As soon as Bruce had come home from work, Danny saw him vanish into his study. He had only been living in the manor for little over a week now and while the other three members of the household had been nothing but kind and patient with him, he had yet to learn their other sides. So, with the fear of possibly annoying Bruce and getting to know him in a way he probably did not want to know, Danny approached The Study. Hesitantly, he lifted his hand to knock. But before he could even touch the wood, Bruce called out from inside.

"You can come in Danny."

Startled and confused, Danny opened the door and peeked his head in to see Bruce smiling at him. How the man had known he was there was a complete mistery to him. He awkwardly shuffled around the open door and closed it behind him.

"I'm sorry, I didn't want to interrupt you or anything-"

"It's alright. You didn't interrupt me. Did you need anything from me?"

Danny tried not to look shocked at Bruce's calm reaction. Danny knew from Dick that Bruce had a lot of work and that he did not like to be interrupted. He was not going to look a gift horse in the mouth. Trying to remember the words he had prepared before, Danny spoke.

"Um, I kinda wanted to ask you something."

Bruce nodded to show him he should continue.

"I would really like to go to school again."

Bruce's eyebrows shot up in surprise and he looked like he wanted to say something, so Danny quickly went on.

"You probably don't think this is a good idea and that I shouldn't go yet, but I've already missed a lot and if I wait much longer I might not be able to keep up anymore. Plus, I don't know what I'm supposed to do with my time. So, please, Bruce?"

For a moment, there was no response at all and Danny was almost sure he was going to say no.

"You really want to?"

Danny's face lit up instantly and he nodded eagerly. Bruce chuckled lightly at his enthusiasm.

"If you are sure you can handle it," he half asked.

"I can," Danny assured.

"Then I don't see why not." Ignoring Danny's happy shout of yes, he kept talking. "I will arrange everything so you can attend Gotham Academy with Dick. I can't tell you when you will be allowed to start though," he said.

Danny did not seem to care as he ran over to where Bruce sat behind his desk and promtly hugged him, surprising the both of them. Embarrassed, Danny pulled away. He could feel his cheeks heating up slightly as he made his way to the door, leaving a baffled Bruce behind.

"Thank you, Bruce," Danny said before he left the study.

° ° ° ° ° ° ° ° ° ° ° ° ° °

The first thing Dick did when he came home from school was look for his brother. When said twelve-year-old did not answer his calls, he began searching the manor. He could not find Danny in either of their bedrooms, nor in the kitchen, library or any other of the likely places for the young boy to hang out. He even tried Bruce's study, but the room was empty. Not believing that the man would be down in the cave with Danny - he would not simply reveal his secret like that - Dick made his way back down the stairs to confront Alfred. Maybe the older butler knew where the rest of the household could have disappeared to.

"Hey, Alfred," he greeted as he approached the man, who was currently dusting off a couple picture frames in the entry hall.

"Master Dick," the man acknowledged, turning to him and patiently waiting for the boy to voice his concern.

"Have you seen Danny?"

The butler's expresion stayed the same.

"Last I saw him he went to speak with Master Bruce," Alfred informed him.

Dick furrowed his eyebrows in confusion. Bruce was home already? Did he not have some kind of important meeting today?

"The meeting with Mr. Masters has been rescheduled," Alfred explained as though he had heard Dick's thoughts.

"Oh, okay." Remembering his initial question, he asked, "When was it you last saw Danny?"

"About an hour ago."

"And you haven't seen him since then at all?" Dick pressed but the older man confirmed that he knew nothing of the other twelve-year-old's whereabouts.

"Odd. But thanks anyway. If you do see him, let him know I have somthing to tell him, okay?"

"Of course, Master Dick."

With that, Dick left the butler to himself and his dusting in favour of finding his missing family member. He went out into the manor's giant garden, remembering Danny to have said something about liking it there especially. He even checked behind some bushes, but Danny was still nowhere to be found. Frustrated and slightly worried, Dick made his way back inside and towards his room. If he could not find Danny the conventional way, he would have to switch to Robin tactics. It was not like what he wanted to tell his brother was that important, but as long as he did not know where he was, there was always the chance of Danny being in some kind of danger. Despite usually being the optimistic kind of person, the paranoid side in him won this time. Just as he rounded the corner leading to their bedrooms, Dick heard a muffled thud coming from the direction of Danny's room. Realizing his brother must have entered the room sometime while he had been gone searching, he quickly moved to knock on the door, only to be stopped in his tracks as he saw a strange light shine throught the small gap underneath the door. Without thinking, Dick pushed open the door. There, in the middle of his room, stood Danny, unchanged and unharmed, appearing to be a bit startled by his brother's sudden entry.

"Hey, Dick," Danny casually greeted, but the Batman's protégé could barely detect a hint of nervousness in the other's voice.

Dick shook his head. Maybe he had imagined the weird light...

"Where have you been? I've been searching for you since I got home."

Danny's left hand moved towards the back of his neck, halted, and fell down again by his side.

"I... took a walk?"

If there had been any reasons for Dick to be suspicious before, they would all seem weak now. He definitely did not believe him, and he had a feeling Danny already knew.

"You took a walk."

"Uh, yeah? Is that a problem?"

Dick shook his head and choose to drop the subject for now. Danny needed his space, his privacy, especially after everything that had happened to him.

"I wanted to ask you something," Dick said, remembering to close the door before he made his way over to Danny's bed.

Danny followed him with his gaze and eventually turned around to Dick sitting comfortably on his bed.

"Ask away."

Dick leaned back on his hands, feet dangling over the edge of the bed. He found himself calmer in Danny's presence. He could not explain it, but thinking back on it he would almost go as far as to say that during those years without Danny something had been missing. Like a part of him had been lying in some place he could not reach, locked away, key lost and forgotten.

"I was talking with Babs today and she asked if she could come over after school. I said I'd ask you if you'd be okay with it first. So, what do you think?"

Danny seemed to mull it over for a short moment, before he hesitantly smiled.

"Why not?" he decided. "Your friends are my friends, right?"

An grin formed on Dick's face, not only because he could introduce his brother to one of his best friends, but also because he could not wait to see Barbara's reaction when he did so. After all they had even managed to convince Bruce that Dick was really Danny and vice versa. This was going to be fun.

° ° ° ° ° ° ° ° ° ° ° ° ° °

Frustrated, she slammed her book shut, leaning back into her chair and closing her eyes. Mathematics never had been one of her best subjects, but she had always been able to at least somehow understand the important gist of it. Only lately her head had not been in the game. At first she had had to worry about her best friend's disappearance. Now that she knew he was safe and sound, she kept thinking about when she would finaly be able to see him again. She understood that he needed time to recover first, to get used to the drastic change in scenery, but the more days passed, the more grew that feeling of uneasiness in the pit of her stomach. She had so many questions. After Danny had called her, he had told her that she should not worry if he was not going to call her again the following couple of days, that he would like to take some time to think everything over before he could talk about everything in more detail. And she certainly respected this. Definitely.

Her thoughs were interrupted by the shrill ringing of the doorbell. Once. Twice. Thrice. She frowned when the sound kept repeating itself. Suddenly the ringing stopped halfway through and Sam could just barely make out her mother's voice downstairs. She had not realized that it had been the phone she had heard. Taking a glance at the clock over her bed she noticed that she had not realized how fast time had passed, either. She leaned forward, propping her elbows on her tighs and rubbed her eyes. She was also tired. All she wanted to do was crawl into her bed and let the distant roar of Amity Park's traffic lull her to sleep. Yeah, that sounded good. Maybe she could just do that. Maths homework was not due until early next week. She could easily-

"Sammy-kins? Samantha, there's someone on the phone for you!"

Groaning, she heaved herself from the chair, pulling the thick socks she had taken off earlier back on and made her way towards her bedroom door.

"Coming!" she shouted, letting her mother know she had heard and was on her way.

As she was taking her time descending to the first floor, a sudden hope swelled up inside her. What if it was Danny who wanted to talk to her? Not managing to keep her hopes down, she picked up her speed and was grabbing the housephone her mother offered to her. She held it up to her ear and spoke.

"Hello?"

She waited, anticipated, for the caller to identify themselves, to tell her it was Danny.

"Hey Sam."

She slouched, that warm feeling dissipating in an instant upon hearing the voice.

"Oh. Hey Tuck."

She winced inwardly, praying she had not sounded as disappointed as she felt. There was a pause. Sam waited.

"Um, I was just, you know, calling to ask if I should still come over to help you with maths?"

Oh, right. She had completely forgotten that she had told him about her maths problem. Of course he had immediately offered his help. Tucker was a genius when it came to mathematics. It would have been foolish to refuse his offer. But underneath his words she could make out the awkward strain on their relationship, more so than usual. She knew he was aware that she had hoped he had been someone else. And he knew that she was aware that he was aware. Neither decided to comment on it.

"Yeah, right. Sorry, I totally forgot."

It sounded lame even to her and she began to feel even guiltier. She knew she was being unfair. Tucker was her friend. He had never done anything but help her and be there for her.

"That's okay. I should have called earlier anyway."

She grimaced. Another thing that was her fault and here he was finding a way to put the blame on his shoulders.

"No, no it's my fault. You're the one offering your help. You don't have to help me, so it's my responsibility."

Tucker did not respond, he only sighed and she imagined him pushing his glasses up only to take them off and put them back on the way the were before. She had seen him do it so many times she knew when he was going to do it before he knew it himself.

"Look, I appreciate your offer, I really do. It's just that I'm kinda tired today and I thought I'd go to bed early. Mind doing this another time? Tomorrow, maybe?"

"Hm? Oh, yeah. Yeah, of course. I'm feeling a bit exhausted, too, actually."

"So, see you at school tomorrow?"

"See you there, Sam."

He still sounded so kind, gentle.

"Hey, Tuck?"

She had to let him know how grateful she was.

"Yeah?"

"I'm glad to have you as a friend."

She could hear the smile in his voice when he responed.

"The pleasure is mine, Sam."

° ° ° ° ° ° ° ° ° ° ° ° ° °

I do not own Danny Phantom or any of its characters. Neither do I own Young Justice or any of the DC Universe characters.

😂Look at this! It took me, like, a month to get the update for Knowing Family done. ILIOG took me three days.

Thanks for reading. Please tell me what you think! (You can press the little star-shaped button, too!)

FaHa