Work Text:
Damian watched out of the corner of his eye, from his spot on the floor. He tried not to outright stare, would drop his gaze back to his homework every time Jason made a move to turn around, but. He was curious.
Baba looked sad. His face was pale and he kept running his fingers across his eyes. He wasn’t talking very loudly, and anything he said was short. Clipped. He was upset, obviously, and Damian wanted to know why.
“Yeah. Okay. Bye.” Jason sighed as he dropped the phone from his ear, and turned back into the family room. Damian sat up, mouth already open to ask, when: “Come on, baby. We’ve gotta head to the manor.”
“Is Alfred okay?” Damian asked immediately, jumping to his feet.
“What?” Jason asked absently. Sliding his jacket on and slowly reaching for the car keys. “Oh. Yeah. Alfred’s…Alfred’s fine.”
“Good.” Damian hummed as he moved into the hallway, turned back to watch Jason lock the door. “Then why are we going?”
“Hm?” Damian frowned, even as Jason moved ahead of him. He was so distracted, so…quiet. It was disconcerting. “You like the manor.”
“Well, sure.” Damian agreed. “But we only go there on weekends, or when Didi gets hurt.” Damian froze, then. Watched Jason start down the stairs. “…It’s not Didi again, is it?”
Jason glanced up at him. Smiled weakly. “Didi’s fine, honey.”
Damian hesitated for a second, then raced after his father, mumbling a quiet, “…Good.”
He still didn’t ask, though. Even when they made it to the car. Just watched his Baba, watched the shell of his Baba, go through the motions. Sit in the front seat, turn on the car. Damian figured Jason didn’t even know if he was in the car before he put it in gear and took off down the road.
The drive was silent, and eerily so. Damian didn’t like it. In fact, he hated it. Wanted to do something to fill the silence. Hum, dance, kick Baba’s chair, anything.
But he didn’t. Just watched the city fly by around them, and then after a few minutes, the countryside.
When they stopped on the driveway, Jason shut the car off, and sat there. Stared out the front window for a moment before sighing. Deeply, shakily. Turned back to Damian – and that’s when he noticed. Baba had been crying.
“Let’s get inside, baby.”
Jason waited for him at the hood of the car, and Damian didn’t hesitate this time. As soon as he reached Jason’s side, he slipped their hands together, squeezed his Baba’s fingers.
Jason flashed another weak smile, and squeezed back.
The walk to the front door almost seemed to take longer than the drive, and with every step, Damian’s stomach dropped deeper.
Was it Auntie Babs maybe? Or Stephie again?
Damian came out of his mind when Jason knocked on the door, stared up at his Baba curiously. Jason refused to look down at him.
It was only a few seconds later that the large door creaked open, and Alfred stood in its frame. Like his Baba, Alfred seemed sad, tired. In shock.
“Oh, Master Damian.” Alfred breathed, like he was surprised Damian was there. Tried to smile. It came out wrong. “…He would have been so happy you came.”
“He?” Damian questioned. Looked back up at Jason. “Would have?”
Jason didn’t answer, just said, “Let’s get inside, Dames.”
“Is it Tim?” Damian demanded nervously, rooting his feet to the spot, jerking Jason’s hand back. “What he, Baba? What’s happened?”
Alfred clapped a hand over his mouth, turned away and tried to muffle his sob. Jason’s lips pinched, as if he was trying to stop himself from having to do the same.
It hit Damian like a ton of bricks, then. Doesn’t know how or why or what triggered the thought. But it dawned on him like the rising sun. Burned his mind and his soul and his heart, like someone had just thrown lava on him.
His voice was barely a whisper.
“…Where’s Father?”
Jason closed his eyes. Sucked his lips between his teeth and looked away.
“Where’s Father?” Damian pushed, hearing his own voice shaking. Barely registered Alfred turning further away, covering his face with both hands. His voice cracked, as he tugged on Jason’s hand. “Baba, where’s my dad?!”
“…Damian.” Jason tried, voice wrecked. He looked back at Damian but Damian couldn’t handle it. Spun away to search the foyer, to look through the house. Because this was a joke, a prank. It had to be, it had to be. “Baby, listen to me-”
“Where’s my dad?!” Damian yanked his hand away, backed up a step. Looked back into the house and zeroed in on the study behind the staircase.
Jason started to say something else, but Damian wasn’t listening, already taking off towards that room. Towards that door behind the clock.
“Damian!”
“Superman is down there.” Damian heard Alfred report urgently, even as he rounded the corner into the room. As he jumped up the clock, spinning its hands to the proper code. “They’re here to return the…”
The clock clicked and moved out of the way. Damian was darting down the stairs before it was completely open.
The sound of his own breathing flooded his ears. The beat of his heart pulsed through his fingertips.
This isn’t real, this isn’t real, this isn’t real.
He looked everywhere, at everything. Stumbled down the stairs more than once. As he rounded the final bend, he registered shapes in the corner. A few of them. Superman. Wonder Woman. Robin. Nightwing.
Didi.
They were huddled together, voices soft and heads bowed. Damian couldn’t tell if they were crying. Didn’t care either. He wasn’t down here looking for them, he was here looking for-
He dropped to the landing with a thud, and in his periphery, noticed Superman look up, and over Dick’s shoulder. Didn’t care, though. Didn’t care about anything, because he knew where the gurney was. It was in the med bay and the med bay curtain was closed.
The med bay curtain was never closed unless there was someone inside it.
He felt – literally, physically, felt – his heart begin to shatter. The pieces drop into his lungs, cutting up all his organs.
He heard Superman gasp, then whisper, “Dick.”
Damian’s feet felt like lead now, as he tried to walk forward, tried to move towards that curtain. Just to be sure, just to be positive-
He saw Dick turn towards him. Saw Tim and Diana look at him too.
This isn’t real, this isn’t real, this isn’t real.
He listed to the side as he walked forward. Didn’t make it very far, before he saw what he needed to.
A boot, wrapped around a leg. Two boots, two legs. Lifelessly tilted apart.
“No…”
The shadow behind the curtain became clearer with every step he took. The muscles, the body, the cape draped across the side.
His eyes began to water, just as his voice did.
“No…!”
He saw the shape of the cowl, silhouetted into the curtain. Another two steps and he saw the gloved hand, resting across a mutilated torso.
That was enough.
“No!”
His vision blurred over at the same moment his knees gave out. His shins slammed painfully against the concrete, and he barely caught himself on his hands. His tears dripped onto his knuckles, even as he struggled to breath. Struggled to think.
His father was dead.
Damian tried to suck in a breath, tried to keep calm, tried to refocus. Couldn’t do anything but blubber and sob.
It wasn’t fair.
He’d only known for three years. Only known his heritage, his real heritage, for three years. Only had his mother and his Baba and his Didi and his father for three measly years.
It’d been a bumpy road. And just recently, it was finally settling down. They’d, him and Bruce, had finally found a normal. They were just starting to get along-
He was just starting to love him. Was just starting to love his father the way he loved his Baba and his Didi.
He curled his fingers, dug his nails into the stone. Felt them chip and tear.
“No, no, no, no…” He wailed, closing his eyes. Suddenly, he shrieked. “I want him back. I want him back right now…!”
There was movement beside him, and suddenly arms tight around him.
“Shhh,” Dick whispered, dragging Damian against his throat, rocking him quickly, gently, holding the side of his head. “Shhh, breathe for me, baby. It’s okay.” He felt Dick swallow the anguished lump in his throat. “It’s going to be okay.”
“Bring him back, Didi.” Damian whined, curling into Dick’s chest, clutching at his uniform. “Please bring him back, Didi…!”
Dick didn’t say anything, but Damian felt him hold him tighter. Bury his face deeper into Damian’s hair. Let his own breath sorrowfully hitch.
Damian opened his eyes. He isn’t sure why he did, but he did. Watched Wonder Woman embrace Tim. Watched Superman move to the curtain and pull it completely shut.
Damian tried to lurch from Dick’s arms. “Bring him back right now, Superman!”
Superman glanced over at him, then lowered his head sadly.
Damian collapsed back into his sobs. Back into Dick’s arms. Let Dick uselessly shush him, rock him back and forth like he was an infant.
He didn’t say anything when he felt his Didi’s own tears fall onto his forehead.
“Batman’s dead.” He declared, through sniffles and snot. Twisted only slightly when he sensed someone at his back, when he felt his Baba cocoon him and Dick both. He shifted back slightly, kept his hands firmly on Nightwing’s armour, pushed his face into Jason’s neck. “Baba, Batman’s dead.”
Jason didn’t shush him. Jason didn’t do anything. Just held him as tight as humanly possible.
And it took a while. A few minutes, or maybe an hour. Damian didn’t know. The other two probably didn’t either. But his sobs slowly diminished. His mumbled litanies subsided. Never quite went away, but reduced to snivels and pathetic coughs.
“It’s not fair.” He found himself saying, over and over. Even as Jason nuzzled his forehead and Dick leaned his head on Jason’s opposite shoulder. “It’s just not fair.”
Neither Didi nor Baba argued that point.
“I just want him back.” Damian repeated miserably, feeling an exhaustion sweep over him as he slumped back against Dick’s neck. He watched lazily; Diana was leading Tim back up to the manor. Superman was blocking Damian’s view of the curtain now. He felt his voice crack again, softer than a whisper. “I just want him here.”
He felt Jason shift, gather him and Dick further into his arms, Damian sandwiched firmly, almost suffocatingly, between them. But that was okay, Damian wouldn’t complain. This was exactly where he wanted to be. He’d bite anyone who tried to take him from it. Take him from them.
He’d already lost one dad today, he wasn’t letting the other two out of his sight. Not for a long time.
“We all do, baby.” Baba whispered, right before Damian heard him leave a sad kiss on Didi’s forehead. “We all do.”