Archive of Our Own ^beta

Chapter Text

Chapter One

The moment Damien enters the manor something just feels off. A certain heaviness that he doesn't sense in the air anymore as if the manor has somehow lost the thick dusty aura that comes with a house this old. If Damien didn't know better he'd say it almost felt brighter than usual like the usual depressing mood the house seethes has lessened somewhat- but of course, that's impossible at least not with his Father still living here.

The second thing he notice's is that there are muddy shoe prints tracking from the hall all the way up the stairs before splitting off to the right. There too small to have been made by an adult, not by a long shot. They most likely belong to a child but what would a child be doing in the manor? Damien is so distracted by the footprints he almost fails to notice the paw prints that trail alongside them and he blinks because there is only one dog that lives in this house and that dog belongs to Damien.

Warily Damien follows the footprints upstairs tracking them to one of the spare bedrooms where the door is slightly ajar. Damien doesn't even have to think about flicking his wrist so that a Batarang subtly enters his hand so even if he is caught off-guard by something he will have some means of defending himself.

He pushes the door open quietly his body tense as his eyes briefly scan the room before coming to settle on Titus. Titus who is covered in dirt and getting the white sheets on the spare bed absolutely filthy. Absently Damien thinks that Pennyworth is going to have a heart attack when he sees the state of the sheets alone- not to mention the muddy paw and shoe prints.

Titus looks up when Damien enters and his tail thumps happily against the bed before it settles and he undoubtedly picks up the tenseness surrounding Damien. That makes Titus tense too before he curls even more protectively around the child-shaped lump on the mattress- no wait that can't be right. Believing himself to be possible insane Damien approaches the child-shaped lump hiding under the covers before poking it with his finger tentatively.

The lump shifts under the blanket before it settles back down again and now Damien faintly registers that the lump is still moving slightly the rhythmic rise and fall of what can only be breathing. Determined suddenly and spurred on by what quite possibly could have been panic Damien yanks the covers up startling Titus into jumping off the bed his paws making a clacking sound against the polished wooden floor as he lands.

Sleepy eyes blink up at him clouded over with the haze of sleep. Damien's mind doesn't even have time to register the fact that the child has black hair and blue eyes a common trait shared among Waynes. The boy reaches up with his hands and touches Damien's face. His FACE and surely if he weren't so shocked by discovering a child in his father's house he'd be swatting them away but none of that registers in Damien's mind as he stares down with comically wide eyes at the boy.

A frown slips its way onto the boy's face making his lips tug downward before he suddenly pulls at Damien’s' face stretching the skin on his cheeks as far as it will before he lets it snap back into place a single sentence coming from the child's mouth:

"You're not Bruce."

It’s said with such an innocent kind of confusion Damien can hardly believe the naivety lacing the boy's tone. He was certainly never that innocent even as a child. Which brings Damien back to the fact that there is a child- a child he does not know covered in dirt sleeping in one of his father’s guest rooms. So, Damien does the only thing that makes sense in this situation.

"FATHER!!!"

Chapter Text

Chapter Two

Damien stares at the thing practically glued to his father's side and there's a pang in his chest an ugly pang that he will not acknowledge as jealousy.

"Damien this is Terry, Terry this is Damien"

His Fathers words are short and to the point as always. Damien fights back the urge to scoff at it- er child instead he settles for a soft "Tt." It couldn't have been more than five or six not with the childish roundness of its face and the baby fat that still adorns his cheeks.

"Damien..." his father sighs at Damien's answer, or rather lack of one no doubt already readying himself to launch into a very, very long lecture about the importance of family values, a lecture he has no intention of listening to.

The thing stares at him curiously a childish innocence still present in those wide baby blue eyes. An innocence that Damien never had, or wanted. It climbs off the couch it's sitting only to stand in front of Damien its chubby hands firmly planted on Damien’s' face.

"Father. It's touching me." he hisses very uncomfortable with his current position. His father pauses in the middle of whatever he was saying to watch.

The child pats Damien's face a few more times in what he thinks might be confirmation before it climbs onto his lap and settles there. An awkward silence settles over the room, the air is very stiff and Pennyworth who lingers in the doorway of the living room and watches with a strange twinkling in his eyes.

Something melts inside Damien's chest before he awkwardly pats the boys head. A smirk spreads across his father’s face and Damien doesn't like that smirk, his Father does not smirk.

"I think he likes you, Damien"

Damien makes a disgusted noise but continues patting the boys head his fingers running through the dark locks of hair so similar to all the Waynes.

"I'll leave you to it then."

He doesn't even have time to protest his Fathers words before he's gone sweeping out the door leaving him alone with this nuisance.

Chapter Text

Chapter 3

"Ow- stop that! You annoying child!" Damien glowers at the child pulling at his face, honestly doesn't he know the meaning of personal space? probably not considering his age but Damien brushes that aside as he swats the boy's hands away as gently as he can manage.

Wide eyes stare up at Damien seemingly in confusion, but he knows better he can see the mischievous glint in those round blue eyes right before- The child tugs hard on one side of his face making his head snap forwards in that direction. Damien doesn't even register the fact that the child has already climbed off his lap quickly exiting the room before Damien can yell at him.

Damien is silent. Unnatural so, his aura practically seething deadly as Pennyworth walks in. "Is something wrong master Damien?" he asks in a very knowing tone. Damien looks up at Pennyworth and growls at him right before he detects a trace of something akin to amusement in those old eyes.

"Where did that thing go?" Damien snaps and Pennyworth raises an eyebrow at him. "Are you referring to Master Terrence? because in that case, I do believe he was going in the direction of the garden-"

Damien barely hears the end of the sentence before he's rushing past Pennyworth towards what the butler can only assume is the garden.

XXX

Terry is covered in mud and dirt and god only knows what else but he giggles slightly having a hard time trying to stifle them with his hands. Right now he's engaged in a mudball fight- very similar to a snowball fight but with- wait you guessed it mud! Well, it was mostly Terry doing the throwing while Damien ran after him.

He can't remember the last time he's had this much fun with somebody other than Charlie and that's saying something because; Charlie his only friend back on the streets was really his big brother in a way someone who looked out for them when it got colder or they really needed money.

Terry tries not to think about Charlie if only because it makes him sad but he'll never forget Charlie not really no matter who he makes friends with in the future.

He can hear Titus getting closer and that's his cue to move before Damien catches him and drags him back inside. Terry darts into another part of the garden right before something wraps around the back of his shirt yanking him back. He lets out a yelp of surprise as he's lifted off the ground and to eye level with Damien. Terry blinks at the narrowed eyes that remind him of Bruce a little bit- right before he smacks Damien in the face with another mud ball. While Damien distracted Terry uses that as the time to slip away much like he did when he was on the streets only minus the wallet or purse.

Tiny Terry Charlie used to call him. Tiny Terry who's so good at not getting noticed because he's so small, 'use that to your advantage' he'd said 'we'll never get caught' he'd said.

And Terry had believed that up until the day Bruce had caught him pickpocketing his wallet. Charlie had never actually told him what to do if he got caught but Terry supposed that didn't really matter anymore considering the turn his life had taken.

Chapter Text

Chapter four

Damien growls as he rubs the shampoo into Terry's hair scrubbing it ruffly before it turns brown and he has to rinse it out, again. Terry sniffles at the rough treatment but he's been through worse so he just endures.

After rinsing the dirty soap out for what feels like the umpteenth time Damien grabs a comb and starts to brush out the tangles in Terry's hair all the while grumbling to himself about how he's missing patrol because of this. Terry doesn't know what 'patrol' means but at the moment he doesn't really care.

He squirms as Damien combs through his hair right before Damien whacks him with it anyway. "Ow!" Terry yelps while Damien resumes his combing. "Cease your insufferable fidgeting child. This will be quicker for both of us if you do."

So Terry does cease his 'insufferable fidgeting' eager to get out of the bath as soon as possible. Once Damien is done Combing his hair he tells Terry to get out of the bathtub and dry off before tossing him a towel along with a pair of pyjamas. Once he's dry and dressed Damien turns to him before seemingly nodding his head in approval.

"Now child, what do you think of zombies?" Damien asks the question out of nowhere and it confuses Terry for a moment before he swallows thickly. He is definitely not afraid of Zombies no matter what anyone says so he puffs his chest out and stands up a little straighter.

"m' not afraid of zombies..." Terry mumbles and Damien lets a smirk grace his features.

"Well that's good news"

XxX

The child is curled up in Damien's lap his face buried in the crook of his neck snoring softly and every once in a while hiccupping in his sleep. He'd passed out within the first half hour of the horror movie, partly from terror and partly from the exhaustion of running around outside all day.

Damien runs his fingers through the soft locks of the child's hair and faintly he remembers his mother doing the same for him when he was smaller it was one of the rare moments in his life that he'd gotten any sort of physical affection from her. There is a funny feeling in Damien's chest one that he doesn't mind so much when he looks down at Terry, one that until now he'd only reserved for Dick. Mostly.

For a moment Damien thinks he's gone soft, soft for those wide, innocent baby blue eyes and he thinks that if anyone dares harm this child he'll rip them apart with his bare hand's moral code be damned. Damien flicks the TV off before he wraps Terry in a blanket and calls for Titus to watch over the boy. If he's lucky he might be able to catch up to his father on patrol.