Archive of Our Own ^beta

Chapter Text

The woods were not an unfamiliar place to him, no thanks to his mother’s ruthless training. He remembered having to hide from pursuers in these very trees, sticking to branches as if they were his own vice. Perhaps he should be grateful for the experience, considering his situation in the present. Had his mother not sent him into the woods, he would not have had the advantage he did.

The humidity was thick in the air, sweltering with heat. Temptation beckoned him to take a rest, to pause for the briefest of moments. However, this was not the time to settle his back against a stiff tree trunk. Damian had pursuers to lose, and tracks to cover up. There was no time for breaks. Should his pursuers find him, he would not receive this opportunity again. They would tighten up security and trap him in his room. Then, he’d eventually be killed by his grandfather’s usurper. Once his use as a hostage ran out, that is.

Damian pulled himself up a large tree trunk, grabbing hold of the lowest branch the minute his fingers could get around it. He pulled himself upward, aiming for the highest vantage point. He was careful about which branches he chose. Still, that didn’t stop one from snapping at the lightest tug. With horror, Damian scrambled to grab something else. Realizing within the split of a second that he would not be saving himself from a nasty fall, he changed tactics. If he couldn’t avoid the fall, he could at least prepare himself for a safe landing.

A bustle nearby. Damian didn’t register it until he thudded into a cage of arms. The owner grunted and sent alarm bells through Damian’s head. He’d done so well to avoid people thus far. Why had that changed? Who had caught him? Why were they so deep within the uninhabitable part of the woods? How did they even know to find him here? He hadn’t left behind any tracks. His scent was under control. There was no conceivable way he’d been found so easily. Unless… he’d been followed this whole time. While doubtful, it was a possibility.

Damian looked up into blue eyes that flashed with familiarity.

“There you are.”

The man gave him an undecipherable look. Damian took no time to get over his shock and quickly dug for his knife. His hands were lightning fast, his knife ready to stab into the man’s eye. However, the sheer amount of love and protection stilled his thrust. His fingers went lax, and the knife fell out of his hand. Damian was stunned at the overwhelming sensation that was taking over his body. Somehow, it felt safe. It was an entirely illogical thing to feel when on the run.

“Did you just try to stab me?” A quirked brow.

Damian had a difficult time overcoming all the emotions swirling inside his soul.

“W-Who are you?”

Whatever he expected, it wasn’t the man’s reply.

“Your alpha.”

Damian stared at him with utter confusion until he realized the man was still holding him, and that he’d yet to break out whatever spell he’d put him in. A strange part of him wanted to lean into him. Instead, he trudged his way through the muddy pits of his feelings. He put up a weak struggle and demanded freedom with the wrenching of his arms.

“Let me go.” He snarled.

The man watched him, amused. He lowered Damian onto his feet. When Damian regained his balance, he took a few steps back. He wanted to get his knife off the forest floor. Unfortunately, that would mean lowering himself down. That was the last thing he wanted to do in front of an alpha. It might as well scream submission.

“Stay right there.” Damian warned. “Don’t take a step closer.”

“Wasn’t planning to.”

Damian assessed him with a frown.

“What gave me away? How did you find me here?” He demanded. “Answer me now or face my wrath.”

The man raised his arms in a lazy surrender. His stance was relaxed. Damian’s threats didn’t seem to bother him.

“That’s what a bond does, kiddo. It leads you to your pup even if they’re in an entirely different country.”

Damian bristled at the insinuation.

“I am no pup of yours!”

The man eyed him curiously.

“I wouldn’t have been able to find you if that were the truth.”

Damian studied his expression. Why was this man claiming that he was Damian’s alpha? Damian didn’t have an alpha. He’d been trained to avoid such attachments. He’d gone seven years without being claimed. His mother had deemed it so. She’d practiced it too. Just like he did.

“What are you hoping to accomplish by make such ridiculous claims?” Damian found himself asking. “This deception of yours is bizarre. What makes you think I’d fall for it?”

“It’s not much of a deception. I think not many people could pull it off when our bodies are programmed to tell us that – oh – hold on – this guy isn’t a member of my pack.” The man lowered his arms. “I bet yours is telling you something else.” A knowing look. “You’d have stabbed me, otherwise. Nice try, by the way. You’ve got too much of your mother in you.” Added in after-thought, “Maybe a little bit of me, too.”

Damian was still skeptical. He didn’t know much about pack dynamics. Even if he had, would he accept the words of an unknown? He was on the run right now. This was too much of a coincidence to be believed.

His distrust won.

“Enough talk.” He settled in a stance. “One of us isn’t making it out of here alive.”

“I’m not looking for a fight.”

“That choice was removed from you once you intruded upon my sanctuary.”

“You were going to hit the ground.”

“I was prepared for it.”

The man sighed and shook his head.

“I’m not going to fight my pup. I’m your alpha. It’s my job to keep you safe.”

Damian scoffed.

The man spoke again. “I can prove it to you if you’d like. I’ve got some stories.”

“I doubt anything you could offer would be proper evidence.”

“I bet if you’d just hear me out, you’d find that my evidence is plenty of proper, and that I’m exactly who I claim to be.”

Damian narrowed his eyes.

“I’m not in the mood to listen to your fabricated lies.”

Damian had enough idling.

Whether the man wished it or not, he would fight.

It didn’t matter if Damian wasn’t in the mood for listening to Jason’s stories.

Jason, he’d called himself, though he was insistent Damian call him Dad, or Ap-Ap. Ap-Ap being a more endearing term for Alpha, a pup’s nickname for their sire. Needless to say, Damian didn’t want to call him any of those things. He would rather rid himself of Jason’s company. Unfortunately, that seemed rather improbable at this point. Jason had dodged all of Damian’s attempts to get rid of him. Literally. Damian hadn’t been able to put a hand on him. He’d tried to pin him down for half a day before the sun started to fall.

Damian’s eyebrow twitched as the campfire sparked in front of his feet.

Jason wouldn’t stop talking about his ‘childhood.’ Damian couldn’t remember much about his childhood, but Jason had a never-ending compilation of memories. He first began by describing Damian’s infanthood, telling him he’d been a fussy little baby, but that he’d never trade him for anything else. Then, he mentioned how they’d use to sleep together at nights. How holding him would calm him down, how his mother was green with envy. After that, he described his fascination with Jason’s nose. He claimed Damian tried to grab it on multiple occasions.

“When you started teething, you’d cry and cry. Your face would get red with frustration, and I’d feel so bad for you.”

Damian interrupted him.

“If you really are my ‘alpha,’ as you so claim, why didn’t you stay?”

Jason paused in thought.

“I would have.”

He looked at Damian, eyes bearing deep into his soul. Like he was seeing someone else, a younger version of Damian, perhaps.

“Your mother took you from me. She didn’t leave a message or say a word about it. One day, you were in my arms. The next, you were gone.” His lips curved downward into a bitter frown. “I was pissed. I tried to track you down, but she kept moving. Somehow, she was keeping tabs on me. She knew where I was and when to relocate you.”

Damian dugs his fingers into the dirt beneath him. That sounded like his mother, knowing her view of pack dynamics. She wouldn’t have wanted Damian to have anything to do with his alpha. If this man really was his alpha, that is.

“But she couldn’t stop me this time.” Jason’s face darkens. “And she’s not getting you back.”

Damian tensed. Jason stared at him; eyes shadowed over. He looked like a different person. A dangerous person. Perhaps that’s why Damian used that opportunity to leap for him, to flip his knife out and stab.

Jason caught him in his arms and disarmed him within a single instance.

“You can’t keep me!” Damian roared. “And you won’t deceive me! You’re a self-deluded fool!”

Jason wrestled with him until he got Damian where he wanted him, back pressed against his chest, arms crossed over each other, shoulder to shoulder, pressed to his heart, and restricted tightly enough to make moving impossible. Damian wrenched himself a few times, and then he wiggled. He cried out in frustration.

“Shh,” Jason hushed in his ear, “it’s okay.”

Something poured out of Jason, something sweet. Damian was still tense as it invaded his senses. His hard breathing was the only thing that could be heard in the forest, devoid of nature’s sounds after his attack. He didn’t think to pace it properly. Not when something was slipping through his mental barriers, caressing his soul like the touch of a parental hand.

“We don’t have to keep fighting, pup. Can’t you feel it? Our bond? I’m not trying to trick you.”

Damian could feel the bond and… and he wasn’t quite sure what to do with it.

“You’re safe with me. You don’t have to fear me.”

Truth, his instincts claimed.

Damian had never felt anything like this. Whatever was happening, it wasn’t normal. Somehow, the man holding onto him was responsible for this. Damian should be angry at him for influencing his emotions, and yet he still let his muscles slowly relax with tentative surrender.

“That’s it, bubba.”

Damian felt a full-body shiver travel through him until there was no fight left.

“There we go.” A nose in his hair. “Not too bad, right?”

“You…” He wasn’t sure where to begin. “You’re really… pack?”

“Yeah.”

“Everything you said was true?”

“Every word of it, pup.”

Damian took a shaky breath.

Now what?

Chapter Text

Damian attempted to cross a stream by balancing himself on a fallen log.

“Be careful, bubba,” Jason said behind him and something warm touched Damian’s face. It’d been two weeks since he’d first met Jason, and the man didn’t seem to have an end of fussing. Damian had tried to get rid of it at first, by getting rid of Jason, but the man was a stubborn mule.

Damian was something that he wanted, and he wasn’t going to step out of the ring.

Damian cleared his throat after he put a foot on the ground. It was nearly time for them to leave the forest and to make their way into the neighboring village. Damian would catch a ride from there, most likely a bus, and then enter one of the bustling cities. It wouldn’t be too difficult to procure an airplane ticket from there.

“I think we’d get there faster if you’d just let me carry you.”

“I am not to be carried like an infant!”

Damian’s outburst had his alpha smiling. It seemed he’d intentionally been attempting to get a rise out of him. Damian was frustrated more than anything. Jason had been pushing all of his buttons the past few days, trying to figure out what made him tick, and Damian was not fond of his experiments.

“I bet my arms are comfier than those half-beaten shoes of yours.”

Damian didn’t have to look at his shoes to know that Jason was correct with his assessment.

“I remember when you’d run up to me with your little chubby arms raised up,” Jason continued.

“It would be better if you ceased talking. I tire of your reminiscing.”

“I bet you’re just embarrassed.”

“I’m not embarrassed.”

Jason opened his mouth to say something, pausing long enough to cause concern, since he couldn’t keep his trap shut, so Damian turned to look at him. Jason furrowed his brows.

“Damian,” he said, “don’t take another step.”

Damian arched a brow at him because who was he to tell him what to do? Damian attempted to put it to the test, inching forward as if he were going to do the exact opposite, and then Jason barked at him.

“Damian, don’t,” he growled rebukingly.

Damian froze in place as an irrational shame filled his chest.

It didn’t make any sense at first.

Damian eventually understood that his instincts were at play here, that they wanted to listen, and that he had little control over them when Jason used that tone.

Jason could’ve done this earlier, could’ve made Damian do what he wanted, but he hadn’t.

Jason crept forward, grabbing Damian’s shoulder, and pulling him back a bit.

Jason pointed at the forest ground and at the rusted contraption barely seen through a pile of leaves.

“It looks like we’re near civilization.”

It was a bear trap.

Jason squeezed Damian’s shoulder before letting go.

Damian didn’t know what compelled him to shrink like a scolded child.

“I’d be careful from this point on,” Jason said.

Damian nodded, mostly to himself, since Jason wasn’t looking at him, and then took a step around the bear trap. Jason held an arm out to make sure he didn’t take the lead, and then gave him a serious look of non-negotiable authority. “I’ll choose our path from here on out.”

Damian wanted to protest instead of nodding like he did.

Jason’s face softened when he got a look at Damian’s face.

“I’m not angry, if that’s what you’re thinking,” he said.

“I don’t care about that!”

Jason snorted.

“It looked like you were waiting for a smack on the butt, kiddo, so I call fib.”

“I wasn’t expecting such a thing! I – that’s barbaric and – you’re stupid!”

“I see you’ve run out of creative insults.”

Damian fumed as Jason laughed, taking the lead as he’d promised, and Damian lingered behind only to glare at his back. Damian probably would have stuck in his place just to prove a point, but then Jason was glancing over his shoulder with a fond smile.

Damian wondered why this man’s facial expressions could waver his resolve.

Jason got a room in a local inn, a wretched building that was less than hospitable looking, and Damian was not happy to find there was only one bed. Damian wasn’t excited that he had to share a room with Jason to begin with, and he wanted nothing to do with the man after all of his teasing.

Damian was not eager to confront the bed situation with Jason, but then the man surprised him by suggesting he take the ground. Damian watched him lay himself down without a blanket, and he blinked a few times in surprise. Damian had been certain he’d attempt to take advantage of this opportunity.

Damian furrowed his brows, laying himself down on the bed, burrowing himself in covers, and thought about his situation. It was hard to fall asleep. Damian didn’t start feeling drowsy until late within the night, and it was hard to get comfortable on the bed. It was the stiffest thing he’d never laid on, which was saying something, since he’d laid on the ground, and since he’d made branches his sleeping perch for the past two weeks.

“Damian, stop moving around,” Jason groaned. “I can’t sleep.”

“It’s not my fault that this bed is so uncomfortable!”

Jason groaned again because he was exhausted. It hadn’t been easy for him – playing guard for their journeys – staying up late at night to keep watch over Damian.

“I don’t care what you have to do, just go to sleep already,” Jason complained.

Damian got up, snatched the blanket from the bed, and decided to sleep on the ground too.

It was even more uncomfortable to lay down on the hard wood paneling.

Damian grumbled to himself, turning his back towards Jason, and pulling the blanket over his shoulders. It seemed he would not be getting a well-rested sleep this night, but he could at least attempt techniques for some proper shuteye.

Damian counted his breaths, paced them, slowly, and relaxed every individual part of his body. One by one. Little by little. His focus was only on relaxing, calming a thought-burdened mind. With nothing left to think of, sleep eventually came.

However, the sleep felt short-lived.

Damian woke with a snort.

Someone was snoring nearby, and there was something cushioned underneath Damian’s body. It took him a good long second to realize that… that he was sleeping on top of someone. That Jason had curled an arm around him, and that Damian had been drooling on his collarbone.

Damian let his brain process this information. He’d sworn he’d fallen asleep on the ground.

Mortified, Damian drew back with a snap. He elbowed Jason in the gut.

Jason groaned in pain and woke up with a snort of his own.

“Damian, I thought you outgrew the kicking phase,” he said deliriously.

“Why did you – you – I was sleeping on the floor! I – I – why did I wake up on top of you!?”

Jason sat up on his elbows and rubbed his jaw. “It’s not my fault,” he mumbled groggily, “you were the one who decided to get all cuddly on me. I would’ve been fine sleeping on my lonesome, but then you crawled over on top of me.” Jason ran a hand through his hair and yawned. “Not that I minded,” he sniffed. “I thought it was pretty cute.”

“C – Cute!? No! This is not cute! I’m not cute! I –” Why wasn’t anything coming out right? “Stop being a slob and get up! We have things to do today!”

“Okay, your highness,” Jason smirked.

Damian got up, threw the blanket off himself, and darted out of the room. Before Jason could see the warmth on his face.

Had he seriously crawled on top of Jason? What a – what a betrayal from his own body!

Damian avoided Jason as best as he could, making sure there was distance between them, as they spent the next three days preparing for a lengthy bus ride to the neighboring city, but Damian could not have anticipated their delay. It wasn’t within the cards because Damian was skilled – too skilled to accidentally trip over his own feet when Jason called him sweetheart – too skilled to avoid a fall that twisted his ankle.

“It won’t be too bad,” Jason swore, pressing an icepack against his ankle, “and we’ll still probably make it to the city. I’ll just have to find you some crutches.”

Damian crossed his arms with a huff and tried not to wince when Jason readjusted his hold.

“Unless,” Jason continued, a spark in his eye, “you’d like me to carry–”

“No,” Damian rejected before Jason could finish.

Jason shrugged.

“It was worth a shot.”

Jason got Damian his crutches, which took longer than he would’ve liked, and then two days later they departed for the city. Jason was all over him during the 24-hour bus ride. He even had Damian prop his ankle up. Damian was more than embarrassed to have his ankle in Jason’s lap.

Jason used half of the time to tell him more stories of his childhood. Damian heard about how he’d tried to find Jason when he wasn’t home, how he’d light up with the biggest smile when Jason came back, and Jason described their reunions with great joy on his face. Damian always wanted to be with him – always – wanting nothing more than to be in Alpha’s arms.

For the first time in Jason’s company, Damian listened. Maybe it was because he wanted a distraction from the current situation (ankle in lap). Or maybe it was something more. 

At some point, he even asked a question.

“Did you… love me?”

Jason glanced at him before patting his calf, and then removing his gaze to aimlessly stare at his front.

“To death, pup.”

Damian was silent for the rest of the ride, wide awake, even as Jason slept, and his mind was filled with not-quite memories of Jason’s stories. He couldn’t stop replaying them in his head. Imagining, thinking. While Jason slept, Damian examined his face. His eyes followed the curve of his cheeks, the lines of his jaw. His eyelashes. His nose. The streak in his hair. The scars on the hand rested upon Damian’s leg, relaxed with fingers spread.

Damian stared at Jason for a long, long, time until he woke up. They traveled a little longer, off-boarding when morning came. Jason hovered around Damian just in case he needed help with his crutches. Then, he served as a barrier from all the bustling people in the airport.

“You’re going to love the United States,” Jason insisted after they’d gotten past the security check, “and you’ll love the people there too. I’m going to introduce you to some of my friends. They’ll be exhilarated.”

Damian didn’t give him much of a reply as he sat down in the waiting area, taking up an empty chair amongst many, and Jason naturally sat beside him. After describing his hometown, Jason settled into a comfortable silence. He watched the people around them, much like Damian. Except, he wasn’t drowsy like the pup. Damian struggled to keep his eyes open. He faded in and out. Head bobbing, arms spilling.

He woke with a jolt, upset that he could even think to sleep in such a public space.

“Shh, it’s okay,” Jason said, reapplying Damian’s head to his shoulder, where it’d been before he’d jolted out of sleep, “go back to sleep, sweetheart.”

Damian blinked blearily as the people around him shifted into colored blobs. Jason started rubbing fingers into his hair, scraping his scalp on the occasion.

For the first time since they met, Damian purposely leaned into him. He sighed sleepily.

“I’ll protect you.” His alpha said.

No wonder he’d been able to sleep, some distant part of him realized. He’d felt safe. Safe enough to close his eyes in a public place.

Maybe, he wondered, drifting off once more, I might actually give this relationship a shot.