Chapter Text
Damian’s memories from when he was an infant are still there, maybe it’s because mother aged him in the lab that he can still remember, after all, until last week he was one year old, now he is around five years old.
So he remembers, he remembers a teen, in his catatonic state, despite being brain damaged, taking care of Damian, for eight whole months the young man raises him when his mother should have.
But then Talia ages him, he doesn’t know why she wants him older, why she does not give him the chance to grow on his own, but mother did that, she took the choice from him and made him older.
His ‘brother’ doesn’t react to this change, he keeps taking care of him, he doesn’t talk, he never does, so the role of teaching Damian to speak falls to another assassin, not his mother, like always, she is too busy to give him proper attention.
It’s a couple of months later when the teen who has been tasked to take care of him is thrown into the Lazarus pit waters, mother had gotten permission from grandfather, said she needed Jason to be responsive, for she had plans for him.
Damian did not like how she said that, as if his brother was a tool to be used.
When his akh wakes up, he looks disoriented, Damian is there to explain to him what had happened, the entire time the kid is speaking Jason looks at him as if he had been stabbed in the heart.
“Akhi? Is everything alright?” He asks concerned, had the pit water not healed him thoroughly?
The teen then looks angry, but he knows it’s not exactly directed towards him, Damian watches as his brother gets up from his bed and marches his way towards mother’s room, he follows quietly, hiding in the shadows, Damian hears his brother and mother scream at one another.
“What the hell did you do to him?!”
“You remember? Uh, I didn't think you would remember your time as catatonic…”
“Talia, you didn’t fucking answer me! Why did you age him? He is a kid! He is supposed to age normally, have a normal life!”
“He will never have a normal life here, Jason” The woman protests weakly.
Jason throws his arms up in desperation. “Then take him out of this place!”
His mother gives the teen a blank stare. “He is the heir, my father would never let me leave with him”
“For fucks sake, do you even care for him?”
“I love him” Her tone is uncaring, not a tone you would expect to hear when speaking such words.
“Then, show it! You’re not even bothering to raise him, I’m more of a parent to him than you ever were!”
“Then you’re his father from now on” She shrugs and turns her back to him. “I have better things to care for right now, leave and care for your 'son'”
Akh glares at her, as if wanting to kill her right there and then, but knows better than to do such a thing, so he leaves the room and slams the door close behind him.
It was as he walks past him and stop suddenly that Damian knows the man has noticed him, taking a few steps backwards and stopping in front of him, the teen crouches and looks at him with an odd expression, it was so strange to see his brother so emotional when before he would wear the blank stare all the time.
He couldn’t tell what that look directed towards him meant, devotion? That must be it, he was the demon heir after all.
“Come here, habibi” The young man opens his arms to him which has Damian surprised but in a pleasant way, he dives into the embrace.
His brother’s hugs were always the best whenever he asked the catatonic teen to hug him, for a moment he thought the days he would be embraced were over now that his brother has his mind back, he is glad to be wrong.
“I’m sorry you had to hear that” The teen mutters into his hair.
Damian slightly leans away to meet his brother’s eyes. “You’re not mad, akh?”
His eyes soften, he never has received such a gentle look directed towards him before. “I am, but not at you, love” To prove it, the man picks him up, placing a kiss on his forehead that has the child's lips quirk up.
“Let’s go to bed, you must be tired from today’s training” Akh says quietly as he starts to make his way back to his room with Domain in his arms.
The kid looks over his brother’s shoulder toward the room his mother resided in as it got out of his sight. “Does mother hate me?” He asks, voice small and unsure.
Jason sighs. “No...she is a complicated person, sweetheart, I don't think she is capable of loving anyone…”
Damian ponders, surely she must have some love for him, right? He doesn’t know much, but she was the woman who gave birth to him, she should care, shouldn’t she?
But this is his brother talking, so his words must be true, his brother…or is it father? Mot-Talia said he is his parent now, that makes him hopeful, it makes sense, Jason was the one to take care of him all this time, so he must be his father, right?
As he is lost in thought, Jason enters his room, the teen tucks him in, making sure he is comfortable in the small bed. “Good night habibi”
Damian yawns deeply, his eyelids growing heavy as sleep begins to overtake him. "G'night, Baba" He murmurs, the words fading into a whisper as he drifts into a deep, restful slumber.
He is oblivious to the teen freezing at hearing that, and doesn't know how long Jason stood in the middle of the room with a heavy heart and conflicted emotions.
What he does know is that after that day, the teen doesn’t leave his side for anything.
The training gets harder each month, every time he trains he leaves the room bruised, the first time he broke his arm he went to his mo-Talia’s room, he doesn’t know why, maybe because a part of him had hoped she would care.
“Damian, I have no time for this, go bother your brother” She says dismissively, not even turning to look at him nor waiting for him to utter a word.
The child feels odd, sad? Disappointed? Maybe both, all he knows is that he closes the door and goes to the Jason’’s room, as soon as he puts on foot inside the room he is gently picked up by the teen, who eyes him with concern and horror when he realizes his arm is on a cast.
“Oh habibi, what happened? The hell did that bitch do to you?” The young man asks with an angry snarl, Jason always hated his trainer, said she went too hard on him, that he was just a child and needed more time. “I’m going to fucking kill her”
“It’s alright baba” Damian says trying to calm down his father, whose eyes were burning with the color green, it didn’t scare him, he knew Jason would never hurt him. “I just have to be better, I need to be perfect”
Baba looks heartbroken for a moment before he carefully brings Damian closer until the child is resting his head on his shoulder. “Oh love, you are already perfect” He whispers, tone full of warmth. “Know that I will love you no matter what, habibi”
And oh…
He knows what that look his baba always gives him, it was not devotion, it was love, this person loved him, his brother, his father, he truly loved him.
That information made his days in the League way more bearable.
He refuses to cry when his father offers to take the punishments that were supposed to be for him, he forces back the tears as he watched his grandfather order his assassins to cut his baba open, he does his best for his voice to not crack when Ra’s asks Damian to count each deep cut that his dad earns because he was too weak, too mediocre in his training.
Baba's bloody body is dragged away to his room, and Talia puts a hand on Damian’s shoulder as if to comfort him, only for him to shrug it off and for him to glare at her with pure hatred making her flinch.
Ra’s orders for his trainer to take him back to the training room and to make sure he gets it right this time, she would have broken his arm again like always, if he was not fuming with rage and determined to not fail his baba again.
That day he took his first kill, and he felt nothing when he cut off her head and watched as the blood gathered under the corpse.
Talia is silent as she leads him back to his room, only for him to deviate from the path, leaving her behind as he makes his way to his baba’s room.
He opens the door and his eyes stop on the figure of his father, the teen had half his torso bandaged and was about to bandage his arms when he stopped mid motion at seeing Damian at the door at the verge of tears.
Jason motions for him to get closer, opening his arms despite them being full of cuts.
Damian is quick to tackle the man, still being careful to not put all his strength into the embrace and hurt his middle even more.
“I’m sorry, it’s my fault” Damian says, allowing himself to cry in front of his baba, because baba would never punish him for crying, would never see him as weak.
“Oh abni, love, it’s not your fault” He says in a reassuring tone that makes him cry even harder.
The boy leans away, whipping his tears away with the back of his fists. “You shouldn’t have to take my punishments, baba, please don’t do that again” He pleads.
“You know I can’t promise you that, habibi”
Of course, he was his baba after all, he would always do anything to protect him.
“...it’s okay, I just have to be better, that way there won’t be any punishments” Damian promises with a determined look, the looks down. “….I killed her, my trainer, I beheaded her” Would his baba be disappointed in him? Talia had said he was raised by his blood father, who did not tolerate lethal methods….
But instead of seeing disappointment, Jason looked proud. “Good, I was going to kill her myself one of these days, I’m just sorry you were the one who had to do it”
Damian nods feeling relief that his father did not disapprove.
His baba’s hand going through his hair made him look up again, the man was giving him that sweet gentle smile he always reserved only for him.
“Why don’t you help me bandage my cuts?” The teen offered, knowing he needed to occupy his mind somehow.
The boy accepts, wanting to help his baba just like he always does cares for his injuries.
One day he would be good enough to so that his baba doesn’t need to get hurt in his place.
Damian’s new trainers were stronger than the one he killed, baba’s trainers also got more difficult to deal with, in the end all they could do was kill each new trainer to show they were making progress.
His father still would take his punishments whenever Damian failed to kill his newest trainer, and again, Damian could only watch hopelessly.
But all that mattered was that they had each other, baba had even taught him how to sign using the League Dialect for whenever they were ordered to keep quiet, that way they could still talk to one another.
Each year that passed, on his birthday, baba would sneak into the kitchen and quickly make him a cupcake to celebrate, and Damian could not have asked for a better father.
First thing Talia ordered him to do in his catatonic state was to raise her son, he did not complain for he could not speak, he did not disobey for he had no control over his actions any longer, but part of him, the one that was not damaged was always there, watching, seeing his own body move without his control, and whenever he was with the small baby, he felt something odd, something he could not describe, but he knew he liked the feeling.
He grew fond of the small babe, it was a lot of work, to feed him, change him, clean him, but everytime those green eyes looked at him with glee it warmed his heart, everytime he heard the small giggles coming from the kid, it made he want to smile.
One day, his kid was different, his brain couldn’t compute what exactly it was, but he continued to take care of him like he was used to, still he couldn’t shake off the feeling that something was different, it hurt his head to try to understand what it was.
Then Talia threw him into the Lazarus pit waters and he saw his kid, and then he realized what was so different about the boy, he wasn’t one year old anymore.
He wanted to kill Talia when he understood what she had done, but what could he do? He was only one person, he kills Talia, then the others would kill him on sight, and he didn't know what they would do to Damian because of his betrayal.
So he doesn’t kill her, but oh how he wishes to strangle her to death, so much for ‘loving’ her son, he had never seen her even breastfeeding the boy when he was still a babe.
When Damian first called him of ‘baba’ he didn’t know what to think, he wasn’t father material, hell, he was only sixteen, or he was supposed to be sixteen right now, does the time he was catatonic even count?
All he knows is that he has a child who depends on him now and he does not want to abandon him or tell him to not see him as his father when he had nobody else and it t’s not like Jason didn’t already consider the boy his kid ever since he started to raise him anyway.
Still, he doesn’t know why he expected her to show a hint of love towards her son now that he is five, she is cold, manipulative, the only time she talks to the kid is to tell him that shit about ‘making the demon head proud’ or ‘you will be the next demon head so do your best’, fucking bitch.
When Damian nods at her words with a determined look she smiles coyly before leaving, oblivious to the eyeroll the boy gives behind her back, good, his kid knew better than to fall to her manipulation.
The punishments are double for him, for he takes Damian’s and his own for whenever they both fail their training. But it’s okay, it doesn’t beat dying, as long as his little prince was alright, then he was happy.
It’s two years later, he is eighteen and his son is seven, when Talia sends him away to the All Caste. She had packed his things and prepared a flight and pretty much kicked him out. He knew that if he tried to flee with Damian she would them both killed.
He was at the exit of the League’s hideout when tiny hands grabbed his shirt making Jason look down.
“Baba? Are you leaving me?” Damian asks with a wobbly voice, eyes with tears that threaten to fall down his cheeks.
Jason crouches to his level, caressing his son’s face with his thumb. “I don’t want to, my prince”
“Then don’t leave!” The boy pleads.
“If I stay they will kill me, habibi” He explains gently. “Trust me I would want nothing but to stay at your side, but I’m no use if I’m dead”
Damian looks down with an angry frown, why were they sending his baba away? Why can’t they let him be happy for once?
“Be strong, abni, we will see each other again, I know Talia intends to send you to Bruce in two years, I’ll be at Gotham cleaning house by then”
Damian perks up at that. “What name will you take?”
“I have the right to be petty and what pettier way to spite the clown than using his old alias” The man smirks, earning a giggle from the child.
Jason ruffled his hair and placed a kiss on his son’s forehead.”I will see you again, my prince, that I promise”
“I love you baba” Damian whispers as he holds his gaze.
His expression softens. “I love you too abni” He says, wanting nothing more than to stay. “ Wait for me, okay?”
“Always” His son promises.
And he leaves, with a heavy heart he leaves behind the one he treasures the most, he promises to become stronger, so when he sees his baby boy again, so he will be able to take down the world if he asks him to.
Jason has heard of the little bird that has arrived a few months ago at the next, his little prince was here, how he wishes to embrace him and ask how was his time at the League when he left, how many people shall he kill to avenge him for the times he could not take his punishments for him.
He wanted to ask so many things, to tell his son so many things.
But….
His hand goes to his neck where a deep ugly scar still haunts him.
Batman took his voice and there is no way of getting it back.
He had kept his distance from them, but now? Well, there is no way he is going a minute longer without seeing his little prince.
Jason will get his son back.