Chapter Text
Danny had gotten used to a bunch of vigilantes being thrown in his window or deliberately breaking into his small apartment before, during or after a patrol or after a severe injury.
Well, he was used to almost all of them doing it, at least. Although once in a while Red Robin was thrown around and he had to rescue him, it wasn't as frequent as Red Hood. Spoiler would show up there too, usually to pick up Red Robin and hang out randomly. And there was Nightwing... Well, Nightwing seemed to enjoy visiting him spontaneously in the middle of patrols to talk, pick up one of his teammates or to be patched up too. Even little Robin would stop by! Although he would usually scold the others for breaking into Danny's house with such little courtesy, he would also stop by and demand pictures of Cujo and talk to Danny about the dog and the animals the older man took care of at the place he would volunteer at on the weekends while drinking a hot chocolate that Danny offered him. Signal, oddly enough, had also ended up there once or twice.
After a while of Danny periodically serving as their unpaid doctor, and they started leaving letters with good amounts of money for him, he could easily obtain favors and hear good gossip. Red Robin at first only stopped by his house when really necessary, but now he was there after patrols just to talk and hang out. He was very fond of Ellie and played with her. Red Hood also adored the little girl and had taught Danny some good recipes, as well as telling her stories and reading her books. Spoiler adored and spoiled her, Nightwing did the same and also enjoyed telling stories. And Robin taught her about facts about animals and acted like a bossy older brother.
Fact was: the vigilantes made themselfs comfortable in his house and he really couldn't care less.
He was just thankful it was them and not Batman.
But Black Bat? Danny was not used to her. Never in his life had he even imagined he would interact with her. The idea of this girl being thrown through his window or sneaking into his home had never even crossed his mind before.
"Holy Ancients," he hissed under his breath, wanting to simply tear his own hair out at the sight of the woman actively bleeding out on his recently clean couch.
Couldn't he have a moment's peace!? Here he was, trying to do his college projects while reading reviews of schools in Gotham to enroll Ellie, since she had already been expelled from at least the last three schools she had attended in the last few weeks she had been living in Gotham with him, all for fighting with other students and for being involved in some confession while at the same time trying to pretend to be normal in the middle of some kind of fight happening far enough away for him not to be affected. Even though the sounds of gunshots and fighting were also close enough that any normal person and even him would want to start running and hiding — But instead, he ran to his room, tearing out of the world from his closet one of the first aid kits that he now religiously maintained and frequently updated his stock. Almost like a speeder, he ran back to her.
Was it some kind of agreement or communication between the Bats and now he was some kind of informal and unpaid doctor for them? He decided he doesn't want to know.
Right now, he was only worried about the girl bleeding on his fucking house. And her situation was not good.
He knew her from the whispers and gossip on the streets of Gotham, as well as the occasional news (as much as he didn't like following the Gotham Gazette) and Sam, who for some reason was extremely fascinated by the heroine almost as much as she was by Poison Ivy. And he knew that, in no situation, her being injured was a good sign. Not when that woman was one of the most durable and skilled, if not the most, of all the Birds, competing directly with Nightwing. The way she moved was almost inhuman. With the grace of a ballerina and at the same time, ferocity. Absolutely feral.They were two opposite sides of the same coin that, with her, simply mixed naturally.
Sometimes when he ended up in the middle of a typical attack and she was there, he would stare at her, admire would be the best word, as she fought and he would snap out of his reverie when something exploded or someone pulled him. It was an inside joke between him, Jazz, Sam and Tuck, who liked to say that he had a crush on Black Bat and tease him about it.
Which, of course, wasn't even close to the truth.
But now wasn't the time to think about that.
He could find something because if he was going to treat this injury properly, he would have to be more careful than usual. He knew she was strong, but not as far as her pain tolerance would go.
Having her hurt like that, under the shitty lighting of the apartment, wasn't how he expected their first meeting to go, really. In fact, all the other scenarios were horribly worse.
Looking at the most concerning wound, a bullet with no way out, which meant what he had first assumed: Danny would have to fish the bullet out of her.
He glanced at the girl hesitantly, who was staring at him from behind the eyes covered by something really alike the Batfurry mask, before taking a deep breath, looking at the tweezers and moving to clean the wound that was apparently bleeding heavily.
He had already quickly sanitized his hands so as not to risk infection, but damn, that didn't make it any easier. He simply went ahead and the other didn't make a sound — nothing but a low, muffled groan that Danny thought if his hearing hadn't been improved after he had died, he wouldn't have heard it. He didn't know what kind of fucked up training the Bats had, and seeing how she barely reacted beyond the small noise and the tensing of her shoulders he didn't want to know.
Her condition wasn't good. She'd probably been in some kind of explosion, considering her uniform was so torn and God only knows what Batman put in his children's clothes, because if there's one thing he's sure of it's that they're durable. Besides the bullet hole, there were other marks as if bullets had grazed her skin and hit her superficially, it looked like she'd been thrown against something. He couldn't help but notice how frighteningly thin she seemed to be. Dear Ancients, didn't the Bat fed his children? Looking at her like that, he'd guess she was around 5'8" and 110 pounds, which was definitely underweight and even dangerous for a vigilante. His pincers pushed through the layers of flesh, blood spurting out as he tried to maintain his composure. When he had the bullet out, he set it aside on a square of gauze before focusing again, grabbing a needle and sewing her up as quickly and careful as possible.
The quicker he got this done, the better it would be for both of them. Danny didn't even have any medical training! Besides being a teenage hero and getting into a lot of trouble. But the only person he usually had to fish bullets out of was Red Hood.
But he managed it. He was already making a habit of it and was surprisingly good at it. He stitched her up, and just to be safe, he cleaned all her other wounds and rubbed some ointment over them before wrapping it firmly.
"You'll have to change this often. Please make sure you take antibiotics and pain medication if you feel anything and be sure to check with a doctor." He sighed deeply, standing on shaky feet from not using them as he normally would for so long. He wanted to run his hands through his hair and push it back, considering how uncomfortable it was to have it like this. Ancients, he really needed a haircut "Can you, uh- can you stay there a little bit? I'll make you something"
With a nod from her, he rushed to clean up the mess, putting everything away before taking care of his hands, cleaning them meticulously and removing any remaining blood before washing them again in the sink.
Now completely certain that he was safe, he opened the refrigerator, taking out a freshly bought milk box and setting it to heat up a little in a pan on the stove over low heat. When he decided the temperature was reasonable, he chopped up some good chocolate and melted it. Stirring it in, Danny poured the hot chocolate into the cup before rushing over to her and handing it to her. Robin liked it, so it was only natural that his sister also did, right?
"Look.. I know the mask thing and that there's a bunch of assholes out there right now. You don't need to take it off in front of me or anything, okay?" He stared at her cloth eyes, watching her nod and stare at him as if paying attention. "I can turn around or close my eyes when you drink, if you want me to. But right now, drink this and don't go back to the fight, okay? The situation isn't good and if you were to help your friends, your injuries might cause some bleeding or something. You're a really lucky girl that nothing like this happened yet. Well, at least today" He said, handing her the warm mug.
She stared at him, straightening up in a corner of the couch, looked at the mug in her hands before pulling her mask up, just enough so that her lips were exposed.
"Thank you," she said, her voice half whispered, touching her mouth and taking a few sips. Suddenly, her body moved in excitement and she drank the rest a little faster.
He really should thank Red Hood later for teaching him how to do this for Ellie.
He watched her drink the chocolate excitedly, a bit of the candy remaining on her lips. She handed him the mug, laughing a little at the print before pulling the mask down, covering his face.
He smiled, a huff of laughter coming out of his nose.
"Wait a minute, please?" He asked, taking the object she handed him, placing it in the kitchen sink before heading back to his room.
Look, Danny knows she's the fucking Black Bat and she's more than capable of beating the shit out of anyone that tries to mess with her. But it didn't sit right with him to let a lady leave his apartment, freshly bandaged, with her clothes still fucked up. And worse, without offering anything! Other than the chocolate, of course. He was raised better than that!
He opened his closet, looking for a good enough sweatshirt. He rummaged through some things, pulling out a hoodie that Sam gave him from a pile of freshly folded clothes. It was simple and cute — black, with Snoopy, Charlie Brown, and Woodstock on the moon in astronaut gear.
He opened it, checking the condition, before folding it again and placing it in his arms. He went back to the living room.
Black Bat was now standing there, looking around his apartment through the whites of her mask's fake eyes with barely concealed curiosity. But she had barely moved, still standing in front of the bloody couch.
"Here, for you," he handed her the piece of clothing gently, missing the comfortable weight of the cotton as she took it.
She studied the hoodie, quickly pulling it over her head and dressing it over her costume. It was a definitely big for her, but she looked comfortable in it and it covered her wounds well. If a villain had seen them, they would have immediately recognized them as weakness and would have attacked her instantly.
"Thank you," she said once more, her voice now sounding distorted, robotic even.
"You're welcome, Lil' Bat." Her shoulders tensed a bit "Now, you better go to God knows where you and your companions are hiding. You should have a doctor or personal agent to take care of you, make sure to follow their orders and not be stupid like Red Robin or Red Hood, okay?"
" 'Kay." She laughed, the AI in her suit stuttering in laughter "Little Brothers, always like this."
"My big sister will agree with you," Danny scoffed.
Little Bat shrugged, sneaking through the window, which, thank the Ancients, wasn't broken. Well, it kinda was, but he could fix that in a hour and a half. It was nothing compared to the time Red Hood broke into his apartment, having been shot at least 5 times, breaking the window and scattering glass everywhere.
She waved goodbye and he waved back, his face involuntarily giving her a small smile before she threw herself out of his apartment window, running across the buildings and rooftops to God knows where.
She disappeared into the night and Danny sighed heavily.
He would get his tools and fix the window now and then call a cleaning company first thing in the morning. Or he would call his ghost servants. It was much better.