Chapter Text
Gotham was quiet tonight, and it was storming. It helped as Damian slid into the room, but the thunder wasn't needed to hide any noise. Damian was silent as he entered the room. This was nothing new, he'd always had the ability to hide his steps, his presence. It was one of the most crucial lessons taught to him in the League of Assassins, and taught to him again when he became Robin. So his approach was silent.
But Damian was a creature of habit, even after all this time. Which meant his actions were something Dick expected. Dick himself was watching the rain fall against the window, the storm that covered the city always captivating to the eldest son of Batman. He was seated on the floor, surrounded by pillows and blankets, looking comfortable.
It had taken Damian a lot longer than Dick had initially thought for him to approach him like this again, and Dick mourned the long period of time in which Damian hadn't been there. Dick knew it would take a long while to get back to this point, it was simply the consequences of his actions. Of the deaths of Damian's loved ones Dick had caused for him.
It had been a long time.
It had been 20 long years.
By this point, Dick could feel Damian's presence at his back as he sipped the last of the blood out of his glass, waiting for the baby bat to make his move. And Damian? He hated this. He hates this moment of weakness that he's having. He hates himself for the way he feels like he's betraying all those he cared about that had died at Dick's hand. He hates that still, despite that, he needs Dick more than ever, and how he trembles softly as he approaches. Trembles as Dick allows him to approach.
Because he knows. He always seemed to know when Damian was nearby, even before he was a fellow member of the undead. Damian wonders if Dick knew that he would come back to him like this. He wonders if he knew it would be tonight. He wouldn't put it past him. The little brother in him foolishly thought that Dick knew everything still after all this time. He buries it again. Thoughts like that would only hurt more to think of. Damian shakes in both shame and in that childish want as he falls to his knees silently behind Dick. His arms reach out shakiky and he grabs at Dicks shirt and rests his forehead against Dick's back, inwardly cursing his weakness.
"Oh, baby bat.." Dick's rumbles, worry and affection deep in his tone, reminiscent of when he used to be human. Dick always cared. He always had, when it came to him. Damian never really understood why. The easy affection in Dick's voice reminded Damian of easier times. Of when Dick used to love his family too much to kill them. The thought makes Damian tighten his grip momentarily. He missed when Dick was Grayson. And he hated that he missed him at all.
Damian missed so much these days.
Dick doesn't notice Damians inner turmoil, and if he did, he didn't mind. In fact, having Damian approach him like this again after so long, after so many years.. He had been waiting for this eagerly. He wouldn't dare do anything to jeopardize this. However. There had to be a reason Damian was here. Something had to have happened. Damian wasn't the type to show weakness like this freely, to approash like this. Especially not to him, not after everything he'd done. So then, what happened?
Shifting so that he could pull Damian into his lap and pulling Damian's hands free from clutching at his shirt, he rocks his baby bat, and asks the burning question.
"What happened, baby bat?" Dick's voice was soft, worried. He always worried after Damian, ever since they grew close in that time when they were Batman and Robin. Even after all this time apart, even after Damian had tried countless times to murder him at the start of his reign as king of the vampires.
Damian shakes further, visibly trying his best to hold it together while already falling apart. It made that familiar part of Dick stir more. That part that hated when Damian would get like this, that wanted to do everything in his power to keep it from happening again. The part that saw Damian as His. His baby bat. His brother, but also his child. His Robin. His little fledgling. Damian had always been his. Ever since he became Robin, that part of him stirred underneath the surface. A fierce protectiveness that only Damian Wayne could bring up. Dick never knew what it was like to be a father. But when he grew close to Damian when he was Batman.. He think he knew.
There was a reason why Damian was the only one in the family who hadn't gotten asked or pleaded to join Dick as a vampire. There was a reason Damian was the only one that Dick had wasted no time in making like him, consequences be damned. Because Damian was His. Dick couldn't bear to handle eternity without him, even if Damian ended up hating him for it. For everything he had to do. And Damian had. Damian had hated him for years and years. Spent several trying to kill Dick for murdering Bruce. And even more years trying to topple his rule as the vampire king.
But then, he disappeared.
He knew Damian wasn't dead, the fledgling bond wasn't severed, even if it hadn't ever been opened. But Dick would be lying if he said Damian's disappearance hadn't worried him. Damian goes still, and Dick looks down at him as Damian speaks. There's a sadness in Damian's voice, and tinge of hopelessness to his tone and it made Dick uneasy.
"Alfred's dead." Damian says simply, and oh.
Oh.
That.. explained quite a bit. He'd left Alfred human. Left Alfred with Damian, so that he would have someone who cared for him in the beginning of his vampirism, especially since Damian wouldn't want to be around Dick, his own sire. Over the years it'd slipped his mind that Alfred was mortal. He forgot that he would die one day. He forgot how that would leave Damian alone. He forgot how that would affect his little fledgling.
But he didn't regret this oversight, as it had brought Damian back to him.
"Oh, my little Robin.." Dick says softly, squeezing Damian and tucked his face into his chest so that if Damian needed to cry, he could do so without being seen. It was something he'd done countless times when the two of them were human. Damian didn't like looking weak. It was an unspoken compromise: Damian would seek comfort from Dick, and Dick would hide Damian's face if he needed to shatter. To have the way he fell apart witnessed, it was too much for the Damian. It was too revealing, too raw. Dick and Damian had wordlessly and easily reached this compromise.
And with the way Dick's shirt slowly turned wet where Damian's face was, the way his shoulders shook softly? Not to mention how Damian clutched onto him like the vampire king was the only real thing in his life? Dick knew he'd made the right move. He hushed his little fledgling, rocking him and whispering assurances in English and later on slipping into his native tongue. Time marched on for humanity. It was their curse, one that vampires were free of.
Damian would never age. He would never grow up. Just as Dick would never age. They were forever frozen at the age in which they'd been turned. Eternity was a long time, and it was why he'd let Damian have Alfred. He needed someone to take care of him. And Dick was always a Bat. Would always be one in some ways. He had that suspicion and didn't trust easy. Not anyone could be trusted to care for Damian in Dick's stead. There was no one else equipped to handle him, no one else he trusted to do so, than Alfred Pennyworth. 'He was the best of us,' Dick remembers the phrase being thrown around with the other Bats. It was true.
He wonders how long ago Alfred had passed. He wonders how long Damian had been alone. Between Dick's shushing and murmured words assuring him of safety to Damian, he finds the place to ask.
"Two years." Was Damian's mumbled reply, making Dick feel cold. Dick tightened his hold on the younger vampire. Vampires are highly social creatures, it's why they exist in covens. Damian's only member of his coven he acknowledged had been Alfred, a human.
Damian had been alone, without a coven for two years.
This would not stand. Dick had known he'd bring Damian into his coven eventually. After all, if you paid attention it was easy to know that Damian was easily Dick's most precious thing. His robin. His fledgling. It was irresponsible of him as Damian's sire to allow his fledgling to be alone a moment longer. He needed to open the fledgling bond with Damian, needed to show him he wouldn't be alone anymore. He needed to show his fledgling it was okay to come home. To stay home.
Damian had taken that first step to come back to him, and Dick refused to let it go to waste. He couldn't, wouldn't, lose his robin again. He already had to lose Jason. Already had to lose Tim. He couldn't, refused to lose Damian too.
There were two ways to open the fledgling bond between a vampire fledgling and their sire, their creator. The simplest was-
"Drink. Everything will be alright. I promise. I'll take care of you." Dick, still shushing and comforting Damian, presses his wrist to the younger vampires lips. Damian's teeth dug into the flesh of Dick's wrist almost instantly, and Dick wonders briefly if Damian has eaten recently. When Damian finally starts to drink from Dick's wrist, the fledgling bond snaps into place quickly, Damian stiffening. The flood of emotion from each other flooded the bond. Damian releases his fangs from Dick's wrist and stares at the elder vampire, cheeks puffy, and eyes red from his tears.
Damian could feel and hear what Dick felt when he saw him. It was just a flood of 'mine, love, protect, keep safe, mine, love, protect, fledgling, keep safe, mine, fledgling, protect, keep safe keep safe keepsafekeepsafeprotectmine'.
It was understandable, and constant so it swapped between being overwhelming and loud in his head, to this quiet hum in the back of his brain. But it was the genuine affection, love and want Dick had for Damian blatant in the bond that was Damian's last straw. Tears streamed down his face. He didn't get it, he couldn't understand-
Dick was handling it much better, but he found himself reassuring and holding Damian closer as he felt his fledglings emotions of 'scared, lonely, scared, angry, sad, sad, angry, sad, grieving, sad, lonely, angry, miss you, sire, angry, lonely, miss sire, scared, missyoumissyoumissyoumissyou-'.
Was Damian always this sad? Had he always been this lonely? Had Dick caused this much loneliness in his fledgling? What if he hurt him too much. What if he lft, what if he decided never to come home? Dick knew it was what he deserved. But he couldn't, wouldn't live with that. Damian was His. He could fix this. He had to.
'love you, sorry, love you, missed you, love you, loveprotectkeepsafesorrysorryloveyou'. Dick subconsciously projects back to his little fledgling. The way Damian shakes apart and melts in his arms is enough response for Dick, he didn't need the bond for that. But the bond doesn't lie. Can't lie.
'missed you, sad, comfort, lonely, missed you, brother, home?, missedyoubrotherlonelymissedyoumissedyou-'
Dick hides a small smile. All his waiting had paid off. Damian came home. He hopes his fledgling learns he'll never not have a home with him. He knows with time he will. He can't wait until he's able to help Damian find his fire again. This weakness won't last forever. Damian will stand strong again, this Dicks vows. Dick can fix this. He can help. He can, he can.
'help you, protect you, love you, safe'
The thoughts brushing against Damian's mind soothe something in his undead soul. Damian stops speaking, just letting Dick's emotions wash over him.
He can almost believe he's safe.