headcanon that damian’s eyes change color.
and no, not like “his eyes darkened with anger” or “they were a fresh spring color in the sunlight” no i mean his eyes actually change color.
When he was a baby, he was born with brown eyes, inherited from talia. they’re normal. unassuming. there’s not much hidden depth to them, people look at them and assume they’re a normal person’s eyes. ra’s was angry, predictably, because his grandson, the one whose body he was going to occupy, had eyes as dull as a common civilian. but talia stepped up and said “you fool. can you not see how this will help us all?” and it does. because people never expect damian to be as dangerous as he is. from birth to the end of his toddler years, people see an average child, which makes them all the more easier for him to slaughter.
then, damian was tossed in the lazarus pit. it was part of his training, mandated by ra’s. talia put him in there without a second argument, though gentler than she usually would be. the pain wracks his tiny body, and when he comes out, he feels dizzy and jumbled and angry. he doesn’t even what happened to his eyes until a couple days later. they’re a bright, acid green. like, danny phantom green. they radiate the unnatural. one look at those eyes and people instantly know something is not right with that child. it makes his ruthless grin even more terrifying. ra’s is pleased. talia tries to be pleased, and succeeds, somewhat. somewhere deep inside her, though, she’s terrified of her son, because while her viciousness as a child had stemmed from the constant training and need for approval from her father, damian seems to be this absolutely brutal on his own, because he liked it. she never did figure out his savageness stemmed from love for her.
when damian meets, then loses his father, his eyes are the same eerie bright green, though dulled, somewhat. bruce could never look him in the eyes. when dick becomes batman and makes damian his robin, he takes one look at damian’s eyes and declares that’s plain creepy. tim agrees. they’re straight up unsettling. at first, damian wears this as a badge of pride, showcasing how different he is from his siblings, how superior. over time, though, his eyes become just another thing separating him from them, another reminder of his heritage. dick still flinched ever time he looked damian in the eyes, and that cut damian deeper than he ever expected. over time, though, dick stopped flinching, and damian assumed he’d just grown used to it. it wasn’t until damian took a good look in the mirror that he realized his eyes had changed color. they no longer were the acid green pools of miniature lazarus pits, two seconds away from actually glowing. they had faded into a duller, almost brownish green. the same color as alfred’s tea leaves. and damian was happy, happy because now his eyes held a warmth to them, the same warmth that alfred left in everybody else. tim came back, with proof that bruce was alive, saw damian’s eyes, and sagged in relief. later that night, making sure damian couldn’t overhear, he went to dick and said “you did it. i don’t know how, but you broke his connection to the league.” and dick shook his head. “i didn’t break his connection to the league. i just made sure his connection to us was stronger.” (and if bruce now looked damian in the eyes while holding a conversation almost constantly, well, that was something damian would never admit to loving.)
and then came jon kent. damian knew from the moment he met him that jon kent was going to be somebody important. people called him stubborn? clearly they’d never met this one particular ten year old. on the outside, he seemed a picture perfect happy-go-lucky kid. damian wondered how nobody else saw the sheer determination behind his eyes, the blue being taken over by violet with rage. you would have to be a fool not to see the desire to prove himself, and how jon would do almost anything to accomplish that. and after kid amazo, after jon had cleared it with his parents after the move to go patrol with damian, they would sit on a roof and eat fast food during stakeouts and jon would talk about everything and nothing at all and damian could almost feel his eyes changing color.
but it didn’t happen until he was 22. there was a battle, a big one, and it had passed in a blur of days. of fighting and stitching up wounds and being constantly on edge. on the last day, damian had gotten hurt. there was a kryptonite spear. jon was busy helping another wounded hero off the ground. the answer was pretty simple. though, jon’s anguished scream when the blade lodged itself in damian’s torso hit a little harder than home. luckily that day the league was able to take out the bad guys for good, and jon stayed by damian’s side until it was certain he could pull through. and angry punch on the arm and a don’t ever do that to me again turned into a quiet i can’t see you get hurt like that turned into i couldn’t let you get hurt turned into damian ducking in and pressing his lips, once, softly and firmly against jon’s. afterwards, pulling back from jon, damian’s voice was unsteady, saying “this, jon, this is why i can’t let you get hurt.” jon stared at him for a minute, impassive (and boy did that scare damian because jon was rarely ever impassive) before saying “i get it. i understand. so i bet you can understand why i can’t let you get hurt” and dragged damain in for a kiss that was deep and passionate and sucked the soul right out of damian’s body. the next day, when damian was cleaning some of the cuts on his face, he spotted his eyes in the mirror. they had changed color again. from an earthy green-brown to a deep emerald. just like his second eye color, they were unnatural, unearthly. but these, these had hidden depths that damian loved. they were dark and mysterious and shone with hidden emotion. they danced the edge between mortal and not, between ordinary and captivating. and, if damian squinted at the mirror hard enough, he could see love woven through those emerald stones, as sure as the love in dick’s eyes, in jon’s.
and damian smiled. because he was pretty sure these eyes were going to stay a while.