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[To Damian, Richard Grayson will always be Richard Grayson, no matter the universe or timeline. The barb he had thrown out upon their first meeting about an alternate universe Grayson not being the same had been a full fledged lie born from anger and frustration. He had wanted to mean it, but he didn't-couldn't-not with Grayson standing there in front of him and offering him friendship. Because this Grayson had already proven himself to be exactly what he would expect of the Richard Grayson he knew. Foolishly friendly, kind, and willing to look beyond Damian's past.

He doesn't know what his relationship was like with the Damian who came before, but he has already surmised that the former Damian had been younger. Perhaps only by a few months, but a few months made all the difference when they concerned living, training, and fighting by Grayson's side. The momentary look of shock on his face is enough to show he doesn't really know.

He doesn't know what he means to Damian. Grayson has no idea what'd he done for him.]

Tt. Of course you don't. [The derision is half-hearted and his chest hurts. No matter the universe, he was still the one who always believed in him.

Foolish Grayson. Damian swallows through a tight throat. He closes his eyes for a moment and then opens them again, having come to a decision. He already knows both secrets Damian kept from the younger Grayson and he was still choosing to trust him.

It was only fair to return the favor. (and he hates it being a secret. Hates it more than he can put into words. Damian's past might not be what others wanted it to be, but he had never been ashamed.]

Does the League of Assassins exist in your universe?

[ and maybe that's easier for damian to live with - because 'just richard grayson' is easier to accept when it's not yourself, when it's not like looking into a mirror and seeing everything that's off, that's different. rob doesn't know whether or not to see those differences as truths or lackings and if it even matters. he tries not to think about it, tries to see his relationships with everyone from other worlds than his as just that - assets, teammates, additions. but with damian, it was always a little different. because as much as rob can garner, he turns into much more than he is that day, but only damian manages to look at him and not make it feel like rob falls just short.

because damian is the only one who doesn't seem to look at him and be slight disappointed.

chances are, that's just rob projecting- assuming thoughts and ideas and assumptions rooted too far into old events and yao's inserted ideas, but they're there, and he's aware of them. and when rob looks at damian even now, it's almost too easy to smile, to shrug a bit at the way damian clicks his tongue against his teeth. what has him sobering back up again is the pause that follows, the way damian seems to tense. the question draws a blank from rob at first, but then he has to blink, to think, because he's talked to kon about this before. the alterations made between their words, the names. ]

Our's is the League of Shadows. [ it's been a while since he last had to think about this - almost three years now - but rob pushes away the thoughts, his interest back on damian. on the fact he brought it up at all. ] Why?

[He doesn't relax and if anything his posture goes even more rigid.]

You are familiar with Ra's al Ghul then? And his daughter, Talia al Ghul. [There could be no League without the al Ghuls, of that Damian is certain. It makes this easier. Less explaining. Damian ignores the way his heart rams against his ribcage because it's stupid and unnecessary. He was above such compromising feelings.]

I assume Ra's remains their leader.

[ it settles more and more with each passing second what damian is trying to get at, and that realization starts to weigh in his gut. league of shadows, ra's al ghul. rob's brow draws together as he watches the other boy, waiting. ]

Yes. [ he knew them, knew that batman had something though he didn't know what, and-

he feels his heart stop for half a second when the thought comes to him, the furrowed brow giving way to wide eyes. because the previous damian had been sure enough not to mention his mother, to make it obvious his mother was a sore subject. leading the questions towards the al ghuls could mean a few things, but if his gut is right... ]

As of now he is.

[ but he'll wait for damian to say it. ]

[It's the sorest subject he could possibly have, but if he can't talk to Richard Grayson about it, he can't talk to anyone. Grayson was the first and one of a scarce few not to write him off because of the blood that flowed in his veins. No one else had ever cared so much. Not even Mother. Especially not Mother.

He sees understanding dawn in Robin's eyes and he squares his shoulders, lifting his chin in a show of confidence he doesn't feel.]

You understand then. [He doesn't have to say it, but he isn't going to leave room for misunderstandings.] Talia al Ghul is [was-does it still count if he's been disowned?] my mother.

I was raised by the League for nine years before Father even knew I existed.

[ he watches damian shift a bit under his gaze and it sinks in a little more. because there's the information, the fact that damian was raised by assassins and worked under the league of shadows and is ra's al ghul's grandson are very important, very obvious aspects of this.

but there's also damian, who he may or may not know, but feels like he knows and who he definitely trusts and.

somehow, it doesn't matter all that much. or- it's not that it doesn't matter, but it's like some kind of piece of background information, fluff in code. it's there, and is important to a certain level, but now? ]

And now you're Robin. [ he pauses here, watching damian keep his shoulders square and his head up. ] Why did you leave?

[And now you're Robin. It's not, as it would be from anyone else, laced with disbelief or angry confusion. It's a fact laid out before both of them and he doesn't question it. Damian hadn't expected him to so he's not sure why he feels himself relaxing and why it is suddenly easier to breathe. There are very few people in the world whose opinions Damian cares about, and he won't fool himself into believing Grayson isn't one of them, but he wishes he didn't care quite so much.]

I didn't leave. She sent me to him. To Father, to learn about what I would be in the future. [He had known nothing but the League, there would not have been any reason to leave. Damian pauses now, double checking that there is no one within earshot.]

You said you knew what you are to me? Did the previous "me" explain what happened to bring that about?

[ there's a lot about this exchange rob should probably pick up on. from the way damian relaxes and why it's at his words he does, why it matters so much. a lot about the way damian is trying to read him just as closely as rob is trying to read damian. little things like why damian is mentioning what he's mentioning, what he's leading up to, what this is all supposed to mean and why damian is explaining it.

but all of that falls away when damian continues. says 'father' instead of 'dad' and asks about what happened to lead up and rob just kind of freezes. it's only for a moment, a brief short-circuit in his brain, but it's there. because he does know - he's damian's batman - and he knows why. but even now, despite knowing, it hits him like a punch.

rob's eyes go wide, at first, then harden. drop to the ground between them. he can feel his hands itch to ball into fists and his chest tighten but he refuses to let it. ]

He dies. [ one breath, then two. ] I take up the cowl.

[ the one thing he didn't want to have to do ]

Edited 2015-03-16 20:53 (UTC)

[Damian doesn't have Cassandra's talent for reading body language. (No one has Cassandra's talent for that.) In fact, he finds himself struggling sometimes to read body language in comparison to any of the rest of the Bats.

Still, he would have to be blind and deaf to miss exactly how Grayson utters those words and the way his entire posture changes. It was the change he'd kept waiting for as he'd delivered the information about his heritage, not for asking a simple question. A simple question that he should have thought of.

It hadn't taken long for Damian to realize from speaking with people that the version of himself who had been here before had not been taken from the same point in time. And if that's the case, he wouldn't have known any better. He wouldn't have know to tell Grayson-]

He's not dead. I-if I had known you still believed-[He would have corrected it sooner.] We were wrong. In the fight with Darkseid, he was made to look dead, but he was only lost in the time stream. They got him out. [He's never been very good at reassuring anyone, but this is a point he absolutely needs to make.]

Grayson, he's back now. He was never dead.

Edited 2015-03-16 21:18 (UTC)

[ rob's usually very good about reading body language (maybe nowhere near cas, but close enough) and in turn schooling his own to keep others from reading him. it's a simple manipulation game, easy enough when you have the control, the head. neither of which he has in that moment, thinking about a future without bruce. one where he failed so far that he couldn't protect his mentor, couldn't do the one thing he had to do.

he's too far in his own head to really hear damian at first, isn't looking at him enough to see the shock. but then he hears we were wrong and he looks back up again, eyes wide. he catches 'time stream' and 'got him out', and then that last bit, the one that settles hard and fast and confusing all at once. ]

He's- what? [ like he doesn't understand the words, like the languages are crossing and mixing and the sounds don't make sense. ] How?

[It's not very often that Damian feels guilty about anything, but there's no other word to describe the feeling curling uncomfortably in his chest at Grayson's shocked reaction.]

The body was a fake. Darkseid-does it matter how? We were wrong. He was sent into the past and the Justice League got him out. [Beat.]

He's not dead. He never was. He's Batman again and-[And what? He'd been making a point but it doesn't matter anymore.] You're still in the cowl. You and me, we're still a team. You chose to stay. [he could have gone back to Nightwing. He could have dumped Damian on Bruce now that he was back and alive, but he hadn't.]

[ there are too many questions spinning around his head, too many contradictions for him to try and keep up with, for him to see the guilt in damian. for the time beings, he's just too wrapped up in the simple fact that he's not dead that it's almost hard to even breathe.

and then, in addition to that, there's the rest of what damian says that doesn't make sense. batman again and you're still in the cowl and you chose to stay all seeming to contradict each other. and maybe, just maybe, if rob wasn't still reeling over when he's hearing, he would think about what the words could mean before he says them. he could have realized what it means when he says them. but he doesn't, and they come out just as confused as his questions before. ]

I stayed? [ he thinks about the training session, miss m. thinks about curling up on himself in front of black canary. of the crushing, all consuming, overwhelming sense of this isn't what i want. ] Why?

[Damian opens his mouth to answer and nothing comes out, Grayson's words having momentarily stolen his ability to speak. It's not like he takes it personally. Why should he? It doesn't matter.

It's not like they were partners anyway. He was too young. Only Robin now, not Batman. It would be stupid-no, it would be pathetic to allow such an answer to hurt him. Damian isn't weak or stupid and he's certainly not pathetic. He closed his mouth and spoke again a moment later.]

How the hell should I know? [Damian carefully folds his arms across his chest, carefully drawing himself in.]

It's not like it matters here.

[ and, honestly, rob should have thought about that before he head it. usually he can read people and situations a little better than that. but he's young and confused and just found out that batman actually doesn't die despite the minimal amount of grieving he'd allowed himself and-

oh, but he does notice. it might take a minute or two, and be spurred on by damian's arm crossing and near-pout, but it's still...a lot to process. ]

I guess not. [ he still doesn't understand it, still doesn't know why he would do that, but damian is pointedly not looking at him and rob has a vague idea as to why and he lets out a sigh, a slight smile. ] So there are two Batmans where you're from? Us and him? Or I guess- we're the duo and he's the uno?

[He's silent for a while before he nods in answer, the offense forgotten or at least dropped for now.]

You and I patrol Gotham while he tackles...larger problems. [Batman Inc. Batman gone global. He's still not entirely sure how he feels about it, but that's not something he's going to get into now.]

You asked me why I left the League. I did not. Mother sent me to train with Batman-with Father-because she wanted me to learn from him. The intent was always for me to return.

But then Father "died" and you took me on as Robin instead. She didn't like that. [Mother and Grayson had probably hated each other since before Damian had even been born. He shrugs, explaining as if it hadn't been the single most important decision he'd ever made in his life. As if it wasn't still a decision that very few people were aware of. None of the superheroes in his world knew what he had given up to remain as Robin.] She gave me a choice, and I chose to stay.

Now I am no longer al Ghul. [Disowned, disinherited, and replaced with a clone.

He has yet to tell a single living soul in any universe about the clone.]

Edited 2015-03-28 08:31 (UTC)

[ ooc so basically I am totally up for playing this out until the end if you are! if not we can definitely just drop it here. i'm the worst anyway so i wouldn't blame you D: ]

[ he breathes a little easier when damian seems to drop the offense. granted, rob will probably end up apologizing for it later, but for now they're okay again. whelmed, even. ]

That...actually makes a lot of sense. [ what, considering how their latest ploy with the inter-universal mind control had left gotham all but completely defenseless. they probably should have thought about that before bruce-

well. it doesn't really matter any more, does it?

but then his brow furrows, confused. sent him to train? batman's son, raised by assassins, sent to train with batman and then was going to go...rob's head spins a little, but he tries to set it all straight. ] Did Batman know you were going to go back?

[ were, but that all changed. damian decided to make the change. that's a fact that rob actually has to pause for a moment to process. to understand. because rob does understand the importance a single decision can have, and even if damian doesn't put any real weight in the way he explains it, rob still feels it in his shoulders.

and i chose to stay. ]

And now you're a Wayne. [ if there's a small smile added on to that, well, damian will just have to deal with rob's misplaced 'proud older brother' feelings. ] A part of the family.

[ 'family' is still something rob is figuring out for himself, but this much is obvious even to him. they're partners in the future, they're family in the future. the rest can make sense later. ]

[ooc: I am so down for playing it out B)]]

[He shifts, uncomfortable with the first question. He doesn't know. Batman had known that his intentions had been to return and had appeared to condone it. Grayson had...not. Grayson had made him Robin with the express purpose of keeping him from returning to Talia. (But then Grayson had never ever liked his mother even since long before Damian had come into the picture.)

And now you're a Wayne. He's only fourteen but the smile and the words are such a sharp reminder of his Grayson, the one back home, that he has to drop his eyes to the side and swallow the lump he feels rising in his throat. When the moment of weakness brought on by the sudden longing for his brother has passed and he feels confident enough to speak, he shrugs, pretending at apathy.]

So the older you from my world won't let me forget. [The words are trying at annoyance but he can't hide the pride and astonishment that touches them. Family. For the first time in his life, he had one.]

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