Chapter Text
If you asked Damian, it was all Drake’s fault.
He was sitting on a jumpseat in an A-350 at door L3. They were just done boarding the plane, and they were just done with securing the cabin. They had just closed his gate and armed it. Then they had cross-checked, and now they were beginning pushback to get the airplane to leave. The security video was on, and by now Damian knew it by heart. Today was an afternoon flight leaving from Doha at 3:30 pm to arrive in Paris at 8:30 pm with a two-hour time difference. The flight would be approximately 7 h 10 minutes, and he would get an hour break, which he could totally do without but would take anyway.
He was going to be operating a galley today for the economy class. He was going to stay in the backstage scene, helping his colleagues make the best performance possible in front of the sheep they all called passengers.
Damian Wayne, or Damian Thomas, was 22, and he was happy; he was doing a mundane job, and it was sufficient to make his life full.
Their airplane was speeding on the runway for takeoff. He felt it, the runway under him, and then nothing. They were climbing feet in the air; he was remembering his training on all the components of the aircraft and how each of them could fail. He knew exactly what his role was, as simple and ordinary as it was.
The pilot turned the seatbelt sign off, and Damian went behind his counter; he put the meals in the oven and then helped his colleagues prepare the children's toys they were going to get as amenities. They had to prepare the trolleys, putting the drinks on them. It was really mechanical work for Damian; it was soothing him. It had been a year since he started flying. He loved his planes, he loved helping passengers even though they were complete idiots sometimes, and he loved being on the move all the time, not staying somewhere too long.
That was why he left Gotham in the first place; he couldn’t support being Robin anymore, trying to gain affection from someone who would never give it to him, because he would never be important enough.
He left Gotham just before his 21st birthday; the League of Assassins was trying to get him back to take his throne, and honestly. He knew at some point, he wouldn’t have the choice to accomplish his role of the Demon Head.
So he decided to leave, do something completely unexpected of him, and hide in plain sight. He would change his name, but not enough to be unrecognizable; he was daring them to try to find him.
But him being a flight attendant was totally Drake’s fault, if it wasn’t Grayson.
When the first service was done, he was in the first group to get rest, so he went to eat, then closed his eyes and waited for his break to be done.
Then, just as usual, he was taking back his place at Galley, where they would soon serve some snacks. His team went up in the alley to serve some water, and then the snacks were hot and ready, so they went back up in the plane alleys to serve those snacks.
Damian was proud to say that he was redeeming himself to society; he was helping people, making them happy, and if he needed to, he would make his plane safe, and if that included restricting rowdy passengers, he would do it, but most of the time, Damian giving them a talking-to and a strict look did the trick. Apparently, he had a reputation in his company for being very sweet with women and children and just the passengers in general, but he was also the guy you wanted on your plane when a passenger was rude, mean, and violent.
And soon enough Damian and his team on today's flights were preparing the cabin for landing. Damian had to warn people to put their seatbelts on, because some of them are forgetful. Oh, Damian was really glad that they had a good plane with good passengers, because sometimes, they were really terrible.
The seatbelt sign was on again, and it was time for flight attendants to get back to their seats.
Then when they touched ground, Damian breathed to calm the nervousness, because for all he cared, he was only truly free in the sky.
It felt like hours waiting for passengers to unload the aircraft, then they finally were able to take their own luggage and get to the crew shuttle bus to get to the hotel, where Damian would change before going to eat with his crew, then off to bed, and then a bit of visiting tomorrow before preparing for the flight back to Doha.
At 14 years old, his father got tired of his attitude, telling him it got in the way of his role as Robin and that if he wanted to keep being Robin, he needed to be very different.
So in hope of making his father proud, he decided to do volunteering in an animal shelter, and then he did volunteering in a food bank. He didn’t want to do it as Damian Wayne, so he created Damian Thomas to be normal, to not attract attention.
The truth is that he loved it, and he tried to talk to his father about it, and yes, he was telling him that he was proud of him, but Father was never truly there with him; the mission was always first, and the truth is that Damian got in the way. Father would never find joy in a son he didn’t want, and it wasn’t Damian’s fault. Bruce was just a workaholic. Bruce was an addict, and with time Damian learned that it wasn’t his fault Bruce thought his work was more important.
The thing is that being Batman was important, but Father probably needed a lot of therapy.
As for Damian, he dealt with a lot of problems while volunteering. You meet a lot of people who put a lot in perspective, and you get to learn a lot about yourself. He also had Grayson to thank, who was probably more of a father figure than Bruce would ever be.
When Damian reached his 15th birthday, Grayson asked him if he would agree to do therapy, and Damian surprised himself by saying yes, because he didn’t want to end up like his father, sour about life and unable to heal his own trauma.
Damian, contrary to popular belief, did see his father’s distress, but Father didn’t want to go get help.
If he didn’t reach for his hand, Damian couldn’t do anything.
It was around that time that the Gotham war happened, and yes, Damian tried to stand behind his father, because he loved him, and Father had hurt his Akhi, and Damian didn’t want to suffer the same fate, so he did everything to get his father back, and in the end he did, but it damaged the family once again. Grayson had been so mad when Father had injected his akhi with that failsafe, modifying his whole personality; even if all was good now. It would never be the same.
Damian knew that something was broken, because it wasn’t all Zur En Arrh; it was part of his father, and Damian didn’t fault his Akhi for leaving Gotham and getting as far away from Bruce as possible, and when Bruce was having nights where he was missing Jason, Damian could not not be angry.
"It is your own damn fault!" he yelled one night as his father was crying over his work. Damian had crashed the Batcomputer afterhand, as his father didn’t react anymore.
Then Bruce had answered with eyes that were empty. "Are you done?"
Damian had left the Batcave; he had made his bags, and as he was leaving, he had hugged Alfred.
Alfred couldn’t have looked older than in that moment. "Do you want me to call Master Richard?"
Damian then said, "It would be good. Thank you, Pennyworth."
Richard now lived in Gotham; he wanted to keep an eye on Bruce, he didn’t want Damian to be alone, and if Bruce had to be incapacitated, he needed someone to take care of Gotham.
As Damian and Grayson were leaving, Alfred told them. "From tomorrow morning to an undetermined time, the cave will be locked."
Richard then said with a lot of sadness, "Take care of him."
Pennyworth then answered quietly, "I will."
Damian didn’t know at the time, but Drake had lived with Richard for a while.
Damian and Timothy were fighting about everything, and Grayson had had enough.
"I don’t care when, but I want you to have one day a week not fighting. You are going to do something together. You are going to bond and have fun as brothers. Tim, why don’t you teach him photography?"
Drake had said, "Sure, and we could all go plane spotting while we are at it!"
Grayson had smiled, "It is an amazing idea; let’s go to New York John F. Kennedy Airport, and let’s spend a weekend between brothers. I will force Jason to come; we will have an amazing weekend!"
That was how Damian got doomed.
Bruce was in therapy; apparently Alfred got mad the morning after Damian left, and they had a heated exchange, and then Bruce had a breakdown and decided to get help.
They had forced Alfred to take a break, or at least, if he didn’t want to take a break, come with them for their weekend in New York, and he had chosen the latter.
They had decided to go to New York because it was the closest city with an airport. Yes, Gotham didn’t have any airport, and if you asked Damian, it was a good thing. Gotham had a terrible crime rate, and it would be so complicated to assure the security of an airport in Gotham.
They would be staying at the airport hotel that was really known for being an old terminal of the airport.
They took the road to New York. It wasn’t really far, but the traffic to get there was enormous. The rumor was that Gothamites never really went far when they took vacation, because they couldn’t handle being far from their city.
Alfred was smiling because the brothers were fighting like brothers about the music they were going to put in the car. Jason, who was driving, kept asking them to shut up because there was too much noise. He was calling them annoying, while Dick was telling him that he loved them, and Damian and Tim were mad about being stuck in the back with the gremlin, and Alfred was looking at Damian, and the 15-year-old teenager was smiling, and Alfred knew it was going to be a wonderful weekend for all of them.
It had taken 3 hours instead of one to get to the hotel. They had an incredible view of the planes on the ground of the airport. The hotel was all themed around airports, and Damian felt good. He felt like everything would be alright.
They had gone to the pool, and after his Akhi soaked him, by pushing him into the water, Damian had no choice but to replicate.
« My honor has been broken; I must seek revenge. Jason, I will destroy you. »
What had followed was an hour of laughter where Jason and Dick ganged up on poor Damian and Timmy, who really weren’t ready to face them. But they ended up winning that fight.
As it stopped, Damian took time to look at all those aircraft, and he couldn’t do anything but be in admiration.
They then went to spend the afternoon in downtown New York; they had their supper at the hotel and went off to bed, because tomorrow Damian and Tim would be spending the day doing plane spotting. As for Dick and Jason, they were apparently taking Alfred with them to an afternoon tea, not that the old butler knew.
They had taken breakfast, and then the two older brothers had dropped Tim and Damian at the Bayswater park.
They went to sit together. At first there was an awkward silence, only broken by the flash from Tim's camera.
After 20 minutes, Damian broke the silence and asked, "Could you teach me how to do it, how to take good photos?"
Tim said, "Yes, sure, but you know it takes practice. I don’t expect you to get it on the first try."
Damian smirked, "We have all the time in the world."
So for the next two hours, Tim had the time to show and help Damian with making pictures. How to choose a focus and where you want it in the frame of the picture are many of the skills Tim tried to teach Damian.
They decided to take a break to eat, but suddenly Drake got up with his camera and ran back to the place where they were settled for their photos of the morning. Damian ran after him, and he asked, "What is it?"
Timothy saying, "This is a 777. We have been seeing A-330 all morning, and I love A-330s, but this one looks magnificent."
Damian frowned. "How do you know what type of aircraft it is? "
They got back to eating as Tim was talking about the shapes of the noses of the aircraft, the noise the motor was making, the length of the plane,, and its cockpit windows. Then, they didn’t really take any more photos as Tim went on a rant on how amazing planes were as he was helping Damian identify the ones that were taking off.
It was really a magical moment of rare peace since they met, and both didn’t want it to end. That is when Jason and Dick arrived, ready to take them to the hotel.
The next day they went back, but this time the whole family was there, and Damian was smiling; he was not smirking, and Dick was so happy to see his brother enjoying himself, and there was a light in Damian’s eyes. One he had never seen before, and he felt like both he and Tim were finally able to connect on something.
Then they had to go back home; it was very silent on the way back, but a happy silence if you asked Dick. They didn’t want the moment to end, so they would stay in the moment on the way back.
Damian could not stop thinking about how he needed to know more; that's how he ended up doing a whole research project on airplanes, how he ended up listening to a very long and interesting documentary on the A-380, and how he ended up doing a whole school project on airplanes by the end of the year.
He then got on watching airplane crash documentaries and also those ones where people survived and flight attendants were heroes.
Now, he and Tim were actually spending time together, and they were bonding over being aviation geeks, apparently. So Tim got to show him one of those popular YouTube channels about aviation, and for some reason he got curious about the job of flight attendant, and then he discovered other channels about the different jobs in this universe. Damian also got into watching day-to-day videos about said flight attendants, and he was asking himself some questions. In a way, wasn’t he doing the same thing as Robin: flying and serving people?
Yes, it was very much different and very much a mundane job, but he really wanted to be normal for once in his life. Damian wanted a normal job; he wanted to stop causing suffering.
He then reached 17 and then 18 years old; during that time, he continued volunteering, and he developed more of his social skills.
That’s when he started working to get the experience he needed, so he applied for a customer service agent job in New York. He worked hard; his favorite thing was probably when people came to ask about boarding early and he couldn’t say yes. There was some satisfaction about saying no to a customer. But most of all, he loved helping them find their way to their flight, seeing the light in their eyes, happy to go on a new adventure.
Most of the time he was working part-time because he was doing a degree in nursing, which could always be useful the day he would get an emergency on board.
At 20, he started making a list of all companies he could apply to; obviously, he wouldn’t settle for anything but the best. He looked at all those videos, preparing all he needed for the application.
At 21, he officially left his home to go to Doha, where he would start training to be a flight attendant.
They were well welcomed by their company with tea and coffee, Arabic tea and coffee, and the kind of hot beverage Damian grew up with in the League of Assassins. He got to start knowing his batchmates. They were all very courageous people that were ready to take the worst of that, which wouldn’t always be easy. They would be tired, they would want to quit, and they would be there for each other even if they wouldn’t see each other as often after training.
They learned about the culture, and they did all their medical tests; they filled out their paperwork for their visas.
They would then learn all about service and what made their company so unique. They would learn about the standards and about their fleets ranging from A380s to Dreamliners and how the carts for service would work and how the equipment in the galley worked.
They had a lot of exams, and Damian was passing with flying colors, but he did see it was a lot for normal people. He was a special case; he was climbing Everest at 3 years old. Even then he still felt that it was tiring, but he had fun, which meant he wasn’t bored.
They went on to learn the safety features of the aircraft. There again, easy he had been, Robin; safety was his specialty. Again, that didn't take into account the fact that he was studying well with his batchmate at every moment he got.
Then they got to practice brace positions, operate different doors, and do fire training. Then emergency evacuation. They trained to slide and board rafts and protect their passengers. They learned to explain the procedures to passengers.
They also had their first aid training, and they did self-defense. Damian could be an instructor in self-defense because he was way better than the instructor, but to achieve his training, he would lay low.
They did all their exams and a lot of drills. Then, they were able to get their uniforms. They also had a day to learn the image beauty standards of the company, and not long after, they had graduated. A beautiful moment between Damian and his batchmates.
Not long after, they would take their first flight. Damian was so nervous because it was the beginning of him being normal, of him dreaming and having fun.
They had their briefing, and they went to the shuttle bus, their flight leaving at 9:00 am for Geneva. Damian got to watch and learn as it was the beginning of his new life.