They stood across from an all too familiar window. The heads of two certain cats poking out from the bottom, silently staring at them.

Dick squeezed their interlaced hands tighter. "Are you ready?"

Danny took a deep breath, not breaking his staring contest with the cats. He was already emotionally drained from explaining everything to Dick on their walk back, but there was one last thing he had to do tonight. "Not really." A low whine sounded from behind them, Cujo crouching down impatiently as he guarded the boys. Sighing, the halfa was the first to step forward, dragging Dick with him as he flew them across the alley. Going intangible to let the rain drops fall off, he phased them inside the apartment.

"I'm never going to get used to that feeling, am I?" Dick remarked before a symphony of various angry cats made their annoyance known. Shiro and Nanaki in particular as they screamed at their boys. Nanaki was already halfway clawing up Danny's leg before the boy finally lifted up the screaming cat. "Yeah, yeah, I get it. You can stop now, thank you." He deadpanned as Nanaki purposely pawed at his face.

Dick wasn't doing any better as Shiro had already crawled up onto his shoulders to loudly complain straight into his ears. "Wow, Shiro. Hello to you too, I guess." He cringed as his hearing was being violated. "I see you met them already." He jokingly remarked as Danny was struggling to keep Nanaki's paws off his mouth.

"Danny?"

The pair froze up as they heard Selina call out from somewhere in the apartment. In an instant Dick watched Danny's features shift from black and blue to white and green. He wasn't even sure if Danny was aware of the shift happening as his brother froze up like a deer in headlights. After what felt like forever, Selina entered the main living area, looking like she had been crying since their call ended. She rushed over to where they were standing, coming to a stop just a few steps away from them. Danny looked away, unable to look her in her make-up stained eyes. Dick awkwardly moved Shiro into his arms and shifted his weight away from Danny to let the other two have their moment.

"Danny?" She repeated, a soft tremble in her voice.

Danny kept staring at the floor, finding a particularly interesting scratch mark to focus on. "I," he started, trying to find his voice. "I'm sorry." Just a remarkable piece of art this scratch was, truly. He'd have to look for more. "For running away like that, I mean." Danny made the mistake of glancing up, even for just a split second. The moment their eyes locked, it was like they got knocked out of their trance by force.

One second Selina was in the middle of the room, the next she was holding onto Danny tightly. "You have nothing to apologize for, darling. I should have told you who I was talking to." She hushed, nuzzling her cheek into his damp hair.

"But I-"

"Have the right to know who I discuss your health with when you had asked for privacy. That was a mistake on my part, I should have asked you about it first."

Before either could say anything, Nanaki screamed out from between them, not so kindly reminding them that the feline was still in Danny's arms. Selina chuckled as she stood up slightly to wipe away a stray tear. Smiling over at Dick, she unwrapped an arm from Danny to pull Dick and Shiro into the hug as well. "I'm just happy you boys are safe. That is all that matters at the moment." She softly nuzzled into Dick's hair while tucking away a few black strands from Danny's.

"Well," she wrinkled her nose, "that and getting you two into a shower before the whole place smells like wet dog." At that, they all had a good laugh as both Shiro and Nanaki took their chance to escape from the smell as well. All too soon, however, Selina sobered up again, looking over Danny with a sad smile. "If you still want to stay, that is." Baby blue eyes locked into emerald green ones as Danny peaked out from under his bangs.

"Am I still allowed to?"

Selina's smile brightened as she cupped his cheeks with a gentle touch. "You are always welcome here, darling, that will never change."

After some more screaming from Nanaki and Shiro, both boys ended up showered and in clean clothes. Not too long after they got comfortable on the couch, the boys fell asleep in a heap of boys and cats.

Come morning, the air was slightly tense. The odd combination of nostalgic familiarity of eating breakfast together contrasting the uncertainty of their years of separation. Well, that, and the fact that Dick was entranced by his once very competent brother failing to eat cereal. He kept watching as Danny struggled to bring his spoon to his mouth. "Do you...need any help?" He asked tentatively, not really sure if asking was a boundary he would accidentally cross. Luckily for him, it seemed, Danny looked only mildly uncomfortable.

"It's just," He sighed deeply as he let the spoon clatter in the bowl. "Taking some time to get used to, again."

"Again?"

Danny shifted in his chair to cross his legs underneath him, a tell they both have for when they're uncomfortable. "The first time was a disaster for weeks before I could control it all. But now...I haven't really had to be the one in control of it for a while, you know?" As if his body was trying to prove a point, his arm suddenly disappeared from view and nearly caused him to hit his head on the table as his intangibility acted up again. With a huff, Danny straightened up again.

Dick hummed, taking in the information. Danny had been in Belle Rêve with inhibitors for a good year. Unnecessary habits become redundant and forgotten extremely fast when you don't need it anymore, especially after such a long time. It would make sense if he had issues controlling his powers again after being used to a device doing that for him. "Maybe it's like handstands." He accidentally mused out loud.

"What."

"You know, like when you don't do it for a while, it gets a little disorienting to be upside down for a long time even though we both know you used to be able to live upside down and be perfectly fine. Maybe you just need to practice doing it on purpose to make it a habit again?"

"Respectfully, I don't think it's been working all too well." Danny answered with a chuckle, starting up the battle with the spoon yet again.

Dick waited until Danny managed a proper bite before taking one himself. "Well, yeah." He paused to swallow, "You can't get better at being upside down by staying right side up. You need to want to be upside down to get better at being upside down. If you're used to being tangible, you'll need to practice being intangible first before it gets easier again."

Danny paused mid failed attempted bite, looking at Dick as if he had grown a second head. Dick tucked his legs underneath him as he glanced over to Selina who was making some tea on the stove. Selina laughed at his helpless look, turning back to the kettle. "Don't look at me, honey, I barely understood a word of what you were saying."

Dick looked back over to where Danny was sitting. Was being the keyword as his brother had disappeared from sight. "Aaahhhhmmm..." He leaned over to check if maybe Danny had fallen through the chair but still he found no trace of the other black haired boy. That was until there was a sudden thud that shook the entire table.

"Ah hah mhm!" Danny hummed with a mouth full of milk and cereal from underneath the table, his fists popping out through the top as he cheered. Now visible again, he popped his head up from underneath with a big grin. "I did it!" At Dick's confused stare, Danny added, "You said practice being upside down, sooo," He dragged out as he climbed back into the chair with a bounce to his moves causing pieces of cereal to fall to the ground. "I figured, why not just turn the bottom of the bowl intangible instead of keeping me tangible." He happily continued chewing on the remainder of his mouthful as Selina stared at the cereal massacre underneath the table. A small glance to Danny's bowl confirmed that the entire contents was either in Danny's mouth, hair or on the floor.

But, progress is progress.

Especially when said progress was seeing Danny act more like the brother Dick knew and remembered instead of the skittish boy who did his best to run away from him.

For the rest of the day and the day after, they practiced together to get Danny's powers back under relative control. At least what they had dubbed the base 3. Flying still seemed to be an instinctual thing but was apparently very important to consciously do while also trying to be intangible. Who would have thought. By the second evening, they had gotten far enough that Danny wasn't falling through the floor or furniture at random times anymore.

They were in the middle of a calming meditation session when Dick's comms pinged. With a grunt, he went through his back-up backpack and fished out a spare hologlove. With a groan he let himself flop backwards into their little pillow fort. "It's B, he's asking if I'm coming on patrol tonight."

From her seat at the table, Selina laughed at him. "Come now, honey. You know well enough that Alfred made him send that as a warning that he'll be coming here if you don't."

Dick groaned loudly into a pillow. "But I don't want to! He handled Gotham alone for years before I showed up! We told Alfie where I am, he has no reason to come over and drag me out."

"Except for your responsibilities as Robin."

Dick chose to disregard Danny's comment for his own sake. He rolled over to glare at the floor as Nanaki wandered over, nuzzling into him while purring comfortingly. "Besides," he grumbled as he let Nanaki knead biscuits into his arm, "Danny's practice is more important."

"But if you don't, we'll get an angry Bat breaking in through the window." Danny cuddled a purring Shiro closer to his chest, softly resting his head on top of the feline's. The topic of talking to Bruce about Danny was one the trio had skillfully avoided the past two days. None of them thought it was a good idea for their own reasons.

Dick continued poking at his spare glove, outweighing the limited options he had. Until a marvelous idea emerged from his oh so genius brain. "What if," he looked through his spare bag, looking for a very particular item he knew had to be in there somewhere. "Aha!" He yelled out victoriously as he found his spare domino mask. "What if you just come with me on patrol?" He proudly grinned up to Danny who seemed to try and become one with Shiro's white fur.

Selina, noticing Danny's unease, spoke up on his behalf. "Honey, I don't think that would be a good idea. The plan was to avoid Batman, not run straight towards him." She wandered over and got comfortable in the space between the two with a particularly chunky tabby on her lap, ready to mediate if necessary.

Dick only smiled harder as he now also found the mask glue. "Exactly! B would be happy because I'd be out on patrol, and Danny can have some infield practice! It's a win-win!"

"I'm not sure if I would call that a win."

"He does have a good point, though." Selina hummed. Danny's head snapped up incredulously to look at her like she just stole his last chicken nugget. "I'm just saying, there is only so much useful practice you can get inside of an apartment, darling. Field training is just as important for situations outside of a controlled environment."

"I guess." Danny relented. "But wouldn't that just be asking for trouble? He would totally notice you're being followed at the slightest mistake." Danny curled back around Shiro, bringing them both into a levitating ball.

"Not really." Dick sat back up with a holomap of Gotham projecting from his glove. "Usually we only start together since, well, we drive over to the city from the Cave. After a few blocks, we split up to cover more ground. After the stunt with the Injustice League and with both Joker and Ivy locked up at the moment, it's bound to be relatively quiet for another day or so too. If anything, tonight would be the perfect time for field training before the usual creepy crawlies come out of their hiding spots." Dick slowly started scooting his way over with the supplies in one hand, and Nanaki supported by the other.

Danny watched him cautiously, every few scoots looking over to Selina who looked on amusedly. "And you're sure he won't notice?" Once Dick started getting relatively close, Danny floated down slightly but still used Shiro as a feline shield.

Dick shrugged nonchalantly as he maneuvered Nanaki back into his lap. "Alfie said he's still working on figuring out who was behind the Injustice League and who that plant monster was that was controlling Ivy. He's got a few leads to track down that are on the planning for tonight so we," he wiggled his eyebrows with a grin, "would be on general patrol duty."

Danny sent one last helpless look over to Selina. With a smile she tried to reassure him. "If it helps put your mind at ease, I wouldn't mind going out for a little stretch myself." She emphasized the casual offer by stretching her arms out far above her head, lightly pulling her shoulder muscles loose.

Confronted with Dick gleefully inching closer and the Catwoman herself offering to come along too, Danny really didn't have a leg to stand on. At least Nanaki hadn't decided to bully him into it too so at least there was that.

Finally relenting, he floated down until he was fully back on the floor. Sensing the pending shenanigans, Nanaki and Shiro took their leave to get comfortable where Dick had been sitting before.

Dick paused, comically bringing up a hand to his chin while he thought about how to get the mask on Danny properly. "Okay, step one. Imma need you to be human for a sec." As requested, Danny's hair and eyes shifted back to his original colors. Unfortunately for Dick, that seemed to complicate things a bit as Danny's shaggy hair was now weighed down a whole lot more. Humming to himself, he messed around with Danny's bangs for a bit before giving up. "Mama can you come help please? I think I finally understand why Alfred makes me keep my hair shorter."

Selina chuckled softly as she made her way over to her boys. Standing on her knees behind Danny, she lifted up his bangs so Dick wouldn't accidentally glue them into the mask.

"Mama?" Danny confusedly asked, looking up at Selina who just gave him a soft forehead kiss. Dick hummed confusedly as he focused on putting the glue on the mask. "You called her mama." He elaborated.

Dick paused for a second, as if he hadn't even noticed the slip of the tongue. "Ah, well..." He stammered a bit, blowing on the mask glue until it became the right consistency.

"He has known me for longer, darling. But don't feel pressured to call me that too, just call me whatever you're most comfortable with." She supplied for him, taking the pressure off the slightly blushing bird.

Dick looked down a little, slightly uncomfortable and not really wanting to meet Danny's eyes even though he would need to to put the mask on him. "Mami and tati will never be replaced, but it's kinda nice to have something similar, you know." Shrugging softly, Dick finally braved to look up at his brother. Danny's face was twisted in confusion before his features softened with a soft hum and a gentle nod.

Taking that for what it is, Dick sat up on his knees as well, carefully making sure he got the mask in the right place. Oddly enough, it was quite a bit harder to glue a mask on somebody else than on himself but for a first time try, he was quite proud of himself. With a few presses on key points, Dick sat back down.

Moment of truth. "Okay ghost boy, do your thing." He joked, checking around to make sure there weren't any cats too close by. They found out the hard way that outside of Nanaki and Shiro, the others absolutely hated it when Danny went into his full ghost form. With bated breath he watched the staticky rings pass over Danny's body, inverting everything he was wearing.

Just as he had hoped, the mask too had changed. The once black mask was now a stark white, perfectly blending in with Danny's hair. There was a strong green glow coming from behind the black lenses. With a few tweaks here and there he could have a new model ready for if Danny decided to actually come back full time.

But that were issues for later. This would do just fine, Danny would be just fine. 

A/N

Yall sorry it took so long. Writers block + shedding genuine tears over trying to get the new timeline made and have everything fit right was hell. Words cannot describe the torture it was to follow the time and dates of the original show while fitting in so much extra story and character development than I first planned for. Things changed too much for me to still use my original plot outlining so a major overhaul was needed for future chapters. I also added titles to everything for anybody that would like to know where in the season the story is. Anything not named "Intermediate" is connected to the episode of the same name. It also helped realise that I have way more than just half of the story left so it's actually closer to only being around 1/3rd done.

I'm also trying to not post until all directly connected chapters are finished, such as all chapters connected to a certain episode. So if there is an update and the situation doesn't seem resolved yet, know I'll be waiting a day or two to release the next chapter.

Please enjoy the beautiful mess that is this story 💜