Chapter Text
Namesake
Danny looked up at the ceiling of the room. He needed to get up. He couldn’t stand laying here for another second. He felt like his bones would disintegrate if he did. He didn’t want to move though. Luckily for him. The bed was pretty close to the bathroom. He didn’t have to move far.
Pretty soon there was hot water rushing over him. He crouched down, sitting on the floor and hugging his knees. Enjoying the hot soothing feeling creeping over his cold, half dead flesh. Lately, he could only lay in bed or sit on the floor of the shower. He couldn’t sleep either. He just laid there, wishing that everything in his life could be different. He felt so gut wrenchingly empty it almost made him sick. He wanted to scream and cry and barf all at the same time, but he only had the energy to wallow in his own misery. He felt so useless. His body was begging him to move, to do anything but lay around. He just didn’t have the willpower to listen to it. He couldn’t even get enough willpower to leave his room. He was a piece of shit waste of space that couldn’t even go to school anymore. He went for the first few days, but after a bit he gave up on it. If any of the Waynes tried to check on him or make him go to school, he would just say he wasn’t feeling well. It was kind of true. He always felt weak and tired. His stomach and head hurt a lot of the time.
He heard a knock at the bathroom door.
“Hey Danny.” It was that guy. The one who looked at him like his parents did. “Are you alright? I haven't seen you around..”
He paused before answering.
“i’m good.” He halfheartedly lied. He knew that the Waynes probably already knew that he was a mess. He kept hoping that they would forget he’s there. That way, they would leave him alone.
“Alright…” He paused before saying “I wanted to talk to you a bit, I’ll wait in the hall. Let me know when you’re done, okay?”
“ok.” Danny knew he couldn’t avoid them forever.
He looked at himself in the foggy mirror. The room was dark but his eyes had already adjusted. His reflection was pitiful. His wet hair fell in front of his eyes which were dull and dead looking. It dripped ecto-contaminated droplets onto the counter of the bathroom. It reminded him that every inch of his body down to his bones was contaminated. He wasn’t fully human anymore. He was dead. He was disgusting. His body was pale and too thin. On top of that it was too feminine. Why did his boobs have to be there at all? Why were there flecks of green in his blood? Why did he have to try so much harder than anyone else just to be happy? Normal kids his age didn’t have to worry about being hunted down by the government. They didn’t have to crush their ribs just to feel ok. They didn’t have to feel trapped in their body. He just had to half die. He just had to be trans. He just had to be everything he didn’t want to be in this life and even the next life. Hot tears started rolling down his freezing cold face, falling and joining the droplets that fell from his hair. He felt so angry and sick and pathetic. He was so useless he couldn’t stand it.
He reached for a towel to dry his hair off. The movement was so slow it infuriated him.
He crumpled back onto the bed after getting dressed back into the same clothes he’s been living in for weeks. He put on his binder too. He was feeling pretty shit about himself plus that guy wanted to talk to him.
Putting off calling the guy in, he looked up at the door. Next to it was the tray that Alfred always left for him. He insisted on bringing fresh snacks and water to him every day. Danny felt bad because he almost never ate or drank them. He felt bad ignoring the Waynes. They seemed like nice people. They should’ve taken in someone else though. A kid who wasn’t a waste of space loser tranny like him.
There was another knock.
“Danny?” It was the guy in the hallway. He couldn’t keep putting it off.
He dragged himself out of bed and walked to the door.
─ ✧- ☽ -✧ ─
“Guys, we really need to do something.” Steph urged. Concern clearly etched on her face.
Tim nodded in agreement.
None of them knew Danny that well, but they couldn’t just sit by and watch this kid die. It had been 3 weeks since he arrived, but he showed no signs of improvement. In fact, he’d only gotten worse. Duke said that when they first started going to school together, he wouldn’t pay much attention, but he would try and make it look like he was putting in a fraction of effort. As the days went by, he started putting less and less effort into the act, eventually just resting his head on the desk for all his class periods. Pretty soon he was saying he was sick in order to skip, then not go at all. Whenever any of them got a glimpse of him he looked like death.
However, the most concerning thing about Danny’s current behavior was his aversion to eating. They were very concerned that it would become unsafe if he went without a meal for very much longer. Tim pondered the conundrum. They couldn’t force him to eat. That might just make things worse. They would need to find the root cause of his self-inflicted malnutrition. Bruce had guessed that it might be an eating disorder, but based on both Duke’s conversation with Danny and his own intuition, Tim didn’t think that was the case. Even with that, there were still a lot of unknowns. Tim needed to have a conversation with the guy. He could learn more that way.
He sighed.
“I’m gonna talk to him.” Tim decided. “We can form a plan from there.”
“How?” Cass sighed. “He won’t even leave his room when we invite him.”
She was right. Danny always kept their conversations as short as possible. He always politely declined hanging out with them too. Tim had a plan though.
“Simple,” he asserted “I just won’t invite him.”
─ ✧- ☽ -✧ ─
Danny had been in the shower when Tim came by to talk to him, so Tim waited outside his room for him. For a half hour. Was he ok? Tim decided to knock on his door again.
“Danny?” Tim had heard a door close inside, so he was pretty sure Danny was in the main room now.
He heard some rustling from behind the door before it opened.
Danny looked half dead. His skin was so pale, it was almost translucent. His dark hair didn’t help. It just emphasized the lack of blood flow. Tim should really get him to move around more. This can’t be good for him. There were thick dark circles under his eyes. His slouch and oversized pajamas gave him a hauntingly small look. Like he would turn to dust if you so much as blinked at him. The food problem probably didn’t help.
Tim realized his detective side had been slipping out when Danny started shrinking away from his gaze.
“Is there… something you need?” Danny faltered.
“Oh yeah, I just wanted to talk to you!” He tried to channel Dick’s gentle yet warm tone. “Come on!”
He grabbed Danny’s wrist and pulled him through the doorway before he could shrink back into his room.
“Lets go to my room!” Tim insisted, dragging Danny along behind him.
─ ✧- ☽ -✧ ─
Danny was being dragged by his wrist through the massive hallways. He didn’t even know why. The last thing he wanted to do was hang out with this guy though. He seemed so perceptive, and curious. It gave him the chills how much his expression looked like his parents. At least when they were hunting him. When he was normal Danny Fenton they didn’t give him so much as a glance. Whenever this guy looked at him, he felt like he was hurt all over and running away with the thermos all over again, like he had so many times. It brought back all the fear, betrayal and hurt he felt from back then. He kept looking down at his body to remind himself that he was still human. He wasn’t phantom right now.
The guy pulled him up to a door that was labeled “Tim”, so Tim was his name, and yanked him inside. The room looked cozy. He had lots of engineering things, bean bags, video games, skate boards on the walls, and a punching bag in a corner. It also had lots of nerdy things that Danny didn’t really expect to see in his room. There were manga, pokemon plushes, DND books and dice, and sci-fi movie posters.
Tim nudged him onto one of the beanbags and sat on another one across from him. There was a big bowl of popcorn along with a variety of other snacks and drinks between them.
“Which one do you want?” Tim had pulled out a few yogurt cups from seemingly nowhere, and was now holding them out so Danny could see the flavors. There was strawberry, blueberry, honey, and mango.
“uhh…” Danny didn’t know how to process all this. “Honey?”
Tim smiled, “Cool cool.” he said as he tossed him the yogurt along with a little plastic spoon.
“I personally like mango.” Tim chatted as he opened his own yogurt.
Danny looked down at the yogurt in his hands, it was right there, so why not eat it? He opened it and took a bite. It was so good. It was just yogurt though, It shouldn’t taste THIS good. But right then, it did. Tim kept chattering about nonsense while Danny gulped down that yogurt cup. He didn’t even know why he was eating it so fast. He just knew that it tasted really good.
“Woah, slow down there!” Tim half-heartedly joked.
“oh, sorry.” he murmured, he stared at his now empty yogurt cup. “What were you saying?”
“I was just talking about my favorite breakfast. It’s french toast and eggs. Alfred always makes it when I ask for it.” he smiled down at his, still full, yogurt cup. “What’s your favorite thing to have for breakfast?”
“i don’t really eat breakfast.” Danny found himself being truthful. “it's just a lot of energy to make something. plus even if i don’t have to make it, it’s still a lot of energy spent on getting out of bed.”
Tim kept looking at him with that intense expression before continuing.
“Ok then, hypothetically, if you could magically have any breakfast you wanted, what would it be?”
“um…” Danny thought about it. He hadn’t had a real breakfast, or even a real meal in a long time. What was a breakfast he enjoyed? He thought back to when Jazz was home, she sucked at cooking everything but these awesome pancakes. She made them for him whenever he was down. “Maybe pancakes?”
“Pancakes are a great choice.” Tim approved. “With the syrup and fruit and butter! I always like grape juice with my pancakes.”
“yeah. i like fruit and syrup too. I like apple juice though.”
“Apple Juice is a good choice.” he praised.
“yeah. it reminds me of movie nights with my sister when we were little kids.” Danny reminisced.
“What kinds of movies do you like?”
“i haven’t gotten the chance to watch anything recently, but i remember really liking the star wars movies?” Danny offered, Tim had said he just wanted to talk to him. Not talking would just make this more awkward. “as a kid i just loved anything to do with space, so naturally those were the ones i was drawn to.”
“Oh we love Star Wars in this house.” Tim affirmed. “My personal favorite movie is Howl’s Moving Castle though. Have you seen any Ghibli movies?”
“i think i saw… the one about the fish girl?” he guessed “i’m not sure. it’s been so long.”
“We should totally do a Ghibli marathon!” Tim declared. Leaving no room for negotiations.
“you… like ghibli a lot?” he hesitated. He hadn’t had a real conversation in so long he kinda forgot how to keep one going.
“Yeah. I’m kinda a geek.” laughed Tim. “As you can tell from all my Pokemon.” He gestured to the plushes when he said it.
“i like pokemon too. um.. what’s your favorite?"
“How could you ask that?!” he gasped, incredulous. Danny’s eyes widened, had he done something wrong? Shit. He didn’t think that was a bad question.
“How could you ask me to choose a favorite Pokemon?!” Tim smiled, revealing he was joking.
“Oh” Danny let out an internal sigh of relief, “then do you have a favorite game?”
“Hmm. Now that’s a tough one.” he mused to himself, setting down his now empty yogurt cup. “I would have to land on Pokemon Violet.”
“wait- there’s a violet?” Danny hadn’t been able to keep up with the games either. He’d forgotten that they kept making new ones.
“Haha! Yeah! You should totally play it!” he laughed lightheartedly. “I’ll lend you my switch sometime.”
“oh, yeah that would be cool.” he nodded, finding he genuinely meant it.
“We should play a game! You like Minecraft?” Tim tossed him a controller and turned on the TV.
“i’ve never played.” confessed Danny
“Really?” Tim blurted. “I have to show you. It's super fun.” He continued to start up the game.
“...” Danny tried hard to process what was going on. This was all so weird to him. He hadn’t had an interaction like this in… a really long time. Since Jazz left for college. He thought he didn’t really miss it. He didn’t need any real social contact. But this was… nice.
“You alright Danny?” Tim looked back up at him with those same, searching eyes. Tim was different from his parents though. He didn’t want to tear him apart to get his answers. Tim seemed like he actually cared about what Danny had to say. He wanted to know about Danny. Actually Danny. He wasn’t trying to find out how some ghost boy ticks. Danny didn’t know why he’d been so scared of him before. Of course he wasn’t evil or trying to hurt him. That’d be silly.
“yeah.” Danny smiled genuinely. “i’m great.”
─ ✧ ─
Danny walked back to his room in the best mood he’d had in years. Tim had played tons of games with him, and they’d talked about a ton of unimportant things that had no major life or death ramifications.
His mood was shattered when he opened his door and saw Clockwork, as a little boy, sitting on one of the chairs. Danny quickly closed the door.
After a beat, he reopened it and Clockwork was gone. So he slowly entered, closing the door softly behind him.
“Hello Danny.” Clockwork appeared behind him, this time he was an old man.
“what do you want?” He said, not hiding the loathing in his tone.
“I’m simply here to talk.” He shifted into a middle aged man.
“go talk to someone else.” Danny pushed past the now teenage ghost.
“I thought it would be good to let you know that Vlad is making a move.”
Danny stopped dead in his tracks at the mention of Vlad’s name. Vlad had been a nuisance since the day they met. He was such a freak that Danny avoided him at all costs. He was obsessed with his mom to the point he was also obsessed with Danny. He wasn’t a pedofile or anything, but he sure loved to walk that line.
“Your parents informed him that you were staying somewhere else and he instantly started searching for you.” He was an old man again.
“how… how is he not here already then?”
“Your parents didn’t know the address. Or even the city. They even forgot Bruce’s last name.” Clockwork shifted into a young adult when he admitted it.
“you’re kidding.” Danny said, bewildered. His parent’s neglect had finally come in handy for once.
“Nope.” He was a preteen now. “But he’s still looking for you. You should be careful.”
“yeah yeah.” Danny flopped onto the bed. All Vlad had to go on was the name Bruce. That wasn’t a lot. He would probably be back home before he found any good leads.
“Take this seriously.”
“is that all you came here to say? got me worried over nothing…” he mumbled. Drifting off to sleep.
─ ✧- ☽ -✧ ─
“Timothy. I thought you told us that you would handle it.” Damian deadpanned.
“I never said that.” Tim countered. “I only said I would talk to him. Which I did.”
Tim had hoped that Danny would come out of his room for breakfast this morning because of their conversation about it yesterday, but, alas, he wasn’t that lucky. He’d even shown up at lunch and dinner to see if Danny would make an appearance. Again, no luck.
“What do we do now?” Duke asked, sounding dejected.
“Did you get any clues when you were talking to him?” Bruce asked, turning to Tim.
“Let me think.” Danny had taken a bit to warm up to him, but he was a pretty cool guy. He was kind, funny, a little anxious though. He did keep subtly talking down about himself. But why wouldn’t he eat?
A look of surprise crossed Tim’s face as he remembered. Why had he forgotten? He’d even made a mental note to remember it.
“What is it?” Bruce prodded.
“He said that he doesn’t hate eating. He just doesn’t have the energy for it. It sounded like he had to make most of his meals back home, but he also said he doesn’t even want to leave his bed just to have a meal. Plus, when I gave him some yogurt, he scarfed it down super fast. It was exactly what you would expect of a person who hadn’t eaten in days.”
“So it’s not an eating disorder then.” Bruce murmured, looking more puzzled.
“I have an idea.” Cass interjected, raising her hand slightly.
─ ✧- ☽ -✧ ─
Danny had spent another day just laying in bed. Clockwork had just reminded him of everything he had to feel bad about. Fuck. He didn’t want to be the ghost king. He didn’t want to deal with Vlad or his parents or anyone. He just wanted to be done.
A knock came to his door. It was probably Alfred. He should pretend to still be asleep.
The door creaked open, and instead of Alfred, Tim walked in, carrying something? Bruce and Cass Trailed in behind him. They approached where he was on the bed and Cass gently nudged his shoulder. He sat up, pulling his space pillow to his chest. He didn’t know what to say, so he just stayed quiet. Cass turned on the lamps around the room before sitting at the corner of his bed. He looked at Tim, confusion clear on his face, before he saw what Tim had in his hands. He was carrying a tray of pancakes. With syrup and fruit just like they’d talked about. In Bruce’s hand was a glass of apple juice.
“I’ll just set this right here.” Tim hummed, gently setting down the tray of food on Danny’s lap. Bruce placed the apple juice on the tray after it was settled.
Danny looked at the food now in front of him. Why would they do something like this? For him? Danny couldn't believe it. His parents would never do anything like this for him. They didn’t even make breakfast. He looked back up at them. Maybe it was a dream or something? He didn’t even really know these people. Why were they so nice to him?
“Breakfast in bed!” Cass beamed from her place on the corner of the bed.
Danny looked down at the food for a few seconds, processing. His fingers tightened around the edges of his pillow, cautiously. Then he looked back up at them.
“this is… for me?” He finally said, confusion lacing his tone.
“Nope. It’s for Titus.” Tim grinned. Titus was Damian’s dog. Tim had told him that before. Danny looked back down at the food, still caught off guard.
“He’s only joking, Danny. It’s for you.” Bruce hurriedly clarified.
Danny nodded without saying anything.
A few beats of silence passed while Danny processed everything.
“thank you.” He said, so quietly it could barely be heard. He was still looking at the food. He didn’t know what else to say or where else to look.
“Cool cool. We’ll leave you alone now Danny.” Tim said. “I hope to see you at lunch.”
With that, they left and closed the door behind them.
Danny stared at the still hot food that was in front of him. It looked so good. The pancakes looked like they were perfectly fluffy and cooked golden brown on all the sides. The butter was cut into a star, and there was a small scoop of cool whip on the side. There were raspberries, sliced up strawberries, blueberries, blackberries, and bananas. The syrup looked so beautiful, and dripped so perfectly off the sides, like something off of TV. The apple juice was cold with just a hint of condensation on the outside. It all smelled like heaven.
His eyes started to sting.
Nobody had done something this nice for him in years. It felt like all the attention he ever got was negative. Sam and Tucker avoided him like the plague. Dash and his friends would beat him up. The ghosts hated him for putting them back in the ghost zone. His parents and the guys in white literally wanted to kill him. Feeling like he wasn’t a total outcast who deserved to die, was different.
He didn’t know when the tears started falling. These people were all being so nice to him for no reason. They didn’t know him. He hadn’t done anything nice for them. They were just… being nice to him. It felt good. It felt really good. He was sobbing, but somehow he still felt happy.
─ ✧ ─ ✧- ☽ -✧ ─ ✧ ─
Hey guys!
PLEASE PLEASE take a look at
I spent a very long time on it, and I think it adds a lot to the fic!