#maybe Danny ends up as Robin? damian gets to pass it on once he grows out of it

[piedpiperart]

“Look, Danny, you can’t keep breaking into crime scenes,” Nightwing scolds,”Especially not with a vape, and I don’t want to have to tell you this again.”

“Then stop telling me,” Danny pouts,”It’s not like I’m gonna listen to you this time either.”

Grumbling, Nightwing pockets the vape, much to Danny’s annoyance. He mutters something about bees before looking back to Danny with a frown. “No more crime scenes, no more drugs. It’s way too late for you to be out here on your own, kid.”

“Technically it’s early, since it’s like 2am,”Danny corrects,”And who else is gonna solve Charlene’s murder?”

“I’m trying to, but some kids been distracting me,” Nightwing mutters, giving Danny a look.

“Sucks for you,”Danny smiles, crossing his arms. “But seriously, she says her husband killed her with the flower vase she got from her grandma. His alibi lied and you find his dna on a beer bottle in the living room where he’d been drinking all night. Now can I have my vape back?”

“No,” Nightwing says, not missing a beat. “Thanks for the tip, but you shouldn’t be out here, even if the ghosts want you to.”

“It’s not like anyone else can hear them,” Danny rolled his eyes. “What if I need it for chronic pain?”

Nightwing raised an eyebrow, making his mask warp with the movement.”Do you have chronic pain?”

“… yes?” Danny lies, putting his best puppy dog eyes on. Nightwing gives him a deadpan look, unyielding on giving drugs to nine year olds, unfortunately.

“I can’t even believe we’re having this conversation,” The vigilante grumbles,”Alright, where do you live, I’m taking you home,” Nightwing says, shooing the kid away from the dead body in the dining room.

Danny glares at him as he dodges Nightwings floppy hands. “Charlene says I can have a cookie from the kitchen though, can we get some first?”

“This is a crime scene, Danny.”

“Yeah, so no one’s gonna eat em,” Danny points out, and Nightwing feels like this is what Bruce has had to deal with for years.

“How about this, I’ll take you to Batburger and you can have as much food as you want,” Nightwing bargains, and Danny lights up at the prospect of the kids meal toys.

“Deal.”

“And then I take you home,” Nightwing adds, and Danny groans.

“Can Charlene come?”

Nightwing pauses in his efforts to get the kid out of the house before the police show up again, wondering why Charlene’s ghost would even want to come to Batburger with them. “Uh, I guess?”

“Sweet,” Danny smiles, and Dick watches with fondness as the little kid hops down the steps to the sidewalk like a little rabbit.

When they get to Batburger, Nightwing let’s Danny order a kids meal and gets his own burger and joker-ized fries. Apparently, Charlene wanted a milkshake, so Nightwing got her a vanilla one that Danny ended up drinking.

“Okay, it’s time for bed,”Nightwing says, offering the sleepy kid a piggy back ride so he could roof-hop. “Where’s home, kiddo?”

Smooshing his face into Dicks neck, he feels Danny shrug. “Firehouse on sixth,” he says, and Dick freezes.

“Kiddo, that’s…”Dick trails off, realizing just where the little ghost detective lives. He swallows his protests and heads to the firehouse anyways. He doesn’t know the kid, not really.

Hopefully, Dick thinks, there’s someone looking after Danny at the firehouse. Maybe his parents are just going through a rough patch, he reasons. And if the Wayne foundation offers them some amenities tomorrow, then only Dick would know why.

But when they arrive on the roof, Danny’s nearly asleep, so Dick travels to the fire escape and slides into the second floor. His heart sinks when he sees the lone sleeping bag in the corner next to a pile of non perishable food. Dick purses his lips, no longer able to let the kid stay here if no one else is looking out for him.

“Thanks for the ride,”Danny mumbles sleepily, wiggling to get down but Dick keeps him there and starts walking back out. Danny freezes,”uh, Nightwing? You can put me down now.”

“Nope,”Dick says firmly. “You’re coming home with me instead and sleeping in an actual bed.”

“What?!” Danny exclaims, wiggling more until Dick gives up and holds him under his arm like a sack of potatoes. “That wasn’t part of the deal! This is kidnapping!”

“I’m not letting you stay here, Danny,” Nightwing says firmly. “Do you have anyone looking after you?”

Danny is about to protest until Nightwing adds,”Not including ghosts,”and Danny falls silent. Dick sighs,”yeah, that’s what I thought.”

“Hey, I can look after myself!”Danny protests, kicking his feet lightly as Nightwing swings them to another roof. “I’m almost ten!”

“Right,”Nightwing mutters. “Do you even go to school?” He asks, realizing he’s only ever seen Danny at crime scenes at all hours. He’d been trying to keep the kid from putting himself in danger, but the kid was surprisingly great at disappearing.

Danny scoffs, crossing his arms as best he can while still being held under Nightwings arm. “Schools boring,” He says, and Nightwing would laugh if he wasn’t so sad for the kid.

“Kay, we’ll come back to that,”Nightwing sighs, finally landing on his apartment building. “For now, you’re gonna take a bath and go straight to bed. I think some of my little brothers clothes will fit you.”

“You know I’m just gonna leav- wait,”Danny gasps. “Are you- is this your real appartment? You’re showing me where you live??”

“And my identity,”Nightwing agrees. He was pretty sure Danny could see his parents ghosts anyways. The kid was just too polite to mention it, and while Dick was grateful, he had no doubt that it would give away his identity if they ever met outside of crime scenes. And, he was surprisingly okay with Danny knowing.

“Your- your identity?!” Danny splutters, too shocked to stop Dick from hoisting Danny through the window. Still in shock, Dick plants Danny on his feet, watching the kid take in his messy apartment with wide eyes.

Dick takes advantage of this, and leans the kid to the bathroom. “I’ll bring clothes in a minute, but why don’t you take a shower, or a bath if you want,” he says, not waiting for Danny to protest before closing the door on the kid and walking to his guest room.

Feeling almost giddy with nerves, Dick does his best to find clothes that would fit the nine year old. Damian, now twelve, wouldnt be a perfect fit for Danny, but they’d be similar in size than anyone else in his family. On his way back, he smiled when he hears the shower running.

Once he dropped off the clothes, Dick hurries to get dressed in his pajamas as quickly as possible, then started on making some hot chocolate.

Danny exited the bathroom just as the cocoa was done, and Dick had to resist the urge to coo. The kid was dressed in Damian’s clothes, which were definitely a few sizes too big. The sleeves of the shirt covered his hands and the pants covered his feet entirely. Dick was a bit worried he’d trip on them. He almost offered to roll them up when he caught the look on Danny’s face.

“What?”Dick asked as the kid continued to stare.

“Oh my god,” Danny said absently,”You’re Nightwing. Why- you- you know I could tell people, right? Why would you trust me with this?”

Dick just shrugged, smiling into his cocoa as Danny threw his over-sleeved arms into the air. “Geez, are all the heroes like this? You also shouldn’t kidnap kids. I hope you know that.”

“It’s not kidnapping,”Dick protests, handing the kid his cocoa as he sits across from him on the counter.

“So I can leave?”Danny raises an eyebrow. He smiles wryly at Dick’s silence. “Totally a kidnapping.”

“Well, now that you know where I live and what I look like, you should probably know my name,”Dick says, ignoring Danny entirely.

Danny sighs dramatically, then glances to his left. Dick tries to follow him but sees nothing there. Suddenly, Danny blurts,”You go by Dick on purpose??”

Dick laughs, assuming a ghost told him. While he’d normally be unnerved by that, he’d been around the kid enough to get used to it. Besides, if the kid was staying here he’d need support, especially with his ghostly powers. “Yeah, it’s what my parents nicknamed me.”

Danny grumbles a bit, but Dick notices he’d been visibly dropping from exhaustion. “Alright, time for bed kiddo, we can talk more in the morning over pancakes.”

“You know how to cook?”Danny yawned, and Dick would be offended that the kid guessed he couldn’t if that wasn’t true. He was planning to video chat Alfred for advice.

“Of course,” Dick lied, picking up the kid and carrying him to the guest room, much to Danny’s protesting. Dick felt the kid relax against him though, which warmed his heart. “Now get some sleep. No talking to ghosts, no crime scenes, no drugs.”

“I don’t think vape counts,” Danny protests sleepily, but snuggles into the blankets anyways. He’s out before Dick could finish tucking him in, and Dick runs his hand through Danny’s damp hair.

The panic would definitely hit him in a few minutes, but right now he couldn’t bring himself to regret kidnapping the kid. After reluctantly working with the little ghostbuster for the past five months, he’d grown attached. He’d be lying if he hadn’t thought about adopting the kid before today.

Dick just hoped his family wouldn’t freak out too much.

"Probably because they don't have a grave," Danny said, pulling out his vape. "Final resting places are--HEY!"

Nightwing held the pilfered vape above his head. "Where did you get this?" he asked, scandalized.

Danny jumped for it, but Nightwing was too tall! Even at 5'7 he'd have to use his powers to reach the vape; he had no chance as a 9 year old. "We're in Gotham! You're lucky I didn't get cocaine instead!"