There was an angry looking miniature version of Bruce glaring up at him.

Even clad in his Robin outfit, the little kid reminded Greg a lot of his father. His features were just about identical, barring the fact that they were softer, younger, and just a little bit lighter- presumably a feature from his mother's side. The only striking different between the two was the fact that Damian's skintone was very much sun-kissed compared to Bruce's palor.

"I asked you a question."

He took a moment to allow himself to feel as shocked and confused as he wanted. Then he reminded himself that he was the responsible adult in this situation and needed to act accordingly.

"That is a winged horse. Name's Winged Victory."

A frown that reminded him a lot of Bruce's more petulant looks twisted up with a bit of a pout, then the kid was scoffing, "That is a terrible name for him." because of the mask, Greg wasn't one hundred percent sure where, exactly, the kid was looking at. But he felt like all of his focus was on the creature they were speaking about.

"Well, ain't like I named 'im." he lifted his hand up to scratch at the nape of his neck, then shrugged, "Belongs ta my friend, Sir Justin."

And really, that was all he needed to say about the matter. It hadn't been his choice to name the critter, therefore he shouldn't be getting judged by the greatness or terribleness of it.

The boy seemed to have been satisfied enough by the answer because he moved closer to the horse, careful and respectful, and Greg just watched on as he did so. Winged Victory had an even temperament at just about all times, excepting when they were on an active battlefield, so it's not like he really had much to worry about.

As the boy kept on approaching the curious horse- that was more focused on analyzing the kid than becoming annoyed with him-, Greg took the opportunity that Damian was so focused on the horse to look around and try and find any of the adults that were supposed to be in charge of taking care of the child.

In the direction the kid had come from, the door that had swished open to let him in remained closed. And it was very clear from the lack of any other bodies around that there was no one following the kid about.

Which begged the question- what was Damian doing up here?

The stable area within the Watchtower wasn't a place that was visited very often by most- hell, Greg was pretty sure that there were more than enough members out there that had no idea that it even existed. It was a bit of a hole in the wall, really, hidden away in the higher levels that were not as visited by regular members and far away from the loudest noises that regularly went about up here.

Few came up here, except for those tasked with aiding the heroes that used the facilities in keeping them clean and what few other heroes were curious enough to wind up here. So it was completely understandable that he was taken aback at the fact that the most recent kid to take on the Robin mantle had somehow wound up here.

Also, last he had checked, Bruce hadn't really given free access to any of the kids to go up to the Watchtower. The bats were independent of the League, even though Batman is an official member, and so didn't have much of a need to be up there. They were also an odd bunch, incredibly confusing to most, and very much in love with the least amount of people getting to know their dynamics.

This would be the third non-Batman bat to pop up in here, though, within the span of a month or two. Definitely an uptick in visits that some would have taken note of.

Two of those bats had been looking for him, though, so it wasn't like it had been that odd.

Once he was finished making sure that no one was going to surprise him by appearing from the door, Greg turned back to look at the kid.

And, beneath his mask, he smiled.

Winged Victory was a good judge of character- better than some people, even. So when he gave an okay to any new person, it meant something. But this kind of okay... it was a lot more than the usual acceptance of a new person.

Damian was petting Victory's left wing- something the critter barely allowed Pat or Ollie to do. And the critter had known those two for years.

Greg could count the amount of people he'd seen Victory allow to do that to him from the moment he'd met them on the fingers of one hand- him, of course, because he was amazing with all animals, Sir Justin, of course, because that was Victory's human, B'Wanna Beast and Vixen.

There were others he let pet his wings. But those had taken some warming up to.

And yet, Damian was doing this instantly and without any hesitation to be found anywhere in his body.

Well, Greg found himself sighing as he moved to grab at the hay he'd been unpacking so he could continue working, it was real likely that Victory liked him because of that lack of hesitation. He'd been careful, but confident. That wasn't something that was easy to find in most folk walking round nowadays. Most were afraid of any animal that was bigger than them by a few feet generally.

There weren't that many other creatures in the stable, but the few that were seemed intrigued by Damian's presence. Greg decided to allow the boy and the horse to continue interacting without any interruption and to instead set about caring for the rest of the animals within the space.

"So Damian wasn't s'pposed to have been up there?"

"Not at all." came Bruce's gruff reply after a few beats of silence, followed up by a heavy sigh. "There is nothing for them up there. Why do they insist on going?"

"Well, d'ya got a rule 'gainst it?" he asked as he made his way to the microwave to start heating up his coffee. "If'n you do, you've played yerself."

"Of course I have a rule against it; and they understand why they're not supposed to be up there." a huff, the clinking of something on his line, and then Greg was hearing a similar humming coming from Bruce's phone to the one coming from his own microwave. "Did he just stay with Winged Victory?"

Greg leaned against his countertop, eagerly awaiting for his milk to finish heating up, as he answered, "All I saw. He did introduce 'imself to some of the other critters about. Pretty sure he got spooked by Cray Jr."

"You mean Creeper's alien horse?" even though there was still an edge of annoyance to Bruce's tone, Greg was glad to hear the lightness that it was slowly adopting. "That is a perfectly normal thing to be spooked by, Greg."

"Ain't the critter's fault it looks like the ass-end of a bad nightmare." finally, the microwave beeped; he opened it up, pulled out his mug, and set about making the rest of his coffee as one-handed as he had been doing due to having his left hand occupied with keeping his phone pasted to his ear. "Victory seemed to like him well 'nough. An' he was pretty careful- I'm pretty sure Victory wouldn't mind seeing the kid again."

There was beeping on the other line, then some shuffling, and Greg was content to listen in on Bruce going about his day for only a little. Then Bruce spoke up again with an undeniable joviality to his words, "Is this how you're going to finally win Damian over? With horses?"

Greg rolled his eyes at that, responding in a deadpan, "Yup. My plan o' takin' over the mantle of the Bat has almost finished Phase Three. All that're missin' are Dick an' Damian acceptin' me as their one true father."

Bruce let out a smooth, melodic laugh and Greg's insides began to feel the right kinds of warm.

They'd both never shied away from talking about their current lives now that they were living them together. He was grateful, even, that Bruce was so willing to talk about his kids because it made talking about his own group of friends much easier. And it also made understanding what the kids were doing, what their thought process was, so much easier. Bruce understood them and had been able to explain quite a lot.

"I love you." and that made Greg's insides start feeling syrupy, "And I'm so grateful that you're able to get along with all of my children."

"Aw, ain't much to it, Angel Eyes." he dismissed the compliment with a wave of his hand, moved over to the guest room, and added, "Love you too, though. Still up for meetin' up on the thirtieth?"

A pause, Greg knocked on the door and heard a groan coming from one of the kids in there, and then Bruce was sighing, "I cannot be held accountable for any reactions I take part in due to Ollie's own actions."

Yeah, that Ollie was likely going to be a handful.

Still, "Just don't try an' throw him out the airlock. Pat's been trying for the past few months and gotten nowhere."

"Just because you've saved him so many times." Bruce sounded like someone had just told him he'd have to give up his puppy and never see it again.

Greg reassured, "The Soldiers all respect you, ain't no reason for you to preemptively crawl up anyone's hump." he knocked on the door once more, this time a bit louder, and received an indecipherable groan in return. Eventually, he heard a thump. "Y'all are goin' to meet, we'll play one game of poker, and then you can leave. Easy an' simple, hun."

"Yeah, yeah." Bruce was dismissive, but Greg didn't bother with getting annoyed by that- he understood that the other man was much more worried over every catastrophic scenario his mind was creating than he was actually scared of any interaction with what Greg considered to be his family. "I hope you have a great day."

"Love you."

"Love you too."

And then the call was over.

Greg took a moment to indulge in that luxurious feeling that always came over him after he'd had a good and productive conversation with the person he now truly considered to be the love of his life. Then, he took a drink from his coffee and opened up the guest room's door- they were all supposed to have an early start this morning and the kids were late for that.

He did not understand the irritating way the rest of the people within his household insisted on speaking about Gregory Saunders as if he were some powerful, infallible god that could do no wrong.

The Golden Children chat had been one he had previously kept muted, because the constant chatter within was impertinent to his life. But recently, he had begun to contemplate just leaving the group; it had become a space for them to gush and jabber over every little thing the ruffian did.

Quite frankly, he was not surprised that these idiots had wound up falling for Saunders' tricks. They were simpleminded and weak. There was no doubt within his mind that they were also desperate for the sort of affection only weaklings required- the sort of attention that Saunders was serving to them on a silver platter because he knew.

Saunders was a smart individual. He knew how to play into everything that every single buffoon wanted in an emotional way- gave it to them to gain their approval. And that, Damian knew, was the way that he had managed to sink his claws into his vulnerable father.

Despicable.

~Goldilocks: Gyzz! G's gona tll is fmly b us!~

Damian frowned as he read over the most recent ruckus that had been stirred up by the conniving deceiver. Brown had always been the weakest of the lot, but he had once thought she would have been just a little less susceptible to this brand of trickery.

He had thought too highly of them.

~Golden Glocks: 30th, rgt?~

~Goldilocks: Yup!~ This text was followed up by a string of obnoxious emojis, then by a final message of ~Goldilocks: U knw wt tt means?! Moar siblngs!~

There were already too many people he was supposed to consider his family. He did not want any more.

~Golden Dick: Isnt that bad, tho? More ppl to fght for his attn?~

~Goldilocks: nt t all! Thrs lk 2 kdz rst r OLD~

~GoldHeart: Hw do u know so much?~

~Goldilocks: Grg told m~

~Goldilocks: i thnk strgrls 1~

~Goldilocks: s33n them tgthr b4~

~Goldilocks: Tht bich~

The rest of the conversation devolved into Brown going into why she thought Stargirl was not worthy of Saunders' attention, Tim and Dick talking her down from such an extreme position, and then Jason igniting Brown into another argument by him mentioning that he had already met some of Greg's family members.

Nothing else was of true value.

He knew that they would eventually mentioned the place and time that such a gathering would take place in because Brown could never shut up about the things Saunders told her. That meant that he would just have to wait patiently until he knew.

His father having told them about their relationship had been a dangerous revelation. This meant that he believed that there was something serious about this relationship; that he believed that there was enough reason to believe that Greg was going to become a fixture within his life. He had been blindsided by this and had been unable to stop it from happening.

That would not be happening with this situation. He would not allow Saunders to inform his family, whoever they were, about his relationship to Bruce Wayne.

He had hoped that his father would come to his senses before this happened; before even more people were told about this farce of a romantic relationship.

That had not happened.

And now his hand was forced.

He had a plan.

There was a contingency for that plan, as well.

And if that did not work, then he had a desperate, last-ditch ploy that would take place on the day of the reveal to Saunders' family. But he would prefer not to play such a card. It was much too sensational and would call on Bruce's attention far more than he really would have liked.

The simplest plan required him to acquire the proper kind of blackmail on Saunders. If he had damning evidence against him, then there would be a logical reason for his father to leave him. At this moment in time, he knew that his father was blinded by emotions. But if he found something horrible against Saunders- which he knew he would, no one this nice wasn't hiding something horrible-, then there would be a logical reason that would cut through those stupid emotions.

Because of this, he was back in the stable area of the Watchtower yet again. He had not told his father once more to further foment strain in his life. Stress with one's child would eventually snowball into a romantic relationship, he would just need to keep pressing.

"Fancy seein' you here 'gain." Saunders walked into the stables with a joyous tone and Damian frowned. "How's the boy been treatin' you, Victory?"

The horse neighed, moving its head in large arc, before allowing it to settle between his hands once again.

Winged Victory was a sweet horse. He was beginning to, quite frankly, enjoy coming up here to spend some time with the animal. The rest of the creatures within the stable space were also calm, either accepting him or not giving him a second thought. It was... nice, really. An obviously different setting to Wayne Manor or the academy he was forced to attend.

Saunders moved about the stables, going about cleaning up and feeding all of the animals. When it came to Winged Victory, though, he did not force Damian to move away. Instead, he offered him the food so he could then give it to the horse.

Damian frowned at him but snatched the food away.

Saunders moved away from him, humming a tune, and Damian glared at him for a few seconds before turning back to the horse.

"I do not trust him." he whispered in acknowledgment to Victory, who neighed softly, shook its head, and stamped one hoof. He frowned back at the animal, "You have been deceived."

Victory clearly did not agree.

When Saunders stepped into the room, Victory had finished eating and Damian had settled near him to be able to read The Art of War.

"Damian, you seem to like bein' 'round animals- think you'd be interested in comin' down to the ranch fer a spell? I've got an issue and my employees need some help."

Damian lowered his book just enough to be able to glare over at the man without truly putting it down. He could see that his eyes were wide with some form of alarm, along with a bit of hope.

This would give him access to a more intimate space in the deceiver's life.

"You are lucky I have the time."

"I'm real grateful." the man began to move towards the entrance of the stables, and Damian properly closed the book to stand up. "I'll get you some baklava for the help."

Damian frowned.

Baklava was his favorite dessert. Generally, there were few sweets he enjoyed; but he had a notable weakness for the treat. There was no doubt in his mind that his father had given such a precious piece of information to the man without a second thought. And he did not like that. Why were these two even speaking about his likes?

For Bruce to give Saunders a way in, undoubtedly.

"Gene Autry was known as the Singing Cowboy back in the olden days. Ain't never been particularly good at naming critters, so just tend to give 'em names that'd make me smile."

Damian hated the fact that the meal he had been offered was delicious.

Saunders knew that he was vegetarian, so the food he had made for them both had absolutely no meat. He had also been decent enough to make sure to get the baklava his friend had delivered- the blonde haired man that had named Winged Victory- was vegan.

The blonde's name was Justin Arthur and he spoke in a dialect that was most certainly not one Damian had ever heard before. His cadence was off, almost stunted, while the words he chose were always bordering on an outdated form of speech. It was English, there was no doubt about it. But it was off.

The baklava had also been exquisite, truly surprising considering how it was supposed to be vegan- and he believed it, truly- and how last minute Arthur finding it had been.

"And the story behind Lollapalooza, mine friend?" Arthur asked with a sedate smile, and Damian frowned at the ridiculous name that had been given to the appaloosa horse.

"Now that's on Courtney." Saunders turned to look at him, smiled, and turned back to Arthur. "Y'know how kids can be."

"Indeed." Arthur nodded slowly.

Damian could see that Saunders was following every single beat that was necessary to get into his good graces. And he knew very well that if he was as weak and vulnerable as the rest of the idiots, this would have worked. But he was not weak nor vulnerable and he would not allow himself to be played like this.

"Thanks again for comin' on such a short notice." he stood up from the table, beginning to gather the plates and utensils they had eaten on. "Both of you."

He did not acknowledge the man, but Arthur simply stated that he was always willing to aid a friend in need.

Saunders finished stacking everything up and made his way towards the kitchen, which left him seated in the dining room with the blonde newcomer. He chose to focus on scrolling through the many messages that he had flagged as positively containing important information on Saunders' true self from the Golden Children chat.

"So you are the squire that Victory has become so enamored with?"

Squire? Who used a word like that.

With a simple, silent nod, he hoped to convey that he was not looking for any form of conversation with the blonde man.

"Mm." a pause, and then the blonde was mentioning, "It is refreshing to see mine friend taking an interesting in fostering another child."

Another child?

He was not being fostered by Saunders- and he never would be if he had anything to say about it. But Arthur seemed to be under an erroneous assumption that came from the fact that he had, very clearly, no idea that Saunders was in a romantic relationship with a person that did have children.

None of the idiots had ever mentioned a child before. This meant that they had never heard of this.

A secret child? One that had been kept from the rest of them?

Maybe that would be enough to make his father see that Gregory Saunders was not who he said he was.

The sink in the kitchen was running and Saunders would take some time to wash the plates, but he did not want to run the risk of having this particular conversation interrupted.

"Follow me." he stated simply, pocketing his phone before heading out into the arid environment that surrounded Saunders' home. He left no room for argument and, after he had stepped out, it was not too long before Arthur stepped out after him.

He asked the man about this supposed other child and gave no explanations as to why he wanted to know more.

From the perplexed way Arthur answered, he could tell that this was not something he had expected to have to tell him about.

And once he knew about a boy that had once been named Daniel Leong that had previously been taken under Saunders' wing, only to have met a brutal death... he became more curious about what else this man could have been hiding. He also wondered if Bruce knew anything about this boy. This was not damning evidence to Saunders being a horrible human being- if anything, it was an event that his father could sympathize with. But it was a tragedy.

"Do not allow this story to frighten you, fauntkin." what in the world was that even supposed to mean? "Gregory Saunders is an excellent man. Heed his instruction and practice restraint." Arthur smiled sadly, and Damian could tell that there was still grief within him over the loss of this Daniel Leong.

The house's main door opened up and Saunders stepped out with an inquisitive look to his face. Damian simply offered Arthur one quick nod before telling Saunders that he would be going back home.

He had information he needed, as well as the location to Saunders' proper home. He could return to Wayne Manor, do some more research with the name he now knew, and continue to plot accordingly.

There were ten days until the thirtieth. This meant that he had ten days to work around.

Saunders had left him his phone while he ran to the bathroom. Damian, of course, took full advantage of this and opened it up- why in the world did this man not have a passcode protecting his most vital information?

As he leaned against a wall outside of the bathroom area, he ignored all of the different sorts of people clad in cowboy hats that walked around him.

The rodeo was not a horrible event to witness, but he would have been much happier if there were no other people here with them.

It was true what Drake had said; Saunders responded almost immediately. When he had asked a few days ago if the man could take him to a rodeo in his town, he had not hesitated to agree. He had not attempted to back out of it, either. And he had bought every little thing he had demanded, no matter how ridiculous.

He was not sure what he was going to do with this oversized horse stuffed animal that he had been bought, but he was sure Titus would not mind utilizing it as a toy for a while.

His search for someone named Daniel Long and their murder had turned up unsuccessful, even with access to more than just the superficial and generalized internet civilians utilized. He had not been able to utilize Gordon's connections, though, and had received an unnecessary scolding by the weak-hearted woman when he had informed her that he was looking up information on his father's unacceptable romantic partner.

He had reached a dead end in acquiring information on the man. So he was now doing something that was much less delicate than he preferred, but would undoubtedly bring about some kind of results.

The first thing he did was look up the man's search history- only to find that it was almost nonexistent. There were some searches for anime related topics- undoubtedly Thomas' influence- along with a host of different forms of recipes. If it didn't fall into either category, the miscellaneous pertained to a few kitchen implements and other such odds and ends. Damian wasn't deterred by this, though, because anyone could erase their search history or even open up an incognito tab- this meant nothing.

Next, he entered the camera roll... and found cavity-inducing pictures.

He recognized a few faces of the people that he now presumed to be an important part of Saunders' life due to the amount of times they had been photographed together, like Arthur or that blonde loudmouth, Oliver Queen. There were plenty of people he did not recognize, though, including a blonde teenage girl that seemed to have a similar facial structure to the Stargirl Brown had decided to hate.

There were also plenty of pictures of his father...

Damian frowned as he stopped on a particular picture that had clearly been taken by Saunders himself.

He recognized the setting- the family room within Saunders' home. It had been taken from across Bruce, while Saunders had undoubtedly been seated beside him. His father's body was poised mostly in the direction in front of him, but his face was turned ever so slightly to the camera- and there was a softness on it that it made something uncomfortable squeeze in his chest.

He had not seen that smile on his father's face very often- he knew it existed, of course, because he had seen it before... but, generally, it had been turned on those he considered close- worthy.

Damian decided to move away from the pictures and to look through his messages- all those pictures proved was that he spent too much time focusing on other people because there were barely any with him in them.

His initial plan had been to look over past messages to people he did not know, to see if he might find any evidence of unsavory thoughts or actions. But when he opened up the application, he found that the last message he had sent his father- who had not yet read it- had said something about him.

~Give Damian some time and space, Angel Eyes. We're asking a lot from him. Least we should do is give him time and space to adapt. Besides, ain't like the rest of your kids ain't tried to figure me out. Jason knows where I'm from now and Steph knows way too much bout Court and Pat.~

~Sit him down and ask him why he's doing this. Don't push him if he doesn't want to talk. And for Pete's sake, don't ground the kid. He doesn't deserve that.~

No one was asking a lot from him. They were demanding too much. They were telling him that his life was to change and no one cared at all what he thought about it. They were telling him that his father was now to be dating this strange man that was too kind to be real and no one was willing to ask what was off with him other than Damian himself.

He read over the message his father had sent Saunders before the man had sent this... and was... stunned.

~You can't keep letting Damian push you around. It's not right he keeps disappearing just to harass you. He's violating your boundaries.~

~I'm going to sit him down when he gets home and tell him this can't go on. A few weeks grounding should be enough to get through to him.~

His father had always been a harsh man; specifically when it pertained to him. Damian had never been a particular fan of the way he seemed to allow so much stupidity from the rest but seemed to find it villainous within him.

There were not tears spring up to his eyes.

He knew it was unfair that none of the idiots had been condemned for attempting this exact same thing and yet here was his father telling Saunders that he deserved to be punished harshly for it. And it seemed that Saunders himself understood that his father's thoughts were not fair.

Five minutes had passed and he knew that it would not take much longer for Saunders to come back- he quickly exited back onto the home page before clicking the screen off. Then he pulled out his own phone and began to read through the Golden Children chat, where the rest of the fools were chattering about how Damian had gotten Greg to himself for a whole day.

Brown was mock insulted, but eventually admitted that she was happy that their youngest sibling was getting the chance to learn about Greg from the man himself. Todd made a joke about needing to make sure that Damian didn't kill the cowboy, but Cain was quick to chide him. Grayson lamented the fact that he was now the only one that had not been swayed by Saunders.

When Saunders finally returned, Damian handed his phone over without a word. The man thanked him then asked if there was any other show he was interested in or if he'd rather head out. He then mentioned they may be able to stop by a nearby bookstore that he knew had some antiquities for collectors.

He had a specific interest in antique books. Few knew about this; Pennyworth was the only person that had ever aided him in this endeavor before.

Maybe Saunders had learned this from his father or Pennyworth himself. Maybe it had been a lucky guess.

But Damian found himself noticing that Saunders had bothered to offer to do an activity he might be interested in after he'd learned about that interest. When he'd found him with Winged Victory, he had not scolded him for being up in the Watchtower even though he was not supposed to have been up there and then he had asked for his help with his horses down in his ranch.

The few times they had interacted since they had met, this man had never told him to do anything. And when he asked for his opinion, he'd done it about things he suspected he'd like.

His father was not a bad man. He looked up to him very much. But... he had always been too busy to do this.

Damian had never asked him for more time or attention, so his father had not worked too hard to make such a thing happen. But Saunders...

He frowned as he noticed how easy it was.

Before he allowed himself to think so highly of Saunders, he needed to make sure that he truly was not hiding anything worse than a tragic backstory. But, he found himself thinking, if that was it... then he would not mind the idea of Saunders becoming a permanent fixture within his life.

If he continued softening his own father up to be less harsh with his only blood related son, then Damian would not complain.

"And he asked to sleep over? He didn't demand it?"

Greg smiled softly at Bruce's incredulous tone. "Yeah, he's sleepin' like an angel."

There was silence on the other end, then he heard Bruce huff. "Are you sure you don't have any magical powers?"

"Bruce," his smile dropped, tone taking on just the harshest edge, "Your boy's not some cold-blooded monster. He's a teenage boy with lots of confusing emotions and lots of contradicting thoughts. I meant it when I said you've gotta be patient with him."

There weren't many things that they disagreed on. But the way in which they treated Damian was something that they just never seemed capable of agreeing on.

Bruce had his reasons to worry more about his youngest- Greg knew this, no matter how vague the man had been explaining his worries the first time around. But his worry about the boy, no matter how warranted, was coming off as distrust for him.

"He's just..." Bruce breathed out heavily and Greg followed suit.

"I know, sweetheart." he understood full well that Damian was difficult to read and hard to get to. But that didn't mean that Bruce had to treat him so different from the rest of the kids. He was, in essence, doing the same things the other kids had done, just with not wholly clear motives and more successful results. "But trust me: trust him."

Bruce's silence read thick and tired, so he decided to alleviate some of the tension by following up with, "I'm going to take him to Cheyenne tomorrow. Think you'd like to come with? It's been a while since you two spent time together."

Silence, then he heard some shuffling.

As he waited for a response, Greg moved towards the kitchen to make sure the cinnamon buns were rising adequately. It had been a damn hard thing to make, especially when he was so tired and it was already so late into almost sunrise, but he knew that Damian would like them. Alfred had let him know that he really enjoyed these when they were freshly baked.

Damian wasn't a bad kid. Bruce just had a real hard time getting to understand him.

"I should be able to." Silence, then he spoke up in a smaller voice, "Would he even want me to go with you? He clearly likes you."

He doubted the kid liked him. He was just getting to think that Damian was starting to warm up to the idea of warming up to him. But he didn't tell Bruce this. He just reminded the man that a boy would always need his father, no matter how old they got.

Bruce agreed in a whisper, cleared his throat, and promised to come over for breakfast to be able to properly surprise his youngest.

With nine days left before it became too late to break up his father and Saunders, Damian decided that it would be in his best interest to not go through with his plans.

When he entered the dining room, the smell of freshly baked cinnamon buns cloying his nose, he had not been expecting to find his father. But there he had been, enjoying a cup of coffee while he spoke with a Greg Saunders that had dark circles beneath his eyes.

He had stared at the man at first, unsure if he was real.

Then, when his father had noticed him, he'd smiled broadly.

"It's good you're finally awake, Damian. Greg didn't let me eat any of the cinnamon buns until you woke up."

And then Saunders was smiling, a tired goofy thing, "Thought you'd 'ppreciate first pick." was his simple explanation.

Damian did not frown, but he did not smile either. Instead, he simply moved over to where the strongest smell of deliciousness was and found that the cinnamon rolls were homemade and found himself understanding why Saunders was so tired.

Without a word, he served himself- Saunders told him that the fruit salad was in the fridge, as well as some yogurt if he'd like to add that. He nodded and continued going about serving himself, then heard his father get up from the table to follow suit.

He was still going to find out about Saunders because there was still a lot more he needed to know. But for now, he was sated in his need to know if he was or was not worthy of his father.

Now he found himself remembering Thomas' words on the day his life had been turned upside down and wondering if they had been within reason.

If Greg Saunders truly was this selfless and kind person that seemed to give his life to others... what in the world did he even see in his father?

He would not complain, though. As long as Saunders was around to influence his father, he would hopefully be protected from his harsher judgments.

~..~..~

And that was Damian's chapter!

This was the hardest by far to write because it strayed into such angsty and not good territory at times. But I'm overall glad with how it wound up.

Damian how dare you be so difficult to write for?

Just as a little update note, I'm thinking that Dick's chapter will come next. I'm playing around with the possibility of adding a story in which Jason (or all the batkids, really) meet the Seven Soldiers because of the 30th that was so important to this chapter. Maybe even a short one-shot in which Greg and Bruce come out to the Soldiers and their reactions.

Quite frankly, I just love the tagline of "Jason gets adopted by the Seven Soldiers" but that's a half-baked idea I came up with when exhausted.

Hope y'all liked! And, yeah, hair school's been fun, but is real time consuming. Hopefully that won't stop me from updating every now and again, even if every day is impossible.