On his first day back, Damian didn't leave his room once. Dick decided to let him have his privacy, but kept walking by the door. Just in case.

Before heading to bed, he decided to do a quick check in – he was worried, sue him – and found Damian pretending to be asleep. Dick watched him for a couple of moments, but wasn't sure what to do, so he simply closed the door.

The next day, Dick came to get Damian to have breakfast and just one look at the kid's face showed that he had hadn't slept more than an hour, if that. Damian didn't look any better when Dick told him lunch was ready. Nor when Dick told him to shower. Or when he called him for dinner.

Dick didn't even go patrolling, preferring to stay back and make sure that Damian brushed his teeth and actually got some sleep. Which the boy didn't, though he took the time to act – and was pretty good at it, but Dick could tell.

They kept playing like that for three more days – Dick wouldn't talk about it, and Damian only talked if prompted, anyway. In fact Damian only did anything if prompted – during which Dick retired Batman completely and manhandled Tim into covering patrol for him. Tim wasn't happy about leaving his computer, but had to do it after Dick spent the whole day asking if Tim was so opposed to leaving his precious because he was scared of sneaky little hobbitses stealing it.

The next completed mission was to coerce Damian out of his room and sit him down on the living room. They played Chutes and Ladders – which was way more boring than Dick remembered it being and made Damian look seriously weirded out – but quickly switched to Mortal Kombat, and all the blood and gore put a glint on Damian's eyes that hadn't been there before.

He was still mostly subdued, but that was more than understandable, so Dick worked twice as hard to be peppy and annoying, just to get a rise out of the kid.

It got him the weirdest looks, but not the explosion he'd been expecting.

The day soon became night and Dick noticed how Damian never even once looked at the sky in search of the Bat-Signal. They were playing Street Fighter – Need for Speed had been a bust and Super Mario had actually gotten Damian to utter a bored "Seriously?" – and Damian was about to retire to his room when Dick called him back "Watch Karate Kid with me. I love this movie, you're gonna hate it."

It wasn't the same light mood that had engulfed them on Jason's safe house, and they both knew it. Damian kept glancing sideways at Dick, silently questioning him, but Dick didn't know what the question was and wasn't sure how to figure that out without sounding like a huge ass, so he decided to let it go for now.

The movie was over and just as all the other nights, Damian pretended to sleep and Dick pretended he wasn't aware as he watched him for a couple of minutes.

He was about to close the door and not sleep in his own bed but hesitated a second, just a second, but it was enough for Damian to turn his upper body to look at him.

There was no mistaking the surprise on Damian's face, like he couldn't believe Dick hadn't left yet and it made Dick wonder if that had happened every night before and he completely missed it.

He tried to wait for Damian to say something, but there was only so much time Dick could stand not moving, so he walked around the bed and laid down, feeling Damian's eyes on him even before they stared at each other.

Damian frowned in thought, his bottom lip pushing out slightly without him realizing it, before he carefully stretched his hand towards Dick's face, covering his eyes.

"Why do you care?" Damian asked in a small hoarse whisper.

"What do you mean?" Dick traced the tiny hand with the tips of his fingers, but made no move to push it away "You're my little brother, why wouldn't I care?"

Dick feels against his cheek when Damian huffs "I don't understand. You make no sense at all."

"When have I ever made sense?"

"Todd left after I told him. He was so disgusted he wouldn't even come back to his own safe house. But you... I waited for you to send me back to mother, that obviously hasn't happened. So I figured some sort of punishment would come, instead you made me watch TV with you. And I don't know what that means."

"I thought spending time with me felt like punishment to you."

"I know you're trying to be funny, but you're not. You told Todd that Drake wasn't to blame, that he didn't have control over his actions. You also said it wasn't my fault. Yet you keep taking it out on Drake while with me you act like you care."

"I'm not acting, I really care about you. The both of you. And I'm not taking it out on Tim."

"Yes, you are." Dick wasn't sure if Damian really sounded kind of whiny or if it was just his own mind acting up from a lingering effect from the sight of the boy's thoughtful pout from before "He doesn't want to leave his computer, and you're making a point of dragging him away from it every chance you get. You're even sending him on patrols instead of going out yourself."

"Hey, he needed some fresh air. He was growing moldy and it was freaking me out. Do you really think I'm being too hard on him?"

"Oh, not at all. Drake deserves whatever crap you give him." it makes Dick smile until he sees where Damian's getting at.

"So I'm being too nice to you?"

"You continue to come for me." he sounds frustrated "Do you even know what happened that night?"

"Yeah." Dick cleared his throat "I do."

"How can you not…?" Damian's breathing grew a little heavier "He had his… He was inside me. He kept… You should be disgusted."

"Don't." Dick said quickly, pulling Damian's hand from his face and holding it to his chest, keeping his eyes closed "Don't say that… I'm not. You can tell me anything," he leaned in then, touching their foreheads together "you can do anything and I'll still come back to you, do you get that? I'll always come. Even if you don't want me to."

"You make no sense." Damian mumbled, though this time he sounded almost accepting.

"Not one bit." Dick agreed with a smile, running his fingers through Damian's hair. He opens one eye "Can I spend the night here?"

"Why would you want that?"

"You know how sometimes, you're so excited for something that's gonna happen the next day that you just can't sleep because you're thinking about it, but being awake makes the wait that much longer?"

"No."

Dick feels another smile threatening to split his face in half, even though he knows that was not actually funny. Damian was frowning, but that was kind of his default expression, and he was still looking at Dick which was a total win.

Dick counted to five in his head "So… Can I stay?"

Damian scrunched up his nose, as if Dick were completely crazy, then his expression softened, even if there was still some bemusement around his eyes "Yes."

He said it looking at Dick, staring right at his eyes. Dick kinda wanted to smother him with a hug, but forced himself to stay still. Baby steps.

So Dick turned to lie down on his back, still clutching Damian's hand to his chest and began to chatter away. He told Damian about his childhood, his life on the circus, his parents, his elephant, his everything.

He also made a point of not saying anything when Damian inched closer, or else it would've been really awkward when Dick did the same, scooting to the middle of the mattress.

It was another sleepless night for Damian, but Dick couldn't bring himself to care when they were so… not miserable.

Damian had been awake for nearly a week and it was starting to affect him. Sure he had slept a couple of minutes from time to time, but his reaction time was slower and he kept seeing things out of the corners of his eyes, but this time he was sure.

He had spotted the brown paper bag hanging outside his window while Dick still slept after having spent a good portion of the night telling Damian his most ludicrous childhood stories. It was oddly comforting not to think about anything else other than the words being spoken to him.

At first he thought it was some kind of prank provided by Grayson, who had been joking quite a lot lately. Damian didn't mind it, only wished he could understand why Grayson had such firm belief that laughing would do them any good.

It took a couple of hours for him to be sure that Grayson had no knowledge of the bag so after he got up and left, Damian counted to fifty before cutting his eyes to the door, making sure that no one was around, and climbed over the dresser to get to the window. The bag was heavier than he had anticipated, so he opened it carefully.

The first thing he pulled out of it was an envelope, turning it around he found writing in a rushed scrawl. "A Happy Meal, only better"

Dick comes around later to call Damian for snacks and video games, only to stop in complete shock.

Damian was asleep, really, truly asleep for the first time in around 6 days. There's a fallen brown paper bag by his knees, a half drunken milkshake with a straw on his nightstand, an empty wrap balled by his pillow and several other items spread around the mattress that Dick doesn't really take in because his eyes are glued to the taser hanging loosely from Damian's hand.

For a crazy second he wonders if Damian tased himself and is not really sleeping, but knocked out, only to realize how stupid that sounds even in his head.

He comes closer as silently as humanly possible, because he's still not sure he's not hallucinating and picks up the slip of paper beside the taser.

"The toy is always the best part.

There's more than one because you've had a shitty childhood.

Ps.: The taser looks gay, I know.

But it made the replacement shriek like a bitch.

Ps².: It left some pretty awesome marks on his neck. You should check it out.

Ps³.: Yeah, I did it for shits and giggles."

Dick turns on his heel, note still in hand and leaves the bedroom, only to stop when he was hovering over Tim who was sporting a black eye, a swollen lip and a massive bruise on his jaw.

"Can I help you with something, Dick?" he asked moodily.

"Oh, it's nothing… I was just wondering how was patrol."

"Fine."

"Yeah, your face looks fine too."

Tim faces him then "Jason's an asshole. It's not enough that he's going out of his way to pester me, he called to tell you?"

"Did he really tasered you?" Dick asked with his most serious expression, but his voice kind of shakes with restrained laughter.

Dick thinks it was because life was being a bitch that all this things sounded so inappropriately funny and as Tim glared at him, he had to purse his lips and take a deep breath to keep from cracking up. Like Tim can't see right through his bullshit.

"On the neck" Tim admitted begrudgingly "Oh you think that's funny?" he tried to sound pissed, but couldn't quite contain his smile as Dick laughed into his fist.

Dick sobers up "Let me see the burn mark and I'll let it go."

Tim eyes him suspiciously but complies, tilting his head to expose his neck. Dick nodded solemnly without even a twitch making Tim roll his eyes "Laugh already, you're gonna pull something."

"Why would I laugh? You got attacked!" he gestured to Tim's neck "By a vampire with blunt teeth from the look of it."

They burst into laughter. Dick laughs so hard it hurts, so hard he kinda wants to cry. It's hysterical and a little desperate and Tim is wheezing out something that sounded a lot like "I don't even know why we're laughing!"

"Because we're fucked up!"

"Jason's been gunning for me on every single patrol!"

"He tasered you as a gift to Damian!"

"And they both want me dead!"

"They don't want to kill you, they only want you to hurt!"

"For something that I don't even remember doing!"

"Oh God, I'm gonna pee my pants…"

They began to gather their wits.

"You thing he's gonna stop now?" Tim asks, rubbing his eyes.

"I can put it a good word for you, if…"

Tim groaned, letting his head fall back "I hate 'ifs'. You're gonna screw me over, and I'll still say yes because I can't stand Jason anymore and you know it."

"I just want you to abort the whole antidote/vaccine thing." Dick points to the computer with a jut of his chin.

"But it's-" Tim looks angsty in a way Dick missed seing. Which is bizarre all in itself.

"No, dude. It was a nice thought, a way for you to work through your crap, I get it. Now you have to come back to the real world."

"I can make this work, Dick." there's so much hope in Tim's voice…

"If anyone could, that'd be you, man."

Tim sighed, leaning his elbows on his knees "Sometimes I wish I could remember, you know? 'Cause it all seems so distant I actually forget to feel guilty, and I cannot ever let that guilt go, it wouldn't be fair to Damian. Then I realize how awful it would be to know, how I would never be able stare anyone in the eye ever again, knowing how it felt to…" he shakes his head, as if clearing his thoughts "And I'm glad I don't remember. Isn't that horrible?"

"Well…" Dick ran a hand over his face to push away the weariness seeping into his bones, his body deciding it was a good time to recall he needed some sleep "Becoming one with the computer won't help."

"Are you sure?" Tim asked with false expectancy, making disgruntled face "I don't know what to do."

Dick snorted "Yeah, well, you're the only one around here with that problem."

A/N.: This was supposed to be here earlier, but still a good way to start the week, I think.

Again I would like to thank everyone for the awesome review (feel free to keep them coming, btw) and I apologize if I haven't replied to anyone, it's been kinda hectic, but know that everyone single word you send me is deeply apreciated!

My tumblr has become a haven for Jason and Damian lovers, so feel free to stop by and hit me with a prompt if you're interested, 'kay?