"I feel fine." Bruce said lowly to Alfred who was unimpressed by the bat-glare.
"It hasn't been even 24 hours since you were flat on your back, Master Bruce." Alfred returned sternly. Batman's defeat was certain, he accepted it with a sigh.
"I'll stay and keep you company, Father." Damian offered.
"That's very nice, Damian." Bruce answered, patting his son's head before stalking upstairs, "Let's find something to do." He beckoned from the top step and Damian sprang to follow, "Suggestions?" He prompted while digging in the kitchen cupboards.
Damian studied his father. There was something…different about him. No, Damian wasn't saying his father was an imposter, clearly this was still Batman, but there was something…odd. Like a burden was lifted, or father's demeanor wasn't as harsh, something…Perhaps it was perspective? "We've not read a book together in awhile…?" Robin the fifth answered, surprised at the timidness to his tone.
"Good idea." Bruce replied, finding his sought after snack and heading to the library with Damian at his side. "What'd we read last time? Hm, oh. Grimm's fairy tales, right?" Damian nodded, he had enjoyed that; preferring the realistic tone of those stories to the optimistic Disney ones. "What should we follow it with? Mystery? Adventure? Hm, what's this?" Bruce glanced through books, pulling out what appeared to be a misplaced binder that made him chuckle, "Or we could read Dick's how-to on building a blanket fort." He offered the binder to Damian with a smirk.
The binder, with its assortment of childish drawings and scribbles that might be words if one squinted enough, detailed the most foolish way that Damian could imagine to build a fort; of course it was Grayson's. "How inadequate. Any fort should not be made of such weak materials, and even so, this design is not properly constructed nor defensible by any means." Damian muttered with a derisive snort.
Damian felt his father studying him and cocked his head curiously when Bruce gave a mischievous smile, "How would you make a well constructed and defensible blanket fort then?"
"Well I-"
"Show me."
"You're not really suggesting that we are to do something as childish as make a blanket fort?" There really was a lightness to Bruce's behavior since he'd awakened that Damian just didn't know how to react.
"Why not? Got all night, right?" Bruce answered with a shrug, "So, where do we start? Couch cushions?"
"Something more structurally sound would make a better frame." Damian was starting to formulate at this new challenge. If his father wanted to build a blanket fort, then on Damian's honor it was going to be the best blanket fort that had ever been built! With that thought in mind, he and Batman rallied together and got to work.
Hours passed before the fort was done to Damian's liking, but they did have all night so it mattered little. But finally, they were sitting inside of the fort with blankets layered expertly above and around them, encasing them in a cocoon.
"Good job, baby bat." Bruce said softly.
"Please father, don't stoop to Grayson's level with the nicknames." Damian murmured, surprised when his father gave him a measured look and then started to chuckle warmly. It was perplexing, but nice. So very nice to hear his father laugh and feel his father lean closer, that mass of muscle and ability controlled precisely to not harm but instead be comforting.
"I'll give you that Dick came up with 'Dami', and 'Dames' and 'Little D', and whatever else. But," Bruce dropped his voice to a whisper that hinted at mischief, "'baby bat' has always been mine for you. Always."
"What?" Damian whispered back, wide-eyed with shock.
"I made the mistake of saying it around Dick first and he ran with it, but yes, you're my baby bat, just as Dick is my little bird."
"B-but…how? Why?" Damian was abruptly aware that he was blushing and feeling so incredibly embarrassed, but so wonderfully loved too.
"I'd like to think that I get at least one nickname since I am your father. Right?" Damian could only nod in answer, not sure he could trust his tongue in light of this unthinkable truth- that his father had an embarrassing nickname for him and maybe that told all there was to tell about where he was in his father's heart.