Chapter Text
Damian quickly shoveled his breakfast into his mouth, barely breathing between bites. He only had about ten minutes to spare.
Alfred gave him a pointed look as he set another plate of bacon down. “Slow down, Master Damian. Your food is not going to spontaneously grow legs and run away from you. ”
“Thank you, Alfred,” he managed to say between bites. He barely resisted the urge to roll his eyes. “I’ll make sure to make note of that.”
Damian finished the last of his meal before grabbing his school bag and rushing out of the dining room. Seven minutes left. He ran down the halls, making a beeline toward where he knew he would find help.
“Dick!” He threw open the door to the manor’s gymnasium. His eldest brother was currently practicing on the trapeze set.
“Wha-?” Dick let go of the bar he was holding, aiming for the adjacent one that swung toward him. The sudden noise broke Dick’s focus, causing him to miss the bar and fall flat on his face. “Owwww,” he groaned.
“Oh, good. You’re taking a break,” Damian trotted into the gym.
“What’s up, baby bird?” Dick peeled his face off the mat and sat up.
“I was wondering if you would be willing to drive me to school today. Alfred has other commitments.”
Dick looked up at the clock on the wall. “But it’s only–”
“I have a club meeting,” Damian interrupted.
“While I’m happy to see you getting more involved in school, unfortunately, I’m stationed on the other side of the city this week. So GA is in the opposite direction,” Dick gave him an apologetic look.
Damian looked at the clock. Three minutes, five if he was pushing it. “Thanks anyway.”
He turned tail and ran out of the gymnasium for one of his other multitude of siblings. Thankfully, luck was on his side as he saw Tim walking down the hallway. Their relationship had gotten better over the past month and a half after Damian listened to Blue’s advice and apologized for, you know, trying to kill him and all.
“Drake, perfect timing,” Damian jogged up to his brother. “I was wondering if you would be willing to– ew.”
He was caught off guard by his brother’s unsightly state. Tim turned around, showing his bloodshot, swollen eyes and red and runny nose.
“Are you sick?” Damian glanced down at the giant box of tissues Tim held in one arm and the half-empty bottle of NyQuil in the other.
“It’s just a small 24-hour cold,” Tim shrugged.
“You look like you have the plague,” he took a step back.
“Side effect of not having a spleen,” Tim brushed him off. “Anyway, what did you want?”
Damian looked his brother over and thought better of his request. “Nothing. Never mind.”
He ran past him and headed toward the front door. Two minutes left. Just as he was about to make his escape, he heard his father call out to him.
“Damian!” Bruce jogged up a bright smile on his face. “Are you heading to school?” He looked at the clock. “It’s a bit early, isn’t it?”
“Um, yeah,” Damian looked around for an escape. “I had a, um, club activity today.”
“Oh! Well, that works out perfectly!” Bruce clapped Damian on the shoulder. “I was just about to head to work. I can drop you off on the way!”
Damian fought the urge to roll his eyes. He knew his father was lying. “Brucie Wayne” didn’t come to work till at least noon.
“Thanks, but, um,” just then he saw Kagami walking behind Bruce, “Kagami! Kagami agreed to take me to school today.”
He ran past his father to grab Kagami by the arm and pull her toward the door. “So, thanks for the offer, but I have it covered.”
“I don’t have a license to drive in America,” Kagami whispered as they walked away from a visibly disappointed Bruce. “Also, I don’t know how to drive.”
“It’s fine,” Damian whispered back. “We’re rich. We can just pay for any damages.”
~~~~~~
“So did you actually have her drive you to school?” Ariella asked. It was lunch time and they were all in the cafeteria listening to Damian’s morning exploits.
“No,” Damian sighed. “Thankfully, one of my sisters was just about to come in from her morning run and agreed to take me.”
He leveled a glare at Lucas, who was laughing so hard that he had tears coming from his eyes.
“Sorry. Sorry,” he took a few more seconds to calm himself before speaking up again. “It's just that, dude, you gotta talk to your dad at some point.”
“What do you mean? I spoke with him this morning.”
Lucas didn’t look impressed. “You’re being obtuse on purpose.”
Damian shrugged, hiding a smirk behind his cup.
“I don’t get what the big deal is,” Calvin, one of Lucas’ friends, said. “Other kids here would kill to have their parents pay half the amount of attention that your dad is giving you.”
Ever since he had made up with Ariella and Lucas, the two had welcomed him into their friend group with open arms. The others were hesitant at first, but soon also allowed him to join their group.
Damian hated to admit it, but school was slightly less detestable with friends.
“It’s not that I don’t appreciate the effort he’s making,” Damian sighed as he pushed around his dauphinoise potatoes. “It’s just… weird.”
Lucas snorted. “Only you would say that your parent taking an interest in your life is weird.”
He groaned. “I mean, I was the one who told him to try and make an effort; I just didn’t expect his efforts to be so persistent.”
“Your struggle is so real,” Calvin laughed. “Anyway, how’d you do on Mr. Girelli’s history final?”
~~~~~~
“Are you going to my end-of-the-year party today?” Lucas asked as they headed down the stairs out of the school.
The school year was officially over, and only kids who had to retake exams or make up anything had to come back the next week.
“No,” Damian shook his head. “You know parties aren’t really my scene. I go to enough galas as is.”
“Come on, man! This will be nothing like those boring galas, and you're the only reason that half of the group is even allowed to go.”
Since becoming friends, Damian had taken to hosting study sessions either during lunch or after school. Since he had the best grades in his year, a large portion of students decided to also join in, resulting in the highest pass rate the school had seen in a long while.
“I think I’m gonna pass,” Damian chuckled. “But I’ll see you this summer?”
“You betcha!” Lucas beamed. “Once I teach you lacrosse, you’re going to be a beast on the field!”
“Sure, whatever you say,” Damian rolled his eyes. “My ride's here, but I’ll see you around.”
“Bye, Dames!” Lucas waved him off.
Damian hopped into the back seat of the car, unceremoniously throwing his bag across the seat. “Good afternoon, Alfred.”
“Hi, Damian.”
Damian felt his blood run cold. His head shot up to see not a slightly scrawny, elderly man in his late sixties but a large, hulking man in his mid-forties.
“Father,” Damian said, not bothering to hide his shock. “I wasn’t aware that you would be picking me up today.”
Bruce turned around in his chair and gave his son one of his supposedly disarming smiles. He says “supposedly” because it did anything but. The smile only made Damian more guarded than he was before.
“Yeah, well, since Alfred is still a bit busy, and I wasn’t able to drop you off this morning, I figured I’d pick you up.”
Damian wasn’t convinced.
It was his own fault, really. Bruce was trying to make an effort because of what he had said all those weeks ago. Damian just hadn’t expected him to actually change. He knows he can’t technically avoid his father forever, though his grounding did make it significantly easier.
The past two months had consisted of awkward conversations and prolonged silences. Bruce really was trying. Damian will give him that. He was just… coming off too strong. Damian wasn’t used to a father who gave him his undivided attention, and it showed.
The car ride consisted of Bruce asking probing questions, in a way only a detective could, and Damian giving short one to two-word answers, in a way only a son of a detective could. As soon as they arrived home, Damian ran out of the car and headed straight for his room.
Damian groaned as he flopped face-first onto his bed. This wasn’t a sustainable tactic. He was well aware of that, but he literally couldn’t think of anything else. It was painfully awkward, even for him. Bruce reeked of desperation, and he just didn’t know how to react to all… that.
Damian lifted his head as Alfred the Cat demanded pets. He reluctantly obliged, sitting up to put the cat on his lap. He let the cat melt into the space he made for him and began stroking until Alfred began to elicit a string of purrs.
As Damian continued petting, he was reminded of another certain cat.
“Mari would probably know what to do,” he said to himself. “Do you think it would be insensitive to ask her for advice on my parent problems when hers are dead?”
Alfred just looked at him, unimpressed.
“No, you’re right. That was a stupid question,” he sighed. “I can always ask Blue.”
This time, Alfred rolled over to expose his stomach for more pets.
“Blue it is,” Damian decided. He looked outside to see that the sun was just barely over the horizon. It would be dinner soon, and then he could sneak out.
He wasn’t grounded anymore, but Bruce had given him the week off patrol so he could focus on his finals. He learned from last time and would be taking his traceable devices. Maybe he could even convince Blue to meet his father. Though he doubted he would get that lucky.
Dinner passed by in a blur of black hair, chaos, and general mayhem. Alfred kicked Tim off of bed after his tenth sneeze for fear of contaminating the rest of the food. Soon enough, everyone had left for the cave to get ready for patrol. He, himself, went to his room to get ready for his own nightly escapade.
Damian figured that the Robin costume was too obvious for a night of stealth and was most likely what got him in trouble last time. This time, he chose to forgo his bright colors in favor of a black hoodie and a loose pair of pants. He waited fifteen minutes after everyone had headed out before making his way down to the cave. Thankfully, Barbara was working from home.
Damian made quick work of getting his utility belt, putting on a plain domino mask, and grabbing a comm in case of an emergency. He didn’t want to risk missing Blue on his one day out a week. In his rush, he missed the flashing green light on the Batcomputer.
Gotham was quieter than usual tonight. Not that Damian was complaining. Quiet nights had started to become more and more common the longer that Blue stayed in Gotham. Well, quiet for Gotham’s standards.
He drove his R-cycle into the heart of the city before hiding it away in a nondescript alley. It wasn’t until he was on the roof scoping out the skyline did he realize that he had no real way of contacting Blue. Every time they had been together, it was Blue who had found him.
Deciding not to linger, Damian began to run across the rooftops in the vain hope that he would run across his brother.
He had missed this. His grounding had ended just as finals were rolling around the corner, and his father had always taken him off patrol during exam season. So it had been a couple of months since he had the freedom to run around Gotham’s rooftops.
It wasn’t until an hour into his run that he remembered that Blue had told him how to find him. Damian groaned in frustration before turning to face a wall completely obscured in darkness.
He opened his mouth to summon his brother’s familiar, but before he could utter a word, something sharp hit him in the back of the neck, and his vision went dark.
~~~~~~
Damian woke up to something hitting his ribs. Hard. He coughed as his body tried to force air into his lungs. Something was definitely broken. He tried to move only to realize that he was chained down to the chair he was on.
“Sorry for the abrupt wake-up, Birdie, but I can’t have you sleeping through all my fun.”
Damian looked up to glare at the man responsible for his current predicament. “Joker. Does Batman know that you are out of Arkham?”
Joker gave him a chilling grin. “He will soon.”
From the looks of it, they were in a dimly lit room in an abandoned warehouse. How on theme.
“I’m hurt. Good ol’ batsy has been keeping his birds away from me, but it looks like one of them flew the coop,” he twirled a lead pipe in his hand.
“What do you want, Joker?” Damian fidgeted with his restraints.
“That hurts you know,” Joker placed a hand over his heart in mock offense. “You bats always make me out to be the bad guy.”
“You have the blood of thousands on your hands,” Damian deadpanned.
“That’s in the past,” Joker gave him an innocent smile (as innocent as an insane serial killer could look anyway), “I’m a changed man, you know. Instead of killing a bunch of people, I’ll just kill one. You.”
Damian felt his blood run cold as Joker laughed maniacally.
“Now, the last robin passed out before he could answer me, and I hope Bats got a little better at picking his birds. So, which hurts more? Number one?” He brought the pipe down, hitting Damian across the head. “Or number two?” Joker brought the pipe back up, grinning as it made a sickening crunch against Damian’s jaw.
Damian fought the darkness that began to overtake his vision.
“Now, now, none of that.”
Damian was shocked back into consciousness as a bucket of ice water was dumped over him.
Joker grabbed him by the hair, lifting his head so that he could look him in the eye. “I have too many plans for you to fall asleep now.
Damian took the chance to shoot his bloody spit onto the Joker’s face. A small sense of satisfaction bubbled up in his chest as the Joker’s smile dropped and he walked away, muttering something about birds of a feather.
Damian took the chance while the Joker had his back turned to look down at his shadow below him. He could feel that his jaw was broken, so he had to be quick before the Joker broke even more.
He winced as he tried to move his jaw to utter the words. “Sh-shadow.” I came off as more of a rasp than a whisper. Nothing happened.
He tried again, this time a little louder. “Shadow.” Damian quickly glanced up to see if the Joker had heard him. Luckily, the psychopath was too busy humming to himself as he picked out his best tools for torture. Again, nothing happened.
“Shadow,” he tried a third time, even lo. He broke into a coughing fit as one of his broken ribs shifted and hit his lung. A quick peek showed that the Joker only spared him a quick glance of disgust before turning back around.
Damian prayed that Blue’s familiar had heard him, because he didn’t think he had the strength to try again.
Thankfully, the shadow beneath him started to shift. Damian tried to hide his surprise behind a wheeze.
Two large green eyes stared up at him from the darkness beneath. Damian once again spared a quick glance toward his captor before bending to address the panther.
“G-get Blue,” he rasped. Shadow stared up at him, unmoving. “Please,” he begged. The cat remained still. Damian cursed in his head. He didn’t know why he thought the animal would understand him.
He felt a small flicker of hope as the two eyes turned to look at the Joker. “Get Blue,” he tried again. Shadow turned back to him before blinking slowly and disappearing back into the darkness.
“There we go! Now,” the Joker turned back around and smiled viciously, in his hand he held some hooks and a pair of pliers, “where were we?”