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Damian thought he’d found a good hiding spot out in the garden.
It was nice enough – not too hot – not too cold. Damian wasn’t being swarmed by mosquitoes yet, and the sprinklers hadn’t turned on. It was better than he could ask for after all of his other hiding spots were uncovered. Damian was disappointed that the attic hadn’t worked out. It might have been stuffy up there, but it felt comfy enough for hiding. Damian would have fitted it out to his liking, since no one ever went up there, and he might have even decorated it.
Damian tapped his phone a couple of times as he played a clicker game. It wasn’t his main choice of entertainment, but there was nothing else to do. Damian wanted a distraction. Damian wanted something to do the thinking for him, even if he used to believe such a thing was counter-intuitive, and utterly stupid.
Damian continued to mess around with his phone for the next thirty minutes, but he paid very close attention to the progression of time. It was getting closer to the evening now. It was a warning sign if anything. Damian had been preparing for this moment. It was the least he could do as Damian al Ghul, trained heir to the throne, and skilled in the art of stealth. Damian had learned just a few months ago, following his initial arrival, that the evening meant leaving the comfort of his bubble, and being initiated in a strange activity.
Damian didn’t know why his family was so insistent on joining them, or why they went out of their way to find him for it. Damian wanted nothing to do with it. It made him feel weak. It wasn’t good to feel weak. Damian didn’t like having his mind drift away without his permission. It always tended to happen when he was forced to participate, but his family seemed to think it was an endearing thing. Damian did not agree in the slightest. It was not endearing. It was concerning! It was unnatural!
Damian waited another ten minutes with anticipation. His heart thumped with each passing minute. It was hard to focus on his game. He knew it was only a matter of time.
“Damian!?”
Damian stilled himself like the statue he was hiding behind. It had begun.
“Damian?”
Father’s voice echoed across the garden as footsteps shuffled across dirt carved paths. Damian didn’t dare call back or move a muscle. It wasn’t wise. Father would find him in an instant, and then it would be over for good. Damian couldn’t risk that. Father always had the upper-hand once Damian was officially located.
“Is he out here?”
Dick’s added voice was also not a good sign.
“I don’t know.”
“Do you think we should check his usual hiding spots again?”
“I don’t think he’s there. Damian must have found a new one.”
Damian carefully listened to them as they continued to talk about him. It gave him comfort when their voices grew distant. It meant that they were walking away from him. Damian could use this opportunity to move. It might do him some good to enter the woods. Damian could find a tree to climb up, preferably one that wasn’t dead, with plenty of leaves to hide in, and then he could lay himself across a branch for the remainder of the evening.
Damian went over his mental plan before his phone buzzed in his hands.
It began to ring.
Damian cursed as he frantically attempted to silence the phone. It wasn’t good that he couldn’t hear his father’s voice anymore because that meant they’d stopped talking. Damian knew they weren’t far enough to have disappeared completely.
Damian threw his phone on the ground with another curse, darted up, and then ran.
Damian liked to think he was fast on his feet. It took him no time at all to make it to the woods. Damian intended to use the trees for cover, but for now his path was utterly aimless. It was hard to properly plan out a route when he could hear snapping twigs behind him.
Damian ran like a leaping doe, dodging roots, jumping over obstacles, and curving around trees. It would have been impressive if Dick didn’t influence him to run in another direction, like a wolf corralling its prey, and eventually Damian realized he was being tricked. Damian somehow ended up exiting the forest instead of going deeper within the territory.
Damian saw his father waiting for him and took a step back.
Damian slapped the back of his head against Dick’s chest.
Dick looked down at him. Damian looked up.
Dick smiled with a face that showed no hint of fatigue. It’d been child’s play for him to run around chasing Damian. Damian wasn’t sure if he should admire his brother’s endurance, or if he should be angry at him for being physically fit.
“Come on, buddy,” Dick said.
Damian inwardly groaned as Dick urged him forward with a gentle push to the back. Damian dragged his feet like a sulking child, which he was, and then he was brushing past his father who moved to follow after him. Damian could feel his father’s pleased gaze on the back of his neck. It was insufferable.
Dick thrummed with happiness as he escorted Damian back into the manor, and right down the path that led to their family den. Damian felt dread pit up in his stomach as he entered the room. Dick made sure he didn’t have an exit out because he blocked the door with his body.
Damian looked around reluctantly, eyeing Tim, who was dead asleep with a book over his face, and then observing Jason’s spot in a huddle of pillows. Jason made eye-contact with him. Damian was irritated by the smirk on his lips and the knowing look within his eyes.
“Go on,” Dick encouraged with another push.
Damian walked further in, Dick trailing in after him, as Bruce took over Dick’s spot, and blocked the exit with his body. Damian grumbled under his breath as he took the slowest journey, that he was possibly capable of, to Jason’s spot. Jason didn’t do anything when Damian sat himself next to him, but Damian could feel his eyes burning a hole through his head.
Damian spent about thirty seconds sitting down before Jason slinked an arm around him.
Damian inwardly sighed as Jason tugged him in. Jason rumbled a pleased purr, pulling Damian into his arms, and maneuvering him for a nuzzle to the face. Damian tried to pry his face away only for Jason to puff into his hair. It didn’t matter to him. Jason aimed for another spot on his head, pressing his nose into Damian’s hairline. Damian then picked up the faintest smells of a pleased pack-mate, and that wasn’t a good sign for him in this scenario. When the scent started coming out, that’s when he started to change.
Father sat himself next to Tim, watching Jason out of the corner of his eye, ever protective of his youngest pup, who was so very different from his other children, and sometimes unpredictable. Dick didn’t bother following their father’s example. Dick tended to Tim by taking the book off of his face, and then by pulling up a blanket over him. Tim mumbled something in his sleep as Dick propped his head up on a pillow.
Jason was still scenting Damian when the effects started to kick in. Damian whined in protest because his body was stupid sometimes, and why could the adults handle this, but he couldn’t?
Jason’s chest vibrated against his side. Damian’s shoulder was smooshed against Jason’s shirt because of the way he was being held. Jason’s vibrating purrs traveled through Damian’s shoulder, over his chest, and down his body. Damian melted until there wasn’t a tense muscle in his body, and the scent was the culprit. Damian was never this relaxed. Never! And he never enjoyed something so much, certainly not! This was all a strange form of hypnotism!
Damian began to purr (what was wrong with him?).
His purrs only goaded Jason’s. They grew fiercer, and then Damian was totally enveloped by Jason’s affection.
“Look at him,” Dick teased, “he definitely doesn’t hate pack time as much as he claims.”
“Not many pups do,” Bruce said.
Damian almost didn't care – almost.
Offended, Damian drew away from Jason.
“Do you think you can talk about me while I’m right –”
Jason pulled him back in and clamped Damian in his arms. “No. I’m not finished yet.”
Damian squawked and fought as Jason wrangled him for more scenting. Then Damian was slumping, glaring daggers at Dick. Dick laughed and winked at him. Father ignored them and laid himself down, pulling Tim into his arms with a lazy roll. Tim stirred for a moment only to wrap his arms around his father’s body. He did so as if it were the most natural thing in the world.
“Father,” Damian protested. How could he just go to sleep?
Jason’s curving body blocked Damian’s view of his father as he showered him with attention. Damian was not happy about it. He had a point to prove. How dare Jason get in the way of that? Unfortunately, it looked like he’d have to wait until Jason was done with him. Only then could he teach his father a lesson for ignoring him.
He just didn’t expect Jason to never be done with him. Not until the following morning.
Great. Awesome. Fantastic.
Not.
He’d have to find an even better hiding spot next time.