A Tameranean's Raven

Damian Wayne (Part One)

Damian Wayne was a mystery to everyone including his own family. A pretentious, arrogant, opinionated, boy with little real world knowledge. If that wasn't alarming enough, he was egotistical, prideful, and all around bored at only ten years old.
"Why is there a ten year old in the living room?" Raven drawled, eyeing the sour looking boy as if he were about to keel over and die.
"This is my little brother, Damian. He'll be staying with us for a while," Dick explained, settling a hand on Damian's shoulder. The tan skinned, dark haired boy stood with his arms crossed looking intensely at the fellow heroes.
"Why father wants me running amuck with a bunch of impulsive adults is beyond me," Damian frowned, unsure if he disliked the green man or orange girl more. At least the Cyborg was kind of cool.
"I'm not an adult!" Gar protested, giving an incredulous look.
"Are you not the twenty two?" Starfire asked, arching a brow.
"Okay, maybe I am an adult but that still hurt," Gar insisted.
"You need to work on your team work and communication skills," Dick reminded, giving Damian a playful nudge. "The best way to do that is to integrate you into a proper team."
"A team of what? Weirdos? I'm supposed to kill things like her," Damian glowered, nodding in Raven's direction.
"Excuse me?" Raven frowned, glaring at Dick for bringing such a rude ostentatious child into her domain.
"He's sort of a demon slayer. At least, that's what he says," Dick explained, giving a bashful look as he scratched at the back of his neck.
"You want me to live with my mortal enemy?" Damian continued, ignoring Raven's judgmental stare. "That's low even for you Grayson."
"Not my fault. Dad's rules, remember," Dick smiled. "It's just a week. Then you can go home and annoy everyone else there too."
"A week of hell," Damian sighed, "I suppose surviving something so unbearable would make me stronger. If anything, it will test my mental capabilities. Keeping my sanity with the likes of you won't be easy."
"Good talk. Your room is down the hall and to the left. Last door," Dick grinned, pushing Damian towards the hallway. As the little boy made his way into the confines of the tower four sets of eyes with varying expressions settled on Dick.
"There's no way that kid is your brother," Cyborg snorted, shaking his head in disbelief.
"I'm adopted, Cy. We're not blood related but he's family," Dick sighed, looking almost forlorn. "Listen, I just need you guys to work with me here, okay? He's not a normal kid."
"I'll say. Kid kills demons," Gar reminded, giving the hallway a weary look.
"I think what Dick means is that Damian lacks the social skills, correct?" Starfire asked.
"Correct," Dick nodded. "I know he's a bit abrasive but you'll grow to like him. I did."
"I make no promises," Raven remarked. " I don't do kids."
"No kidding. The one time you babysat was a nightmare!" Gar giggled, knowing full well how close Raven was to yeeting those kids into another dimension.
"I will be his best friend," Starfire smiled, excitedly floating in place. "He will come to love the tower!"
"A bit optimistic don't you think?" Cyborg asked, sparing Starfire a skeptical glance.
And it was optimistic, because Damian hated the tower and everyone inside of it. Even Dick but only because he was the one keeping Damian from running away back to the Manor. Each time he tried, Dick Grayson (previous circus extraordinaire) was there to foil his plans.
With righteous fury burning a hole in his chest, Damian made a point of avoiding people, and when he was forced to interact he distanced himself verbally. For the most part everyone endured his presence except for Starfire who genuinely tried her best to befriend Damian.
"I just do not understand what he likes," Starfire frowned, pacing back and forth in her room as Raven watched her move. "He does not like the childish things he is supposed to. He does not desire toys or the dress-up costumes."
"I hate to break it to you Star, but you'll likely never figure it out," Raven sighed. "He denies the stereotypical profile of a ten year old boy.
"I just hate seeing him so...sad," Starfire reasoned, coming to a stop at last. "He is bitter. There are times he reminds me of you when we were younger. He is troubled I am sure of it."
"If he is, then he has to sort that out with his Dad. Although, I assume it's not like Batman the savior of Gotham is particularly available most of the time," Raven frowned, finally coming around to Starfire's perspective. In truth, the half demon was avoiding Damian as much as he was avoiding her. While Damian insulted the others he seemed to at least respect Raven. They had a mutual understanding of each other.
"Does he not have a mother to aid in his worries?" Star continued, head tilting to the side.
"He has a mother somewhere or he wouldn't be born. Whether or not she's in his life is something else," Raven shrugged, amazed by how much Starfire cared for the kid that'd made her cry during his second day at the tower. The Tamaranean never ceased to amaze Raven when it came to her kindness and open mindedness.
"Well, I remember my mother. At least a little bit, and she was a good woman. I can't imagine what it would be like not to have memories of my mother," Starfire sighed, her face scrunching up as she thought.
"As someone who only knew her mother through photos, you don't realize what you've missed when you never had it in the first place. Personally, I've never had a maternal figure. I wouldn't know what to expect." As far as Raven was concerned, it was best she didn't know or she'd have to grieve the life she could have had with a loving mother.
"I see," Starfire nodded. "Perhaps that is why the children make you uncomfortable. You did not see how to exist with them. You do not know how to be motherly."
"Hmm, I guess you're right," Raven nodded, frowning in thought. She'd never really considered that before, but Starfire was right. She didn't have siblings or a present mother and father. Her entire perception of family was distorted, and so small fragile human beings were scary. It's not like she knew what to do with them and it's not like her parents had shown her. "Maybe Damian doesn't know either."
"Know what?" Starfire asked.
"How to be a family," Raven explained. In all honesty it's why Raven struggled to fit in at the tower when she first joined. She'd never had to coexist with others her age before. Let alone with people who ranged in personality and background. It's likely Damian was having similar troubles both at the Manor and at the tower. "You know Star, you're a genius. I think I know how to integrate Damian into the group."
"I am?" Star blinked in surprised, before smiling proudly.
"The best genius I know of," Raven insisted, pressing a kiss to the Tamaranean's cheek.
Raven's strategy was an odd one. One that everyone refused to partake in. Raven knew that the only way to get Damian comfortable was to stop trying. Stop trying to make him open up. Stop trying to force him into the family. Stop trying to make Damian something he wasn't. Damian didn't need a bunch of people telling him who or what to be. He was already sure of himself and set in his identity.
Unfortunately, Dick heavily disagreed with Raven's method. It didn't help that Damian's birthday came and passed during his stay. And with birthday's came parties. Parties that Damian despised a great deal. He sat idly by as he wore a stupid looking party hat and a disgustingly bright cake was placed in front of him. He hadn't asked for a party, hasn't asked for presents, hadn't asked for friends, hadn't asked for this. This was not the life he'd envisioned all those sleepless night back home.
Raven watched from afar as the young, now officially ten year old boy, stared blankly at the walls. His eyes glazed over and as everyone else sang to him he remained still as a statue. A frown integrated his features into a sour looking expression and Damian promptly ignored the burning candles before him. He was the unhappiness Birthday kid ever and Raven pitied him. She knew what that was like.
Later that night, Raven found herself privy to a conversation that made her heart constrict. She could hear Damian's voice from the confines of Dick's room while reading in the living room. Whatever was going on, it'd sparked something in Damian.
"My week is up, Grayson. I'd like to go home now," Damian insisted, righteous indignation afflicting his voice.
"Dad wants you to stay," Dick argued, doing his best to be gentle.
"I don't care what father wants. I'm done with this place and you can't stop me from leaving!" Damian growled.
"Damian Wayne, if you leave the tower I will drag you back here by the ankles if I have to. What Dad says goes," Dick replied, his voice raising ever so slightly.
"Then drag me by my ankles," Damian roared, emerging from the room and storming his way into the living room. Dick was hot on his heels and scooped the struggling boy up with ease. Damian, quick as ever, managed to shift in Dick's arms and send them both to the floor. Before it could get too violent, Raven separated the two boys looking at both of the disapprovingly.
"Settle this in the morning, would you? Like civilized people," the half demon scowled. With red cheeks and a sheepish smile, Dick nodded as he retreated back to his room. Damian on the other hand watched the older boy go, venom clouding his eyes.
"I hate this place. I should have never come here," he growled, pausing for a moment before seeming to recall Raven's presence. He regarded her briefly, some strange sort of skepticism in his eyes. "Will you tell him?"
"Tell him what?" Raven asked.
"If I leave," Damian clarified.
"No," Raven sighed, her expression softening. "If you want to go home I won't stop you, but I also won't stop Dick from retrieving you. I know this isn't what you wanted. I tried to get them to leave you alone. To let time pass, but they didn't listen. I'm sorry."
"I'm sorry too," Damian nodded, "in another life we may have been friends."
"Maybe we can be," Raven shrugged, watching as Damian's face scrunched up in contemplation.
"No, I don't have friends. Just family," Damian decided, eyes settling on the tower elevator. "Besides, I won't be around much longer. Mother was right. This isn't my home."
With that, Damian made his way to the elevator, stepped inside, and vanished into the night. Raven returned to her reading but her mind was elsewhere. Damian sounded sad. Damian felt...sad. He did a good job at hiding it but there was a pain in him that was all too familiar. For a moment the half demon contemplated retrieving the young boy only to decide against it. Instead, she ventured down the halls and into his room. Under normal circumstance, she never would have investigated someone's belongings but something told her it was necessary.
Studying the young boy's desk, Raven inspected a set of letters written on expensive paper with ink that glittered in dim lighting. Damian's delicate handwriting was small but distinct. It could have been mistaken for a woman's if Raven didn't know better. Then there was the sloping scrawl of a more confined cursive. It was compact and short. Urgent even.
Sighing, Raven perched on the edge of Damian's bed, reading the letters and wondering whether or not Damian was back at the Manor. As she read, her heart ached for the young boy. He'd reached out to his mother. Someone Raven didn't know, but someone who made empty promises in the ink that stained paper. Damian wanted to go home to her. To return to the life he knew as a child. She navigates carefully around his demands, insisting that his place was in Gotham. That his place was with Bruce Wayne, Batman, The Dark Knight, and whatever else you wanted to call him.
Poor little Damian had so naively demanded to exist outside of the world he'd grown up in, and now he wanted nothing more than to return to it. But what was more, he wanted to return to it with his father. To have a proper family in a proper home living a proper life. Raven got the idea that no matter where Damian lived, he would never have that life. Not with who his father was, or who he was, or what he knew.
Despite Damian's pretentious, arrogant, and bored personality he was just another ten year old kid with dreams that should have been achievable but weren't. His mother wasn't going to come for him, his father wasn't going to let him go, and Damian was going to be impossibly disappointed. Raven supposed that in a way, no matter the up bringing, all children were naive.
Pursing her lips, Raven stood, settled the letters back in their rightful place, and retreated to her room for the night.
She lay awake staring intently at the ceiling as her mind wandered. Part of her wanted to seek Damian out. To find his emotional aura and remind him that his home was where his heart was. But Damian didn't have a heart. He'd killed it a long time ago. At least that's what he told himself as he wandered into the Manor proud of himself for returning. He expected a warm welcome. Instead he was chastised for an hour and sent to bed with the promise that he'd be returned to Dick sometime in the morning.
"You're thinking," Starfire noted, shaking Raven from her thoughts.
"I'm worried about Damian," Raven admitted, letting out a pained sigh.
"I thought you did not like Damian," Starfire frowned.
"I don't know...it's complicated," Raven admitted, settling her head on Starfire's shoulder. "He's got a lot of anger."
"Can you feel it?" The Tamaranean asked, gently rubbing Raven's back. "His anger."
"I don't have to use my powers to know his anger, Star. He radiates it. Festers in it. Bathes in it," Raven explained, her voice faint in the darkness of her room. "He's ten."
"You were like him once," Starfire reminded.
"No, Star. I wasn't. Not like this. I couldn't be. I wasn't allowed to be. Thought I'm sure in some alternate universe I was. I just, I had you guys. Maybe not at 10 but eventually I did. Damian, he's got no one," Raven explained, feeling a knot start to form in her throat.
"Does he not have his brothers and father?" Star asked, her green eyes reflecting a certain curiosity.
"In a way," Raven nodded, trying to soothe her worries, "but he's alone, Star. More alone than you could possibly imagine."
As Raven trailed off in her sentence, unsure of what else to say, she found comfort in Star's warmth, though it didn't still her thoughts. She imagined Damian at the Manor, alone in his room, staring at the ceiling feeling lost. Like Raven, he belonged to two worlds and thus belonged to none. Like Raven, he belonged to no one and everyone all at once. Like Raven, Damian was a product of poor parental decisions. And like Raven, Damian was destined for a life of difficulty, marred by the mistakes of his parents.