The Boy king and The Dark Knights

XIV

DAMIAN WAYNE liked very few things.

Growing up as a child, he had never been allowed to have opinions of his own, so the list of things he liked had only really been formed in the past few years.

Swords were one of those things.

So were animals.

Richard was on that list as well, but Damian would never admit that within earshot of the man, or any other people.

At school, Damian Wayne had very few things he liked.

(Really, it was just Jon. But that was another part of his list he refused to admit.)

So Damian had decided it was safe to say that overall, he disliked school.

Unfortunately, simply disliking something wasn’t enough to get him out of going to school on a regular basis, something his father and Richard decided to insist on.

So Damian was sitting in his homeroom class, half-listening to Jon as he talked about the newest update in a comic series he read.

The bell rang, and Damian’s eyes fell on his teacher as she came into the classroom, before quickly falling on the short boy behind her and lighting up with recognition.

The teacher cleared her throat twice as the classes small talk slowed to a halt, before addressing the class.

“This is Daniel Fenton-Todd, and he’ll be joining our class.” Damian observed his classmates grow confused at the teachers words, and he really couldn’t blame them. Danny was a baby faced little boy, and his bright and cheery grin didn’t make him look more mature.

“Nice to meet y’all!” Danny was smiling, completely unaffected by the judging eyes on him.

Damian was only a little bit jealous of his happy nonchalance.

“Feel free to sit in any empty seat.” Danny’s eyes came to rest on the empty desk in front of Damian, and the older boy watched as Danny walked over and plopped down right in front of him, shooting Damian a peace sign before sitting straight forward.

Damian pointedly ignored the eyes of Jon and the rest of his class darting between the unanimously dubbed “Ice Prince” and the new sunshiney child.

Damian wasn’t sure if Danny’s ignorance was willful or if he was just that oblivious.

Jon leaned over to whisper in Damian’s ear when the teacher turned to the board to elaborate on the daily announcements that no one was paying attention to.