Sorry for late update, the month of August I got real busy! I had friends come over and this weekend I'm going to see pitbull haha! I hope you enjoy this chapter, felt like a bit of romance was in dire need~

It was frustrating waiting for his family to give him the go ahead to go back into the field of battle or whatever. Dick especially was annoying about it and ever since their more legal dynamic came about he was so much more up in his business. Too many questions being asked, the hovering, the wary glances- it was enough for the teen to explode.

"Grayson! I am fine, I am not a child! I've dealt with way worse- my bruised ribs have healed exponentially and it's infuriating you won't let me do my job," Damian snapped as Dick blocked his way into the batcave once more.

The eldest brother rubbed at the back of his neck- azure eyes looking unsure as he gazed uncertain at the shorter male. Damian seemed to be healthy, but there was a lot that he knew the other wasn't opening up about. Jason checked him head to toe before he vanished and reported all injuries including bruises yet he came home with more than reported... He thought, still not replying to his brother. Though he supposed that during Damian's disappearance he could've gotten into scuffles.

"Seriously? Father had gone back to duty a week after getting shot! This is nothing!"

Dick exhaled through his nose, heavily. He knew the other was right to be annoyed by his protectiveness... but still. There were deep seeded worries that came about from the revelation of things. It felt more real. "Okay... if you promise me you aren't going to be fighting or doing extremely physically taxing activities I'll let you patrol . Investigating is also fine, but no confrontations unless you have backup."

Never said what kind of backup, Damian thought a little mischievously, but he nodded his head to the older's list of demands. Why oh why did he have to be babied so much? It was so wasted on him. "Fine, I agree to those terms, now let me pass."

True to his word, Dick stepped out of the way- but he did follow the shorter teen down into the pits of the cave. Their footsteps echoed in the silence, only the occasional beeping of a machine or whirring of something else broke the silence.

It was dark leading down to the main part of the cave. The stairs were illuminated by motion detecting LEDs that glimmered with each step. The walls also had similar lighting systems. Just bright enough to see yet not bright enough to disturb the isolated aesthetics. Down in the cave Damian spotted Batman walking towards the batmobile with Red Robin following close behind. By the hurried steps the baby bat could tell something was up.

Though that didn't seem to matter all too much for just a moment, as Red Robin stopped in his tracks to make his way over, "I sent you information, Red Hood has been keeping tabs on people involved with the Bite incident. He thinks it's too dangerous for you to be working alone on it," he informed.

"Yeah, well that's his opinion. No one is going to stop me from finishing my mission," Damian snapped, thoroughly aggravated that it was Jason who said that.

An amused smirk quirked at Red Robin's lips, before lightly shaking his head, "that's what I told him, so just know he'll probably be doing his own monitoring. Which may be beneficial to you after all since he has contacts who are also intertwined in this scheme- or whatever it may be," he said, before ending the conversation there. He didn't really need to hear Damian complain about doing everything on his own.

The sound of the batmobile's engine starting up and the tires almost silently treading out of there signaled the emptiness of the cave. Empty besides Dick and Damian. "You are not following me out there," Damian had warned, shooting him a pointed look.

"I-I wasn't going to-" at Damian's glare Dick put his hands up, "okay I was, but I won't now- okay? Better?" All he got in return was a satisfied huff. Watching Damian head towards the lockers, the blue eyed man trailed behind. Locker room talk. The creaking of the metal hinges and the shuffling of clothes were signs for the oldest brother to turn and give Damian some privacy. "So if I can't follow you around tonight, I'm thinking about meeting up with Kori for a little date night. If you need me, I'll be a phone call away."

Damian rolled his eyes as he pulled his sweatshirt over the mess of black hair, "I won't need you," he insisted, even though he knew he would've liked to rely on him a bit more. Things were too testy, and currently he was busy dog training. "Tell her I said hi."

Dick got a smile on his face, he didn't ever take insult to any of the gruff reactions or words from Damian which was a nice pace. Never did he respond in kind either. He was always gentle with him. Well, except for the first few meetings, but Dick figured out that Damian was just a neglected baby that he needed to protect with all his effort. "She misses you, wants you to come by and visit more often. We have a room for you if you want to stay sometime," he mentioned. Even before the revelation of Dick being the legal guardian of Damian he had been trying to convince the boy to live with him.

As Damian pulled on his green boots he snorted, "and have my moves be watched even more carefully? No thanks. Though I will be sure to visit her soon," he promised, dropping his foot to the ground with a heavy thump. Standing up from the bench, he adjusted his cape before walking past Dick who stared after him.

"Be safe."

"I will, mother hen."

Dick smiled once more before leaving Robin to his own devices. Pulling out his phone he pressed the speed dial and not even a second passed before he put on the moves, "hey babe, you want to grab some chinese and watch a chick flick?"

Robin ignored whatever he just heard, dashing out of the cave. As the moon shined down on his face, he closed his eyes and inhaled deeply. Fresh air. Felt like freedom. Felt like he was flying- wait... his eyes snapped open and he realized his feet weren't touching the ground.

The shock wore off though when he looked around his waist and saw familiar pale hands. Well, that, and who else was crazy enough to snatch a robin from its nest? "Jonathan."

"Hey babe, want to grab chinese and watch chick flicks with me?" Jon asked teasingly as he floated them over a creek.

"You're not funny," Robin stated, pulling his feet up so the tips of his shoes wouldn't dip into the water.

Jon shrugged, "I think I am pretty funny, we all can't have a great sense of humor though," he said, with a teasing tone to his voice. "So where to?"

Robin pulled out his phone and saw the message from Red Robin, inside were files and pictures that Red Hood had taken. Interestingly enough, the goons that Robin had seen the first night he discovered Bite and also met Jon were in a picture. "Fancy meeting old friends?" he asked rhetorically, showing Jon the phone screen so he could get a good look at who they were searching for.

Recognition shined in those ruby eyes before he nodded, "sure. Maybe I could throw one in a river again," he joked, though his tone was deadpan. That made Robin laugh though, and the super had to really hold himself back from squeezing the other and popping him like a balloon. "You laugh at the strangest things."

"No, I laugh at what's funny."

There didn't come a retort, but Jon did his thing and flew them through the city, dodging cameras and sticking to alleyways. Granted, Jon didn't mind being caught by the Bat- but he knew that if he was caught he'd be separated from Damian and that really annoyed him. Infatuation with someone he barely knew wasn't something he heard of. Love at first sight was a stupid notion only shown in movies and books. In real life, it was different. You had to know them first, right? So why did looking at Robin fill him with such a burning fire? It bothered the teen because he didn't feel things like that, he... he didn't feel things the ways others would. If he... "I see them," Robin's voice broke him out of his stupor.

Jon settled them down on a fire escape, hidden by the darkness- yet clearly able to see the four criminals from the other week. They were whispering and the sound of thunder was rumbling in the air.

"Can you hear what they're saying?" Robin asked him.

Oh he's so close, I mean I know I set us down like this- but he didn't move away- Jon's thoughts rambled. Robin was practically pressed against his side, the tactical gear pushed up against the metal bars of the landing they were on and the tanned face was only inches apart.

Rain started to drip from the sky, muffled voices from the goons were falling onto deaf ears of the only person, alien, that could hear them. A look from Robin was ignored as the alien continued to space out- staring intently with crimson eyes, lips pursing as if he were holding fiery words back.

"Jon?" Robin questioned out, his voice was quiet- breath soft and brushing against pale and cold skin as the rain drops from above splashed onto their bodies. It wasn't pouring, only a slight drizzle- just getting the outer layers wet. Robin's hair was getting weighed down from the rain, water drops trailing down brown skin that red eyes couldn't keep from watching.

The atmosphere had changed drastically, and Jon couldn't focus on anything but the sound of Robin's breathing and the quick pace of the other's heart. When ruby eyes met the ones hidden behind the domino- Jon heard that heart jump, and a smirk spread.

They were there to be investigating, to be listening to the losers below them, to be trying to find out who was behind the latest atrocity, anything but adding to the tension that was growing between them. Robin swallowed thickly, not used to that kind of expression on Jon's face. Just what did it mean?

Why did it send shivers down his spine? Why wasn't he afraid of him?

Their fingertips met on the wet metallic surface below them. Pale hands slowly interlacing with green gloved ones. Bodies facing each other as the thunder rumbled louder, yet they didn't care. Too focused on themselves. Jon found it hard to control himself on a normal day, but when Robin was staring at him with a flushed face and not pulling away from him- well... he didn't waste the chance he was given.

Jon dove forward, catching Robin in surprise, pressing their lips together- sealing the deal on their first genuine kiss. Damian had kissed people before- but it was always due to a job, this time... he was kissed by someone he seemed to sort of like. Someone he didn't mind the company of.

Rain started to pour down even harder on the two of them, but they were lost in their own little world. Jon scooted closer, just wanting to be in Robin's space. It was his first kiss so he was just going on instinct- but annoyingly, his partner seemed experienced. I'll have to kill them if he didn't already. He thought, bringing their hands up to pin them on the wall behind Robin's head.

Their lips clumsily slipped against each other, the rain just made their skin feel even more slippery as Jon tilted their heads, his nose pressing into the softness of Robin's cheek just below the green mask. It wasn't a particularly deep kiss, just one that communicated longing and desperation. Honestly, Jon never researched that kind of thing before because he never expected to feel anything like that for another person, but now that he had Robin against a brick building and inhaling his breaths- he knew he was going to go on a downward spiral.

"J-Jon..." Robin's voice croaked, gasping between kisses.

"Mm?"

Robin let out a choked chuckle, his head felt light and dizzy from lack of oxygen, and his body felt like it was floating. This time he wasn't actually being lifted by the other- but he was being lifted in other ways. Embarrassingly enough, he knew Jon was able to hear his rampant heartbeat, and he couldn't bring himself to stop it. His heart was racing from something other than fear or anger.

It was hard to get Jon to stop placing kisses against him, Robin felt like he was losing a battle he didn't even want to fight- but he knew that he at least had a job to do, "Jon- stop... you're distracting me."

Jon's lips stopped attacking those puffy lips, and he pulled away slowly, a pout was on his own lips as he stared at Robin with only slight annoyance, "working is troublesome," he pointed out.

"Yes, but, it's the right thing to do," Robin insisted, catching his breath. Jon reluctantly let go of their hands and Robin's dropped to his side like a heavy weight. The green glove came to rest over the R on his chest, seemingly trying to get his emotions under control. "The rain is going to make things harder to work with."

The taller teen shrugged, sitting up better and adjusting the white and black hoodie that he was rocking that day, it was soaked to his skin by now- but Kryptonians didn't get colds. Though he looked down at Robin who was very professional about hiding his shivers. Humans got colds. "It's raining, we should take a... rain check," Jon said bluntly.

Robin scoffed, "was that a pun?" He questioned him, but he also sat up straighter- his back was hurting a bit from the awkward angle, "also no, you'll only want to distract me further from my job."

"Your brother is also looking into things," Jon pointed out, resting his chin into the palm of his hand. The goons that were there were long gone. Though Jon could easily find them again.

It was stupid how much Robin was falling for that line of reasoning. It was silent for a moment between them, rain pouring down onto the streets below. "Want to... grab chinese and watch a chick flick with me?" He asked, voice soft.

"Heck yeah."

Getting chinese was an easy feat- Robin had Jon land them on the corner of one of the streets that he had patrolled often with Nightwing. "Stay put," Robin warned, pointing a finger at Jon's nose as if he were about to bop him on it if he misbehaved.

Jon mock saluted as Robin disappeared into the restaurant.

Inside it smelled like heaven, there were kitschy knick knacks on the red and gold walls- paintings of dragons and Chinese folklore also lined the place. It was small and homely- and Robin personally felt a connection with some of the things there as he was also a quarter Chinese.

"Ah, welcome Robin! We have been waiting for you to come by," An older man with black and gray hair greeted from behind the register. To his left was a little girl sitting at the counter with her homework and backpack resting on it. She smiled at him.

Robin stepped up to the register as he glanced at the menu, there wasn't a whole lot he could eat there as a vegetarian so he already knew what he was going to get- but he was trying to think on what Jon would like.

"Mmh, I've been busy with a certain issue, no time for leisurely dining," he replied to them, a finger to his chin as he scanned the choices, "Mapo Tofu for me and a Beef and Broccoli with brown rice."

The man rang up the order, and as Robin was about to pull out money he held up a hand to stop him, "you know the rules. Bats and Birds eat for free," he chided, a friendly smile on his face.

"Thank you," Robin murmured, but looked at the little girl as the man walked into the kitchen. "What are you working on today?"

"Warrior cats fanfic," she replied easily.

"That doesn't seem like homework," Robin pointed out, but he was amused by the response.

She shrugged, grabbing her notebook and holding it up to Robin for him to see. There was a cat on the page that had a familiar black and blue color scheme, "This is Meow-wing. Or Nightmeow, I couldn't decide."

"Cat version of Nightwing?"

"Uh-huh, he's a single mom who works two jobs, who loves her kits and never stops," She singsonged- it must have been a reference to something that Robin wasn't aware of- but he just nodded along.

The next ten minutes was spent with her showing him her OCs and telling him the plot of her fanfic. So many nods and "mhm"s and "yeah"s spent on that one conversation, though he was secretly intrigued by some of the lore he did learn.

"Robin, order up," The man called from the register once more, a plastic bag with a smiley face on it held three boxes inside.

Robin took the bag and waved goodbye to the family before stepping outside. It was still raining, but not as heavily. Jon was immediately at his side the moment he saw Robin step out of the restaurant.

"Beef and Broccoli for me?" The alien asked as he peaked at the bag that Robin was adjusting on his arm.

"Yes, now let's go."

"Where are we going?"

"My place," Robin replied, climbing onto Jon's awaiting back, "make sure you keep quiet and stealthy."

"Aye aye."

With that, Jon launched them into the sky- disappearing off to the manor.

Robin was an expert at sneaking out and into his room, no matter what Bruce tried he couldn't catch him. If he developed a tech for detection- Robin would just go to Tim to make something to disengage it. Eventually, Bruce gave up- but there were still property precautions that everyone had to keep up. Just in case.

So there they were, Robin's toes on the window sill as Jon kept a hand on his back to keep him balanced so Robin could jimmy the window open. It clicked unlocked and Robin pushed the windows inward to let them inside.

Jon jumped in after him, and he really got a good look at the room that belonged to Damian. The other walked over to the desk and set the chinese down onto it before grabbing a pair of clothes to change into. "In the bottom drawer is a shirt that belongs to Grayson and some sweatpants if you want to get out of wet clothes," he informed, disappearing into the bathroom.

Ruby eyes scanned around for a moment, but decided to get changed so he didn't have to snoop whilst uncomfortable. His wet clothes fell to the ground with a hefty thwap, and he just reached down to toss them into a corner where he could grab them later.

Now then... hehe , He rubbed his hands together as he was fully clad in a black shirt that was loose and a pair of gray sweatpants that were tightened with a drawstring and now prepared to look through shit.

The first thing he did was open up the drawers to see what type of clothes Damian wore, which he already had a solid idea of, so he shut them and continued on. In the desk drawers he found cute stationary, which made him raise a brow. Cute cat notebooks and sticky notes, colorful pens and stickers, strange yet totally Damian. One drawer held a few books on botany and some had notes highlighted with a pink highlighter. So he likes cute things. He shut the book and stepped away from the desk.

Damian's room had influences from his culture, both Arab and Chinese alike- there were decorative swords on the wall, fancy gold looking trinkets he didn't know the purpose of- the strong scent of incense filled his lungs when he opened a dome lid and sniffed though.

When he opened the bedside drawer on the right he found a jewelry box and inside was, you guessed it, jewelry. That got Jon curious, he didn't see Damian as the flashy type of person. In fact he didn't think he ever saw him wearing any of this. There were gold rings with beautiful gemstones, some bangles, and intricately created earrings.

"Done being nosy?" Damian asked from right behind him, which caused Jon to jump. Spinning around, he saw Damian smirking at him- pleased that he could startle the alien for once. Well, he did used to be an assassin. It would be shameful if he couldn't do that much.

Jon cleared his throat, closing the lid on the box and sliding the drawer back shut, "you- uh, have a lot of things I don't think I've seen you wear or use," he pointed out.

Damian stepped around him to walk over to the shelf that held the box holding incense nubs and walked around to his desk where the lotus shaped incense burner was. Again, in gold, though there were jade stones adoring it.

"They're memories, mostly, it's hard trying to fit into a society that has such strict social norms. I like what I like, I am proud of where I come from, but some things aren't worth getting a headache over," It was a slight lie. Damian was usually confident in himself- but here in Gotham he had to watch his image like a hawk. Being Robin granted him the freedom he wished he had on a daily basis.

That didn't sit right with Jon, but he couldn't blame the other for his actions. He was in a similar boat- though not really. Just enough to where he could try to understand where the other was coming from. Disappointing family and whatnot.

"I'm going to set up the food and movie, you can continue snooping if you so wish. I see you itching to," Damian teased, watching the incense smoke for a moment before standing up straight to unpack their meals.

Jon jumped at that chance and continued walking around the room. In the closet was more traditional garb he didn't want to even try making a guess at in case he was accidentally insensitive- so he closed it, and made his way over to the bed. Underneath was multiple trunks. Inside the first trunk he found books. A lot were classics, Shakespeare, Jane Austen, etc. In the second trunk looked to be more nostalgic items. Definitely things that he had received from Dick or other family members. There was a cheap stuffed animal inside that definitely came from a carnival or something. Third trunk he pulled out and looked inside, and smirked, there were piles of shoujo and shoujo josei manga.

"Manga?"

Damian's heart rate picked up for only a second, before he settled, and hummed from his spot in front of the foot of the bed as he turned on the tv. "Yeah, I like the stories and the art. They're stupid, but endearing."

Jon pushed the trunk back under the bed and climbed on top of the silky covers, "what's your favorite?" He asked, watching Damian scroll through movie options. Personally, he wasn't picky.

The tanned boy seemed to give up on deciding and just tossed the remote to Jon before he grabbed their meals and nudged the other over with his foot before settling down beside him, "spill anything and I hurt you," he warned. Expensive fabrics and whatnot. "My favorite? I like Fruits Basket, they turn into animals. In that same breath I also like Tokyo Mew Mew." An answer to the earlier question.

"I'll have to check them out sometime," Jon whispered as he settled into the incredibly comfortable pillows. Damian slotted himself next to the pale teen, sitting with crossed legs as he carefully bit into his spicy dish.

Jon eventually settled on the movie Legally Blonde. He figured Damian might enjoy seeing the uptight gray world get a splash of color by the woman named Elle Woods. Which he'd be correct about as Damian was glued to the screen.

They watched the movie, eating their food as they just enjoyed the time between them and just for a moment- Damian forgot about work. Forgot about patrolling, forgot about the reasons why he felt like he needed to push himself. For now, he was just finishing up his food as he enjoyed the warmth coming from Jon and the silly movie on screen.

For once, he was a normal teenager.