I’m A Weirdo

Whenever Damian is being too cynical and jumping to conclusions regarding people’s actions, he hears Jon telling him that maybe there’s another explanation. “Come on, D, I know you’re suspicious of this guy because of his past, but maybe he is telling the truth. You should at least look into his alibi a little more before you go accuse him of something.”

Meanwhile, Jon hears Damian’s voice in his head whenever something sketchy is happening, but Jon is being too trusting. “Really, corncob? Even you must realize that something isn’t adding up here. His story makes no sense. Keep your guard up.”

Damian, meanwhile, has more trouble expressing himself. Jon’s never cared (he knows that Damian shows his affection in other ways), but Damian still feels bad about it sometimes.

So, one day, Damian’s scrolling on social media and some cutesy post like the ones Jon always sends him comes up. Damian sends it to Jon because it only feels fair that he try to express his feelings. Besides, clicking the share button is much more bearable than trying to put all the things he feels for Jon into words (baby steps).

Damian, of course, argues against it. He says it’s too risky for people to know their superhero identities are together because someone could use it against them. He also thinks that someone could connect Robin and Superboy dating to Jon and Damian dating and then figure out their secret identities.

Jon shoots this down because people already know that Robin and Superboy are friends and use it against them, so that wouldn’t change. Also, they know plenty of people who are publicly dating as both their superhero and civilian identities and no one has figured any of them out yet.

(Also also, Damian and Jon have a bad habit of making out while on patrol together- usually Jon’s fault- so it’s really only a matter of time before someone sees.)

Jon keeps bringing up these points and pestering Damian until he finally agrees. Jon makes them film all these stupid TikTok’s, and Damian acts all bothered, but he actually starts to like it. Cue Damian filming without Jon knowing and purposely doing things in them that annoy Jon just to ragebait him.

His first video is titled “seeing how loud I have to say my boyfriend’s name before he shows up.” All Damian has to do is whisper and Jon’s there, super worried because why would Damian have to whisper unless he can’t speak freely for some reason? The internet loses their shit over it since the video makes it obvious that Jon is always listening for Damian and is very protective over him.

He has another one called “how long will it take my boyfriend to use his x-ray vision on me if I pretend to be hurt?” Damian sets up the camera and then fakes a slight limp when Jon shows up for patrol. Jon’s eyes immediately get unfocused and a second later he’s asking why Damian’s limping if nothing’s broken? Damian laughs and looks at the camera, which Jon then notices, and he starts yelling because “that’s not funny, D, I thought you were hurt!”

His most popular video is actually a series of videos where he just throws himself off of things and times how long it takes Jon to catch him. Sometimes Jon’s already with him, sometimes he’s not. Sometimes Damian calls for Jon, sometimes he doesn’t. No matter what, Jon always shows up and catches him in record time. The internet absolutely adores them.

People obviously know that he’s Damian Wayne and are fascinated by him being on some random guy’s YouTube channel since he’s such a private person. Damian doesn’t even really have any social media, only Instagram where he posts occasionally about his animals and any charities he wants to raise awareness for.

To add to it, Damian seems almost nice (?) to Jon. He insults him a lot, sure, but it’s clearly playful. Everyone has seen videos of Damian threatening the paparazzi or arguing with his siblings, so they know he’s usually a lot rougher around the edges. It’s weird to see this side of him.

Over the years, Jon’s channel gets into other stuff too. Random social media challenges and vlogging and whatever else he decides he wants to do. Without fail, Damian is almost always in these videos, and people start noticing just how close they are.

It becomes a full fledged conspiracy theory and there are these “proof” videos about them secretly dating. They’re all just clips from Jon’s channel of them staring at each other with heart eyes, or being a little too touchy, or the camera cutting at a weird point. It also doesn’t help that they’re both in college at this point, which means videos of them at parties together acting way too friendly start to circulate as well.

Damian and Jon never deny the allegations, but they never confirm them either. They really just don’t pay any attention to them and just keep doing what they’re doing.

Eventually, this all comes to a head when Jon’s live-streaming one day and Damian stumbles into the frame looking like he just woke up (he did, even though it’s like 5 pm, because the Bats are practically nocturnal), not wearing a shirt, and clear as day says “beloved, who are you talking to? Come back to bed.”

Jon cuts the livestream, but it’s too late. Practically the entire world knows they’re dating now. Not that either of them particularly care, they just didn’t find it necessary to tell anyone they were together except for their friends and families.

(Also, in my mind, more time passed on Earth while Jon was with Ultraman, so him and Damian are right around the same age when he comes back).

Jon comes back and everyone’s so thrilled to have him back at first. Over time, though, they realize that something’s… off. His smiles don’t quite reach his eyes, his mannerisms are overly exaggerated, he stares at people when they speak to him without blinking, he doesn’t really have conversations anymore- only talks to people to give them necessary information and then shuts up. It’s like he’s trying really hard to act like a human, but has forgotten how.

His trauma is also never really addressed, which just makes him get worse. He ping-pongs back and forth between being numb and overly-emotional. He constantly has nightmares so he kinda just doesn’t sleep until he crashes from exhaustion. He also has violent PTSD episodes, during a few of which he accidentally loses control of his powers because he got so angry/upset thinking that he was actually back with Ultraman.

Everyone is kinda freaked out. Even Lois and Clark, who try to be there for him and are well-meaning, but don’t know what to do. The only person who doesn’t treat Jon like he’s damaged is Damian because how could he? Jon never once judged him for his past, so how could Damian do that to him? Jon stuck by him when they were kids and everyone thought that Damian was insane, he trusted him when no one else really did, so Damian will be damned if he doesn’t do the same for Jon now.

Besides, Damian gets it. He knows what it’s like to be off-putting and angry and violent and to have everyone think the worst of him for it. He understands that Jon has gone through something indescribably horrific and has come out on the other side, and Damian can’t help but find that admirable. He also vehemently disagrees when he overhears Clark and Lois venting to Bruce that they don’t recognize their son anymore. Sure, Jon has changed, but how could he not after everything he’s been through? Despite it all, he still tries so hard to be brave and kind and to help people, isn’t that who he’s always been?