Chapter Text
Danny smiled as he rocked his feet back on the swing, slowly making momentum for himself as the swing swung higher and higher. His parents were in Gotham City for some kinda convention and they had dropped him and his sister off at the park to play! The eight-year-old was having the time of his life swinging and playing on the slide!
If only he could get Jazz to join him, then it would be perfect! But no! Jazz was sittin’ under some tree reading her book instead of playing with her little brother. She was the worst big sister in the entire world!
Danny let out a laugh as he started to swing higher in the sky, any minute now his toes would touch the clouds! He was swinging so high! It made for the most perfect jump ever.
The little boy swung a few more times before he held his breath and let go of the chains, vaulting himself into the air! He bent his knees like his Auntie Alicia taught him and landed on the ground right on his feet!
“Wow!” A little voice said in awe. Danny looked over to find a little boy staring at Danny in shock. “That was so cool!”
Danny laughed as he took in the little boy. He was in a pair of nice pants and a button-up shirt with a sweater vest. He didn’t look like a little boy at all! He looked like a tiny adult! And his hair was all slicked back and silly looking.
“I’m Danny! Who’re you!” He said, wiping his now sweaty hands on his jeans.
The little boy smiled, a small, shy smile that just barely showed he was missing a tooth. “I’m Bruce! My butler Alfred brought me to play at the park today,” he said and held out his hand.
Danny stared at the appendage for a moment and then looked at Bruce and frowned. “What’s wrong with your hand?”
Bruce laughed and shook his head. “You’re supposed to shake it, silly,” he said and held it out further. Danny frowned and took Bruce’s fingers and shook them along with his whole arm. Bruce stared at him for a moment and laughed. “We can work on it. Are you from here? No one is ever at the park at this time.”
Danny shook his head. “Nope! I’m from Illinois! My parents are here for a meeting and they dropped me off here!” He said with a small smile. He pointed at his sister sitting under a tree, still reading her book. “That’s my sister, Jazz! She’s babysitting me.”
Bruce tilted his head. “Is she old enough for that?”
Danny shrugged his shoulders. “I dunno, but she watches me all the time,” he said happily. “Now, wanna go play? I can push you on the swings ‘till you go that high if you want?”
Bruce looked between the swings and the spot where his butler sat watching the boys and smiled before he nodded his head. “Definitely! That looked fun!”
That was the beginning of what soon became a beautiful friendship. The boys played at the park for hours until eventually, Alfred the Butler had said that Bruce had to go home, apparently, he had classes he had to attend. But they could come and meet up the next day to play! And they exchanged phone numbers so that they could talk whenever they wanted! It was amazing.
Their friendship only grew from there, Danny and Brucie played at the park every single day until it was time for the Fentons to drive back to Illinois. Their goodbyes had been tearful, both boys promising to call the other every single day.
From there, though, their friendship only grew until the worst day of Bruce’s life happened and Danny and his mom found themselves driving back to Gotham City, this time for a funeral. Danny had thrown the biggest fit, demanding that Maddie or Jack took him to Gotham so that he could be there for his best friend. He had to support him and give him all the hugs he could.
Upon his arrival at the funeral, Bruce had launched himself at his best friend, sobbing heavily into his chest as Danny held his best friend tight, whispering that everything would be okay. The adults stood close by, murmuring quietly to one another and Alfred thanked his lucky stars that Bruce had a friend like Danny, he only wished that the boy lived closer.
Maddie and Danny had spent a week with Alfred and Bruce and Danny had done everything he could to make his best friend happy, to bring that smile back to his face. He held him close, listened to him cry, and did everything he could to be a good friend.
Little did he know that in just seven years, Bruce would be doing the same thing for Danny. A fifteen-year-old Danny found himself standing at the entryway of Wayne Manor with two duffle bags full of clothes and the rest of his things as he waited for his best friend to answer the door. Bruce had been the first person aside from Sam and Tucker to learn about his ghost powers, he had also been the first one to know when Danny had said his reveal to his parents had gone badly.
His parents thankfully hadn’t tried to experiment on him or destroy him molecule by molecule but maybe that would have been better than what they had done.
Danny had told his parents he was a halfa, that he was Phantom, the ghost they had been hunting for a little over a year now and what had they done? They had told him to leave. They had looked him in the eyes and told him to leave and never come back. They didn’t say the words but Danny knew what it mean if he did come back.
So here he was, in Gotham City about to move in with his best friend and his butler because there was nowhere else safe for him to stay. Bruce had simply pulled him into his arms and allowed him to sob, to cry like he had been holding it in for days now. He was just so tired.
The years went on like that, Danny and Bruce grew up together, learning and growing together with Danny taking his best friend on flights around Gotham. When suddenly the time changed and things changed for both of them.
It was their sophomore year of college. Nineteen years old and off getting degrees in medicine together. First, it had been Danny who had gotten news of a war in the Infinite Realms. Apparently with Pariah Dark locked away once more, there had become a huge war in who was going to rule in his place. Danny had denied his right to the crown as he had only been fourteen when he had defeated the ghost. But now the runners in the war had been Dorathea and Walker, both with large followings ready to fight until the end of time to decide who would rule.
It had been Danny’s fault that it had led to a war and the ghost part of him was demanding that he go and join the war, to do what he could to make sure that Walker of all people didn’t get the crown. At the same time, Bruce had decided it was time for him to go on his own journey, to finally get revenge on the people who had taken his parents away from him.
And so there they went, two separate paths ahead of them, a story for each of them to find the end to. Somehow neither expected their roads to lead them where they did but soon Bruce found himself as the Batman.
The protector of Gotham, the one who stalked the streets fighting crime.
And at the same time, Danny had found himself to be one of the best healers in the Infinite Realms, helping ghosts and the living alike.
Neither expected their paths to cross again, but thankfully, fate has a way of bringing paths together again.