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“Grayson.”
He blinks at her innocently from his position at the kitchen table in the center of his woefully under-furnished apartment. Damian struggles not to explode when she notices the way his lips are twitching toward a smile. “Yes, little sister?”
“Listen to me very carefully,” Damian growls. “I do not want a cake.”
Grayson is doing a poor job of containing his laughter. “I understand. But I'm not the one getting you the cake.”
“Tell Father then,” Damian says, her voice coming dangerously close to a whine.
“Oh, Little D,” Dick sighs, shaking his head and smiling. “He’s just happy for you. He did the same thing with me when I told him I transitioned, and he did the same thing for Tim when he came out, and he got Steph and Cass two cakes when they got together, and he somehow managed to send Jason a cake while he was running around in space with Kory and Roy.”
Damian huffs. This whole business is not a big deal. Or that’s what everyone keeps telling her. So why is it that her father is at this very moment out purchasing an expensive sugary confection that Damian does not want?!
“I don’t understand why Pennyworth couldn’t just make it,” Damian grumbles. That would be much less ridiculous.
Grayson snickers and Damian’s stomach sinks. “Grayson.”
Her older brother is going red in the face from trying to keep in the laughter and Damian regrets not bringing her katana to his apartment. This whole thing is starting to feel more like interrogating a criminal than spending time with her terrible older brother. “Grayson.”
“Well he’s getting a picture of Titus printed on it,” Grayson manages. “And it’s gonna say ‘We love you’ in big red letters.”
He collapses into giggles and Damian fights the urge to take his shoulders and shake him. “No. Absolutely not.”
“Steph’s had a picture of a waffle,” Grayson chokes out before dissolving into peals of laughter.
No.
Damian is the heiress to two very different empires and she has been trained from birth to be the deadliest person in the world and she will not eat a cake with a picture of her dog on it.
“Aw, Dami,” Grayson is standing now, walking over to where she leans against the wall. “You know that this is just your dad’s way of saying he’s happy for you and he loves you.”
“I suppose,” Damian grumbles. “I would just rather have… a horse.”
That look again, like Grayson is physically suffering from holding in laughter. “A horse?”
“Or an elephant.”
Grayson perks up at that before glaring at her suspiciously. “Wait… Tim told you about that, didn’t he?”
“No.” Yes.
Rolling his eyes, Grayson walks over to the fridge and starts pulling out ingredients for smoothies. “Well, maybe if you let him buy you a cake, Bruce will be more inclined to buying you a horse.”
Damian trails after him, skeptical. “I don’t think that’s how it works.”
“Well, for Bruce it is,” Grayson says, piling containers of blueberries and strawberries precariously on top of each other. “It’s like a thing with him.”
“I’m amazed he hasn’t managed to give away the family fortune entirely.”
“Me too,” Grayson says. He closes the refrigerator door with his knee and walks with exaggerated slowness towards the counter. Damian half wants to try and smack the boxes out of his hands, just to be a brat, but she really does want a smoothie.
“I just… don’t see the point of it all,” Damian says slowly. She loathes talking about her feelings, but it is, in theory, a healthy activity to engage in once in a while. Besides, she knows Grayson will just start bugging her about it again if she tries to keep quiet.
“The point?” Grayson looks at her, with a sort of sad smile. “The point is that we love you, and we’re so happy that you decided to come out to us. The cake is a symbol of that love.”
“I… think I understand,” Damian says. It makes her feel a little vulnerable, a little uncomfortable. Love . But… she thinks it’s in a good way. She could probably eat a symbol of her family’s love, if she had to. “Thank you.”
“Hug?” Grayson asks, opening up his arms.
“I suppose,” Damian huffs. But there’s a warm glow inside of her as Grayson pulls her close, and it’s not like he can see that she smiles into his shirt.
“So it’s settled,” Grayson says, pulling away. He starts digging in the cabinets for the blender, looking over his shoulder to grin at Damian, that grin that reminds her that they’re still the best . “Cake first, and then we get to work on getting a horse.”
“I think I can live with that,” Damian says, with a matching grin.