Title: Cats and Bats and a Hyena
Summary: Sometimes, it's the little things that earn trust among people who, more often than not, may never have gotten along. A Twinning one-shot.
Disclaimer: I don't own Batman Beyond or Batman comics, or any characters mentioned.
Warnings: This is connected to 'Twinning' as well as being a bigger part of an excerpt from 'Red and White', and unbearable cuteness.
Dedication: Rose Midnight Moonlight Black. I thought of writing this when I realized the reason some fiction writers weren't writing was because of tests and studying. This is to lift the spirit.
I wrote this mid-day, with no air-conditioning in my hovel and a completely fried brain, so mind the mess.
-:-
I took the stars from my eyes, and then I made a map
And knew that somehow I could find my way back
Then I heard your heart beating, you were in the darkness too
So I stayed in the darkness with you
-Florence and the Machine.
"Do you hear that?"
Colin groaned from his position in bed, still being pressed down by Damian's leg clinging over his side and the brunette's arm folded over his shoulder. He had been in peace, warm and soft and enjoying the feel of Damian rubbing up against him as he slept. But could Damian actually let him sleep, stop being paranoid? No. Now he was hearing noises.
"It's raining," Colin replied, waving Damian's arm off of him so he could grab his pillow and clasp it over his head, "Like every other night this week."
Damian gave his life partner a roll of the eyes and removed the covers from both of them—all black and blue checkered that reminded the Dark Prince of some stupid picnic layout, but it wasn't as though he had been with the ginger when he bought that set of sheets—and tried to yank Colin out. It didn't do much but cause the taller man to grumble about the value of a good night's sleep and a little kick that didn't hit anything but air. With a little more tugging on Colin's boxers, he managed to receive an actual glare as Colin got up to hiss something that in the daytime hours would never come out of his mouth. Probably a lot of euphemisms about where Damian could stick certain things and what not.
"It's not the rain," Damian continued, tossing Colin his terry cloth robe in an obvious attempt to tell him they were going outside as Damian slipped on his own robe that—despite various washings—still smelled of the awesome sex they'd had yesterday for five hours. A smile crept its way up Colin's visage at the thought, despite how he still wanted to appear cross with the other man.
Pulling on and tying up his own robe, Colin followed Damian all the way down the stairs that led to and from their room and all the way outside, slipper bound feet making sucking noises similar to what it probably sounded like when something stuck into a sinkhole before disappearing forever. The rain beat down on them both, but Colin watched Damian look about, ears seeming to twitch and finally, once they neared the ditch of the road leading to the highway from their property, Colin heard what Dami heard.
Tiny little screams. Not human, but familiar. Like a baby cry.
God only knew how Damian heard such a noise past the rain and thunder all the way inside their nice, dry abode, but Colin preferred not to dwell on think about such things. Otherwise he started thinking about deals with the devil that Damian claims he didn't make and Colin knows couldn't be accurate, despite the friends they kept, but still…
"Ah hah!"
Colin gave a jolt and looked over to where Damian was…taking off his robe?
"What are you doing?" The ginger asked, more than a little disturbed that Damian was exposing himself to wet and discomfort when Colin knew for a fact he hated being wet in the outdoors.
Damian smiled and looked down pointedly at his hands and near where he was crouched down in the ditch. Colin looked as well and gave a little gasp. Down in the ditch, being soaked to the bone by water and cold, was Alfred being protective and doing his very best to use his body as cover for seven small, very young kittens.
"Oh…"
Approaching the house after an entire day of being forced mercilessly to climb a mountain that stood adjacent to Damian's house, two sweaty Gotham heroes followed after Damian. Terry and Deidre, as per the assigned regiment foisted on them both by Barbara and Bruce, were supposed to train with the Prince of Darkness twice a week—or when Terry didn't have a date (so very important these days) with Dana—to build up their skills for the protection of Gotham. Still, though, when Damian looked as though he was only pleasantly exercised and they looked as though they had walked barefoot into Hell, they had a feeling he had cheated. He had been all to kind to offer up a prize at the end of the session and they were suspicious.
Of course, after getting their asses kicked while on assignment with the League the week before when Damian had signed himself off the duty roster for the week, they knew that he had something special planned for them, so they had at least been prepared not to whine like children. They took Damian's criticism and his forcing Terry to put weights in his rather formfitting shorts while forcing Deidre to add weights to her ankles all in good stride and had kept their mouths shut when they had to swim a river on the way back and were proud of themselves for not back talking once.
But the suspicion never really left, even when he made them take off their shoes before entering into the—blissfully air-conditioned—house as he always did. He had not yelled a lot at Terry that day, unusual in and of itself as he was still bitter over being passed over for Batman by a "mere child" as he regularly put it and had yet to call Deidre "Devil Spawn", "Devil's Seed", "The Second Fatgirl" or any other such title. Something was either up high in the sky waiting to fall on them, the man was high as a kite or something much worse. They were both a little afraid.
Both were brought out of such thoughts by entering the abode—all wood cutter and lumberjack that it was—and being assaulted by the scent of Colin's home cooked lunch. Their mutual questions for the man could be held off for food. And dropping the weights from their person.
"Hi-ya Dami, kids," Colin called from the kitchen, the tell-tale sounds of his large feet in his boots heading their way before he came before them, wearing his "Pucker up, Buttercup" chef's apron, wiping his hands on a washrag, "How went the hike?"
Two sets of blue eyes glanced pointedly at the ginger, before both of them dropped their weights. A reverberating "thud" echoed on the hardwood floor.
Colin winced, the washrag being slung over his shoulder as he nodded towards Damian to head into the kitchen, "Sorry. Damian's been a little…jerky, this week."
"Might one inquire why?" Deidre asked, bending over to rub at the slight raw feeling the weights had left over her ankles, like fire; her long blonde hair dipped with her in its ponytail.
"Yeah, can't he at least be normal about it?" Terry added, sitting on the living room sofa, putting his feet on the coffee table before removing them at the memory of Damian giving him that speech the first time they came to his place about ruining his furniture with his stinking, sweaty feet, "Can't he call us the usual names and be honest? He's acting like he just went through a bad break-up…you didn't break up with him, did you?"
"No."
"Well, what is it then?" Deidre asked again, polite as usual.
Colin opened his mouth to answer, but was swiftly interrupted. A tiny, high pitched cry sounded from where the two teens were aware Damian's training room was and Colin had a guilty look suddenly spread his features and point them in the direction of the truth.
Terry pointed for the stairs that lead to the training room, "What was that?"
"Nothing!" Colin answered, a little too quickly.
Another set of cries rang out. From the kitchen, Damian could be seen moving for the door and Terry got off of the sofa. Swiftly and as though be a trigger, both brunettes took off for the noise, Damian yelling curses when Terry entered first and he followed after—his shirt apparently being removed while in the kitchen and showing off the tan he'd earned on the hike.
Deidre looked with a raised brow at Colin and the man looked over at her, suddenly sulking and raised his hand to count off seconds on his fingers, "Five…Four…Three…Two…"
"Oh My God!" Came Terry's voice, joyful sounding alongside the sounds of Damian yelling, "Shut up, insect!"
"I was wrong, you do have a heart!"
"You put those down, right now, before Alfred comes in and finds you meddling!"
Colin sighed and glanced over again at Deidre, a little smile quirking, "Alfred had kittens, the mommy dumped them, and now Dami's being a surrogate."
"Ah," the blonde smiled brilliantly, "Congratulations."
"Would you like to see them before the Two Stooges do something stupid, like wake Alfred up from sleeping in the sun outside and scare the kittens?"
She perked up quite a bit, clasping her hands before her chest and standing on tiptoes like a chirpy little prairie dog, eyes bright and Colin could just imagine her squeaking in a moment, "Oh, can I?"
Colin walked behind the teen and led her down the stairs, the sounds of Damian hissing expletives and Terry cooing nonsense to the tiny black and white balls of joy curled together in their basket chirping up at him and Dami. Once the ginger and the blonde reached the last step, Colin took a seat before the basket and ran a finger over six little ones, counting them and checking that they were all okay despite the noise the brunettes were making, Deidre stayed next to the door, kind of waiting for Damian to stop snapping. She didn't particularly like being in the line of fire when he spat like that.
"Oh, they're all so adorable," Terry said, hands petting two of the black furballs that each had a white spot on their left ears.
"Yes, Damian takes wonderful care of them," Colin praised absently, looking up at Damian and finally shutting the man's tirade up, if only for a moment, before it was spoiled by Colin asking, totally cavalier in a way, "But number seven isn't here."
Damian immediately crouched down, hands touching the floor and brilliant eyes counting, "No, no, no, he was here, here was here! Did Alfred take him out?"
"No, Alfred's taking a sun bath," the ginger replied, trying to be mellow. It didn't help as Damian raced up the stairs to check everywhere the kittens had waddled around that early morning, right past Deidre and nearly knocking her over.
"Little over protective, isn't he?" The new Dark Knight asked, picking the one wholly and totally black little one out of the other five, its blazing yellow eyes seeming to look through his soul. He was the only one that hadn't mewled at the new black haired giant that had come down to touch them like the slightly bigger, fussier giant who had been coddling them with their daddy.
"Oh, but he doesn't need to be," Deidre finally spoke up, coming over to the basket, something squirmy held in her hands, "The little escape artist was right here."
Terry stood up to stand next to his blonde partner and, bracing the black furball to his chest protectively—though he didn't need to be—and looked at what Deidre was holding that had actually managed to get her to smile. In her hands was a tiny yellow kitten, brown spots leading from its ears to its tail with clever looking green eyes. It was the smallest and the only one to most likely appear to be like the litters' mother.
"Ah, where was he?" Terry questioned, leaning over to pat the goldy, the pitch boy finally chirping and one of its paws moving toward its sibling.
"Next to my feet, trying to get up the stairs," she answered, still smiling, but holding the kitten out to let the now finicky black kitten touch paws with the yellow runt, "And he's not a he. He's a she."
"Hah," Colin laughed, getting up from his crouch with all of the other siblings going back into their purring, soft, cuddling dreamland, giving both of the kittens in the young superheroes' arms a little kiss on the nose, before heading up to turn off the oven where his lemon poppy seed muffins were no doubt burning by now, "I was right. Now that I have a second opinion, Dami owes me ten bucks."
"Bucks?" Terry called over his shoulder, still not at all used to old people and their phraseology.
"Money, creds, dough," Deidre answered, both of them going upstairs as it became obvious that the black and the gold didn't want to sleep, they wanted to play.
"Well, why can't they just say that?"
"It takes different strokes to move the world."
Sitting in the living room rather than the kitchen to eat as Colin usually delegated they should do to keep from getting water rings on the coffee table or crumbs in the seam of the sofas, the two older heroes and younger heroes sat eating poppy seed muffins, salad and buffalo chicken puffs. Damian was critiquing Terry's inability to really use his legs in close combat, and how Deidre was unable to gain any progress throwing a punch.
Neither of them were paying much attention as they watched the yellow kitten hop around like a bunny before the black (and much bigger) kitten tried to tackle his little sister. It was really adorable and Damian watched it as well, but didn't want to make it too obvious.
Finally, after downing his early morning coffee leftovers like vodka shots, Colin interrupted Damian and asked, totally out of the blue, "These two are the only ones me and Dami haven't named. You two want to name them?"
"How can you even tell them apart?" Terry asked, talking around a whole chicken puff stuck in his throat. He got a lightly disapproving look from Deidre, but ignored it rather like Damian might ignore the same thing from Colin.
Damian scoffed and set to explaining, "That black one there is the biggest, as well as the only one with Alfred's eyes, the rest have Alfred's white spots and have blue eyes and that one there is—according to Demon Spawn and Colin,"
"Ah, we're back to normal now, are we?" Terry interrupted a moment, before being distracted by the yellow kitten swerving up on to the table and then down again onto her brother.
"The only girl, the runt and quite obviously, yellow with brown spots."
"What did you name the others?" Terry asked, Deidre being occupied as the black kitten started chewing on her ponytail, before the little girl bit his tail and he ran after her.
"Damian named them all after foreign gods," Colin answered, giving Damian a rub along the shoulder, "The twins with the same ear spots are Loki and Thor, the one with that white streak on its stomach is Tefnut, the one with mittens on the back legs is Poseidon and the last one with shoulder spots is Ares. All that are left are these two and I couldn't think of anything. So go ahead, name them."
"I'll name the sooty there, Deidre came name the ball of energy," Terry answered-slash-ordered, setting his plate—the china that Colin bought ten years ago with the gorgeous prints of cranes and floral leaves on them—upon the coffee table. He leaned down and just as the yellow girl ran passed, his hand snatched up the brother. He chirped twice and tried to get away but then, as though it knew it should be more dignified, it settled down and went limp. Totally like its daddy, and Damian grinned in pride around the salad fork and greenery in his mouth.
Lacking her playmate, the girl sped back around the table, but sat down next to Deidre and Colin's feet, making pitiful shrieks that annoyed Damian tremendously when he tried to sleep with or have sex with or spend time with Colin. Deidre took pity on her and picked her up so she could at least properly see her brother.
"Okay, little miss," Deidre cooed, "Just let your brother have his…christening and you can go back to playing."
"Yes they can," Terry perked, mulling over a specific name in his head, "Well, since sergeant here,"
Damian scowled deeply but scoffed and went back to his chicken and muffin.
"Named in favor of gods, let's stick with that. How about this little guy gets to be called Hades?"
"That's utterly perfect," Colin smiled, brilliant and white and not a wit like Damian's menacing appearance similar to sharks, wolves, and other such carnivores, "And the girl, miss Deidre?"
Deidre gave a knowing look to Terry and, simultaneously, they let the kittens go. Each sprung off and Hades ran from his blonde runt sister. The humans could hear their tiny claws scraping the floor of the kitchen, before going down the stairs, up again, up to the bedrooms, and then back to the living room. It was utterly adorable.
"How about Persephone?"
Damian finished his food, but instead of demurring over the name, his observed his furry little babies he'd charged himself with watching over until they went off into the world. Or, at least until Alfred got fed up with cleaning them and hunting mice for them.
-Anyway, he watched Hades try and dodge, but then Persephone jumped way into the air and landed in front of him. Thereupon, Hades tripped and they both bowled over, Hades landing on top and Persephone looking somewhat put out. Then they just sort of got up and went downstairs on their own, ready to join the others, perhaps and maybe, for a nap.
Those two reminded Damian of another set of people, but he could never put his finger on it.