Lost and Found

Belonging

No. This wasn't happening. He couldn't be gone. Not another person Damian loved.

But he was. Father was dead. He died on a mission with the Justice League, and they didn't even find his body.

Damian was too devastated to be angry anymore. Before Damian knew it, Drake was gone, he was searching for Father. 'He can't be dead! They didn't find his body, he's alive, and I'll find him!'

Todd just wasn't around anymore, he never came home, and when he did he was always bloody and angry.

Grayson was the only one left. He took up the mantle of Batman, and he made sure to keep Damian close. Damian didn't want to admit it, but he appreciated it. They would go out and patrol the city together, and then they would go home, go to bed, and in the morning they would eat breakfast on the couch together. It was never very good, Alfred had taken time off to grieve, and Damian couldn't blame him.

Lunch and dinner were both no different.

Damian spent all his time either with Grayson, who had started to almost replace Father, or with Titus. Titus was his comfort in that time of struggle, and Grayson was his safety net. He started looking up to Grayson. He was keeping it together so well, and he was making sure Damian was too.

On one night in particular, it was really hard. Damian had learned over the course of his first loss (Marinette) that grief came in waves. Today the waves were crashing down on him and he was starting to struggle to breath under the weight of it all.

Grayson noticed halfway through their patrol when Damian nearly took the head off of a would-be rapist. He stopped Damian, tied the man up, and pulled Damian aside while he waited for the police to arrive.

"Let's go get something to eat, I think you need a little break," he suggested. Damian shot him a glare.

"No, what I need is to continue our patrol," he countered.

"That wasn't a question, come on, we're taking a break," Grayson shot back. The moment the police arrived he pulled Damian away and led him to a small shop.

It looked family owned, and cute, it didn't fit the city it resided in. Inside Damian could see that it was an ice cream parlor. A sign on the door indicated that it was open at all hours, and Grayson pushed open the door and pulled Damian inside.

The man at the counter had to do a double take before he seemed to realize that the Gotham Vigilantes were his customers before he sheepishly asked what they would like. Grayson ordered two vanilla ice cream cones, and paid in cash before handing one to Damian and thanking the employee.

Damian grumbled about it while Grayson continued to lead him away. They ended up on a rooftop somewhere sitting next to each other and eating their ice cream. Damian had begrudgingly admitted that it had been a good idea, and the two's nights improved.

The two started getting ice cream together like that every night.

——-

Damian was near tears when about a week later Drake walked through the front door with Father in tow. Grayson openly cried, and they managed to contact Todd and Alfred that night. That night was a family movie night, and Damian remembered very clearly forbidding Father from ever scaring them like that again.

It was nice to have everyone back, but Damian also found himself missing those nights when he and Grayson would end their patrols with ice cream and dinner on the couch together.

Enough so that one day Damian approached Grayson before a patrol and asked if they could go get ice cream together at the end. Grayson had grinned and agreed. That night ended with a very confused Batman, Red Hood, and Red Robin, and a Robin and a Nightwing with ice cream. It soon became tradition for the batfamily to get ice cream after patrol on bad days.

Damian liked it.

——-

Dick's world felt like it was finally in balance. B was back, and not dead! Damian and him had gotten closer. All his brothers lived in the manor again. The whole family was together, and he wanted them to do something together. All four brothers, together, having a day to just be brothers and hang out.

The others didn't seem quite as thrilled about his idea as he was.

"Come on guys! Please? We never all hang out!" Dick was begging at this point.

"No" was Jason's answer.

"I'm busy" was Tim's

Damian just glared at him.

"Just one day, guys," Dick tries again, with no results. Time to up his game.

"If you guys don't come I'll tell B about the most recent time you stole the Batmobile and took it out on a joyride."

Dick grinned as he heard his brother's chorus of "fine".

He took them out for laser tag and pizza.

They decided to split onto two teams to make it fair for all the poor bystanders in laser tag. Dick and Damian on one team, and Tim and Jason on the other.

The room was dark, and the black light paired with all the other neon colored lights gave the room a fun atmosphere. They were handed their blasters and vests and told the rules, which Dick knew he would immediately disregard.

The room was covered in platforms and structures. He had a lot of fun climbing them for the best vantage point to shoot at their opponents. Damian disappeared into the shadows. And then the match started.

Dick could see Tim running through the structures on the other side of the room, and tried to get him out early, but Tim took cover before Dick could hit him, so Dick redirected his attention. He sniped all the random players he could see.

Unfortunately, Jason was a much better shot than him, and also seemed to have th3 same idea, so Dick changed strategies in an attempt to not let his brother get him out so early.

He watched as the four brothers slowly got everyone but them out of the game. Damian by jumping out of shadows seemingly in a random pattern, getting people out, and then disappearing again. Tim ran fast, and shot accurately, getting lots of people out whilst dodging almost all attacks. Jason sniped half the players all on his own, from ever changing vantage points. Dick, climbed all over, finding all the players who were hiding, and getting them out the minute he found them.

The match took about an hour, with Jason and Tim's team winning. Jason sniped Dick right after he got Tim, and then he and Damian went head to head. Damian only lost because he was in close quarters with a weapon he was mostly unfamiliar with.

After they all had left the building they were told, politely but firmly by the owner not to come back. They laughed about the situation over pizza, and ended their day with an at home movie night.

Dick was satisfied with the day.