Chapter Text
Danny was back in school on Friday. Tim's stomach did a stupid little flip when he saw the familiar red hoodie slumped over the last desk in the first row of his first class. Danny lifted his head when Tim came in, giving him a brief glimpse of the yellowing bruise on his cheek; the only remnant of the fight to remain; before setting it back down on the table with a groan.
"Good morning to you, too," Tim said, suppressing a laugh. He set one of the paper coffee cups he was carrying on Danny's desk and took his seat.
Danny grumbled something but took a sip of the coffee with a sigh. "I could get used to you bringing me coffee," Danny said with a grin. Tim noted a distinct lack of fangs in the smile. Weird, he was sure last night–
"Mr. Fenton." Mr. Kirk said as he entered the room. "Come get your make-up work."
"Shoot. I forgot about that." Danny headed up to the teacher's desk and accepted a thick stack of papers before heading back to his seat. "This is going to take all weekend." Danny flipped through the stack before a look of dawning horror came over his face. "This is just one class."
"If you want," Tim said before he thought about what he was going to say, "you can come over to my place tomorrow and we can work on it together. I take excellent notes."
“You don’t have to do that, I can manage,” Danny said, flipping through the packet.
“It’s fine. We can have a movie day and watch Lord of the Rings while we work on it.” Tim couldn’t help the part of him that desperately hoped Danny said yes.
“Alright, if you’re sure you don’t mind.”
“Not at all.” Tim smiled wide.
___
Things about Danny that Don’t Make Sense
1. Sometimes he has fangs, other times his teeth are perfect straight
2. Always wears a hoodie, even when it’s hot out.
2a. Cover the scars?
3.Scars
4. Is built
4. Son of ghost hunters; associates with ghosts.
4a. Is dating a ghost?
5. Carries a first-aid kit in his backpack.
5a. Has been punched in the face multiple times?!
6. Hangs out in cemeteries.
6a. Knows the difference between cemeteries and graveyards.
7. Bad liar.
7a. Lies a lot.
Tim sighed and rubbed his hand down his face. There were a lot of things about Danny that weren’t adding up, but not much to be a major cause for concern. After all, Tim lies a lot, he's just much better at it than Danny is. He read down the list again. All of it added to Danny being more involved with ghosts than he lets on. Unbidden, Danny's words from the cemetery came into Tim's mind: "It's a great night for ghosts if you believe in that sort of thing."
Phantom called himself a ghost.
Tim scrambled across his living room to his bag and pulled out the envelope with his film negatives. It was difficult to see anything on the tiny square. Where did he put his film scanner? It had been a while since he needed it.
He found the film scanner in his bedroom closet and wasted no time plugging it into his computer. It didn’t take him long to scan the film into his computer and pull the pictures up into his photo editing software. The first few pictures on the roll were pretty good, composition-wise. The full moon was peeking out from behind the Gotham skyline in the background and the foreground was a line of identical headstones. Early fall leaves had gathered around the stones and some had flowers that had long since withered laying on top. Altogether, the photos were good, not his best work, for sure, but passable for a school project. Tim scrolled through the photos searching each one for…something.
When Tim got to the first picture on the film his breath caught in his throat. It was Danny, but what he had taken for red-eye in the negative was a vivid, unnatural green. A familiar green. Phantom’s eyes glowed with the same vibrancy. The rest of the photo looked normal except for a dust orb over Danny’s shoulder. Tim stared into the photo’s eyes. What could it mean that Danny’s eyes showed up green in the picture? His eyes were icy blue, like looking into the depths of a glacier. Was Phantom there in the cemetery, interfering with the camera? But why make Danny’s eyes green? What’s the point? Tim rubbed his hand down his face again and pulled out his phone to add another note to his list.
8. Green eyes in photos.
8a. Was Phantom involved?
Tim’s phone buzzed in his hand as he re-read the list, reminding him it was almost time to meet Danny at the coffee shop. They were going to look at model trains to use for their project before starting on Danny’s make-up work. He looked around at the disaster that was his living room. It had been clean before his impromptu photo scanning session. Good thing Tim had years of practice hiding things he didn’t want people seeing. It only took him a minute to put everything away, the slide scanner going back into the closet and the photo negatives went back into his backpack.
He made it to the coffee shop on time and spotted Danny waiting outside.
“Sorry, I’m late.” He said, breathing a little heavily.
“You aren’t, I’m early.” Danny smiled and Tim found his eyes drawn to his mouth. Still no sign of any fangs or sharper-than-normal teeth. He wasn’t willing to admit he may have imagined it. Tim led the way into the coffee shop and Danny started describing different model trains he had seen and how easy or difficult each one would be to turn into a mag-lev train. It turns out Danny had spent most of his suspension doing research into model trains, so the conversation lasted through the line at the coffee shop and well into the walk to the hobby store. Tim’s heart beat a little faster whenever Danny turned that excited smile onto him. He decided to blame the coffee.
At the hobby shop, Danny was drawn immediately to the model rockets.
“Most of mine from back home are packed up in storage,” he explained, a Curiosity rover in his hands. “I don’t have room for them here.” Danny put the Curiosity model back and ran his fingers over the box.
“Do you have a lot of models?”
“I’ve been building them since I was four, so I have a fair few.” Danny moved over to the model trains as he spoke. “I want- wanted to be an astronaut.”
“Wanted? What changed?” Tim asked.
“I did.” Danny offered with no other explanation and grabbed a model train off the shelf and held it out to Tim. “I think we should get this one.”
Tim took the box and studied it for a second. “This is a freight train. Wouldn’t one of these commuter trains be more accurate?” He picked up a three-car commuter train that was based on a Japanese bullet train.
“Well, yeah, but those are all over two hundred dollars. This one will prove the concept and it's just over a hundred.”
“Okay, but I’m buying it. You don’t have to get the cheaper one.” Danny knew he was rich, right?
Danny waved the comment off. “I’m not going to ask you to get the more expensive one just because you have money.”
“But why not? I won’t even notice spending a few hundred. Hell, it’s not even my money; it’s Bruce’s, and he makes money faster than anyone can feasibly spend it.”
“Tim,” Danny said before sighing. “I don’t want you to think I only hang around you so you’ll buy me things.” Danny rubbed the back of his neck and turned away from Tim, but not before he saw the blush creeping along Danny’s cheeks. “Besides, it’s just a dumb school project, there’s no sense dropping hundreds of dollars on a model train.”
Tim sighed. He'd have to try a different approach. "It's not just a dumb school project, it's worth a quarter of our grade, and part of that is showing the concept like we are presenting to a board of directors. We should get the model that will best represent our proposal." He held out the commuter set for Danny to check.
"Fine." Danny conceded after mulling over Tim’s words for a minute. "We'll need magnets, too. And paint. If you insist on full-assing this project, we'll full-ass it."
___
Back at the penthouse Tim and Danny spread out the pizzas, snacks, and drinks they had bought on the kitchen bar.
“Okay, I’ve already finished my history and English make-up work, so all that is left is physics and calculus,” Danny said, pulling two slices of pineapple and sausage pizza onto a plate.
“You didn’t miss much in physics, honestly,” Tim said, carrying his plate and drink to the living room. “So it shouldn’t take too long to finish that.”
Tim set his plate down and picked up the remote. “I’m going to go ahead and start the movie, alright?”
“Yeah, that’s fine.” Danny pulled his homework out of his backpack and took a seat on the floor.
Tim sat back in his usual seat on the couch, only noticing afterward that it was right next to where Danny was sitting on the floor. If he moved his leg over a bit he would be pressed against Danny’s side. Instead, Tim pulled his legs up onto the couch and sat sideways, leaning against the armrest, and started the Lord of the Rings.
For a while, the only sound was that of Danny’s pencil scratching on the paper and the movie. Until. “I can remain unseen if I wish.” Danny quoted alongside Aragorn quietly. “but to disappear entirely, that is a rare gift.” Danny froze and turned slowly to face Tim. “Sorry. I just love that part.”
Tim smiled. Danny quoted movies? That was adorable. “Don’t apologize.” Danny smiled at him and turned back to his homework, but Tim found his attention being drawn to Danny. How he would quote the movie, almost line for line in between scribbling physics notes. Usually, it annoys him when people talk during the movie, but Tim found himself enjoying it more, watching with Danny.
Halfway through the second movie, the pizza was gone, and Danny had long since finished his homework but was still sitting on the floor and leaning against the couch. Leaning against Tim’s leg. It was more than a little distracting.
Tim was just starting to relax into the weight of Danny’s head against his thigh when Danny’s phone rang. Danny checked the caller ID and groaned. Tim couldn’t see what it said from where he was sitting.
“I’m sorry, I have to answer this,” Danny said, holding the phone to his ear and standing.
“Should I pause this?” Tim asked.
Danny waved his hand in a gesture that could have meant “Yes, pause it,” or “No, that isn’t necessary.” but what he actually said was “Hey, what’s wrong?” and walked into the bathroom that was just off the main living room.
Tim paused the movie, anyway. From the couch, he could hear Danny’s voice from the bathroom, but couldn’t make out the words. Tim picked up the empty plates and went to drop them off in the kitchen, which happened to take him closer to the bathroom. So he couldn’t be blamed for overhearing Danny’s half of the conversation.
“I’m at Tim’s like I said I would be. — No, I will not send you a picture. — I’m not turning on my phone location. — Because you don’t pay for it, I do. — You never used to care where I went. — I’ll be back later. — I don’t know, before dark?”
Okay, maybe he spent more time outside the bathroom door than was strictly necessary. Tim quietly snuck away to the kitchen and started loading the dishwasher. He felt bad about listening in on Danny’s conversation. It was an invasion of privacy. It wasn't really his business. But, Tim couldn’t shake the worry that settled in the pit of his stomach. The conversation was full of red flags.
“Hey, Sorry about that,” Danny said, coming into the kitchen.
Tim hummed and waved Danny’s apology off. “Everything alright?”
“Yeah. Do you need help cleaning up?” Danny didn’t wait for an answer before taking off his jacket and tossing the empty pizza boxes and snack bags into the trash can. Tim tried and failed not to notice the way Danny’s shoulders had lines of tension that weren’t there before his phone call.
___
After they finished cleaning the kitchen Danny moved to the other side of the couch, mirroring Tim’s position. The couch was big enough that they could both stretch out and be almost close enough to touch, but not quite. He wasn’t sure who nodded off first, but at some point during the third movie, Tim woke with a jolt, eyes immediately seeking Danny.
Danny, who was snoring gently in his sleep. Danny, who never put his jacket back on. Danny, who had half-healed fingerprint-shaped bruises on his arm.
Tim could more clearly see the scars that he had glimpsed the other night. They looked like burns but were shaped like blast marks from a cartoon laser gun. Why would Danny’s arms be covered in burns? Why did they all look months old? Tim shifted to get a better look, but Danny woke up blinking.
“Sorry, I didn’t mean to nod off,” he said, rubbing the sleep out of his eyes. “What time is it?”
“Uh. Almost seven.” Tim said, checking the large clock above the tv.
Danny jolted and looked out the large balcony window where there was a beautiful landscape of the sunset over the skyline.
“Shit, I have to go.” Danny jumped up and grabbed his backpack. “I’m sorry for running out like this, but I'm going to be late.”
“Yeah, don’t worry about it,” Tim said, but Danny was halfway to the elevator already. The door slid closed on Danny’s panicked face, and Tim was left feeling a little lost. He looked around the room and sighed. Danny’s quick exit had left him feeling a little cold. He should make some coffee and brush up on his cases before patrol. When he stepped into the kitchen he froze. Danny’s red jacket was still hung on the back of the chair where Danny had left it. He would have to give it back to Danny on Monday, after he washed it, of course.
___
Danny waited until the elevator doors closed before transforming into Phantom and flying out of the building and heading toward home.
Not home.
The brownstone.
He can’t believe he fell asleep on Tim’s couch. It was just so quiet. Tim’s apartment had thick walls and he couldn’t hear the city. He couldn't even hear the electricity in the walls. Once he got comfortable on the couch with a familiar movie playing and the steady beat of Tim’s heart he just– “Ugh! How pathetic are you, Fenton?” Danny groaned at himself. He landed a few blocks away from the house and practically ran. He hoped his parents were too busy in the lab to notice that he was a few minutes late. He unlocked and opened the door as quietly as he could and made his way toward the stairs.
“You’re late, young man,” Maddie said. Danny froze and turned slowly toward the living room.
“Sorry, mom. We got caught up in the movie and I didn’t notice what time it was.” His eyes flicked to Jack. His dad rarely talks to him anymore, and tonight was seeming to be no exception. He was too absorbed in his needlepoint to look up at him.
“That’s no excuse. We still have to take your weekly sample.”
“But, why? My contamination levels have been the same for weeks, no change up or down.”
“That’s the problem. You aren’t losing contamination as you should be. Your father and I have both been clear for a month. We need to continue to monitor you and try to figure out why you're not decontaminating as you should.”
“But-”
“Danny,” Jack said, putting down his project and standing up to his full height. “Don’t argue with your mother. Go to the lab and get the equipment ready.”
Danny nodded and headed down to the lab. Jack hadn’t laid a hand on him yet, but the threat was there. Clear in the way his fist clenched and unclenched whenever he spoke to Danny. Clear in the rough way he handled him when he had to hold his arm steady to draw blood. Clear in the way he never spoke to him, except when needed.
Danny knew Jack’s patience with him was holding on by a thread. Knew Jack didn’t think of him as his son anymore. Because the levels of ectoplasm in his blood were too high. Because they weren’t dropping as they should be. Jack already thought of him as a ghost and was already treating him like a ghost. If he ever had thought Jack and Maddie could accept Phantom, that belief was well and truly squashed. Danny got the equipment ready for his parents to check his blood for ectoplasmic contamination and tried to remember the steady beat of Tim's heart.