IT'S A BEGINNING / 𝐝𝐚𝐦𝐢𝐧𝐞𝐭𝐭𝐞

D2: Package

𝐍𝐎𝐓 𝐌𝐔𝐂𝐇 𝐇𝐀𝐏𝐏𝐄𝐍𝐄𝐃 after their encounter. Nothing, at least, that was more out of the ordinary than meeting her, of course.

The whole night was a fiasco as usual after she had disappeared into thin air. Dick had somehow gotten wine spilt all over his suit, Jason managed to rip the hem of a bratty heiress' dress, and Stephanie pissed off another snooty old woman who was asking Cass to speak 'properly' to her when she was talking. While he was on the blonde's side, there were more diplomatic ways of getting the message across. Damian didn't mention it to her face and remained impassive because he did not have a leg to stand on in terms of reacting well. Barbara stayed in the cave watching over the city via the surveillance cameras they had placed (both through legal and illegal ways), and only came back up when the gala was over.

Alfred the Cat had gone back to being a menace to everyone except him and Alfred the Human by attacking every one of their suits and dresses when the last visitor exited the Manor. The mansion was cleaned up, and it was just his family, who all decided to stay over for the night, except for Barbara, who went home with her father, Commissioner Gordon. He opted out of patrol for once, earning him a small glance over from his father, but he couldn't care less. Damian just wanted to sleep.

The next day, everything would be back to the normal schedule. At least, he hoped it would be back to normal. He would wake up, train, then go to eat breakfast. Dick would be obnoxiously cheerful, Cass would be the only sane person at the table, Tim would be inhaling coffee, and Stephanie would be drowning her waffles in syrup. Duke would be normal (or the closest to normal that anyone could get in their family), and Jason would be doing... whatever he did. By the time he finished, he would get ready for his noon classes. There was no need for suspicious girls in red capes and pink dresses to be setting off his internal alarm. The night's altercation was hormones. It would not happen again.

Damian's eyes dragged down, and he fell into a deep slumber.

When he woke up at the crack of dawn, he wanted to stab his eyes out. It was too early to be up, but his internal body clock was programmed to wake up at sunrise. Sometimes, he wished he could bypass the ingrained wake-up time and sleep throughout the whole day. Maybe if he didn't his eyes, his body and the world can get a clue that he wanted to pass out in bed the rest of the day.

"Mreow." Damian's bleary eyes creaked open. Alfred the Cat nudged the back of his paw against Damian's face. "Mrruummphh."

"Alfred," Damian croaked out. "Go away." His voice didn't want to cooperate with him so early in the morning, and the words came out as 'freh, g'way'. Alfred must have understood him because he started kneading at the blankets and yelling at him.

Damian reached over his hand to pat the cat. Attention and affection worked most of the time. The cat ignored him and yowled louder. He couldn't even press the pillows into his ears to block out the sound because Alfred the Cat would snatch them away from him.

"Alright, alright." He sat up and gave a glare at the cat, who returned it with a languid grin. "What did you want from me?"

Alfred jumped off his blankets and headed for the door, sitting straight at the door and giving him a look that read 'follow me'. He sighed and ripped the blankets off of himself, grabbing a red hoodie hanging from his desk chair and the sketchbook from the desk.

So much for staying in bed all day.

Damian followed the cat down the hallways. He suspected where the cat was heading off to, but he wasn't sure. The last time he tried guessing where the cat had led him to three balconies that were on the other ends of the Manor. There was no way he would admit to knowing the cat's usual spots anymore. Down another hallway, up another staircase, hard right.