Batfam Bingo 2019

Square: Green (rough draft)

A Teen Titans fanfic by Raberba girl

Inspired by breezy-cheezy (Medli45)

Summary: (DC Animated Movie Universe, with bits of other canons thrown in) Damian Wayne & Garfield Logan discover that they have something in common.

o.o.o

Garfield was the only one in the kitchen when Damian came in, freshly showered and in full uniform after his daily training. "Good morning," Gar greeted cheerily. It was a little past noon. "Going somewhere? You're all dressed up."

"Hnn," Damian grunted in response.

"Wow, good thing Nightwing got you away from Gotham when he did, Batman's really been rubbing off on you."

Ignoring him, Damian peered into the refrigerator.

"Want some pesto?" Gar offered.

At that, Damian turned to the green shapeshifter with an interested but suspicious expression. "Not if there are eggs in it."

"Nope! Totally vegan."

Damian waited until he had witnessed the other boy taking a bite before saying, "Very well, I shall try it."

Gar nudged the pesto and the bread a little farther across the table. "Knock yourself out."

Damian delicately scooped a small piece of bread into the sauce and nibbled on it. The domino mask hid his eyes, but from the way his brows and forehead moved, Gar could tell that his eyes widened. "This is, surprisingly, not terrible."

Which Gar knew by now was Damian-speak for, 'This is really good.' "Thanks! I make it myself."

"Hn." Damian sat down and started eating more steadily, the boys taking turns dipping bread into the pesto.

"So you're vegan, too?"

"I am vegetarian. I will only eat eggs and dairy if I know they are humanely sourced."

"Awesome. I hear Wayne Foods has a pretty good reputation for that sort of thi-" Gar paused and blinked. "Wait."

Damian was smirking. "Indeed. I handpick all the inspectors and sometimes visit the farms myself."

"Woooww. Did you give your dad the idea?"

"Yes, and I am on the board of directors as well."

"That's crazy. Does anyone ever get annoyed having a ten-year-old for a boss?"

"If they do, not many let it affect their work. Drake, for all his failings, set a useful precedent."

Gar tried to remember who 'Drake' was and eventually came up with a vague memory of a hyphenated name and a teenage CEO. "Are all Bats basically child adults?"

"I don't understand your nonsense."

"You wouldn't, I guess... So you like animals?"

Damian narrowed his eyes suspiciously. "Real ones, I suppose, are often preferable to human beings."

"I'm a real animal," Gar huffed. "That's why I'm a vegan. Once you've been someone, it just feels wrong to eat them, or the stuff that's meant for their babies, or wear their skins..."

"You don't have to be an animal shapeshifter to have empathy for them."

Gar smiled. "Yeah, I know. That's what makes you really cool."

Damian, not seeming to know what to do with the compliment, finally shoved another piece of bread into his mouth. The little bowl of pesto was running low.

"You have any pets?"

"Hnn," Damian said through his mouthful of bread. He laid his phone on the table and tapped at it.

"Awww!" Gar squealed at the sight of the Great Dane on the screen. Damian swiped to the next picture, which was of a black and white cat. "Awwwww!" The next was of the giant dog touching noses with a cow in what looked like a cave. "AAAAWWWW- You have a cow?"

"I rescued her from a slaughterhouse. She is the reason I no longer eat meat."

"That's awesome, dude."

"I have a turkey as well, but Pennyworth put his foot down and I had to send him away from the manor. Jerry is doing very well, though, living on one of the Wayne Foods retirement farms. He still recognizes me when I visit him."

"A turkey... Let me guess, it was November when you adopted him."

"...Yes."

Gar held up his hand for a high-five, and Damian stared at it for a minute before remembering Grayson's lesson on how to appropriately respond to such a gesture.

When Jaime wandered in a little later, he was met by the improbable sight of Gar and the prickly, arrogant Damian Wayne huddled together over a phone as if they were the best of friends. Damian was smiling, sort of. Maybe not technically, but his face was soft and relaxed and the corners of his mouth were just short of turned upward, so it counted.

"...still have not decided on a suitable name," Robin was saying. "He visits every so often, so you might get a chance to see him sometime."

Gar looked up, his eyes shining. "Jaime! Jaime! Damian has a pet DRAGON! He has two dragons!"

"The Eastern one is a friend, not a pet, and Goliath is a dragon-bat," Damian corrected, but no one heard him.

"No way," Jaime was saying as he crowded closer to the phone and stared, gaping, at the photograph of an Eastern dragon napping alongside a cow, a furry red creature with bat wings, what might or might not have been a dog, and an unidentified ball of black-and-white fluff on the dragon's snout. "No way! Photoshop!"

Damian indignantly pulled up a short video of the same scene. The camera moved in for a close-up, capturing the animals' gentle breathing and the slight mist of steam issuing from the dragon's nostrils. "You are a very good girl and boys," Damian's voice on the video crooned with an almost scary level of affection.

"Yep, totally fake," Jaime teased. "The real Damian would never-" He cut himself off and reevaluated when he saw the expression on Damian's face. "I'm just joking, D. Your animals are amazing."

"Yes, of course they are," Damian said haughtily. He looked back down at the phone and started searching through his photos, face soft again in a way he probably was not aware of.

'It's a good look on him,' Gar and Jaime both thought.

o.o.o

A/N: Damian really does have an Eastern dragon friend. XD See Rebirth Nightwing #42. Jerry the turkey is from the Li'l Gotham comics.

I have WAY too much other stuff to write to be dumb enough to sign up for a fandom event, but...I did. X''''D Tried to soothe my guilt a little by writing an old prompt from my friend Breezy. I'm going to still keep trying to prioritize my other fics, though (TBWS, KH Batfam, and the genderswap).

For anyone who wants more information on the event, its Tumblr is "batfambingo2019," and there's also an AO3 Collection. (I won't be adding most of my contributions there because I don't like to post stories separately if I can help it. I will record my progress on my fanfiction index.)