Selina Kyle was a thief, a robber, a criminal, but then again, so was he, a criminal. And worse, an assassin. Even after all of this time, even after understanding the cost and the preciousness of a life, Damian could not wash the blood off of his hands, he did it, knowing or not, understanding or not, he did it anyway after all. And that's why when his Father told him the news he, did nothing but nod.
Damian was a difficult child, he was petty and sassy and very hard to handle, he understood very well that those people around him must love him very much, because sometimes he was too much even for himself, and that was one of the reasons - not that he told anyone - that he loved every single person of his family circle, all of them who kept themselves beside him even when he was at his utmost worst behavior.
He just nodded, but he was scared, his brothers and sister accepted him, his aunt Kane accepted him, his Father accepted him, but what about this new person coming in, what if she could not accept him? What if she just didn't forgive his fits and his bad responses? What if she didn't quite get he's not good when it comes around acknowledging feelings? What if she just went and say no to his presence right ahead? He was - beg you pardon for the word - fucking terrified. What if he was told to leave? His family, house, his siblings, what if?
Cassandra, obviously, was the first one to notice. Because she was Cassandra and nothing went unnoticed under her very observant eyes. So she went to him, as soundless as pure void, one moment he was alone and the next she was sitting right beside him, stroking thin and long fingers thru his hair, shushing him with her overwelmingly secure presence.
Cassandra was almost his ancor, something connecting two very, very different worlds, she was from the League, just like him, she was there, he remembers her, her tiny little frame, taking punches for him, throwing punches for him. She was the first person that was truthly his, Cassandra Cain, the only one who laughed and smiled and played with him, the only source of feelings, besides anger, he knew, until the day she desapeared, and he was left alone, all over again, drowning on Mother and Grandfather's expectations, being transformed into someone he'd later learn it was an evil someone. But then, now, there she was, hugging him, and giving him consolation, for something she didn't even bothered to ask what, she knew already, she always knew.
Cassandra Cain-Wayne was Damian's sister, the one who knew Damian the most, the one who drew smiles from him like no one could, the one he accepted being just a child with, because Cassandra was his big sister, his ambition, his sort off role model, she was his past and his present tied all together into something he could make peace with. With her, he knew he was never Robin, or heir of the League, or Mother's son, or Father's son, with her he was just Damian, he was, before all, her little brother.
"Dad is..." She paused, searching for a proper word, her eyebrows furrowing and her lips smearing. "Unhappy." She settles. " You're here, alone." She finnished, smiling softly and looking at him with patience.
"I'm not alone." His response was quite rushed, but there was no point in trying to fake security, Cassandra knew it all, his body just told her everything, even when he didn't want it too, she knew him far to well, she detected his lies in both tongue and body language. Her left brow floated up as she eyed him in disdain.
"Titus and Alfred are here with me." He said, letting his hand pat amicably the dog beside him, and eying the cat stretched bellow the window.
The laugh that came out of her mouth was soft and endearing, her eyes squeezing shut as her head lifted up. Damian took a moment to watch, his sister was relaxed around him, she knew him, she took no harm from him, he wished everybody was like that, so understandable. He wished to be like that, an open book.
"Are you afraid?" Her voice was secure and the smile quite never left her face. And even if he couldn't let the words out, he knew she already got her answer. "You don't have to be." Her slender arms locked themselves around him as she squeezed him against her. "I'll protect you." She said, and he knew it was true. "And Dick, Jason, Tim and Duke. Protect you." She then let him go and looked straight in his eyes, as if asuring him, he was never alone, not anymore.
"I understand." His voice was tiny and not very excited.
"Now..." She begins, lifting his head so that he is staring at her. "Alfred's cookies, just out of the oven." Her smile is as relaxed as her stance, she is very alike Jason when you see it like this, they always act like they feel, never hiding anything. And Damian wonders, If this way, hiding his feelings and chosing to show a dissimulated side of himself, isn't actually the hard way.
She blinked at him, lifting herself up from his bed and, with a last ruffle in his hair, take of, stopping at the door frame to give him another look.
He then follows, there's no time to be scared, and no need, really, his big sister is here, protecting him.