[ Tables turned, flipped neatly, and Damian's own gloating eyebrows rise in challenge.
Damian never talks much about himself; his interests, his history, or his skills. Tim, of all of them, knows the most (too nosy and clever not to find out), and with Cassandra it was one of the only ways through which he could reach her (the shared history, knowing what it was like to be born to kill, has given them one of the closest bonds in the entire family), but Jason and Dick he's always tried to keep them as far away from that as possible.
Wanting, maybe, to be admirable in their eyes. Or just to spare them the weight of that kind of knowledge. ]
Not until Alfred clears you for returning to training. A few months, at the least. [ Confirmation. Damian's head tilts as Dick plays with the tubing, using the distraction to avoid his eyes. ] Richard.
[ Prompting, gentle but firm, for Dick to look up at him. Damian's brows are furrowed, a frown bending his lips, and his stare is too direct. ]
You made a mistake, and it cost you. It almost cost you too much. We, all of us, have done the same. Many times. Some many more than others.
[ Guilty as charged. Damian has a laundry list of fuck-ups that stretches on for miles. ]
And it'll happen again, and again. Despite your best intentions, and no matter how experienced you become.
But what I want you to know and to take away from this: you are irreplaceable, and you are loved. To all of us? Your life is worth more than every single person in Gotham City. Remember that.
[ It's a lesson every hero (super or not, vigilante or officer or fireman) has to learn: when to prioritize their own safety above the life of a stranger.
His father always used to focus on what was lost. The man who'd been killed because of Damian's mistake, the lives lost, the damage wrought. Damian remembers just wanting to hear from him that it was his own life Bruce had feared losing the most; he later learned that was certainly the sentiment behind his father's anger, but he so rarely said it. Maybe that's why it's so easy for Damian to say it now, to his family; to be brutally honest where his father and mother had blurred the truth. ]
no subject
[ Tables turned, flipped neatly, and Damian's own gloating eyebrows rise in challenge.
Damian never talks much about himself; his interests, his history, or his skills. Tim, of all of them, knows the most (too nosy and clever not to find out), and with Cassandra it was one of the only ways through which he could reach her (the shared history, knowing what it was like to be born to kill, has given them one of the closest bonds in the entire family), but Jason and Dick he's always tried to keep them as far away from that as possible.
Wanting, maybe, to be admirable in their eyes. Or just to spare them the weight of that kind of knowledge. ]
Not until Alfred clears you for returning to training. A few months, at the least. [ Confirmation. Damian's head tilts as Dick plays with the tubing, using the distraction to avoid his eyes. ] Richard.
[ Prompting, gentle but firm, for Dick to look up at him. Damian's brows are furrowed, a frown bending his lips, and his stare is too direct. ]
You made a mistake, and it cost you. It almost cost you too much. We, all of us, have done the same. Many times. Some many more than others.
[ Guilty as charged. Damian has a laundry list of fuck-ups that stretches on for miles. ]
And it'll happen again, and again. Despite your best intentions, and no matter how experienced you become.
But what I want you to know and to take away from this: you are irreplaceable, and you are loved. To all of us? Your life is worth more than every single person in Gotham City. Remember that.
[ It's a lesson every hero (super or not, vigilante or officer or fireman) has to learn: when to prioritize their own safety above the life of a stranger.
His father always used to focus on what was lost. The man who'd been killed because of Damian's mistake, the lives lost, the damage wrought. Damian remembers just wanting to hear from him that it was his own life Bruce had feared losing the most; he later learned that was certainly the sentiment behind his father's anger, but he so rarely said it. Maybe that's why it's so easy for Damian to say it now, to his family; to be brutally honest where his father and mother had blurred the truth. ]