Chapter Text
Dick woke up to Damian shaking him.
“Richard, Richard wake up this is of the utmost importance!” He called in that serious voice he used to try and hide his excitement.
“Damian wha? It’s four in the morning.” He replied as he got up regardless, allowing himself to be dragged by the enthusiastic ten year old.
“I must show you something that I have spent the last six hours working on.” He replied not even turning around.
“Dami have you slept tonight?” Dick asked concerned giving a slight pull back on Damian’s hand as they reached the stairs.
“Irrelevant, I do not have school or patrol tomorrow. So I will simply sleep in. Now hurry Richard.
Dick conceded with full intent to circle back to the topic as soon as Dami had showed him whatever he had his heart set on.
Ad he followed his little brother through the manner at this ungodly hour he racked his brain for whatever could have the boy so energetic. A cracked case perhaps? A perfected sword trick? A baby animal, if it was that one he could just imagine the look on B’s face.
What Dick did not expect was to walk into one of the lesser used rooms of the manor and see toys and blocks scattered across the floor.
“Behold! I have created the Gotham Zoo.” Damian said a small smirk on his face. His eyes unintentionally huge and expecting.
As Dick took a good look he was amazed to see that each plastic animal, block, and tree indeed seemed to mirror that of the Zoo they had visit together often.
“Wow Dami you did this all by yourself?!” He asked flabbergasted.
“Yes I did, but I suppose it is not completely accurate as the size of the walls could not pose keep animals if this scale in though I believe that it’s alright to pretend.” He responded with a nod. “Oh look here Richard “ he said as he carefully maneuvered through the toy jungle. “Here is Zitka and the other elephants, they are currently playing with a food puzzle for enrichment,” he gestured to the toy elephants and a little bouncy ball he had placed with them. “And here are the rhinos…” Damian continued to point out little details he included to the replica and Dick couldn’t help but smile wider.
Around five Damian tired himself out and ‘allowed’ Dick to walk him back to his bed.
Before The older returned to his own room however he made a quick stop back at the diagram and snapped a quick picture.
Sometimes it was easy to forget that underneath all his vocabulary and rough edges Damian was just a kid. Though Dick want particularly bad at remembering this fact, it was nice to have that reassurance that Damian was in a space he could lean into that side of him. Even if it’s a little… a lot more detailed then some ten year olds could manage.