A New Beginning

Chapter 22

"What did you do?"

"I snuck into Bruce's office to look at his books." Both exhaled a sigh of relief, relaxing after the confirmation he hadn't done anything bad or stupid.

"The business books? I thought we got you some books to learn from." Danny looked up and pouted.

"Those were for kids." Bruce cracked a smile and Dick laughed at the boy's words.

"Danny, you are a kid." The boy glared at the amused Bats.

"Am not." Dick just rolled his eyes while Bruce just huffed a small laugh. Danny went to retort but suddenly remembered the initial curiosity that had prompted him to interrupt in the first place.

"What were you talking about?"

He watched the nonverbal cues on each of their faces closely. He watched them flick their eyes to each other without moving from their positions and observed as they continued their activities with only a minuscule hesitation on Dick's part. The boy narrowed his eyes as he slowly honed all his enhanced senses on the two humans and waited to see if anything was out of the ordinary.

After his...adventure...he decided he shouldn't be more relaxed, he should continue to live as he always had.

Carefully.

It wasn't as if he didn't trust these people, because he did. He trusted them, and that fact, if he didn't dwell too much on the potential consequences, warmed him and made him happy. 

Its just...with trust comes overestimation, a lesson he learned the hard way.

They couldn't protect him from the GIW. (They failed once, who says they won't again.)

They couldn't protect him from nightmares or flashbacks. (How can they protect him from the haunting memories, lingering scars, and dark voices that echo in his head?)

They couldn't protect him from the powers that sometimes make him curl up in the middle of the night in agony as he slowly released small amounts of energy at a time so his core doesn't overheat, freeze, or overcharge and kill his human half. (What can they do? They don't know anything about ghosts, let alone Halfas.)

They certainly couldn't protect him from the virtually unknown threat of Pariah Dark and his army. (He isn't even sure he could survive that, whatever it is.)

They were only human. Trained or not, this was just outside their capabilities.

It was outside his too.

Danny trusted them to take care of him, to not hurt him intentionally, to not betray him, to try and help him. He did.

He just couldn't rely on them to be able to protect him from the demons shadowing him. Because he was the only one, on this blue earth and beyond, that completely understood. It was not their fault. It was not anyone's.

It was just a cold, hard fact. The harsh reality of this-of his life. 

Oh well.

'You are one messed up kid.'

"Danny, we want to talk to you." His eyes temporarily flashed their vivid green color in shock.

God dammit. He needed to stop that.

He tilted his head in confusion at Bruce as he turned in his chair and folded his hands over the now-closed book. Sparing a quick glance, Dick had also cleaned up his breakfast and mirrored the other's position. The boy used a considerable amount of willpower to keep himself from narrowing his eyes and tensing.