Knock knock knock

Damian and Raven jolted upright- at least, they attempted to, their limbs were tangled together. Both shaken out of sleep, neither of them had time to summon to mind a plan as the knocker opened the unlocked door. The one time that the two of them hadn't locked the door happened to be the time that they were caught.

Those few seconds of the door sliding open felt like the last moments of Damian's life and he feared his heart would give out due to over-exertion. His eyes quickly flicked downwards, relieved to note that last night had been much more innocent than their previous nightly encounters- both were fully clothed, phew.

Selina Kyle stepped through the door, blinked twice, and her jaw dropped.

A period of silence followed.

Then a strange, bubbling sort of smile grew on Selina's face and her eyes lit with the excitement of a cat seeing a ball of wool. She beamed, "Oh my God, please tell me this is what I think it is!", the last few words she almost squealed.

Raven and Damian leapt out of the bed, hands held up, figuring out what the hell to do next.

"Don't jump to conclusions-". Damian began.

Raven continued, "Can we just explain-"

Damian winced, "It isn't what you may think-"

"Well it kind of is-"

"But this isn't-"

Selina closed the door to Raven's room and (barely containing her grin) said, "Well can you explain this then? I'm curious!"

Had his heart not been racing and his head not been occupied, Damian might have said made a comment about curiosity and cats. Resigning to defeat, Damian sat down on the edge of Raven's bed, besides the demoness herself. With a wave of her hand, Raven gestured for Selina to take a seat on the armchair by her wardrobe.

With Catwoman -dressed in chequered purple and black pyjama trousers and a kawaii cat on her top- snuggled in to the armchair anticipating more tea than Tati, James and Jefree combined, Raven began with a question. "What do you want to know?"

Selina sat forward, "Everything. Starting with: are you two together?", she sat with her chin propped up by her fist.

Raven looked at Damian, knowing that this could become a complete catastrophe for him if Selina told his father. Sighing, the demoness spoke for them, "It's a little confusing, figuring out what we are, but I'd say 'together' sums it up."

Selina bit her lip, choking back an outburst, "Okay, next question: who knows?".

The two of them mulled it over before Damian said, "Raven's brother...I believe that's it."

Raven frowned, "I think Jackson, Lahra and Tyrone know- yeah, they probably do. Jason hasn't figured it out yet though, he will eventually."

That would be a sticky situation. Jason knowing. The teasing would be relentless-and the jokes- and he would most likely blurt their secret to half of the universe within five minutes!- no, that was Dick; Jason would just laugh at them...and maybe crack one too many pregnancy jokes whilst downing tequila.

"So Bruce doesn't know?"

Damian's heart hammered and he pinned a furious stare on the woman (who reclined with a smirk in the armchair), "You will not tell him ANYTHING!". Raven placed a hand on his arm, spreading her calm demeanour to him and causing his muscles to relax a little.

Selina threw her hands up, promising not to say a word- unless they wanted her to, or somehow others found out. The other questions she had for the two of them were dodged or half-answered, leaving Miss Kyle to think there was a lot more going on than the two of them were letting on- who was she kidding, of course their was, knowing those two. Two of the most secret people Selina had ever met had just confessed to being in a relationship together. One of whom was the dAUghTeR oF SAtaN the other was the ex-assassin son of her boyfriend. This.was.TEA.

Regretfully, Selina acknowledged that, after fifteen minutes, she ought to leave. On her way to the door, she turned around: a lightbulb flicked on as she remembered why she was there in the first place. "Oh yeah, I was supposed to come get both of you- I just happened to go in Raven's room first.", she grinned, "I don't know what about, but Bruce wanted to talk to you both."

***

"It's about school."

Those three words (four technically, but never mind the contraction) doused the fire of alarm and Damian could breathe freely again. The argument with his father last night had torn at his soul, then Selina coming in in the morning shook his heart; this wouldn't be anything too bad. In the very least, it proved that Bruce had calmed down since last night and didn't hate Damian.

Damian didn't know what he'd do if Bruce started hating him- la'nah on his stupid secrets!

With a quick change of clothes, a shower, thirty seconds of stretching and brushed teeth, Damian and Raven were downstairs, sitting around the kitchen island and sipping tea (not that kind of tea). Straightening his tie ,evidently today was a 'Bruce-Wayne-the-billionaire-goes-to-work' kind of day, Bruce regarded the two seated teenagers.

The previous night, Jonathan had decided to stay over with his dad- since Damian, Jon, Raven and Donna had been given the day off and then was the weekend, and Jaime was staying the night over at Bart's, Clark thought it a good idea that Jon go with him. The golden family, Clark, Lois and Jon were going to visit old Mr and Mrs Kent in smallville- with Kara too.

Damian's family situation wasn't so rosy.

Bruce continued, "I know there was a disturbance yesterday, but school resumes as regular for you on Monday.", both suppressed groans- Raven with much more ease. "And there's one other thing", ALWAYS. There was ALWAYS one other thing! The universe couldn't just be a happily little sphere with no 'but...' or 'aaaaand's, could it?- no!

"You are both very talented individuals,", Damian reckoned his father was trying to sweeten them up...what was he after? "and there is clearly a lot of emotion and anger that you can't vent out in your usual ways,", that was clearly aimed at Damian. "I know this is a strange period of your life where-"

"Please don't, father.", Damian saved himself the embarrassment- and Bruce was quite thankful for it.

With both the demoness and his son staring up at him expectantly, Bruce finally brought for the proposal, "How would you feel about doing an art project for school?"

That was not what either of them had expected, for two reasons.

A) He asked.

B) aN ArT prOjECt?

Raven voiced those sentiments. "What."

"Art?", Damian gave his own little bemused contribution.

Bruce chuckled at their confusion, "Yes, art. The school has a competition for dual art pieces- there are more specifications on the email the school sent out to all the parents. It has to be done as a pair, I figured that the both of you would prefer to work together rather than with someone you don't know well.", how very astute of him. "It's alright if you don't want to but-"

Okaaaay...

Bruce was clearly experiencing a 'dad-moment'. Maybe Alfred gave him one of the 'you know Master Bruce, you were quite the handful yourself and still are' speeches- they could inspire great fatherhood in Bruce when he would like nothing more than to tear his children limb from limb.

Sipping his tea thoughtfully- brown sugar and lemon...of course- Damian surprised even himself by blurting, "Sure."

Raven, intrigued by both the idea and the emotions of the one presenting it to them, said, "Why not?", she looked to Damian. "It could be fun."

Bruce's son rolled that word around his head. Fun. Yes, this could just be that.

Fun.

***

After a day of no more than training, eating and talking, Damian was on patrol with Fatgirl. Aimlessly wandering around a rooftop- one of Gotham's many looming towers of glass and metal in the commercial zone- Robin attempted to ignore the constant chattering of one Stephanie Brown. Gods, she never knew when to be quiet- rather, she did know, but just wanted to piss him off.

"Hey, Baby Bat,", she nudged him, "what's up? Your mind's been someplace else this whole time- you haven't even told me to shut up once.
I'm concerned."

His domino mask could do naught to hide his irritation as he glared at the Batgirl (smug to see that he now could glare down at her...height was power...hehe). Damian offered no response, instead, shot a grappling hook to the roof of a nearby building and swung over, the city lights blurring below him. Landing in a perfect forwards roll, Robin didn't need to look over his shoulder to see that Stephanie had followed.

"Seriously though, I don't know why but you've been in an obscurely decent mood all day."

Silence.

She hummed, "The silent treatment, huh? Well..."

A menacing grin coming to her lips, Stephanie caught Damian by surprise, shoving him so hard that he toppled off the building. With the air beating his back and moments before he hit the ground, Damian saved himself with a line shooting back up to the building. A few seconds later and he would be Damian-pâté.

Indignant, he huffed, "What was that for?!", throwing metaphorical daggers at Stephanie, and almost literal ones.

She broke out in to a grin, "Now you're talking! So-"

Fatgirl was tuned out by a bleeping on Damian's ear and an all-too-familiar voice shouting across the line. Stephanie frowned as the boy pressed a finger to his ear, brows knitted, and gave stout, formal answers to what she supposed was a call. Odd. Damian wasn't one to get calls. It certainly was an important one as he fled the roof with no more of an explanation than, "I have business to attend to."

Rather than make his way to the Manor, as one would presume, Damian raced to a different part of town. Between the upper city and the capital of sin, in a block of flats squashed in place, was an apartment. Specifically, the apparent Jason had been using as a home-away-from-home for the last month or so.

The call had come from Raven- who had been called by Jason- telling him to come over as quickly as he could. There wasn't great alarm in her voice, but concern, piquing Damian's interest. Before he knew it, Robin was being ushered in to the apartment by Raven- whose vigilant eyes darted across the corridor around him before shutting the door. Within the shabby flat, two people Damian least expected to be seen together were sat besides one another.

On the sofa, Jason had an arm around the woman- one with eyes the shade of an ocean mad with Poseidon's rage and skin a pastel greenish blue. The serene, ethereal appearance of the magical water-dweller was dashed by the angry dabs of red at the corner of her mouth and the discolouration on her cheeks. More blood streaked itself below he prominent collar bones and the meshy shift she wore bore tears tinged with her dark blood.

Though disheveled locks, Zeela (whom Damian and Raven had seen frequently at the Blue Dragon) stared at Damian, fear in her eyes. Jason's arm tightened around her and Damian almost raised a brow at the limb- he hadn't known that Zeela even properly knew Jason, leave alone this: Jason wasn't exactly one for sweet sentiment. The sea-creature explained to Damian the situation, breaking off at some points to regain her composure, "I was just c-coming home from th-the Blue Dragon but they...", her eyes widened with the memory, "they came...with their blades and- and claws. I tried to fend them off- I did- but water didn't work and I wasn't strong enough,"

Damian contemplatively fiddled with the hilt of his katana, "Who? Who attacked you?"

Zella gulped, leaning in to Jason's arm, "Shifters."

Taking a seat on the other side of her, Raven held one of Zeela's lithe hands in her own, "Light shifters?", Raven sought the emotions deep within the woman, finding the horrific fear she faced in an instant.

To their surprise, she shook her head, "D-dark. I couldn't do anything! They want to-they would've...", shimmering tears dribbled from the tips of her eyes, which appeared like leaking spheres of water. The thought of what could have been caused her smudged, coral lips to quiver and her breath to escape her in quiet gasps. In the end, she divulged the entireties of the situation to Damian and Raven, telling them how she was only saved because of Jason finding her cornered by at least six men and creatures. At which point, Jason spoke for the first time, explaining that he'd gone to meet Zeela at the Blue Dragon and met her in those unfortunate circumstances on the way back.

"Do you know their identities?- if they were Dark shifters, there is a possibility you know them from the Blue Dragon.", Damian offered, the only one to remain standing.

Replying that she didn't and it was all a blur, Zeela was given the offer by Raven to search her memories and uncover what they could when the shock was over. For now what was best for her was rest and quiet. Zella still couldn't understand how these two had such an interest in her affairs: these were the rightful ruler of Hell and the Al Ghul line's successor- a prince in his own right. Both had the highest connections in Dark society and reputations of bloodshed that brought fear to the hearts of many. Yet, they were here. Kind and supportive. Certainly, Zeela had tried to be on the best of terms the few times they'd spoken before, but this was going out of their way to help her.

Zeela must have asked a question of those sorts, for Raven squeezed her hand in reassurance and said, "We care because justice is important and no person should find themselves in the situation you were in."

"Besides,", Damian glanced between his brother and the woman, "we look out for our own."

A.N:

Hello my darlings!

There isn't really much to say, I don't think. The half-term holiday is here and I'm so ready for a week of relaxation!

Thank you, anyway, for getting this story to almost 65k!!! I really don't know how I've ended up this far!

Thanks again

-Bats