Demons (Damirae)

Chapter Eighty-Eight

Damian was woken to the sound of a high pitched voice shouting and someone rocking the bed. He sat up with sleep in his eyes, messed hair, and a frown to freeze water. That frown melted away when he clocked in to reality. Belladonna was jumping up and down on the bed, giggling as she called to him, "Wake up Damian! Wake up! Daddy says we're going to the zoo! Wake uuuuup!"

"Alright, alright, I'm awake. Stop jumping before I suffocate you with this pillow.", he threatened, brandishing the aforementioned weapon.

She giggled and jumped once more, beaming with her little teeth showing- one hanging a little off- her first wobbly tooth.

Accepting the challenge, Damian sprain at her, playfully hitting her with the pillow. "SURRENDER FOUL CHILD!"

Between shrieks, Bella laughed, "Never!"

He narrowed his eyes at her, "Oh really?", and launched a second attack, using the dreaded weapon: tickles. "Try to escape now!"

Bella's screaming giggles echoed throughout the Manor as she rolled around, grasping for a way out. "Timeout! Timeout!", she said. The child wiggles away and ended up rolling off the bed, giggling like mad. Standing up, she looked at Damian, running a hand through his knotted bed-hair, and stuck her tongue out, "Bet you can't catch me-e!", she said, teasingly singsong.

Damian cocked his head, "Are you sure about that?"

She was off, sprinting through the corridor as fast as her legs would carry her, dodging one Selina Kyle- who'd come upstairs to see what all the fuss was about- and dashing down the stairs, almost tripping over her own feet. On her heels was Damian, who had given her just enough time to scuttle away to give her a chance. Bella ran in to the kitchen past Alfred (procuring a tray of fresh cookies ...yum... ) and everyone else, till she eventually hid behind her father's legs; almost tripping him over.

A moment later, Damian stood in front of his father, looking down at the little girl holding his knees and peeping her head out from the side. Impersonating a stereotypical, dramatic villain, Damian poked two fingers in front of him then towards himself in the classic 'I'm watching' gesture, and said, "You can't hide forever little Wayne. Just you wait...". Breaking character, as if nothing had just happened, Damian greeted coolly, "Good morning father. What's this about going to a zoo?"

Bruce stated simply, "We're going to the zoo."

"Waitwaitwaitwait! Hoooold up now,", Timothy stood up, his chair scraping against the floor. "Nobody said Damian's going!"

"Yeah, I'm with Replacement on this one, there's no way I'm going with that little shit.", Jason said, stealing Tim's abandoned stool, scraping it a few inches over, plonking himself down on it, arms folded to make a point. "Not after last time."

Jaime, who'd been convinced  *cough* forced *cough* by Kori to come along on the outing, reeled, almost spilling his sugary coffee, "What happened last time?"

Steph, Cassandra, Duke, Timothy, Dick, Jason, Bruce and Alfred all looked at the Titan. Jaime gulped.

"The chaos." -Duke

"The horror." -Tim

"The noise." -Cass

"The mess." -Alfred

The haunted glow in the butler's eyes told of a lifetime scar from the event.

"But what happennnned?", Bella asked, pulling her father's trouser leg.

Defensive, Damian took a moody sip of freshly poured tea. Lowering the cup, he mumbled, "I didn't do anything."

This getting nowhere, Dick sighed and massaged his temples at the memory, "Damian tried to free the whole zoo. He managed the parrots, the lemurs enclosure, four wild hamsters, the fox and rabbit pens (that was a mess), the elephants, the rhinos, a few penguins....and can't remember what else.", Dick took a deep breath. "He brought back a fully grown jaguar and her three cubs. A jAGuAR."