Rites of Passage | Damian x OC

20. Careless

He should have known there was a reason Jess had texted and called him a few times that night, but he hadn't realized it until he'd been halfway through his patrol shift, traveling through northern Gotham. There wasn't anything in particular that had jolted his memory, but seemingly out of nowhere, the young hero had suddenly remembered what day it was.

So he'd decided to find her.

It'd been an educated guess on his part that she would be spending some time outside of the facility and somewhere on a rooftop, mourning her parents alone. Damian had felt guilty for not seeing the reason behind her asking if he was busy but figured he could at least offer her company as Robin instead.

Who would have known he would witness her cry in front of him twice, let alone at all, in the time he'd known her? Certainly not him. When she'd broken down that day at the ice rink, he hadn't quite understood what hurt her; he'd assumed it had something to do with her past, likely her parents as well... yet now that the girl had confessed to him—Robin, rather—how she truly felt about their deaths, Damian felt like he'd gotten another deeper glimpse at her and what she thought of her past.

Jess was afraid of herself.

More specifically, she was afraid of her powers and what she could (and couldn't) do.

Initially, he hadn't been able to fathom why she was being so open about her feelings with Robin, but then it made sense. He might have felt a certain way before about her finally telling the truth about why she was in the city—he recalled the time he had tried to investigate her whereabouts, and Dick had convinced him to do otherwise—but now, Damian found he couldn't blame her. Clearly, there were more than enough reasons holding her back from telling anyone about her past... and they'd only known each other for a few months.

He wouldn't have been surprised if she went back to Central City without telling him anything at all.

She'd been relatively quiet when he'd picked her up from the restaurant at the end of her shift, and part of him had interpreted it as either having nothing to say or simply being worn out from her night spent crying.

Damian himself had been weary lately, also for too many reasons to count.

Still, he'd made the effort to suggest they hang out, in part to make up for not having been there for her last night. Whether or not he'd mention it was up in the air, but in the meantime, he wanted a good distraction from the other day's failed attempt at revealing to his family that he no longer wanted to be Robin.

They made their way to the kitchen, where they were going to spend some time making vegetarian pizza—rather, the older teen was going to do most of the work and she would help him. Damian still was particular about his cooking and only open to his friend offering some assistance, mostly to benefit her and teach her a few things. In fact, he found that he trusted her behind a wheel a little bit more than he did at a stove or with a sharp knife.

"How was your day at work?" he decided to ask, wanting to make sure any conversation was focused on her for as long as possible.

Jess shrugged as she donned the apron he'd handed her and strode towards the sink to wash her hands. "It was fine," she answered over the running water. "Someone got upset at me because I told her that we'd canceled her reservation after fifteen minutes of no one showing up. That was fun."

"Mm," he responded distractedly, quickly and swiftly pulling all the necessary ingredients and tools from various areas in the kitchen.

"What about you? What've you been up to since I saw you earlier this week?"

Nearly disappointing my family.

Damian found himself shaking his head a little at his own mental response. It was a cynical but truthful one, wasn't it? A little melodramatic perhaps.