#phantom 6

[jackalspine]

@schnuffel-danny hehehe

regarding this post: from schnuffle

[nat-956]

(Almost) Every Freddy Fazbear in my new cartoonish style!

[tanglepelt]

Dpxdc 180

Did Danny abuse the fact the GIW needed his parents tech. Yes of course. Danny not phantom seemed to be the trouble maker as of late. His parent threatened to withhold tech and blue prints from them if the GIW touched their kids.

Did he get caught breaking ember and boxy out of a government facility? yes. He expected the lecture he got.

The next jail break. It was not him. It was sam, Then the third. Also not him. That was Val… then it was Tucker. But not him.

The blame fell on him.

He did not expect to be shipped out of state. The GIW were happy to cover all costs. Even got him into a decent highschool. And had an apartment all arranged.

Gotham?

Not where he was expecting.

The assassination attempts. Also surprising.

Not so surprising. Tucker found out the GIW wanted to “silence” him. Offering a lot of money.

Of course his parents don’t listen. He is 15 perfectly fine to be all alone. Even if he is near some place with the nickname crime alley. Nope. He is just being dramatic. They tell him no one wants him dead.

[im-totally-not-an-alien-2]

"How come there's no multi-war chess?"

Tim looked up at the entity that had been haunting him for the past few weeks now, "What does that even mean?"

"You know how chess is basically a game about two kingdoms going to war with eachother?" The being asked, his white gloves gesturing about lazily, "well wouldn't it make sense for chess competitions to make the players go into the next round with only the pieces that "survived" the last war? It would be more interesting."

Danny smirked as he watched Mr. Drakes mind whirring at all the new strategies and potential. Comforted in the knowledge that Mr. Drake wasn't going to get much paperwork done tonight, let alone have time to work on his project for the competition, Danny let himself vanish from the other boys office.

All he needed to do was keep distracting Tim from the competition and that prize was all Tuckers.

He just prayed Sam didn't find out he was doing this or that he was getting chased around by bats every other night or else she'd kill him the rest of the way

[the-thing-inside-your-closet]

The Feast!

Inspired by this post

Danny, now an adult, works as an engineer and tech developer for Wayne Enterprises. One day, he has to bring his daughter, Ellie, into work with him. Ellie’s school had been temporarily shut down after a rouge attack, and the campus isn’t yet safe for the students to return to.

Danny had been ready to call into work to request the time off he’d need to watch his daughter until the school could be re-opened. However, his bosses seemed to be aware of the situation, and the predicament faced by many of the parents who worked for them. And a company wide email was sent out advertising Bring Your Kid To Work Day! Wayne Enterprises was offering all employees with children too young to be left home alone unsupervised the opportunity to bring their children in to work with them for the week, as that was the timeframe thus far given for when the school would be safely up and running again.

Danny is relieved that he wouldn’t need to take any unpaid time off. Nor try to find a last minute babysitter who’d A: Danny could trust to watch his little star, and B: be willing and able to watch her.

When he tells her about coming to work with him, Ellie is ecstatic! She gets to see where her dad works! And she gets to meet his work-friends! She’s so excited! She wants to make a good impression, so when Danny has gone off to begin cooking dinner, Ellie begins to make plans.

The next day, Ellie has woken up early and already gotten herself ready. She decided to wear a large poofy jacket and a pink too too over the top of her jeans. She has her backpack, filled with things to entertain her.

Once they’ve arrived and Danny has introduced Ellie to a few of his co-workers and some of their own children on the way to his desk. Along the way, Danny and Ellie pass by several offices and a we meeting rooms. It’s in one of these meeting rooms that Ellie spots her first target.

She quickly slips into the room before Danny can notice she’s run off and approaches the young man, teenager?, hunched over some papers reading intently. He’s got bags under his eyes that rivalled Danny’s back when he was still actively protecting Amity. He looks like he’s living off of nothing but caffeine and spite alone, and hasn’t had a proper nights sleep in months.

None of the other various businessmen and women in the room have noticed her presence yet, as she silently wanders up to the sleepy boy-man. She reaches into her pocket and just as she’s about to pull out her little gift, Danny has burst into the room frantically having noticed his child has slipped away. Again.

All eyes are on Danny as he apologises profusely for the intrusion, swooping in to take Ellie’s hand. He’s still apologising, now to the sleepy boy-man who is looking at Ellie in awe, like he couldn’t believe he hadn’t noticed her enter the room.

While her dad was still rambling Ellie quickly pulls an orange from her pocket and hands it to the boy-man. He takes it with a curious and perplexed look on his face.

“Ellie,” Danny sighs, “not again.”

Ellie grins and reaches into her jackets to pull out another orange. Danny swipes it before she can hand it to the businessman sitting next to the boy-man. She pulls out another one, and as Danny is grabbing it she slips from his grip and ducks under the table. Ellie runs to the centre of the room and unzips her backpack. She tips it upside down, and what looks to be 20 oranges spill out and roll across the floor.

With a feral grin, Ellie picks up an orange and throws her hands into the air in triumph, and shouts. “LET US FEAST!”

[little-pondhead]

Day 6: Immortal AU

“We’ll always wait for you.”

Hey, if Sam and Tucker become liminal, would that mean they bond with Amity Park as their haunt, and can no longer leave after death? Would Danny have to visit their graves in an empty field that once used to be a town a hundred years ago?

Would Danny’s power be the only thing keeping the memory of his friends alive, since there’s no one else to care for their only tether to the world?

[puppetmaster13u]

Another de-aged Danny au, but he's with Dan & Ellie & Jazz as well.

Jason has like just arrived back to Gotham, caused chaos in the underbelly due to well, 8 heads in a duffle bag, and is just starting his takeover of Crime Alley. It's going good, great even! And then he busts some sort of gang or smuggling ring run by people in white suits and there's... holy shit why do these four toddlers have Lazarus eyes?!

Is that a lab?! And Lazarus waters?! Jason might be a bit mad but he's not an asshole, he's not going to just leave these kids here to the streets. He can't just take them to the Batclan either, and as much as he begrudgingly trusts Talia, he sure as fuck doesn't trust Ras. Who knows what he'd do to four... what are they, pit-kids?

Now he's juggling his whole revenge-thing, running a criminal empire, taking over Gotham's underbelly, and being a single dad. At least the goonion seems to be down for helping, seeing as he's making Crime Alley safer...? .... Fuck he needs some proper sleep

[misosuper]

🧡✨AGIT Jazz appreciation post✨🧡

Sam || Paulina & Star || Valerie || Danny || Clockwork || Tucker

[noxcheshire]

I kept thinking of little baby man Phantom and the potential of Danny being an actual baby of the Infinite Realms. However, he’s more snake teenager than itty bitty Little Baby Man edition, cause I think it’d be so funny to just — imagine this teenage snake curled up in a summoning circle, obviously having been taking a nap and looking up with his big green, sleepy eyes and Constantine just stares and freaks because, “THATS A WHOLE ASS BABY, PUT IT BACK!”

But they can’t because apparently the summoning was more of a ‘knock knock I’m a babysitter’ and Danny’s ghost parent decided that this was the perfect time to have some time for themselves if Heroes were so willing to take care of Danny for a little while.

Another take — mainly in reference to a different post about Klarion actually just being a toddler of the infinite realms with no ideas on how to human and thinks him fighting with heroes is just a play date — zooms into the human realm where the heroes are and just goes, “Hey I’m dropping my baby sibling onto you guys cause my dad got mad last time Danny got hurt by the humans I hang with. So here you go, I’ll pick him up later.”

A teenage snake Danny is dropped into a hero’s arms where he mainly grumbles and then shifts to better take a nap. Klarion drops the baby essentials at them with no further explanations other then “here’s their favorite blanket, if they get fussy taco them; here’s the baby milk make sure it’s -200 F, they have an ice core, etc.” and then just DISAPPEARS after leaving what amounts to a month old infant in human heroes care.

[jackalspine]

I cooked this boy up so fast holy shart.

He’s gonna be small, double print (reflected) double epoxied. I’ll order abt 50 hehe akrylic carmbs hehe

[dcxdpdabbles]

Could you please do another part for royal consort? Maybe with phantom causing some chaos?

Tim didn't know how he ended up here. Consort Danny had disappeared into the crowd, and the King was sneering at any nearby humans. In hindsight, maybe dancing next to the couple wasn't the best idea, but he felt he had to do something.

King Phantom had been in a foul mood since the moment he arrived. Tim just wanted to let him know he wouldn't have to worry about him getting in the way of their love or their quarrel.

He may have overstepped to clear things up as quickly as possible. Now, he was dangling from the arms of a King who was one wrong word away from starting a war.

"Um, Your Majesty?" He tries, nerves making his voice high and tight as green glowing eyes glare at him. "I'm sorry-"

"It's fine," King Phantom bites in a tone that showcases how not fine it is. "Darling and I are just having a lover's quarrel. It has nothing with the likes of you."

Okay.

Tim scrambles to think of what to say. "I hope things work out."

"They will. What can I help you with?"

"Um, a dance?"

"Why?"

"I....just as a favor."

The King tilts his head in consideration but says nothing, eyes scanning the crowd and likely searching for where his husband had stormed off.

Tim is still determining what he will do to smooth things over.

He's been trained from a very young age to run circles around the ballroom halls of Gotham elites. He knows how to disarm with a smile and bite out a throat in the same motion.

Tim can dine with people twice his age and twice his experience and still make them hand everything they own over with a smile. He's good at figuring people out, finding out what they want, and manipulating them into wanting what Tim wants.

But to do that, he needs to know the rules. The rules of High Society were the thin line between victory and defeat. If he made one wrong move, vultures would overcome him and rip him apart before he could say, "My bad."

And sadly, Tim did not know how High Society worked in the Infinite Realms. The few who knew the rules or culture didn't explain what he needed to know. Constantine barely cared about manners with his fellow humans, Raven avoided the other beings for fear of her father, and Zatanna struggled with understanding the way of the rich or nobility.

Tim could make a guess, but the vast difference in their cultures could turn a simple greeting into a faux pas. Even King Phantom's appearance was something Tim couldn't really understand.

The God of all Afterlives thought Danny Fenton was the peak of beauty, so much so that he shapeshifted to look like him with only his coloring as a difference. Tim and a majority of the world thought Fenton was rather plain-looking.

He wasn't ugly, but his face was forgettable, something that wouldn't turn heads or be easy to pick out among a crowd. Yet King Phantom strutted around, somehow seeming appealing with his plainness. Tim wondered if the King moved confidently to make him more attractive than his model or if his otherworldliness peaked through his human facade.

In any case, he doesn't think he would be comfortable making out with a being who actively made himself look like him, no matter how in love Tim was. But that was how higher beings courted, according to Constantine, and Tim could not dismiss the valuable information.

He didn't understand it, but he didn't need to for him to know that Danny Fenton had a lot of control over King Fanton.

That, in itself, was a horrifying thought.

"King Phantom isn't just a ruler of another nation with nukes strong enough to take out the world," Constantine had said in the briefing before the ball. "He isn't even a god. A god has domain over a concept. King Phantom is every concept that humanity can comprehend. We can not afford this war. He can blink and make gravity on earth vanish. He can snap his fingers to plunge the sun outside the Milky Way. Worst of all, King Phantom can switch his Rules."

"What do you mean?" Bruce demanded, voice hard and steady.

"Every Higher being has Rules. Don't tell a Fae your name. Don't leave a ghost without saying goodbye. Don't invite a vampire inside. They are bound to follow those rules, and usually, you can defeat them with them, too, but what about King Phantom? His Rules are ever-changing. No one knows why, and that's horrifying. What will you encounter with him, and how will you survive?"

The last question plays through Tim's head as King Phantom takes a deep breath through his nose before huffing. He glances down at Tim as Red Robin would look at an old computer he was planning on rewiring. Easy to tear apart and rebuild to his liking. He swallows a gulp load of spit.

"Three dances." The King says at last after a heavy silence.

"Your Majesty?" He dares to ask.

Phantom doesn't bother with an answer as he suddenly strides to the side, yanking Tim. He stumbles for only a few seconds before he corrects his footing and finds himself in the center of the dance floor.

The two move in a fast-paced waltz, feet stomping on the ground in rhythm with the music as the King twists and turns. They pass through other couples- causing the vigilante to shiver. It felt gross- taking over the dance floor with dazzling movements.

People scramble out of their way, even if King Phantom somehow causes a density shift to not have them bother, encasing the two in a small circle of awed onlookers.

Sweat is building at Tim's brow, trying to keep pace with the King, who likely had centuries to perfect this dance. He probably witnessed its creation. It was fun.

He raises with the tempo, falls with the rhythm, and is whisked away by Phantom, who leads him through each movement as quickly as Tim breathes.

Phantom yanks Tim flush against him for the following song- causing Tim to stiffen in distress. There are far too many eyes on them who will spread rumors- but he doesn't dare push the other away. This is a Vietnam,ese waltz, but its pace, as the song used to speed up in tempo.

At least the King isn't looking at him, eyes still scanning the room with an intense hunger and awareness. He hasn't seen his husband.

His family has yet to report where Consort Fenton ran off, but he can hear them whispering escape plans from their respective party guests to check.

Things could have been much more awkward since their last encounter when the King offered Danny the position of concubine. Thankfully, the Royal didn't seem interested in Tim in any way.

The third song ends, and the King practically rips himself away, stepping back with a weary smile. "You wanted one dance as a favor. A favor for a favor.

I look forward to having you grant it, Drake-Wayne."

Shit.

The rules change trap, and he fell right into it.

Tim smiles, hoping his distress will not show. But with his luck, the King can tell when lies are spoken. "Of course."

King Phantom bows his head slightly, folding one hand very oddly. He snaps upright and marches into the crowd, walking right through guests approaching him. He doesn't even glance at them. Strangely,

he seemed angrier than before as Consort Fenton reappeared at the top of the stairway, which should lead to a more private bounty. Fe ton is waving a small rectangular box at him, grinning like a madman.

Fenton's blue eyes accidentally meet Tim's, shifting from pride and warmth to suspension and possible hate. He curls the rectangular object to his chest protectively, and the moment it touches his Consort necklace, the two items start to glow.

Phantom starts running toward him.

Double shit.

"Tim," Dick hisses, walking up to him. "I can not express this enough. What the hell did you do?"

"I think I just made the lover's quarrel worse."

Dick's face pinches. "Maybe it's not too late to try and seduce them-"

A loud bang echoes through the room as King Phantom screams, a sound so unholy and inhuman that it drags Tim to his knees. Around him, guests scream, also falling, but a few are unconscious, while some are only clutching to their ears in agony. A strong wing picks up, blowing the once classy ball into a makeshift hurricane, and Tim's feet give out from under him by the force of the shock wave. He is flung into a wall, followed a second later by Dick.

Thankfully, his brother can control his fall so that when he does wind up on top of Tim—for appearances—he doesn't put too much pressure on him. Most are not so lucky.

People make sickening cracks when they collide with the walls, slumping to the ground like broken puppets, unable to escape the explosion.

"What's happening?" Bruce demands in his ear as various screams emerge around the room. Some guests still fly around like rag dolls, caught in an unseen tornado. Chairs and tables crash into each other as the chaos unfolds, as Damian responds to his father.

"The Consort seems to be under attack. So something or someone is using him to power a gateway!" Damian screams, voice just barely heard over the other noises.

Tim strains against the blowing wind, trying to ease the ache in his eyes to gather more information. He sees a horrifying sight.

Consort Danny is floating in the air, mouth open in a silent scream, as a portal forms around him. The blaring white lighting buzzes with electricity, running over his body in fast and dangerous bursts.

He looks to be dying.

The King is flying in front of him, attempting to reach the human, but a force field is bouncing him back. With each failed attempt, King Phantom's hands crackle with power, and even from across the spacious room, Tim can tell that if he were to use that power, Wayne Manor would not survive.

Let alone the humans trapped inside of it.

"We need to get people out of here!" Yells Duke, likely seeing the real danger with his power. "The King is going to kill everyone!"

Despite wearing an earpiece, Tim can barely hear his father bark out instructions as the howling wind carries on. Tim can only watch the King of Ghost summon an army.

Miniature portals pop around the Ballroom as undead knights pour out in drones. They carelessly walk through humans, not bothering to help in any way as they quickly take up formation before the Consort.

They are posed for battle. But against what?

King Phantom's voice booms across the room, starting a terrible ring in Tim's ears. He hits the ground, his chin in a painful ache, clutching his ears, willing the ringing to leave.

Tears well up in his eyes as the ringing gives way to achiness, making it hard for Tim to pick his head up. It takes a moment before he can understand what King Phantom has shouted.

"Danny, you dumb, stupid Consort, stop picking up random shit you don't understand!"

[bet-on-me-13]

Danny dies every night.

So! Danny's secret Ghost Powers remained a secret for about 6 Hours.

After turning back into a Human, he had immediately gone back to his room and tried to fall asleep, pretending none of it was even real, that it was just a dream. The idea that he had just died was understandably hard to swallow, not to mention the fact he had somehow come back.

All he wanted to do was rest and figure it out later. It was a problem for Future Danny.

Except when he woke up, something was wrong.

He felt Cold, Colder than he had ever been before. It was as if he had a chunk of pure Ice stuck in his Chest, the cold spreading across every part of his body. With a start he realized that his chest wasn't moving at all, either from the beating of his heart or the breaths he was supposed to be taking.

He wasn't breathing. His heart wasn't pumping. The Ice in his chest was the feeling of his heart not pumping, still and unnaturally cold. At that realization, he felt his Heart begin beating again.

He ran downstairs, hoping to get his parents help. He didn't know what was going on exactly, but they must be able to help him right?! They were the leading experts on Undead Biology, they must know how to help him!

When he reached the kitchen, he saw his parents and Jazz huddled together at the table, crying together for some reason.

"Mom! Dad! Jazz! Somethings wrong! I don't know what happened, but last night I-"

He stopped when he saw their faces. Their cheeks were tear-streaked, eyes bloodshot, but the thing he noticed first was the grief and absolutely confusion in their eyes. They were staring at him as if they had seen a Ghost, figuratively of course, and they seemed to he trying to connect the dots in their heads.

"Danny?" Jazz asked in a shaky voice. "Is that you?"

"Jazz?" He asked in return, "What do you mean, of course it's me?"

She looked hopeful for a moment, before his mom stood up.

"No." She said, her voice held a hard edge. "It's not."

Danny almost fell over when she said that. "W-what?" He asked, "What are you talking about Mo-"

"DON'T CALL ME THAT!" She yelled. She gripped the Blaster in her hand tighter, aiming it at him. "I checked everything when we found Danny's body! He had no Pulse, no Brain Activity, and his Ecto Levels were far higher than normal! Danny is Dead! And you killed him!"

"What?!" Danny yelled in shock, "I didn't kill hi-I mean, I didn't kill me-I mean-What are you talking about!?"

This time his dad answered, getting up from the table himself. In his hand was another Blaster. "Danny's Ecto Levels could only have been that high if killed by something with a large amount of Ectoplasm, enough to leave such a mark. The Portal was open for hours last night before we found it and sealed it up, and that's when you got through isn't it!?"

His Dad leveled the Blaster to him.

"No! I'm not a Ghost, it's me! It's Danny!?" He pleaded, "Mom, I always baked you a cake on mother's day! Dad, I helped you clean up the lab the last time you blew it up! It's me!"

"Nice try." His mother said, "Die again, Ecto Scum."

That day, Danny ran away from home.

...

Ever since that day, Danny had been running as far as he could from Amity Park.

After he got out of the house, he tried to find any place he could hide as he figured everything out. His first try was Tucker, but his parents had anticipated that and beat him to the Punch. The same happened when he tried to go to Sam's, he barely escaped that situation alive(?).

At first he tried to stay in Amity, hoping he would eventually find a way to convince his parents of his true identity, so everything could go back to normal.

He abandoned that hope about a week later, when his parents got the local authorities on their side and issued a public service announcement stating he was a Murderer who killed their son, and to contact the Police if anybody saw him. The mindless Ghost they captured and presented on the Local News cemented the publics view on him.

So he ran from Amity.

The first few weeks on the Run were the worst. He wasn't used to surviving on the street, much less evading the Law Enforcement that seemed to keep finding him. He had to constantly stay on the move to keep away from the pursuit of his Parents, the Police, and the weird guys in white suits who had shown up once he passed the State Border.

His new Ghost Powers were the only thing that had let him get away most of those times. He could turn into a Full Ghost whenever he wanted, unlocking all of his powers for the time being, but also seemingly sending up a Beacon to whoever was looking for him. He found it was much easier to use their weakened versions in his Human Form.

As for his Undead-ness, he had mostly figured it out. His body was lying to him. He was Dead, but his Body was just pretending to be alive for his own sake. He didn't need to breath anymore, and his heart didn't need to pump, but they did because he felt that they needed to. He probably didn't even need to eat anymore.

The problem was that it couldn't keep it up when he was asleep. No matter what, every time he fell asleep his Body would die again, and when he woke up he would have to make it Live again.

One of the main reasons he kept getting caught recently was because well-meaning civilians would report to the Police that there was a Dead Teenager under a Bridge, or on a Park Bench, or on one memorable occasion in a Ditch. He would wake up in a Body Bag, escape, and be reported to his Pursuers.

At least his pattern of movement was untraceable so far.

Turns out, the Portal's opening had much more of an effect than his parents had anticipated. The Shockwave in the fabric of Reality when they punched a hole through it (and him), had caused dozens of Natural Portals to form across the Country, opening and closing in random places, soaking the area of Ectoplasm.

As an apparent Ghost, Danny was somehow drawn to these places. Whenever he got to one he felt rejuvenated, as if the stress of the past few days had never happened to him. He could only assume that he was Absorbing the Ectoplasm in the area to feed himself, based on a few of the things he remembered from his parents constant ramblings.

Whenever he would go to one of these places, he would find a bunch of Ghosts. Some were friendly, defying all of his expectations, while others were...less so.

They seemed to resent the fact that he was still half-alive, some simply jabbing insults at him, others straight up attacking him. It seemed that Life was a sore subject among those guys. Or maybe it was him stopping them whenever they attacked humans...that was probably more accurate.

Sometimes the Ghosts he would meet were in the middle of attacking humans to fulfill what they called their "Obsessions". He learned that all Undead, and basically all Immortal Beings, have Obsessions. They are their Sole Purpose in existence, a built in defense mechanism against insanity by giving them something to dedicate Eternity to.

He didn't know if he had an Obsession, but if he did he hoped it was easier to manage than theirs seemed to be. One of them was obsessed with attention, but got it by hypnotizing humans into adoring her. She chilled out after a while. Another loved the thrill of the Hunt, but only wanted rare game. He chased after Danny a lot in pursuit of his "One of a Kind Pelt".

He fought then off and saved people whenever he could, although sometimes it was risky. Many of them were older and more experienced than him, so he was forced to use his Ghost Form against some of them, sacrificing his hiding spot to save the people being terrorized.

He sort of enjoyed it. Whenever he helped people, saved them from danger, he felt better about his situation. As if he was making the best out of the horrible situation his life had turned into by helping as many people as he could. He always felt a bit more motivated to keep going every time he helped anybody.

Maybe that was his Obsession? Helping others? He didn't really think so, he was nowhere near altruistic enough to consider that a possibility. Maybe it was Space? He always felt that same relief when he would camp out away from the Cities. Eh, he'll probably never know.

This cycle of finding a new hiding spot, getting discovered, and running away again continued for a while. Years even.

Danny had Died at 14. He was now 17, and had been homeless for 3 years.

He hoped this next hiding spot would last a bit longer than the previous ones. This one felt different, the Ectoplasm he was wandering towards felt older than the other places he had gone. His previous hiding spots had always been the site of a recent Natural Portal, and the Ectoplasm in the atmosphere would feel Fresh and Wild.

But the Ectoplasm where he was going tasted Older, Stronger, more Set in Stone than the others had. Wherever he wad headed to next, it had been soaking in Ectoplasm for far longer than any other place he had ever been, even in Amity.

He walked up the the Sign at the side of the road, introducing the City to newcomers.

"Welcome to Gotham City" it said.

[bloody-starr]

jojo twitter post (mostly joseph oops)

[wanologic]

don’t look at me

[thevoidstaredback]

How To Balance Your Daytime and Nighttime Activities So That You Don't Burn Yourself Out More Than You Already Have

Waking up to a clean apartment was not what Dick was expecting at all. It was a nice surprise, for sure, but it begged the question as to how long he was asleep for. His phone said that it was the same day, only two hours later, but that state of the apartment suggested it had been at least a day!

He poked his head into the room he'd given Danny to stay in. The kid had ignored the bed almost completely, it seemed, and curled up in the corner furthest from the door with the blanket and his bag. He closed the door softly as he left the room. He hated that Danny didn't feel safe enough to sleep on the bed, but he understood the need to have his back to a corner.

Dick took one look at the shopping list on the counter before opening his fridge. Immediately, he closed it again. The rancid stench of spoiled milk and other foodstuffs seeped into the open room, making Dick rush to open the windows. He added candles and Febreeze to the shopping list. With his pay, he should have more than enough to get everything written down, as well as some things for Danny.

Would Danny want to go to school? Or would he want to take online courses? What grade would he even be in? There was nothing about any of that in the cover story the kid had made up. Did he just not think about it, or had he deemed it unimportant? Either way, Dick would bring it up with him in a little bit. For now, shopping. The kid had done a hell of a job with cleaning up, so it was only natural that Dick would pull his weight in his own apartment.

Making sure to leave a note, Dick locked the door behind himself as he headed down, mentally adding fridge magnets to the shopping list, too.

***

Stepping back into the apartment was like walking into someone else's home. The place looked no different than when he'd left earlier, but it was only just now settling that he now had someone to take care of. Dick was no longer alone in this apartment. He had someone to look out for, someone who was looking out for him.

And how pathetic was that? A child was having to take care of him. He's an adult! He should be able to take care of himself! But, here he is, hopeless. He hadn't even bothered to get off his ass and go shopping or clean up a little bit until a kid knocked on his door and spelled everything out for him in blue glitter pen.

Dick set down the six bags he was carrying on the counter. He completely emptied out the fridge and freezer, throwing it all away. It all had to go. The smell would linger for a little bit, but it wouldn't ever get that bad again, especially now that the stuff causing it was all gone. He quickly put everything away before picking up his phone.

He hadn't called the Manor in a while. Not since- not since Jason died...

He shook his head, scolding himself for letting irrational fear and anger get in the way of contacting the only family he had left, and called Wayne Manor.

After exactly two and a half rings, the line picked up. "Wayne Manor, Alfred Pennyworth speaking."

"Hey, Alfie," Dick knew he sounded pathetic.

There was..something on the other end that Dick couldn't quite pick up before Alfred spoke, formalities dropped and a smile in his voice. "Master Dick, how good to hear from you. It has been a while."

He leaned against the counter, sagging a bit. "Yeah, it has been. I'm sorry, Alfred, I just-"

"No need to apologize, Master Dick, I completely understand."

Did he? Maybe. "That's- Thank you, Alfred, really, but I didn't really call to apologize."

"Oh?" There was another sound in the background, a little closer to the phone, but not close or loud enough to be clearly picked up. "What seems to be the issue, then?"

"I, um," God, how was he going to explain this? "A kid showed up at my door, um, and offered to help me out? I-I couldn't say no to him, Alfe, but- I don't! I-I don't know how to take care of a kid!" The floodgates seemed to open with that as he sank to the floor, his back against the wall. "I can barely take care of myself, let alone a whole other person! But I can't put him back on the streets, Alfred, I just can't. And the things he's been telling me- He's not had an okay life, Alfred. I don't- I don't know what to do."

It was quiet for a moment before Alfred let out a small breath. "You, too?"

"Huh?"

THe question was ignored. "Take a deep breath for me, Master Dick." He did. "Good. This child, how old is he?"

"I don't know, about fourteen?"

A click of his tongue. "Taking care of a child is going to look different for everyone, especially if they've never had to care for anyone but themselves before. From what I understand, he has come to you for safety. He has nowhere else to go, yes?"

"Well, yeah, other than the streets, but I'm not sending him back out there-!"

"I'm not telling you to. If he came to you, he will leave of his own accord. It is your job to make sure he knows he can stay and that he is safe with you."

"I know that, but-"

"Do you have food in your house?"

"I- What? Yeah, I just got back from shopping."

"Good. Is your house clean?"

"Yeah, he, um, the kid cleaned up the place while I was asleep."

"Alright. Does he have a place to sleep?"

"Yeah, I gave him my spare room. What does this-?"

"Then the only thing left for you to do is to make sure he knows he's allowed to be comfortable there. Make sure he knows that it is a safe space for him and that he can stay as long as he likes. From the sounds of it, he intends to take care of you just as you intend to take care of him. Find a middle ground, set up some house rules, go at a pace that works for the both of you. You two will grow into a routine that fits for you in time. And it will take time. Bonds do not grow overnight, especially ones that are meant to last. It will be hard, but that is what makes it worth it."

Dick was quiet for a minute. Alfred let him gather his thoughts, not hanging up and simply waiting. Finally, "Thanks, Alfred."

"You are most welcome, Master Dick." The old man was smiling again. "Oh, aster Dick?"

"Yeah?"

"When you two are more comfortable, please come by the Manor."

Dick smiled, too. "I will. And I'll try to call more often."

"That's all I ask. Have a good day, Master Dick.

"Thanks, Alfred, you, too."

Part 5 Part 7

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[dannyphannypack]

i am once again asking for niche or under-appreciated danny phantom fanfics/crossovers