Tim Drake-Wayne (redrobin) wrote in doorslogs, @ 2012-09-12 21:47:00 |
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Damian was in the kitchen, taking a brief break from climbing the Batcave for practice. It was a vigilante’s version of crawling up walls from boredom and restlessness. He hadn’t heard from Selina. He had barely seen his father. He hadn’t been able to catch up with Stephanie except a little on the journals. Damian hadn’t even seen Grayson yet. Jade teased that he had caught her hermit sensibilities, but he did not think that was funny. Damian never had to make an effort to be around people. They always just were there worrying about him and dragging him on missions. Maybe this was a new part of being an adult he didn’t understand. He stood near the kitchen sink, staring with arms crossed at a sandwich across from him on the wooden island. His expression seemed to suggest he was mad at his lunch. Like it was the reason he was feeling so caught, so stuck. Jade said he should go to that party. The one with the redhead and her friends. She said it would be good for him to stop acting like an old man. Damian huffed, reluctantly lurching forward for the sandwich just as someone walked in. Lunch in both hands, he looked up at the new arrival, recognized his face instantly and scowled down at his bread. Be nice, Dami. “Hi.” Well, that was a start, anyway. Tim had taken to spending most of his time at the Manor, but he was frequenting his apartment a bit more now that Helena had shown up. He wasn’t sure if she wanted herself in the computer or not, so Tim checked periodically and if there was anything to be found on her, he accidentally got rid of it. Not before copying the information over to his personal file, but that was neither here nor there. He was also trying to track her and get a better idea of who she was, what she was like, etc. He liked her, and not just because she really didn’t like Damian. That was just a bonus. And things with Steph weren’t going horrible either. Sure, she’d been beaten up pretty badly but he’d fixed her up and she’d asked him to stay with her. He was worried about the Riddler, but then, he was always worried when it came to Steph. After staying up until 7am, it really wasn’t a surprise to him that he didn’t wake up until noon or that he was hungry. Tim got dressed and made his way down to the kitchen, wondering if Lois had left any yodels for him. Or maybe a ring ding. He went right to the fridge, barely even noticing Damian until he said hi. Tim arched an eyebrow, pretty much wondering what the catch was, but he said, “Hey,” in return after a brief pause. He collected two eggs and a package of bacon before putting a frying pan on the stove. “When’d you get here?” Considering Tim was fairly certain he was staying in the room furthest from Damian’s, it was entirely possible that he’d moved in and Tim just hadn’t noticed. He really hoped that wasn’t the case. Damian had a list of reasons why he didn’t like Tim; most of which were detailed in the Batcomputer. But, there was a more recent item on the list: Stephanie. She was the best friend he had here and if Tim really thought he was going to get in the way of that, he was so very, very wrong. “When’d I get where?” Damian’s voice was dark as ever, but now it had the small hints of his father’s voice around the edges. “I’ve been in Gotham for months. The mansion for weeks. The kitchen for minutes.” His expression didn’t move, even when he took a bite of his sandwich, containing that childish rage and brotherly rivalry he couldn’t quite shake. “You saw Steph after she fought the Riddler. How is she?” Damian didn’t let himself sound concerned, but his eyes raised to look at Tim. “Don’t sugar coat it.” Tim rolled his eyes at Damian’s attitude. He supposed there were some things that were never going to change, even if he did look 18 now. That was weird enough by itself. “Congrats. You skipped the whole voice cracking thing. Too bad you didn’t skip the brooding teenager bit.” Maybe he hadn’t been spending as much time as he thought in the Manor, or else he’d just been spending it in places Damian wasn’t. That was just fine with him and he was sure Damian felt the same. Tim cracked both eggs right into the pan, using a spatula to ‘scramble’ them in a lazy, half asleep kind of way. He almost wished Lois was there to provide a buffer between the two. “Through and through in each leg and I had to take a bullet out of her side. She’s got a bruised rib at least, if it isn’t fractured. Nasty bruise on her face too but she’s tough. She’ll be back out there soon enough,” Tim replied, not sugar coating it in the least for Damian. He wasn’t childish enough to make her sound worse than she actually was, and he also remembered that Steph was apparently way more friendly than he remembered. So for her, he’d play nice. And abruptly change the subject. “What’d you say to piss Helena off?” “Pfft.” Damian narrowed his eyes at the comment about him being brooding, deciding that it was a lot better than the annoying way every other teenager he knew carried themselves. But, he stayed quiet to hear all of Stephanie’s injuries, a look of worry briefly crossing his face. They played a game, him and Steph. They worried about each other every time the other got into trouble, but tried not to say anything unless they did something stupid. There wasn’t anything dumb about chasing down Riddler, but he was surprised the geek actually managed to mess her up so badly. “He got to her head.” Damian said quietly, to himself. The only reason why Riddler won was because he knew how to push Steph. The change of subject caught Damian’s attention and he looked at him with a small shrug. “She doesn’t have a sense of humor.” He smirked slightly, finishing off his sandwich and going to the cupboard for a glass of water. “She really got mad because I told her my father and hers are the same. It’s fine, I was the same way when I first got here. You probably think it’s true, too. Somewhere deep down, you wish your real Batman would come back.” “Of course he got in her head. She knows better,” he replied offhandedly, and it sounded suspiciously like he was having a rational conversation with the bane of his existence, a title that would’ve been amusing had it not been for a very nasty individual named Bane. If he were honest, he was upset with himself for not going after her as soon as he’d heard that the Riddler had asked for her personally. He should’ve known better. “Hopefully next time she’ll remember she doesn’t have to do it on her own.” Tim retrieved a plate from one of the many cabinets and transferred his eggs out of the pan before carefully laying down four slices of bacon. Tim rolled his eyes. “How would you have felt if someone told you that when you first got here? Learn to have some tact. It won’t actually kill you,” he informed Damian. “At least he knew about us. She comes from an alternate reality.” That was a small, but very important, fact that he was clinging to. Selina and Bruce should not be together. At all. It was just going to end up badly, with the possible exception of Helena. He liked her quite a bit so far, mother aside. Though, it sounded like her mother wasn’t nearly as...Selina as theirs was. That might be a good thing. “And for the record, no. I don’t.” His Bruce had faked his death. This one hadn’t. Not yet at least, if those movies were any indication. But they weren’t, as far as Tim was concerned. Damian perched on top of the counter; like Grayson he felt more comfortable somewhere off the ground. He let his legs dangle, though the nearly touched the floor now that he was much taller than a ten year old. “You know what your problem is, Tim? You don’t like anyone who doesn’t behave like you. Everyone has to fall in line or stay out of your way.” No one was going to lecture him about his personality traits. Especially not someone who was so far away from his spectrum of grey. “We all come from alternate dimensions. What’s important is that we’re all here now and we have to make sure Gotham doesn’t keep falling to the same morons that’ve been running around since the thirties.” Damian took a sip of his water, eyes turned down as he let his thoughts wade through some troubled waters. “I’m willing to work with you. Not because I like you, but because everything is falling apart. You’re more than welcome to take sides with Helena and wax poetic about this universe versus that, but I don’t have time for it.” He knew Stephanie wouldn’t like it if he threatened Tim, so he tried to keep all of that inside. The tone however was cold and harsh like it had always been before. “I don’t care what you do as long as you don’t get between me and Steph.” The hardest part about cooking bacon was letting it sit and cook instead of turning it over and over again. While Tim ordinarily didn’t have a problem with being patient, bacon was an entirely different story. It was kind of the same thing with Damian. He knew he shouldn’t snap at the “She needs someone, and she’s family, just like you’re family.” Tim honestly couldn’t believe he just said those words to Damian but he’d said as much to someone else. Or maybe he’d thought it. Regardless, the statement still stood. “I don’t know what happened between when you got here and when I did, but you can check the attitude. It’s really not appreciated at all, and you’re no longer ten and able to get away with freaking everything.” Okay, so maybe there was a tiny bit of resentment in that one, but as soon as Damian tried to tell him not to get between him and Steph, Tim actually laughed. Out loud. Thankfully, it was into the bacon and not in Damian’s face. He could’ve taken the low road, told the younger Wayne how he’d fallen asleep with Steph after fixing her up, but Damian would only twist it and then he’d end up in the dog house. “First of all, I think I should be the one saying that to you considering my history with her versus yours. Second, oh please.” “It’s different here. I’ve seen the movies this place comes from, the cycles break apart. Even with all of us here, things might start being permanent.” Damian sounded earnest and maybe even a hint hopeful. Joker couldn’t be cured, but he could be locked away or accidentally killed one way or another. The rest weren’t so far gone that they couldn’t get help. “And even if this was our Gotham, you sound pretty jaded for someone in the Bat Family. Even Oracle had more faith things could change than you.” Because she got the worst of it. More than anyone else. She may not have lost her family, but she lost parts of herself. Damian slipped off the counter, glass in hand as he started to make his way out of the kitchen, walking right past Tim. “Watch your face.” He said, which immediately kind of sounded like a silly threat, but in seconds Damian was already pouring the rest of his water into the sizzling pan of bacon. The skillet screamed the moment the water hit the oily surface and a crackle of smoke and jumping sparks of hot oil burst out. In the chaos, Damian dropped the glass on the stovetop and slipped out of the kitchen. Spencer had been the one to see the movies, and he was able to point out that the bad guys? They died. That’s how Gotham’s streets got cleaned. Both men were absolutely positive that the Joker would’ve been back, maybe even with Harlequinn in tow if the actor hadn’t died. It wasn’t even like they could kill the bad guys because A) Bruce would never go for it, and B) there were people on the other side that it would impact if they did. All Tim could do in response was shake his head. He didn’t want to get into with Damian. They just didn’t think the same way. Tim was content to cook his bacon and it was almost done when Damian decided to be a little shit. “What the-” He backed up from the oil bursting out of the pan and he turned to glare at Damian, but he was already gone. “Still a stupid kid,” he muttered, waiting for the pan to settle before scrapping the whole thing. There went his potentially nice afternoon, spoiled by a spoiled jerk. He was definitely taking Helena’s side. In fact, maybe he’d try to find her and bring her to Gotham. |