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Jon was annoyed. It had been weeks since he’d seen Damian. Why? Because Damian kept bailing on him. He was always busy. It was either a mission or patrol or a rogue or sometimes he won’t even give a reason!
So after about a month, Damian had finally shown up for once. They’d planned to meet up in a small cafe in Gotham to grab lunch and then head to Gotham zoo because Damian wanted to check out a new exhibit which opened up. It was set out to be a great day.
That is until twenty minutes later. They were leaving the cafe and trying to get a taxi to the zoo. Jon could just fly them there but they’re in civvies so that was a no go. Then Damian’s phone lit up with a ping.
Damian took out the phone and read whatever the message was. “I need to go,” he said immediately.
“What? Why? You just got here! And it’s been forever since we last hung out!”
“ Sorry, Jon.” Damian said. “ An…emergency came up. All hands on deck. A rogue broke out of Arkham. Like I said, I really need to go.”
“ Well maybe I could come with you?” Jon suggested, “ I could help wrap it up faster so we can get back to our plans.”
“ No! I-uh mean, no. “ Damian said far too quickly. “ You know how my father is about metas in Gotham. He won’t get off my case if you came with me.” .
“ That rule is so stupid.” Jon said. He was mentally cursing out the ever present problem that was Bruce Wayne. He would unfortunately never say anything about that out loud because of fear and because his father has super-hearing and would come here just to scold him.
“ I know this bad timing,” Damian sighed, “ But there’s nothing we can do about it. We’ll meet up again another time. Bye.” And then he ran off before Jon even got to say anything else.
Jon was, as expected, very upset. He just stood there before eventually walking off. He wandered the streets of Gotham for a bit until he got tired and decided to fly back home. It was unlikely that Damian was coming back anyway so might as well leave.
————————————————————
Mom and Dad weren’t home when he got back. They were supposed to be out on some date so the only one who was home, other than himself, was Kon. Kon mostly lived at the farm but stayed over every once in a while to spend time with Clark and everyone else. No one really minded it all too much. After all, Kon was part of the family. He had his own room and everything here.
“ Hey, Jon.” Kon called out from the living room “Back so soon? Weren’t you supposed to be hanging out with Damian?” He was watching some movie on TV and beside him was Tim which was strange. It wasn’t strange that Tim was here—he and Kon were dating so he was basically always around—but wasn’t he called for the emergency?
“ He bailed on me. Said there was an emergency.” Jon explained. “ Speaking of which, Tim, why are you here? Aren’t you supposed to be going after the rogue too?”
Tim looked confused. “ What rogue?”
“ The rogue that broke out of Arkham.” Jon replied. “ Damian said it was an emergency. He said it was an all hands on deck situation so shouldn’t you be there too?”
“ Jon, there isn’t any rogue that broke out of Arkham. At least not one that I’m aware of. Hold on, let me check.” Tim took out his phone and started doing something, no doubt checking what Jon was talking about. After a minute, he put it back and spoke again. “ I checked. There’s no emergency. All the rogues are still in Arkham. Everything’s fine as far as I’m aware. So I have no idea what Damian was talking about.”
Jon was shocked. Damian had lied to him. Why? What reason could he have to leave then? Jon is both angry and upset now. Clearly it was noticeable because Kon spoke up, “ Hey buddy, it’s Alright. I’m sure. he didn’t do it for no reason. Just go talk to him.”
Which didn’t sound like such a bad idea. He should go talk to Damian and ask him to explain himself for ditching him! “ I’m going to go that,” he muttered. Then he turned around and left.
———————————————————————
It wasn’t hard to track down Damian, with super-senses and all. He was still in Gotham—at least he hadn’t run off to half way across the world like some other times—in the northwest side of the city, near the harbor. There was a blindspot from almost all Bat-surveillance systems on that side that no one else knew about and hadn’t been patched up yet. Damian had shown it to him once when they were on a mission that they definitely were not supposed to be on.
Jon landed quietly on a rooftop at a safe distance from where Damian was so that he wasn’t spotted immediately. And Damian was here alright. He was sitting on a rooftop in broad daylight. But beside him there was a girl who he didn’t know. She had short white hair and very pale skin. Her face was painted to resemble a skull and she had an overall gothic style. She looked kinda cool—maybe it was the jacket that reminded him somewhat of Kon—but nothing like someone who Damian would normally hang out with. Maybe it was some kind of really important secret mission or a-
But then he looked at Damian and just his face gave it away. Damian was smiling and laughing and he looked positively star-struck. He was usually so reserved and closed-off with almost anyone he didn’t know and even with people close to him, he wasn’t all that open. He hadn’t seen Damian look this carefree and uncaring with anyone except, well, himself and maybe Dick occasionally but that had taken years of trying and perseverance. And even so, this still felt so different. And all with someone he didn’t even know.
It was then that Damian noticed him. Curse his stupidly good bat senses. Before he knew it, there was a batarang being flung in his direction.
“Hey! Did you need to that?” Jon said, coming out of his hiding spot since there was no use anymore.
“ What are you doing here?” Damian glared.
“ I feel like I should be asking you that,” Jon snapped back, “ Isn’t there supposed to be an ‘emergency’ right now? So mind explaining what you’re doing here?”
“Tt. It’s none of your business.”
Then the girl spoke up, “Hey, not to be rude and cut in, but I have no idea what’s going on here. So who’s he?”
“No one. Just a friend,” Damian said simply.
“ Mind introducing me to that friend?”
“ I don’t think that’s nec-”
Jon decided to ignore him and fly around to stand in front of the girl. “ Hi, I’m Jon. Damian’s best friend.” he introduced himself and held out his hand as a friendly gesture.
“ I’m Nika,” she said, shaking his hand. “ I’m his…” She trailed off as she and Damian shared a look.
“ She’s my…um…girlfriend,” he finished as a slight red tinted his cheeks. And wasn’t that a sight. Never in his however many years of knowing him did Jon ever think that he would see Damian Wayne blush.
“ Yeah. Something like that.” Nika said.
Jon processed that for a minute before zapping over to the other boy and shaking his shoulders vigorously. “ You have a girlfriend? Since when? Why am I just finding out about this? I’m your best friend and you didn’t think to tell me.”
“ It really isn’t all that important,” Damian said, pulled away from his grasp.
“ It’s so important!” he countered.
“ Well now you know,” Damian said, “ And this stays secret. Or else.”
“ Why do you always have to threaten me? You could just ask.”
“ It is to ensure you don’t actually end up blabbering about it.”
“ How did you manage to get a girlfriend with that attitude?”
“ Unfortunately I fell for his stuck up attitude and sense of humor. And he’s nice. Occasionally. To some people.” Nika grinned.
“ He has a sense of humor? That’s two big revelations in a day.” Jon snickered
“ Jon, I will push you off the roof. ”
“ Won’t do anything since I can fly.”
“ Also If it’s any consolation,” Nika said, “I didn’t think he actually had any friends before he met me either and was following in the Big bat’s footsteps with ‘I work alone’ and ‘I don’t need anyone’” Nika mimicked.
“ Now that’s just rude. Do you really think so low of me?”
“ I swear Batman is the biggest liar to ever exist, ”Jon said, “ Do you know how many Bat’s there are? A new one pops up every week.”
She patted Jon’s shoulder in sympathy, “ Tell me about it. Plus he’s a total hypocrite. Like apparently ‘I can’t date his son cause I’m a villain’. How many villains has he dated? There’s Talia Al Ghul—who’s way too good for him—that ghost guy, Catwoman—now that I think about it, they’re all too good for him— and like a bazillion others!”
“ Can we please stop hating on my father?" Damian interjected, “ He really isn’t that bad.” Maybe Damian was following in his father’s footsteps because that’s just plain hypocrisy considering how much he complains about him regularly.
“ We’re bonding!” Nika argued.
“ Yeah what she said.” Jon agreed, “You don’t want your best friend and girlfriend getting along?”
“ Personally, no.” Damian said, mostly talking to himself and rubbing his forehead like he had a headache, “ I can’t deal with two of you at the same time. I should’ve taken more precautions for the sake of sanity.”
“ Yeah next time make sure that Tim isn’t there to tell me that there was no emergency,” Jon told him.
“ Of course it’s that idiot’s fault,” Damian cursed.
“ But seriously, why didn’t you tell me?” Jon asked.
“ You’re still stuck on that?”
“ Yes I’m still stuck on that!”
“The less people that know, the better.” Damian replied. Then more quietly added, “And I didn’t know how you would react.”
“ You were worried about my reaction. Damian, when have I ever judged you? When have I ever judged anyone? Sure, she’s a villain and all but she isn’t even that villainous.”
“ I will let you know that I take that as an insult,” Nika glared.
“ Oh come on. You don’t look that evil. You don’t act evil. What have you actually done that was so evil?”
“ Well for one, I have murdered people.”
Jon was quiet for a second then said, “Okay maybe slightly villainous depending on circumstances. Were they like innocent people?”
“ Eh, depends on your definition,” Nika said, “ If you’re asking civilians, then no. I kill to absorb others abilities—and cause death is fun but that’s irrelevant. Normies don’t do much for me.”
“ Any heroes?”
“ I mean…maybe a couple.” She smirked and then glanced at Damian.
He looked between them and then said, “ I’m confused.”
“ Listen, if he didn’t want his heart to be ripped out then he shouldn’t have taken part in a death tournament.”
“ Pause. Damian was in a death tournament? You sure? Cause he sort of has a complicated history with the whole murder thing.”
“ The deaths weren't permanent.” Damian cut in.
“Yeah but still…”
“ I’m not a child,” Damian scoffed, “ I’m not going to cower at the mention of death. And it felt good to not have to hold back for once.”
“ If you say so. But also, I’m starting to think you had a whole secret life without me.” Jon whined, “ I tell you literally everything and you don’t even mention all these things. That is so mean.”
“ My apologies, Jon.” Damian sighed, mostly just to get him off his back, “I should not have kept all these things from you. I’ll try to do better next time.”
“ See how easy all this was? Apology accepted.” Jon smiled.
“ Awe, this is all just so sweet,” Nika teased. “ Oh by the way, remember the team on lazarus island? It was short lived but nice while it lasted. You should totally meet them.”
“ Just when I was going to let you off the hook,” Jon pouted dramatically, “ You don’t even introduce me to your new friends! What else happened on that island that I don’t know about?”
“ Ugh fine. I’ll tell you all about it. Later.” Damian said. “ But there’s really nothing more so-“
“ Don’t forget to tell him about the demon we fought.”
Damian groaned already knowing that Jon was never going to hold this against him for the rest of his life. “ You’re doing this intentionally.”
“ Of course I am.” She didn’t even try to deny it.
“ You know you’re supposed to be helping me, right?”
“ This is more entertaining.”
“ You’re going on all the cool adventures without me.” Jon complained.
“ Can you please stop with the dramatics,” Damian said, “ This is getting annoying.”
“ Wow. Disregarding my emotions here. I’m actually so hurt.” Jon said, putting on the most fake hurt expression ever. Damian rolled his eyes at the display.
“ Oh you poor innocent soul,” Nika comforted, joining in on the show,“ Damian how could you be so mean to your own best friend?”
“ Yeah all I wanna do is hang out but you just hate me,” Jon sobbed, wiping fake tears from his eyes.
“The travesty,” she gasped.
“ Nika, you’re supposed to be on my side. Stop encouraging him.”
“And why would I be on your side instead of my very dear friend, Jon?”
“ You both didn’t even know each other until like 10 minutes ago!” At this point, Damian was at the brink of having an aneurysm but those two just laughed like it was so funny. “ I hate you both.”
“ Don’t lie to yourself. You would never.” Nika said.
“ Yeah. You can’t get rid of me even if you tried,” Jon added.
Damian glared at him for starting all of this and making him suffer, “ You realize that you’re technically crashing my date, right? You really should be leaving.”
“ So soon? But I haven’t even asked him for any blackmail on you yet.” Nika said.
“ You want blackmail?” Jon started, “So there was this one time in like december when the streets were frozen tha-“
“ That’s enough! I think it’s definitely time for you to leave!” Damian interrupted before he could continue, physically pushing him away.
“ Okay! Okay! It was nice meeting you! Hope to see you again!” Jon called out over his shoulder.
Finally when they were a good distance away did Damian let go of Jon and waited for him to leave. “ You are never allowed to talk to each other again.”
“ Sorry, Dami. You can’t exactly stop me.” Jon said and received a punch in the arm for that which didn’t really do much. He just laughed. “ But, seriously, she seems cool. And I can see that you like her. A lot. So she’s good enough for me.”
“ Thank you, Jon.” Damian gave him a small smile, “ Now go! I don’t want you around here any longer!”
“ Fine. Bye! Talk to you later!” And with that he flew off before Damian started throwing batarangs again.