i've had worse

archiving this account, reboot will be very private, very selective

   “That was the worst joke,” Jason gripes, peeking out from around the corner. The guards haven’t budged from their post despite all the commotion, meaning they’re being paid very handsomely to guard an impressive cache of drugs, also meaning he’ll have to go through them instead of around them.

   “Kay, I’m goin’ in.”

   Jason rolls two marble-sized smoke bombs between his fingers and then chucks them down the hall, sprinting out the moment they go off. The air goes thick, grey, and opaque, but Jason doesn’t need to see to remember where the guards were standing and in what direction they were holding their rifles — he flies in knees first, body slamming the closest guard into the door and using him as a brace to kick the rifle out of the second’s hands. 

   Jason’s worked with Dick and Bruce long enough to know that sometimes the only point of a hired gun is to stall so that more hired guns can arrive, effectively negating the neighborhood vigilante with overwhelming force. He makes quick work of knocking them unconscious and disassembling their weapons to the point of unrecognizability, before swiping a keycard for the door.

   “I’m about to blow their storage straight to shit. Please tell me everyone is fleeing in terror.”

given that jason is the reason dick had to go in so quick, he has no space to be criticizing dick’s jokes.  which dick would tell him if bullets weren’t raining down around him.  one manages to get a lucky shot, grazes dick’s shoulder, and he hisses as he doubles back, using the guy’s shoulders as a springboard.  it pushes the thug down and pushes dick up enough to get him over the crowd again.  the crowd that is being very loud and very unorganized but heading towards the exits like they should be.

❝terror fleeing is happening.❞ dick gets the words out over a sickening crunch of some goons wrist under his foot which, sorry but it had to happen eventually.  the casino wasn’t all that full to begin with, which is nice, and the last few people are sprinting out as dick entertains the main show in the middle of the floor.  ❝if this is gonna come raining down on me, i need fifteen seconds notice.❞ he drops from stand to almost-sit, thighs wrapped around a guy’s head.  

He tsks. At least Grayson is aware of his shortcomings.

There’s a moment of hesitation. The barest hint of unease. This is a deviation from his path. This is not what he intended to do with his life, Damian had been told from birth that he would rule the world, a modern day Alexander the Great. Vulnerability is not something he does well, but -

But it’s not as if he’s ever been good at hiding that from his brother.

With Bruce - he seemed to see only the surface. His past, his mother, his raw edges. He saw Damian as a beast barely kept in check, fueled by rage too great to overcome. He didn’t see what Dick did, he didn’t see who he was. And neither of them had the words to bridge that gap. Bruce expected total compliance and Damian needed trust to give it.

And he trusts Dick enough to say the truth.

“I did not leave the League to be Robin,” he says after a moment, drawing a knee up to his chest and wrapping his arms around it. “I left to be my own person… The person you seem to believe I can be.”

A beat. He tightens his grip.

“I’ll form my own identity. I don’t need to be Robin to be that person.”

fair point.

damian has always been bigger than other people’s footsteps.  at least, that’s what dick’s always thought.  robin was good for him ; it was discipline and scheduling without seeming like it.  robin has always been whatever it’s wearer needed it to be.  it was family for dick, and acceptance for jason, and a badge of merit for tim.  but damian’s outgrown it - far quicker than the rest of them did.  dick thinks that damian’s not meant for batman either, but he won’t ever say that.  damian will take it the wrong way, he thinks, and dick hasn’t found a way to phrase it where he’ll take it the right way, so he keeps it to himself.  but damian isn’t batman - he’s better.  he’s more.

and curled up like this, as dick tilts his head to look, damian seems much more like a kid than usual.  it makes dick’s heart melt, like it always does.  ❝you don’t need me to believe in you.  you can be whoever you want to be.❞ doesn’t mean dick will stop believing in him, by any means.  damian’s a good kid, he is.  he just needs a chance.  and if dick’s the only one that’ll give him that chance then fuck it - dick will be here to do that.

❝whatever you need, dames.  we’ll figure it out.❞ dick moves to push himself up from the couch to get plates, and then pauses.  ❝also, before i forget.  we’re not having any more than four animals in this apartment at a time, and they have to be small enough that i won’t get evicted for them and that is not up for debate even a little.❞ dick’s asthma will go wild no matter how many pets there are, but he’s trying here.  

“This is a terrible idea and you know it,” Damian says plainly, crossing the room to take a seat on the arm of the couch. “I go if you so insist. It’s pointless and a waste of time but I will go.”

There will be no shortage of schoolyard scraps and teachers calling home to express their frustration with a student that will argue with them about discrepancies in their texts. Damian is sure this is going to be more trouble than Dick thinks, and doubts he’ll last more than a few weeks before the school pushes him through it’s curriculum to get him out of their hair.

“Are there any other stipulations I should know about?”

❝terrible ideas are my speciality.❞ as if damian doesn’t know that already.  damian, who has just recently run away from home - quite literally - to come and live with his adopted big brother who just barely has his life together.  so terrible ideas, it seems, run in the family.  still, dick’s now weaselled an agreement out of damian, so it’s not all bad.  at least not yet.

the next big question pertains to whether or not it should be a uniformed school.  dick’s leaning more towards no ; he wants to see what damian considers normal attire for a ten-year-old.

“You intend to send me to school to socialize me? That’s ridiculous, Richard. I,” he starts, and then very nearly says something he knows he’d regret. I’ll never fit in rests on the tip of his tongue before he swallows it down. “I am sociable enough as it is.”

Does he need to be reminded that he is not like other children his own age? Is this an attempt to have him better blend in with society – what do normal ten year olds do? Surely they don’t speak several languages fluently and have no idea what it’s like to break a man’s neck without trying. They watch insipid cartoons and bemoan their crushes don’t notice them.

He’d already tried to fit in with people nearer to his own age than Alfred and Dick, and it had gone poorly. The Teen Titans should have been easy to associate with, and even if the mission had been a success, he was rather certain that they’d all prefer never to be in the same room together again.

“And it’s hardly rent. Your apartment looks as though it’s already been robbed. If I’m to stay here there should be some semblance of order.”

arguing with damian is, sometimes, like arguing with a brick wall.  but an interesting fact about dick is that he’s just as stubborn, and hardly plans to go down without a fight.  ❝again.  not a negoti -❞ his words are warped as he yawns, stretching the syllables around them.  ❝- ation.  besides, you’ll go crazy alone here all day.❞ at least the manor has space.  dick’s apartment is two bedrooms, one small living room and a bathroom.  not exactly sprawling and ready for a ten-year-old who’s not used to sitting still.

dick knows it’ll be difficult.  he’s already anticipating several notes and calls home from the principal of whatever school he can get damian into on such short notice.  but he can deal with that ; and the best way for damian to learn is to do.  ❝think of it like an undercover mission.  go in, observe.  learn how to blend.  at least give it one semester, then we’ll talk.❞ as much as dick’s joking, it really, really isn’t up for debate.  and he thinks it’s not that much to ask, either.  especially since damian has just decided to live with him, out of the blue.  or maybe it was a long time coming...that’s actually more likely.