The Things That Bind Us- Damirae

Chapter Four

The inevitable came, when Raven had given all that she was willing and Constantine would spill no more, and when the hour had gotten late enough to elicit heavy yawns and drooping eyelids. It was time for everyone to go home.

Raven opened a portal and Constantine walked through. Batman would contact them when he needed to. That was the way Batman worked. Monitoring discreetly, keeping strict tabs always; Robin knew the methods well.

Before she passed through the black abyss, in to some place Robin reckoned she called home, the woman glanced at him and held his eye. Then she took a step and all was over as soon as it began. Damian was left wanting; he didn't know for what.

Sombre and still, Batman pulled back his cowl and leant back in his seat. He pinched the bridge of his nose and exhaled. Damian's shoulders drooped and he wanted to go. It was at this point that Batman would have a talk; that talk would spiral in to a shout; that shout would turn ugly and one of them would walk away first.

Or perhaps this time wouldn't be a talk like that. Perhaps this would be one that left them both sad and tired and gnawing at meatless thoughts.

Damian had a clue of the topic. Three demons after his blood. He'd heard Batman's breath in the comms link when it had happened; when Robin had once again become Al Ghul.

"Father I'm going to go to bed." He said.

"Damian wait-"

"Goodnight father."

Damian said it, and for the five minute trek up stairs and through corridors, he meant it. Then the curtains of his window billowed and beckoned.

With a clenched fist and right jaw, Damian left Robin behind, in a neat pile beneath his bed. He retrieved pure black, hooded and slick, from the bottom of his cupboard and donned the garb he'd sworn off years ago.

An Al-Ghul leapt from that window, in pursuit of answers.

***

"So Bruce, how'd you find my Raven?"

Zatanna drummed keen nails on her vanity, back turned to the mirror, facing the ominous Batman square-on. She raised a sharp black eyebrow and probed him with a long-practiced look.

Bruce aimlessly set a top-hat down at the end of a costume rail. He sighed. The cowl was down and he frowned to his old friend.

She pushed herself off of the vanity and watched him sympathetically.

"I know how you feel about us magical lot Bruce, but she's a sweetheart- albeit with hellish relatives."

Bruce raised an eyebrow, "So I keep being told."

"Dick?"

"Constantine too." He sighed.

"Oh yeah," Zatanna chuckled, slotting a loose makeup brush in to its pot, "Constantine loves that kid. She might as well be his protégée rather than mine." The magician tilted her head and said, wistfully, "But it's nice seeing a careless asshole like him acting so paternal. She seems to have that effect on people- feeling anything Bruce?"

He merely glanced at her in answer.

The call of a parentless child was mighty strong, however grown and powerful that child was.

"Mind you," Zatanna snorted, "I think Lucifer's trying to shove him out of the way as daddy-o number one. Half the magical community is waiting to see how that plays out."

Batman's mouth had fallen open at that; he slammed it shut and trying to look as un-owlish as possible.

"Lucifer?...As in..."