Roles ➳ DamiJon

thirty one

                            "HELL no." Damian snapped, looking at her, his lack of expression made it harder for Talia to read him and with his arms crossed, it exaggerated his negativity towards what his mother had asked of him. "I am content with just becoming the president of Wayne Enterprise, if you haven't watched the news lately." In response, she tilted her head and licked her chapped lips, her hands becoming unclasped as she tugged at her jacket in a nervous manner, letting out an awkward cough. The obvious rejection had been uncalled for and never crossed her mind was clear.

There was a twitch from Talia's expression at his rejection. "Yes, I've seen the news, but I would hope you would reconsider... as your birth right and name given to you, you are an AL Ghul before most," Talia explained, "without a successor we would not be able to continue, your grandfather would be disappointed." Damian scoffed and shook his head, licking his lower cracked lip, "I don't care what that old fart thinks, and the family business can die for all I care."

Their heart to heart had come to the end and Damian had no more reasons to hate his own mother. She had not been in fault, perhaps he had been wrong. He had watched the way his mother described Jonathan to him and couldn't help but smile. It was exactly the same way he had expressed his infatuation with his lover. He had that affect over people, his innocence and purity made everything seem like a white cloud of absolute peaceful, like the world didn't just shade black and white. He was the sunshine to the moon, of Damian.

"Mother, our family business isn't as... appropriate as you had explained to Jonathan, and you want me to bring my family into it? Don't be hypocritical." Damian sighed, "Wayne is cleaner than the AL Ghul, even the Roth's are cleaner than us, and that is saying something." All that bloodshed at a young age, the way they dealt with people, the shiftiness of the company, as if he could take over, it would taint everything.

Talia looked at him, her expression pained and upset. She, herself knew what he said was true. But it was the only family she had known and the only place she could and would take home. Perhaps the occupation was worse, being the Yakuza (Mafia) family, with high trading's in black market items such as artefacts, jewels, cars, and the like. The family did have a clean side in the public's view, being collectors of rare finds and cyber security. The family was vast. The bloodshed was never anything to be proud of, the way they took care of things and their methods alike, however, it was the only place she would leave behind and it was a place that she would die for. Her family was always her number one priority.

"I know that our family isn't as clean. I will admit that. We are not an appropriate setting. There are shameful things that I, myself wish could be changed. But Damian, you were raised in that family, that code, that blood runs within you and that will never change. You hated Bruce, you had nothing you wanted from them and nor did you ever want to meet them and yet, here you are. People can change. I beg you. With this as my final wish, I want you to take over." She breathed. Slight hacking came from her, as her body doubled over. The antibodies were slowly taking less effect and she could feel the parasites eat at her inside.

Damian rushed to his mother's side and rubbed her back, handing her a glass of water, which she took and slowly drank. "I will give you time to think about it." She coughed, "two weeks from now. In the mean time, if you need or want to contact me, please do." He nodded in response. "I'm glad I got to see you, my son." She smiled; it was a tired, solemn but heartfelt, dying really brought about a new side of her, her vulnerable side that Damian had never known about.

An hour passed and Talia excused herself, making it about time she would leave. When Damian was showing her out, small thudding footsteps arrived to greet them, causing the Al Ghul's stop in their tracks. "Eli, what have I told you, you can't run up the stairs carelessly," Jonathan's voice scolded, as the child tumbled into the lounge room with a light thud. "What if you- Ah..." Jonathan scooped up his giggling child and bowed his head slightly at the guests he hadn't realised were there.