"Also did you read what Vicki Vale said about Dick? How has she not had all of her electronics wiped? I'm surprised you held it in, I wouldn't be able to control myself in that situation. Well, I didn't. You're about to get a really angry call, cuz she's absolutely gonna think you did it, since it happened so soon after she posted that shit."
"Yeah, she deserves it. Oh, also, did you know that there's a new exhibit in the art museum? Can I head over there but at night? I wanna meet Catwoman."
"Okay no, no, stop, hear me out; I just don't get caught. Huh? How about that? I just go over there and don't get caught by anyone, and then I won't be in trouble."
"Okay fine, or you could just tell her to call me, I guess. Can we at least go during the day to actually look at it?"
"Thanks B! Also I found a really cool bug on the window and it was on the inside and-"
Tim watched with pity as their newest addition trailed after B like an oblivious sheepdog, talking a mile a minute and barely giving B any time to respond at all.
There was no emotion on Bruce's face. No indication that he wanted to be around Danny at all.
They'd been upset at Bruce at first, even Damian, and tried to interact with the meta to make up for Bruce's lack. Danny was delicate, he needed to be around people who didn't communicate in just grunts. They'd just saved him from a meta trafficking operation for shit's sake!
The kid needed clear communication!
Cass was still hunting down the remnants of the operation in Cuba, so unfortunately they didn't have her giving them real-time play-by-plays of Danny's mental state, which meant they had to work with what they had.
In example; keeping Danny with people who weren't so busy they only glanced at, hummed, or answered in terse monosyllabic answers.
But Danny kept circling back to Bruce.
He would leave the room and deliberately drag the older man in. He would phase into the Batcave for the sole purpose of chattering nonstop to the Big Bat himself.
It was increasingly rare to not see Bruce without a shadow trailing after him, filling the air with the most inane shit Tim had ever heard.
Bruce was, undeniably, Danny's favorite.
Eventually they decided to leave it; if it made Danny happy, then fine.
Besides, Tim was just happy Damian hadn't decided to take offense and get jealous.
If anything, Damian took full advantage of the situation; if Bruce was getting uppity about something, or becoming his usual insufferable self, Damian would surreptitiously lead them to Danny, and Danny would, without fail, immediately start his tirade against B's ears.
Honestly, they were all using Danny like that now.
Wasn't like they were any normal sort of family unit to begin with anyways.
Bruce had that warm fuzzy feeling he got whenever Damian asked for a spar, or when any of his children wanted to be around him.
He'd been panicked at first, not sure why the little meta wanted to be near him all the time, but he wasn't the world's greatest detective for nothing.
Danny responded based on emotional queues, not verbal ones.
He was an Empath, along with his many, many other powers.
Tim, Damian, Dick, even Alfred; they were all some level of nervous when dealing with Danny. Bruce knew where they were coming from, it was hard not to see the boy as though he were spun of glass.
Not after how they'd found him; chained and beaten and too scared to cry.
So he let the kid trail after him, talking about anything and everything under the sun, and didn't even bother responding with words unless it was required.
Honestly, he preferred this.
Talking when he wasn't pretending to be an airhead was difficult. People expected answers with far more words than they required, and took it personally when he misjudged their ability to read between the lines.
But also if he spoke too much, they'd get annoyed.
If he complimented them, he always managed to do it wrong, and they thought he was insulting them.
When he insulted them, if came off as far more harsh than he meant it to, resulting in grudges that lasted years.
He barely had to say a word, and Danny knew exactly what he was saying.
So sue him, when his other children and he himself got into arguments, he pretended not to notice when they led him to the empathic meta.
To have a conversation where he wasn't misunderstood at all was a fantastic balm on his annoyed mind after such arguments.
As soon as it was safe to do so, he would ask if the boy would agree to being fostered.
It had started as teasing the Autistic SuperDad, but Danny just...kinda fell into actually wanting to be around the guy.
He wasn't loud or bright or forcibly cheery, hiding nervousness and discomfort beneath it.
He was just unforgivably The Most Autistic Man Danny had ever met.
Although Batman being Autistic explained a lot of things, if he was being real.
They had tried to keep their hero identities a secret, but that hadn't lasted very long when Danny had just floated through the floor and into the Batcave, right in the middle of Nightwing trying to solve a really gruesome murder case.
Which, okay. That was cool. Danny was no stranger to heroics and bad things.
The trafficking thing had been. It. Danny still kept shying away from it. Losing his Mom, Dad, Jazz, Sam, and Tucker had already been painful enough; to be sold the absolute second he-
Danny stopped walking and shook his head.
Adults couldn't be trusted. He didn't need to go into the specifics of it.
But Bruce could be trusted, Danny had run him through every single 'I'm annoying you' scenario under the sun, pushed all the limits, and the man had not once lost his cool.
"...Hey, B. The guy that sold me out is named Vlad Masters, and if he knows I told you that, he's going to kill my twin and my little sister."
Because Vlad still very much had Dan and Dani, and given that the man was willing to throw Danny to meta traffickers in the name of 'teaching him a lesson', he had no doubt; if Vlad knew Danny had just ratted him out to a member of the Justice League, he'd kill them.
Underlying that single syllable reply, was a sudden wail of Rage and Disgust and Desire for Vengeance. It was so loud Danny actually flinched back.
'Oh,' Danny thought, staring at Bruce with wide eyes, 'Okay. There's Batman.'
"I will handle it," Batman assured, resting a hand on Danny's shoulder before turning to walk out of the room.
