Damian Wayne revealed!

Bad Habits And Late Nights

Damian had a bad habit from his days in the league. And no, it wasn't the general 'feeling stabby' thing. At least not only: He'd strain and exhaust himself so much that he'd eventually just drop and sleep like the dead ("can it, Jason!"). And this happened especially when he was feeling stressed and thus trained himself too hard. He'd train for 8 hours if seriously pissed off, irritated or confused.

Which moreso often happened when he was benched from Robin.

Aaand when he was routinely dropping during patrol, giving whoever he was with a shock or heart attack as he could drop asleep even in a fight -"was there such a thing as sleep Fu? cuz he often fought even then." Steph questioned - or let go of his gripple and fell, then he was benched until Alfred cleared him.

It had been joked that both Robins have unhealthy sleep cycles where it was hard to determine whose was worse: Damian would shut down with little to no forewarning and Tim would make caffeine his blood cells till Alfred got him to sleep.

The entire family - plus close affiliates - were still trying to make them stop or adopt less dangerous habits as a whole.
Just asking them if they were fine didn't work: they were both stubborn world-grade actors who's health didn't matter to them on a day to day basis. Duty and spite might be their uniting trait in that sense.

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For this reason (as well as their nerves being even further down the sewer than when they were not being sleep-deprived idiots and annoying each other) they were not allowed to patrol together unless at least one of them had slept more than 8 hours in two days prior.
Which was more often than not still Damian as Tim pulled one all-nighter after the other on various cases.

Damian's situation improved a little after a comment about how a bad sleeping schedule would impact his growth and he'd forever remain a shrimp (thanks for that lecture, Duke), making him at least try to sleep 4 hours when he was stressed/ benched.

Although that had a side effect.
One the family didn't even try to remedy or point out to him.
Not even Tim when he noticed... though that might be cause he deemed it a hallucination.

~

Damian, when benched or tired, like really, seriously exhausted, (subconsciously) acted like a cat. He'd go to the nearest comfy spot (debatable as he'd fallen half-asleep in Ivy's vines before (she didn't have the heart to kill him but instead covered him from the fight - what can she say, he was a tiny kid who understood her plight) or vents).

He'd even tumble into or near Batman's cape, sometimes even Red Robin's who both looked like he was trying not to flinch or pick him up. It was a very perplexing situation to find oneself in.

The big Bat would, however, get a telling look from Police Commissioner Gordon when he caught the act. Robin would then be deposited into the Batmobile till he (or one of the others) retired and took him home.

It happened outside Gotham once, when Batman took Robin to the tower for a meeting and didn't trust the other on his lonesome to not patrol solo- not because of his sociopathic tendencies, for the record. Robin had simply been suspiciously close to his cape a couple times before acting the same as usual that night.

Afterwards he'd never allowed him to come along unless he was fully awake and had slept.
And someone could vouch for that. It was usually Dick or Alfred.

As it stood - and could be told by the leaguers that had been present that day -, the meeting had been droning on and on and on and on and on, and Damian was starting to blink a lot, swaying left to right in his place next to Batman's chair.
A few (if not all) of the leaguers were glancing at the sight, aware that Batman must know that they were staring at both him and his youngest protégé in concern.
Then, when Robin eventually did tumble down and Flash + Superman stood up to catch him Batman had swiveled in his chair, caught him and turned back to the meeting as if nothing happened with, quite frankly, inhuman/ "dad™" reflexes.

"...Guess he's not as much of a night owl as you, huh?" Hal/ Green Lantern joked.

"He's been awake for 43 hours." the Bat simply stated.

Diana wasn't the only one giving him a reproaching stare for allowing that. However the man just put Damian on his lap, the boy's back against his chest and wrapped his cape around him like a makeshift and warm burrito. And Bruce's body ran quite warm, so it was a soothing natural warmth Damian would cuddle and melt into despite the smooth Kevlar armor.

It made them smile and or coo at the cute sight: A Robin completely tucked away into Batman's dark cape with his looming frame all over him. Times like this really showed that he was also a dad with a heart and not a cold-hearted detective with +100 martial art styles and weapons under his belt to kill them.

Yeah... Cut the last part out of the official report.

~~~

It even happened outside the masks on several occasions.
When that happened it was as if you were The Chosen One - chosen to remain unmovable for at least 2 hours.

Damian had even mistaken Tim for Dick and Jason for Bruce a couple times. It gave them many opportunities to take pictures of him acting like a kid his age or friendly to his less liked family members.

The public witnessed some of those moments too, paparazzi in particular were loosing it over the pictures.
The only times the Wayne Heir candidate (Dick still held the official title of heir) had a peaceful expression without a scowl resting on his face.

Part of those captured occurrences included Damian clambering to his father or more often his nearest siblings and holding on to them like a coala, be it around their legs or back, and softly snoring. Even Steph and Cassandra had been taken as sleeping posts before..
Alfred almost too but they quickly intervened before the butler would actually be used as a perch.

It was a silent commitment of how their little brother/ son trusted that they would keep him safe when he was at his weakest.

Now if only he'd stop falling asleep mid-swing or fall off a building, or drop in a fight, that'd be great!!!

--

(Although Joker's bafflement was hilarious when first: the Robin didn't perceive him enough of a threat to fall asleep 2 feet away from him, and second: the kid turned his Sleep-Fu skills on him.

Steph, Tim and Duke were debating with Jason and Cass whether or not the 'fight blind'  originated from 'fight sleeping' or the other way around.)