Fake Dating the Demon Spawn (Daminette)

Ch 3 - Explain

"Damian." Bruce pinched the bridge of his nose. "Would you mind explaining your behavior this evening?"

"Tt, have your detective skills dulled over the years, father?" Damian eyebrows furrowed as he scowled. "Miss Dupain-Cheng is obviously the annoying woman who crashed into my car!"

"Yes, I am aware of who she is."

"Then I have no reason to explain my actions. My behavior was perfectly justified."

"No, your actions were not justified." Bruce crossed his arms in front of his chest.

"Whatever do you mean, father?" Damian copied Bruce's pose, crossing his own arms in front of his chest.

"I'm saying that you should not have acted so rudely towards her. Also, she had a point about driving a white car during the winter. I am aware that Talia al Ghul raised you to be stealthy; but we're in Gotham, not enemy territory."

"But father—"

"I expect you to meet with Miss Dupain-Cheng again and properly apologize to her."

"WHAT?!" Damian slammed his hands on the table as he stood up. The table shook so much that one of the glasses tipped over, spilling water across the table cloth.

Bruce calmly picked up the fallen glass and set it right. "I didn't inform you about this earlier, but there's a good reason why I chose to arrange this date between you and Jagged's honorary niece. It is imperative that you befriend her. You MUST earn her trust."

"Then it better be a VERY good reason." Damian frowned as he sat down again.

"Do you remember," Bruce lowered his voice to the volume of a whisper, "the Hawkmoth situation in Paris that was brought to the Justice League's attention last month?"

"Are you referring to the team of magic users who requested the assistance of the Justice League more than 5 years ago?" Damian whispered back. "The situation that Green Lantern dismissed as a prank call?"

"Unfortunately, yes." Bruce's disappointment for Green Lantern's negligence showed clearly in his voice.

"I recall the briefing report," said Damian.

"Over the past month, we've been looking into what happened in Paris," said Bruce. "It appears that Paris had been dealing with attacks from this villain named Hawkmoth for years before the magic user superhero team contacted the Justice League 5 years ago."

"Years?!" Damian's voice raised slightly, before he remembered to lower it back down to a whisper. "Tt, how is it possible that no one outside of Paris was aware of this situation?"

"We're not sure yet." Bruce's finger tapped the rim of the empty water glass. "It's possible that there was a magic barrier surrounding the city of Paris, blocking any information of the situation from being revealed to the rest of the world. We've learned that the Paris news network channels broadcasted Hawkmoth's attacks nearly every day. Last week, the Justice League was finally able to hack into the networks and access the video footage of the attacks. It's clear that Paris's superhero team was untrained, but their skills were impressive. Very impressive."

Damian made a mental note to watch the video footage later that night. He needed to witness the skills of this untrained superhero team with his own eyes.

"The Justice League has been trying, unsuccessfully, to get in contact with this retired team," continued Bruce. "We're not sure how they will respond, since the League rudely dismissed their request for assistance 5 years ago. But we are still going to attempt to make amends with the Paris magic users. We'd like to invite the team's leader, a superheroine named Ladybug, to partner with the Justice League."