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Gotham. A city famous for its crime rate, deep history, and it’s billionaires. But despite the bloodstained alleys, roads, and sidewalks, there is still joy. Or at least, the opportunity for happiness. And nothing brings more happiness than friendly competition. Truth be told, nothing brings more happiness than WINNING in a friendly competition, according to Damian Wayne.
The very same Damian Wayne that grew up in a...challenging environment, can now be seen upside down in the Thomas and Martha Wayne Memorial Park. And nothing means more to him, then winning this “friendly” competition.
“Stop being stubborn Damian, you can’t win”
Damian growled in frustration, head snapping to the side, “I’m not stubborn, you are!”
The girl beside him turned her head and glared, her freckles accentuated against her beet red face, “You just proved my point, Demon Spawn”
“At least it wasn’t MY idea to have a handstand competition in a public PARK”
To prove his point, he switched to a one armed handstand, and gestured to the small audience that had gathered.
To be fair, most Gothamites didn’t often see this kind of athletic showcase, much less between a Wayne and their partner. At his motion, the small audience of park goers cheered, most of them recording the event.
Marinette huffed, clearly displeased as Damian showed her up with the one armed handstand. Damian grinned, momentarily losing focus. He felt his legs sway and his arm wobble for a second, and he quickly put his other hand down to stabilize.
He hears Marinette chuckle, meaning that she saw his mishap. Dang it.
The small audience has grown a bit, about thirty people gathered around the couple. Damian stares at the group. How long have they been upside down? As if answering his thoughts, one of the audience members shouts “FIVE MINUTES”.
A large cheer went through the crowd, right as Damian recognized the voice and found its source. His eyes narrow, glaring at his brothers. Jason, making direct eye contact, had the audacity to grin. Traitor.
Another cheer went through the crowd, capturing Damian’s attention. Head turned, his jaw dropped. Marinette smiled smugly, as she showcased her flexibility in the splits, while maintaining the handstand. Her face was somehow an even brighter red than before, but she was absolutely radiant. Her legs shifted from a regular split to both legs dangling in front of her face, and Damian’s face must have been priceless, judging from the laughter the audience gave.
In normal circumstances, Damian would have gone bright red from embarrassment, but alas his face already matched that of a tomato.
The attention to what his face must look like, brought him back to reality. And reality, harshly, reminded him that the pressure in his head was extremely painful. With his focus now on the pain surrounding his head, he felt his will weaken. His arms started to ache and his legs, now bent instead of straight up, were wavering.
Defeat was imminent, but maybe Marinette was right. He was stubborn. If he went out, he had to outshine her. This new challenge was going to be difficult, as Marinette had been charming the audience with small athletic stunts.
Damian watched as she did handstand push ups, switched between her hands, and even walked around. The crowd was delighted when she shook hands with a toddler, while maintaining her one armed handstand.
This would not do.
How could he perform a trick that she hadn’t already done. More importantly, how would he beat his girlfriend when her gymnastic ability rivaled that of Grayson. This task was impossible, especially with his brothers screaming cheers for Marinette.
But even Marinette was limited in her abilities without being forced to lose the competition.
So technically, if Damian wanted to outshine her, he had to lose GLORIOUSLY.
He had his plan, and if the look Marinette was giving him told him anything, it was that he looked incredibly smug for someone about to lose.
Her eyes widened as she realized what he was about to do. She caught on to slow.
He used the last of his arm strength to push himself in the air, amazed that his arms didn’t buckle with the movement. The momentum was just enough to get him up. Landing on his feet, he quickly flew back into a backhandspring and straight into a corkscrew flip. Which after doing to perfection, he promptly fell on his butt. If the look Grayson was giving him told him anything, it was that he would never be able to say that Dick’s gymnastics lessons were useless ever again.
Marinette simply gaped at him, and so did the crowd. Complete silence filled the small area, until Dick broke it with a bellowing whoop. Taking the cue, the audience cheered loudly, throwing Marinette off balance. Damian’s beautiful girlfriend gracefully face planted in the dirt, her arms having finally buckled.
Despite losing, Damian felt the sweetness of victory, as well as the head rush of standing up after being upside down for so long. He fell on his butt again, his head spinning in such a way that he laid down and closed his eyes hoping for relief.
Relief was never found however as his brothers decided to pick him up. Despite Damian’s muscular form, Jason picked him up and threw Damian on his shoulders as easily as a normal person would pick up a pillow. Using Jason’s big head (Damian would go to the grave before admitting he made a pun) to stabilize himself, he looked over to see Marinette in a similar state on Dick’s shoulders.
The crowd of Gothamites were absolutely wild. They cheered, jumped, and most shockingly smiled while surrounded by complete strangers.
Damian was taken aback, Gotham wasn’t known for being socially adept. In fact, smiling at someone on the street was a quick way to get pepper sprayed or jumped. So to see an entire crowd of strangers happy to be around each other, was quite shocking. Even more shocking when he realized that he and Marinette were the cause.
Looking to the love of his life, he couldn’t help but smile too. She met his eye and grinned, a silent communication showed him that she had gone through the same thoughts that he had. Dick and Jason came to each other, Damian and Marinette being within reach to clasp hands and raise them in victory. The crowd cheered. Marinette leaned forward on Dick’s shoulders to kiss Damian on the cheek. Somehow the cheer got louder.
Damian looked down to see a few kids starting to do handstands, some of them even trying to do a few cartwheels. One kid in particular caught his eye, a little girl with black hair, freckles, and green eyes. She was with her parents, and they watched with love and amusement in their eyes as she tried to teach their dog how to do a handstand.
Damian looked at Marinette, and saw that she had been watching the same little family. Through more silent communication, they knew that was their future. But for now, Damian just had another idea that he needed to complete.
TEN YEARS LATER
Marinette’s voice boomed through the speakers, “Contestants, please line up for the annual handstand competition”
Damian watched as about thirty people with numbered papers pinned to their shirts organized themselves by number in front of the stage. Once they were all in position, his six month pregnant wife spoke into the microphone again, “The time starts NOW”.
Cheers erupted through the crowd as each contestant flipped upside down. A few of them fell immediately, mainly kids that couldn’t be more than seven years old. One teenage girl started to fall, and landed in a backbend. A few others followed in her example.
Damian watched the competition numbers get smaller and smaller until only ten people remained. Wait, make that nine as another one toppled over. He watched as one contestant in an effort to regain balance, put her legs into the splits while maintaining her handstand. Damian couldn’t help but chuckle and glance up at his wife on stage.
Marinette also saw the small gymnastic display and immediately made eye contact with Damian, a blinding smile on her face. The brightness in her eyes told him that she was also thinking about that first handstand competition. The one that started it all. The one that inspired Damian to create both the Wayne Animal Rescue Foundation and the fundraiser that accompanied it’s creation.
After his and Marinette’s little handstand competition brought so many people together, Damian had known he had to make something of it. Gothamites weren’t known for being friendly, much less known for gathering in groups without formal organization. So when Marinette had brought up that she had never seen so many Gotham strangers interacting, Damian decided to make use of something as simple as a handstand competition.
It took about a year of nonstop work for Damian to put the event together. Having familial access to some of the most brilliant business men in the world certainly helped. And for once, he and Tim were able to work seamlessly together on a long term project. Bruce merely watched from the sidelines, while the rest of the Batfam helped with the events organization.
Damian had known that if he wanted a successful project or charity, he had to choose an area that both he and Marinette were passionate about. So an animal rescue foundation just made sense.
The first fundraiser was a little rough, but thanks to the Wayne family’s influence there was still an incredible show up at the park that first year. The idea for the fundraiser was simple, simple competitions would be the focus of the park fundraiser. The main event was the handstand competition, which required a five dollar entry fee as this was a fundraiser after all. The prize for the competition was simple enough, an opportunity to have lunch with the Wayne family at the Grand Gotham Hotel. The prizes for the smaller competitions were usually donated gift cards, gifts, or even small behind the scenes tours of Wayne enterprises.
As the years went by, the fundraiser got bigger and more popular. And it was a well known fact that the event was protected by the Batman, so there were usually no interruptions. In fact, Damian thought he had seen Harley Quinn and Poison Ivy (in disguise) at the fundraiser with Selina the past four years. But whenever he brought it up to Selina she told him he must be imagining things, which only confirmed his theories.
After dating and organizing the foundation for years Damian had finally proposed to Marinette on stage during the day of the third fundraiser, which just happened to be her twentieth birthday.
Glancing up at the charity’s fundraiser banner over the stage, he couldn’t help but smile. His wife’s artistic abilities were evident in the banner’s design. The title “Wayne Animal Rescue Foundation’s Annual Park Fundraiser” was elegantly scripted in large letters. The side of the banner had a drawing of a cartoon great dane sitting. The cartoon dog had a robin on it’s head and a ladybug on its nose. Damian smiled at the subtle reference to their other identities.
Damian was jolted from his thoughts as Marinette announced, “Only the final three contestants remain!”
Cheers from the crowd brought his eye back to the competition. The flexible teenage girl that reminded Damian of the first competition was currently walking on her hands to maintain balance. The other two contestants were using a similar approach, both of them switching from hand to hand. Finally one of them dropped, a muscular woman with blonde hair. This left only the teenage girl and the other contestant, who was a fairly strong looking Black man. The girl stopped walking around and bent her legs, putting them in a scorpion like position over her head. The man however kept switching hands, until he inevitably fell as one of his legs leaned too far to the side.
More cheers, the last three contestants climbed onto the stage taking their medals from Marinette in the respective order. Once Marinette reached the teenage girl, she handed her the fake gold medal and the certificate needed to enter her exclusive lunch with the Waynes the next week. Marinette quickly whispered something to the girl, who responded in whisper. They shared a smile and Marinette grabbed the girls hand, raising it in the air,
“Congratulations to Maya Andrews!”
The thunderous roar from the crowd would leave Damian’s eardrums ringing for days.
Marinette stayed on stage as the handstand winners left, “Now we welcome the gotham-bites pet show!” Marinette walked over to Damian as the first gotham-bite contestants strutted on stage.
The first group was a small horde of eight Corgi’s led by a tall Asian woman. The woman spoke into the microphone loudly, “This is the Corgi League of America!”. Damian did a double take after the name, and looked closely at each dog. All of them were wearing Justice League costumes, the Superman dog tripped on it’s cape. Marinette started laughing as she pointed out the Batman dog, which had a Robin plushie in it’s mouth. Damian glared at her and nudged her with his elbow. She retaliated by knocking him over.
Damian didn’t smile frequently, but he couldn’t help but laugh as he looked at the smug expression Marinette wore. He started to get up, but then again...Revenge is sweet. His grin changed from joy to diabolical in a second, his wife’s eyes widened. Grabbing her arm, he yanked his wife down to the ground. She grunted as she landed in his lap, his arms wrapping around her pregnancy bump.
Marinette stuck out her lower lip, pouting, “That was a cheap shot, bird brain”
Damian simply shrugged in feigned innocence, which made Marinette sigh in defeat. She turned her head to watch the show, the Superman corgi on stage was jumping through small hoops while the Wonder Woman corgi and the Flash corgi played tug of war with a piece of rope. The routine slowly broke into chaos as the Batman corgi kicked it’s Robin toy off the stage and jumped down to find it. Marinette was giggling, and soon full out laughing as all of the dogs jumped off the stage trying to get the toy.
Damian had a small smile as he watched the dogs chase each other through the crowd.
He took a deep breath and wrapped his arms around Marinette a little tighter. She was the greatest thing that had ever happened to him, and he couldn’t help but think about how much he had changed. No longer was he the silently scared yet violent ten year old. That little boy had been scared of strong emotion and relationships. But here he was, sixteen years later, with the woman he loved and his unborn child.
He was shaken out of his thoughts as one of the corgis bounded over to him and Marinette with the Robin plushie in its mouth. Marinette cooed and pet the dog, which prompted Damian to take out his phone and take a selfie.
The owner of the dogs emerged from the crowd and thanked Marinette for finding the dog. Laughing Marinette simply grabbed the plushie from the corgi and handed it to her. Once the owner squeaked the toy a few times, all eight dogs were gathered around her feet. The audience cheered and the next set of pets walked on stage.
Marinette leaned her head back, letting it rest on Damian’s shoulder. Damian took his phone out again and showed her the selfie he had taken. It was simple enough, Marinette was laughing while the dog was jumping on her and Damian was looking at her with adoration in his eyes.
They both decided at that moment that it was their favorite picture together.
Both turned to watch the rest of the Gotham-bites pet show, a cat was currently on stage chasing a laser pointer up a cork board panel.
Damian watched in amusement, feeling immense gratitude for Marinette and that first handstand competition that started the Wayne Animal Rescue Foundation’s annual fundraiser.