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His brother is going to be the death of him.
Damian wonders if Jason or Tim would be willing to put him out of his misery. Probably not. Unfortunately, they’d outgrown that stage of their relationship years ago. Now they’d probably just laugh, take out their phones and start filming for blackmail material. Maybe Duke, though. He could probably be bribed.
Damian is in deep shit. Because here he is, standing outside his apartment building, in not-that-cold-in-the-grand-scheme-of-things-but-still-cold-enough-to-freeze-your-ass-off-if-you-had-to-stay-outside-for-long-periods-of-time-cold weather, wearing only thin sleep clothes and no socks, listening to his neighbour gush about the handsome firefighters and send him meaningful winks.
All because someone had set off the fire alarm at 4 in the Bat forsaken morning. (Cursed Gertrude and her fucking cinnamon buns.)
A group of firefighters is gathered around the front entrance, discussing whatever they need to discuss while keeping everyone outside for now, and Damian sees Josh send him an exaggerated wink out of the corner of his eye.
Gotham, strike him down.
Damian does not want to be here. Not outside in the cold and definitely not awake yet. Not that Damian isn’t a morning person. It’s been a few years since he’s donned a mask and cape, these days it’s scrubs and gloves at the veterinary clinic he started working at shortly after he graduated a couple years ago. He’d switched late nights that drifted into mornings for early mornings and early nights. But not for fire alarms at 4 in the morning, that was simply asking too much of him.
He wouldn’t be in this mess if it weren’t for his exhausted brain. He blames his tired, foolish brain, coworkers that had kept him out too late one night, the fire alarm and Gertrude’s Bat forsaken cinnamon buns (ok, the cinnamon buns were actually good as long as they weren't burning down the fucking building) for getting him into this mess.
Three months ago, another fire alarm had gone off and they’d needed to evacuate the building. Damian’s- Dick, in all his firefighting glory, had just so happened to be on during the call.
There hadn’t been much to do. A simple stove fire that hadn’t spread much or injured anybody, but of course, it still took time to clear the building for reentry. (One never knew if there would be accidental poisoning danger from the smoke damage releasing a toxin that'd been trapped in the walls. This was Gotham, they needed to check.)
Dick, of course, hadn’t missed the opportunity to pop over to say a quick hi and ruffle Damian’s hair (no matter that he was now taller than his older brother, having grown, inch by inch, to finally overtake Dick - perfect forehead kiss height, his mind supplied, unbidden, except now it was Damian’s turn) much to his annoyance (and secret delight) before Dick was jumping back on the truck with his coworkers.
That interaction hadn’t gone unnoticed by Josh who immediately started interrogating him on how he knew the cute firefighter.
Damian blames his sleep deprived brain, but perhaps the surge of possessiveness, jealousy, something he didn't want to address yet in his chest at the sound of Josh calling his brother cute, like he would be someone he would approach in a bar to flirt with, is more to blame. Words were falling from his mouth before his mind could catch up and he was telling Josh, “he’s my boyfriend.”
He is to blame, however, for not correcting the mistake later. But he selfishly likes living in this small fantasy world where Dick is not seen as his brother but his romantic prospect. Too much.
He knows who he fell in love with. He knows how Dick would react if he told him he was in love with him. A gentle let down, a bit of pity maybe, for the boy who hadn’t had good roll models when he was younger so of course he fell in love with the first good one he had. (It isn’t fully true, he didn’t fall in love with Dick until later. And sure, it may have started out as a schoolboy crush because this was Dick Grayson (his Batman) but it developed over the years and now, he knew, he was completely and utterly in love with Richard John Grayson.)
Josh wouldn’t let it go. Wouldn’t stop teasing him every time they ran into each other about Damian’s secret boyfriend, the “goddamn sexy firefighter”, kept going on about how he couldn’t believe Damian had kept it a secret for so long and how lucky he was and how strong his boyfriend probably was from pulling people from burning buildings all day.
(Damian had to stop himself from correcting him that firefighters did a lot more than deal with fires and even Gotham didn’t have burning buildings all day, because then he would've added that he could confirm that Dick was strong, and he didn’t want to think about how jealous he was of Dick’s future partner (according to their regular calls he could never find the strength to avoid, Dick was currently single, Damian tried to squash down the happiness, the hope that brought) who would get to benefit from Dick’s strong arms and- No. He was already in over his head, no need to dig his grave deeper.)
Damian let Josh keep thinking Dick was his secret boyfriend. Ignored the shame burning in his stomach that sometimes sounded a lot like jealousy, a lot like yearning. Never corrected Josh whenever he teased him about his boyfriend the firefighter. He selfishly didn’t want to ruin the fantasy Josh had unknowingly built for him.
And it would have been fine. If Gertrude hadn’t burnt her Bat forsaken cinnamon buns again, he wouldn’t be in this mess.
There wouldn’t have been smoke or a fire alarm and Dick wouldn’t have been here and Josh wouldn’t have been next to him when he came over and he wouldn’t have to face Dick’s disgusted reaction when Josh called him Damian’s boyfriend before he could stop him.
“Are we cleared to go back inside yet?” Damian refuses to look at Dick. He doesn’t need to see the pity marring his features before he lets him down gently. Doesn’t want that etched in his memory, not directed at Damian like he was a sad, pathetic cat left out in the rain.
“In a couple minutes,” Dick says after a minute.
“Know what? I’m gonna give you two lovebirds a minute, I think Marjorie from 2C needs some annoying right about now.”
Damian hears Josh walk off. He stares at Dick’s feet, the only part he can risk looking at.
“So,” Dick starts, and there’s a lightness, a teasing, in his tone and Damian doesn’t understand why it’s not more pitying, “boyfriend, huh?”
Damian gives in to the urge to look up and Dick is fucking smiling at him. He frowns. “It was a mistake. Josh misinterpreted our relationship and I apologize for any discomfort this misunderstanding has caused-”
“Dami.”
His breath hitches. Dick’s always had the sweetest way of saying his name. It makes him fall in love just a little more every time and he wants to hate himself for it. (But he's a weak man for Richard Grayson.)
Dick exhales softly, still watching him, hasn’t taken his eyes off him yet. “I didn’t mind,” he whispers, like it’s a secret, sacred thing.
What?
But then the Fire Captain’s calling the building all clear and summoning all the firefighters to pack up and go. Dick glances over, then back, and steps into Damian’s space to whisper, “My shift ends in a couple hours. If you want your boyfriend to stop by, text me.” He winks and then he’s gone, leaving Damian frozen, sockless, staring after him.
It takes him 11 minutes once he gets back inside his apartment to text Dick. 11 minutes of pacing this way and that and back again before finally picking up his phone and texting Dick a simple five word message.
when does your shift end?