Chapter Text
Jason was laughing.
No, scratch that, he was wheezing to the point of no longer breathings, tears visible in the corner of his eyes. He had been at that, laying on the floor, for at least the last five minutes. And as time went on, there wasn’t any sign that he would stop soon.
Damian wanted to murder him, as always, but this time in a more horrible way. He needed to update his 100 ways to kill a Jason list, he could think at least 3 more ways to murder him and they all involved a spoon.
The reason for Damian’s sudden willingness to die, and Jason’s hysteria, was a simple cellphone. The kind that everyone had, the kind that was as harmless as a little ladybug. Except that Damian’s cellphone had decided that it was time to become a ticking bomb, making those annoying noises over and over again.
Damian really didn’t understand what was going on, he had made sure to check his cellphone for any virus but nothing had come up. It was only until Jason could breathe again that he got any sort of explanation.
“It’s the app”
“The app? Will you speak coherent English for once in your life?”
“Calm down, demon spawn. Here, let me see”
Jason grabbed his cellphone, scrolling through the different apps that Damian had installed. They weren’t many.
Once Jason found what he was looking for, he pressed the weirdly pink icon and waited for the app to load. It only took some seconds before the whole screen went pink, with many red hearts fluttering in a colorful circle. Some hearts popped and disappeared; others came out of nothing. The only thing that Damian noticed other than the incredible pink, was that every time a new heart appeared, the annoying thing started beeping.
“What the fuck is that?”
“It’s called Love Alarm. Tim and I installed it on your cellphone when you weren’t paying attention. We thought that it would never even beep once, but well…”
Just like that, Jason went into another laugh attack. Damian tried asking him more bout this Love Alarm, but soon he realized that Jason wouldn’t be able to say anything without laughing because of another beep. So, he turned to the only useful thing that was able to actually answer his questions.
In Google’s search bar, he typed Love Alarm. In mere seconds, there were more than a million results. Damian clicked on the first link, a news article talking about the app. Apparently, it was quite famous all over the world. The app, made by an anonymous person, was able to detect if anyone loved you within a space of 10 meters. Of course, the app only detected those who had the app, so that would explain why Damian’s cellphone hadn’t beeped even once until that day.
Damian raised his eyes and looked around. If the person had to be within ten meters, then that would explain the disappearing hearts. Since they were in the middle of the street, as soon as someone that “loved” him stepped out of his 10 meters, the heart would disappear.
The young people around him were also looking at their cellphones, probably wanting to see if anyone loved them. A group of girls and boys near him were blushing, giving continues glances towards him and Jason.
Damian was completely tired of the beeping and Jason. Sadly, he didn’t know how to turn off the app, so he did the next best thing so that he could get rid of the beeping. He grabbed Jason by the collar of his shirt and walked away from the main street, looking for any place with fewer people.
They ended up in a small alley, lightly lit by the billboard of a nearby hotel. There, the only people outside of the hotel and inside the 10-meter space was Damian and Jason, so finally, the hearts had stopped.
Damian sighed and sat down, his back against the alley’s brick wall. He already hated that app. It wasn’t even love what those people felt for him, but just mere attraction. He was sure that if they knew him, the real him, there would be no beeping from his Love Alarm.
Jason, on the other hand, seemed to have finally calmed down. He took out his cellphone, probably telling Tim about the great day he had thanks to the little prank they decided to pull on the demon spawn.
Damian was ready to go home when a sudden noise caught his attention.
A small, tiny young girl, had accidentally tripped on herself, sending bags full of fabrics to the floor. She was muttering something to herself, Damian only catching some words in French. From where he was sitting, she looked quite beautiful. She had dark blue hair and some beautiful eyes, that looked just like the sky when there where no clouds around, the sky of a happy and beautiful day…
The girl raised her head from the fabrics and looked at him, tilting her head almost like a little dog. Gosh, she looked adorable, and the lights illuminated her almost as if forming a halo around her head. She looked just like the most beautiful angel he had ever seen. Damian couldn’t stop himself from standing up and walking towards her as to help her. An angel without wings couldn’t be left alone on the street like that.
A beep interrupted his train of thought.
All color drained from Damian’s face. Had she made his Love Alarm beep? Was the angel attracted to him? What if she was? How could he talk to her without making a complete fool of himself now? What if she didn’t like him anymore and he would have to see the angel’s heart disappear from his screen?
Jason coughed behind him, making Damian turn his head towards the irritating older boy.
“What do you want now?”, he hissed.
“Don’t get mad Demon Spawn, but I think that wasn’t your Love Alarm”
He nodded towards the girl on the floor, the angel, who now had her cellphone out and was looking at it. A small smile emerged from her tiny rosy lips as she looked at the screen, the pink lights shining against her face.
The angel stood up, grabbed her things, and said something to the boys in French. Damian instantly regretted never taking those French classes that his father had insisted so much on.
Once she was done speaking, she raised her cellphone so that the boys could see her screen. In her Love Alarm, a tiny red heart was floating all alone, as red as Damian’s face now.
The angel smiled and walked inside the hotel, not even looking back.
“Hey, Jason? What did she say just now?”
“My French’s a little rusty, but it was something along the lines of, “I think you are quite nice too””
“Oh”
Damian kept staring as she went inside the hotel. From the hotel’s glass door, he could see how a group of young people like her started circling her, telling her something. If it wasn’t for the hate in their eyes and the way she hugged herself as if wanting to disappear from that place, Damian would have ignored the scene completely.
A sudden feeling of anger invaded him. What did they have against the angel? Gosh, he wanted to talk to her, to see if his Love Alarm would beep because of her. He wanted to know her better, see her smile that little grin of hers once more. He wanted to get her away from those bullies.
“Tell Batman that I have my own plans for tonight’s patrol”
“Plans? What plans?”
“I need to make sure an Angel is safe”