Who: Dick and Damian Where: On a building somewhere above Gotham When: Right after Damian throws a hissy fit and also himself out a window. What: Bro bonding of the highest of order. Warnings: none!
Dick had his apartment in Gotham, but for the most part he’d been at the manor since Damian had moved back in. Someone familiar who did more than simply tolerate his presence was something he was clinging to with just about every fiber of his being. When he heard the glass break in Damian’s room he was on it quickly, and it didn’t take him long to deduce at least part of what had happened and Nightwing was on the road looking for his brother.
After his discussion with Selina he was more confused than ever, but also more than determined to get his mind around it and try and keep his hand on the situation and keep the gaggle of Robins as close as he could. Maybe all they needed was someone familiar to keep pushing, or maybe he’d push so hard they’d ignore him completely but he had to try something. Damian he worried about, but he wasn’t worried about losing him the way he was the others. He was worried about for obvious reasons, but he didn’t think Damian pushing him away was something he had to actively be concerned with.
Once he reached Damian on the comms and got an exact location from Oracle he parked his bike in the alley and made his way up to the highest point in the area and found Damian sitting on the edge of the building. He moved over the edge with ease and pulled himself up gracefully and sat down next to him. “I’m having a shit week too.”
Damian let plenty of stuff get under his skin, but his grandfather’s gift was just going too far. Every day he felt like he was teetering on the edge of his two bloodlines. Even with his father fully accepting him as a Wayne, especially with the mementos of their family, his demon blood still haunted him at night. He had dreams of Gotham burning while he used Lazarus Pit samples to keep himself invulnerable. Dreams of his al Ghul greed and pride taking over all the good that Wayne stood for. So, he needed to get out. Maybe beating up ninjas wasn’t necessary, but the little bird needed a place to perch and think.
And, there wasn’t anyone but Grayson that he’d let perch with him. There wasn’t anyone he trusted more. Not one person who understood him the way Grayson did, even if he tried to feebly push him away once and a while. He turned his head to see the graceful older bird sit next to him and pulled his arms around his knees like he used to when he was a child. One of the things that was decidedly youthful about the little bird. “Your week was bad?” Damian asked incredulously. Part of him implying that the only bad that came from this week originated with the trouble he caused.
Dick nodded and sighed, “Pretty bad yeah,” he answered simply. “Babs has no idea who I am, you’re having a bad week, Steph is pushing us all away, for the first time in my life Bruce can’t help me because for the first time in as long as I can remember Bruce doesn’t know anything about me. And like I said, you’re having a bad week, your bad weeks are my bad weeks, don’t think that’s changed because we’re in this weird place with these weird people, doing all these weird things.” He hadn’t brought up the ninjas yet, he’d support the decision to do what Damian wanted, but he wanted Damian to make good decisions. That was the important part of this.
Damian hummed with thought, chin tilted up a little at the Gotham skyline. “Things were a lot easier when it was just father, Selina and I.” He might have been glad that Grayson was here now, but he had a suspicion that this Gotham couldn’t sustain a full batfamily. “You’re not responsible for keeping everyone together. Steph will come back, she has to. Babs will remember everything eventually. This is a new Gotham, things aren’t going to be the way they were back home.” But, he didn’t sound completely content about that. Sure, he accepted the changes to Bruce like everyone else had to and his connection with Selina wasn’t something he’d trade in to go back, but he still got homesick.
“Thanks a lot kid,” he said elbowing him slightly. He was pretty sure it wasn’t meant to hurt his Nightwing Feelings but it still wasn’t great. “What is this new positive outlook?” he said with a slight chuckle. “I don’t expect things to be like they are back home, but I don’t expect to feel so helpless either. There’s nothing worse.”
Damian wasn’t good with people, or feelings or feelings about people. But, Selina assured him that it was all going to work out and she seemed to understand this bat family stuff better than he did. And, really, Damian would do and believe almost anything Selina told him. Maybe she played games with the rest of the family, but they were always deadly honest to each other. That was something he could respect. “Selina acts like it’s going to turn out okay.” Damian said with a shrug. “She told me to help put the family back together. That I had to stay here and look out for you.” Damian looked at Grayson. That you wasn’t plural and they both knew it. His mentor was just as lost when he first showed up in Gotham and Damian knew perfectly well that he was his lifeline.
Dick sighed and leaned forward looking down the long distance to the ground below, he’d grown up on these rooftops, become a man really. Learned what sacrifice meant and why it was important. For the first time since being here he felt at home and it was cathartic. “She told me much of the same,” he admitted with a short nod. “I will admit I don’t know what that means, but regardless Damian, I’m glad you’re here. With everything else going on, I’m glad you’re here. I wish that it was easier for both of us, that we could just fall back into old habits and everything would be great and grand and everything would just make sense. But I’m glad you’re here. And,” he paused and looked over at Damian with a wry smile, “you’d think between the two of us, we have a pretty good shot of figuring this out.”
Damian had always felt comfortable sitting above everything else. A ladder or maybe a crevice inside of the cave. Sometimes he’d hang from a bar and listen to his father or Grayson ramble on about clues and evidence. The difference was that he didn’t grow up here. No. Damian grew up so far under his mother’s heel that he felt beneath the earth. That’s why he needed the top of a building to feel safe. That’s why he had to perch. “Say you’re glad I’m here one more time and I’ll think you’re being sarcastic.” Damian grumped, but looked at Grayson with a smile. A real one. The kind that not many people had the chance to see beyond maybe a flicker in his eyes or a turn of his lips. “We got this, Grayson. Selina doesn’t pretend to believe in anything. And, I know she believes in me.” That was one of the things that kept Damian from straying too far. “You know what I believe in? The two of us. Our team.”
“I’m glad you’re here,” Dick said again with the utmost sincerity but the shit eating grin didn’t do much to seal the deal. “I believe in our team too,” he answered honestly. Probably the most honest thing he’d said to anyone since he’d been there. He looked up then and across the rooftops. “Lets go get some bad guys, screw the ninjas for now, lets be crime fighters.”
Damian smirked at Dick in agreement and without so much as a nod, tumbled off the building before soaring above the Gotham streets like they had done so many times before. Because why not fall back on what worked? Even if tomorrow they’d have to improvise a new game plan or run off with Jason to destroy Lazarus Pits, tonight they could go back to basics.