A New Beginning

Chapter 21

It's been so long! I'm really sorry that I haven't been updating. And I'm sorry in advance that this chapter is really short and not very good. I hit a major writer's block and am still trying to work through it.

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Batman and Robin had organized a joint meeting with both the Young Justice Team and the Justice League. They had explained the situation and how they were to proceed as normal, while still looking for the GIW. Also with Danny, there must be a senior hero with him at all times. After it had been settled, the heroes parted ways, returning to their normal lives and cities.

Bruce carried Danny into the Batcave, using one arm to take off his cowl and the other held a sleeping Danny on his hip. Dick was took off his mask and looked over to Bruce.

"They know where he is now you know." The teen stated, seemingly casually but Bruce could detect the worry and stress in his voice. Bruce sighed, still holding the small boy up with one arm.

"I know."

"What are we going to do?"

"We will be more careful. We will protect him. And we'll let him stay at the mansion more often, seeing as they don't know he's there." Dick nodded. He raised his arms and Bruce smoothly transferred the sleeping Halfa to the teen, who easily held the boy (he is far too light.) The two heroes changed into normal clothes, then took the Halfa to bed.

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He should have known that his "adventure" wouldn't change his feelings about the large space he had been given. Almost five weeks later, he was still having a hard time sleeping through the flashbacks and the large, open area where he was vulnerable to attack didn't help.

He was by no means not grateful, he appreciated the thought Bruce had given into his living area. It was beautiful and expensive looking, but it was just too big. He remembered when Dick had found him sleeping underneath the bed. He liked underneath the bed, it was small and dark. But he wasn't able to get a great vantage point and it was hard to see all the possible exits. He had tried to go under the bed the first few nights, but it never worked. He was even more paranoid because it would have been hard to escape if the need had arrived. So by the second week, he did what he did best.

He looked for a logical solution.

As he had noted previously, the room was very large and very open. It only had three pieces of furniture, all of which didn't provide any type of isolation or shelter. That only left the bathroom and the closet. He didn't like the bathroom because it was too bright, too sterile, it reminded him uncomfortably of a lab, and if he were to wake up, or god forbid suffer through a flashback in there, he wasn't sure how it would affect him. He certainly didn't want to find out any time soon.

The closet it was.

Danny hadn't even opened the closet in the duration of his stay. He hadn't found any reason to, he didn't have any clothes of his own after all. He had been only staying there for a month before he was taken then only a few weeks after and even if it were longer, it wasn't like he had any personal items. So he hesitantly opened the door to the closet.

It was large, more like a room than a closet really. Danny sighed, slightly irritated and glanced around the area. It was a walk-in closet, about ten feet long, five feet wide and eight feet tall. It was fairly empty, a few clothes that looked to be around his size hung up towards the back. He smiled as he looked at the shelves. They weren't connected at the corners, creating a snug opening where he could get to the corner, practically completely isolated beside the initial small opening.

Padding back over to the bed, he grabbed a blanket and a pillow and stuffed them in the farthest corner directly across from the door. He climbed in and wrapped the blanket around him.

'That's better.'

However, it never occurred to him what would happen when the Bats didn't find him in bed.

Whoops.

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"Not again," Dick muttered before running from the room that was supposed to house his little brother.

"BRUCE"

The man in question nearly ran into the teen in the hall. "Dick? What's wrong?" The teen simply grabbed his mentor's arm and started dragging him towards Danny's bedroom. Making it to the doorway, he started to explain.

"He wasn't here when I came to get him."

Both Bats rushed to the bed, looking underneath and in any place that could hide an eleven-year-old. When they finally got to the closet, the elder saw the edge of a blanket peeking out of the corner. He let out a relieved breath and walked toward the corner. Carefully, Bruce pulled the thin blanket to the side, revealing a small, curled up form staring widely at the man with glowing green eyes. He held his hand out, feeling the cool small limb grab on and pull. Danny climbed out of the small crevice and looked between the two. After a moment, Dick smiled, letting the relief show through, and pulled the boy to him and wrapped his arms around the small form. Stiffening then relaxing, the halfa wrapped his own arms around his older brother, hands fisting in the fabric of Dick's shirt.

Turning his face into the shirt, he mumbled, "sorry."

"It's fine Danny. Just next time, come to one of us if you have a nightmare or a flashback. Okay?" The boy gave no verbal response, instead only nodded. Bruce scooped the boy from Dick, eliciting a small giggle from the half ghost. Bruce smoothly placed the boy on his hip and looked at him.

"Do you want breakfast? Alfred made chocolate chip waffles." Receiving a nod, Batman and Robin carried the eleven-year-old down into the kitchen.

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Yeah, sorry it's short and not great

I'll try to work through the writer's block soon, but I can't guarantee when that will be.