If only

chapter 1- what happened to you?

Damian leaped over a bottomless pit and landed on the ground awkwardly.

He was in the middle of a fight with Flatline. She was good,
*But not that good* he thought to himself.

Damian backflipped over flatline's kick, and threw his leg up into her chin like an uppercut punch.

She fell backwards, almost landing into the bottomless pit.

"Careful. You wouldn't want to go flatline." Damian smirked ironically.

Flatline wiped the blood from her face and stood up.
"so you can't think of any original banter then huh?" She lunged at Damian, pushing him to the ground as they both struggled.

Damian's Cape was caught under her knee, so he slid it off and rolled away from her flailing arms.
"I always told Bruce capes were bad! But did he listen? NOOOOO!" He murmered to himself while heavily standing up.

Flatline was huffing as she stood up too. "do U wanna call it a day?"

Damian scoffed, "why? You realised you can't defeat me?"

"I'm very capable of defeating you little Birdy. But I choose to spare you your life."

"Oh. Uhu. Sure" Damian rolled his eyes and snatched his Cape from the ground, and turned to Flatline, "same time next week?"

Flatline waved back at him and nodded, so Damian turned away from her and looked at Goliath who was waiting on the side lines for him.

The huge red beast's tail started wagging as Damian approached him and gave Goliath a scratch under his chin.

"Whosagoodboy?? Youreagoodboy!" Damian climbed up onto Goliath's back and Goliath took off into the sky, flying above the clouds and heading back to Gotham.

It took at least an hour to get back, so that left Damian a LOT of time to think.

To think

Think about what you ask?

Well mainly Jon.

Jon was Damian's best friend, but he's been away on this huge mission for the past couple of months. But as much as Damian hated to admit it, and he would never say this to anyone,

he really missed Jon.

He laid down on Goliath's fluffy back and looked up into the sky.

"I wonder when he's gonna get back. It's not the same without him Goliath. I mean, I have other friends. Like KF, (kid flash) Raven I guess. Beast Boy... But it's not the same. They... I'm not as close with them as I am with Jon."

Goliath growled in response and Damian chuckled,

"I mean Jon and I were forced to work with each other since we were really young. So why wouldn't we be close. He's my partner y'know. I trust him with my life..."

Damian trailed off at that last sentence. He'd never said he trusted anyone with his life before. He didn't even trust Grayson with his life.

"Wow. I guess he is my best friend." He sat up quickly, "Goliath, what if he's made another friend on this mission, and forgotten about me?"

Goliath snorted.

"Yeah your right bud. He would never."

Damian laid down again and decided to take a nap for the rest of the trip.

------ time skip -----

Goliath had now touched down onto land, and was having a well deserved snack as Damian hung up his leads and stuff.

He yawned and sleepily made his way to the Wayne mansion.

He found Bruce standing in the middle of the Foyer with his arms crossed, waiting for him.

"Damian. Finally you're home." He uncrossed his arms.

"Yeah...?" Damian slowly stopped Infront of him.

"I have something to show you. But I wanted to warn you, you might not like it."

"What is it?" Damian asked curiously.

Bruce just let out a sigh and pointed to the living room door. Damian narrowed his eyes and walked over to the door, turned the handle and walked in.

He looked up to see a man sitting on his couch. He tilted his head, he looked so familiar...but also not.

He stood there for a moment until the man looked up and saw Damian.

"Damian!" He stood up and ran over to him, and hugged him tightly.

"Wait JON?" Damian stepped back from Jon and looked him up and down.

He was WAY taller. And super buff. And, was that a chizzled jaw?

"Jon what the hell happened to you?? You're... Well you're tall!"

Jon laughed and ruffled Damian's hair, "Ive always been taller than you dummy."

Damian wacked Jon's arm away and narrowed his eyes at him. "but you're tall-er. And like, buff. Kinda."

"Yeah.. this mission took alot of strength. I had to train up a bit more. I uh... I also have more to tell you.." Jon hesitated and looked away.

"What?"

"I'm now 18..." Jon looked at Damian, who froze with a confused face.

"... what"

"Time worked really weird in the dimension we were in. I'm now 18. That's why I'm so tall. And well... Older." Jon smiled.

Damian stepped back from Jon, "no... No I'm older than you. I'm 15 and you're 12. It's always been like that... I've always been 3 years older than you."

"Well I'm sorry Damian, I can't reverse time."

"Oh but you can fast forward it!?" Damian yelled angrily.

"Dami i-" Jon was cut off by Damian,
"I don't want to know Jon! Just-" he sighed, "how... How was the mission..." Damian sadly looked up at Jon.

Jon held his arm, "well it was actually really good! Me and Jay defeated the whole animatronic army and the guy that was responsible!"

Damian froze, "Jay?"

"Oh yeah, he was my partner for this mission" Jon smiled.

"But... I'm your partner..."

"I can have more than one partner Damian... Don't be jealous." Jon tilted his head.

Damians face flashed with anger, "pff jealous! I'm not jealous! I couldn't care less about this Ray guy."

"Jay"

"Whatever". Damian turned away from Jon and crossed his arms, "look I just returned from a mission myself and I'm tired." Without saying goodbye, he opened the door to leave.

Jon held his hand out, "wait Damian I wanted to tell you- something else..." It was too late. Damian left Jon standing sadly in the middle of the lounge room. Jon looked around sadly, and as tears started forming in the corner of his eyes he quickly wiped them away and ran out of the Wayne mansion.

Damian stomped up the stairs and into his room, where he slammed the door like a spoilt teenager.

"Jealous. I'm not jealous. I bet this Jay guy sucks anyway."

Damian threw his mask and Cape onto the ground and jumped onto his bed, and tossed and turned until he finally fell asleep.

^^^^^^^^^

Hello everybody! Tis me, Maple. I hope you like this chapter, I have some exciting stuff planned for this fic so I hope you're excited to read it!

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