Work Text:
Damian stood and listened. The space around him was dark. The weapons in his hands were a little off balanced for him but they were usable, they would work. He waited for the slightest sound to know where his target was. But his target was light on their feet, if they were even on the ground at all. He tried to feel a shift in the air, anything that would let him know where his target was.
The creak in the floor let him know that someone was there. He knew it wasn’t who he was supposed to be training with, but it would be fun to scare Drake. He turned and threw the training knife in his hand and smirked when the thunk of it hitting the wall was accompanied by a small shriek from his brother.
“Damian, can you not do that?” Drake sounded tired, more so than usual. Damian slipped the blindfold off his face and watched as his brother walked past the knife protruding from the wall and went over to the computer room.
“You should stay out of my way when I train.”
“How was I supposed to know you were training?”
“I train at this time every day.”
Tim stopped for a moment and looked like he was thinking very hard about something, which was strange to Damian since Tim was usually such a quick thinking. He finally asked, “What time is it?”
“Ten thirty.”
“Tim,” Dick appeared from wherever he was hiding for training, “when was the last time you slept?”
“Um. What day is it?”
“The nineth,” Damian answered.
Tim perked up slightly, “Then yesterday. And I slept for like four hours, before you ask.”
“Timothy Jackson Drake, I swear to god,” Dick started but was interrupted by Jason saying, “You shouldn’t do that.”
“Oh, Jase, how nice of you to join us,” Tim seemed almost genuinely surprised that Jason was there.
“Drake, why do you seem surprised?”
Tim slumped back in his chair slightly, taking a sip from his mug. Damian was quite familiar with this movement. Tim was calculating something and it was just out of reach enough to annoy him. He suddenly sat up, “Oh shit. It’s your birthday,” he gestured to Damian, “I’m so sorry. Happy birthday. Um, I swear I knew it was today but I don’t-”
“Tim,” Jason interrupted, “Go to bed for a bit.”
“Yeah. Yeah, okay.” Tim sat his mug on the desk and stood up. “Come get me in a few hours?” Dick nodded, Tim turned back to Damian, “I’m really sorry.”
Dick waited for Tim to be out of the cave before he spoke again. He made it sound like it was to both of his brothers, but it was mostly to Damian since he was here the most, “What is going on with him? I have never seen him like that and we’ve seen him to the point of hallucinations.”
“His doctor changed his prescription. A dumb idea, I think.”
“Why would he change it?” Jason asked, he didn’t mention that he also thought it was dumb. Tim had made actual progress on his meds; he didn’t spiral into that paranoid state anymore. At least he hadn’t for a few months.
“I think Father asked him to.” Damian would be blind if he missed the anger that flashed across Dick and Jason’s faces. He couldn’t say he disagreed with their assumptions of Bruce’s intentions. What he hadn’t told them, was that Tim wasn’t taking the new medication. He took it for a few days and it made him worse so he stopped. Alfred hadn’t even gotten onto his case about this.
Damian had helped Tim through more than one night. Tim had mentioned that this was just like a year ago. Damian hadn’t liked the implications that came with that statement. But that had been the same night that Damian made Tim laugh and it sounded far too much like a clown’s cackle to be comfortable.
Damian decided to keep this tiny bit of information to himself for the moment. He didn’t want there to be some big fight on his birthday. He had seen the fallout with Father after Tim’s birthday and wanted nothing to do with that. He hadn’t decided if it was because he didn’t want this to somehow affect his brothers or because he didn’t want it to be directed at him.
“Alright, we’ll revisit this issue later,” Dick tried to get this back on track, “Damian, it is your birthday, you get to decide what we do.”
Damian didn’t get to answer because Tim reentered the cave and looked mildly panicked.
“Tim, we told you to go take a nap,” Jason said, only sounding slightly like a dad.
“I know. And I was going to. But we have a problem. Well, we have a guest.”
“Who?” Dick asked.
“The only other person who would want to be here for Damian’s birthday.”
“You wouldn’t look this scared if it was Jon, would you?” Tim shook his head to Dick’s question.
“Jonathan is going to be here later.” Damian was good at keeping his emotions out of his voice. He had been trained to do that. But all three of them could hear the slight panic that threatened to make itself known. Damian had already promised to celebrate his birthday with his friends in a few days, so it couldn’t be any of them. There was only one other person they could all think of that would want to be there. “It’s my mother.”
“Shit,” Jason didn’t bother trying to lower his voice, he didn’t care if Talia al Gul heard him complain that she was here. She shouldn’t be here. She wasn’t invited and no one wanted to see her, not even her son. Not that Damian would ever really admit that.
Some part of him still loved his mother. He just also knew that it was bad to live with her. He also knew that he had no intention of inviting his mother to his birthday today. But he knew that if he put off seeing her for too long, especially after he was called up, he would have to deal with the fallout of that.
“What are we gonna do?” Tim asked.
“Nothing. We are going to do nothing,” Damian answered, much to the shock of his older brothers, “She is here. There is nothing we can do about it now.”
“How very noble of you,” Dick said with an amount of sarcasm that seemed fitting to Tim or Jason.
“Please, don’t start fights with her,” Damian asked.
“I will try my hardest, but no promises,” Jason answered. The other two nodded. That was all Damian was going to get.
“Master Damian, you’re needed upstairs,” Alfred was strangely quiet when he wanted to be.
“You got this,” Dick tried to sound reassuring, but it didn’t come out as confident as he wanted it to be.
Talia al Gul needed no real introduction in Wayne Manor, she commanded attention. His brothers could see the many similarities between mother and son. Not just the physical ones, but the way they drew your eye unconsciously.
They also saw where Damian picked up the look that always seemed to look through you and know exactly what made someone tick. Tim tried not to curl in on himself, he hated that look in his brother and he despised it in the woman that taught it to him.
The two had a silent conversation that seemed to consist entirely of eyebrow movements and smirks, although the smirks were entirely of Talia’s end. Dick almost interrupted the conversation when the front door rang.
“I’ll get it,” Damian went to the door. He knew who was going to be other the other side, and he was both excited and terrified about this. He was supposed to be here closer to dinner since lunch was for brothers, and their father unfortunately. Well, if all of the other plans for the day were going to change, this one might as well too.
“Happy birthday, Damian!” Jon practically screamed, he was just far too excited about getting to spend the day with his boyfriend and his brothers. Jon pulled Damian into his arms and pulled the youngest bat boy off his feet in what he wanted to pretend was an unnatural greeting for the two.
Jon could tell that something was off though. Damian, for all his threats and show, usually melted into these embraces now. This time, he stayed stiff, like when Jon had first started doing this as kids. Jon set Damian down and almost asked what was going on when movement out of the corner of his eye caught his attention.
“Who is this?” the woman that he hadn’t noticed beforehand asked. He let go of Damian and took in her appearance. Sleek and tall and very obviously Damian’s mother. Damian hadn’t said anything about Talia being here. Jon would’ve tried to act differently, at least not so open about his affections right inside the Manor entrance where everyone could see him. This was just a little bit embarrassing.
He was used to Damian’s brothers seeing them like this, but he had also seen them and their boyfriends the same way. He had seen far too much of Tim and Conner like that. Alfred was chill with pretty much everything. Bruce and Talia were a whole different story, one of them not even knowing they were dating.
“Hi. I’m Jonathan Kent. I’m Damian’s friend.” Everyone that wasn’t Bruce or Talia knew how much it hurt for him to call them just friends. It had taken months to convince Damian that his feelings for Jon were real and valid and returned. That he could let go and be a teenager and have his first boyfriend. He had said a thousand times that his mother would never approve of something like that, but he still wanted it.
“You allow your friends to touch you like that?” Talia asked, ignoring the outstretched hand Jon had offered. She sounded so utterly disgusted by the idea. Jon wasn’t sure if she hated the idea of her son having friends or being touched in a friendly manner.
“I allow Jon to touch me like that,” Damian’s voice was tight. It was also a lie. Batson had gotten away with it a few times in the past.
“I am his best friend, so I guess I get a pass.”
“My son does not need friends.” Bruce sighed at her comment, he may not like that they were dating but he did like that his son had friends, for a somewhat selfish reason but still. Talia scoffed and walked off, Bruce following closely behind.
“Do you want me to leave?” Jon asked, keeping his voice low, “I don’t want to cause any problems.”
“No, Beloved. I need you here.” Damian sounded so defeated. Like he had already resigned himself to having a horrible day. And he had the sinking feeling that he was absolutely right in that thought.
“Well, you know I’ll stay as long as you’ll have me,” Jon agreed and kissed Damian’s forehead.
Damian scowled over at his brother when a very high-pitched, “Awe,” escaped Dick. Jon tried not to laugh. Tim and Jason did not try all that hard to cover up their giggles. “I’m not going to apologize for that, what I just witnessed was adorable.”
“Wait, what are you doing here so early?” Tim asked, Damian had been too busy scowling at his brother to think about that. Jon didn’t really look over at Damian and just shared a look with Tim. “Got it.”
“Did I miss words being spoken or has Tiny Supes become telepathic all of a sudden?” Jason asked.
“No. I just know what happened, because Conner does the same thing,” Tim explained before walking away. And that was all he needed to say for his brothers to understand. Supers had a strange ability of just knowing when their partners were distressed and would have to fly out to where they were to fix the problem. Conner had done it plenty of times.
“Did you bring a gift?”
“Later,” was Jon’s only answer.
Jon and Dick had gone off to work on some surprise for Damian, although he was pretty sure his boyfriend was just making sure Damian wouldn’t hate the gift he brought. Although, it was a gift from Jon, so Damian was going to like it either way. While they were off being secretive, which was only true because Damian didn’t want a surprise to be ruined for him, he hated the look he got from Jon when he did things like that, Damian decided to go bother whoever he could hear speaking in the kitchen. It wasn’t his parents and that was all he cared about.
Damian walked into the kitchen to see Jason leaning against a counter and Tim sitting on one opposite him, both sipping something out of mugs. Damian was sure that Tim was drinking coffee, but Jason hardly ever drank coffee so who knew what he was drinking out of a mug.
“What are you drinking?”
“Coffee,” they answered at the same time. Damian scowled ever so slightly.
“Irish coffee, heavy on the Irish influence,” Jason finally admitted. Tim snorted into his drink and took a sip. “We need it since we had an uninvited guest.”
“I do not want her here anymore than you do.”
“Why not?” Tim asked, he was fully expecting Damian to be at least somewhat pleased to see his mother on his birthday.
“She will most certainly try to convince me to return to the League with her. Which is not something I want to do.”
“Why would she try to convince you to leave?” Tim asked. He thought that the idea of Damian leaving would make him happy, and it would have a few months ago. But now he wasn’t exactly sure that he would like Damian being gone, he certainly had started thinking of the little demon as at least something close to a brother. He has willingly gotten shot for the little hell spawn so that has to mean something.
“She believes that this is not an adequate place for me to train. That I am not going to live up to my full potential if I stay here.”
“Is it because we’re still around?” Jason finally asked. Damian nodded. Jason pulled Damian into a one-armed hug, although the smaller boy nestled into his side with ease. Jason tightened the grip when he heard Talia and Bruce bickering in the other room. No doubt that it was about Damian doing things that ‘Mother would never approve of’ as Damian used to say to get out of doing anything fun or even relatively involving emotions.
“Maybe I should have had Jon leave earlier,” Damian was fairly sure that would get muffled by Jason, but Tim had caught it.
“No. They do not get to decide who is at your birthday celebration. They’re the adults here and they should really start acting like it.”
“Bruce acting like a rational adult? I don’t know her,” Jason commented, although it was mostly into his coffee, it did make his brothers laugh though so mission accomplished.
The nice energy the three of them had created would last up until dinner. Alfred tried his best to make something traditional for Damian’s birthday dinner, but Jason would’ve done better. At least it wasn’t bad enough for Talia to complain too much. Granted, she complained about everything else.
“Jonathan, how do you know my son?” This was going to be one of the only questions that Jon knew how to answer. It was one of the only things they had talked about beforehand.
“Our dads are work associates. We met at a gala and were the only two kids there.”
“That seems below you, Damian,” she commented, not even bothering to say it in another language.
“We started as friends of convenience. I happen to enjoy his company. It is refreshing to have someone not try to outsmart me all the time.” Talia blatantly looked over at Tim, who had been doing a great job at avoiding her gaze the entire time. Dick very clearly wanted to say something, but knew not to. Jason took a long drink of whatever it was he convinced Alfred to serve him during dinner. Tim pretended like everything was fine.
“Timothy, I would assume he means you.”
“Probably,” Tim sounded far flatter than he normally did.
“Surprisingly, I did not mean him.” Jon side-eyed Damian, although it was a look they shared. It was how Jon showed that he found something Damian said was funny, he knew he shouldn’t laugh too much in front of Bruce. Somehow, it always got Damian in trouble.
“I was pretty certain the two of you were more than friends,” Bruce interjected. It seemed like a normal, confused father kind of question. But the brothers all knew it was more than that. Bruce had been trying to figure out a way to get to Damian for months now.
Damian had finally started questioning things that Bruce did or said and he couldn’t let that slide. But Damian was smarter than Bruce was. He had made sure there was almost nothing he could use against Damian that wouldn’t also negatively affect Bruce. Bruce had tried messing with Tim to get to Damian, but that hadn’t worked the way he wanted it to. His relationship with Jon was Bruce’s last-ditch effort.
“What?” Talia asked. She glared at Damian until the boy finally broke.
“I have been dating Jon for a few months now.”
“Leave,” Talia’s voice was hard and venomous as she spoke to Jon.
“What?” Dick asked on Jon’s behalf, Jon was too terrified to speak, “You have no right to tell him to leave.”
“I was not speaking to you,” she tried her hardest to intimidate Dick, although it didn’t work as well as she had hoped it would. In fact, it didn’t work at all. It irritated her immensely that none of Bruce’s other ‘sons’ were afraid of her; they should have been. “As for you Jonathan, you are to leave and never speak to my son again. If I hear that you return, I will make you suffer.”
Jon nodded and scooted his chair back. He wasn’t about to argue with the woman, she might not have completely known he was Kryptonian but he wasn’t about to test that. He liked not being poisoned by kryptonite. At the very minimum, she would physically hurt him enough for him to notice.
“Jon,” Damian’s voice was small and almost made Jon stop completely but he couldn’t.
“Goodbye, Damian.” The front door opened and closed, echoing in the painful silence. Jon had left. He had left Damian. Damian had never really thought about how much it would hurt if Jon decided to leave him. As far as he knew, they would be together for a long time. He had always known that. It started when they had just been friends and crime fighting partners, but now they were so much more.
Apparently, they were nothing now.
“Why?” Damian asked his mother.
“He was a distraction. You would have had to do that tonight anyway since you are returning to the league with me.”
“You are not taking him,” Bruce finally interjected. That was the exact opposite result he had been hoping when he brought this up.
“I did not ask you,” she spat back.
“I am not going anywhere. I am staying right here. And I don’t care what you think about that.” Damian stood and began to leave the room. Stopping only slightly when his mother called after him. But he was determined to prove that he was stronger than her, the push came when he heard three other chairs move, they were too close to be anyone but his brothers.
“Come on Damian,” Tim said, pushing his younger brother slightly forward. They ran into Alfred in the foyer, he had heard the door open and close.
“Where is Master Jonathan?”
“He left,” Damian’s voice felt so far away from him. He knew it came from him, but it sounded like it didn’t. This must be how Tim feels sometimes, Damian decided he hated it. He would decide that he never wanted Tim to feel like this ever again, not if he can help it.
“He’ll be back,” Tim sounded so certain, but Damian doubted it. Talia al Gul decided something, only a crazy person would defy her. But he guessed he fell into that category. He had defied his mother. He stood up to her. He should feel something for that, right? Right. But he didn’t.
“I’m sorry, Damian,” he was pretty sure it was Grayson who said that. Although he was only still present because of Tim’s hand on his back, leading him to his room. He wanted his brothers to join him. He didn’t particularly want to be alone right now.
Damian pushed open his door to let his brothers in when he sees that he already has a visitor. Jon sat cross-legged on his bed, looking like he couldn’t decide if he was relieved or scared to see all four of the bat boys. Jon lifted himself off the bed and moved so that he was standing. He didn’t start talking until the door was closed.
“I know that your mom told me to leave and never come back and never talk to you again but I couldn’t. At least not until we talked about this. And I’m sorry I made it seem like I was leaving, I just didn’t know what else to do.” Damian didn’t say anything, his brothers were thinking that maybe that was because he was going to agree with his mother, that was what he had been trained to do, despite the independence he had shown tonight. They were all incredibly surprised when Damian just pulled Jon into a surprisingly tight hug. “I don’t know what’s happening but okay.”
“I thought you were going to listen to her. Everyone else does.”
“Why would I listen to her? You asked me to stay, so I did. I just didn’t want to start a fight.”
Damian pulled back enough to look into bright blue eyes that he would lying if he said he didn’t get lost in them some days. “I love you.”
Jon’s smile could light all of Gotham if he let, but he reserved it for this single bat, “I love you more.”
“Impossible.”
“Oh, I need to give you your gift.” Jon stuck his hand in his pocket and pretended to dig around, which made Damian roll his eyes. He finally pulled a necklace and handed it to Damian.
“A Superboy necklace? You realize I am not Superboy, right?”
“I know,” Jon pulled a necklace out from under his shirt collar, “but I have the Robin one.”
“Why?”
“That way I feel like I always have at least a little piece of you with me. They’re technically best friend things but I thought they would fit us. But you can keep that under your shirt so it won’t ruin your image.” Damian didn’t say anything. “This was a stupid present, wasn’t it? You don’t have to wear it.”
“No!” Jon jumped slightly at Damian yelling, “Sorry. I mean no, I will wear it,” Dick nudged Damian to continue, “Not because I feel like I need to, I want to.”
Jon helped Damian put on the necklace, even though it was an unnecessary act.
“Panic Room Protocol initiated,” a robotic voice cut through the room. They turned to Tim, who had been messing with the mostly hidden electronic locks he had put on his and Damian’s doors.
“Sorry. I didn’t think that would be so loud.”
“What did you do?” Jason asked.
“Panic Room Protocol. It makes it so only a select few can open the door. At the moment, it’s just me and Damian. No one can go in or out of this door until one of us disengages it.”
“How are we going to get stuff from the kitchen?” Jon asked. It seemed about right that he didn’t jump to the same conclusion that the bats did.
“You,” Damian said. Jon opened his mouth to further argue but Damian interrupted with, “Window.”
“Oh, right. That is how I got in here earlier.”
A knocking pulled all of their attention to the door. None of them moved or made a noise. They were trying to not even breathe too loudly. It would be obvious who was at the door. There was no way Alfred would be coming up to speak to them. Bruce would though.
“Damian. Open the door. Your mother has left.” Bruce continued when there was no response. “Damian. Open the door. We have things to do tonight and you need to prepare for them.”
Damian started to answer, but was unable to when Dick placed his hand over his younger brother’s mouth. He was going to be the only one of them that would be able to do this without Damian’s gut reaction to be to attack.
Bruce continued to shout. He didn’t like being ignored. Dick wouldn’t mention the fact that he was mostly sure he felt a single tear hit his hand. Bruce knew what to say to hurt his children. He left eventually though.
They were able to actually relax when Bruce was gone. Jason creamed all of them in multiple games of Uno. They enjoyed the cake that Jon so very carefully flew into the house, he almost dropped it a couple times. Bruce never came back, but they had all been expecting it.
Damian appeared to be asleep, but he wasn’t. He was nuzzled up against Jon though so at least he was comfortable and relaxed. Well as relaxed as he could be with the threat of Father coming back and with his brothers softly speaking every so often. But he wanted to know what they were talking about and knew they would change the subject if they knew he was awake.
“This fucking sucks,” Jason said from his perch on the window, he had started chain smoking again.
“Which part?” Tim asked, he was closer to the door, listening for footsteps.
“All of it.”
“Well, what would you have done differently?” Dick asked from his pacing space. His steps were light enough that they didn’t wake his brother.
“Not been here.”
“How would that had made it any better?” Dick asked, furious at the thought that Jason didn’t want to be here for his brother, who needed them.
“I meant all of us, dipshit.” Jason knew what Dick thought his comment had meant.
“We would’ve just been postponing it. There was no way to get out of what happened tonight,” Tim slumped further down the wall, defeated at his own brain’s inability to get out of this situation.
“Well thanks for the pep talk, Replacement,” it was the first time Jason had said that name with any malice behind it in years, he caught himself immediately when he saw Tim deflate even more, “Sorry. Sorry, I didn’t mean that. I’m just tired of this. I’m tired of all of it.”
“Go out and work off some steam,” Dick suggested.
“I’m not leaving you guys here. Not tonight, at least.”
“What if we’re just postponing the blow up? Even if you two stay tonight or two nights or a week, his anger will come back the second you leave. Maybe you’ve forgotten what it’s like, but it sucks. It sucks so fucking much.”
“Why haven’t you moved out?” it was a question that had bugged Dick for months when it came to Tim.
“I’m too scared to live on my own. It’s a possibility for me, but there are so many things that would make it go all wrong.” He didn’t need to specify to his brothers.
“What’s the other reason?” Jason asked. He had gotten good at telling when Tim would give them half-truths to get them off his case.
“Alfred asked me to stay,” he swallowed the lump in his throat, “Bruce did too.”
Now was not the time to remind Tim that Bruce was manipulative, Tim knew that. But it hadn’t taken much guilt tripping when it came to Damian to convince Tim to stay. Alfred had just asked politely, claiming he liked having Tim around, which was probably true.
“Did Bruce convince your shrink to change your medication?”
Tim’s chuckle was hollow. “What, did you think it would be hard to pay off one doctor?”
“I thought yours was a professional,” Dick said. Jason had gone quiet.
“Anyone can be bought for the right price. Anyone who says otherwise is lying. Bruce has enough money to pay off whoever he wants.”
“Do you take that medication?”
“I haven’t in like two weeks. It made everything cloudy.”
“Tell them all of it,” Damian said, sitting up and alerting his brothers to his consciousness. “Tell them how it made the nightmares worse. Tell them how it made you paranoid to the point that you made these locks and how their code was not originally called ‘Panic Room’. Tell them how close you got.”
“I don’t think I have to.”
“Why did you agree to stay?” Jason asked, finally speaking again, “Why would agree to stay in this place if all he ever does is hurt you?”
“For Damian,” the confession was quiet and rushed, “I stay so that it isn’t directed at him.”
“What good is that going to do anyone if he drives you over the edge?” Jason tried to keep his rage, and volume, in check.
“I don’t know, okay. All I know is that I can’t let it be directed at Damian. I can’t let it happen to my brother. Not if I can just suck it up and deal with it like I have my entire life.”
“And you think I can handle watching you do this on your own? Drake, I refuse to lose you. I will not lose my brother; I love you too much for that.” Tim was stunned into silence, as was everyone else in the room. Damian barely made it seem like he liked Tim on the best of days, he never thought the youngest of them would ever admit to any feeling but contempt towards him.
“You what?” Tim’s voice broke when he spoke.
“You’re my brother, of course I love you.”
Tim’s smile was small but genuine. It caused a similar one to appear on the rest of their faces. Jon looked far too happy about this seemingly small revelation. He had Damian had been talking about how Damian should really express his feelings more, especially towards his brothers. And this was the first in many steps for them.