I'm in A Mood™ (stressed) so im going back to my roots of melting two character together into one person. So bruce wayne!danny fenton. Danny Fenton who, for eight years, grew up in a beautiful gothic manor with his mom and dad under the name "Bruce Wayne". Playing piano with his mother, running around the manor with his father.
Then when he's eight it's ripped away from him. There's blood on his hands and pearls pooling at his feet, and both his parents are dead in front of him.
And he gets shipped off to distant relatives "the Fentons" shortly after, Alfred close on his heels because someone needs to take care of him, someone that knows him. Bruce goes to the Fentons for the safety of anonymity. Gotham's press wants to sink its teeth into him.
Danny misses his city even if it took everything from him. There are shadows in his eyes and he's pale as a sheet even beside his distant cousins, and they change his name to "Danny Fenton' because nobody should know that their newest child was illustrious orphan Bruce Wayne.
They call him Bruce behind closed doors. Danny prefers it that way, he clings onto the name -- the one his parents gave him -- like a lifeline. He makes friends with Sam and Tucker. Tucker takes one look at the willowy, morbid little boy standing in the corner like a shade, ghosts in his eyes, and drags him out into the sunlight, and takes him over to Sam.
When Danny is twelve, he's still not over it -- and he's a little obsessed with the Fentons' research, with the morbid. He has books upon books on death, murder, detective work. Anything he can get his hands on. And stars. He loves stars.
Alfred owns the apartment next to them and comes over regularly. Danny clings to him.
When Danny is twelve, he's still quiet, meek, a shy little thing prone to being bullied. Freaky little Fenton with the night in his eyes and too-cold skin even before he put one foot in the grave. in a sleepover in his room with Sam and Tucker, he tells them the truth. They're his friends, he trusts them.
"My name is Bruce." he murmurs, voice quiet as the breeze, always quiet. he's staring at his star-covered sheets.
"Like Bruce Wayne?" Tucker asks, a joking tone in his voice.
Danny smiles a little, lamb-like with insecurity. "I am Bruce Wayne." And he takes them down to the lab, disrupting Maddie and Jack, to prove it. Sam tells them of her own wealth then shortly after. They start calling Danny "Bruce" in private too -- its trust. Thats what it is. It's trust.
Sam goes to media functions and comes back with aching feet and complaints on her tongue -- and Danny soaks it up all like a sponge, splayed across a beanbag chair with Tucker in her room. He's not envious of her, he used to go to events with his parents and they kept him safe from the ugly of Gotham's Elite. For the most part. He's had comments made at him, he doesn't miss them.
Alfred returns to the manor semi-regularly, Danny goes with him. he wanders the hallways and helps Alfred clean, the last thing either of them want is for their home to fall into disrepair. He brings Jazz with him next time, then Tucker, then Sam. They all help him clean, and he shows them his room. The one across from his parents', it feels strange.
When Danny dies when he's fourteen, the first adult he tells is Alfred. He and Jazz go over to his house more often than they stay in the Fentonworks building. At least at Alfred's, the food doesn't come to life. Alfred sits at the kitchen table and weeps when Danny tells him, Jazz is upstairs, and its just the two of them.
Danny's ghost form wears pearls around his wrist and the gloves look stained with some kind of black substance. He looks like a child who died in a lab accident, but he also looks like a child who has shadows dripping off his shoulders, curling at his feet, hanging from his eyes.
because amorphous blob batman has my heart always and danny/bruce will not escape it even in death even if that IS the only reason im giving him Mild BatBlob Vibes...so far
when they go to the manor, alfred helps danny make a pile of stones between Martha and Thomas' graves, nobody but the two of them (and sam and tucker) will know what it means. (not even bruce's children later down the line, not for a long, long time)
danny dives into ghost fighting on shaky feet and not half as witty as he once was in one world. he's skittish, skittering between blasts from shadow to shadow and clumsily making his way through each battle. but helping people lights a fire in him. he still has shadows dripping off his feet but there's a purpose in his eyes.
and god help him, he's going to help people.
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was thinking about takeshi and how he's my favorite brand of unconditional devotion btw. the utter and absolute and all-consuming kind that runs so deep to the very core and is so intrinsic and fundamental to it, it can only express itself in the most casual and natural and certain way. without second thoughts, without any room for doubts or for any moral dilemma to be had over it, because of course he ought to always be breathing and living for his chosen person first and foremost. of course he ought to hang on their every word and make them true no matter what, no matter what he has to do to make it happen, no matter what he has to do to other people to make it happen, and no matter what it might turn him into in the process. because it's obviously the way the world should be for his chosen person. at their feet, ready to bend over backwards and break and build itself again to better answer to all their needs even if they don't ask it for it. it's the only right way it should be for them, and of course takeshi's going to do his utmost at all times to make it a reality as much as possible.
and his devotion comes out as naturally as breathing, comes out lighthearted and nonchalant like he might as well be talking about the weather, but it's not unaware of itself. it's not that takeshi doesn't know it's unhealthy and wrong and that he's willing to go entirely too far in its name for anyone's good. it's not that he wouldn't hear you out if you were to sit him down and explain to him just why he needs to tone it down a little (a lot). logically, he'd agree with you and know you're right. and then he'd tell you he's still not going to do anything whatsoever about it. that he's not bothered by it and doesn't feel the need to change anything to his attitude. makes it a point to never let anyone or anything sway him even an inch in the stand he took when it comes to that, no matter how many thousand of times you might go over the subject with him.
because the morality of his devotion isn't the point at all. is entirely irrelevant to it and doesn't affect the way he expresses it all. it's not the metric with which he draws a line in the sand to hold it accountable to. because the thing is, takeshi's entire world revolves around tsuna--tsuna is his entire world altogether, and it's just a matter of fact, that simple. to him it's a truth as unchanging as the sky being blue, and so being the way he is according to that truth is the only way he can imagine being that'd feel right to him. and so the actual and only metric that matters here is "would tsuna be happier if i were to do this?" and/or "is this something tsuna needs me to do?"
and like. i don't think takeshi ever stops being a kind person capable of compassion and understanding and mercy and forgiveness even ten years later once they became mafia through and through. and i don't think either he grows up to be feared and called a monster per se despite the things they inevitably had to do during those ten years (and the things they'll inevitably keep having to do as long as they keep being mafia), at least not in the way, for example, they'll never stop fearing and calling mukuro one. but i do think that among the tenth gen, he ends up being the one with the most ruthless, merciless and horrific blood on his hands of that particular and distinct loving kind. you know the one i mean, right? he comes to be the one most expected and the one first expected to be willing and to take it upon himself to go through with it when the need arises. and to think little of it after, if anything at all. all in the name of making tsuna's reign as easy on him as possible.
and it's to the point where it's the kind of blood that makes even mukuro pause at times. or, when takeshi is the one coming up with solutions himself during meetings, makes even reborn blink. not because it's unjustified or wouldn't be safe or efficient or anything of the sort, but because it is unwarrantedly thorough in its retaliation. and sometimes, at times like this, he's the one tsuna needs to step in for the most, because he's the only one who can reason with him that "yes, this would work in getting rid of our problem" but "no, please, don't do that takeshi". because if tsuna is the only thing that infers on just how much and in what ways he'll let himself be devoted to him, then of course, he's also the only one takeshi's willing to reign himself in for without second thoughts. because he'd hate to ever do something tsuna would disapprove of or wouldn't want him to do. or do something that'd make tsuna see him differently or love him back less even in the slightest.
and it's also like. his devotion isn't an undisciplined one. it's not one he doesn't have control over, the very opposite. it's a very purposeful and conscious choice he chooses to keep making over and over again every step of the way, and he taught himself to have control over it, to know when it's needed and/or wanted, and how much and in which ways it is when it happens, and to keep it down otherwise. and, yes, to also reign it back in at tsuna's request at times when it still slips past his control. because it's all about making tsuna's happiness easier and secure and long-lasting, and never about burdening him with just how committed he is to do that.
so it comes down to this: takeshi willing to go above and beyond and more for tsuna unless tsuna explicitly asks him not to. and to tsuna needing to ask him not to every now and then. and to other people pointing out to him how too many times tsuna's already needed to stop him, and that maybe there's a hint for him to take there. and to takeshi seeing the hint, looking it straight in the eye and recognizing it for what it is and just. deciding it doesn't apply to him because it's all perfectly normal behavior to him. because it's the only kind of behavior that makes sense to him and feels right.
and so—to circle back to my first point—he can only express his devotion as naturally as breathing, so casually, almost like it's something inconsequential and not worth talking about despite how unmistakably it couldn't be further away from being the truth. it's the only way he could have always known how to express it, because, after all, who has ever taken time to ponder about the details and the hows of the way they breathe?
and i, for one, absolutely eat that shit up every time, thanks for coming to my ted talk <3
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Savage by blood (dp x dc)
As Maddie stared at the letter in her right hand, she brought a slightly unsteady left hand to her mouth and pressed hard. The words were blurring even as she stared at the paper, as if Maddie could extract more information than what was on the page.
“Mom?”
Maddie turned her head to find herself face to face with her son. Hurriedly she wiped at her eyes
“Mom, are you okay?” Her sweet boy asked again as he hurried closer.
Maddie took a fortifying breath and forced a smile she did not feel. “All good baby, just got some surprising news.”
“Mom you were crying.” Danny was still standing around gingerly, as if cautious not to upset her more.
Maddie opened her arms and her boy slotted in them for a hug. She sighed into his hair, even as she savored the embrace that was becoming rarer and rarer since he’d turned fourteen and decided he was too old for such thing. She sniffed again and did her best to blink away the moisture in her eyes. She heard the floorboard creak and when she looked up, she saw her eldest standing there, her eyes going from Danny to her.
“You’ve been crying,” her daughter stated, her eyes watchful, and worried.
“Sweetheart-“ Maddie started but her smart girl interrupted the comforting words she was preparing.
“I’m getting dad,” Jazz said and left before Maddie could say anything.
Danny looked up, his big blue eyes just like his father’s. “What happened?”
“I’m ok, honey, it’s-“ nothing she wanted to say but stopped herself, well-aware that now that the whole family was getting in on this there would be no deflecting. Not that she would’ve tried to hide it from her family anyways. “It’s nothing bad, baby, it really only took me by surprise.”
Danny’s eyes narrowed but before he could say anything, her fool of a husband burst into the room.
“I’ve brought tissues, my love!” He announced in a subdued version of his normal boisterous speech. “And the Fenton water-bottle to keep you hydrated!”
“Thank you, honey,” Maddie said as an irrepressible smile took over her face. Her husband had a way of making everything seem better to her just by walking in a room.
“Anything for you, Maddie,” he said as he stepped towards her and sat down next to her, with a soft kiss to her temple. He gestured to their daughter who had been standing in the doorway to come join their little dogpile and there was further readjusting as everyone wiggled into the most comfortable position.
Once they all fell still, Danny one again looked to her with narrowed eyes. “Now, what happened?”
Maddie sighed as she distractedly started to stroke her daughter’s hair. “Let me just say that this is an overreaction, I’m perfectly fine.”
“Mom,” said daughter intoned as her father gently intertwined their fingers and Maddie resigned herself.
“You remember how I’ve told you I’m adopted?” Maddie started, and she felt her son nod against her. “I received a letter.” Maddie took a deep breath. “It was from my birth mother.”
She could feel her husband gently pressing her hand.
“How did she get your contact?” Her son asked.
She pressed back before answering. “I don’t know. My file from before I was three years-old and entered the legal system is very spotty, so I would have had no way to even begin to look into my records of where I came from. I don’t think the records were sealed, for exactly that reason.”
“Ok,” Jazz started. “What did she want?”
“She-“ Maddie stuttered at that before pushing past it, “she wants to meet. Me. Or well I guess, us.”
“Us,” Jack said.
“The whole family,” Maddie confirmed. “And she wants to introduce me to her wives, if I’m ok with that.”
There was a pause as Jazz and Danny locked eyes. “Does that mean we could potentially get at least three grandmas out of this?”
Maddie couldn’t help a snort. “We’ll have to see how it goes, but yes it does.”
Danny pumped his fist in victory. “Three times the Chrismas presents!”
“Now, now, son,” Jack chided. “Let’s not think of extorting your grandmothers before we’ve even met them.”
“Yeah,” Jazz added. “Especially since I’m going to be the favorite.”
“No you won’t!” Danny jumped up to glare at her sister, who drew herself up.
“Yes I will, I’m already Aunt Alicia’s favorite!”
“Exactly, so it’s my turn!”
Jack put his hand on their interlaced hands and Maddie turned towards him.
“What’s her name?” He asked as softly as he did when he was trying to be subtle and unobtrusive.
“My biological mother’s name is Kay,” Maddie started, “and her wives names’ are Liana and Scandal Savage.”
“You bet your ass I’m going to be the favorite grandchild!” Her son exclaimed loudly.
“Danny!” Maddie reprimanded. “Language!”
“Sorry, mom,” her son muttered as he looked down.
Jazz sent him a smirk which had him sticking his tongue out in retaliation and her daughter turned towards Jack with big eyes.
“Da-ad, he’s sticking his tongue at me!”
Jack turned back towards the kids, to manage the fight that had started while Maddie grabbed the letter again, letting her eyes scan the contents again.
She would have to write back immediately.
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