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Honestly, Dick shouldn’t be surprised. He should have seen this coming; he knows Damian, knows that Damian and Tim do not get along. Damian had tried killing Tim when they first met, but that was four years ago. They still argued and fought, but things were better now. Damian is a teenager now, and Tim a young adult. They should be getting along, or at the very least, not trying to kill each other.
Tim is still unconscious on the bed in the medical corner of the Cave; Dick hovering over him like a mother hen. It’s been several minutes since Damian knocked Tim unconscious and Jason moved Tim to the bed.
“He’ll be okay Big Bird,” Jason says, pulling up a chair to sit beside the unconscious man, “go deal with the Demon child.” Ah, yes, the Demon child who Dick is going to metaphorically kill tonight.
Tim has always been pale, but he looks extremely pale on the bed. Jason taps Dick’s leg from where he sits, “Seriously, he’ll be fine. I’ll come to get you when he wakes.”
“Probably not the best idea,” Dick says, still looking at Tim, “just text me when he wakes up.”
“Why is it not the best idea?” he says, confused. “It’s not like - wait. You’re not seriously gonna do what I think you’re gonna do, are you?”
Dick’s eyes move from Tim’s face to Jason’s, “He knows better. He’s fourteen.”
“He’ll give you Hell you know.”
Dick turns and leaves his two younger brothers and says over his shoulder, “I know, but he needs to learn.”
Jason doesn’t respond and Dick doesn’t turn back to look at him or Tim. He told Damian to go to his room; Dick wonders if he listened.
Walking up the stairwell, it’s quiet. Alfred is in England, enjoying his sabbatical and Bruce is in space on League business. Dick wishes Bruce was here to deal with Damian. Don’t get him wrong, he loves the kid but he doesn’t want to punish him. He hates doing that.
He’s spanked Damian before, but not since he was twelve and acted recklessly while on patrol. He can’t remember why Bruce didn’t deal with his son, but he didn’t, so it was up to Dick.
He walks slowly to Damian’s room; the hallway lights aren’t on but Dick doesn’t need them to navigate the halls of the manor. He comes to Damian’s door; there’s light coming from his room. He takes a deep breath and enters. Damian’s sketching something in his sketchbook.
“Drake deserved it.” is all Damian says upon Dick entering his room.
Dick sighs, pinching the top of his nose and closes his eyes. “No, no he did not.” He opens his eyes; Damian’s still sketching. Walking over to his younger brother who is on his bed, he takes the sketchbook and pencil and sets them down on the nightside table.
Damian has changed into his nightclothes; gym shorts and a Batman short-sleeve T-shirt. He’s as tall as Tim now, though he is stronger, much to Tim’s dismay. The older man knows that Damian will only grow taller, which infuriates the third Robin to no end.
Dick sits down beside Damian, “You know better Damian. You need to apologize when he wakes up.”
Damian makes a tt sound, “Drake has a weak constitution and I will not be apologizing.”
“You will be,” Dick says forcefully, “you knocked him unconscious. He’s still out.”
Damian’s looking at him, “If Drake wasn’t such a weak individual, he wouldn’t be unconscious.”
Dick stands up and takes off his leather belt, to which Damian says, “Why are you undressing?” Then his eyes widen with understanding, “No, you will not be spanking me.” He stands up and Dick grabs his arm just hard enough so he couldn’t slip away.
“You would rather wait until Bruce gets back? Because he’ll go harder on you then I would.”
“Fine,” Damian says after a long moment, “I will apologize to Drake.” Dick shakes his head.
“I’m glad, but you know what comes first.”
Damian tries to step back but he’s held firmly in place by Dick, “I am fourteen years old. I am too old-”
“You’re too old to be knocking Tim unconscious,” Dick says as he sits down on the bed. “I don’t care what he did or didn’t do. If you have a problem, you need to talk, not knock people out.” Then, “You know what to do,” he says as he lets go of Damain’s arm.
Damian stands there, unmoving for a moment before he lowers his pyjama bottoms and underwear to his mid-thighs. Dick guides him over his knees and takes a hold of Damian’s arm, allowing him to prop himself up with the other.
Dick had been expecting more resistance from his brother, but he’s glad Damian isn’t fighting back. That would just make it worse for both of them. He can’t blame the teenager for choosing him over Bruce; Bruce's punishments are the worst.
Damian’s breathing is slow and controlled. Dick wishes Bruce was here; he hates having to do this. He raises his hand and brings it down hard, not as hard as Bruce would have, but hard enough that Damian winces. He brings his hand up again, then back down. Damian isn’t making sounds, though Dick doesn’t expect him too. Not yet, anyway.
He continues to spank Damian with his hand until the teenager starts making a pained noise. “Why did you hit Tim?” he asks because that’s what Bruce would do, “you know that was uncalled for.” He brings his hand down again; Damian gasps.
Dick waits a moment but Damian doesn’t respond, so he decides to pick up his belt. Bruce would use his gloves, Dick knows, but he always hated that and doesn’t want to do that to his baby brother.
He doesn’t tell Damian, just raises the belt and brings it down twice in rapid succession. He gasps, then says “Grayson.” He turns his head in an attempt to look at Dick.
“Why did you hit Tim?” Dick repeats, resting the belt on Damian’s thighs. “The sooner you answer, the sooner this ends.”
“He is illogical,” Damian tells him, voice uneven. He doesn’t say anything further.
“That’s it? He’s illogical?”
“You don’t understand,” he stresses, “Drake infuriates me like no other. He constantly tests me and challenges me as Father’s true heir. Drake needs to learn his place.” His voice breaks at the end.
“That’s why you knocked Tim out? Because you feel threatened by him?” Damian doesn’t say anything to that. Dick really wishes Bruce was here to talk to his son, Dick knows that anything he says to his brother will only go in one ear and out the other. He’ll have to tell Bruce about this incident, just so he can talk sense to Damian.
Dick doesn’t know how to explain to Damian that Tim isn’t trying to take his place, even though the thought of Tim trying to upstage Damian is ridiculous. Well, at least Dick hopes it’s ridiculous. He’ll have to talk to Tim later and make sure that he isn’t trying to.
“Damian,” he says, “Tim isn’t doing that. You’re being silly.”
“I am not silly.” His voice is uneven, and Dick knows that his brother is trying to keep himself from crying. “Is this over yet?”
Once, when Dick was seventeen, he had asked Bruce if his punishment was done, which ended with Bruce prolonging his punishment by two minutes.
“Almost.” He raises the belt, “I just need you to count.” Dick brings the belt down hard, causing Damian to yelp loudly.
“One.”
He spanks Damian with the belt thrice more, hearing two, three and four in quick succession. Dick feels terrible doing this, so he decides that going to ten is sufficient. This, plus having Bruce talk to him should teach Damian not to knock Tim unconscious. At least he hopes.
He brings the belt down again, hearing Damian cry out in pain. Dick’s resolve disappears, putting the belt down and begins rubbing circles on Damian’s back as he cries. “Dami,” he says sympathetically, “it’s alright.” Dick gently helps his baby brother off his knees. Damian isn’t looking at him, and Dick engulfs him into a bear hug. They’re sitting awkwardly on the bed, but Dick doesn’t care. He needs to hug his younger brother.
They sit like that for several minutes as Damian calms himself down. After Damian takes a deep breath, he tells him, “You’ll have to apologize to Tim.”
“Now?” Damian sounds alarmed. Dick laughs.
“No, no. Tomorrow.” He says, then, “stand up real quick Dami.”
Damian does; he hisses as Dick pulls his underwear and pyjama bottoms up. “There,” Dick says, standing up and placing a kiss on Damian’s forehead.
He takes his belt from off the bed and goes to leave, but Damian grabs his wrist. “Stay?”
Dick smiles and ruffles Damian’s hair. “Yeah, of course. I’ll be right back. I need to get changed.”
Damian looks at him in the eyes; his eyes are red and Dick feels like trash for having caused it, but he knows that it had to be done. “Can’t you sleep in your shirt and underwear?”
Dick thinks about that and sees no reason as to why he couldn’t. He drops his belt, unbuttoning his jeans and then pushing it down to his ankles, where he kicks them off. His jeans make it to Damian’s closet, and it’s only then when Dick thinks about his phone that’s in his jeans’ pockets.
Whatever. He’ll get his phone later.
Damian crawls in bed, laying on his side. When Dick gets into his bed, Damian is staring at him. Dick, smiling, sliding towards his younger brother and throws an arm over him. Damian snuggles close.
Damian is asleep within minutes, and Dick is just closing his eyes when the door opens. It’s Jason. “Tim’s awake now,” Jason says, “I thought about texting you, but I wanted to be rebellious.”
“Is he okay?”
“I mean, he’s annoyed but he’ll live.” A pause, “how’d Baby Bat take it?”
Dick answers honestly, “Better than I expected him to.” He yawns. Damian makes a noise. “Can we talk in the morning Jay? I’m exhausted.”
Jason waves dismissively at him, “Yeah, whatever. Night.”
“Night,” Dick says, though Jason is already gone.
“I would prefer,” Damian says slowly into Dick’s chest, “if you didn’t give details of what you did to me.”
Dick chuckles, “I won’t, don’t worry.”