Chapter Text
" Since we were kids, you always got me into trouble."
"I am the son of Batman, Heir to the Demon. I was never a kid."
-
Months ago.
Jon didn't realize Gotham was this bad, crime never slept, and the government has turned their backs on the city time and time again. He's glad someone is doing something about it, but at the same time, the fact that the city even needs a man like Batman to protect it is tragic. He thought Superman and Batman were the coolest guys ever in his childish mind but it's different when you wear the uniforms, you get to see the painful reality of the man beneath the mask or what's left of him. Then you get to see how that man and his mask impact the people around him, how he'll drag you down just to lift the city back up. Batman used to be one of his favorite superheroes, but not anymore, not after he met Damian anyway.
Damian and Jon were very different, they bumped heads at first, sure, but when responsibility was needed, they were always able to do what had to be done.
Not so much recently. Jon thought powers were the coolest thing ever but actually, they are extremely frustrating. When you think of Superman you don't think about his bright red underwear or cape, in the big picture it's his flight because when you can fly you can easily patrol over the whole world. Superman didn't protect just the City of Metropolis or the United States, he was a defender of the entire world. Although Jon was missing that final piece in his complex little puzzle.
Jon ground his fingers over the palm of his hands, a little tick he did when he was deep in thought. He had this scrunched-up and constipated expression that was slowly starting to irritate Damian. Gotham's villains are tougher, twisted, and overall, more exhausting than anything he has to face in Metropolis.
"Are you tired?" Damian asked.
The words seemed to miss Jon, still deep in the far parts of his mind.
"Hey! Farm boy!" Damian shouted into his ears, startling Jon.
"W-What?"
"I asked if you were tired," Damian rolls his eyes.
Jon was tired but mostly he was tired of himself. Jon realized how long he'd been sitting there stuck with this faraway look on his face.
"Sorry, I'm a little tired but I'm mostly fine."
Damian scoffs and scoots closer to the taller boy. Damian leaned toward Jon, curling his fingers over the edge of the building he and his friend were using as a resting place before they went home for the day.
"Spit it out," he demands.
"What?"
This was the most frustrating part, Damian never understood why Jon even bothered to do this. If he wants to talk about something, then he should just do it. He didn't understand why Jon always insisted on biting his tongue instead of just speaking to Damian like he knew he wanted to.
“How long are you going to sit there with that dumb look on your face?”
Jon’s eyes widened, and then they dropped. Damian was right.
“I’m sorry. It’s just… that lady back there… I couldn’t save her because I was too slow. If only I could fly…”
Jon curled into himself, making himself feel physically smaller rather than mentally.
“How am I supposed to be Superman if I can’t even fly?” his tone was vapid.
“Jon-“
Talking about it made all those feelings he was trying to fight off come to the forefront of his mind, only making him more annoyed with himself.
“It’s so frustrating! I’ve got every other power! Everything! The heat-vision, the strength - but I still can’t fly…”
Damian is not good at this part, trying to comfort his friend seems impossible for him to do because the whole time he’s trying not to come off as indifferent. He thinks Jon is deserving of that emotional response to his feelings - it just sucks that it’s so hard for Damian to give it to him. It’s still a strangely nice feeling; knowing that Jon trusts him enough to share these things with him.
“Batman tells me that you simply can’t save everyone, but you can always try and that’s what matters.”
Batman: what he spends every suffocating second of his life trying to be.
“That’s not fair,” Jon says, dryly.
“No, it’s not,” Damian exhales.
They sit in silence for a little bit too long before Damian realizes he should probably break it. Damian feels a drop of water hit his hand, but he thinks nothing of it.
Jon doesn’t want to speak, he’s too busy trying to fight in the war inside his mind. If he speaks now, he’ll only overshare and make Damian uncomfortable. Jon doesn't cry, he just sniffles a little like a mistreated puppy.
Suddenly, it starts to downpour hard. Damian thought it was probably some disturbed meta-human altering the weather, that was the only excuse for how quickly it started to rain. The rain pierces through Robin's hood. He grunts, realizing that he doesn’t have anything to shield himself from the rain, and if they only went home sooner instead of pointlessly moping around then he wouldn’t have to deal with this nonsense.
Superboy jumps to the rescue, he throws his cape over the both of them, forcing both of them into proximity with one another to hide from the rain.
Jon makes direct eye contact with Damian under his cape with a dumbstruck look on his face.
“I was fine, thanks.”
Damian’s cruelty snaps Jon back into reality.
“You can still get sick.”
“I assure you I have a much higher tolerance for this type of thing than you think.”
“You’re still human.”
That statement does more damage than Jon was expecting which was any at all. They both let their words hit the floor. Damian makes himself speak first so Jon won’t have to.
“tt.” Damian pulled away. “I’m not something that needs to be protected. I have never been, and I won’t reduce myself to that now.”
“… I didn’t mean it that way. I just don’t want to burden you in any way.”
Damian sighed.
“You’re not dead weight just because you can’t fly… Well, that’s not the reason anyway.”
Damian pulled Jon into the hug, letting the rain soak them. Damian is anything but a hugger, but he can allow it this one time, especially with the day that Jon’s had; he deserves it. They forgot about the storm forming above them for just a moment to allow themselves to savor each other’s embrace.
“You’re the best friend I could have asked for. I know this is uncomfortable for you, so I appreciate it.”
“It’s not so bad. Compared to you whining I’ll take this any day… Also, who said we were friends?”
“Sorry for assuming, I’ll take the little wins.”
Damian takes a moment to think… Jon was always taller than him but was he always this much taller than him?
“Kent, you’re airborne.”
Jon almost shoves Damian away to examine his feet which seemed to be floating inches off the ground. The expression on Jon’s face was more delightful to Damian than his flying.
The pure joy and excitement made the moment they shared even more special.
Jon was a giggling, spinning mess completely ignoring his body rotating and dangling over the traffic below because he was too caught up in the moment.
“Focus on staying upright, Kent.”
“Hahaha! This is awesome! I can’t wait to tell my dad,” Jon giggled.
“Kent! Balance yourself in the air!”
Jon jolted; he didn’t comprehend what Damian was trying to tell him at first. He slowly got himself upright. Flying was the strangest feeling, like a high. It felt amazing.
“It’s a psychological thing, just focus on the direction you want to go, guide your mind there and then your body,” Damian explained.
So his first instinct was to go straight to Damian.
Jon did it right, a little bit too harsh, and gently crashed into the other but Damian was able to catch him, and when Damian fixed him in his arms, he felt something that only he could feel, he felt closer to Damian in a way that contrasts to something you should feel for a friend, it was so sudden he couldn't piece together exactly what it was, just that Damian didn't feel it as well. Damian took a step back, shattering his delusion.
“How do you know so much about flying?” Jon asked.
“I used to be able to fly for like a couple of days.”
Weird but at this point not surprising.
“Ready to go home, crybaby?” Damian says finally.
Jon smiles.
-
Damian flew on the back of the half-Kryptonian through the air of Gotham City. Of course, he was excitable at first due to his flight being recently triggered but after a while his exhaustion quickly crept in. He moved past the buildings and over the city lake, making a shortcut to the Wayne Manor. Without the natural loudness of a busy city, he was being lulled to sleep.
He thought Damian was fast asleep on top of him, but it seems that couldn’t be true because Damian then cups Jon’s eyes with his hands, obscuring his vision. This pulls him out of his stupor, and he instinctively flips to eliminate his attacker, but the flip turns into a flail and he’s free falling into the water below.
“What’d you do that for?!” Jon rubbed the water out of his eyes.
“Haha! You should see your face!” Damian burst out into laughter.
“That was dangerous, you could have got hurt!” Jon puffed his cheeks.
“Can’t you just see through my hands, idiot?”
“…” Jon was stumped.
He was also embarrassed at first, but he realized that he’d never seen Damian laugh this outwardly before and he didn’t want to ruin it.
“You’re laughing…” he said.
Damian was holding his gut trying to calm the laughter bursting out of him. Jon and Damian were drenched in nasty, cold Gotham water so overall the current situation sucked but Jon couldn’t stop his mouth from curling up at the ends while watching his friend enjoy his suffering.
“I promise to catch you when you fall from now on, okay?” Jon held out a hand to the other boy.
Damian yawned. “Whatever.”