"Brown, you are pathetic"
Notes:
So... Yeah... Arrow feels made me think of this.
The Stephanie/Damian relationship was totally ripped from Arrow's Tommy/Laurel relationship pre-show
Damn this fandom for making me even think of them being a viable couple...
And also, Spoiler is an Oracle-like character in this, but Stephanie is not in a wheelchair nor is she as much of a computer whiz as Babs... But she is more information and infiltration...
***Damian's Apartment, 3 years ago***
"What are you doing here Brown." Damian asked, glaring at the blonde haired girl standing in his doorway.
Stephanie looked up at the older male, her eyes red rimmed. "I didn't want to be alone..." Her voice was scratchy like she had been crying recently, though Damian had no reason to insult her on this. Tim's body had been confirmed just days before and they were waiting for the body to be sent before they could arrange for the funeral service. Damian moved from his doorway to allow the other to enter. The apartment was uncharacteristically messy. A table had been thrown, the contents still scattered across the floor. Stephanie sat on the couch, looking around, "Really wish Timmy was here to see this... He wouldn't believe you could be upset that he's..." Stephanie could not finish her statement as her shoulders shook and she buried her head in her hands.
Damian went to the kitchen, getting a glass of water for his guest. Returning to living room, he saw Stephanie had not moved from her spot but was not clutching a throw pillow to her chest. "Drink this Brown, don't want you to shrivel up cause you can't stop crying." Damian said halfheartedly as he put the drink in front of her.
Stephanie tried to take a calming breath before taking a drink. After a few minutes she calmed down a little bit. "It's so weird to think he's gone." She finally said, her voice a little wet from tears though she did not seem like she was going to let the waterworks out just now. "I mean, he was never really back after the Joker... But now he's really gone, there's no fixing death."
Damian just nodded, trying not to think of the Lazarus Pit or any of the other stories he grew up hearing of such miracles. Even in the League of Assassins, death was a finality and to tamper with that was blasphemy. "He's in a better place Brown."
"How can you say that!?" Stephanie yelled at him, her eyes calling for his death. "How could you wish him dead after everything..."
"Because, Brown," Damian started, trying to keep any emotions from his voice. Taking a seat on the opposite side of the couch, he continued. "Look at what he was. What he became. Do you think he wanted that? Why do you think the first thing he did when he had the smallest glimpse of sanity was leave?"
"Are you saying he wanted to die?" Stephanie asks, her voice small and quiet. She was now curled away from Damian, knees pulled up to her chest.
"I can't say." Damian responded as he looked at the ceiling, mind going to places darker than his voice would suggest. "But he's not suffering anymore."
"Do you just not feel anything?" Stephanie asked, pulling Damian out of wherever his musings led him as a solid hit was delivered near his sternum. "How can you be so clinical about this? This is Tim were talking about, not some faceless nobody." She threw her fist a few more times, thumping Damian on the chest with each hit.
Damian grabbed her wrists, stopping her assault. "I know Brown." Damian growled out, "How could I not know? I brought him to father, I let him be Robin..." Damian's was cut off as Stephanie's lips met his for a second.
Damian looked at the blonde in front of him as she stared back at him, possibly trying to figure out why she did what she had just done. For whatever reason she had for kissing him, she did not seem to be questioning herself. "Brown," Damian breathed, releasing her wrists, "you're pathetic." A second later he bridged the gape between them to press a kiss to her lips.
***Six months ago, The Batcave***
"Damian Alexander Wayne! Who the hell do you think you are!? What right do you have not to tell me..." Stephanie called from the staircase leading to the Batcave, her angry footsteps echoing in the otherwise quiet cave. Damian was sitting at the computer, re-watching footage, Stephanie stopping dead when she saw the figure on the screen. "Is that him... My God, that's Tim." Her voice was just above a whisper, her hands covering her mouth.
Damian ripped his eyes from the screen to spin his chair to look at Stephanie. "Yes Brown, that is Drake, or Red Robin as he's calling himself now."
Stephanie's eyes did not leave the screen as the footage played Red Robin taking down a group of criminals, ending with bullets to their heads. Even as her brain screamed for her to look away, told her this was not Tim. Not her Timothy, who laughed as he waited outside her window. Who said he loved her the night that she thought her world was ending. The Tim who left and never came home, forever gone. Definitely not the man on the screen, not the man killing without remorse. "What happened to him?"
"He never died." Damian said, watching Stephanie's reactions. Stephanie had changed since that night that seemed so long ago, the night that they found comfort in one another. She was stronger, able to stand on her own even without Damian or Bruce. Spoiler and her information network were an asset to the entire hero community. Her reactions tonight though reminded him strongly of the lost girl standing at his front door, not the woman she grew up to be. "He went to my grandfather. They faked his death and put him in the Lazarus Pit."
"Lazarus Pit?" Stephanie spoke as if she was dazed, "The thing Ra's uses to stay alive..."
"Yes, Grandfather thought it would clear his mind. Clear up whatever that Clown put in there." Damian ran a hand through his hair, "Seems that it was not that easy. Drake's mind is clearer, but he's different. Meaner."
Damian would never say he loved Stephanie, he knew she was not his to love. She gave herself to Tim, heart and soul, so long ago and even with this new development he doubted she would ever get them back. That being said, Damian did care for her, not matter how much she angered him or drove her insane. Each night that she came to him because she could not take being alone, each stolen kiss they shared; all stored for future reference whenever she finally lets herself move on. "Why did he come back? Why after all this time?"
"The Joker." Damian ground out, "He took that psychotic piece of filth, beat near death before he confronted father. There was an explosion and he hasn't been seen since." He shut off the computer and stood. "That was yesterday. Father is out looking for him now, though I suspect he is long gone."
Stephanie stepped forward, wrapping her arms around Damian's chest. His right hand circled around her waist as the left ran through her hair. "He's alive Dames." She whispered. "Tim's alive Damian."
Damian put his nose into the top of Stephanie's hair, inhaling the familiar scents of her shampoo. Strawberries. "Brown, you're pathetic."
Notes:
Damian was so mad at Drake dying, he literally flipped a table... :)
... And I wrote most of this listening to Half of My Heart (John Mayer and Taylor Swift) and The Last Time (Taylor Swift and Gary Lightbody)... So now Stephanie will be associated with Taylor Swift... Why brain?
And I had to take a break to re-watch the Wildest Dreams music video... (I so want Scott Eastwood to be Jason... Holy Fuck!)
And Damian is totes in denial... :D