Started: 2024 June 15
Last Updated: 2024 June 19
Account Profiles
Part One
Part Two
Part Three
Part Four
Part Five
Part Six
Part Seven
Part Eight
Part Nine
Part Ten
Part Eleven
Part Twelve
Part Thirteen
Debuting Preparations
To avoid confusion, Danny will be referred to as ‘Danny’ rather than Thomas. This is a little snippet I thought of for my ‘Danny Fenton is Thomas Wayne au’ (different name pending)
OG Post
Miscellaneous Stuff P1
Miscellaneous Stuff P2
“How do I look, Boo?” Danny asked, his hands falling away from the tie wrapped around his neck as his eyes dropped to the little two year old next to him.
Bruce grinned toothily at him, raising his arms in a silent demand for uppies that Danny naturally had to follow. “Awesome, daddy!” He yelled, his voice layered with a toddler accent while his small legs hooked around Danny’s waist the moment he had him settled on his hip.
Danny matched his grin tooth-for-tooth, fingers digging into his ribs for a quick tickle as he blew a raspberry into Bruce’s cheek. Bruce squealed with laughter, and Danny dipped them both, laughing as he straightened up and Bruce tried to wriggle out of his arms.
“Good!” He said, removing the fingers from Bruce’s ribs and twisting to face the floor-length mirror. “We wouldn’t want daddy to look not awesome today, would we?” His cheek pressed against Bruce’s little black curls and Bruce leaned his head against his shoulder.
Bruce shook his head, his cheeks red with laughter. “Nooo.”
“No.” Danny agreed, his ghostly core purring low in content as he planted a kiss on the top of his son’s head. “We would not.”
Ask him three years ago when he was in the prime of his ghost-fighting days if he knew that he’d be living in Wayne Manor with a clone-son under the name Thomas Wayne, and Danny would have straight up just called you crazy. But here he was, in Wayne Manor, under the name Thomas Wayne, with a two year old son on his hip.
Some things are just too good to be true.
(Of course that’s if you ignore all the bullshit that happened along the way that ended with Danny being here.)
Now he was standing in a bedroom that was as big as the lab back home, preparing for his debut as the newly adopted son Thomas Wayne. Anyone who was anyone would be there, his new family seldom threw parties that weren’t charity balls, and even now his debut would have donation boxes for the various programs and charities in Gotham and outside of it.
He was in the nicest three-piece suit that he could afford (which was a lot now that he was part of the Wayne family,) and his normally fluffy black hair was slicked back and styled, showing off the pearl studs that Danny stole from Mrs. Wayne’s jewelry box.
(“Stole” as if Mrs. Wayne “call me Miriam” hadn’t gifted them to him.)
He looked like an entirely different person in the mirror. He didn’t look like runaway teen dad Daniel Fenton, ex-vigilante Phantom.
And that…
That was good. That was so good.
He looked like Thomas Nightingale-turned-Wayne. Still a teen dad, but just a regular one. Not a vigilante, not the son of ghost hunters. Just the adopted son of the very rich and philanthropic Wayne couple. He looked like just Thomas.
He smiled at himself in the mirror, a wriggling feeling of awe thrumming through his chest as he turned his head this way and that, looking for every little reminder of his past afterlife that didn’t take the form of his scars. The pearls glittered in his ears, adding to him an elegance that he didn’t know he possessed.
Danny wondered… if he changed now to Phantom, would he still look the same? Identity was everything to a ghost; who they were and what they present as is all that remains of them after death. It shows the world what the most important aspects of themself was. It shows the world what they thought was important.
If Danny’s changed, does that mean Phantom did too?
A loud series of knocks dragged him out of his introspection. Bruce wriggled out of his arms, and Danny put him down before he could be dropped, and then he faced the door. “Come in!” He called, his nerves igniting under his skin and he folded his hands behind his back in response.
The doorknob twisted, then clicked, and then the door swung open. Alfred Pennyworth, the new butler and predecessor of the old butler, also a Pennyworth, stood stiffly under the frame. “Master Thomas,” he greeted, the picture of butler formality in a suit, “it’s nearly time for you and Master Patrick and Mistress Miriam to leave for your debut gala, the car has been parked out front and is ready to leave when you are ready.”
Danny smiled easily at Alfred, watching Bruce from the corner of his eye as he exclaimed ‘Alfred!’ before darting toward him and latching onto his legs. Alfred’s only been with them for a few weeks and Bruce had warmed up significantly to the young man. Which was saying something because Bruce never warmed up to anyone that wasn’t Danny, or Mr. and Mrs. Wayne.
“Thanks Alfred.” He said, walking over in just a few quick strides, “And please, it’s just Thomas.” He’s been having growth spurts ever since he joined the Wayne household last year and now was edging closer to his dad’s height at a solid over-six-foot. Albeit with none of the muscle, apparently he inherited his mom’s litheness.
Plucking Bruce off of the ground, his son automatically reached for Alfred, and Danny saw the barest of smiles on the corner of Alfred’s mouth as he took Bruce from him. “I’m afraid I will have to continue referring to you as Master Thomas, Master Thomas.“
“One day I’ll convince you.” Danny joked, waiting for Alfred to step out of the doorway before moving down the hallway. “You can’t keep calling me Master Thomas forever!” He’s annoyed stubborner people into doing what he wants before, he’ll wear down Alfred eventually.
“I do believe I can, Master Thomas.” Alfred quipped lightly, adjusting his hold on Bruce so that he was better situated on his hip. Bruce was playing with his tie again, ignoring their conversation in all the ways a two year old can. An easy sort of innocence that Danny never failed to be endeared by.
He pulled on the sleeves of his suit-jacket thoughtlessly, the small silvery cufflinks shimmering from the corner of his eye, trying to demand for Danny’s attention. He knows it got Bruce’s, his son’s head snapping away from Alfred’s tie to watch his wrists. Like a cat watching a laser-pointer.
Danny laughed softly and twisted his wrists slowly, letting the cufflinks glitter under the lights. Bruce’s pupils began to dilate, and the tips of his ears — rounder than Danny’s but pointier than a regular human’s — twitched very slightly.
Bruce held his arms out towards his wrists, leaning out of Alfred’s grasp to grab them. “See—! Let me see!” He demanded, nearly falling out of Alfred’s hold. Alfred’s hand shot out to grab him before he could tumble out of his arms, a look of momentary panic flashing over his face.
“Master Bruce!” He exclaimed, and then he took on a more scolding look. “You have to be careful, you can’t throw yourself out of someone’s arms like that!”
Bruce wriggled with a loud, child-like whine. “I wanna see! Pretty!” He said, then tried reaching for Danny again.
“Please, Boo.” Danny reminded, circling his palm over his chest, but he was already holding his arms out to Bruce to take him. Bruce might be as close to human as he could get with the extra benefits, but he still had some ghostly habits. Being attracted to sudden shiny things was one of them.
“Please.” Bruce repeated, pressing his hand to his chest and making a small circle. It wasn’t a perfect please, but it was the best he could do at two. Danny took him from Alfred and gave him his wrist as he settled him on his side.
Danny ran his fingers through Bruce’s hair and stroked his cheek. Bruce merely played with his cufflinks, pulling on the silver buttons and turning them this way and that to try and catch the light. “Alfred’s right, you can’t lean out like that, Boo. You could get hurt.”
Bruce didn’t look up and didn’t respond, so Danny lightly pinched his cheek. Although ‘pinch’ wouldn’t be the right term for it. He mimicked the pinching gesture and held his cheek, but didn’t actually use any pressure. It was just to get his attention. He lightly shook his cheek, “Did you hear me, Boo? We ask to get down if we want to get down, okay?”
“Okay.” Bruce said, glancing up at him briefly only to look back down at his cufflinks a moment later. With a soft huff Danny dropped his hand and tightened his hold.
“Can we say sorry to Alfred then? It really scared him when you nearly fell.” Scared was an exaggeration, and Danny saw Alfred give him a bemused look from the corner of his eye.
Again, Bruce looked up for only a moment, and this time he looked at Alfred. “Bruce is sorry Alfred.” He said, tiny fingers crunched around Danny’s sleeve. His ‘Alfred’ sounded more like an ‘Al-fed’, and Alfred smiled endearingly even when Bruce dropped his head back down a second later.
Danny huffed low again, shooting Alfred an apologetic smile as he pulled his hand out of Bruce’s little grasp and stroked his hair. “We’re getting there.”
————taglist————
@vipower001
@storm-and-fire
@blankliferain
@chrysanthemum9484
@mnemovoid
@blueflipflops (why not? I remember mentioning i’d tag you if I make a oneshot, lmk if you dont wanna be tagged)
@steampunkunicorn01 (I remember you asked for a tag too in my og post)
@the-legal-shipper
@skulld3mort-1fan
Its not exactly a fic but its a oneshot so it kinda counts. Lmk if any of yall dont wanna get tagged in any future oneshots or continuations (or if you would but only for specific posts)
Extra note: Bruce’s behavior and dialogue is based off of how i’ve seen actual two year olds act and speak (which can differ based on where they are developmentally and as a two year old. If they’ve recently turned two, they could still be speaking essentially broken english. Then as they get closer to three they start speaking in more complete sentences. I know two little girls who referred to themselves in third person for a while, hence the ‘Bruce is sorry’.) I’m a daycare teacher so I’ve seen a lot of two year olds, so its written to my best abilities while avoiding common ‘child writing stereotypes’.
Tim went mad scientist during the search for Batman and he cloned himself just in case he died. The objective was to retain all knowledge even if the original was dead, so he wore a chip that would feed knowledge to the clone that was in stasis.
All of this was a contingency for Ra's interest and the LOA's meddling. However, it so happened that Phantom was launched across universes and he landed by complete coincidence inside the gestating clone. The overshadowing was so shocking that it put Phantom to sleep for a couple of weeks. When he woke up, the pod sprang open and Danny fell down to the ground face first. Turns out Tim's heart flatlined for a couple of seconds while he was trapped with the LOA, and that was enough for the clone to be released and the chip connection to be cut.
Now Danny, naked and completely bewildered, is having contrasting information in his head about himself. He's Danny Fenton, half-ghost screw up, and he is at the same time Tim Drake, genius superhero that just died at the hands of Ra's. He has to investigate how to go back to his own world and he has to look into Bruce's disappearance to bring him back.
The whole thing is a literal headache, and Danny settles for using the gadgets and clothes Tim had left for him.
At least he knew that Tim Drake had left him a mission.
Danny Fenton was tired. He was also annoyed, just a little bit angry and disappointed, but mainly he was tired.
Tired of the excuses, of the missed dates, of the nights he waited for Dick to come home only for him to show up in the morning with a sheepish smile and an excuse.
He tried to be understanding, he tried to ignore the instincts that screamed that Dick was leaving him, that he was finally getting tired of him and had found someone else.
The problem was that ghosts were beings of emotion. They loved with all their core, they also hated with the same passion, but Danny ignored that. If their partner was not as dedicated, the ghost suffered, their core tried to reach out, form and maintain the bond all alone. Some ghosts even ended up with cracked or shattered cores because they fell for the wrong person.
Danny foolishly thought he would be spared this, he was still half human after all. He was forced to let go of that illusion today. This evening was his and Dick's anniversary dinner. They had planned this months in advance and Dick never even showed up.
Danny felt his core crack on the way home. Not a big break, just a little barely noticeable nick, but given time it could grow deeper and shatter him. So Danny made the decision and packed his things, left a note letting Dick know and left.
Politically arranged marriage (IDK how those work)
During a Peace talk between the USA Government and The Infinite Realms a US representative accuses that the King (Danny) could go back on his word anytime and they would end up defenseless against these monsters. A member of the king's court (I’m thinking Dorathea) asks if a union would convince them of their peace. The US gov is intrigued and think they could manipulate the King if he marries one of their citizens. The thing is… the US doesn’t have a monarchy.
Then one of the US reps has a brilliant idea. Bruce Wayne has been known as the Prince of Gotham for ages, they won’t have to fake any new articles or anything online to go back years. They could totally manipulate and have Brucie Wayne tell them anything they want to know without him even knowing!!! Danny’s (aged up to around Bruce’s age) like what the shit and quickly interjects. He says it’s improper to go straight to marriage (he’s trying to bs his way out of this) the same king's court ghost says ofc and they’ll have to court each other and both parties have to consent ofc, they thought that was a given.
Another of the king's court asks how this Bruce Wayne Prince of Gotham is even worthy of their king. Another rep tells him that Brucie is also known as the White Knight of Gotham. Another speaks up about his many good deeds and the children he’s taken in. They are all shitting themselves trying to think about how to avoid them finding articles about “Brucie Wayne gets drunk and falls into the harbor from his yacht-compilation” and they're trying to talk him up as much as possible.
Danny 100% knows about said article but he doubts Bruce is gonna accept to be a part of this (hello low self esteem) but he hopes to convince Bruce to play along long enough to keep peace and once everything’s settled down they can “break up”. He’ll go along with it to keep the peace he worked himself to exhaustion for, Ancients know his people wanted war.
Queue them both falling head over heels in love with each other and Danny getting too attached to both Bruce and the kids. He eventually does find out about Bruce being Batman but that just makes him like him more.
Those politicians are fuming they can’t get anything dirt on the Realms out of Brucie Wayne of all people!!! He’s talking and talking but he’s not actually saying anything! How does King Phantom stand him?!
Tim Danny knew he would go far for family but it wasn't until now that he realized how far he literally would go.
Danny looked at the positive pregnancy test on the bathroom counter and tried to stop his tears both the joyful tears and the ones of anger.
He hates Vlad now more than ever for how he never decided to stabilize Dani. Even now that Danny is no longer Danny Vlad’s mistakes will still come back to bite him.
Dani's decision to help Danny figure out what was going on ended up with her almost dying. Her core would have been destroyed if Danny had been a second later.
Everyone's pretending things are back to normal.
Danny now has to figure out ways to hide this and how exactly he's going to tell anyone. The obvious answer is to not tell anyone and go into hiding, but after everything that happened someone's going to come look which means Danny is going to have to hide in plain sight.
Sometimes Danny regrets trying to help because in the end all it got him his throat slit, his entire identity ripped away and assassination attempts in his own home. Danny has no idea why he thought it would be any different now that Bruce is back.
Jason is barely civil with the family.
Dick has left the second he no longer has to be Batman.
Stephanie has joined Cass and Hong Kong.
Barbara is only talking to people when she's on Oracle Duty.
Damien is one bad Mission away from trying to kill him again.
That's not even mentioning Bruce who is just living in ignorance that everything has not gone awry.
Denial is a strong thing.
Danny doesn't even know why they agree to this. well they do know but they don't know why they didn't talk it out first.
they'd gotten quite good at getting all the logistics before they do something rash but they'll always be a Fenton running head first. All they want is for Dani to be safe after everything that happened; they are all secondary to Dani's well-being.
Danny forgot how unconditional love felt they are not going to lose the one person who cared about them
Danny and Amnesiac!Jason
Jason has an accident as Red Hood which causes which to suffer from amnesia - he ends up with Danny and the two build a life together
One day, Jason leaves for something and tells Danny that “he’ll be back soon.”
Coincidentally Jason regains his memories from before Danny (maybe he meets his family or a rogue or gets into another accident) - but regaining his old memories causes him to forget Danny due to the confusion
Jason resumes his life prior to Danny - and poor Danny is worried about his bf/fiance/husband and goes to look for him - maybe when he finds Jason, Jason doesn’t recognize him and acts coldly/suspicious towards him
So Danny decides to go live in the GZ semi-permanently for a while and fakes his current living identity’s death
Jason starts remembering Danny and goes to find his lover only to come across a grave
Dash: Phantom, give the people what they want! Phantom: Er, what exactly do you guys want? Dash: Take off your shirt! Paulina: Yes, take it off!! Kawn: And flex! Flex when you take it off! Whooooo! Phantom: I can't take this off; it's my skin. A-listers: What Phantom: Yeah, when you die, the clothes you're wearing become a part of you. That's why ghosts are always wearing the same thing. Dash: B-but Batman's outfit change! The Fentons say he's a ghost! Phantom: Yeah, but Batman is older than San Marino. He's powerful enough he can change his shape. I'm only a couple hundred years old. I barely passed my Guarding Spirit test three years ago. It's why your freshmen year was so hectic. I had no idea what I was doing. Dash: Are you saying that you and every guarding ghost of Gotham have always been giving the people what we wanted?!? Phantom: Wait- Dash standing on a table: MY PEOPLE, WE HAVE SEEN BATMAN NAKED! Amity Park youth: *Cheering* Phantom: oh, Ancients. Batman is going to kill me.
Poor Danny is just trying to do well at his job at WE! But annoyingly, they frown on him working late. Sent home, once again by well meaning security and still caught up in design thoughts, Danny gets hit by cuddle pollen.
Suddenly he must keep all the little liminals safe! They're so bitty! They don't even have full cores! He has to protect them! Goes eldritch horror and stuffs them in his plumage to carry around like those water birds.
Poor Batman is just so done.
Jason and Damian keep trying to escape. It does not work. Eventually they get this thing to the Cave and make it a nest to keep it there. Tim asleep before they mange, followed by Duke (look, it's late for him, okay?) and Steph.
When they wake up in the morning, in one big cuddle pile, there's a strange man among them and from the way it looks, and Damian isn't sure if he's got a new pet or if Father has a date.
Phantom: *Kicks down the doors of the Titans Tower*
Titans core four: *Getting ready to fight"
Phantom: Which one of you is Superboy?
Kon:
Kon: Me obviously *gesturing to the large S on his chest*
Phantom: Cool. What custody days do you want?
Kon: You're going to have to explain
Phantom: *partially unravels the bundle of blankets to reveal a baby with kryptonian blue eyes*
Phantom: Congrats! You're a dad!
Kon: Oh god the card I got in the mail wasn't a prank
Phantom: Nope. Help me name him.
Tim: I have so many questions
Phantom: I have so few answers
Cassie: Thats not comforting
Phantom: I woke up in a mad scientists laboratory 200 years in the future to find out i have a clone baby with someone I've never heard of and everyone I knew and love is likely dead.
Kon:
Cassie:
Tim:
Phantom: If anyone needs comforting here its me
Nightwing: *the only adult in this situation* Okay, how about we talk about this. I'm sure the Justice League will be happy to help you and your baby
Danny is a clone.
But not of Bruce. Nor Tim. Nor Damian, Jason, or Dick. Not Clark or Diana or any of those usual suspects.
No, no.
You see, when Ra's realized that he was running out of Pits to revive himself with, before he resorted to allowing Talia to give him a grandson with the Detective, Ra's tried to clone
Himself.
After all, who better to be his Heir(/Vessel to Possess) when this body ultimately fails him.
But he failed. Repeated use of the Lazarus Pits had done something to his DNA. Changed or degraded it. All of the clones were unstable from the start. None surviving past the embryonic stage.
All but one.
Ra's last attempt before deeming the project a failure developed all the way to standard 40 weeks before flatlining.
In a last ditch effort to salvage it, Ra's instructed for the clone to be dipped in the Pit. Only to have the Lazarus Waters rip the stillborn infant away and down down down into it's depths.
Immediately following that last failure, Ra's finally relented and gave Talia permission to inseminate herself and bear him an Heir of his and the Detective's blood.
.
Meanwhile, in the Infinite Realms, an Old Clock finds a mortal infant choking on his first living breaths through the Corrupted Ectoplasm in his lungs which gave him life and brought him here. The Ancient smiles. The Realms has chosen her next King. And what a Great One he shall be. Now the Time Keeper needs only deliver the infant where he needs to be to become who he must become.