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If Dick had stayed a little ahead or at his side, Jason behind unless he was feeling competitive, and Tim doggedly at his heels … Damion ran ahead. Thus, turning the corner he was greeted with the silhouette of his youngest against the brightening sky.

Damion's arms were not hanging at his sides like he'd seen most of his sons had stood up here, save Jason when he was particularly mad about something. For Damion, mad was his usual state. So, his arms, like now, were crossed much of the time. Actually, it meant he felt safe, angry but safe.

When Damion first arrived, he would hold his arms out slightly at both sides ready to fight, dodge, or maybe escape just far enough away to throw a weapon. Back then, he was also very careful to stay arm's-reach away from all of them save Alfred. He seemed to fear Alfred the least till he stopped caring if the other members of their family realized how much he liked the brit's French cooking. Now, he feared certain items being left off the menu or out of the kitchen entirely if he overly irked the eldest member of their household. But Damion had never acted like he might attack, or be attacked by, the Wayne family's official servant and honorary patriarch. Damion had, the first several months of his stay, behaved that way around all his siblings all the time and much of the time with himself.

Bruce admitted to himself when the arm-crossing started it had irked him. Upon thinking about it more, though, he realized it was not a stance a warrior would take if he truly feared or was preparing to harm those in his immediate vicinity. Damion still had a sharp and barbed tongue that flayed the emotions of those around him, but he had not seemed as alert for an opportunity to spill actual blood the last few months. The change was … relieving.

As Bruce came to stand just in arm's reach of his only blood-relation, said relation gave a derisive sniff followed by "If we 'really' wanted to test and toughen ourselves we'd 'climb' up here." The ten-year-old glanced down over the edge of the drop-off.

"It's far more dirt than rock, Damion. Not many holds we could find would support our weight."

"Then maybe you should take us to some 'real' mountains if you want to challenge me."

"This ritual is more to sooth our minds and give us an opportunity to talk if we wish to speak alone. Also, it gives us time to connect ourselves to our natural surroundings. And it gives us all these opportunities on a daily basis."

Damion rolled his eyes. "If you want us 'truly' to be integrated into our natural surroundings we'd abandon the manner and camp outside on your land permanently. A child from the suburbs could easily live off this land without much help."

"Perhaps if he'd had many camping excursions in his past …"

Damion covered his ears as the forest began to resound with birdsong and squirrel chattering. "Please … the cries of the game are deafening here …"

Bruce gave a slight smile. Damion looked up at him, saw it, and frowned. "Can we leave this loudest part of the forest behind us now?"

Bruce raised an eyebrow. "We'll be amid not above the trees once we go down."

"I know, but this area has particularly thick brush to hide in so the birds and small mammals are bolder and more numerous here."

Bruce nodded and turned though the sun had barely risen over the treetops behind them. Damion walked ahead of him again with a sigh. Pondering once more the differences between all his sons, Bruce uncovered another odd observation. Jason had often complained about coming up and asked why they had to, but Damion for all his complaints and counter-suggestions did not ask to stop such excursions entirely.

His mind went to something Leslie had said during one of their sessions since Damion's arrival. Since that night in fact, their sessions had begun primarily revolving around the boy and his relationships with, or lack thereof, with himself, his other children, and … anyone but Tahlia really. His godmother had suggested several times Damion pointing out the flaws in everyone else or insisting they weren't really family could be due to his carefully hidden or even subconscious fear "he" would be ostracized from his new home, family, and community.

"I shouldn't have to tell you Bruce, those already abandoned or who 'never' felt secure in their past relationships can continually test or even outright reject new relationships later on. Damion experienced the death of his grandfather, his earliest father-figure and role-model for himself. Then his mother left him with you, whom he'd never met. He'd rarely been so far apart from her as he was his very first night here. Finally, he has to, or at least 'feels' he has to compete for your attention with multiple siblings and your own colleagues most of the time. And they have all known you far longer. I can tell just by watching, everyone from Alfred, to Stephanie, to Clark act more secure in their relationship with you than he does."

"But Tim and Stephanie 'have' reverted to acting more fearful around me since he arrived."

"I've noticed that too. And they certainly haven't warmed to Damion either, not that he helps in the slightest. But even if they've gone backwards in trusting you not to reject them, they are still far more hopeful about their future with you and others than Damion is. He's barely started building his trust in you."

"So … you agree he 'has' started …"

"Well, his body language no longer tells me he's ready to kill you, or even me when we're in the same room together."

"I've noticed that too."

"I'd treat his fault-finding as a sign he's insecure in the new world he's found himself in. He's not merely dealing with a new house, or state, or country. He's not even only attempting to learn a new lifestyle. Everyone he meets has a radically different worldview than that of every grown-up he's ever been taught by or lived with. He's re-learning not only how to behave, but think and feel, as well as who and what to value. The cognitive dissonance must be overwhelming. I know it's hard, trust me, even knowing all this, he brings up my hackles still, but try to be understanding and patient. While you reassure Stephanie and Tim their places with you haven't changed, be careful to also show Damion his place among you isn't going anywhere … no matter how much he tests your willingness to keep him with us."

This … morning routine, tradition, was about the best way he could think of to communicate this to Damion. He'd taken Tim and Stephanie aside to tell them he didn't think they "needed" some time in nature with him in the mornings as much as Damion did these days. That he would put even more time into other activities with him. He would lengthen his mission preps and debriefings with Tim. And do longer observations of Stephanie's training sessions. Damion would have the morning jog to himself, though, since he was newest and probably had a lot, he might not feel like sharing around anyone else. This had not exactly turned out to be true yet. Damion shared much, but nothing so far Bruce thought he'd have failed to share around Alfred or his siblings.

As he feared, both Tim and Stephanie had stared at him with more strained than normal faces as he told them of this decision. Then they said with more strained than normal voices they understood, though it might have been hard for anyone who didn't observe them so carefully and constantly as he did to see and hear this extra strain. He'd added even more prepping, debriefing, and training observation time for both of them ever since. He assumed it was working, because Tim seemed less tense and Stephanie smugger during these times with them lately. Meanwhile, Damion stood behind him in view of his siblings and seethed during his time with them, so that even he could feel his youngest's anger in the air without looking. Tim's carefully neutral glances Damion's way when he did this. Stephanie's sent smug stares Damion's way instead further alerted Bruce to the situation. But then … Damion had started out half-hiding in shadows and behind things to observe such activities of the team and family. Now, he no longer seemed to mind being seen. So, again, there was more trust and perhaps desire to be part of things being shown by the youngest member of the family now.

When directly confronted with their full attention though, Damion still looked away and put more physical distance between himself and them even if it was a single sidestep. Bruce tried it now. He took a step nearer to his son on the trail. Damion … didn't move away.

Bruce tried to give no outward sign of his shock. After they walked closer together for a few yards, and only because he'd been watching so carefully, he saw a split-second glance up towards his face from his youngest. Bruce let them walk another several seconds just as they had before. Then, he raised his hand. Damion weaved a half step away, making Bruce freeze his movement for a quarter of a second, but then, to his greater shock, Damion fell back into step and gave another less than a second's length glance at his hand and then his face before seeming to behave like nothing extraordinary was happening. Bruce only let his lips purse slightly before lowering his hand onto Damion's shoulder. He didn't even squeeze.

Damion froze again for less than a second. His foot was still in the air for another step. Then, he looked down at the path before him, hung his head a bit lower and kept walking. Bruce could feel the tension through his son's light cotton shirt he complained he barely knew he wore. "It barely protects me from a sunburn … 'If' I sunburned like Brown does. Odd surname for her and her blood kin considering their pale weak skin."

That has been a particularly cruel comment to make considering Stephanie's first neglectful and then abusive relationship with Authur Brown, her biological father, who did indeed also have fair hair and skin. She might also have inherited these traits from her mother, though, who had sadly also been neglectful as an addict. Bruce feared his youngest had known "exactly" what he was doing commenting on Stephanie's resemblance to her blood kin and that the observation was a comment on a natural "weakness." Strength, in every way, had been prized beyond all else where Damion had come from and to comment on someone's weakness was a great insult.

Stephanie had looked ready to scream and cry at this observation from Damion. Not daring to let himself "look" at Damion for fear what his son would read in his face, he instead took Stephanie out of the room and asked Tim to come with them. He left Damion with Cassie who was "not" afraid to show her feelings to Damion, and whom he seemed to most respect out of his siblings, and Dick, who was ever the peacekeeper. Dick had looked exhausted rather than enraged.

He'd done his best after walking through a few large rooms and closing a few thick doors to remind Stephanie nothing Authur Brown did changed his trust in her, and Damion was likely lashing out in the discomfort of feeling out of place. He was probably in pain from losing his old way of life permanently, because that had involved the safety and security his grandfather's position had given him till Ras' death. That loss had flipped Damion's whole world upside down. Stephanie had needed a hug from him. Embracing still felt uncomfortable for him after all these years and children later, but he'd rather give her one than see Staphanie's face filled with fear again like in the early days of her living in the manor with them. She still craved kind touches, attention, and words of affirmation. She still needed to know there would be family meals, not only gifts but faces around her on her birthday, and she was more than an outward sign to the public of the decency of her father and the normalcy and health of their family life.

Arthur Brown had been too wrapped up in himself and his career, and her mother in her part in Authur's play before the public and her own hidden addiction, to give Stephanie those things unless cameras and/or strangers were around most of her life. Weirdly enough, Damion's mother and grandfather had given him much attention throughout his life but like with the Browns their love was conditional. Stephani had to appear perfectly happy before daddy's audience. Damion had to always appear strong before everyone.

Bruce stopped having to force himself not to squeeze Damion's shoulder in remembered anger for his foster-daughter's sake. (Her mother had not completely surrendered her legal right to take Stephanie back if she could stay clean.) Damion was hurting too, terrified as well. His youngest was not afraid of physical pain or even death … but he was afraid of unconditional love. The very idea rocked the foundations of his understanding of how things were supposed to be. He acted in disgust at how Bruce demanded so "little" from his point of view from not only his siblings and allies, but himself. His father should give him more opportunities to … nay demand he prove his strength, his toughness, his mastery at the ways of war and survival … What was the point of 'being' his son and heir otherwise?

Bruce let his gaze lower to take in visually rather than just through sound and touch Damion's continued reaction to his hand on his shoulder. Damion's head still hung low, and his gaze was turned away, but … he had shortened his stride to match his. So, Bruce left his hand there till they got to the gate through the wall surrounding the manor.

What do you think?

God bless

ScribeofHeroes