Writing is hard sometimes…. Must not get distracted and must write fanfiction. Upbeat music apparently helps so if you have any suggestions drop a review. I listen to upbeat stuff like Best day of my life, It's Time, Life is a Highway, Stronger (What doesn't kill you), Everybody Loves Me, and Pompeii.
Okami Princess: Talia IS Talia. Bruce has very valid reasons to be suspicious, especially of Talia even after their last, meeting. But he's going to have more questions when the DNA test comes back with more than just proof Damian is his and Talia's. There have definitely been false alarms with Bruce having legitimate kids, but he's careful, usually.
(Cont.) Jareth is possessive. For one he doesn't want to lose Damian or Sarah like he lost Sarah all those years ago. His emotions are also more extreme than a normal human's. At least the way I'm writing him.
Alfred came by a few hours later and led Damian downstairs for dinner. Damian wasn't sure what to expect for dinner above. He hoped there was stuff he recognized. He would be so disappointed if he found that there was absolutely nothing Above that he liked. Damian walked into the dining room, expecting Bruce and all the Above equivalents to Goblins to already be there with the dinner feast. He was only met with disappointment as he surveyed the scene. At one end of the table Bruce was already sitting and eating. On the other end was a plate of food, likely meant for him. The room was so… empty.
"Where is everyone?" Damian asked as he sat down at the seat meant for him and looked at his food. There was a strange white blob, some green tiny circles, and a piece of light brown something. Damian sniffed it. It didn't smell familiar. He scrunched up his nose slightly. What was this stuff? It seemed sketchy. Maybe it was poisoned.
"It's just the two of us. Alfred eats alone," Bruce answered. He took notice of Damian's odd behavior. Either the boy had had foreign food all the time or very little food. At least that was Bruce's theory. If that was correct or not was to be seen. Still, even if either possibilities were true Damian should be fine with the meal. It wasn't like there was enough bizarre food on the entire planet that the kid could've lived on so that he didn't like normal food.
"Oh…" Damian poked at the soft, white blob with his fork. If they were the only people here who had he heard earlier and why were there more than two occupied rooms. Damian had found himself a mystery. Mysteries were fun. There were riddles sometimes. He was good at riddles. Three people and five occupied rooms. Damian took a bite of the white blob. Oh, that was just some kind of potato substance. He'd never had potatoes in a form like this. It was kind of bland, but edible. Next he tried the green orbs. He grimaced, finding that they were not very appealing. Why would anyone eat these little green things? Finally he tried to figure out how to eat the light brown thing. It took him a little bit but after figuring it out he took a bite then immediately regretted it. He spit it out onto his napkin, even then remembering etiquette and manners, "Chicken is evil. Bad bad chicken."
When Damian was six Sarah had managed to get a chicken cooked, though how she had procured a dead chicken was unknown, and had made Damian and Jareth try some. Jareth and Damian had hated it, thinking it was the most disgusting thing ever. Sarah had laughed at them and told them that's how she felt about some of the Below food. Even now they didn't understand how anyone could eat something that gross. People Above were weird.
Bruce watched Damian with amusement. Damian had had no problems with the mashed potatoes but didn't seem to like the peas. But Damian's reaction to the chicken was as funny as it was odd. It was very clear that Damian did not like Chicken one bit. Bruce made a note of that for future reference. Though, Bruce did wonder what had happened that caused Damian to have such an aversion to chicken like that.
Bruce finished shortly afterwards and Alfred came in, clearing away both the plates on que, since Damian didn't want to eat anymore of the food. The chicken was so bad to Damian that it may have very well been poisoned. When Alfred came back he had a strange white box with a red plus sign on it.
"What's that?" Damian asked curiously. He'd never seen anything like it before. Maybe it was magic. He didn't think it was magic though. He would've recognized the symbol from one of the other kingdoms though because it certainly wasn't goblin. Unless Above had magic that they didn't know about. That idea made Damian excited. If the Above had magic and it was a normal thing then maybe Jareth would let Damian stop hiding the fact that he was fae. Damian really hoped that that would happen. He didn't like having to hide who he was. That meant no casually using magic and always making sure his hair covered his pointy ears, though that wasn't too much of a problem since his hair did that naturally. Damian really didn't like being so careful. It was boring and took effort. He sighed slightly and in his mind. He wanted some excitement.
"It's a medicine kit. Alfred is going to take a sample of your blood so we can run some tests. Its complete normal," Bruce said, not wanting to make Damian worried or panic. Where in the world had Sarah raised Damian? Bruce didn't tell Damian what the tests were because he wasn't sure if Damian would understand. It seemed that there were a lot of things that Damian didn't know.
Damian nodded and watched as Alfred pulled out something pointy. Damian wondered what the pointy thing was but he didn't ask. He didn't want anyone to get bad because he asked too many questions. That could cause a lot of problems. The butler rolled up Damian's sleeve and did a little poking before sticking the pointy thing in Damian's arm. Damian just watched. It's not like it had hurt at all. That must've meant that whatever made the pointy thing shiny was not iron or silver. He watched confusedly as the thing the pointy thing was attached to fill up with a red liquid. He guessed that was his blood. He'd never gotten hurt before so he'd never seen his blood. When Alfred was finished the butler took out the pointy thing then put a strange sticky thing on the spot. Damian wondered what the sticky thing was for and poked at it. The sticky thing seemed to have no purpose. Maybe it had a purpose for people Above. Maybe Above people didn't heal like fae did.
Alfred left and Bruce got up, walking over to Damian, "Why don't you go upstairs and get ready for bed. I'll check on you later okay? I just have some work things to finish up," Bruce ruffled Damian's black hair. He didn't mean anything pertaining to Wayne Enterprises though. He had to get an analysis running on Damian's blood sample and work on something related to his night job, if you could call being a vigilante as a job.
"Okay," Damian responded before going upstairs and finding his room easily. He was good at finding his way to places he'd been before. Since he'd run the Labyrinth so many times. It helped that he also had a photographic memory. One trip somewhere and he could always find his way back, though it was typically by going the same path. Damian knew not to bother Bruce because he said he had work things. When Jareth said that he usually meant he was dealing with another kingdom or the chickens. Bad bad chickens…. Damian hoped that there weren't live chickens anywhere nearby. That may cause some troubles if they knew of Below and started attacking him for being the goblin prince.
Damian found that there was a pair of pajamas in his room. He wondered who had left them there. They looked weird. They had these weird symbols all over them. Were they someone's symbol up here? A group or city-state perhaps. Damian was careful to remember the above didn't have kingdoms. They had countries and city-states. Damian wriggled into the pajamas after undressing, glad that the fabric wasn't itchy. He would have to learn what types of Above fabric to avoid. Damian went over to his window and peered out of it. His mouth formed an O when he realized he could see the city from here. All the lights made the city sparkle. It was so pretty. He wanted to see it, but maybe not tonight. He didn't want Bruce to catch him and get mad. Than Sarah and Jareth would find out and he'd never get to come Above ever again until he was king. Or he'd get caught by Jareth and that was potentially worse if Jareth got mad.
He moved away from the window and grabbed his drawing pad and a pencil before going over and sitting on the soft bed. He started drawing the view of the Labyrinth and castle from the hill most runners started on. He enjoyed drawing and that view of the Labyrinth as his favorite. Thinking about home made him slightly homesick but he knew that he could go home whenever he wanted to as long as he had access to a mirror. Maybe he'd just write home tomorrow for the meantime. Damian chose to hum a tune as well while waiting for Bruce to come and check on him like he had said.
Bruce waited until Damian had gone upstairs before going over to the grandfather clock. He gently moved the hands to 10:48, remembering exactly why he had set the code to that time. It was a little hard to forget why when it had so much significance to a life changing event.. The clock moved to reveal a staircase leading to a cave and Bruce descended followed by Alfred.
"Sir, are you sure that it is wise to keep this, the batcave and Batman, a secret from Damian?" Alfred asked as they reached the bottom of the staircase and headed over to the batcomputer. Alfred had always mean the one most concerned for Bruce's boys. Dick, Jason, Tim, and now Damian. Alfred was sometimes even more concerned for them than Bruce was.
"For the time being, until I know that it is safe and he isn't a spy or anything like that, I'm keeping it a secret. And maybe I want a son that won't turn into Robin," Bruce stated. He took the needle from Alfred and put the sample in the bat computer for analysis. It was true that he wanted a son that he could be a normal father to. Not a son that knew what darkness the family was seemingly cursed with and not a son that went out nearly every night to fight crime as Robin, "There. In a few hours we'll know if he really is mine," Bruce went over to his batsuit to change. Even with the events that had happened and a current case he as still Batman and Batman still needed to go fight crime in Gotham.
Alfred sighed, "Very well sir, but perhaps you could take one night off from being the Batman," Alfred suggested, standing next to the batcomputer, "You did promise Damian you would check on him," Alfred pulled up the camera footage of Damian drawing in his room to further support his claim that Bruce should take a night off from crime fighting.
"Alright Alfred. You win. One night," Bruce said, watching Damian draw for a seemed to be very good at drawing from the way his pencil was moving. When Alfred turned off the footage stream Bruce headed back up the bat cave stairs to the manor. Bruce headed up to Damian's room and knocked before entering, "Hey Damian. Ready for bed?"
Damian looked up from his drawing then set his drawing pad and pencil on the small table next to the bed, "Yes father," He said, crawling under the covers. He glanced at the window for a moment and smiled faintly seeing a barn owl, undoubtedly his dad, watching. He silently said goodnight to the barn owl, hoping that Jareth would go back to the goblin kingdom soon before he got weak from being Above for too long. Damian knew that he was only able to stay above for so long unanchored by a wish or binding spell because he had Above blood parents, even if he was technically a fae now.
Bruce ruffled Damian's hair. He only knew how to be a father from the years with Dick, Jason, and Tim, but even then he was still learning. After all those three had been nothing alike. He hoped that Damian would be easy to handle like Tim, "Sleep well Damian," He said turning out the light as he left. He got a glimpse of what Damian had been drawing. He'd have to get a better look later because it looked a bit odd.
"Goodnight father," Damian buried under the covers. He waited for Bruce to leave. He didn't need to sleep tonight due to the fact that he was a fae and only needed to sleep every few days technically. Oberon knows how much trouble that had caused Sarah in the past. She did after all need to sleep every day to function properly. Damian was already getting bored so maybe the White Prince would make an appearance tonight. As long as Jareth went back to the goblin kingdom soon.
After coming back to the cave from putting Damian to bed, Bruce worked on a case file while waiting for the results to the DNA test. This particular case was frustrating him because it seemed that the child that had gone missing had just vanished without a trace. There was no evidence of the child leaving on their own, no evidence of someone kidnapping the child either. But there was always evidence to these kinds of things.. He'd crack the case. He just had to find the one missing link.
The bat computer made a ping noise when the test was finished. Bruce slide his chair over to the screen the results were up on and looked at them. Sure enough Damian was Bruce and Talia's but yet he wasn't. The data was there to prove that Damian was Bruce's but at the same time it was like Damian's entire DNA structure had been overwritten by something else. An anomaly. It was nothing that Bruce recognized right away from known DNA restructuring. But even then the DNA hadn't quite been restructured that way that anyone had the technology to do. It had been changed to the very atom in a way. But that meant that whatever it was could be identified. It would be like looking at the difference between Kryptonian DNA and human DNA. Which was exactly the kind of search Bruce was going to do.
"Batcomputer identify the anomaly. Check the Justice League database as well if you have to," Bruce said, "And any other database you have access to as well," He added. Bruce watched as the bat computer ran its search. He wasn't going anywhere until the results were finished. It was crucial that he figured out what this anomaly was. It could very well be the difference between trusting Damian and not trusting the kid. Bruce sat forward when the batcomputer finished and read the words that popped up as the results.
Anomaly: unknown