Chapter Text
“Why don’t you die again, street trash?”
“You first spoiled brat, maybe if you get turned into another kebab you’ll get some manners!”
Bruce could only sigh as he watched his two children trade attacks and insults back and forth, blow for blow. Damian was the only one of his children foolish and rude enough to say such vile things to the black sheep of the family.
As pure malice flowed from their mouths, they struck at each other again and again, Damian’s quip matched with a quick slash of his blade, Jason’s deflection appearing in both audio and kinetic form, using a gun barrel to launch the blade downwards and a small dagger darting forward to stab into Damian’s shoulder. The armor blocked the majority of the damage, but Bruce knew that there would be a vicious bruise for at least a week.
Bruce wanted dearly to intervene, but last time he had done that, he had dislocated his knee. And by “he”, Bruce meant that Damian dislocated it. Something about not interrupting a matter of honor within the family. Bruce could only wince as Damian pulled the dagger out of his armor with a snarl and launched it back at Jason. Jason easily caught it, anticipating the move from miles away.
What Jason didn’t anticipate was that Damian would follow the throw with a quick thrust of his sword, weak in power due to the lack of buildup, but still a danger nonetheless. Bruce could only reach a hand out impotently as he watched the blade go for Jason’s neck. Jason’s armor would probably catch it, but Bruce’s mind filled with horror at the what-ifs. What if the blade went into a chink in the armor? What if the armor was substandard?
He felt his knees tremble in relief at the sight of Jason, operating on pure reflex, using the dagger he caught to barely deflect the blade, the shine of the sword mere centimeters from his throat. The scene froze there for an entirety, a mere moment expanding like a universe, full of unspoken thoughts. And then the still air kicked into motion once more, and Damian opened his mouth, only to be interrupted by Jason.
“Damn demon brat, you almost got me there! I mean, you still can’t even touch me, but nice job trying to turn me into Macbeth.” Bruce couldn’t tell if he was more relieved that his estranged son was still okay, or annoyed at him for turning this into a joke, goading Damian on even more.
“Robin, let’s retreat for now. We can handle Red Hood later.” Damian said nothing, merely giving a curt nod and falling into step. Which was… fine. Damian may not be known for his pacifism, but he was still good at following orders.
“For fucks sake old man, not even gonna check to make sure everyone’s okay. Fantastic parenting as usual.” Jason was chastising him as he made his way to the edge of the roof. “Goth furry freak, I’ll see you when you ‘handle’ me. Baby bat, I’ll see you when I see you.” Jason gave a sarcastic two-finger salute and dropped off the side of the roof. Bruce and Damian went home in silence. Bruce couldn’t help but feel like something was very off, but Damian simply went to bed, so Bruce resolved to talk to him in the morning.
Like an idiot.
—-----------------
Bruce awoke to shouting. His least favorite way to wake up by a large margin, made even worse by the panicked undertone. He launched out of bed, racing to the source of the noise, which turned out to be a panicked Dick, a tired Duke, Stephanie, Cass, and Tim, and a concerned Alfred. And no Damian.
“What’s wrong? Where’s Damian?” Bruce aimed for calm, missing by a mile.
“We don’t know! I just got in from Bludhaven, and I was checking on everyone, and Dami just wasn’t there!” Dick was also doing a poor job of disguising his own panic.
Nobody else offered up any information, so Bruce had no option but to delegate.
“Duke, go back to bed, you have your day shift soon. Tim and Stephanie, you check cameras, let Oracle rest. Alfred, let us know if he comes home on his own. Dick, Cass, and I will go out to search for him, we head out in five.” They gave a resolute nod, except Alfred.
“Master Bruce, I may have a theory as to young Master Damian’s location. Rather than merely staying here like a widow in wartime, I think I shall instead pursue my own theory.”
“Thank you Alfred, let us know.”
And within five minutes, the four of them were spread out across the city, looking for their missing robin, Bruce’s heart heavy with guilt and worry, praying that he would make it in time.
—-----------------
“Everyone, the search is called off, I am looking at young Master Damian now. He is safe and sound, and will be back tomorrow morning. I am heading back now myself.” Bruce could hear a chorus of relieved sighs and “okay Alfred”s, but he refused to back down that easily.
“Where is he?” Bruce could hear the sternness of Batman coming out unbidden, but couldn’t restrain it, as he was too worried about his youngest.
“I don’t believe that’s any of Batman’s business. Young Master Damian needed to head out to relax, and he is not in any danger, nor is he wrong for pursuing a healthy form of calming down from an unfortunate patrol, so I highly suggest that Batman head back to bed.” The quiet fury in Alfred’s voice told him that, not only was Bruce’s tone not welcome, but Alfred was also furious that he was not informed that there was an altercation with Red Hood.
But Bruce didn’t back down very easily. “Red Robin, track Agent A’s last location. Nightwing, head there immediately.”
“That is a supremely bad idea, and I’m blaming this entirely on you when Agent A learns you did this. Sending N the info now.”
“I’m not a fan of it either, but I really want to know that Dami is safe. On my way now.”
“Codenames.” His insistence on security over the coms was only met with twin calls of “CoDeNaMeS.” He could only sigh and wait on Nightwing’s report.
—------------
Dick…wasn’t sure he knew what he was looking at. He was definitely looking at two different people. One was definitely cuddling with the other. One was very large, one was very small. But when he tried to put together what he was seeing, it just didn’t quite compute. I mean, nobody hated each other more than Jason and Damian. Maybe Jason and the Joker. Every time they saw each other there was maybe two seconds of peace before they were at each other’s throats and spitting venom and bile at each other.
So the idea that Damian was sitting in Jason’s lap, with some war documentary playing in the background, Damian’s head curled into Jason’s shoulder, snoring softly, was simply unthinkable. But it was undoubtedly Jason. It had been so long since Dick had seen his face. It may be one of the first times he’s seen it when it wasn’t contorted with hurt and anger. Dick had probably been staring for three minutes when the quiet murmur of the tv was interrupted.
“Do any of y’all even listen to Alfie? The man deserves more respect than you all give him.” Dick couldn’t tell if he was more startled that he had been detected, or at how deep Jason’s voice had gotten. The last time he’d heard his voice without that mechanical filter, Jason had been fourteen, still squeaky and cracked. He was shaken out of his thoughts by Jason once again.
“I mean seriously, the man runs that damn house, and asks so little of you, but nooooo, you have to go and stalk the baby bat. It’s a damn shame, his own child and grandchildren can’t respect his one order.”
“What… what’s going on here?”
“Damn Dickface, not even willing to acknowledge your sins against Alfie? I would be pretty ashamed if I were you, I mean honestly-”
“Seriously, Jason, what the hell?”
Jason just let out a deep sigh, and sat quietly. After a few minutes he finally responded in a much softer voice than one would expect from such a large man. “Baby bat slipped up. I would have been fine. I always am. I keep my neck armored for a damn good reason. But still, he only realized what he was doing when it was too late. He… He needed to know that I was okay.” and in an even softer voice, so soft it was almost inaudible, he continued, “He needed to know he was okay.”
The silence hung in the air for a few pregnant moments, as Jason waited to see how Dick would respond and Dick tried to absorb what he was being told. But before Dick could respond, Damian began to stir.
“Brother, are you okay? What’s going on? Is your neck okay? Is it healed?” Damian muttered out in League Dialect, his eyes still closed, but his arms wrapping around Jason tighter.
To Dick’s surprise, Jason let out a small huff of laughter, then responded in kind. “Dami, you had a bad dream, I never even got hurt, remember? We’re in safehouse #014, I’m okay, and you’re okay. You didn’t do anything wrong.”
At this Damian sat up more, but he was only glaring at Jason, so he had yet to notice Dick. “Don’t be ridiculous brother! I almost stabbed you! In the throat! You could’ve been hurt! Or killed! Or-or-or-”
“But I wasn’t. This is a learning moment, but no matter what I wear armor around my vital points. I deflected the blade. You can learn from that moment, with no consequences. Unlike this moment, where you’ll learn with consequences.”
Damian stiffened, and looked at Jason with suspicion “What do you mean by that brother?”
Jason gave him a shit-eating grin and responded in English “You should always wake up fully alert with a scan of your surroundings, or else you might be ambushed, or” his grin widened “eavesdropped on while you let out a lot of things you wanted to keep under wraps.”
Damian went rigid, and slowly panned his head to look at Dick, who had been watching the scene play out, his eyes widening with each sentence. Damian locked eyes with Dick, then silently, slowly scooted out of Jason’s lap to sit on the couch cushion next to him.
“Grayson. What brings you here?” Jason just burst out laughing at Damian’s silly attempt to regain composure even as he was blushing like a stoplight. Dick could only stare as he attempted to work through all the information he had just learned.
“I… I don’t…” Dick had to stop for a moment to process. Did Damian… like Jason? Jason never learned the league dialect with Bruce, so when did he learn it so well? Wasn’t Jason sent away from the league, to random trainers? Dick tried to get his thoughts under control, but failing to do so, he decided to just focus on one issue at a time.
“Don’t you two… hate each other?” At his question, Damian just blushed harder, while Jason stood up, took an overdramatic bow, then collapsed back into giggling. At this, Damian shot a glare at Jason, then looked back to Dick.
“Don’t be ridiculous Grayson, we merely interact only in our secret identities. I am a hero and he is a villain-” ''Anti-hero” “Shut up Jason. And so we fight when we encounter each other. Outside of our identities, Jason is dead, and I am famous, so we are unable to spend time together.”
All of which would make perfect sense, except for Damian's massive blush at being caught providing any familial affection. And- “but you say some of the cruelest things you can whenever you fight. And whenever we tried to talk to you about your thoughts on him, you always staunchly shot us down. And this is the first time I’ve heard you refer to someone by their first name.”
Damian shrugged, shoulders staying hunched defensively. “That’s just banter that happens in battle. And I shot you down because I thought it to be a ridiculous question with an obvious answer. That is all. And besides I refer to many by their first name.” Damian turned up his nose and crossed his arms, as if to cement his position that this was a stupid argument.
Before Dick could bring up the many things wrong with that, Jason covered Damian’s mouth and took over. “What Dami is trying to say- stop biting- is that he loves me very much and doesn’t want anyone to know that he has emotions. Due to our history we are okay poking fun at each other- Dami you’re drawing blood- and he calls me by my name and is okay with showing vulnerability because I’m the favorite brother. He wanted to- oh god the licking is worse- hide it because as the “”””FuTuRe BaTmAn”””” he can’t have any weaknesses. He’ll also never admit this, but he’s worried that by being close to me, he’ll get in trouble or get kicked out.” With that, he pulled his hand away.
Damian just sat there red as a tomato and staring at the ground, his arms crossed and grumpy. Dick was just standing there, trying to process everything he’d been told. He knew some details already. Damian was self conscious of his position in the family. He hid his emotions to appear stronger. But the other things? It was just. So much.
After about ten minutes, Damian was still sitting there. Jason was just relaxing, an arm thrown around Damian to comfort him, as Damian was obviously worried about how Dick would respond. Dick finally managed to ask. “What do you mean by your history?”
At that, Jason laughed, and Damian tutted. “Grayson, don’t be ridiculous.”
“So what, you thought Talia took me in, cared for me while I was catatonic, used the Lazarus Pit on me, trained me, and accepted me into her life and family, and I just Never encountered Damian? No dude, I’ve known him since he was five.”
Dick felt like his whole world was tilting. Jason had known Damian for Five years? Dick had only known him for a year. He couldn’t believe that the ten year old assassin had been hiding such a big secret. As he thought this, he realized what he had to do, and rose to his feet. It was only as he did that he even realized he had sat down.
“I’ll let you two hang out, and I’ll keep this a secret. But Dami, you really should let the rest of this know.”
Jason nodded appreciatively, and Damian just looked at the floor. “Thank you…. Richard.”
Dick kept his cool, and just left out the window he came in. But as soon as he started swinging through the air, he found himself singing the whole way home.