It was 1 o'clock in the afternoon by the time you had finished and you had told Dick you would be back by 5 at the earliest so you still had 4 hours to kill. Luckily, the weather was on your side and the sun was shining brightly for the first time in forever in Gotham.

You took the longer route back to the manor through the park, "It's such a nice day let's stay here for a bit, plus my feet are killing," you said quickly faking a limp.

"Beloved are you ok?" He squeezed your hand and looked down at you with eyes full of concern.

"It's nothing serious, my feet just ache a little, it's a big park and we've walked a lot today, I think we should just take a small pit stop."

"Ok as long as you're suffering. I know the perfect place we can rest." He said as he led you off the footpath and took you through the trees. You were trudging through the long, overgrown grass when you suddenly tripped over something, you quickly flung your arms out and closed your eyes, preparing for the impact but it never came. Instead, you opened your (e/c) eyes to meet Damian's green orbs only a few inches away from them, his arms firmly wrapped around you as you were practically on the ground. His eyes slowly trailed down towards your lips and his thumb followed, lightly brushing your bottom lip. You rested one hand on his cheek while the other gently stroked his soft black hair.

"Watch your step, my love," he whispered smirking.

"If this is the outcome, I'd rather not," you smiled back moving your body closer to his. As your bodies edged closer and closer you slowly closed your eyes. But just as you did so, you were suddenly lifted off the ground. You opened your eyes yet again to see Damian carrying you bridal style through the greenery.

"What was that for we were having a moment back there!" You huffed.

"I'm sorry but we've got plenty more moments to have and it was so worth it to see this adorable face you have on right now." He chuckled and planted a kiss on your pouted lips. "You think you can walk now?"

"Owww ouch, the pain's just come back. It would be much safer for you to carry me." You lied, holding on to him tighter. You felt completely fine but you weren't going to tell him that when you were comfortable being carried.

He chuckled and lightly shook his head, "At least we're almost here now."

"Where are we going anyway? I'm supposed to be the one with the surprises and taking you places."

"Here we are." He announced and see you down on the ground. You looked up to see you were right beneath an old oak tree. You were so lost in your thoughts as to why Damian had taken you to see a tree like the park wasn't already full of trees, you didn't notice he was already halfway up the plant.

"Hurry up (L/N)," he teased, knowing you hated being called by your last name. You playfully rolled your eyes at him and then begun to climb. You met him eight metres later to find him perched on a thick branch.

"Care to tell me why we're here Wayne?" You carefully placed yourself next to him, accepting the fact that you were going to fall flat on your face soon.

Damian suddenly lifted you up and positioned you so you were leaning against his chest and his legs were hanging either side of you. He leaned back against the trunk of the tree and begun to answer your question, "This is where I come to think. To get away from the manor after I have had a .. disagreement with father." He paused for a second to find the right word. "It's peaceful and no one would ever look for me here." He explained running his fingers through your hair.

"Then why would you share this place with me?"

"You see these?" He slightly moved your legs and you looked closer at the branch you were sitting on. There were three columns of numbers that had been scratched out into the bark.

"What do the numbers mean?" You asked tracing your fingers over the digits.

"They are dates. The dates of the past times I have come here. I like to keep a log of when father and I have a more dramatic disagreement so I can break my record time of three months and seventeen days."

"So have you broken that record yet?"

"I'll let you do the math." He pointed at the last number in the third column. "You should be able to work it out after all the tutoring I've given you."

You laughed remembering that in fact, he had only given you a few lessons at the beginning of September because after the day you first kissed you could never focus on maths when you were together.

The number read 070415. "Seriously the 4th of July. What could have possibly gone wrong." You giggled.

"There was an accident involving fireworks."

"Well as it's August now and if my calculations are correct you've smashed that record."

"Yep. The last time we argued was only a little time before I met you. And we haven't since."

You looked back over all the numbers, there were at least two in the same month for all of them.

"Thank you." He spoke softly. You turned around to face him but before you could reply his lips were already on yours. He lifted you onto his lap and you wrapped your legs around his back and cupped his cheek with one hand and ran the other through his raven hair, never once breaking the kiss. He softly nibbled on your bottom lip which caused you to moan, taking advantage of the fact your lips were now parted he slipped his tongue past them. You could feel his lips smirking in victory. After a few minutes, you eventually had to part the kiss so your lungs could go back to inhaling oxygen at a normal rate again.

Your faces were still only a few inches apart and you lovingly stared into each other's eyes in comfortable silence, the only sound was the two of you breathing heavily.

You were soon broken from your trance by the sound of your phone indicating you have a new text. You got off from on top of Damian and sat back next to him on the branch to check your phone. It was from Dick and said that they were ahead of schedule and would be ready in 2 hours.

"Who was it?" Damian questioned.

"Just (B/F/N). Nothing important." You quickly slipped your phone back in your pocket. You found Damian picking bark off the tree with his penknife and it suddenly gave you an idea.  "Hey, give me that for a sec." He handed it over with a curious look on his face.

"You can call me whatever you want but I've always wanted to do this." You said as you started carving out a shape on the tree trunk with Damian watching over your shoulder from behind.

"What is that supposed to be?"

"Isn't it obvious? It's a heart!"

He just laughed and took the penknife out of your hand and started correcting it. And not long after he had carved a perfectly rounded, symmetrical heart.

"How do you always make everything so perfect?"

"I'm an artist."

"So you claim. Why won't you ever show me something you've drawn?"

His cheeks suddenly flushed red, a colour you hadn't seen since the early stages of your relationship, which delayed his stuttered reply. "I-uh-t-they're just rough sketches."

"What do you like to draw?" You smirked.

His cheeks turned a deeper red and he looked straight up at you. "No one-nothing nothing. What are you doing?" He said trying to change the subject.

You had just finished carving your initials in the heart and then Damian did the same.

You had been talking for so long that you didn't notice the sun had been hidden behind the dark clouds and gradually small droplets of water had been falling from them.

"We should start heading back before the rain gets worse," Damian suggested. You nodded in response and followed him down the tree.

Your attempt to avoid heavy rain failed and you ended up walking through the torrential downpour. Damian took off his sweatshirt and held it above both your heads to try to protect you but by the time you arrived at the manor the two of you were drenched.

You opened the main doors to find the whole manor was pitch black so you waited for Damian to do the hints of switching on the lights. And just as the main entrance filled with light, all the guests emerged from their hiding places and shouted in unison, "HAPPY BIRTHDAY DAMIAN!"

Due to the surprise, Damian attacked the person standing nearest to him, which luckily was Dick and not someone who didn't know him as well.

"Woah, contain your excitement Little D!"

"Sorry Grayson. Is this your doing?" He scanned the room.

"It was a team effort, I was in charge of invitations and I also decorated with Bruce, Tim made the cake and (Y/N) basically just bossed us all around."

Damian smirked back at you and extended his hand for you to take and you did so.

"We couldn't have done it without her." He smiled. Then his face suddenly changed, "Sorry guys got to go." You watched as he walked over to a pink haired girl with orange skin and glowing green eyes.

"Who's that?" You quietly asked Damian as you watched how Dick's character had changed from the goofy big brother to trying to play the sexy bachelor.

"Koriand'r aka Starfire aka Princess of slut-ville."

"If you don't like the way she dresses stop staring." You strongly nudged his side, "Plus if Dick is that into her she must be a very nice person."

For the next few hours, you mingled with the rest of the guests and found out that Jason had actually made the effort to come even if he was sitting in the corner with a whole tier of the cake and a beer in hand.

You were on your way back from the toilet when you found Damian standing alone on the balcony away from the crowd of people. You didn't want to disturb him as he probably just wanted some alone time but being the nosy person you are you still wanted to know what was wrong so you casually hung back beside the french doors.

"(Y/N) I know you're there," he said simply.

You sighed as you walked outside and stood next to him, "Sorry for spying, I didn't want to disturb you."

"Well, next time you should try being a little more discreet." A small smile escaped his lips.

"So, are you going to tell me what's wrong?"

"I'm fine. It's nothing."

"It's not 'nothing' though is it?" You raised an eyebrow.

"I told you, I'm fine. There's nothing to worry about beloved."

" 'I'm fine' is the universal code for 'I'm definitely not fine and I need someone to talk to about all my problems but I don't want to come across as some self-absorbed prick so I'm just going to bottle up all my feelings so they consume me for the rest of my life.' So spill."

"Wow, you have just figured out my future from just two words." He said sarcastically.

"I'm being serious, it's a scientific fact."

"Proved by what scientists?"

"That doesn't matter. If you don't want to tell me I get it, but for the record, I won't think you're a self-absorbed prick for sharing."

After a few long minutes of silence and looking up at the stars, he spoke, "A letter was left for me." You looked over at him but he was still gazing over the gardens of the manor. "It was from mo-Talia. She said she had bought me a jet as a gift, like I'm 18, the fuck am I going to with my own plane? Anyway, it just revived old birthday memories of when I used to have to duel with her for the right to meet my own father. And since today I've just never known what it's like to have a normal birthday. She even got me an island one year for god's sake, which surprisingly has become of use. But it's just come to the point when I want that woman and her minions out of my life. She's always been the source of all my problems and after what she did to you I can't bear the fact that I've got her blood in me, there's no way of ever just removing her from my memory and life completely." He punched the stone balcony railing. "Sorry about the rant," he sighed looking down at his feet.

"You've got nothing to apologise for. I can only try to understand what you've been through." You took his hand in yours, his knuckles were a deep red and had already started to swell. "After everything that's happened you come out stronger, you don't let them defeat you and I have never seen or heard of you ever giving up on anything. So you need to remember Talia, Ra's and even Heretic because that's what kept you fighting, what's kept you strong. Your determination is one of the things I love the most about you and whether you like it or not, your mother's side of the family have given you that." He was still looking at the ground but holding your hand tightly.

"Thank you." His voice was a mere whisper. He looked up, his eyes meeting with yours, and cleared his throat. "Just... Thank you."

You pulled him in for a tight hug but he suddenly lifted you so he was holding you up at your thighs and you wrapped your legs around his waist. "Sorry but my 18th birthday isn't going to end with some soppy emotional shit." He smirked.

"What's with the sudden change of mood? Not that I'm complaining." You added.

"Maybe the fact that I find it sexy that you're the perfect girlfriend every guy with a messed up background dreams of having."

"Maybe.." You giggled shaking your head as Damian pulled you in for a deep, passionate kiss and carried you away....

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