a/n: My roommate swears this is angst, but I like to think of it as hurt/comfort. Sorry for the late update, you guys!
13. Lake
It was Steph that found him, much to Damian's surprise. He would have thought that his skills were far beyond what the Batgirl's, so having her uncover his hiding place was a little insulting. He was obviously not focusing on his stealth training enough.
"Titus led me to you," she told him, plopping down in his personal space without so much as a request. Damian turned to glare at his dog; true to Steph's word, the Great Dane had uncovered Damian's hiding place as well, and he wagged his tail at his master's attention. It took a few moments of the unrelenting glare, but the tail stuttered to a halt. Good.
"Hey," Steph said, shoving at the younger boy's shoulder. "Don't be mad at him, he was trying to help. No one's seen you in days, D. There are people that worry when stuff like that happens."
"Not Father," Damian snapped. He was fourteen years old, had spent four years under the tutelage of Bats, and yet his father still placed such strict restraints on him. Restraints, he knew, the other Robins never had.
Times like these were when he felt Grayson's loss most keenly.
"Ah yes," Steph said, throwing her hands out. One of her arms smacked Damian's knees, and he tried to cut it off with sheer force of will. "Your daddy issues. How will life go on?"
This time, Damian smacked Steph back. She anticipated the movement, though, and ducked away from his hand. It thumped against the tree bark, and Damian's glower grew darker.
"Look, kid, if you want to talk about daddy issues, I'm your girl. I'm probably the only one that gets what you're feeling, even if you don't want to admit it. And while we're talking about me and my amazing ability to understand things, I also get why you're out here."
"I like the view," Damian snapped.
"Ah yes," Steph said, examining the rain pounding down on the lake, then the dripping branch over their heads. "I see the appeal. Mud and rain, what a great mix."
One of the reasons that Damian had managed to evade attention was that he had bypassed his hiding spots at Wayne Manor altogether. His father and Pennyworth probably suspected that he had gone to sulk in the gardens, or within Wayne Manor, or perhaps even in Bludhaven, where they continued to pay the bills to reserve Grayson's stupid apartment. Those places were familiar to Damian, places he had escaped to before when such arguments took place. Those places had lost their appeal once Grayson disappeared.
No one thought to check the lake house. There was a decent bit of distance from Gotham, so those that decided to look for Damian would have to exhaust all options near the Manor before they even thought about the extraneous estates. Even then, the lake house wouldn't occur to most of them. It had only been used a few times, when all of them had called a weekend truce before Bruce had "died." In all honesty, the only reason that Bruce still kept this particular piece of property was because it was tied back to his ancestors. He didn't have any use for it now, especially since family bonding was the furthest thing from his father's mind as of late. Damian was happy for it. He didn't want new memories there.
Sometimes, when Dick and Damian were still getting settled, still learning how to work around each other, the Tower would get too stifling and Dick would pack them up for a day trip. They could never stay too long—Gotham was needy, and even the slightest break could result in mass chaos—but the trips were always a welcome change. His former mentor had loved this place, insisting on swimming in the pond when it was warm enough, flipping into the water, goading Titus into swimming with him, and trying to push Damian in with him—always careful not to get Damian's sketchpad wet, of course. In the harsh winter, Damian was often in a sour mood. It was very different from the weather that Damian was used to, and even though he had been trained and he could survive in the frigid environment, it didn't mean that he particularly wanted to. On particularly cold, nasty days, Dick would make the perilous drive to the lake and coax his young charge to ice skate with him. The day would usually end in a snowball fight, no matter how unwilling Damian was to join in, and they always made the return trip dripping wet and sniffling, but smiling widely.
Steph, apparently, had been privy to some of those stories, because she looked at Damian with thinly veiled sympathy. He tutted and turned her head from her, but she put her hand on his arm to keep his attention.
"It's okay to miss him, Damian. It's okay to go here and just think about the time you spent with him. Hell, it's even okay to go here and think about what an asshole your father is!" Damian met her eyes at that, lips twisting into a small, reluctant smile that he would definitely deny later. "But the important thing is that you always come back." A pause, then softly, "He would want you to come back."
Damian swallowed the acerbic statement that came so easily to his lips, not quite willing to brush away Steph's sincerity. Instead, he gave her a short nod. He would return with her, just as she was requesting. He moved his gaze from her eyes to over her shoulder, staring out at the rain pounding on the lake.
"I would like to stay a little longer."
"Sure thing, D. Whenever you're ready."
He didn't know if he'd ever be ready. For Grayson, though, he would try.
In case you guys were wondering, Damian drove one of the motorcycles over, then hid it in the trees so no one would be able to see it unless they were really looking. Steph, being Steph, figures out where Damian went. She also realizes that he probably doesn't want to be found, so she puts Titus in the car with her and drives over to the place Dick had told her about, figuring that the dog could probably find Damian faster than she could. I wanted to slip that in there, but I couldn't find an appropriate place for it.