Chapter Text
DATE: May 3rd, 2019
TIME: 11:08 AM
LOCATION: Gotham City; The Batcave
POV: DAMIAN WAYNE
If the cold atmosphere, shrieking bats, and general aura of doom and gloom didn’t make you itch to get out of the cave as soon as possible, the ridiculously loud shouts his siblings were emitting certainly would. Not that Damian would ever admit to that out loud, thank you very much, but currently the Batcave was the last place he wanted to be. Even the intense training he went through as a small child with Mother on Infinity Island was becoming more and more appealing by the moment.
“Three strikes, you’re out!” Drake crows triumphantly from his perch near the computer monitor, pointing at Todd who was currently trying to wiggle free from Richard’s grasp to no avail.
“Bullshit, Timmy,” grunts Todd as he tries to escape once more, “this is sparring, not baseball.”
Drake waves his hand dismissively. “Baseball, dancing, same game.”
Todd looks up from where he was pinned to the floor. “Really? High School Musical references? Right now?”
“Actually that’s from High School Musical Two, Little Wing.” Laughs Richard as he lets Todd go and grasps his hand, helping him up. “Good fight!”
Todd sends him an unimpressed look. “ That wasn’t a fight; that was you doing a cheerleading routine while I tried to dodge your legs.”
“Don’t be such a sore loser, Jaybird.”
Damian scoffs, and the noise reverberates loudly through the cave.
Richard looks up at him and frowns ever so slightly. “Dami! Come over here with the rest of us! This can’t be a family bonding day if you don’t actually bond with your family!”
Mentally, Damian rolls his eyes. Physically, he keeps his face clear of all emotion as he drags his feet towards where his siblings are standing. The last thing he wanted to do was to waste time on useless activities.
Father was out on an important mission and he should be with him, not stuck in the cave with two imbeciles and Richard. He had kept his reservations to himself while Father had instructed them on what to do while he was gone, but he finds himself wishing more and more that he had spoken up and requested to accompany Father.
Whatever he was doing couldn’t be more tasteless than watching Todd and Drake have a speed eating contest that resulted in Richard having to perform the Heimlich Maneuver on both of them simultaneously. The amount of half-chewed food that had been spewed across the floor was almost impressive, but then Pennyworth came in and with a very unimpressed tone of voice and informed them that they all had to clean it up because they all had somehow taken part in it.
So yes, he would much rather prefer to be with Father at the moment. He’d much rather face an army of aliens than spend another day cleaning up after his brothers’ shenanigans. There had been a reason Father had put him in charge; of course, Damian had the slightest suspicion that his father had been joking but the sentiment remained.
Richard was childish and had a tendency to get distracted.
Todd was a bumbling oaf who wrecked everything he touched.
Drake was a disaster all on his own, and that was when he had a decent amount of sleep.
So as the only functional member of his family present, he had to ensure that the Manor was somewhat habitual by the time Father returned. Or at least until Cassandra returned home. With that in mind, he straightens out his shoulders and walks a little faster as he makes his way to his siblings.
He’s immediately engulfed into a hug, which he tolerates for about five seconds before wiggling out of Richard’s strong embrace.
“Aww, don’t be like that Dami.”
“Tt.”
Richard raises an eyebrow at him but doesn’t comment. “Wanna spar?”
Damian is tempted to say yes, but he knows that Richard is asking him as an attempt to engage him, so he shakes his head. He is aware he is acting like a child, but he can’t bring himself to stop at the moment.
Richard sighs, but asks Drake instead, who nods and hops off of his chair.
Todd grabs Richard as he begins to walk towards the sparring area. “No way man, it’s my turn to spar with Timbolina. You can babysit the Demon Spawn.” Before running after Drake, who was already warming up.
Huffing slightly, Damian crosses his arms and watches the two of them spar.
“Tt. Horrible form.”
Richard exhales sharply through his nose and when Damian looks up at him, he can see that Richard is doing his best not to laugh.
Drake lands a solid punch on Jason’s stomach. Damian eyes at Richard, who’s turning red from trying not to laugh.
Todd tries to sweep out Drake’s legs, but he ends up tripping both Drake and himself so they both topple to the floor and Richard bursts out laughing.
Both of them look up at Richard with flat facial expressions.
“Yanno, Dick, ” Todd begins conversationally, “I’ve never met a person whose name embodies them the way your’s does.”
Richard nods gravely. “You’re right. In fact,” He pulls out his phone and types something into the search engine. “Richard means ‘ruler, leader, king, powerful, strong, and brave’. Those things all apply to me! How funny.”
Todd rolls his eyes and flips him off.
Damian scoffs. Mother said only morons used obscene language and gestures, and she was right.
Drake skips over to them. “Sparring is boring. Let’s go upstairs and watch a movie. If we play our cards right we can maybe get away with stealing junk food from the kitchen before Alfred catches us.”
“Before I catch you doing what exactly, Master Tim?” Pennyworth’s posh voice rings through the cave and Drake yelps and jumps a foot into the air; he would deny it later on, of course, but he most certainly did.
Todd grins smoothly. “Hey, Alfie. Timmers here was saying that we should go behind your back and steal junk food from the kitchen. Which the rest of us would never do.”
Pennyworth raises an eyebrow at him, impassive as always. “If you are hungry, you can eat healthy, nutritious foods, none of that junk.”
He looks at them, waiting for them to argue (but everyone knows that Pennyworth’s word is final) before placing down a tray of sandwiches. “Lunch.”
The rest of his siblings crowed the tray, but Damian stays back, watching them eat with disinterest.
“This is a waste of time.” He snaps, and they all look up at him. “We should be helping Father, not clowning away in the cave.”
Richard frowns. “Dami, he’s on official league business, he can’t bring any of us on those trips. We’re not league members.”
Damian purses his lips. “This is stupid. This family bonding exercise is stupid.”
“Little D, how is spending time with your family stupid?”
“It’s a waste of time. We could be getting actual work done instead of this.”
Richard sighs. “How can you get along with others if you don’t get along with your family?” Todd snorts at that statement and Richard elbows him in the ribs.
“I’m leaving,” snaps Damian, “I don’t want to be here with you cretins.”
“By all means,” mutters Todd, “None of us wanted you here either.”
“ Jason,” Richard warns through gritted teeth, but Damian is already walking away.
He doesn’t look back until a thin blue light grasps his ankles and begins dragging him into the ground. Turing frantically around, the last thing he sees is Richard, Todd, and Drake all running towards him, before he vanishes, the word “Richard?” still not fully formed on his tongue.
The world around him morphs from black to bright blue with thin white veins coursing through it. He reaches out to touch the blue, hoping that it was just an elaborate light trick that Drake was playing on him. Unfortunately, it was solid, and it shocks him the moment he makes contact with him, knocking him unconscious.
When he wakes up, he has a terrible headache. He now understands how Todd feels after coming home after drinking too much. What he doesn’t understand is why Todd keeps on doing it though. Probably a lack of brain cells.
Opening his eyes briefly, he’s met with bright lights. He frowns. Is he in a laboratory?
His eyes grow accustomed to the glare, but he pretends he is still unconscious in case his kidnapper was waiting for him to awaken. If his kidnapper believed he was still unconscious, he’d have the advantage. He peeks just the slightest bit to see who is kidnapper was, and directly above him was a man sporting a lab coat, goggles, and gray streaks on either side of his hair.
“Oh, dear,” the man said, lifting the goggles from his eyes. “That was not supposed to happen.”
Damian lets out a low growl; he had not been having a good day, and that was before he was kidnapped from his home and brought to a laboratory. He shifts his position ever so slightly to grip his katana. This man would pay.