Bruce “Sad Wet Cat of a Man” Wayne meets Danny “Sad Wet Cat of a Teenager” and immediately adopts him. A prompt? A fic starter?

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This was pathetic, Bruce groused, wringing his cape under the mostly effective shelter of an awning. Amity’s rain was somehow more potent than that of Gotham and it managed to soak the waterproof fabric of his cape. This was not scientifically possible.

Bruce refrained from giving into the urge of slamming his head backwards into the wall.

“You’re new in town, aren’t ya?”

Bruce subtly startled, head swiveling over to the presence he somehow hadn’t detected. His heart gave a little squeeze- and, uh oh, that’s the squeeze he got when he adopted his kids. Bruce was self aware enough to see where this was going, but as usual, he was helpless to stop it.

Batman slightly dipped his head. How did the child know?

Like he read his mind, the teenager nodded. “You look like it. We know everyone in Amity. And you’re new. Tourists.” He chuckled, brushing the weird rain out of his hair. “And, you’re soaked.”

“This is waterproof,” Batman growled.

“Yeah, in other places of the world, maybe,” At Bruce’s questioning look (not that anyone other than liminal could have figured out his friendly intentions via the scary glare he had on), the kid elaborated further. “but you didn’t get Amity-made textiles. They’re made to last in any weather.”

“This is rain.”

“Ecto-contaminated rain, yeah.” The kid sighed, one hand absently fluffing up his hair and getting rid of stray green-tinged water droplets. “I’m Danny. I guess I’m your Amity tour guide today.”

Well, Bruce wasn’t the type to turn down an advantage. If this was a trap one of his enemies made for him to stumble into, Bruce had to admit it was well made and well researched. He never could turn away kids, especially ones that had that edge of work weary exhaustion to them like Danny did.

Danny, as expected, tried to fill in the silence. Alfred's technique always worked. Even on Bruce himself.

"This is the mall, by the way. It's dead right now because you're here on a Wednesday during school hours." Danny smirked to himself.

"Why are you not in school then?"

"It's called skipping. Or, for you, I guess it'd be 'playing hooky,'" Danny sassed, making quotation marks with his hands. He was exactly like Dick.

Bruce felt his heart melt. Oh no. Alfred was going to be mad again. But... it was for a good cause! And besides, what are the chances that Danny'd be a crime fighting vigilante? Can't be that high, right? (Bruce conveniently avoided the fact that statistically, the chances of him adopting baby vigilantes were pretty much at a hundred percent success rate.)

"Hng." He grunted. Danny rolled his eyes. Like Jason and Damian and Stephanie. "Where are your parents?"

He had to get the important stuff squared away first.

Danny shrugged. "Come on. There's a fabric store that way. We'll make you a rain guard first so your stuff doesn't get wet."

Ah, classic avoidance. Danny sure reminded him of Tim. Bruce inclined his head. "Lead the way."

DPxDC Prompt

Danny was the only true halfa, apparently that meant he was the only one who was immortal…

Vlad went suddenly, his resurgence of ecto-acne took everyone by surprise and after years of decline he passed away in seclusion. Vlad was always more human then ghost, clinging onto his mortality so desperately his ghost half suffered and when his ghost half declined his human half soon followed.

Ellie was a different story, she was always more ghost then human and Danny soon realized it was her ghost core that kept her human half alive but wasn't strong enough to also keep her ghost half active. Using her ghost powers actively destroyed her human half, which always ended up with Ellie turning into an unstable melty mess.

So after what had to have been dozens of destabilizations over the decades Danny took Ellie to the far frozen to find a more permanent solution.

That solution turned out to to bind Ellie's core to prevent her from using her powers, but not enough that it can continue to keep her human body alive.

She would essentially live as a human, permanently. She would live longer then a normal human but she would be human.

Danny allowed Ellie to live her human life in her favorite universe's earth, due to her destabilizations her memory has become muddled and she wasn't as attached to their original world anymore. Danny sent her off with a heavy heart and the promise he would visit and he come if she called.

Ellie thrived in this new world or aliens, gods, magic and science. She made connections and found a new interest in magic. Turns out magic users could sense her dormant core and mistook it for magic, teaching her how to tap into it to cast magic of her own.

The small spells and enchantments she learned weren't enough on their own to drain her core to much, they left her fatigued enough she slept til it recovered. Unfortunately when she came to join the newly dubbed Justice League Dark, she was soon casting magic strong enough and often enough her core was struggling.

She was tired all the time, her health declined and she found herself getting sick more often. In the decades she has lived in this world she has all but forgotten her origins and with them, forgotten the dangers of overtaxing her core.

Using magic was killing her.

It was during a world ending threat that she all but exhausted her core, her skin was ashen and she was all but leaning against her collegue. She had gone too far, there was no rest that could reverse it this time she realized and the threat was strong as ever.

Around her neck was the magical artifact she has had since as long as she can remember and as she witnessed her skin begin to melt she clung to it with all her might. She prayed to a nameless god she couldn't remember to help, this couldn't end here!

The artifact chill under her touch began to glow, whatever nameless god was linked to it had listened. As her vision became clouded by her own green tinted body melting under her she could only hope this god was enough to turn the tides against Darksied.

Danny visited Ellie many times over the years even when it became clear she didn't remember him anymore, he watched over her invisible to even her eyes. He knew she still wore the pendant he gifted her, but he knew better then to expect her to call now she didn't know what it was for.

So when he felt her weak and desperate plea for help, as if begging on her last breath? He arrived in full armored regalia to face who dared made her that weak.

An overpowering being towered over the mortals over a devastated battlefield that was once a city, the mortals facing against it were on their last leg and among them was Ellie. She looked so small cradled in another mortals arms as her drained core failed to keep her physical form together.

Danny felt his core sink, he should have visited more often, he should have been here before it got to this point… for now though, he has a wannabe tyrant to punish.

Note: my brain completely skipped over the whole "been in the universe for decades" bit so '-u- haha. I imagined Ellie in her late teens while writing this! Theoretically binding her core left Ellie with a thoroughly fuzzy memory. Basically, it's an amnesia scenario.

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ooooh this is a good one. Personally, I would love for Ellie to have been taken under Constantine's wing, mostly because I'm biased and I really like Constantine, haha.

I'm also obsessed with the idea of Ellie's declining health to be a major stressor throughout this whole thing. No one knows what's happening with her. Increasing dizzy spells, headaches, muscle fatigue, fainting at a moments notice the whole shebang.