Love, Explained
Chikorita-Trainer1
K+
Disclaimer: I don't own Batman.
Author's note: The very ending of this story is taken from the Disney Channel original movie, Double Teamed. There was just this great little conversation towards the end between one of the main characters and her mother. (I used to be OBSESSED with that movie. It really captured me. And I don't even play basketball. Check it out if you can.) Also, the subplot of the Family Guy episode "Fighting Irish" (where Stewie becomes jealous that Lois is paying attention to another kid), inspired this story.
"Father, why aren't you in the Cave, getting ready?" Damian inquired, having just barged into his father's bedroom.
Bruce Wayne was standing in a tuxedo, in front of his dresser mirror, fiddling with a bowtie.
"Oh? Didn't Alfred tell you? I have a date with Selina tonight," he answered calmly.
"No! Pennyworth neglected to mention anything of the sort!" growled Damian.
"Huh. He must've thought I told you," Bruce mumbled. "Anyway, yeah. Sorry. But you can still go out, if you get Tim to go with you."
"I'd sooner have Titus regurgitate his kibble into my mouth," Damian replied. "And what's this about a date? With Selina Kyle?"
"Yes, I'm taking her to the opera."
"What, just a spur-of-the-moment type thing?!" Damian demanded.
"No, I've had the tickets for months. No other way to get tickets to such an event than months in advance," said Bruce, now combing his hair.
"Since when do you make plans to forego your sworn duty to protect this city from criminals, just to cavort around town with a known criminal? And furthermore-"
"Damian, RELAX!" said Bruce, turning around and putting his hands on his son's shoulders. "I have a date. It's not a big deal. I'm a single man, I go on dates sometimes. Why are you so upset?"
"Well, this is the first I'm hearing of it!" Damian shouted.
"Yes, I apologize for that. I'll make sure to communicate better in the future," said Bruce.
"What makes her so special that you actually PLAN OUT EVENINGS to spend with her, while turning your back on your responsibilities? When's the last time you skipped patrol just to take me somewhere special?" Damian demanded.
"Don't tell me you're-" Bruce trailed off. The word 'jealous' need not be spoken. He could sense that his son's distress was something far deeper than just resentment of his father's time being spent with someone else. "Look, Bruce Wayne is just as important an identity as Batman. And Bruce Wayne must occasionally be seen out on the town with a woman on his arm."
"tt. Please. You could easily attract some worthless floozy to accompany you to various clubs across the city. That cat-burglar has some hold over you, Father. I just plain don't understand it."
"I really don't have time to explain it to you right now, son. Please, just…deal with this, OK?" said Bruce, getting down to eye-level with Damian. "You're disappointed, rightly so, but that happens sometimes. Sometimes in life, you don't get what you want, or what you were expecting. You accept that things aren't going to go your way, and you move on."
Damian's eyes widened in rage and he took a deep, slow breath, trying to control his impending outburst. But it was in vain.
"Yeah? Well, if you love her so much, why don't you marry her?!" he shouted, stomping out the door and down the hall to his room.
Bruce would have to have a long talk with his son. But not now. He had a date.
Slamming the door to his room, Damian started shaking, and burst into tears. Not loud, audible sobs, but a silent, painful excretion of liquid emotion. He fell to his knees, and scratched his fingers along the carpet, almost trying to tear it up from the floor. Anything to quell his rage, and this horrible feeling he had that he couldn't identify.
Why? Why her? What's so great about her?!
The tears continued to flow as the young Robin pounded on the carpet with his fists.
I don't like this! I don't like this! I hate this! I hate her!
He didn't understand.
He didn't understand.
He didn't understand.
It was very late when Bruce came home. His evening with Selina had been wonderful. The opera had been exquisite, they had gone to a bar for a few drinks afterwards. A lovely evening. He felt normal, for once. Something the Batman rarely experienced.
When he got home, it was about one o'clock in the morning. He'd be getting to bed earlier than if he had gone on patrol. A chuckle escaped his lips as that thought went through his head. But then he remembered that he needed to talk to Damian first, provided the boy was still awake.
He knocked on his son's bedroom door, only to be answered by Alfred, who was peeking his head out of his own bedroom.
"Master Damian was in the Cave, last I saw," said Alfred. "Training. No doubt burning off his frustrations at being left behind tonight."
"Thanks, Alfred," said Bruce. "I'm just going to change, then I'll go talk to him."
By the time Bruce had gotten out of his suit and tie, and changed into pajamas, Damian had also finished up what he had been doing, and was trudging upstairs. The boy had a small towel around his neck, indicating that he had just showered.
"Have a nice date?" he growled.
"Yes. It was very pleasant," said Bruce.
"Yeah? Happy ending?" Damian sneered. Bruce grimaced at the implication.
"I don't want you making comments like that, ever again, Damian," he scolded, following Damian into his room so they could talk.
"Yeah? Well, I don't want you ditching me for that skank ever again. So I guess that makes us even!"
"Damn it, Damian! This is NOT OK!" Bruce snarled, grabbing his son by the wrist. "You don't TALK that way about ANY WOMAN, much less one who means as much to me as Selina!"
"Why is she so important to you, huh?!" Damian challenged.
"She just…is," said Bruce.
"Uh-huh. Well, that's a REALLY compelling argument," Damian said sarcastically.
"Damian, what is this all about? I would really like to understand where you're coming from, here," said Bruce, kneeling down.
Damian sighed and tossed his wet towel over the back of a chair.
"Is it because she's not your mother?" asked Bruce.
"No. I know you don't love Mother, and frankly, I'd prefer it stayed that way," said Damian. "What I don't understand is, you're not…like…dating Catwoman, are you?"
"No. We are not dating. Neither as Batman and Catwoman, nor as Bruce Wayne and Selina Kyle."
"Right, but you'll still go on the occasional DATE with her, right? Like tonight?" Damian asked.
"Yes."
"Well, if you're not "dating" then what are you? Are you in love? Is she just another bimbo you keep around just to keep up appearances? No, she must be more than that, or you wouldn't skip out on patrol just to be with her."
Bruce sighed. He regretted that he hadn't, in fact, set a better example in front of his son. His love life wasn't something to be proud of, and now it was affecting his relationship with his son.
"I do love her, son. More than any woman I've ever known. And I know I always will."
"So why don't you marry her?" Damian asked. When he had asked it earlier that night, it seemed like a rhetorical jab that any ten-year-old might make. But now it seemed genuine and innocent.
"Well," Bruce sighed, picking Damian up and setting him on his lap as he sat down on the kid's bed. "a lot of reasons, honestly."
Damian looked directly at his father. He wanted to hear this. He wanted to understand.
"First of all, marriage isn't the answer for every couple. Ideally, everyone wants to get married and live happily ever-after. But it's not that easy. And sometimes just the institution of marriage itself can destroy a relationship. The pressure, the implications, the responsibility. Some couples get married, only to get divorced, and realize they'd ruined something wonderful that would have STAYED wonderful if they hadn't complicated it with marriage."
Damian nodded.
"Second of all, Bruce Wayne can't marry Selina Kyle. A known criminal. She's in the system. She's…out there. How would it look if Gotham's most famous citizen, known for-"
"Known for being a womanizing playboy?" Damian finished. Bruce laughed.
"No. Well, yeah, but no. Someone whose family has been known to be an upstanding beacon of integrity for the city for generations, married a petty criminal?"
"I thought she wasn't petty, and that she does what she does with purpose," Damian stated.
"That she does. Which brings me to my third point, what makes you think she wants to marry me? Selina is as passionate about her work as I am about mine. We're both, sort-of married to our jobs, as it were. We spend so much time away from home, and out doing separate missions, what would even be the point of being married? Just because you marry someone doesn't automatically mean you're any closer than you were before. She does her thing, I do my thing. We get together when we can, and that's how it works for us."
"OK…" Damian nodded.
"FOURTH, and I'm not all that happy about this, is that…Selina needs to be free. She needs to be…not tied-down. Sometimes in her line of work, well, maybe she has to seduce someone, or extract information from someone. Maybe she does that in a way that…I…if I were her husband…might not be so comfortable with. Well, Selina is her own woman, and I respect that. Being her husband would only instill a sense of entitlement in me that I really detest. I respect Selina too much for that. Whatever she needs to do in her life is her business, and just because I love her is no reason for me to impose any form of control over her."
Damian let out an enormous sigh.
"I guess that all makes sense," he said. "I didn't know love was so complicated."
"It's not for everyone," said Bruce, picking Damian up off his lap and laying him down on his bed. "For some couples, it's the simplest thing in the world. But every relationship is different."
Bruce turned to leave.
"But doesn't it hurt?" asked Damian.
"What do you mean?"
"You love her, but most of the time, you don't get to be with her. Isn't that painful?"
"Not really," said Bruce, walking towards the door.
"How come? How can it not hurt NOT to be with the one you love?"
Bruce smiled and turned back, facing his son.
"Because I already found something I love more…being a dad."
Damian smiled.
"I love you," Bruce stated.
"I love you, too," said the child.
THE END
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