30 Days of Demonfire

Wayne Event

I wake up to soft kisses on the mouth, fluttery and gentle. "Good morning, Mar'i," Damian whispers into my ear. I stretch under him, yawning, and he adds, "Happy birthday."

Rubbing the sleep from my eyes, I open them reluctantly. I must have gotten almost eight hours of sleep. It's not often that I get a healthy amount of rest, and I feel really refreshed.

Damian's already dressed and his hair isn't even wet so I know he didn't just get out of the shower which means he's been up for a while.

"Where did you go?" I ask, pulling him over me by the belt loop of his jeans.

"I had some things to do," he answers evasively. He kisses me on the cheek, then peppers kisses on my neck beneath my ear. "You know it's nearly noon."

"Oh man, noon?" I gasp sarcastically. "Why didn't you let me sleep for two more hours?"

He doesn't appreciate my humor. He lets his hands drop away from me, the way he always does when my dad becomes the subject of conversation, and he straightens his back so he's kneeling over my stomach. "Because your father is going to want to see you before tonight," he reminds me.

"Yeah, I guess." This is actually pretty good timing, as far as me waking up goes. I'll call my dad and see if he wants to get lunch or something, then I'll have to spend the rest of the afternoon getting ready for tonight. I wiggle until I'm out from underneath Damian, then I kneel, too, so that I'm closer to eye-level with him.

"I love you," I tell him, and I wrap my arms around his neck and kiss him.

He wraps his arms firmly around me until his elbows are touching. "I love you, too," he answers when we stop kissing, and he leans his back, taking me with him, until his back hits the bed.

After spending around half an hour with Damian, I twist my hair into a messy bun and I call my dad. We meet at his favorite diner where he always gets a huge Reuben sandwich and I get chocolate chip pancakes and draw a face on them with whipped cream. I'll let you guess how long that's been a tradition.

Then I go back to the apartment, feed Alfred, and right when I'm wondering where Damian went, I get a text from him saying that he went out and he'll be a while but he'll see me tonight.

It's almost three by then, which gives me at least two hours to get ready.

When I'm done Damian still isn't back, which is a shame because I wanted to see him before I left. I'll see him there, but it's not the same.

Alfred comes to pick me up, which is awesome of him because I'm in a nice dress and everything and I don't have a car.

Bruce is throwing a party for my birthday. It's really nice of him, especially since last year when I turned eighteen I couldn't really celebrate because I was at orientation for GU. But it also makes me really nervous. I'm not good at being the center of everyone's attention, which is sort of weird I guess, considering that I model sometimes. But at least when I do that it's sort of just a camera paying attention to me instead of hundreds of actual people.

Damian arrives as the whole thing starts and he clicks his tongue as Alfred reprimands him for being late like he doesn't care. I certainly hope he has a good excuse when I ask for one later. It really occurs to me then how much we're hiding. I mean, I'm in love for the first time in my whole life and my dad doesn't even know about it. This really isn't the time to be thinking about that, though, because Veronica Van-whatever rushes in and she touches my hair and my dress and I'm not even allowed to act annoyed.

Damian and I, we don't really talk to each other at these. We never did before, and doing so now would be kind of suspicious. So when I see my dad push him onto the dance floor after I've been forced to dance with several of Bruce's coworker's sons, none of whom I know and several of whom are a few years older than me, I'm a little surprised.