Chapter six - I'll be there for you

After a heated argument with Bruce, Damian decides he wants to live with Dick in Blüdhaven.

Damian's POV

Damian's eyebrow twitched impatiently, he still believed his father didn't quite understand what it was he was getting at, but he was so distracted with being angry that he just wouldn't listen. "Father, I know that the Joker was too much for Grayson, Todd and Drake," He listed each Robin off on his fingers, each name weakening his confidence, "But I'm more advanced than any of them had been at my age. He wouldn't be a problem."

Bruce at this point was slamming doors and throwing extremely expensive gadgets around like they weren't completely irreplaceable. "I don't care what you think, it's what I know that matters!"

"You're being unreasonable. You know I'm nothing like the others. They were weak, and inexperienced."

"Don't you dare degrade them like that." Bruce growled.

"Even Todd?"

He found himself saying, "Especially him."

Damian frowned, but continued nonetheless. "It's inconsequential to me what you think of your numerous partners. What is of greater concern is why you think I'm not capable of fighting the Joker."

Bruce adopted a guarded expression, one he often used when reining in his anger so as not to blow up in front of a ten year old. "You're not ready, and I don't have to risk it. I can just ask someone else to come with me."

Damian's eyes narrowed to accusing slits. "Mother would've let me go." He said, sounding for all the world like a teenage girl complaining about a concert.

"Your mother would've let you die. She had your DNA stored, she could've just made a new son." Bruce spat, regretting it as soon as he'd said it.

Shock flashed across Damian's sharp features, but he didn't react as Bruce imagined he may have. "Well, I suppose we've both had bad parentage."

He'd hit a nerve in Bruce and he knew it. In fact, he seemed proud of it. It was the smug grin that Damian wore that made Bruce grip his son at the lapels and stare menacingly into those blue eyes that looked so much like his own.

"Listen here, my parents were nothing like your mother! They cared about me, which is more than I can say for you." Bruce knew the incoming words were too far, but they slipped out anyway, "You were only created because Ra's couldn't persuade me to inherit his legacy. You're meaningless to them." He continued in a dangerously low voice. "If you want to get yourself killed, go ahead. I won't stop you."

Damian's usually venomous expression fell worryingly flat, emotionless, as he pulled himself away from Bruce's vice grip and made his way slowly up the stairs to the manor.

Dick's POV

Dick was flipping through TV channels and stuffing cold takeout pizza in his mouth when he heard a crash in the kitchen. His heart leapt into his throat, and he almost fell off the coach. "As a twenty three year old man, my heart should not be hurting this much." He remarked, as if there wasn't a home invader in his kitchen. "I think I just had a panic attack." He put a palm over his chest, to calm his rocketing heartbeat.

"As much as this is cliché, is anyone there?" He called out into the kitchen, brandishing his empty pizza box as if it was a deadly weapon.

"Grayson." Damian regarded his eldest adoptive brother from the kitchen work surface, swinging his legs, which would've looked childlike if not for his Robin uniform.

Dick lowered the pizza box shield and set it down sheepishly on the counter. "And what are you doing visiting me at this ungodly hour?"

Damian's gaze narrowed, "You weren't sleeping, were you?"

"Well, no, but-"

Before Dick could stop him, Damian was in the living room staring at what he had been watching. "Friends?" He raised an eyebrow as the opening theme blared from the TV.

"It's good, okay?" Dick said defensively, grabbing the remote and switching off the program.

Damian regarded the mess that was his living room, raising his eyebrows at the alarmingly large build up of various takeaway remains littering his coffee table. Blankets and pillows littered the couch, presumably so that Nightwing could get home after patrol and sleep there. Dick himself wasn't much better, as he wore a blue shirt with numerous pizza stains, accompanied by a pair of sweat pants two sizes too big, and a pair of mismatched holey socks.

"Your appearance is akin to that of a homeless person." Damian's lip curled in disgust.

"Yeah, well I wasn't exactly expecting guests." Dick deadpanned, giving Damian a pointed look.

"Hmph, I suppose I can look past these...misdemeanours."

"You say that as if you- oh no." It clicked. Damian had that look on his face, the same look he had worn when regarding the Robin uniform for the first time, and again when he'd first seen Dick. He was sizing up his apartment, and that could only mean one thing.

"Well, Grayson, if you could kindly show me to the guest room, I'd like to go to bed now."

Dick's expression turned to one of awkwardness. "Lil'D, as much as I like spending time with you, you can't stay here."

Damian looked confused, "Is it because of your numerous girlfriends you bring back here? Or-"

"Did you and Bruce have an argument?"

Damian's lip twitching was more than enough confirmation for Dick. "Do you want to talk about it?"

"No, I do not want to talk about it. Why must everyone persist in talking about feelings?"

Dick frowned, but knocked a blanket or two from the couch and sat down, patting the space beside him. Damian seemed vaguely annoyed, but slumped down next to Dick nonetheless.

"So you thought you'd come and live with me instead of facing Bruce?"

The newest Robin looked ashamed, but didn't confirm it. "I just thought I could stay here for a while...?"

"Dami, your home is Wayne Manor, besides, I'm not fancy. I don't have a spare room. There's nowhere for you to stay here."

Damian swallowed his pride and managed, "I could sleep here." He patted the couch.

"That bad, huh?" Dick clicked on the TV to provide some background noise. It was too quiet in the apartment. "What did you argue about?"

Damian made a face as if Dick had reopened old wounds. "The Joker."

Dick nodded knowingly. "It's a tender topic for Bruce, since he killed Jay and screwed with Tim."

"He thinks I'm incapable of fighting that bumbling idiot, yet he allows me to battle the likes of Deathstoke and Bane."

Dick's brow drew together in concern. "It must've been more than that. You two argue about villains all the time."

"He said I was worthless." Damian half whispered, half spoke. He sounded as if he could hardly believe it himself.

"He didn't mean it, he really didn't. I know he can be a total tool-bag, and believe me I know, but he means well. He just doesn't want to see you hurt." Dick turned to the TV, distracted by what Vicky Vale was chattering on about.

He'd tuned into Gotham news coverage by accident, but the footage was of the Joker going to town on a bank, and Batman was nowhere to be seen. "Weird. He knows Joker is out there, so why-"

The phone suddenly rung, and Dick leaned over to snatch his mobile from beneath a Chinese takeout box.

"Yeah?"

"Nightwing." Bruce's voice came through, slightly crackly, but concerned. The fact that he'd called Dick by that name meant he was speaking though his communicator and he was currently fighting an enemy.

"I think Robin went after the Joker on his own, and I'm pinned down by Harlequin here. Please, I don't want him being reckless." Small strains of Bruce Wayne came through, even with his Batman voice.

"Robins just fine, Bats. He's with me." Dick handed the phone over to Damian.

"I'm sorry." Were Bruce's first words to his son.

"Me too, I never meant to make you worry." Damian heard Harley scream in the background, realising he must've defeated her.

"No, what I said was...offensive. Look, I'll talk later, just take the night off, okay?" Bruce asked desperately. So he still didn't want Damian going near Joker? Fine.

Damian nodded and put the phone down, only to meet Dick's amused expression.

"What're you grinning at?" He demanded.

"You two fight like an old married couple, it's hilarious."

"That analogy was deeply disturbing." He remarked with a yawn.

He'd already been out on patrol tonight, and although it was hard to see it through his ego, the kid was only ten.

Dick sneakily switched the TV back over to friends, and turned the volume down so that it was a simple lull in the silence. Damian yawned again, and kicked his boots off, putting his feet up on the couch.

"I suppose it's too late to go home now." Damian stated.

"Slumber party?" Dick asked hopefully.

Damian rolled his eyes and tutted, but fell back into the soft cushions and quietly watched Friends, occasionally putting up with Dick's thorough explanations of who's who and what's what.

Eventually, coupled with the exhaustion and the low murmur of the TV, Damian's eyes slid shut. Dick smiled fondly, and made his way to the kitchen, shutting the window Damian had come through, before passing through the living room again. He switched the TV off and murmured, "Night Dami," Before picking up his Nightwing suit from where it had been buried under laundry, and slipping it on, leaving quietly through the window.

As he traversed rooftops in search of any criminal activity, he thought about what Bruce had done. Damian said Bruce'd called him worthless, and apology or not, that didn't sit right with him.

"When I find him, I'm so gonna kill him. That wasn't just overstepping the line. That was performing a triple jump over it, complete with fireworks and a somersault." Dick talked to himself, not bothering with stealth as he landed harshly on a muggers head, effectively knocking him out.

"Oh yeah. He's definitely not getting away with that so easily."

The granny who was previously being mugged before Nightwing swooped in to save her looked up at him curiously. "You already knocked him out, what else is there to do?"

Dick was confused, before realising he'd been talking out loud to himself again. "Uh, yeah sure, sorry miss." He managed to say, before grappling up to the rooftops once more. Maybe the granny was right, maybe Bruce had had enough punishment from thinking Damian was in trouble with Joker. Maybe Dick talking to Bruce would only make things worse.

"Gosh darnit Bruce, why'd you have to inadvertently recruit granny's to pull guilt trips on me?" Dick sighed, looking down at his communicator, his thumb hovering over Batman. He slipped it back into his pocket and continued into the night.

Review please! And also, if anyone knows where I can get good comics...? (I live in England, I dunno if my profile says that or not)