A/N: Hey guys! I know its been a while, sorry but school got crazy. Anyway, like I said, this story is connected to my Nightwing and Flamebird series but can be read independently of those. For all those who haven't read N&F, I strongly encourage you to go back and read those. For all those who have read N&F, welcome back! I's excited to say that I will be posting the third story of the series over the Christmas holiday, so be on the look out!
It was wrong. All wrong.
The blood red sky. The wet ground, glistening with sea spray. The stillness of the air despite being feet from the sea.
The gleaming blade standing like some sick flag out of the body of his dead mentor and brother.
His mother smiling triumphantly from the side, face smeared with blood- Grayson's blood. She was proud. She had won.
No. It was wrong. This wasn't what had happened. This wasn't the right ending.
But... Everything was so real. The smell of brine and the coppery blood. The oppressive weight of the moist, muggy air which strangled breath from the young, haggard boy. The twisted grin of his mother. The gut wrenching sense of loss which was threatening to bring Damian to his knees in a way no other loss ever had. It was all so nightmarishly real.
And that was precisely what clued Damian in. It wasn't real. It was a nightmare. But that didn't help in the moment. That didn't stop the mind numbing reality that lay before him in the form of Richard Grayson's broken body: this could have happened. It was so close to happening every time his brother pulled on a badge and Kevlar vest or stepped off some ridiculously high building wearing a spandex body suit.
His brother had almost died. Grayson. The man he looked to as a father figure. The man who had raised him when no one else had.
Damian sat straight up in bed, eyes wide, body covered in sweat. Dammit. The nightmares weren't getting any better. It had been two months since the terrifying scenes that haunted his dreams. Two months since his mother had almost succeeded in her promise to kill Damian's most true and loyal partner. Two months since Dick had been pulled from the brink of death by the steady hands of Alfred Pennyworth. Two months since Damian's mother had disappeared without a trace.
But Grayson was alive. His rehab was going well, he had even been allowed to go back to work, though he was chained to desk duty for the time being. Grayson was healing. The ordeal had passed. So why hadn't these horrible visions?
Some part of him knew he should tell Grayson. Grayson would know how to help. How to soothe him. Grayson always did. Another part of him swelled up and told him to be a man. You're not a baby, Wayne, so stop acting like one, he'd tell himself. A much larger part just didn't want to burden his older brother,he had enough on his plate. Things were stirring in Gotham and in Bludhaven. Dick was either shuffling paperwork at the police department, laboring at taxing amounts of physical therapy or video calling Bruce, exchanging troubling news about the trouble brewing in the sister cities.
No. Dick had enough to deal with. As always, Damian would have to fight his own demons. He'd been doing it since the day he was born, after all.
Damian threw off his sheets and padded into the small bathroom off his bedroom. He stopped in front of the sink, turning on the faucet and splashing cool water into his face. Forget it. He wasn't getting any sleep tonight.
Damian re-entered his bedroom and was surprised to see a dim light shining through the cracks of his closed bedroom door. Grayson was away, whisked off into Gotham in the bat-plane to some super secret meeting with Bruce. Damian pulled a few shurikens from where they were embedded in the drywall beside his bedroom door, the remnants of a silly (but harmless, as Damian had ensured Grayson) prank on Tim a few weeks prior.
Throwing star poised by his right ear, Damian opened the bedroom door noiselessly only to find the tired but still conscious form of Starfire. Damian spit a breath through his teeth in irritation, lowering his weapon as her head swung to the young boy. She looked as tired and careworn as he felt.
"Damian. I am sorry to intrude. I hope I did not wake you. Dick said he would be here but-" She glanced around the apartment, indicating that her long time boyfriend was nowhere to be found.
"Father called him to Gotham last minute. I suppose he forgot to tell you." Damian replied mildly. He was not altogether displeased by her presence, nor did he entirely dislike the strange alien girl. Not that he'd ever admit so in front of the redhead.
Starfire pulled her cellphone from a pocket on the outside of her purse. "Ah. He left a voicemail." She put the phone up to her ear and listened to the message. Apparently whatever he said didn't please her very much because she pulled a look of mild outrage and annoyance before tossing the phone unceremoniously onto the floor beside her bag.
"He promised to 'ease back into it'," Damian mimicked with no small amount of bitterness.
"Yes, he always does." Starfire confirmed, equally frustrated. Neither were really surprised that Dick had decided to suit up and help his adoptive father, but they definitely weren't fond of the idea. He had just started to recover properly. But Dick wasn't the kind of guy who said no to family in need. Which made loving him so easy and so hard all at once.
His determination left many in awe at the bravery and commitment. It also left many of his closest family and friends in near fits of panic, as they waited for the day when he didn't come home. Starfire sighed mournfully, clutching a pillow to her chest.
"Just once. Just once I wish he would stay home."
Damian nodded. "He'd stay. If you asked him to. He'd stay." Damian responded honestly.
"I know." She said in a tone that suggested she had thought about the very same thing many times. "But I cannot ask this of him. If I did… It is who he is. I cannot take it away from him. It is why I fell in love with him. How could I ask this of him?"
Damian shook his head but did not answer. There was no right answer. He, too, worried for his brother. More than anything, Damian wanted his brother to- just once- choose himself over others.
Damian stalked to the couch and sagged into the comfortable cushions, just a space away from Starfire. The two stared into the middle distance, lost in their individual worlds of worry and love for a man who had given, and taken, so much. Who had lost and gained so much.
Just as a surge of panic seized at the young boy's stomach, Starfire stated, "He will be fine. He is a strong man. A good fighter. He has The Batman looking after him. He will come home to us."
And just like that, Damian was comforted. But it was one unexpected word which brought him a sense of peace more than anything: "us". Such a small, simple word. Such a surprising word. Such a kind word. So much meaning was held in those two letters, the single syllable. Us. A united front. A team. A family. A someone to turn to, to worry with. To hope with.
Damian turned to the young woman before him, seeing her as if for the first time. For once she didn't look like some runway model who had wandered into his living room, or some alien girl who had strayed just a bit too far from her home solar system. For once she looked like family, even without being tangled in the domestic, romantic antics of his older brother.
Her features were calm, forced into a state of false peace but the ever so slight tremble of her lips and the sharp look of fear in her eyes told a different story. A story which Damian felt reflected into his own green eyes. The two stared at each other for a long moment, reading in one another a fear they were both desperately trying to hide.
Without warning, Starfire's hand shot forward, clasping onto one of Damian's and gripping it in a fierce but bracing way.
Normally, Damian would have rejected the contact. Physical touch and emotional outbursts weren't his style. But she was warm and comforting and for the first time since meeting Grayson, he felt like he had met someone who just knew him.
He clasped her hand back loosely and the together the two sat a silent vigil, waiting for the young man to return home and put their hearts and minds at ease.
Damian felt the sudden need to say something nice to her. Which frankly disgusted him, but he did it anyway. "I've never told you this, but you're...good for Richard." He admitted grudgingly.
Starfire smiled at him before releasing his hand. "He is good for me." Starfire acknowledged with a sweet smile. "But you? You have been the best for him. He never quite fit in with the Batman. Nor did he completely settle with the Titans. But with you?" Starfire brushed slim, careful fingers down his cheek, under his chin. "You have been good for him. I have never seen him so excited or relaxed or happy as when he is with you. You bring something out in him… It is very sweet."
"We bring out the best in each other. All of us. Me, Dick and-and you." Damian spit out before he could stop himself. A silence hung in the air after he spoke, but it wasn't a strained one. And though Damian hadn't been entirely sure of what had made him say so, he wasn't mad that he had. What he said was true. He had felt that way more and more since the young leader of the Teen Titans had spent more of her time in Bludhaven, after Dick's near fatal injury.
Starfire gazed at him tenderly. It was the kind of look Damian had always longed to see from his mother but knew he would never get. The kind he had wanted all his life without ever having realized what it really was. Until now, when he saw it on the kind face of the Tameranian in front of him.
"Yes. We do, don't we?" Starfire nodded at the young boy whom she had always held a strong affection for.
When Grayson finally did arrive, he entered from the elevator bank to find his lady and his kid slumped on opposite arms of the couch, feet pressed against one another under a single shared blanket.
His first instinct was to carry them to bed, Damian to his own room, and Starfire to Dick's but he knew that if he did, he'd likely get chewed out in the morning for 'overworking himself.' Besides, he hadn't seen the two this calm in months let alone this relaxed in such a close proximity to each other. It was probably one of the most heartening and wonderful things he had ever witnessed. With a wide smile, Dick happily pushed the coffee table away from the couch, dragging pillows and blankets from a nearby closet to make himself a makeshift pallet on the floor. With a kiss on each of their heads, Dick lowered himself to the floor, stretching out besides his perfect little unconventional family.
A/N: Aaaaaand, thanks for reading. Hope you enjoyed! Please Review, tell me what you think! And if there's something you'd like to see in the next story, let me know!
You guys are the best!