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“Okay…let’s get this straight…” Jaime says, putting his hands together like he’s praying to think, then he points to Dick with both hands still intertwined. “So, you’re Damian’s older brother and you have other brothers that we don’t know about.” Dick nods in confirmation. “And I’m wondering why you never told us about your family.” Damian rolls his eyes, sitting stiffer than a bullet hitting Superman.
“It never came up.” Dick says, shrugging. “I never tried to hide it, just so you all know.”
“It was not relevant, nor was it anything to brag about. I do not see the difference it would make if you knew about my family or not. You already knew that Batman was my father and that was privy information that was not well known before I joined the team. You should be lucky to know so much.” Damian says, pointedly looking at Jaime as if he was going to argue.
“What he means is, it’s not something that he likes talking about since he joined the family only a couple years ago.” Dick translates, ignoring the way that Damian turned to glare at him instead. He spent almost a whole year learning to understand how Damian worked and figured that the rest of them could use a little push. He would be the first to admit that Damian can be difficult to get along with and that his mindset was still too intense at times, but wasn’t he being here supposed to be the whole point?
“So, what you’re saying is that family is a touchy subject for you?” Garfield asks, just to confirm. He figured that would make sense. Everyone in the group is or was a wayward kid at some point. They all know his story, though it took him almost a year to be able to talk about it comfortably with them. He figured that Damian was just lucky to have his dad to train and raise him. “Didn’t you mention earlier that you only met when Damian was nine?”
“...It’s not the easiest subject to discuss. Alfred has taught me that I do not have to live in the past and that I am allowed to move on.” Damian mumbles, voice clear as day while everyone listens with rapt attention. He felt awkward admitting vulnerable information about himself but the warmth of Dick’s hand let him know that it was not the wrong thing to say. He could see everyone's calculating eyes as they slowly made connection after connection then saw a gleam of understanding within Raven who merely nodded at him. “And like Grayson, I didn’t make an effort to keep this information private.”
“I’m glad you could share that much with us now. We all know how hard it can be.” Victor says, nodding solemnly as he thinks about his own relationship with his father and everything that brought him to this point. “Since we’re talking about the past though, I have to ask; were you ignoring us before, when we met, because you didn’t trust us?” Damian takes a second to think about his answer, face scrunching slightly like muscle memory. When Damian takes some time to answer, Dick nudges him from his thoughts.
“It’s okay, Dami. You trust them now, right?” He asks, smiling to help relax his brother. Damian visibly lets his shoulders drop, barely a couple centimeters but noticeable to all the young heroes.
“I…did not acclimate well with my family when I moved to Gotham so being put onto a team that has already been working together for quite some time was…” Damian trails off, sighing as he looks away from the group and seems to shrink before their eyes. For all the confidence that Damian Wayne had, he was still just a human pre-teen, thrown from two different homes to a group of metas, magic users, androids and aliens, if you count all the others who came to hang out with the teen titans occasionally too. He already felt out of place in his own family, being raised as a machine and not an actual child.
In the few years he has been away from the Al Ghuls, Damian had to change so much about his perspective of life. He was no longer allowed to kill, he had reasons to live other than to be a legacy, and he finally was given a choice for his own life, which was the most stressful part of everything that Bruce had taught him. Even though the pressures of success were still eating away at him, he knew now that failure could be an option (that it would be an option). He was becoming a Wayne, then the issues of Robin put himself and his father into a rift. Because of a particularly difficult fight with the family, Bruce decided to send him to the Teen Titans and suddenly, it felt like he was starting all over again.
“It’s all starting to make sense now.” Jaime says, feeling like he was finally being pushed into the right direction as he remembers all of the times Damian had dismissed playing video games with him, Gar, and Victor. They would always start off with traditional games and make inside jokes with each other. The one time that Damian was forced to join, it was awkward, and he could understand not wanting to be in that sort of situation. He could also remember having dinner together and always discussing previous missions, comparing how each of them went and generally talking about things that Damian would have no memory of, just because he wasn’t part of it all. “But you never seemed to care.”
“At first, I didn’t. I was aware of myself as the newest member, so I focused on trying to fit in but it seemed as though I was more abrasive than helpful, leading us to where we are now. I figured at this point, there was no way I could salvage what little relations we had outside of crime fighting, so I stayed away.” Dick was facing Damian as he talked, patting his back and nodding his head when Damian would occasionally look up to get some acknowledgement for his words.
“But we tried to include you for weeks and you just pushed us away.” Garfield points out, “Like the time I asked if you wanted to go skating with us in Antarctica, or the time Jaime asked if you wanted to go watch a movie with us, or video games? You always said that you had other plans, or business to take care of.” He can remember how annoying Damian had been in those moments, dismissing him with a hard “no” before walking away, always reading from those files that magically appeared from thin air.
“Oh, Dami hates the cold. He was raised in jungles and deserts for most of his childhood. He also can’t sit through movies, trust me. We’ve forced him to watch movies with us and he doesn’t understand that he isn’t supposed to guess the next scenes before it happens.” Dick says, explaining it for the young Robin before he could. Damian squawks in betrayal.
“I do not hate the cold, I’m just more partial to warmer temperatures, and I simply do not wish to ruin anyone else’s movie experiences.” Damian says, “I can enjoy a film once in a while, but my skills in deduction make movies boring at times.”
“You willingly join us for movies at the manor now.” Dick says, seemingly bragging of Damian for doing something normal. “And he plays video games at home, sometimes. Mostly, he watches.”
“That’s because I don’t care if I ruin the movie for you all. Drake is almost always working so he barely pays any attention. Todd always has that dumb look of betrayal and it brings satisfaction to me.” Damian says with a smirk on his face, remembering all the fights that Jason would start when it was his turn to pick a movie for family night and Damian would just spoil it. He doesn’t mention how he makes bets with Cass, Steph, and Barbra to see who can get closest to the actual plot, that would disappoint Dick, or Jason would want to join. Then, there’s Duke, who Damian won’t admit he misses sometimes because they always watch movies late and Duke ends up going to bed like someone who is responsible. He hopes to see them all at his birthday, but his thoughts are getting side-tracked.
“What about when we ask you to group dinners? You never eat with us. I don’t think I’ve seen you eat since you got here.” Raven says, secretly enjoying how much they’re learning about Damian. She’s noticed how caring Damian can be in his own secretive way, like always making sure to restock the team fridge if Starfire was too busy, or cleaning up after a particularly rough medical patch-up. He always made sure to have everyone get checked on first before receiving his own medical attention, even though they all heal much faster than he does.
“He’s just really picky about what he eats. Most of the food he had growing up was different compared to what we eat around here and he’s a vegetarian who’s allergic to most nuts and wheat. His pallet is extremely specific.” Dick once again answers for Damian. “Wait, did they not know about your allergies?”
“I know how to take care of myself, Grayson.” Damian merely states, sounding only a little like a petulant child. “But if it matters, I tend to make my own food after everyone else is finished, to stay out of everyone’s way because I’m aware that not everyone would enjoy the smell of Middle Eastern cuisine and to avoid cross contamination. I also enjoy eating later into the night, since we always went patrolling then ate before bed in Gotham.” His explanations made so much sense when the team really started to think about how he acted. Starfire could remember how often Dick would get snackish at night, claiming that it was just a craving even if he had already eaten before.
Garfield, though still miffed and annoyed at how rude Damian could be, still found himself rather guilty of just assuming Damian was just too high and mighty to eat with them. He also pegged Damian as the type to eat raw meat, just to mess with people or to prove he had a strong stomach. He always figured Damian thought they were stupid for having fun and relaxing. Now, he knows that Damian just talks really fucking weird, because he wasn’t “raised the traditional way”.
“Dude, my mind is being blown away right now. Are you telling me that we could’ve been taking down the meat eating agenda in this place together? How is your cooking because I would love to try something new. No offense, Star, but I don’t really know how to cook much and Starfire only makes like the four same vegan dishes.” Garfield says, suddenly excited, if not a little awkwardly, at this new information and more willing to learn. This clearly surprises Damian, who scratches his chin in thought, like an old man, or at least Dick thinks so.
“I will keep in mind these allergies you have.” Starfire throws in when Damian is a bit lost in contemplation. “It is nice to hear that you two have something to bond over.” Starfire says, happy to watch as her team started to open up about their concerns with each other instead of getting into fights because of it. Damian scoffs at Starfires words but the slight blush on his cheeks show that he is enjoying the attention.
“I… guess, I should apologize for assuming you would be impartial to my health issues. I’m not Alfred in the kitchen, but I’ve taught myself how to make decent food since cooking in the wilderness was made easier if I let myself indulge in wild spices and flavors.” Damian admits, playing with his fingers as he makes eye contact with Garfield. His eyes shine with honesty and joy, looking younger than they ever have. The information came out suddenly and even though it caused worry to fill the air, Damian paid it no mind. It was his way of subtly letting them know more about him. “It was also part of my studies to learn all types of plant life from all regions, so I improvise a lot.”
“Yeah, dude! It sounds kind of scary you had to learn how to cook that way, but that’s kind of cool too. I want to try Middle Eastern food. I really miss my mom’s cooking sometimes. You can never get authentic Mexican food around here and every once in a while it’s nice to have a meal that reminds me of my family.” Jaime says, attempting to get the air comfortable as the conversation went on. When the words left his mouth, Jaime realized that it was the first time in a while he expressed his homesickness to anyone.
“Alfred makes really delicious vegan Pozole…if you’d like, I could ask for the recipe for the next team dinner.” Damian offers, refusing to look at anyone now.
“Maybe we could have dinner when you get back from staying with your family.” Raven suggests, even offering her own smile. Garfield and Jaime shout their agreement for the idea and Damian looks to Dick, a silent question on his face.
“Of course, you’re allowed to hang out with them whenever you want, Dami.” Dick says, wrapping Damian into a proud half hug and wrapping his other arm around Starfire. “Look, he’s growing up so fast.” He teases, earning an elbow to the side from Damian. He groans in pain, but doesn’t move away.
“I was not asking for your permission. You’re taking me back here and having dinner with us.” Damian says as if it were already set in stone. Dick laughs and Victor starts talking about how nice that would be.
“God, I always thought you were pretentious but it’s because Nightwing treats you like a little Prince!” Garfield laughs, poking fun and this time, Damian doesn’t feel the flare of challenge and he smirks.
“I am a Prince, after all.” He says, not saying anything more which has Dick laughing again. Garfield rolls his eyes.
“Okay, I think I can get used to this little attitude of yours, but don’t think I won’t knock you down a peg or two.” Garfield says, holding his head up high as Damian scoffs at him.
“Yeah, me too! Next time we have training, I wanna see what you got.” Jaime claims, since he had refused to train with Damian before. Since showing up, Damian usually trains by himself and mainly focuses on his playbook, which most of the team refuses to follow along with.
“You realize, I will take this as meaning you’re all going to start training my way ?” Damian asks, giving everyone a strict glance over.
“Let’s build up to that, Damian.” Again, Starfire interjects, finding it to be a good time to broach the subject of training. She had been struggling to find ways to make them all train together after giving up the first few weeks when everyone would fight more than get any work done. “We can just start by training together first.” Starfire says, then after a second of silence to see if anyone would object, “I’ve seen Damian’s playbook and believe that some of the training may be very beneficial. Will we all agree to work up to it?”
“Yeah, I actually looked over it before too, but I’m not training at his crazy hours. I swear, this kid is going at it longer than I can recite Pi and I’m a computer.” Victor says, smiling a little at his own joke. Damian says something that Dick ignores but whatever is it ends up dragging the rest of the titans to start shouting their own replies. They end up getting into a shouting match after a couple minutes but the two supervisors feel no need to worry this time.
“What an eventful morning.” Starfire whispers, cuddling into Dick’s arms as they watch the team argue, relaxing into each other as it all plays out.
“Yeah, it really has been. I’m sorry about the surprise visit.” Dick whispers back, relaxing a little more as he catches a glimpse of Damian trying to suppress a smile while pointing out that he’s been monitoring all of the teams’ progress and claims that Raven has had the most improvement in terms of skill. This causes another competitive uproar and a surprising chortle from Raven herself as the rest of the team tries to point out their own successes at the same time.
“Unexpected doesn’t mean unwelcomed.” Starfire claims, laughing a little at Garfield standing up in his burst of energy. “Don’t you have somewhere to be today?” She asks after they had been watching everyone for a little while. They have so far moved back into Damian trying to be haughty and Garfield getting annoyed, but Starfire can now pinpoint the amusement in Damian’s smirk as he pushes on Beast boy’s buttons.
“Ah, let’s let him hang out for a little bit. I’ve been away for a while and can’t think of a better way to enjoy my morning. Besides, B and Alfred will appreciate the camera footage.” Starfire hums in agreement as she finally relaxes for the first time since Damian moved in. She couldn’t help but wonder if Dick was always such a dad, or if he was just a good leader. (Turns out, it’s both.)