A Chance

-14-

Hi. This is 22,024 words long (sans AN). I hope this makes up for my absence, I ain't done yet world. Hopefully you guys won't have re-read the whole story for this new chapter but yeh, enjoy! I'm excited cuz next chapter we get to meet some characters we didn't in the OG and they don't dramatically impact the plot but they're still kinda important. They're not OCs, hint, they're ghosties. 

Danny realized he liked being held. At least, how Bruce holds him. The GIW holding hurt, they grabbed hurting places and made it hard to move. Bruce holding was still somewhat restrictive, but it was warm and didn't hurt as much (if at all). It wasn't grabby, it was holding, like he was... um... well he couldn't quite place it, but the nice warm feeling from Bruce and his arms made him feel safe. The GIW never held him like that. He liked Bruce's holding.

He did not, however, like stairs. Thankfully he could be held while going down stairs, but even then it was still a bit jarring with the bump bump bump of each step going down. His hand holding his shirt near his neck tensed that much more every time they thumped down another stair. Also thankfully, stairs were not forever.

Danny sank further into Bruce's holding, enjoying the warm despite his inclination towards coldness because this was a nice warm and not a mean one. It wasn't burning like the water and it wasn't danger like the agents. It was such a different warm, he was sure being clean and out of the shower had something to do with it. He remembered... something, he wasn't sure what it was, but it had the same feeling of clean and safe and warm. Fluffy towel... red hair... kind eyes and giggly smiles. Safe, warm, and happy. He didn't want the nice feeling to go away.

He rested his head against Bruce's chest, bringing up his little fist that held the edge of his shirt and brought it to his nose, trying to keep the safe-warm-clean smell near and present. Pulling his shirt this way covered his neck and it further settled how safe and warm he was right now.

He watched the hallways lethargically, for the first time every nerve in his body wasn't screaming he was in danger or was on alert. So he watched everything pass, not quite taking in details but observing enough to compare to what he knew.

And sure, he had watched the hallways before but he'd been preoccupied and tense. He had scanned the walls for threats, taking in his surroundings— but unless they were actively going at him he ignored them. Only moving things hurt him (unless it was the zappy chair), and nothing on these walls moved so of course he didn't pay too close attention. But now he could because he was safe and warm and it was still startling to see so much color instead of the stale white and grays he'd grown used to with the GIW.

He didn't want to think of GIW hallways, he wanted to replace them with these hallways. Sure they were still windy-twisty like a maze, but it didn't feel dead or that something dangerous was around every corner. There was no blood on these walls, there was no white, nothing blinding and nothing bland. These walls were so pretty, so much to stare at, so much color and—

Whoa! Is that a tree?! In the hallway?! It's so tiny! Is it a tree? It doesn't have any wood... but it's all green and leafy! It's a tree! But it's not a tree! It has suuuuuper big leaves! And there was stringy grass stuff all along the bottom... or top —he corrected— of the pot.

Danny stared at it as long as he could, twisting in Bruce's arms just to keep looking at it.

"What is it, Danny?" Bruce spoke, startling the boy out of his fascinated stupor.

Danny huddled back down in the Bruce hold apologetically, fingering at his shirt's head hole that he covered his mouth with. He hummed uncertainly, not really sure what Bruce was looking for as an answer. What's what? Was he upset he covered his mouth? No that couldn't of been it, Bruce hasn't gotten mad about that yet. It was probably because he moved, stupid ghost. Holding was not for moving, it was for staying still, and Danny just went and ruined it. Was Bruce going to put him down? Danny wasn't supposed to get nice things if he fails. He technically never got nice things ever. At least with the GIW that was true. Except the new rule from Guardians said nothing bad would happen if he fails. He was glad to have rules now, but he wasn't so sure they were rules. Rules had punishments if broken, these rules specifically didn't. Danny had no idea how he was supposed to follow rules if there wasn't anything (painful) to remind him to follow them.