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Damian was used to being waited on hand and foot by people, whether in the League or Gotham. At some point, it had degraded slowly to him working with his team. Which was fine...unless your second-in-command--or as she preferred 'co-leader'--was Alessia Knox, perhaps the most annoying person able to be born. She really was...a friend in some meaning of the word but she wasn't a good friend. Or...nevermind. One massive problem was that she never seemed to figure things out until the very last moment. Always in the middle of ongoing battle as well.
"Some people are actually trained in battle strategy." He had exclaimed with anger during a team debrief.
"And I barely have a fifth grade education!" She had screamed back.
Always screaming with her. But she was a good ally. An ally that you'd be terrified to have as an enemy.
"Spar with me." She stomped her foot on the ground.
His eyes widened in disbelief. "Right now?"
"Yes, right now. You want strategy?"
"I'd like to see it!"
be damned that it was 2 in the morning, she was going to show this dick that she could spar. She could strategise, she knew she could but if he didn't think so then...man, there was no point.
Meanwhile, he was sat there thinking 'Did it have to be right now?'
This little tradition continued on. After every fight, it would be 'Right now.' 'Right now?' 'right now!'. It got exhausting, especially for the team that actually stayed at the Clubhouse. It would be screaming before hearing landing thuds onto the walls. Most of the time actually, it was both of those simultaneously. Raven plugged her ears at night, just knowing that once they started fighting; it wouldn't be over until one of them was either A. too exhausted to keep fighting or B. was actually too unconscious to keep fighting. And it was annoying...
"Not as annoying as now though." Lian pointed out at breakfast when Raven was recalling all these old memories.
"What do you mean?" Aaira asked, eyebrow raised.
"Oh man, I'm pretty sure they fuck each other, Aai."
The rest of the team could've choked on their food. "What?"
"You don't hear them giggle through the walls, it freaks me out!"
"I do not giggle." Damian scoffed from the trapdoor.
The team all stared at him. Then a beat of silence. Then another.
"I mean, he does." Alessia pulled themself up from the ladder under the door. "He most definitely does. He just doesn't like admitting it."
"Also, Lian said 'them', could've just been Lessi giggling." Aubrey pointed out.
"See! Anyways, got a shoot, gotta run." The aforementioned bolted out the door.
"I have to go see Richard." Robin muttered.
"So do I." Aaira got up and left them.
"What were you saying, Li?" Aubrey immediately leaned in closer.
"Yeah, you can hear them being all lovey-dovey, it drives me insane at night!"
"Tell them to shut up." Deniz shrugged.
"It's always the giggly 'Really, right now?'" Lian mocked in her 'best' Alessia impression.
"Aw, sorry you have to hear that, Li." Zoe pouted.
A 'right now' lead to all this, even if the future team didn't really like it. It seemed that in the absence of something, you love it so much more. Alessia's heart stung with guilt the moment they let Damian walk away to the League, even if they knew that he would be back. It was part of the plan. It was always a part of their lives. They would both walk back to their respective kingdoms, even if it meant leaving the other to wilt. Both of them, unfortunately, were the type to deny, deny, deny. The first Liraz meeting after his disappearance? 'He's fine.'
But the moment they gotten him to safety after getting him back from the League? A sharp 'SLAP!' echoed through the halls, and then deafening quiet settled over the world. There was a quick spat of yelling...then silence again.
Henry and Jon had pressed themselves up against the door to Damian's room, Deniz and Aaira flanking them. The latter two were not surprised by the yelling, even less surprised when they heard one of them kissing the other.
"Oh!" Aaira exclaimed a little too loudly.
In the room, they were...aware but ignoring it.
Right after the slap, Alessia was fuming with rage. Tears burned in her eyes, lump in her throat.
"How...could you! You just left! Didn't even ask! Just left! I mean you told but it's not like you asked!"
"I did."
"No, you didn-"
"Kiss me." He folded his arms.
"Right now?" She stared at him in disbelief. "that's my thing!"
"Yes, right now."
"I-"
Damian pulled Alessia in, more tender than she thought he would be. He always seemed...rough with his girls. not in a horrendous way but...just enough where he didn't feel sincere. But this...this felt right. It felt more than right, it felt meant to be. It didn't feel like he was trapped in the League, trapped in his father's manor, it felt...like home.
"I'm killing everyone outside the door." He groaned as they pulled away.
"Be my guest. And I'm sorry for hitting you."
"It's not the first, it wouldn't be the last." He remarked, unsheathing his blade.
The month after their first twins were born were filled with weariness and turmoil. They stayed at the Clubhouse, not a horrendous deal but everything felt just a little too much. They stared at the ceiling, wondering if this was their hell cycle. The twins were in the basement floor, sleeping next to Zoe tonight wile their parents were on the flat roof. But both of them could still hear their children. They stared up into the night sky, pondering every decision that had lead to this moment.
"Can we go for a walk?" Alessia shook Damian.
"Right now?"
"Yes please."
Their hair was frazzled, they couldn't even seem to walk properly. Their eyes seemed to blink like a lizard's, one after the other. They were too tired to walk like they usually did, fingers entangled within one another's. They walked side by side, kind of peaceful, kind of quiet. It felt too early to have any sort of touch with one another, like it was a forbidden gesture.
"I think you're still the most beautiful person in the world." He said, seemingly out of the blue.
"What?"
"Stephanie said that you might not feel like that. But you are."
"Oh..."
Oh.
Alessia Chalondra burst into tears, crumpling under their own weight. No one but the two of them could hear their pure unreleased anguish as their hands grasped for any sort of lifeline: in the grass, in the soil, at the foot of their lover. It felt hopeless. Another teen statistic to throw down the drain, another young hero who'd be forgotten because they were being stupid.
They were meant to be the one to change the cycle. Meant to be the one who actually did something for themselves, a better version of their fathers, a better version of their mother. Not like their brothers, the dead one or the live ones. No one cared.
If a tree fell and it didn't make a sound, did it really fall?
The world around them was folding in on itself, they were the anchor to make sure that nothing collapsed. If the support pillar failed, then who would be the saviour? Their brain couldn't even listen to Damian right now, that just...wasn't the point.
He glanced around briefly, wondering if anyone was there. Then he sat down next to them, rubbing their back until they tired themselves out. They would eventually, it's how Alessia worked. They'd always end up in their bed afterwards, no memory of how they got there. Truth is, he'd carry them there. Like it was on that night.
Damian scooped them up once their breathing had slowed down, their hiccups more like little bubbles. The way they curled up into his chest, in a fairly warm May night. The League didn't teach him how to deal with something like this. Perhaps they had taught him how to carry spoils of war, a corpse that had been heavied by rigor mortis.
They didn't teach him how to carry your partner heavied by damnation.
It was a few years later, with both of them on the couch, watching Mary-Anne and Shayan dance when Alessia got that look in their eye. Damian caught it almost immediately. They were gonna ask something of him he couldn't refuse.
"You want another one?" He seemed less than amused, pointing at their two kids.
"Yes, please."
"When?"
Their voice dropped. "Right now."
"Now?"
"Bloody course right now, I've wanted five for ages."
"Five?"
"Did I never tell you this?"
"You maybe inferred it-"
"So..." They ran a thumb across his cheek.
"My dears?" Damian's voice took on a softness once he had his kids. He always had it in him but it seemed to now be his most prevalent voice.
"Yea?" Mary-Anne ran to her father's side.
"Would you two like a younger sibling?" Alessia ruffled Shayan's hair.
"Target practice!" Their daughter cheered.
"I want a sister..." Their son admitted shyly.
"Then we'll do that tonight." They poked their partner on the nose before skipping upstairs.
They had three more children after that: Layla, and then the younger twins, being Arsalan and Habil. It took them maybe 18 years to realise something. Something that most couples do in the first half decade of being together.
Habil and Arsalan had come down with a bug that they had gotten in the first month of being in kindergarten; Layla was dealing with middle school drama that both her parents were privy to, and both their older children had gone back to university and no matter how many times it happened, they still would worry about it. And so, they hadn't eaten most of the day with Damian being kept on his toes in the hospital and Alessia staying at home, nursing the younger two.
They were at the stove, his arms snaking around their waist, his lower face perfectly fitting into the curve of their neck. They were older now, maybe their wisdom hadn't followed but that seemed like a suitable enough gift for two children who were forced to mature beyond their years. Damian had visibly aged, especially according to their children. His eyes had taken back their natural amber hue, the colour it was before the Lazarus Pit. Alessia, however, did not. Their immortality was unconditional. They both knew what that meant, and it's not like a Lazarus Pit and an immortal had ever made children before. Problem was that they thought if they ignored it, maybe it wouldn't happen. Maybe they wouldn't have to wonder if their kids were immortal or not.
Then Alessia stopped stirring.They stood there, silent and unmoving for a moment. Their fingers rested near the fire, the small flames dancing around her fingertips, meeting its maker. They turned around.
Slipped their mother's ring off their neck, pinching it between two fingers.
"Will you marry me, Damian Wayne?"
His hair was starting to grey at the sides, much like his father and grandfathers before him. There were wrinkles by his eyes after years of learning how to smile and be himself. His name was his own now, and he could be whoever he wanted to be.
"Excuse me?"
"We never did it. We should get married. Right now."
He pushed their hand down towards their chest, pulling them in by the waist.
"Let's wait until Shay and Mar are back."
The wedding was as lowkey as two members of Liraz could have. Their friends were loud but they were there, that's all that mattered. Some of Alessia's family had come too and that was always nice, provided they didn't start The Apocalypse. It was loud, joyful and filled to the brim with guests who loved them. Guests who loved them for who they were. Their children were there too, laughing and giggling and gagging every time someone made reference to their parents being lovey-dovey.
It was a mixture of so many of their cultures and of course, something Alessia had been waiting for since they were little, wishing upon a star.
"Okay, now find your name." They grinned from the bed as Damian unbuttoned his shirt.
"Hm?"
"Your name!" They produced their hands from behind their back, covered from fingertip to nearly elbow with henna.
"Right now?" He tutted.
"Yes, right now! Before midnight, or else the marriage will fail!" They groaned, pulling him backwards into the bed. They kicked their feet like a child nearing a tantrum.
"Okay, okay, beloved." He kissed her forehead gently as he sat beside her.
He searched high and low up her arms, attempting to find any semblance of his name. Damian Wayne, husband to Alessia Chalondra. His Kendra. He traced every line, every dot, every smear that could possibly be it...and he got to her wrists. They were scratched by years of frustration, days of torture, nights of lust; it was like a land filled with mines of memories.
And he found it.
"There it is." He went closer.
The ball of their hand went up into his forehead. They giggled as he scoffed. It was simple fun, something they'd been doing to him since they first met.
"Why here?" He asked, undeterred by his partner's antics.
"It's my pulse point!" They replied simply.
And it really was that simple. A pulse point...someone's sign of life. Their sign of life, to show they were human. To show that they really could be normal.
Maybe Alessia really did forget that their immortality was for forever.
Despite not being exposed to the Lazarus Pit since he was 25, Damian Wayne's veins still ran strong with the liquid. Of course, that did eventually run out. It ran out slowly, diluting into pure red blood as most of us humans have. It wasn't red tinged with green, it wasn't his partner's red laced with gold; it was pure crimson.
And so when he laid on his death bed, sheets of white and gold thread, not staining a single spot, it was an odd sight. He expected to be in this bed as his blood seeped out of him, after a battle that he'd no doubt be victorious in. His fist would be clenched around the hilt of his sword, not giving up until Death finally took him to be by its side. He'd be scarred, dying but memorialised for all of eternity.
Ah well, he supposed he still would. That's what you get marrying an immortal, don't you?
They grasped his wilting hand, begging him to stay...even for just a few more minutes. Their sobs echoed through millennia, pleading companions all throughout the ages, the world who just needed one more minute. His hands were different now, old, crinkled like scrolls of paper and parchment. They'd never thought they had to see him old, much less dying.
"God, no." Alessia pressed his hand to their cheek.
Alessia looked like a very young mid-forties even a few hundred years after their birth. They kissed his own wrist, remembering days of past. Days that seemed so long ago. Days that seemed like myths to everyone else yet memories in their mind. They knew this would happen, they knew he'd die first, why would they even try to make this work?
"Don't leave me alone like this." They whispered, breath ragged with sobs. "You're not meant to."
"I'll always be there, beloved."
"Then don't leave."
His thumb stroked their cheek as he gave them a weak smile. Their face was not the one he fell in love with, no; it was the one he kept on loving no matter who told him he couldn't.
No, Damian Wayne fell in love with those gunmetal blue eyes that pierced him as he rounded the corner into the main hall at five years old. The girl with jet black hair who pounced on him and beat him in hand-to-hand because she thought it was all in good fun. He fell in love with the only person who could put him in his place without even a word. He fell in love with the kid who could've been like their father and run when they thought their children would be hurt.
He fell in love with Kendra Knox, the only person in the world who deserved his heart.
"I have to go now, habibti." His eyes opened slightly to take in their face one last time. Those piercing eyes they never liekd because it looked like their father's; the black hair that was greying as time went on and finally, them as a whole.
"Now?" A loud whimper overtook the laugh they were trying to force out. "My love, that's my line."
"I have never loved another as much as I have you. My beloved." He blinked as he attempted to stay with them. "My forever."
If only Damian's forever wasn't so short.