#dawnseternallight

✏️​ Writer Spotlight: DawnsEternalLight ✏️​

@preciousthingsareprecious' way with words creep upon us like dawn does, softly and surely ​🌇​ We're thrilled to have her on board!

Read her fic Emergency Contact now!

Ahh thank you for the prompt! I ended up including both Jason and Damian, hope that’s okay lol

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Damian scowls as he carefully stomps around the old, truly dilapidated warehouse. It’s cold, wet, and utterly useless, with nothing of worth as far as he can see. Empty cardboard boxes, puddles of rain, knocked over machines overtaken by rust.

“Why are we even here, again?” Todd complains from across the room, kicking at an overturned stool. “How does any of this have anything to do with the stupid puzzle?”

“Riddler said the next clue would be in one of these warehouses. Which you know already, because you stood next to me while he said it.” Richard says this altogether too cheerfully considering the circumstances. “Now keep looking! He probably hid it somewhere really obvious.”

“If it’s so obvious we should’ve already found it,” Todd mutters, but he goes back to searching in all the dark corners.

Damian sighs. He could be cuddling with Alfred the Cat right now, or fighting off muggers in the street, or any number of other things right n—

The ground suddenly gives out from underneath him, and he accidentally lets out an undignified yelp as he falls into a hole in the ground that comes up to his chest. A hole in the ground which is somehow even more disgustingly wet and full of spiderwebs than the rest of the building.

“Robin!” Richard bounds over, immediately reaching out to help him up. “You alright??”

“Fine,” Damian bites out. He gets back to his feet and backs away from the dumb hole, nearly bumping into Todd.

“Oh, look,” Richard says, leaning down and pulling a slip of laminated paper from the dark. “The clue!”

“Oh my god,” Todd groans, appropriately annoyed with the situation, Damian thinks.

“This is the fun of investigating,” Richard says with a laugh.

“No it’s not!” Damian and Todd vehemently deny at the same time.

“You fall in the hole then!” Damian adds.

Smiling? In one of my stories?!

. . . it’s more likely than you might think ;)

Richard gave Damian a small smile. “You know, I used to say the same thing to Bruce, when I was your age.”

“Hey, uh, Major?” Ed calls out to Armstrong, just as the two of them are exiting Mustang’s office. “Can I, uh, ask you a favor?”

Amstrong turns and (for some goddamn reason) strips his shirt off, flexing his muscles as he exclaims, “But of course, Edward Elric! If there is something I can do for you, just say the word! I will do it to the best of my ability!”

“Right,” Ed says, still a little off kilter. His left hand twitches towards his right arm, and he grabs the metal limb carefully and pulls it towards his body. He can’t quite look the Major in the eyes right now. “It’s just. It’s raining, and, I mean. Usually I would have Al do it, but since Al’s still at the library, I just—”

Armstrong sets a gentle hand on Ed’s flesh shoulder, and it startles Ed enough that his words cut off, and he’s staring at Armstrong.

“Whatever it is, Edward, I would be glad to lend my assistance,” Armstrong assures him.

Ed finds himself relaxing a touch. “Thanks, Major Armstrong. It’s my automail port. Sometimes it gets achy in the rain, and I can’t really reach my back, so I can’t rub it out.”

Armstrong nods sympathetically and leads him over to the couch in the anteroom outside of Mustang’s office. No one is here, seeing as most of Mustang’s team is on an assignment in Central. Ed strips out of his jackets, just in his black sleeveless shirt as he lies face down on the couch.

Aw, thank you Dawn ♥ And here you go, tooth rotting fluff both because you deserve it and to atone for the previous angst :D

Dick woke up the exact moment the bedroom door opened, instincts kicking in even in the state of exhaustion he had currently driven himself into, but he kept quiet, waiting to see what the kid had in mind.

He had no doubt it was Damian either, because Alfred had no reasons to be this quiet or this insecure about entering Dick’s room, but he couldn’t think of a reason for the boy to come and wake him up, since there was no patrol scheduled for the next few nights and Dick couldn’t remember any other pressing engagement.

So he didn’t say anything, didn’t even open his eyes, only listened to the hushed sound of bare feet approaching his bed. He could feel Damian’s eyes on him, but there was no sense of urgency accompanying him, and the kid’s breathing was soft and regular and not hitched up as it would be after a nightmare.

Dick was tempted to spoke up out of curiosity at this point, but silence and sleep still sounded sweeter than any conversation. Beside, he was sure that Damian was going to call out his bluff any moment now.

Instead he felt the corner of the blanket being lifted up, then the mattress sank under Damian’s light weight, and a moment later the boy was curled up next to Dick, close enough that he could feel his warmth, but still not touching him. Since Damian hadn’t immediately demanded his attention like he would’ve if anything was wrong or if he needed something from him, Dick thought that maybe the kid had just got lonely and came to him for a little silent company.

And he was perfectly happy to have Damian there, to be close to him without having to talk or to move, be content only with each other’s presence. He was about to concede himself the only effort of stretching one arm across the bed to wrap around Damian’s waist and drag him closer to his chest, when he felt the boy’s fingers skim above his forehead to tuck back a strand of hair from Dick’s face.

It was a quick touch, very gentle, and it almost made him open his eyes. Good thing he didn’t, he discovered an instant later, when Damian’s fingertips slid down, carefully tracing the outlines of Dick’s face as if he were drawing it on a canvas. It was a little weird being on the receiving side of it, but Dick had done the same thing before, when Damian had been hurt or deeply asleep, and he knew the gesture was affectionate and even almost too tender for Damian’s standards, so he let himself relax under his little brother’s touch and let the boy keep redrawing his features with soft fingers and no words.

He was on the verge of falling asleep again, when Damian decided he was done with his new game and poked his cheek hard enough to make him wake up again.

“Hey”, Dick murmured, opening one eye.

Damian looked back at him with his usual scowl.

“You’ve been asleep for the past twelve hours”, the kid informed him, and he probably intended for it to sound like a stern reproach, but some softness had crept into his voice too, and he sounded more concerned than anything.

“And you got a little worried?”, Dick ventured with a sleepy smile, unable to help himself.

Damian clicked his tongue disapprovingly, but didn’t deny the charge - and if Dick had needed any confirmation that would be it.

“I’m fine, kiddo”, Dick reassured him. “Only a little overtired.”

Damian hummed and didn’t sounded very convinced by his words, so Dick shifted closer and wrapped an arm around him. Damian settled into his arms with the obligatory sigh of resignation, but didn’t complain when Dick tucked him under his chin, or about the kisses on his forehead.

Thank you so much! I’ll try to make it fluffy instead of sad!

Dick wakes up feeling like shit, and from the way his back screams in protest as he tries to get up, it’s not just in his mind.

He falls back down, covering his face with his hands as a cough rattles his lungs and makes him sound like a dying whale.

“Ugh. He spits at the world, burrowing his way under his blankets.

Fuck being Batman, he needs sleep.

His eyes are drifting shut, his breathing is evening out, and everything is right with the world until-

“Grayson!”

-a small body that’s his baby brother lands on him, and through Damian’s chatter about him being lazy and it is time to get up, Grayson, breakfast is ready, Dick groans and pulls Damian into bed with him, wrapping his arms around him like a koala bear and drifting off again.

Well, he tries to.

Damian has other plans, and made them known by kicking and yelling in his ear and trying to squirm his way out, but Dick will not be deterred, no sir.

He’s sick, he wants rest, and he wants cuddles with one Son of Batman, and by god will he get it.

“Shush.” He murmurs into his pillow, arms tightening, and Damian huffs into his chest.

“Grayson, what is the matter.” Damian asks, and it’s not a question-it’s a demand, and Dick’s too tired right now to scold him on that, so he just says it.

“I’m sick.” He sighs, another cough working itself up, and he manages to make it one where he doesn’t cough until he curls up, so he counts that as a plus.

Damian makes a noise of acknowledgment, and tries to escape again. “I will inform Pennyworth and make sure he brings you the appropriate medicine.” He says, and Dick groans again.

“But I want to cuddle with you.” He whines, huddling further under the covers as the horrible sun tries to burn his eyes out.

Damian falls silent, and Dick takes than opportunity to make them more comfortable, shifting them until Damian’s able to see his shoulder.

“…I can call him instead.” Damian ventures, looking uncertain, and Dick smiles as he takes that to mean that Damian won’t leave.

I didn’t draw a specific scene from any fics, so. sorry if you were hoping to read that, ahaha. But I can rec you a few of my faves if you’d like? I’ll put them under the cut so it doesn’t get too long