Chapter Text
Gotham City was quiet. A little bit too quiet. No gunshots, no drug dealing, to fights, no robbery, nothing. But somewhere, somewhere along the border of Gotham City and the vast sea, was a rather small villain, running all over and under buildings. Clad in a regal black- wait, is that Damian!?
The young but notorious villain seems to be currently running away from something, or someone.
Damian cursed in his head. How had he been so- imbecilic - and almost get caught and arrested like that? If was going to be any more late to his next meeting with Ra’s, his mother, and the other villains, he was sure he was going to be kicked out from the Villain Alliance.
That couldn’t happen! What would he do? Damian had no more relatives outside of the villain association, except for- his father.
His father, the iconic city’s number 1 superhero, and head of the Hero Association, Bruce Wayne, Batman.
Just from the thought of him, Damian started feeling irritated. And because of that, his body started going on autopilot, and his mind started solely focusing on his thoughts. Because of that, he didn’t notice that he jumped off the building he was previously running on. Because of that, he didn’t notice he accidentally sprained his ankle quite severely and because of that, he didn’t notice and kept on sprinting.
Damian snapped out of it when he heard quickened footsteps getting closer, only to find he was currently weaving throughout alleyways and abandoned buildings and going towards the slums, the lower, more dirtier streets of the city. (Not saying that the Upper District of Gotham City wasn’t any less dangerous and disgusting.)
He rounded the corner. A dead end. He slowly turned around to see four imposing figures. He should’ve known they would catch up to him soon enough. He just didn’t anticipate that they would find him sooner.
Drake- no. No. Red Robin was the first to speak. “Villain, your scum days are over. Hand yourself over or else we will make you.”
Damian and Red Robin met over his civilian job. Damian had a job as a café barista in a very popular cafe. [, which welcomed all people of every age, gender, looks, ethnicity, and of course, powers. It was a neutral cafe, the only neutral cafe in Gotham City, so heros, villains, and vigilantes all stopped by, when they were in the middle of a fight, or on patrol, or just in uniform, you get it.]
Red Robin wasn’t actually in his uniform when he went in the cafe for the first time, he went in as his civilian persona, Timothy Drake. Drake had took a curiosity to Damian and his closed off personality, so he started to come more frequently, and soon enough, his curiosity turned into platonic affection, with Damian’s short but stabbing answers.
[Damian, on the other hand, only had the job because he was instructed by Ra’s to keep a civilian profile that looked normal and ordinary if anyone looked.]
Drake soon became a regular, just hanging around to talk to Damian about his day and his family.
[After Damian’s first meet with Drake, he made sure to look up his personal information, including his name, phone number, job, etc. In the Villain Alliance’s official meeting spot (known to the villains only, of course.), the technology and technical team were quite advanced. They could hack into everything and anything, except for the Hero Association’s files.]
After a few too many encounters with Drake, he started talking about his family. A family of four, with many friends. First, Drake talking about the oldest brother, Richard Grayson, but everyone calls him Dick. Then, he started talking about the middle child, Jason Todd. Then finally, he talked about their father that adopted all of them, practically saved them from the Lower District,
“-big billionaire playboy Bruce Wayne.”
Damian blinked at Drake, his expression showing that he was surprised. That wasn’t what he was feeling on the inside, though. W-what? Did he hear that correctly? Bruce… Wayne?
[One day, in the Villain Alliance, His mother pulled him aside after a meeting to tell Damian some shocking news. His father was a big time billionaire called Bruce Wayne, and he also had a secret identity as Batman.]
Damian finally pieced everything together. A family of four, huh. In the Hero Association, there were four specific Hero’s that were said to behave like family on the field. After an interview, Batman finally revealed that they were, indeed an adopted family. When they were asked for why they chose to keep it a secret, they respond with that they would get targeted with kidnapping and ransom threats. But they figured they couldn’t hide it from the public forever, so they didn’t reveal it until now.
If Damian’s father was Batman, then the oldest brother that Drake called Richard Grayson, must be Nightwing. The middle child, Jason Todd, has to be Red Hood. Then…
Damian stared at Red Robin as he blabbered his head off.
“-this kid okay?”
Damian snapped back to the present. He could beat himself and reminisce about a different life later. Later, after he gets out of this mess.
“Hey.” Now it was Nightwing talking. “Kid, are you out of it right now? Because you resembled of a kid so much, we were going to let you go at the start, but after you committed some not-so small crimes, we have to arrest you now.
Damian tuned out the rest as he unwillingly got absorbed into another memory.
Damian looked up at the sound of the doorbell. He saw Drake, and another person.
“Hey demon-spawn, I brought someone over here for you to meet.”
When he saw Damian doing nothing, Drake continued.
“This is my older brother, Richard Grayson, and-“
Grayson butt in.
“Please, just call me Dick. I’ve gotten so used to it, so it kinda feels weird for anyone to call me that.” With that, Grayson also (playfully) glared at Drake. Apparently Drake called him that on purpose.
So this is Nightwing, Damian thought.
“-Please drop your weapons, and slowly walk over. We really don’t want to fight you.”
Damian got into a well groomed fighting stance.
“Don’t you think this kid is a little weird?”
A man wearing a red helmet that obscures his whole face speaks up.
Damian was busy restocking the new rose-flavoured cheesecakes when someone burst in the cafe, stomping obnoxiously while two others followed at 4 in the morning. Damian started regretting that he volunteered for the early morning shifts.
“HEY DAMI!!!”
“Hey brat!”
Damian said nothing as he stared into the strangers eyes.
Great. Now Nightwing, Red Robin, AND Red Hood are all in his coffee shop in the morning. After Damian met Grayson, he immediately became attached. Like, really attached. Grayson visited more frequently than Tim, and that was saying something. And now, it’s a usual routine for Grayson to come busting in, ordering something, and Damian giving something nothing like Graysons original order. For example, Grayson would order a stray berry shortcake, and Damian would give apple juice. Despite the obvious defiance of orders, Grayson would ‘coo’ (God, it disgusted Damian every single time.
Maybe
.) at him, and drink or eat whatever Damian gave him. And still payed him, and gave him a tip over 10 dollars every single time. Not that he had a use for it, since he always gave the money he earned to his mother. In summary, Grayson was annoying. (
Maybe
.)
“Hellooo? Earth to Damian?” Tim questioned. “What.” Was his reply. “This guy over here, is called Jason Todd. He’s an asshole-“ That elicited a “HEY!” “-but he could be sweet if he wanted to.”
Todd grumbled and walked over to Damian. “Hey kid, don’t listen to them. The replacement over there is just dumb.” He announced as he tilted his head towards Drake for a few seconds.
Just great.
Damian was in deep trouble. When the four Bats all stepped closer, like they were linked, he did the only thing he could think of doing, even if it greatly wounded his self-esteem. Run.
Damian took off running, not pausing when he heard shouts of surprise and loud and frantic footsteps. He jumped from rooftops, his leg hurting more every second. Damian just bit his bottom lip. He could endure it. It was just a small shock for his nerves. He ran and ran, with Batman and the others catching up quickly.
As Damian was sure he was going to get caught, he saw it.
The building he was ready to jump onto seemed to only lead to rocks and water underneath, as Damian led the chase all the way to the ocean.
He could hear voices behind him. “What the hell is he doing!? Don’t tell me he’s going to jump!”
Damian had no time to lose. If he got caught, he would risk his villain relatives and acquaintances identities getting found out. He would rather die than be the reason for the downfall of the Villain Alliance.
Damian wasted no time, and jumped.
He heard shouts of horror coming from behind him, and last thing he felt was a sharp pain and
a liquid
(water
?
) engulfing him.