Damian's born with galaxies swirling in his irises and the power of the stars underneath his skin, and with the knowledge of millennia tucked away in his mind.
Damian's born too old for his body and yet the right age, with a soul that shines like a supernova and threatens to burn anything that comes into contact.
The Lazarus Pit shies away when he's born, and Death avoids him because he's the one who created them, who can take them apart as easily as he can put them together, and it doesn't matter if he's in a mortal shell, he still has his power that lurks just out of reach.
Damian's only a year old and yet his eyes say he has more experience than anything.
Damian's only a year old, and he already has the world at his fingertips and the universe in his soul.
Talia tells him that he's meant to rule when he's four, but the moment he was born, Earth surrendered to his commands.
Damian doesn't tell her.
Damian likes to play. He does.
He just doesn't play like others.
The play he does is bloody. It's swords that shine in the moonlight, red hearts that stop beating. It's the smooth movement of a killing blow, the snarls and fear of battle.
Nobody ever said that the cosmos is calm.
Nobody ever said that it's kind.
Damian can feel stars dying in his chest and new ones being born. He can feel the molten surface of newly formed planets burning.
Space is violent, and it isn't kind.
It's only natural that he's the same.
But nobody has said that it isn't beautiful, because it is.
It is, and Damian reflects that.
He shows it in the graceful steps, in the lights he makes that are reminiscent of the sun, in the way that his eyes seen to flow from one shade of green to another.
He shows it in his very being and his actions, and Damian knows he's beautiful.
Beautiful, enticing, and most of all dangerous.
And Damian smiles as a star dies and the Lantern Core runs to some battle, and he falls to the ground with his human mother's sword at his neck.
"You lost, Damian." She says, and Damian fights back a laugh. "You'll have to try again."
If Damian had been trying, her head would be gone from her body.
Instead, he nods, and accepts her hand.
He wants to be as strong as he possibly can before he's fifteen, and that's why he's putting up with this.
(Damian ignores the small part of him that's attached to this woman, this woman who's used his creation many times for herself.
He ignores it, and so it isn't there.)
Damian's four in this flesh when Jason Todd appears.
He knows what happened to him-he felt the way Gotham groaned and snarled. He knows.
But he's not who he used to be.
Jason's just a body using muscle memory, and Damian takes it upon himself to help.
He uses his powers to ease the anguish in his mind and creates light shows as he reads to Jason, makes the scenes come to life with a wave of his hand.
The universe might be cruel, but it is giving.
Damian is the same.
But Talia seems to grow tired of trying to heal Jason, and so she takes him to the Lazarus Pit.
Damian follows and watches as Jason, eyes wide and unseeing and yet still revealing such emotion as he's lowered into the green. Damian feels pity rise in his chest, and his eyes flash brilliant white as he whispers, Do not harm him.
The Pit trembles before him and obeys, gently washing away his self-appointed ward's physical injuries, but it is in it's nature to bring pain, and so it makes Jason feel rage that makes him shake in place.
Jason emerges from the green wearing the clothes Damian dressed him in that morning, screaming out names and Damian reaches out, tossing a tiny piece of light to ease the transition.
When Jason's alone, sitting in a room that's apparently his but it's not, Damian enters.
"What do you want, kid?" Jason asks him, and Damian momentarily bristles. He's not a child-
Damian breathes and lets the glow fade from his skin, and his eyes stop having galaxies spin.
"I was taking care of you." Damian says, and he climbs onto the bed with a book.
"You don't need to any-" Jason starts, and Damian cuts him off.
"I do. Now shut up, and let me read."
Jason shuts up.
And Damian reads.
Jason and Damian develop a bond.
Jason and Damian are family.
Damian goes to Jason's for to relax, and Jason talks to him when he won't talk to anyone.
It's… Nice.
Damian knows that it will end, though.
He just… Wishes that it isn't so soon.
Jason's kneeling in front of him, big hands heavy on Damian's five year old shoulders, and Damian has never felt so out of control.
Plasma writhes underneath his skin in protest.
"Dami, I have to go." Jason says, and his voice is soft.
Damian grinds his teeth together. "I know. But I don't want you to."
Jason laughs and pulls him in for a hug. Damian only lets him do it because it's Jason.
"I know. But I need more training."
"But you can get all of your training right here!" Damian says, and his voice is muffled from Jason's chest.
Tears are gathering in Damian's eyes, and normally he would stop them, would angrily stifle them, but Jason is leaving, and he's one of the only stable points in Damian's life.
Damian thinks he has the right to cry.
Haley's Comet sails past asteroids and little bits of ice fall off, and Damian thinks those shards are his tears.
"I can't-your mother says that I can't."
"Fuck her! You need to stay with me!" Damian shouts, because he knows how fickle human memory is, how easy it is for mortals to forget.
He doesn't want to be forgotten.
"Kid, I need to if I'm ever going to go back to Gotham." Jason tries, and Damian's had enough.
He screams, high and mighty, and it breaks the windows.
Jason stares and Daman runs.
He runs and runs, and he doesn't look back, because Jason was his and now he's not.
Jason's gone by morning, but Damian has already buried the incident in his mind.
He doesn't want anyone who would abandon him so readily to know his secret.
Damian's nine and he hasn't heard from Jason in two years.
He turns his sadness into anger, and soldiers on, throwing himself into his training in a way that Jason would disapprove of.
But Jason isn't here, Damian thinks as he holds the tip of a dagger to his target's neck.
Jason isn't here, and Talia isn't holding back.
Damian takes lives just like his stars and he doesn't feel remorse because he's raised the way.
Blood stains his hands and drips to the floor, and Damian's still too old for his body, still has the cosmos in his soul, but sometimes he feels like he's falling apart.
He's never gotten attached before.
Now he cares for two people and one has left and the other is distant.
He's close to shattering the day of his tenth birthday, but he beats Talia because he doesn't care how much he shows.
But he beats Talia, which means that he can meet his father, and Damian knows that means going to Gotham, which is where Jason is.
Damian hopes that he sees Jason, hopes that Jason remembers him.
Damian hopes that he comes to care for his father, and his father for him.
Damian hopes many things but only some of them come true.
The first time Damian sees his father face to face, Damian is ten and his father is beat.
The first time Damian meets his father, he holds a sword to his throat and says, "Hello, Father. I thought you'd be taller."
When Damian is ten years old, a tick tock begins in the back of his head, and he goes with his father to Gotham, filled with wishes and wants and Bruce Wayne doesn't know.
The Manor isn't like Damian is used to.
It's quiet.
Damian's used to the bustle of servants and trainees and masters and sparring.
The Manor is far too quiet.
Then there's Tim Drake.
Damian-
Damian meets him, and he knows he's seen this soul before.
Damian reaches out and let's a long, graceful finger rest on that soul and he knows./p
Tim Drake is someone that he's met.
That doesn't mean that Damian will respect him. Experience shapes the individual, and the soul provides the core characteristics.
That, and Damian wants his spot as Robin because maybe then he'll find Jason.
But Bruce won't let him out.
Damian finds this stupid and goes out anyway, heading for Red Hood's territory.
Jason will know him. Jason will help him.
Jason will-
"Hey, kid."
Jason.
Damian turns around and there he is, in a leather jacket, bullet proof armour, and a red helmet.
Damian smiles, wanting nothing more than to have Jason hug him again.
"What are you doing here?" Jason asks, and Damian takes off his mask, looking for recognition.
There no-
"Who are you?"
There's none. Jason doesn't remember him.
Damian strangles the sob that tries to force itself out of his throat. Jason was supposed to remember him, supposed to explain humans to him because Damian doesn't understand them, not even after ten years of being one.
Jason-
Damian puts his domino mask back on and jumps away.
If Jason doesn't know him, then Damian won't bother him.
He won't.
Damian knows that he'll get in trouble, but that doesn't bother him. He can feel a galaxy dying millions of billions light years away, and the terror the planets feel is miniscule to his own.
Damian lost one of the two people he loves.
He only has one left, and Damian is miles away from her, can't protect her because his body can only been in one place at once.
Talia is by herself without his protection, and that's what scares Damian.
Bruce is yelling at him, Damian realizes dimly.
He doesn't care.
He wants to go home, he wants his mother, he wants-
He wants to go back to when Jason was there and he was only four, and Talia was more of a mother than she's ever been.
He wants to go back to when they were brothers, and-
"Damian!" Bruce roars, and Damian snaps to attention.
"I don't feel regret." The word slip out, and it's an utter lie, every word of it.
He regrets that he broke out, regrets that he extinguished his flame of hope he's carried for three years, because sometimes that's all that kept him going.
He regrets and wants to go home.
Bruce is talking again, and Damian tunes him out, and pays attention to the Guardians of Oa.
They're trying to find out where he went.
A small smirk flickers to life before dying, because Bruce is sending him to his room.
Damian does as he's told, and lays down upon his bed, and stares at the ceiling with a knife in his heart.
He tilts his head back and breathes.
It will get better.
And if it doesn't…
Daman glances at the katana by the door and clenches his fist, light gathering in his palm.
If it doesn't, Damian will be what he was before.
Bruce dies only a month into Damian's stay at the Manor, but by then Damian has come to form a small bond with him.
The loss tears at his chest, makes him scream and struggle to keep his power under control, because he knows he could destroy the world if he loses even a bit.
Damian goes out and fights because that's the only thing he knows.
Gotham is in chaos, big villains are running the city, and Damian refuses to let it continue.
Bruce loved this city, loved it so completely that Damian has to save it.
The sky whispers in his ears, tells him where to land and where to go, and Damian follows its advice.
When it's all said and done, when Dick has taken over the role of Batman and Damian has the role of Robin for good, Damian heads to Bruce's grave and sets a few contained stars he made the night before by his headstone.
They shine like the sun, and it's best thing Damian could make.
He sits there, simply reading the words carved into the stone, and wonders how humans can move through the emotions that cloud their mind and fill their heart.
How can they move on?
Damian sits in front of his father's grave and wonders.
"Damian?" Dick's voice is hesitant.
Damian doesn't hear him.
"Damian?" The brush slides over the canvas, leaving color on its wake.
Damian supposes he's always been an artist. He sets the stars in patterns, draws with nebula clouds, and creates the planets how he wants.
"Damian?"
He dots white upon black and paints Krypton in it's last days.
It's one of his more memorable creations.
"Damian!"
His headphones are yanked out of his ears, music blasting loud enough that they can hear it, and Damian glares.
"What?" He snaps, setting down his brush.
"I-" Dick stumbles over his words. Damian raises a eyebrow.
Dick takes a breath. "Do you want to go get something to eat?"
Damian thinks about it.
He hasn't eaten in a few days, and he can feel his limbs weighing down. It would be logical to get a meal.
Damian nods, adds the final touch to Krypton, and rises. "Fine."
Dick's face lights up, and he grabs him by the wrist, dragging him out the door. "Yes! I know a good burger place-"
Damian let's him talk and ponders on whether or not Dick Grayson will end up being someone he lets inside his heart.
The three times he let someone in, he got hurt twice.
He doesn't want it to happen again.
His irises shine with the Milky Way at the thought and nobody notices.
Dick sneaks his way into Damian's heart without Damian's permission. He forces his way into Damian's care and refuses to leave, and Damian is powerless to stop, powerless to say no.
He's always been terrible at denying those he claims as his.
But Dick is Batman, and Damian is Robin, and Damian's learning more and more about being human, about being Damian Wayne, that Jason almost slips from his thoughts.
Almost.
Jason lurks in Damian's mind when he's ready to sleep, when Dick is hugging him, when he's practicing a move that Jason helped him perfect.
Jason Todd is always there, and Damian knows him, loves him, but Jason doesn't.
But that doesn't matter, not when he's with Dick, because Dick is not Jason. Dick is a planet unto himself, and for once Damian knows how the moons feel.
Damian orbits Dick Grayson, and he doesn't want to let go.
Dick promises him that they won't be separated, swears to it, and Damian has no reason not to believe him, no reason to doubt him.
Dick has always kept his promises.
Later, he will look back on that with disgust-he was naive, even after a millennia, because Bruce comes back.
Bruce comes back, and he makes the transition from Bruce to Father, and Dick leaves.
Dick leaves.
Damian-
Damian goes into the forest at night while Father is out on patrol and lets loose.
He screams and curses Dick Grayson, who lied to him so much, who broke his promise.
Light races up his veins and floods out of his eyes, and the stars glow brighter and the moon spins, and a entire solar system is destroyed.
He razes everything he can find, obliterates trees and stars spin to life on his fingertips, dazzling and near their end, and he pushes them into the ground, uses his strength to push them deeper, and feels the Earth buck up, shake and tremble from his rage.
He screams again, and the sky seems to form a crack, the ozone layer buckling under the strain of his emotions, and he can feel his body breaking down, but he doesn't want to stop, he can't stop.
Damian reshapes the landscape and it's still not enough, and he disregards the tears falling from his eyes.
He only ever seems to get hurt.
He only ever seems to love and get punished for doing it.
All he wants-
Damian falls to his knees, then all fours, and he screams again, voice hoarse and choking on his cries.
He hates Dick Grayson.
He hates him.
Hates him, hates him, hates him-
"You bastard!" Damian shouts to the world, and he hopes that Dick can hear him. "I hope you know that you aren't anything to me!"
Damian sobs for for the almost-father he lost, for the bond that was broken.
Damian falls asleep in that clearing two miles wide, falls asleep and dreams of better times. Where Talia and Father are together and happy, and Damian has two parents, where Dick doesn't lie, where Jason remembers him and gives him the hugs that make Damian feel like he's safe.
He dreams, and they're his most guarded wishes, and he believes they're real until he wakes up.
Damian lives with Father and Pennyworth, and he's content.
Father-
Father is strict, but he's only wishing for what is best.
Damian knows this.
But he is much, much older than Father, and is aware of his limits, so he pays no heed to Father's orders, because he is conscious of his body.
Father...dislikes that.
Damian shrinks under his glare, and he wishes that Dick was here. But then he shakes off that fantasy and stands straight, glaring right back.
Damian doesn't need to tell him that he didn't get hurt.
Damian doesn't need to tell him anything.
"Just...Just go to your room."
Damian obeys. Then he sneaks out and goes to Jason's.
And he waits for him to come home.