dawnseternallight asked: Now you probably already know what I'm going to ask for with POV switching in your fics, but imma ask anyway because the option is there so Damian's pov in either Splash of Pink or A Couple of Bullets Won't Get Me Down.
Can be read as a standalone
The gunshots went off, but Damian couldn't quite make himself believe what he was seeing. Of course, he'd seen Grayson shot before, but this was—this was something else. Never had they been so close to his lungs—his heart. Never had they meant a death sentence. Not like this.
And then Grayson crumpled, and Damian couldn't stop himself from screaming "NO!" and starting for his brother's body. Before he could, though, the gun went off again, and Damian had to flip away. Keep the target on himself and away from Grayson. The threat wasn't gone. Damian had a job to do before he could check on Grayson.
All to quickly he'd pinpointed the shooter and knocked him unconscious. He deserved worse—so much worse—but there wasn't any time. For all Damian knew, Grayson could be—
Damian slid to his knees and took off the cowl immediately, trying to gauge if Grayson was going into shock. That was what he was supposed to do, right? His first aid lessons were starting to muddle in his head, though, and Damian could barely focus on anything but Grayson's stunted breathing and hazy blue eyes.
The wound needed to be addressed first, though. The GSW.
"I'm putting pressure on the wound," Damian told Grayson, trying his best to stay calm and collected, but his heart was pounding in his chest. He unclipped his own cape and bunched it up, pressing down on his brother's chest without even bothering to look at the wound. He'd seen the trajectory. He saw the gun. He knew what a bullet could do to a man at that distance and speed.
"Da—" Grayson rasped out, but he couldn't seem to be able to get anymore out. Was he really that hurt that he couldn't speak? Was Damian too late?
"You can't die," Damian gritted out, because he couldn't be too late. And despite his best efforts, his words came out pleading and breathless and stuttered. He sounded like a child, and the worst part was that he couldn't find it in himself to care. "Please, just—just don't die, Grayson. Red Robin will surely be out soon, and we can move you then."
This was terrifying. Even more terrifying than the bullet that had ripped through Grayson's skull just months before and doomed to a slow and painful death. They were lucky then. Father had come to their rescue. But with a wound like this, Grayson would bleed to death before any backup could get here.
And with Damian's hands full putting pressure on Grayson's chest, he had to rely on Drake to get here and call for backup for him.
"Damian," Grayson whispered, and Damian focused in on his breathing. It seemed steadier. But that could mean a plethora of things. It might not be good. "Damian, look at me."
"What," Damian ground out, his eyes snapping to Grayson's.
"I'm okay."
Damian gritted his teeth in anger, in defiance. If Grayson thought he could be a self-sacrificing idiot again, then he had another thing coming. Damian would kill him before he let Grayson do something as stupid as try to walk off a bullet wound.
"You were just shot—"
"Yes," Grayson interrupted, coughing a bit. "I was, but the Batman suit is weighted down with more Kevlar than anybody else's. The armor took most of the damage. I'm not fine, but I'm not going to bleed out in front of you."
Damian didn't believe him. He'd just watched Grayson get hit with three bullets right in front of him. There was no way that Grayson couldn't be affected by that. He had to bleeding out. But, if that were the case, he would surely also already be dead by now.
"This is not just another ploy?"
"I wouldn't joke about this," Grayson promised. "Now please let me up before you make me pass out."
Damian hesitated a moment, but he eventually took the pressure off of Grayson's chest, sweeping away his cape to reveal—the bullets hadn't pierced all the way through. Grayson had been correct. He would not bleed out. Damian had been incorrect.
As Damian put his cape back on, Damian thought he'd never felt so relieved to be wrong. Pennyworth would be enough to address Grayson's wounds at the Cave. Grayson sat up and pulled the cowl back on, looking—fine. He looked fine.
"You're really alright?" Damian asked, swallowing and trying to look as unaffected by the incident as he could.
Grayson smiled at him. "I'm really alright. Probably just a few bruises."
Damian nodded, finally letting his muscles relax and his heartbeat slow down and he looked his brother up and down. It had been terrifying, and Damian was sure tonight he would not be sleeping, but he still took a deep breath, looked Grayson straight in the eyes, and said, "Good," like this was just another incident. Just another nightmare.
Grayson was fine. Everything was fine.