A New Teammate and A New Family (A Danny Phantom and Young Justice Fan Fiction)

Chapter 14

Danny sighed as he walked down the stairs. Dinner had become his least favorite time of the day. Every night, Bruce and Dick kept staring at him until he ate more of his food. Most nights, they would force him to eat so much, he would throw up in his room after. Danny sat down in his usual spot between Dick and Bruce.

"Good evening Danny." Bruce greeted.

"Evening," Danny replied.

Bruce sighed inwardly. Dick said that he had opened up a bit more at school, but he still wasn't talking a lot at home. He had hoped that they would be further along by now. Well, one problem at a time. Bruce had decided that tonight after dinner he was going to have a talk with Danny.

Alfred brought out the food. Tonight, he had made lasagna. He set a plate down in front of each of them and they started eating. Well, Bruce and Dick did. Danny barely touched his food. Bruce didn't say anything to him about it during dinner, he decided to save it until their discussion.

Once dinner was over, Dick went up to his room. Danny got up to go to his own room, but Bruce stopped him. "Hey Danny, can we talk for a second?"

Danny wasn't sure what to make of Bruce's request. Did he know his secret? Did he know Danny knew his secret? There were so many things that this 'talk' could be about, and Danny was freaking out about all of them all at once. "Uh... sure..."

Bruce smiled at him, "Don't get worked up, I'm not mad at you about anything." Danny visibly relaxed. "Here, let's go in the living room..."

Bruce sat down in a chair and Danny chose the one across from him. "Dick tells me that you've made a few friends at school." Bruce started. "He says you enjoy hanging out with Artemis and Barbara."

Danny nodded, "Yeah, they're pretty cool."

"He also said you stood up for him against a bully." He continued. "I need to thank you for that."

Danny looked down, "It's nothing really..."

Bruce sighed, "Look, Danny... I'm worried about you. I know you're going through a hard time, but you're barely eating."

Danny looked up at him, so that's what this is about. He was afraid that this talk might be coming. "I'm fine." He insisted.

Bruce shook his head, "Danny, this isn't healthy. I don't know if you're not eating on purpose as some kind of coping mechanism, or if it's happening subconsciously. You need to eat more."

Danny sighed, "I look, fine don't I?" he asked. "If I was starving myself, don't you think I would look sickly and super skinny?" he reasoned.

Bruce thought about it, "You don't look unhealthy... but this still can't be good for you."

Danny shook his head, "Look, I don't need to eat as much as everyone else. I have like this crazy slow metabolism; I've had it since a was a kid. My parents were really worried at first, but the doctors said I was fine."

Bruce looked at him suspiciously. If all of that was true, then it would make sense as to why he looked fine but wasn't eating a lot. However, Bruce had never heard of someone having that slow of a metabolism. At the same time though, he wanted to be someone that Danny felt like he could trust. And the first step to accomplishing that was to trust him.

"Alright," Bruce said finally. "I'll take your word for it. I'll stop making you eat more than you want. But, if you even start looking like you are underweight, you're going to have to start eating more. Okay?" Danny nodded quickly. "Okay, you can go up to your room now."

When Danny got upstairs, he couldn't believe how lucky he was. Bruce had actually believed his story! Maybe he wasn't the world's greatest detective after all...

(A/N - Hey guys. Thanks for reading. Stay whelmed and go ghost.)