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Damian rose with the sunrise, every morning, every day, since before his earliest memory. As a child, he could not afford to lay in bed for a few extra moments, allowing himself to ease into wakefulness or worse, risk rolling over and falling back into his slumber. No, Damian rose with the sunrise, and this day was no different.
Damian was a person of routine, yet another thing drilled into him as a child. He was to wake, get out of bed, meditate for 15 minutes, and then head downstairs for his morning training. He would train until the majority of the household was up, joining them for breakfast before continuing with the rest of his day (though, sometimes, if the itch under his skin or the voices in his head just refused to lay to rest, he would venture back down to the cave and keep training). Damian did this every morning, every day, and this day was no different.
Except, this day was; because as he reached for his phone to take it with him to the cave, he caught sight of the date.
Oh.
Today was Damian's birthday.
Huh.
Birthdays were a difficult concept for him to grasp. He knew that logically, they were something of great importance to a person, something to look forward to (and for a time they were, where he could face off against his mother to win the right, the chance of meeting his father, the only worldly desire he carried with him, the one besides getting away from his grandfather and his birthday gifts ), yet for him, birthdays meant getting hurt. The only good birthday in his (photographic, he is sure to remind) memory was his eleventh birthday. His tenth was when he won, his twelfth he was dead for, his thirteenth he spent all alone, but the eleventh was a dream.
Richard and Pennyworth had bought out the zoo for a day, there Damian had received the honor of meeting the esteemed Zika the elephant, as well as other fascinating animals, then after they returned to the penthouse to stuff themselves full of ice cream and watch Disney movies until they passed out.
Though not something more conventional to Damian's usual tastes, it was perfect.
But Damian, despite how much he fought for it, didn't get perfect. Now, he was faced with a fourteenth birthday, without a clue how to spend it.
He doubted Father remembered, as with last year. Hell, he rarely saw the man, regardless of the fact that they lived under the same roof. Richard was too busy parading himself around as Ric, Alfred was-
Alfred.
Alfred was unavailable.
Jon (His best friend? First love?) was off in space with his grandfather; Colin was who knows where, and his brothers? Where were his brothers? The last he remembers, Drake's living at the manor on and off, and Todd had an apartment out in the city with 2 of his friends. Teammates? Whatever.
It's at moments like this that remind Damian just how alone he is. When the voices get too loud and the hands on his skin grip too tightly and scratch too hard and the only way to shut them out is to get angry. And he is angry. He is always angry and he hates it.
He hates this train of thought, he hates that it gets him nowhere, he hates how much he hates, and he hates this stupid, fucking, day for getting him onto this line of thinking in the first place.
In a huff, Damian launches himself into meditation. And when he fails to calm down enough to a state where he can actually meditate, he marches down to the cave to take his anger out physically; on a training dummy.
He is slightly surprised when he sees both Todd and Drake down in the cave as well, still in their full vigilante garb, as it had to be at least 6 in the morning by now. He pays them no mind, they were probably finishing up a case report or something, and continues his way to the training rooms.
They are gone by the time Damian finished desecrating the room and making his way upstairs and to the kitchen. With Alfred, unavailable, there was no one to tend to breakfast, or any meal for that matter, leaving Damian to fend for himself. Normally, he would settle for some fruit, or not eat at all; but he went harder than usual on himself today, and knew he needed to eat or face the consequences later. He settled on adding yogurt and granola into his normal plethora of fruit and fleeing the kitchen.
Spending too much time in there made him think about-
He finds his father at the dining table. This is probably the first time Damian has seen him outside of a patrol setting in days. The man looks up from his tablet and gives Damian a grunt of acknowledgment as he enters.
"Have you congratulated Tim yet?"
"What?"
"Have you congratulated Tim yet?" Father reiterates.
He was probably referencing the case he had seen his brothers working on earlier, right? He must be.
"Not yet," Damian replied curtly as he took his seat.
"You should, this was very brave of him to do."
With that, his father says no more. It appears that Damian has already reached the man's conversations with him limit for today. Lovely.
Suddenly Damian was no longer hungry. Fuck the consequences, not able to stand being in the room for a second longer, he picked up his untouched food, brought it back to the kitchen, placing it in the sink before retreating to his room.
Besides the rocky start to his morning, the rest of the day passed quite peacefully. The day was, dare he say it, not a bad birthday by any means (well, his standards were freakishly low).
Damian mostly stuck to his room, drawing, hanging out with his pets, and if he took a nap? No, he didn't.
He hadn't received any calls or messages from anyone, not a single person remembered (or cared), but it wasn't like he expected them to in the first place.
If Iorny was a man, this was definitely his doing. As his phone buzzed the moment he set it down. It was his father.
Cave. Suit up. Now.
It was a bit early for patrol, but Damian wasn't one to argue when it comes to this sort of thing.
Upon entering the cave, he finds Todd? And Father? Having a civil conversation? This is the second time Todd has been in the manor, today, which is 2x more than he had in the past month. First Drake and Todd and now this? What on earth is going on?
Unless. A traitorous voice creeps into his head, making its way to the forefront of his thoughts.
What if they were planning something? For Him.
Things were lining up, the hushed conversations, early patrol. It might not be a patrol at all, and for the first time (maybe even ever), he is so excited to not patrol.
A spark of hope lights up in his chest, he tries so desperately to squash it, so he would not be so shattered if it all turned out for naught, but is unable to do so. That hope only grows as he watches his father approach.
"There's a meeting at the Watchtower," Father, no, Batman begins. "And I need you there," An overdramatic woosh of his cape later, Batman was gone. Damian's heart soared, as he was never allowed on the Watchtower, let alone attend a meeting, this must be a setup!
The only thing standing between him and whatever was gonna happen was the Zeta Tubes, so with a quick mental pep talk, he stepped through.
He was disappointed upon arrival. There was an actual meeting, only for the 'founding' Justice League members. Damian needed to be there because the older heroes wanted the younger heroes to get to know each other more, hence the forced bonding session.
There's a gaggle of teen heroes surrounding Drake, who was showing off something on his phone. After awkwardly standing there for what feels like forever, while in actuality only being a couple of minutes, a nobody hero slides up next to him.
"Hey, kid."
He didn't recognize this man and didn't like him either. He was standing too close for Damian's comfort, and he certainly didn't like the vibes he was giving off, but this was the Watchtower, and he had to, at least, be a good enough hero/person to grant him clearance to be here. Damian looked up at the man, shooting him with a look that questioned his presence.
"I'm Slipshot." The man stuck his hand out, yet wasn't fazed when Damian didn't offer him in return.
"I just wanted to know what a pretty little bird like you is doing sitting all alone over here. Not one for socializing?" Slipshot reminded him a little like Richard, if Richard was trying to use candy to lure him into a suspicious, white van. He shook his head. The man asked a couple more questions, too trivial for Damian to try and pay attention to. He was content to observe, well, that is before a sharp squeal from a insignificant teen wannabe destroyed his patience.
"What's up with that?" Damian risks asking, turning back to Slipshot and gesturing to the giggling mob on the other side of the room.
"Haven't you heard?" The man starts, "Red Robin came out today, everyone and their mother's been asking to see his new boyfriend. They're quite cute if you ask me, but I'm not one to comment on a teen's relationshi..."
Damian tuned Slipshot out.
Oh.
That was what father had meant during breakfast. That's why Todd was in the cave this morning, despite never coming around.
They weren't there for him, why would they be? It's actually laughable that he even thought, for a moment, had a tiny bit of hope, that they remembered his birthday. That they were planning something to celebrate him.
He should be happy for Drake, but he feels nothing but bitter pettiness.
(Though deep down, Damian's happy for him. He's happy to have someone who understands him, even if Tim'll never know how. He's so proud of Tim for being braver than he ever could be, for being his honest self, but the happier Damian is for his brother, the more he absolutely despises himself. He hates himself for being so selfish that he's upset that a huge moment in someone's life could outshine his stupid little birthday.)
Slipshot is still yapping, somehow, and at some point had slipped his arms around Damian's shoulders. At first, he was so lost in thought to notice, let alone care, but now? He needed out. He needed to be back on Earth, back in his bed with his cat and dog, back where he can hide away forever.
Damian wants to leave, and it's not like people are going to notice his absence anyway.
Waiting for the right moment, he peels Slipshot's arm off of him, ignoring the man's call to him, slips out into the hallway, and books it to the room with all the Zeta tubes. The voices are back, louder than ever, and he needs them to go away.
He wastes no time. Once back to the cave, he rushes up and through the manor to his bedroom, slamming the door, diving under the sheets. Damian is going to sleep the rest of the day away, what little of it is left, and pretend like today was just another day.
He didn't even have to wait that long, as turning onto his side revealed the time:
12:03 am.
Oh.