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Damian has watched his father and Selina Kyle dance around each other since he was little. Even years later, they were still not together but together. It was complicated, his father says if anyone would ask him about it.
Damian doesn’t understand. He’s never been in love and he doesn’t understand love. He has watched his mother love his father and seen love destroy her. He’s seen his friends fall in and out of love and how foolish it has made them.
He doesn’t want to end up like any of them, but there was something stronger than just simple love.
A soulmate.
Soulmates were different from just mere flings, useless feelings that were fleeting and over again, childish crushes Damian could never understand. In his culture, soulmates were important, cherished and Damian has been taught at a young age that soulmates were more than just love. A stronger emotion than anything he’s known before.
Damian doesn’t have a soulmate.
He doesn’t admit it to anyone, but he wished he had one.
People get memories of their soulmate at around the age of 10. Rare cases of people without soulmate exists, and Damian’s one of them because he has none.
Not a single memory. He hears the others talk about their soulmate memories, but Damian can’t relate. He doesn’t know how it’s like see through someone else’s mind and wonder what that memory said about his soulmate.
All of Damian’s memories are his, and by the time he’s sixteen, he thinks it’s for the best.
He probably would freak his soulmate out with his memories, of his past life with the League of Assassins and even now as Robin.
After a long night of patrol, Damian settled for some milk Alfred made him. His father was sitting in front of the computer, updating some information for a villain they’ve found out today. Damian watched, as his father digs up some more things, connecting them all with each other.
Alfred cleared his throat behind them. "Mrs. Kyle came," he explained. "She’s waiting in the Manor."
Damian long ago stopped asking for the reasons. She was his father’s soulmate after all. Bruce thanked Alfred and told him he’ll be there with her soon.
If Damian had a soulmate, he wouldn’t let them slip from his fingers so easily. He’d hold onto them and cherish them as much as he could, treat them well. But he didn’t have one, never had, never will.
He put his cup down and sits down at the chair when his father left.
"Master Wayne," Alfred said. "You should get some rest."
"Thank you for your concern, Pennyworth, but it is not needed." Damian put down his cup of milk when suddenly, his vision changed.
He can see himself and he’s younger than now, maybe twelve? Eleven?
"Damian! You should stop overworking yourself so much!"
This younger Damian had some dark circled under his eyes. "Wilkes, I know when to take care of myself," he said.
"Come on," the boy called Wilkes said. Damian can’t see him, as he’s seeing himself from his eyes. "I’m just worried!"
"I know." Damian shows him a smile, a gentle one. Damian doesn’t see himself smile like this often, but it’s a genuine smile.
"Is it something you need help with? I’ll help you wherever I can! Abuse and Robin!" Colin laughs and Damian thinks his laughter is nice. It’s light and cheerful and makes him feel warm.
"Master Wayne?"
Damian widened his eyes. He hesitated, almost spilling to the butler what he just saw, but decided against it.
He didn’t have a soulmate and even if, those memories couldn’t be real. He had never met and talked with someone called Wilkes. He should know, Damian doubted he’d forget someone, especially with how he talked to the boy.
Something was wrong about that memory, and Damian had to get to the bottom of it.
"Damian!" Wilkes laughed, so carelessly. Damian had heard his laughter so many times by now and each time, it sounded so nice. So very nice, in a way that made Damian wished he could listen to the sound forever.
The Damian in his vision smirked at Wilkes. "You started it."
"Yeah, you’re always taking things way too seriously."
"I’m sorry, Wilkes, did I hurt you-"
Wilkes threw another snowball at Damian and he laughed again. "Joking! Payback!"
Damian had of course seen it coming. He had been trained since a child, he could’ve easily ducked, but he didn’t. Instead, he let Wilkes hit him with those snowballs and his lips curled into a smile before he bowed down to form one too.
"You’re on, Wilkes. Don’t complain later."
"Never."
The memories become more frequent. Damian kept getting more flashes of memories of Wilkes and himself in the past two weeks. Now almost twice a day and Damian looked forward to each time they came. They were nice, so nice.
Damian wanted to know who that Wilkes was, where those memories came from. He should ask someone about it, let himself get checked, but he wanted to hold those memories to himself and treasure them.
"Damian, you’re so short."
They looked at each other in the mirror and it was the first time Damian saw Colin but it was in his Abuse form. He had put some information together and found out that besides that this boy’s name was Colin, he could also transform himself into another version of himself, a bigger taller one called ‚Abuse‘.
Damian in the mirror rolled his eyes. He was only reaching Abuse’ chest.
"Wilkes, you’re barely taller than me."
Abuse smiled in the mirror. "You’re right. You think I can fit in a Batman suit?"
"I think you’re too broad for that."
Colin sighed and transformed. And then Damian saw him.
He was slightly taller than Damian, but not by much, maybe two inches. His skin was so pale and his hair red like fire. He was young, too young for the current Damian to be attracted to him, but he was cute. Damian liked the way his eyes widened, how big and round they were, how lanky he was, so different from Abuse, and how messy his hair was.
"Still shorter!" Colin teased Damian.
The Damian in the mirror smiled. Damian had seen his version smile so often around Colin, always soften and being at ease around the other boy.
"Tt. I’ll let you know that I will be taller than you one day. It’s in my genes-"
"Yeah, yeah, I know." Colin ran his hand through his hair. "But until the day you’re taller than me, let me rub this into you!"
Normally, Damian would tell him it was childish and stupid, but with Colin, he wasn’t like that. He just let the boy.
Colin was his soulmate, Damian was sure of it.
Damian tried to search for him everywhere, but he couldn’t. He had to find Colin, the person that made the other him feel so at ease, so calm and happy. Damian found himself thinking about his soulmate so many times and every time, a smile crept up on his lips.
"What’s this? What’s my little brother smiling about?" Dick asked when he caught Damian in his thoughts about the small redhead.
Damian’s smile immediately vanished and his usual grim expression replaced it. "I do not know what you’re talking about, Grayson."
"Come on! I saw it! I’ve seen you like that a lot recently! Who is it? Are you-" Dick gasped. "Do you have a girlfriend? Boyfriend? Anything? Do you have a crush?"
A crush. Damian scoffed. Whatever he felt for Colin was more than just a crush. He didn’t have a crush on the boy, who was only about twelve years old in his memories. No, he just wanted to be with him, in a deeper way. A way you could only feel about a soulmate, Damian was sure of it.
"Come on, Dami! I’m so excited, tell me everything. Someone from the Titans?" Dick wiggled his eyebrows.
"This is none of your concern," Damian replied.
"Oh god, it is!"
Damian ignored his brother.
Damian finally turned to help after all his research led him nowhere.
He had his own theory of where those memories came from, and they turned out to be true.
They were memories of himself from another universe, from him and his soulmate who didn’t exist in this world.
And Damian was set on finding Colin.
"Just because you don’t treat your soulmate right, doesn’t mean I’m the same as you," Damian had shouted at his father.
"Damian, you out of everyone should know how irresponsible it is."
Damian had put on his hood. "Father, you can’t stop me," he had said. "I will do anything it takes to find Wilkes. I’ll search every universe for him."
"Aw, he’s a hopeless romantic. Let him have this old man," Jason said, his arms crossed in front of his chest.
"Jason, you know I can’t do that."
"Damian’s never asked for anything, Bruce," Dick said. "He’s his soulmate. Imagine if Selina wasn’t in your life, if she didn’t exist but you knew she does."
His father shook his head. "I would know that there are more important things."
Damian glared at him. "Soulmates exist for a reason," he said. "He belongs to me. Father, he’s my Beloved."
Jason whistled and Tim’s eyes widened, a faint blush on his cheeks.
"Did… Did Damian really just say that?" he asked.
"Be quiet, Drake, you wouldn’t understand."
"I never thought you cared for something like this," Dick said.
Damian tightened his shoelaces around his green boots. "Tt. In my culture, soulmates are very important," Damian explained.
Dick smiled. "I’m happy." He put a hand on Damian’s shoulder. "I’ll help you find him. We will."
"I know." Damian shrugged Dick’s hand off. He was sixteen now, almost the same height das Dick was, he didn’t need Dick to treat him like a child anymore- in fact, he never needed it. It was still reassuring though, and he was thankful Dick had volunteered to help Damian to travel through universes to find Colin.
He was thankful for all of them to convince Bruce, Stephanie, Cass, Barbara, Harper, Duke, Clark, even Selina, and Zatanna, who had been willing to help Damian travel through the universes.
"Are you ready boys?" Zatanna asked and Damian nodded.
"Of course."
They ran through the rooftops, jumping between them and using their grapple guns to swing between the buildings.
Damian could hear Colin’s laughter and shouts behind him and Damian laughed too. With Colin, he could feel like a normal child, even as he was dressed in his Robin suit and domino mask, and Colin was Abuse. Even as they practically flew between the buildings like normal children didn’t, Damian felt so light with him.
They ended the night fighting a few muggers and watching the sunrise on the top of a building.
"That was so cool," Colin said before he turned back. His clothes practically swallowed his small stature. Damian turned to him and smiled.
"Yes, it was."
Their hands were resting next to each other, and Damian wanted to reach out to put his on top of Colin’s, but the Damian from the memory didn’t.
"I’ve got news for you," Dick said.
"What is it?"
"This universe- it doesn’t have Batman and Robin. But it has a Colin."
Damian’s eyes widened. "Tell me more, Grayson."
"He’s seventeen, an orphan in Gotham. Basically the same like in your universe, except he’s not Abuse."
Damian jumped up. "I’ll have to find him."
"Wait, not so fast! What will you even do? He doesn’t know you."
Damian grabbed his grapple gun. "He does." He was sure that the other Colin knew him too and got the same memories. And if not, he’ll just introduce himself to that Colin. They were soulmates, after all, there was no way Colin wouldn’t want him too.
"You’ll just scare him. They don’t have superheroes here."
Damian looked at Dick. "What else do you know about him?"
Nightwing ran his hand through his hair that has gotten way too long over the time they’ve been traveling universes. It has been almost two months now, and all these other earths didn’t have Colin or the Colin that was like the one from his memories.
"Nothing. He’s- he’s just an orphan. No family, anything. He’ll be out of the program soon too, turning eighteen," Dick explained.
Damian bit down on his lower lip. "He won’t miss this universe then."
"Wait- are you planning to take him with you?!"
Damian turned to Dick and raised his eyebrows. "Of course. What else did you expect when I would be reunited with him?"
"I don’t know! You can’t just do that!"
"He’s my soulmate," Damian replied like that would explain everything. And for him, it did. Dick sighed.
"Alright," he said. "But let’s meet him outside of your uniform. Don’t want to freak him out, okay?"
Damian saw him walking down the streets of Gotham.
Colin was there and he didn’t look much different than the one from his memories. Just older, taller, his face with less baby fat around his cheeks.
Damian’s heart jumped a little bit at the sight of his soulmate. He was perfect, Damian thought. He was just in his casual clothes, a hoodie, and his hair still messy, his jeans dirty from some paint and his shoes already worn out and broken, but he was so beautiful.
"I see him," Damian said through the comm.
"Alright, approach him. But not… in a weird way," Dick replied.
Damian rolled his eyes. Of course, he won’t. He had some manners and he didn’t want to freak his soulmate out the first time they met. It had to be perfect.
Damian got out of his hiding spot and walked up to Colin. The redhead stopped like he had heard Damian coming. He turned around and their eyes met for the first time. Up close, he looked even better.
"Damian?" he whispered.
"Wilkes- you… you know me?" Damian couldn’t believe he was stuttering. His mother would be ashamed of him if she saw him, she hadn’t raised him like this. But Damian was suddenly so nervous, his hands getting wet and his clothes felt uncomfortably tight all of the sudden.
And then Colin smiled. He hadn’t seen Colin’s smile often since he couldn’t see him from his memories. He smiled and it was the most beautiful smile Damian had ever seen.
"Of course! Damian, Damian-" Colin closed the distance between them with two big steps. They were about the same height, Damian maybe being just a little bit taller. "It’s you."
Damian swallowed hard and then smiled too. Colin knew him.
"Beloved," he whispered and put his hand on Colin’s cheek. Colin blushed, such a cute blush, so prominent on his pale skin.
"That’s so cheesy, dude," he said, but still smiled.
"I’m sorry," Damian apologized. "I’ve searched for you."
"I thought I was going crazy," Colin said. "I got these weird ass memories of me being a superhero and- I can’t believe you’re real."
"I am," Damian assured him. "I’m real. Can I- can I kiss you?"
Colin let out a chuckle. His voice was so much deeper than the one from Damian’s memories. "Yeah," he said. "Never thought you’d be someone who’d make out in public, but…" He stepped forward and placed his lips on Damian’s.
It was a short kiss, a faint brush of their lips, softer than Damian had imagined it. When they parted, Damian’s heart was beating harder against his chest than when he was in the middle of a fight.
"Thank you for finding me."
"I told myself, I won’t stop searching for you," Damian explained in a low, raspy voice. "Even if it meant searching every universe."
Colin laughed, his face and the tip of his ears red. He punched Damian’s shoulder. "You’re so cheesy!"