tushanshu_logs

Current Mood: careful

Entry tags:

Open

Characters: Damian and Bruce Wayne, Robin (

demon_brat) and Robin (

hackingyoursensors), and also Robin (

demon_brat) and anyone!
Location: Here, there, and everywhere. Mostly rooftops, probably a lot in the Metal and Fire sections.
Situation: Meet Robin, if you wish!
Warnings/Rating: TW for child abuse. Because it's Damian.
A/N: Prose or actionspam welcome. Thread headers for Bruce and Dick, anyone else who wants to meet or talk with Robin, welcome after that!

It took Damian a couple of days after Grayson showed up to return to his, ah, usual levels of visibility. After that first conversation, he did his best to vanish out of sight, making sure not to fall into his usual patterns of anger at circumstances he did not welcome. Because neither Father nor Grayson would approve - his Grayson, this one had no reason to care - and the urge to not fail his Batman was suddenly double strong. Or, at least, more explicit.

Eventually, almost a full day later, he found his way to his Father's suite.

And the next night, and the one after that, he was cautiously back to patrol.

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It was a little easier, the night after the time spent with Father. Not easy, but easier. So he was out on the rooftops, watching over the streets that probably wouldn't welcome him, anyway, and maybe, just maybe, keeping an eye for another brightly-clad figure. Because... he strongly suspected that Grayson would end up sniffing up the same problem areas... sooner or later.

To say that his first day in Keeliai had been rough would be a gross understatement. After his pseudo-argument with Bruce (which mostly consisted of misunderstandings that culminated into mutual frustration), he hasn't entirely been himself. But Dick Grayson isn't the sort of person who sulks forever. Just maybe a day or two.

Anyway, he was finally feeling up to pulling on his Robin suit and having a look around. His method of choice: rooftop express. He's not trying to be seen or trying to hide. He's just enjoying the freedom.

After awhile, Dick ends up in the fire sector. He sits down on one of the higher rooftops and observes the blocks below. The bio-luminescence was really quite breathtaking.

Yeah. There he was. Careless, almost - at least compared to Grayson back home when they were moving together.

Right now, they weren't.

Damian didn't get to the same roof, but perched on one nearby, watching for a moment. It wasn't the Robin outfit that he knew Grayson had worn - if anything, it was the Drake design, which made Damian's lip curl in a silent snarl, and then ease. There were reasons for full body coverage. He preferred it himself. It was logical and it was useful - he wasn't going to stay angry because of it.

Then he spoke - no clearing his throat, directly spoke. "Have you yet discovered that the flames don't really burn? You can touch them with bare hands or stand in them and they aren't even hot."

He doesn't even jump. He just casually turns his head in the direction of Damian's voice.

"I don't really make a habit of sticking my hand in fire. I'm guessing they don't use it for heat."

A pause. "I spoke with you over the network, right?"

"And now you know." And it would be probably a question of trust, not that Damian realizes that, if and when Dick believes that.

He leaped over easily to the other roof, standing up in the changing light.

"Yes." Headcant. "He and you talked?" Or did he have to explain things...

Honestly? He'd probably give it a try by throwing a twig in the fire or something.

Dick makes a face. Not so much at Damian, but at the memory. It's safe to say that it didn't go so well. "Yeah."

Damian stills, barely stops himself from recoiling. This is not Grayson's reaction to Bruce Wayne. Not even when there is a bullet in the back of Grayson's skull and Father has been back for some time and hasn't made a call.

His mind races, but the 'eyes' of the mask tighten only a little. "Differences? With where you come from, I mean."

Dick notices the reaction. Evidently, the Dick Grayson in Damian's world is rather different when it comes to Bruce. He sincerely hopes it's a better relationship. Somehow.

"Huge differences. He expected me to know stuff that I couldn't possibly know. It went south from there."

The Dick Grayson in Damian's world did what was far beyond reasonable to get Damian's Father back. Even, occasionally, at the cost of knowing that the Batman may never forgive him for it. Even at the cost of the possibility that the person who had almost nobody but Grayson to look up to might be cast adrift.

So... no. Dick Grayson of his world would not be cold where Bruce Wayne was concerned.

"You mean in your world he expects - demands - less that the best and most of those he trusts?" Those few he trusts remains unspoken.

Here it goes. The misunderstandings. Hopefully this doesn't turn into one of those like-father-like-son things.

"If his idea of 'the best' is somehow knowing about someone that he knows I can't have possibly met yet and knowing what happens to him as Robin, yeah, he doesn't expect 'the best' of me."

Damian's eyebrows actually fly up, before drawing back in again.

"Expected you to know, or... expected you to interpret what he means?"

From what he has heard - from Pennyworth, mostly - Father always assumed that Grayson would understand. And Grayson did - if not immediately, then later. Father expecting anyone to know the future? That, he's finding harder to believe.

He considers. Bruce did try to explain but...

"A little of both. He got snappish at me when I asked him questions about a topic he brought up. It's like he expected me to know the motivations of someone I've never met and have no information on."

And more staring. And then Damian turns to look out over the fire displays, his mouth going a little dry. It is entirely, entirely not easy to put the words out. And yet he does, voice even and clipped.

"Some people... are not very good at connecting with their feelings. Let alone expressing them. So they protect them by becoming angry. Or snappish. He's lost two... sons, one home, one here. Talking about the Robin after you is probably not easy."

Grayson, back home, would not have needed to be told about that, regarding Father. In fact, Grayson back home had been the one explaining most of what he is saying, to Damian. The younger boy completely suppresses a shudder. How to deal with a Grayson who... isn't?

There's a sharp intake of breath, like Dick is about to get defensive, but he doesn't speak. Instead, he turns and looks at the fire too. Was the Bruce here different because of everything that had happened? How long has he lived under this crushing burden of grief and pain?

Dick doesn't ask about the second lost son. He imagines Damian doesn't want to talk about it and, honestly, Dick doesn't know if he can really hear about another lost "brother" right now.

"I... I know. I tried to avoid everything but the most essential questions. I'm not trying to upset anyone, but that's all I seem to be doing so far."

And that upsets him. He's never been in a position where just his presence caused so much difficulty.

"I'm not upset!" Not exactly, at least. It's a lot more complicated than that.

Plus, admitting to being upset would be admitting to a weakness. No way.

"It's... where we are from, you are so much older. Gone through a lot of experiences nobody who respects you, let alone... more, wouldn't want to think of you going through again. But you've learned from them, from everything. You not knowing, or understanding, is... jarring."

And, because he is definitely getting into tho Robin gig...

"Which questions?"

He looks over at Damian. It's clear Damian wasn't entirely convincing.

Dick listens thoughtfully. It makes sense, sure, but the idea that things that bad happen to him (no, not him, the other him) is a little sobering.

"I'm from a completely different world. Those things might not happen to me."

Part of him is trying to ease Damian's concerns. Part of him is trying to ingrain that into himself. At Damian's next question, he pauses. If he's offering information, he must be okay to talk about it, right?

"How he became Robin. How he died."

"Maybe."

The questions which basically would kill any father, right.

"The general agreement is that it turned out that Batman needed Robin, to stay sane, and you... outgrew that." Actually, that conclusion wasn't reached until the Robin after that, but Damian's a bit hazy.

Or, you know, nobody but Alfred has ever explained any of it to him, and Damian didn't start listening to the butler until later.

"And it was the Joker. Beat him with a crowbar, then blew the building up, timed so that Batman would just not be able to reach him in time... but barely." That was in the file. "And he came back wrong."

Now Damian does cross his arms in front of him. "Not that anyone lets go." His tone goes a little skewed, a little unhappy... yet not nearly as much as he would have resented this all, months ago. "Family."

Dick listens carefully, though parts of it are a bit strange to him. Batman needs a Robin to stay sane? What does that even mean?

His eyes narrow when Damian mentions the Joker. Safe to say? Not a fan. And stabbing at Bruce right where he knows it would hurt? Killing a child? He wouldn't put it past the Joker but it was sick. In fact, it made him feel sick and angry.

"Why would they? Just because someone dies or... changes doesn't mean they're not family."

"Why?"

Damian's head whips around to look at the other ... boy.

"What are the things that make Batman Batman?"

Dick leans back on his arms and looks up at the sky. He has to think about it, because Batman goes waay beyond the suit and the gadgets and the growl.

"I guess... a drive to do whatever it takes to protect people. He doesn't want rewards or adulation. I think he wants what I want: for nobody to go through what we had to go through."

But they were so, so different and he knew it. They might want the same thing, but they aren't interchangeable people.

"And not killing, Grayson. Batman doesn't kill.

"Todd does, and he doesn't care about anyone getting in his way."

Damian's watching him, and, yes, the names are said quietly enough to be only picked up by the person he's talking to. And superhearing, but there isn't much to do about that.

His expression changes immediately. A former Robin who kills? Who totally abandoned the most important teaching Batman passed down, the one he never compromised?

"Why? He was... He took my title. He should know what that means."

It might be childish to focus on that but, honestly, he is still young. Still prone to fits of childishness.

I may have still the greater count of corpses in my wake than him, Damian doesn't say. Yet. The words are at the tip of his tongue, but... he doesn't trust this Robin enough to share them.

He also swallows down the comment that what he says, he learned from Grayson himself.

"He was murdered by the Joker. And then he came back, and, since Arkham never holds the clown very long, and other facilities are even less capable of doing so, the Joker was back to murdering others. What he saw was that the Batman didn't make sure Todd was, at least, the last one. He couldn't accept that rule, after it.

"He also never called himself Robin, after, either. The name was already taken up by another."

But he did take up another of Grayson's identities. And Father's, too.

"He didn't take your title, either. It was given to him. If I have the story right, what he did was try to steal the tires." Beat. "Of the Batmobile."

He can see Damian holding back but, of course, couldn't even guess what it is. But Damian's explanation makes a little more sense. Maybe this Jason isn't as attached to reality as he should be. But the next statement causes Dick's anger to flare.

"How fast does he replace us?"

All of this is making him feel rather disposable, on top of being irritated on the other Robins' behalf. But it's clear that his anger isn't directed at Damian.

Edited 2012-09-30 23:46 (UTC)

Damian just stares at him, again. If anything, this makes him think of Drake's fit of anger when he was told he was no longer a Robin.

"Does the name Robin actually matter more to you right now than the fact that you still keep on doing what needs to be done, both on your own and with Batman, and you get brothers and a sister out of the whole process? Not that she was Robin, the fourth one was blonde."

With as angry as Grayson sounds, maybe it's better to let Brown choose her time for informing him herself.

"And as regards your question, he doesn't, necessarily. He's not the Batman who made me Robin. He was lost in time and presumed dead, at that point."

Robin and Robin

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