Chapter Text
Empty, cold, and bare. Three words you would use to describe Wayne Manor. It’s not empty, it’s full of old antiques that have been around longer than you’ve been able to talk, but it holds no people inside.
It’s cold. There hasn’t been a single day inside the manor where it has been hot, or warm. It’s just cold. Even in the middle of summer the inside of Wayne Manor always seemed to be at the same temperature. It’s as cold as a freezer, one that holds all the things the average person would need inside of it survive of it, but no one to actually take from it. To be honest you can’t help but compare Wayne Manor to a meat locker due to its freezing temperature and its uncanny ability to make you feel uncomfortable.
Unless you like standing in meat lockers, then your right at home here.
It’s bare in the sense that it’s a house, but it’s definitely not a home. At least not for YOU. It houses many different wards of many different ages, and backgrounds. The majority look the same though. Nicely trimmed black hair, brightly colored eyes, and extremely quiet. So quiet you almost never hear them approaching, almost as if they’re constantly trying to sneak around you.
To avoid you.
~~~~
November 13
Morning comes and light slowly starts to seep through every open window that faces the east where the sun is slowly rising from. Not that you could see the sun-at least not from behind the stormy grey clouds that lingered above Gotham as if it owned the sky.
Your clock wakes up before you, loudly screeching as its voice fills your once quiet room. You quickly slam your fist down on the button, letting the silence slip back around you like some sorta blanket. A very, very, very suffocating kind of blanket.
You hate how quiet it is here.
The blankets around you slowly fall down as you come up. Your eyes are heavy and your mind still hasn’t caught up to your movements yet. As you slowly turn your body towards the edge, you let your feet touch the carpet right below your bed. The fur was soft but cold, buts it better than wood, now that would be freezing.
The blankets falls completely now as your feet start to move on their own. You flip on the lights before letting out a deep sigh from somewhere deep inside of chest. As you move to grab your school uniform and head for the bathroom, you can’t help but pause by your bedside table. On it, a picture of a very young girl and a very pretty lady sit staring back at the camera with a grin on there faces as a milkshake goes untouched between them.
You quickly look away and enter the bathroom.
Inside you begin to properly prepare yourself. You floss, brush, and wash your face. You style your hair, and throw in a few “stray” hairs to naturally frame your face. You check your shirt for any wrinkles before sliding the clothes over and onto your body. Letting them lay on top of you before moving to exit the bathroom.
This was your daily routine. Everyday you would wake yourself up and as you physically prepared yourself you also mentally prepared yourself as well.
“Today will be a great day.”
“You’ll hangout with your friends and you will like it.”
“You’ll remember every line and never mess up.”
“You’ll be amazing out on stage.”
“When a teacher asks you a question you’ll know the answer.”
You carefully place your notes back into your backpack as you exit your bedroom. You immediately shiver before quickly stopping yourself. The hallway was even colder than your bedroom, if that’s even possible. You quickly make your way downstairs where light is already pouring out from the dining room.
Entering you find yourself face to face to the only other resident you can actually find in this place. Damian Wayne, your younger brother, who acts as if he was born with a stick so far up his-
“Good morning Damian.” You smile at him as he completely ignores you like he does every day. You don’t take it personally, he’s always been this way towards you-AND only you. You take a seat at the table as Alfred enters the room from somewhere in the kitchen. “Good morning Miss.”
You smile as he places your breakfast down in front of you. “Good morning Alfred, thank you.” He smiles before disappearing again. You turn back to your breakfast now as you start eating. Breakfast was always quiet like this. The only person you usually eat with is Damian and sometimes Tim on a rare occasion when he doesn’t immediately book it for his bedroom after school or decides he doesn’t want breakfast…
You glance at Damian as you watch him quietly eat his breakfast, but your eyes don’t get to linger very long on him before his eyes met yours and he gives you a weird look, like he just caught some creep staring at him. In this case you’re the creep. You look back down at your breakfast as you go back to eating. No words are spoken, but none are needed to express anything here.
In the early days of his arrival you did try befriending him, you even offered to show him around town. But he’s nothing like the others young kids you’ve occasionally, once in a while would somehow end up in a conversation with. He was actually quite violent. Something about you being a waste of space, and he’s reasoning for no longer attacking you on sight was “not being worth the energy to fight” -it was its own little thing.
But you’ve matured and have gotten over everything he has put you through, even the bits where he had destroyed some of your more personal belongings…
Once he had somehow gotten a hold of a sword and tried attacking you with it. Again, long time ago, but you’re almost 100% sure he has never raised a sword in Dick’s directions before. Just you.
But like you said, your forgiven him for it, all of it.
When you guys first started riding to school together (thanks Bruce for signing this kid up for school) he would sit on the completely opposite side of the car from you and scowl at you the whole way there. Obviously you avoided eye contact as it felt like some sorta trap. It was like he was waiting for you to give him a reason to bring back out that sword.
Tim would end up having to sit in the middle. Not that Damian liked him either, but he definitely tolerated him more than you.
Weird kid.
Even weirder is how quick everyone seemed to grow attached to him. You’ve seen the others hangout with him way more times than you’ve seen them in general. Like compared to how many times you’ve seen all of your other siblings, you’ve seen them hangout with Damian way more.
Honestly you’ve never hung out with Dick before. I mean in the beginning when you first arrived at the manor you two used to hangout, not a lot, but it definitely more than now. You two were finally getting to know each and what not. Now whenever Dick comes over, and you two do so happen to cross paths, he talks about how sorry he was for missing any of the hangs out he said you two were totally gonna do, that you guys never did. Honestly after he missed not only your 10 but also your 11th birthday you realized you two would never hangout again.
You remember Jason, vaguely, and how when he had came, you guys would hangout a lot since he (unlike Dick) wasn’t actively trying to avoid Bruce and actually lived in the manor. You had only been a couple years younger than him but you two really did connect. He was also the reason why you got into musicals in the first place. And also Jane Austen too. Even though you can barely remember his face now you do remember all the good memories you guys had together. You still can’t believe he’s died, sometimes it feels like he’s still here, and some days it genuinely feels like he’s only a couple steps away-
“Stop looking at me, creep.”
You blink a few times owlishly at Damian before slowly coming to the realization you hadn’t actually looked away in the first place. “Oh-my bad.” You look away quickly as your eyes fly across the room looking for something to land on. “Indeed, it is YOUR bad.”
Damian goes back to eating but not without throwing you another glare first. To which you side eye him for. Rude kid. He acts like he’s better than you, to which he technically is. The others love him, they practically worship this kid. Him going a day without hurting someone gives him brownie points.
You don’t remember the last time any of them has attended your birthday party-not like you have birthday parties…you have friends…you just don’t feel like inviting them over to your place to celebrate your birthday…it’s weird.
Once you guys are done eating you guys head to the car. Of course Damian shoulder checks you out of his way (like he always does) and enters the car first. He better be glad you’re such a good older sister or else you would’ve dragged his butt back and entered the car first. But you’re not that low of person, that you’d hit a kid.
Yet.
You take your seat in the back in the middle of the Mercedes beside Damian, and just as you place your bag on your lap, Tim finally appears. He slides in and takes he usual seat by the window and then the car starts and the only sound you can hear is the garage door opening and closing behind the car as it leaves the garage and whatever other sudden noise you guys might occasionally hear like a car horn or a tire screeching from some idiot driver who thought yellow was just another way of saying you have the right of way.
Talking to Damian is like an instant death wish so…you carefully place your earbuds into your ear (without bumping shoulders with him or Tim) as you start scrolling on your phone. Tim already had his earbuds in and seemed to STILL be doing work. Everytime you see this guy he always looks like he’s one pillow away from a deep sleep, and yet he’s always seen typing up a word essay on whatever it is he’s working on.
You would try and take a pic but whenever you would he somehow knew just when to turn away from you, and the privacy screen didn’t help either. Guess you’d have to be nosy another day…
Damian keeps his eyes on the window, perhaps daydreaming about his pets or maybe he’s just people watching, you really can’t tell with this kid. His facial expressions are hard to read, well at least everything but his disgust and anger is hard to read. You think you’ve only seen this kid happy a handful of times and each time it was during some grand family moment where everyone is talking and enjoying each other’s presence and he just so happened to be getting a ton of positive attention.
You almost never are involved during these moments, always off to the side watching Damian get head ruffles, teasing jabs, and even a couple of father’s approving looks and so forth. Even Cass and Steph don’t seem to be exempted from this list of people who have received father’s approving looks. You’ve seen them all, even if they thought you didn’t. You’ve seen every twitch in their face, every lip twitch, and every scowl they’ve thrown your way, and you especially have seen the approving looks your father has sent his other children.
You remember the day Step arrived, troubled yet she seemed like she already knew what she wanted. Like she had this mission already set in her mind. Now you never found out who Steph father was-hell you didn’t even know Clue Master had a family. Not that you cared, Clue Master in your mind was the least of your troubles here in Gotham, a D-list villain who go appears during the intermission the main cast need a minute to get ready for the second part.
With Jason’s death it left a hole in the manor, suddenly every room felt to quiet, cold. Dick may have not been around before but after Jason’s death he definitely stop showing up then. And don’t get me started on your father either. He became the manor’s ghost. You knew he was there, but it felt more like he was haunting the place than living in it. You remember how after Jason’s death it became even harder for you to talk to your father. He would always brush you off before disappearing off somewhere in the manor to never be seen again.
When Tim arrived you thought this was it, you finally had someone around your age to talk to, someone who would understand you. You remember that day like it was yesterday, how Alfred had came to your room and told you about how your father wanted to speak to you about something. You that today was the day he’d finally see you, that he’d finally remembered you existed. Your slippers hit the floor as you practically sprinted down the hallways to the main entrance where you found-
“Reader, this is…” The look of your father’s face was much warmer than you have ever seen it before. It was completely warm of course, but it definitely wasn’t the usual stern and cold look he’s been giving you these past couple of months. “Tim Drake, it’s nice to meet you.” His hand came out for handshake causing you to flinch back for a second, before quickly collecting yourself as you awkwardly shake the boys hand. “It’s nice to meet you too…”
To be honest Tim creeped you out the first couple of weeks. The way he would stare at you felt like he was taking mental notes of every action you did. It didn’t help that he was somehow an extremely quiet walker either. You just knew that if you saw a bowl cut to be aware of the danger that laid ahead. But after the first couple of weeks, and you finally getting used to his intense staring you two finally started actually talking. And for a while you didn’t feel alone anymore. It was like you finally had that sibling bond you lost all those months ago again.
But then he started coming home with bruises and disappearing around the same time your father would disappear at too. You weren’t dumb, you’ve seen the bruises on your father, but what did that have to do with Tim now? What was the connection going on here. You remember Jason and Dick also having bruises as well but you just tossed that aside as a result of roughhousing. But now this is started to become a trend amongst your siblings.
You had to get to the bottom of this.
You remember one day you had been walking through the manor trying to find Tim. You had just found a fun new board game that the two of you could play together. Passing by your father’s office that when you heard two very familiar voices.
“So you’rere just never gonna tell her the truth.”
Inside of Tim could be found seating in one of the loveseats inside of Bruce’s office, frowning at Bruce with a look that radiates “I can’t believe you’d lie to a kid’s face like that”.
Bruce on the hand was seating behind his desk and was signing and going over some paperwork for the Wayne Enterprise. Not even sparing a glance at his ward as he responds.
“Telling her would only cause more trouble.”
“For who? You or her?”
This is what breaks Bruce out of his trance now as he slowly looks up at Tim with a small pleading frown. As if silently begging Tim to see it from his point of view. There’s a reason Bruce hasn’t told you about Batman yet. He also hopes he never has too. Cause if he tells you about Batman he would have to tell you about Robin, which then he would have to tell you the real reason why Jason died.
He can’t lose another child. He knows you loved Jason, Dick is only just now starting to talk to him again, he can’t imagine what would happen if you found out he was the reason Jason died. That he couldn’t save his own kid but let the killer walk away practically Scott free. You’d hate him, he knows it.
“It’s not that simple-“
Tim immediately shoots up now as he stands his feet, irritation flashing over his face now. Since he’s got here he’s made it his mission to help bring Batman back to his glory days. He chose to be Robin because without one Batman would lose himself, and in turn Gotham would revert back to its corrupt ways.
He can’t stand to see Bruce ignore one of his only kids who still tolerant him be ignored. Sure you may be mad or even hurt by the truth but Tim knows you need to know.
“It is that easy Bruce, she’s a good kid and she deserves to know the truth.”
“Tim-“
The sound of quickly approaching footsteps is what snaps you back to reality and pulls you away from the door, and behind a nearby plant. Not a great hiding spot but it seemingly did the job. As Tim storms past you swear you guys made eye contact, even if it was just for a second. But if he did see you he didn’t say anything, he just kept walking…
You don’t know what they were talking about, I mean he’s Bruce Wayne, playboy millionaire. He probably has a ton of secrets. But ever since that day you guys started to hangout less. Maybe Bruce and Tim had another conversation or something and you just didn’t get to hear this one.
And it’s not like you didn’t try and hangout with Tim, you really did try, but one out of ten times you guys do manage to hangout he somehow eventually has to leave to go do something and then never comes back. And if he does come back he’s too tired to keep playing. Not like he immediately goes to sleep anyways, but still.
And THEN that’s when Steph appeared, similar case, you guys hung out in the beginning but over time something happens and she starts distancing herself from you. Anytime you walked into a room with them inside of it, conversation seemed to die down immediately as eyes follow you around. They would only keep talking once you left, but by that point they would end up whispering the rest of their conversation.
You also remember when Cassandra arrived at the manor. At first you just thought she was really shy and quiet, but Bruce quickly explained to you that Cass wasn’t quiet, she just didn’t talk. You would end up watching her sign things to the other and never knew what it meant. One day you decided to learn sign language, and with Alfred’s help you learned it pretty quickly.
You were so excited to have your first REAL conversation with her, but shortly after you realized that maybe it was for the best they thought you didn’t understand sign language as the secrets they told in front of your face without realizing it left you gobsmacked.
You remember standing off to the side as you watch the other sign to each other all about their nightly crusades. At first you thought they were joking, maybe they had an inside joke that involved crime fighting. But the more they sign the more it started to make sense. The bruises, the late nights, the disappearances.
It just clicked.
You never did end up talking to Cass that day, but you have a feeling she knew you understood every word she was saying. She has a strange way of reading people like open books. You don’t even have to say word and she’d know exactly how you’re feeling just by looking at you. Thats also a main reason why you now avoid her. You don’t like how she seemingly reads your soul to you without having to say a single word.
~~~~
Your thoughts come to its end just as your music ends as well. Gotham Academy finally comes into view and you feel yourself internally sigh out of dismay. There’s nothing WRONG with the academy per-say, but you don’t like being there. Even though you have tons of friends (three at max) and everyone totally loves you (as why wouldn’t they) you somehow still feel like an outsider even from within your own friend group.
As the car slows down you move to slide out of the car after Tim only to have Damian shoulder check you (again) and exit the car first. You deadpan as you watch the boy walk off. Little siblings will do just about anything to piss their older siblings off and then pretend as if they didn’t do anything wrong. You let out another (this time) external sigh as you move to slide out the car. “Good bye Alfred.”
“Have a great day today, Miss.”
Just as you step out the car, Alfred calls back out to you. “Oh, before I forget, good luck at the audition, I’m sure you’ll get the part.”
“Thanks.” You smile before closing the door just as the bell for first period rings. Staring up at the academy you can only give yourself a pep talk as you follow the others left over students who were still outside into the building.
~~~~
Gotham Academy was no different than your average school. The only difference is that the majority is rich/ famous/ or some political person kid. If one of them went missing everyone else would know. There are a couple of middle wage kids here too, but they’re usually extremely smart and only care about maintaining their class average and not making friends.
Obviously the popular kids are rich kids and anyone in a sport, period. Your brothers count and could technically be put in the popular section, I mean everyone knows their names, and technically you’re by extension.
The second rank is the slightly less rich kids/ minimum wage kids/ and the really smart kids. They’re here because they’re either not making an effort to be apart of the popular kids clique or don’t meet the standard money requirement to be one in the first place.
And lastly you have the quiet group. They’re not actually quiet or anything like that, they’re just the most invisible group of kids. Not famous, not rich, they’re just here. If you weren’t Bruce Wayne’s daughter you’re sure you would be in the quiet group rank. You’re truly not that popular compared to your brothers.
You walk around for a bit before actually entering your first period class. The rest of day goes by in a blur, the only times it wasn’t was during the rare classes you did have with one your friends. Sadly for lunch none of your friends shared a lunch with you. Kate and Michael shared a lunch with each and then you and Tyler both didn’t share a lunch with either of them or each other. Not that Tyler seemed to mind, found of you guys a bit too loud for his liking, but that’s didn’t seem to stop him from finding you guys and hanging with you all. Tsundere much.
After that the rest of day went on in a blur, and before you know it you were already standing in front of the backstage exit. You quickly open it as you’re greeted with the sight of your fellow actors and crew members walking around and moving props and paint around.
You guys had voted to play a very popular musical. Beetlejuice. Apparently the broadway version was coming back and of course since that’s all everyone could talk about they obviously voted to make their own version of beetle juice for the school.
Walking forward you quickly spot your friends who were all together. Probably talking about costume design and prop design. Tyler was there too, back up against the wall, butt to the floor as he wrote something in his journal but he seemed to be just listening to the two for now.
“Guys!”
They all immediately look up as they watch you walk closer a smile falls onto Kate’s face. She steps forward as she pulls into a deep hug before pulling a way with a wide grin. “I thought I’d never see you again.”
Micheal lets out a playful scoff at this as he takes a seat beside where Tyler was seating, Tyler doesn’t even look up, pencil still scratching against the paper.
“You saw her 7th period, I don’t know what you’re complaining about-I should be the one complaining right about now, since we somehow have no classes together.”
Kate rolls her eyes before letting you go as she places her hands into her pocket instead. “Yeah well we weren’t talking about you were we?” Kate turns back to you now, you already know what she’s gonna ask you but you let her ask anyways.
“So are you gonna try out for the role of Lydia?”
A smile cracks onto your face as you let out a thoughtful hum. You already thought about it, you were probably gonna try out for the role of Barbara instead. Even though in the past you’ve tried out for the main character roles but something about it just never felt right.
It’s not like you forgot your lines or anything, it’s just you didn’t like being the main character. It probably didn’t help that you clearly weren’t a important character in your father’s play either, as he never seemed to show up to any of the plays you were in, even when you were the lead actor.
“I don’t know, maybe.”
“Maybe?” Kate frowns as she tilts her head to the sight like a kicked puppy before quickly glancing back at Micheal who perks up at your answer as well. For as long as they’ve known you, you’ve always seemed to go for the lead actor role. But maybe you were trying something new?
It’s not completely different or anything, you’re still trying out and that’s all that matters right? It’s not like it’s also weird you dont want to be Lydia even though during middle school you were absolutely obsessed with Beetlejuice thanks to all the animatics you’ve seen of the songs from the broadway musical.
Tyler finally puts down his pencil now as he glances up, his eyes land on you with this serious look on his face that never seems to disappear no matter what. “You’re gonna be late.”
“What?” You glance down at your watch and realize he was indeed right. You’re still backstage, you’ve haven’t even confirmed you were here yet. And just like that you were off, leaving behind you friends who can only watch in amusement and mild concern as you almost bump into someone before dashing from behind the curtain.
“Weird girl.” Tyler hummed before he looks back down as he goes back to writing again, and Micheal and Kate go back to talking again.
~~~~
You ended up trying out for Barbara with a couple of people as well. You don’t know if you got the part yet but you hope you did. As you’re walking off to go find your friends backstage you end up bumping into someone, causing you to stumble backwards and as you turn to try and catch yourself, the other person catches you first.
Blinking wildly you watch as the floor stares back at you, inches away from your face before slowly moving back-or wait, no, you’re the one moving away.
Once back on your feet your eyes finally narrow down on your hero. Standing before you was a guy your sure you’ve never seen around here before, and that’s saying a lot as you’ve been in this distract since you were at least nine. He quickly lets go of your hand once he recognizes that you didn’t need his hand anymore. “I’m so-so-sooo very sorry.”
He spews out a few more stuttered apologies as his once pale face started to turn a bit more red. Your eyes flickers from his extremely blue eyes to his dirty blond hair, confirming your suspicions. This guy is definitely new here. Not many blonds here but the few that are you knew their faces already, and you definitely would know their name if they stepped into the auditorium before.
“Hey-are you still listening?”
The boy awkwardly pulls at loose string at the cuffs of his pale green sweater as he stares at you nervously. It takes you a second to register his words before you’re quickly opening your mouth faster than your brain can think up a word.
“You have extraordinary eyes.”
Silence cuts between you two and all of sudden it feels like everyone else around you guys have stopped what they were doing to look at you two. You know no one else actually stopped, but your throat felt like it was closing up and your palms were getting sweaty anyways.
Who the fuck still says extraordinary!?
“Really?” Instead of being thrown off or weirded out by your words he actually seemed quite…bashful, even pleased that you had somehow noticed something as small as his eyes color.
You, quick to try and make the situation less awkward (cause in your mind you totally just ruined the moment) you nod your head to confirm it. Not that it wasn’t true. This guy seriously did have some very pretty blues-and you should know, a lot of your brothers and even your father have blues eyes. But none of them looked like this before.
Instead of making you feel small and weak, his eyes make you feel warm and soft, but not soft in a bad way, but soft in a warm blanket on a cold day soft.
“Yeah-they look like they could’ve been the reference for what the ocean should look! Like really pretty-or handsome whatever! If I could I would totally buy a bracelet with that exact color beads-I’m leaving now!”
You quickly turn and scurry off somewhere backstage, leaving the boy flustered. He nervously scratches behind his ear for a second before letting out a small pleased chuckle.
“She thinks I have pretty eyes…” He turns and walks off now to go help around since he wasn’t needed right now on lights.
Quickly walking through the small group of people you find Micheal talking with a group of other cosmetic and clothes designers. Probably talking about what look they want to do for the Beetlejuice play and if they have the material for it, which most likely they do.
This was an extremely privileged school after all. With all these rich kids here, their parents obviously are going to try and out donate the other rich parents.
He seemed busy so you end up leaving him be to continue his creative rant about what color the wig should be, apparently it’s between pastel green and bright chartreuse. You think you caught someone saying neon green as you left but by the silence that followed you know they definitely didn’t end up picking that color.
Then there was Kate, you found her not to shortly after finding Micheal but she seemed just as busy too, painting up a storm as she and a few others work on the background for the play. And unless you want to join them you gotta leave fast before prop master notices you or he’ll be sure to drag you over and hand you a paint brush.
Last time you “helped” out your hand ending up cramping up at least ten times and the red and pink generally started to look like the same color when painting for a play that involved a very specific color door to be used.
You shiver before quickly stalking away. Since there was literally nothing else for you to do you find yourself a seat out of the way before texting Alfred to come pick you up.
You had already informed him you’d be a bit later today due to try outs but he seemed to understand just fine. The auditions usually didn’t run THAT late as most people audition for the lead roles, so the side characters roles get to go first, just to quicken the process a bit more. So you luckily got out of there pretty quick.
“Hey, I just wanted to let you know that I finished my audition.”
You wait a couple of seconds for the deliver to show before beginning to type again.
“Totally got the role-“
To cocky
.You frown before quickly deleting it all and starting up again.
“Can you come pick me up-“
Sounds a bit desperate.
But he should know to come pick me up you up, you asked him too and even made sure to verify the night before that he’d be able to.
As you reread over your first and only text you sent, a voice cuts through from the dark. Cold and sharp. “So how did the audition go?”
Your eyes snap up as they quickly landed on Tyler who had somehow sneaked up on you with you noticing it.
“Oh uh-I think it went well.”
“Yeah?”
You pauses before slowly nodding your head. Out of everyone in your small circle of friends, you barely talk to Tyler. Not because you don’t like Tyler, but because he barely talks In general.
“Yeah I think so. Hey, what are you doing here anyways, shouldn’t you be messing around with the lights right about now?”
Tyler takes a seat beside you against the wall as he pulls out his journal again. Tyler seemed to have this habit of constantly writing down things. You don’t know what he writes down in that book but you’re sure it’s something good if it keeps his attention for this long.
“We’re already done, it doesn’t take long to teach the newer light techs how the lights work.”
He stops writing for a second as he looks up ahead of you two. You follow his gaze but don’t see anything really worth looking at so you focus your attention on some people walking around.
“Saw you talking to Jerry early, you seemed pretty flustered.”
“Who?”
You turn your head to the side as your eyes land back onto Tyler. Who in response turns to give you a confused look.
“Dirty blond hair, green sweater, extremely lanky.”
“Oh…” You slowly nod your head as you look away again. “Yeah I talked to him earlier.” Tyler fingers curls and uncurls around his pencil as he considers his next words carefully.
“You know…I think he has crush on you.”
Your head snaps to the side so fast that you’re sure you heard something crack. But at this very moment you didn’t seem to care about that.
“Really-where is this coming from?”
How would Tyler know rather or not someone had a crush on her. Also why is he mentioning this to her, she just met the guy, even if he did have a crush on her it wouldn’t really go anywhere.
Tyler writes something down before shrugging his shoulders, all nonchalant as if he didn’t just tell her something COULD possibly change her whole life if she let it.
“I don’t know…I just think you two would’ve been cute together.”
Before you could pry for more details he was gone, already blending back into the darker parts of the backstage area and out of view.
This was so weird. When did Tyler get into gossiping and shipping?
~~~~
You step off of school property as your eyes land on a familiar black car. Waiting for you was Alfred who gives you a curt nod as he opens to car door for you. You go to slide in but are promptly stopped by the sight in front of you.
“Damian?”
This kid had a scowl that could make even the toughest guys on Earth do a double take. He was seating in the backseat, arms crossed, and scowling at you as if you’ve just committed treason against him.
“Why didn’t you tell me you were going to be late.”
You slowly slide into the car as you place your bag down beside you as Alfred closes the door behind you and walks to the drivers seat now, leaving you with Damian who you swear should’ve been at home by now.
“I’m sorry?”
When did Damian care about where you were and what time you got home-you should be the one getting mad at him since he likes to disappear at night and come home even later than you.
“You should be sorry, if Pennyworth didn’t tell me about your after school activities I would’ve thought you were actively trying to ruin my schedule.”
Schedule? What schedule does he have that involves he’s specifically? Also why is he nagging her right now on the importance of telling people where you’re planning on going. She’s literally older than him, how was he lecturing her right now.
“Next time, tell me.”
“Alright…I will.”
Silence fills the car, as you awkwardly shuffle to put your earbuds in. Not really understanding the change in his attitude towards you but you also didn’t care. You’re sure by tomorrow he won’t even notice you missing during pick up.
I mean why would he care if his older sister didn’t arrive on time like she usually did…
~~~~
To say the least, he did care, and he did notice. Damian noticed almost immediately when you didn’t show up to stand with him to wait for Alfred. For a second he didn’t notice you weren’t there, but the fact became even more obvious the longer he seemed to wait for you to show.
Tim showed up, but you…never did. Even when Alfred arrived and ushered them into the car you never showed up. And when he noticed Alfred getting ready to pull off he was quick to stop the older man.
“Wait, we’re missing Reader.”
This question spark Tim’s interest as he finally noticed your absents. That would also explain why he seemingly had extra space today. Tim glanced around outside the window for a second before turning to look at Damian.
“I don’t think she’s coming.”
Damian glanced out the window for a second before scoffing, as if the idea of you not joining them was the stupidest thing he’s heard.
“Of course she is, she’s just late.”
Alfred watches the two of them from the rear view mirror before looking back at the road as he begins to start the car.
“Sadly Miss, won’t be joining us today, she’s staying after school for the auditions.”
“Auditions?” Tim almost immediately turns back on his phone, probably to learn more about the auditions and more on what you were planning on doing.
A frown has started to take root on Damian’s face as he listens to all of this. “What auditions, why didn’t she tell us.”
“She did.” Alfred replied, calmly as ever from the front seat.
“She did?” Tim looks back up for a second as if trying to remember any of the conversations that he had with Reader, and then he tried to remember if she had mentioned her mentioning going to an audition.
“Yes, she did, yesterday morning she reminded you guys over breakfast that she wouldn’t be riding with you two this afternoon.”
They both sit in silence now as they try to recall that morning. Now that Alfred mentioned it, they do remember her mentioning how she’d be busy today and that they could leave without her since she might be a while.
Damian turns to look back out the window as he crosses his arms quickly, Tim goes back to his phone, and the rest of the ride was filled with heavy silence.
How could they forget that?
~~~~
Damian had ended up sticking behind to join Alfred when he decided to go pick you up. He doesn’t know why he wanted to come, he just did. Tim on the other hand had disappeared off into the manor go do whatever it was that he usually did after school.
So that’s how you ended up in the car with Damian.