Robin one shot part 3!

Eleventh day of Christmas

QueenSaphireRose360 wanted some Damian and Bruce content and when I tell you it took everything in me not to include Dick in this you better believe me 

I named myself after him what can i say? 

*yes i know these end on the 24th - Christmas day is going to be mad so i probably would forget to post due to being busy or being drunk*

Things didn't really go back to normal once Bruce returned to the mantle of Batman and Damian was once again his Robin mostly because there wasn't a normal to go back to. They didn't really spend time together before this fiasco and although Damian understood why he'd been sent to boarding school, he couldn't help but feel like he was walking on eggshells around the older. Like one bad move and he'd be sent to that school. Of course, that never stopped him from doing those things that could get him shipped off. He was just more aware of what the consequences would be. Bruce felt the same and always felt awkward around his son. Sure they shared blood but it never really felt entirely right to be around the younger. He could see aspects of himself within the boy but then there was this other side belonging to Talia that he couldn't ignore. It felt weird. He didn't doubt that he played some part in things being weird and that maybe he should take the first step in making them less weird but he was Bruce. Bruce didn't do emotions but neither did Damian. Plus they had so little in common. Well, they thought they did. They never really talked about that stuff. It would take one night when they were both running on little sleep before they actually bonded. 

It'd been the week running up to the holidays and that meant a sharp rise in criminals for them to deal with. They were working around the clock to put these people behind bars and due to that their sleep schedules were ruined completely. They were lucky to get two hours of sleep. Coffee was the only thing they asked for, despite Alfred's insistence that they couldn't keep going like this, and any spare time they had was devoted to training. Training was one of the rare times either of them felt comfortable around the other along with patrol. It was odd they had to have a greater goal to feel like they could spend a few hours together. Even then they were pretty much doing their own thing. Bruce was lifting weights when his eyes drifted to his protege. He supposed now that he was slowing down and able to take the time, he could see that Damian wasn't doing so well. He was sweating and looked sickly as though he could chuck his guts up right then and there. He was swallowing thickly and his punches barely shook the punching bag. Bruce furrowed his eyebrows at this. Damian was only a child and he was pushing himself past his limits. It made him think if the boy even knew his limits. He grew up with assassins and was told to keep going. For heaven's sake, he was forced to climb a mountain when he was five. There was no way he could know how far he could go without hurting himself. That's where Bruce had to laugh. He couldn't tell if that trait was Talia's or his own. He never took breaks and he never planned to. Years ago he had but then he got too far in with his job that leaving the city alone for one night was absurd. It was asking for trouble. 

What if it wasn't? 

No, it definitely would. As soon as people heard there was no Batman running around, they'd go out of their way to commit crime. He was the only one keeping this city from falling apart.

What if you weren't?

That's simply insane. He was the one to save this city every night despite it being a thankless task. People would be lost without him.

But they weren't. Someone replaced you and you came back to a city that was still going on. The only criminal who cares about getting your attention is Joker and do you really want to feed into his fantasy?