Bruce gives Damian's shoulder a light squeeze and then he returns it to his side. His gestures of physical... not affection, but comfort, are few and far between at the best of times, and it's... harder with Damian than with most.]
There was a time when I would have given up everything for your mother.
[He almost did. He'd accepted his role as Ra's' heir, wanted to stay with her, to raise a family together-- even in that life. He'd abandoned Gotham, leaving it to fend for itself for months while he allowed himself that sabbatical of human weakness. For the first time in as long as he could remember he'd permitted himself to want and it had gone down in blood and smoke. He liked to think that it had snuffed out the last vestiges of his love for Talia, but--
A part of him will probably always love her.
He thinks of the women in his life. Talia. Selina. Vicki. Shondra. Diana. Jezebel. He still cares for all of them. Too much, perhaps.
But it's not necessarily a weakness. He understands that now.]
It's all right to care about someone, to consider them important in your life, and disagree with what they do. You shouldn't feel like you have to revoke your feelings for her to fit into my world. Know where you came from, and become stronger for it. Good and bad.
['I shall become a bat'. The echo in his head is almost eerie. For so long he thought it was the dark moments that defined him. Gunshots, a string of pearls, a single street lamp, the knees of his pants stiff and soaked with blood. And they are a large part of him, he can't deny it. But they're still only half of who he is. He's been longer now without them - by decades - than he had with them.
He loves his parents. Their memories are precious to him, but there are other things in his life of equal importance now. He's had his fill of living in the past.]
Who do you want to be, Damian?
[He never asked that question before. Never had the opportunity for it. And he thinks he knows the answer, from having watched Dick and Damian at work. But assumptions have gotten him - even him, with his all his sundry skills - into trouble before.]
no subject
Bruce gives Damian's shoulder a light squeeze and then he returns it to his side. His gestures of physical... not affection, but comfort, are few and far between at the best of times, and it's... harder with Damian than with most.]
There was a time when I would have given up everything for your mother.
[He almost did. He'd accepted his role as Ra's' heir, wanted to stay with her, to raise a family together-- even in that life. He'd abandoned Gotham, leaving it to fend for itself for months while he allowed himself that sabbatical of human weakness. For the first time in as long as he could remember he'd permitted himself to want and it had gone down in blood and smoke. He liked to think that it had snuffed out the last vestiges of his love for Talia, but--
A part of him will probably always love her.
He thinks of the women in his life. Talia. Selina. Vicki. Shondra. Diana. Jezebel. He still cares for all of them. Too much, perhaps.
But it's not necessarily a weakness. He understands that now.]
It's all right to care about someone, to consider them important in your life, and disagree with what they do. You shouldn't feel like you have to revoke your feelings for her to fit into my world. Know where you came from, and become stronger for it. Good and bad.
['I shall become a bat'. The echo in his head is almost eerie. For so long he thought it was the dark moments that defined him. Gunshots, a string of pearls, a single street lamp, the knees of his pants stiff and soaked with blood. And they are a large part of him, he can't deny it. But they're still only half of who he is. He's been longer now without them - by decades - than he had with them.
He loves his parents. Their memories are precious to him, but there are other things in his life of equal importance now. He's had his fill of living in the past.]
Who do you want to be, Damian?
[He never asked that question before. Never had the opportunity for it. And he thinks he knows the answer, from having watched Dick and Damian at work. But assumptions have gotten him - even him, with his all his sundry skills - into trouble before.]