Until about a month ago Dick had been pretty sure that he had found ever single hiding place and eavesdropping spot in the cave. But recently he'd had to admit that Damian had outstripped him. That kid was constantly popping up in strange places, knowing things he shouldn't.
"How long were you there?" Dick asked as the boy slipped into the room.
Damian had never been an easy kid to read, but he was pale. Dick mostly wanted to jump out of bed, bundle the boy up in his arms and just kind of hold him there the way Bruce had once or twice when he was younger and sick or hurt or really heartbroken.
"A while," he said softly.
"Come here," Dick ordered him. In his head it had been a gently suggestion but that wasn't what happened when it got to his mouth. Damian must have felt pretty crappy to just obey silently. "What'd you hear?" Dick asked, patting the bed. Damian climbed onto it. Whenever he did something genuinely childish it kind of tugged at Dick's heart a little.
Damian didn't answer.
"Hey listen," Dick said. "Bruce'll come around. He's a pretty distrustful guy. Kind of like you. But he does warm up to people eventually, I promise. Although not killing Tim would really help your case."
"I will not kill Drake," Damian muttered. He wiggled back from the edge of the bed a little so his back was touching Dick's leg. He wasn't going to say anything, but Damian and Dick both knew it wasn't an accident. "Were you telling the truth? You don't want to be Batman anymore?"
"No," Dick said slowly.
He hadn't seen that one coming.
Damian started to leave the bed again. Dick frowned and grabbed his wrist. "Damian, what's going on? You know Bruce's going to keep you around if for no other reason then he doesn't trust you enough to send you away, which means that you'll get your chance to prove yourself. He might not seem like he wants to trust you, but he really does. You know, very, very, very deep down."
"And then we won't be Batman and Robin anymore."
"No, you'll have the real Batman back," Dick agreed. "He's going to be really hard on you, but it's mostly because he wants you to survive and he will never tell you that the loves you but he does. It'll be all right. You'll learn a lot from him. Way more than you'll learn from me."
"But you," Damian said brutally, angrily, the way he used to talk to him. It hurt his feelings a little. "Never mind. I need to go talk to Drake about something," he stammered gruffly. "About patrol tonight."
"Damian, what's going on?" Dick asked, refusing to let go of his little arm.
"Nothing," he said. "Go back to your old life Grayson."
"Is that what's going on?" he asked and he kicked himself, metaphorically and kind of literally too for not seeing it. "You heard what I said before didn't you? About you being my Robin."
"Yes," Damian agreed reluctantly.
"You know I wasn't lying to him right?"
"You can't lie Father," Damian snapped at him like he was a complete idiot. Trust Damian to absolutely miss the point if it meant a chance to make fun of him. He sighed.
"Mm, you noticed that?" Dick said. "Well, then you know I meant it. Going back to being Nightwing isn't about you. Leaving you, loosing my partner will be the thing I regret the most, Damian."
"But you'll still do it," Damian said.
"You deserve a chance to work with Bruce," he said. "And I really don't deserve to be Batman."
"You have been an adequate Batman," Damian said slowly, like he wasn't quite sure if he wanted to but couldn't think of any other way to prove his point. "And I am an excellent Robin."
"Nothing's going to change that," Dick said with a smile. "Whoever you're Robin...ing... with you'll be awesome." Damian glared at him and Dick almost giggled. He put his hand on Damian's back, just lightly but he felt Damian lean into it a little and he smiled, careful to look down so Damian didn't see it. "And it's not going to change things that much. Within a month I bet Bruce's going to get into something really messy and he'll need saving anyway so we're going to have to partner up for that. And you can always call me, I'll come visit you as often as I can, I promise. We're not going to stop being brothers just because Bruce's back."
Damian didn't say anything. For a really long time. Dick assumed, because it was Damian, and he usually did things for a reason, that he wanted something else, but he had no idea what it was. After a while he collapsed back into his pillows and Damian leaned back against him. Neither of them said anything for a long time.
"Richard," he said at last. "What if I am not as good with Father as I was with you?"
"You will be," Dick said. "And if you're not, I'll just kidnap you and you can be my sidekick."
"That's ridiculous Grayson," he muttered, pushing back against him a little harder. Dick smiled and slipped his hand around Damian so he was nestled up against his side.