed off of his online school and has to wait an hour to start is internship with Peter, was he excited? No definitely not he’s just..intrigued! Nothing wrong with that. (That literally got him killed.)
Danny decided he can’t be rotting in this stanky dumpster of his, put the blob ghost in the thermos and popped the latch open and climbed out. He started to wander around the streets of Crime alley, dodging muggers and helping people get out of muggers in the shadows, then he stumbles onto a tall building that seemed to be abandoned by construction.
He turns invisible and flys up onto the incomplete floor and hangs around the ledge for the rest of the day, he sees a billboard from afar and sees Brucie Wayne (bleh or yeah he doesn’t have an opinion on this mofo) and Damian— wait DAMIAN?!
Danny shot up and stared at the billboard more, his eyes widen in disbelief, because holy shit that’s his brother! His Ahki! He can’t believe he’s here in Gotham and found their dad, holy shit Brucie Wayne is their father?! But mother said Batman was their father…poly relationship? He isn’t one to judge but it was the 90s he guess. He admires the billboard, he wants to visit his brother again but maybe later he has an internship to go too! He scales down of the abandoned building, not noticing the dark greys, greens, and reds watching him in the shadows.
—
“Hey Danny! How have you been?” Peter asked, he sensed that Danny just walked into his building and already saw him on the 5th floor, which was weird but he hadn’t had lunch yet so that might be the cause.
“Fine, busy with school and pest.” Danny said tiredly, he was brimming with energy but after flying (end hiding his ecto-signature) to the building, he had lost a lot of ectoplasm and the ambient wasn’t enough for him to feed off. He usually just eat a big meal to replenish but as you can see, he’s a poor dumpster hobbit.
Peter can recognize the starved look on Danny’s face and gave him his half of his lunch, Danny looked at him in disbelief and tried to decline it but he was a Stark (on papers) and a way more stubborn one so Danny eventually agreed and started to eat lunch together.
“…can I take a picture of you?” Danny asked after a few minutes of the silently munching. Peter look at him curiously and asked why.
“Because I want to throw darts at your face” Danny said in one breath, look he just thought of something that won’t make him look like a freak! It still probably does make him look like one but how is he going to answer “because you look like the eldest son of Bruce Wayne and I wanna photo match it” without sounding absolutely bonkers?!
“..sure? Not the first one to happen, just surprised you asked first.” Peter said, it’s true, when he went to Deadpool shared apartment, he saw a dart board of him in his Spider-Man costume taped on it with darts forming a heart.
(“What the hell is that Pool” Peter asked. [note: Peter turned 19 after 2 years of being forgotten and is 23 in Gotham after Strange’s Spell had to send his ass somewhere else]
“My proposal! Will you marry me oh great man of spider!” Deadpool said with his heart on his hand and kneeling on one knee.)
“This happened before?!” Danny slammed his hand on the table with a bewildered look on his face, who would even hate Peter! He’s like the most normal looking guy?!
“Yeah but nothing too bad, just a merc who’s a pervert.” Peter said, waving a hand to let it go, even though he hated Deadpool’s comments, he will still like to see him again.
“Ew, I have a fruitloop, that means rich snob be te dubs, back home who was obsession with my mom and me. He wanted to kill my dad just to be with my mom!” Danny said, relating or trying to relate with this weird situation. Peter just look at him in shock, shit.
“Do I have to call the police on him? Because I will.” Peter was going to say stab (he will just not directly) but Danny’s a child so he has to make it kid friendly. Danny just widened his eyes and shake his head no and explain that the situation had gotten better. (Vlad here what happen through the ghost zone grape vine and calm down on his stupid fruit loop antics)
They talked about random stuff to keep the conversation going before leaving the last few hours on the arc reactor and Peter explaining the mechanics on it, Danny is at awe it’s such a cool invention! If he could imbed ectoplasm in it, he will have an infinity source of energy is and won’t have to dig for ectoplasm to power up the weapons!
Danny spots a white liquid in a glass tub across the lab table, it was the same color(?) as the webs from the Spider-Man, why did he ever think Peter was normal before! He smelled death on both of them and they didn’t even have a ghost core, that should’ve been the first clue and after eating that lunch, he’s spotting little mist around Peter, it sways around Peter and sometimes a hand shape will appear in the mist and poke at Peter cheek, god he’s going crazy.
“Hey Peter, what’s that?” Danny pointed at the tub, Peter turn his head slightly towards Danny before taking a second glance and grabbing that tub in milliseconds. “Just a dangerous chemical I left out, let me throw it away properly, now let’s focus.” Peter said while sweating, god he is off his game today, he almost ran into Robin and Nightwing during one he’s patrol (why were they in crime alley? Probably for Dr. Leslie’s Clinc) perched on top of his apartment complex, And now Danny had spotted the web fluid he had made hours before Danny arrived.
Danny just raises an eyebrow before turning back on the arc reactor he and Peter was tinkering with. The finally hour passed and it was time to head home, “hey Danny, I forgot to give you my picture, so here” Peter gave him a photo from him when he probably younger and on the back of the photo was a number, Peter’s number he guess. He thanked Peter and left the building, holding the photo close before bumping into someone.
“Ah sorry! I wasn’t watching where I was looking” Danny said as he went to look at the stranger he just bumped into— BRUCIE WAYNE?! Holy shit-.
“It’s okay chum, I was in the way in your hurry, but tell me why are you here? Aren’t you supposed to be at home kid?” Bruce gave a hand out to help he regain his posture, Danny takes it hesitating and finally takes a good look at Bruce. He’s exactly what a billionaire looks like, yuck. What did mother see in him! He’s just objectively handsome nothing more!
“Ah I am, me and my mentor forgot to look at time and told me to..wait outside the building so he can drive me home!” Danny said, snapping his finger together, he realize how dark it was and needed an excuse because who lets a kid walk alone at night, in Gotham?
The elevator rings and steps in Peter with his messenger bag, slump against he should and square glasses slanted. Peter looks at what’s infront of him, he’s looking at Danny his intern right next with the damn owner of Wayne Enterprises. Fuck.
“Oh hey Peter! C’mon my mom is going to rip me a new one if I don’t get home!” Danny said snapping Peter out of his mind and signaling him to leave now, Peter nods and grabs Danny, apologizing to Mr. Wayne and leaving the building before he could hear Mr. Wayne answer.
“Nice save, I would’ve freaked out when I saw Mr. Wayne and I worked in his building for almost a year!” Peter said as they make view of the parking lot, his old 2016 Volkswagen that has too many dents for one measly car was in sight.
“I learn how to deal with those situation, also you don’t have to drive me, I live nearby!” He doesn’t live nearby, but Peter said ‘then it won’t be a problem to drop you off’ and gestured him to get in, Danny sighs and steps into the car.
They drive in silence, Danny said he actually lives in crime alley and Peter said he did too. It was going to be a long drive but Danny saw Peter relaxed expression after telling him how far he’s home is actually and thought it wouldn’t be a problem.
—
Bruce needs to call his family, specifically Damian and Dick. He just witness a child in the building who look like Damian but with paler skin and blue eyes instead, then a young adult who the kid called ‘Peter’ exit out the elevator and took the kid, both of them were suspicious, they definitely didn’t plan out that they were exiting out the building together. He needs to look into them soon, he already knows the ‘Peter’ from before was probably the ‘Peter’ Tim was talking about.
Finding information on ‘Daniel’, the name Barbara found on the kid, was not an easy task because besides the regular (fake) identify papers, he could hack more information on it and neither did Tim .(Bruce might’ve let Tim go on a spiral because of it.)
Bruce asked Damian about the kid, he look at him dazed and told him to leave him alone, Dick was no better, he doesn’t know anything about the young adult. Judging how old Peter was, Dick probably had him when he was a teen so he couldn’t blame him.
He has no way to figure out about these two individuals since one definitely had fake ID papers and another one who has no clue about his real family (Bruce saw he has been orphan twice and his new family abandoned him or died but wasn’t identify singe there was no information about Tony and Pepper Stark, nor the little girl, Morgan, they had).
Luckily a few years ago, someone from WE took a dna test with WE equipment (they don’t know why they had a DNA kit laying around) and was related to Tim drake but it was a false alarm but they added mandatory paternity test just in case it happens to be that one WE employee was either Bruce’s kid from him being a playboy or relating the to rest of the family.
Next week will be the test day so they’ll see their results soon.
—
“Danny…you can’t be living like this.” Peter pulled up to an alleyway between two abandoned buildings that’s unusually darker than the rest of the alleys he had seen, there’s a giant dumpster, usually for restaurants, on the side. Danny said that was he’s house and Peter just look at him like he was joking, Danny in fact was not joking.
“Literally why not. It’s way better than any living space in this area, plus no rent!” Danny defended.
“Because I’m looking at a dumpster Danny. You’re living in a dumpster for who knows how long!” Peter just pointed at the dumpster that is covered in mud.
“You’re just judging a book by its cover Peter, just look on the inside.” Danny walked over to the secret latch for when he’s too lazy to open the roof, and duck inside and gestured for Peter to come in.
Peter sighed as he crouched his shoulder and walked inside the dumpster, it’s quite spacious there’s a mattress in the corner with a light and clock with some miscellaneous stuff everywhere but still clean, a stained loveseat with a broken table filled with papers and books from the library and a mini lab that is definitely not safe but he can’t kill him (he will safety proof it later). He hates to admit it that he did judge it by its cover and it’s kinda cool, he would’ve lived here. (He’s ignoring the green shine from the thermos that’s hiding behind a backpack and how dark one shadow is, he swear white eyesocket at one point.)
“So..what do you think?” Danny said proudly as he plops down on his loveseat, knocking down the book on the desk revealing the same green shine on metallic material. Danny hurriedly pulled the books back together and try to act nonchalant again.
“It’s great, love it but I’m still worried! You’re living in a dumpster Danny! Where do you get your food?”
“Food banks and dumpsters”
“okay that’s good you’re not starving, where do you have access to water?”
“Gyms, that are crowded so I can sneak in!”
“Not better, where do you get electricity, I don’t see a line connecting this dumpster!”
Danny would say himself but that would literally out him out so; “The library?”
“Why was that in a form of a question?”
“Tis was not!”
“Christ Danny, just— how about you stay with me?” Peter said, he has no options! His intern is living in a cool dumpster! No kid should be living like this plus he has school. How the hell is he getting mail, also where the hell are his parents but he can probably figure out the answer.
“No! First off, out of the blue. Second, why? I’m fine living in my dumpster! I might’ve forgot to tell you I take online school and only show up to school once per week but still! What’s the point of leaving my lovely hut! It’s safe promise!” Danny returns, he’s fine! He dealt with worse this is an awesome place he build out of and he’s not abandoning it! No way.
“I think I could fit this dumpster in my apartment, I have a spare room I usually just put my junk in. This dumpster is cool and if it will bring you back into a place that has electricity, water, and food then so be it.” Peter told as he sizes up the dumpster, he might have to break the door frame to fit it but…nah it’ll fit.
“Really? Just like that?” Danny questioned, it’s been 7 months since he arrived to Gotham, and 3 months since he became Peter’s intern. This is suspicious because who in their right mind gives a child a place to stay if they don’t want something in return? Not to mention that Peter might be apart of the GIW.
“What’s the catch?” Danny asked suspiciously.
“Making sure my intern has a place to stay.” Peter answered, yeah he sounds suspicious but c’mon he can’t let a kid living like this. He knows he can’t save everyone (he kinda did save everyone but just for the cost of his so— shut up.) but he can save as much as he can.
“…I will run into another city if try to do anything.” Danny added, making sure to slip in his eldritch voice to make him sound terrifying, Peter wasn’t phase.
“I would hope so now Vamos!” Peter said as he and Danny walk out of the dumpster and went behind of the dumpster to starts dragging it to Peter’s apartment building, Danny wish he could just use his ghost powers but he can’t out himself nor does he want to risk it.
…
“PUSH PETER! I CAN PAY FOR THE DAMAGES LATER.” Danny and Peter get to the building and start dragging the dumpster up the stairs, Danny might’ve used his a tad bit of his powers to make it lighter so they can go up to the 7th floor of this 10 story building (why did Peter have to live on the 7th floor!).
Now they’re trying to push this dumpster into the front door that hasn’t broke under the pressure yet.
“Sorry Danny but keep the damn money! Wayne pays us good!” Peter said using his super strength to push it.
The yelling and pushing of the dumpster continues until the walls cave in and let the dumpster in the damn apartment. Peter started to push the dumpster into the spare room and flop down on the couch after it. Danny is concern of his mentors self preservation skills, he just let in a street kid into his apartment who could literally rob him blind of all of his shit.
Lucky he ain’t like that and just decided to sleep in new room with an acquire dumpster in his new room.
“Told you Mr. Parker-Stark was a good choice!” Lady Gotham appeared with a curve silhouette with a long dress that had shadowy mist coming out of it, Danny turns his head towards Lady and just sighs before copying Peter and flopping down in the mattress already in the room (it’s super soft!) and dozes off in seconds, they can take care of the rubble tomorrow morning.
—
Meanwhile Jason was just hiding in his safe house after a big fight with Bruce and just heard yelling, then the wall crumpling and then nothing.
“What the hell just happened.”