Legend

I opened my eyes, realizing that I'd fallen asleep waiting for Damian to return. The first edition of "Anti-Intellectualism in American Life," a Pulitzer Prize winner in the 60's, had fallen to the floor. I had picked it up and was checking it for damage when I realized I was not alone. I turned my head and Robin and Batman entered the living room from the dark hallway. I flushed, hoping Bruce hadn't seen that I'd treated the book he'd lent me carelessly.

"I didn't hear the lock open," I said, a half-apology.

"We didn't use the door," Damian said, coming in and sitting beside me. His costume was chilly. "There's a hidden stairwell, an old staircase the maids used to use when the hotel was newly built. It's been blocked off but not demolished. I use that to come home." Bruce shot him an annoyed glance.

"Your home is the mansion," he said crisply, and Damian rolled his eyes before taking off his domino.

"Has my mother tried to contact you again?" he asked me, putting his arm around me.

"No, not after she approached me in the lobby. I swept the apartment for bugs when I got here and it doesn't look like anybody's been in here." I leaned against his shoulder.

"I'm going to go have a chat with her," Bruce said grimly.

"You know where she is?" Damian asked, and Bruce shook his head.

"Not for certain, but I have a pretty good idea of where she'll be staying." He didn't elaborate. "Tell us if Talia approaches you again," he said to me. "Don't let her touch you or get you alone in a secluded space if you can help it. She'll view you as impediment to be swept aside, and she's not too picky about how she accomplishes that." He nodded at us and disappeared back into the hall. Listening carefully, I heard the whisper of movement and a faint click.

"I'll show you later," Damian promised, playing with my hair. "But first, I need to tell you about my mother and her father, where I came from. It's not a nice story," he said warningly, and I nodded.

"So I'm here as a result of an affair Bruce had with Talia. According to my mother, it was quite the passionate fling," he said grimacing, and I repressed a smile. Nobody likes to hear about their parents getting it on. "But I wasn't created until the end of the affair, when Talia drugged Bruce and, um, manually.... uh, collected his semen." I interpreted this to mean she'd given him a handjob and collected it into a cup. "There was an in-vitro fertilization and the blastocyst was popped into an artificial gestation chamber, from which I was decanted nine months later." He looked a little forlorn. "She said she cleaned up my genes before the fertilization and that she hadn't wanted to ruin her figure with a pregnancy." I scowled. "Dad doesn't know about that part. You're the only other than Mother and Grandfather who does." I touched his cheek gently. "I was raised to be the heir to my grandfather's terrorist organization, the League of Assassins. I was trained in martial arts since I could walk, pretty much. Not surprisingly, in that environment, I was manipulative, malicious, spoiled, violent. I had no idea what social mores were. When I was ten, Mother gave me a name, told me I was now Damian Wayne, heir to the Wayne fortune and business, son of Batman, which is what I was called until then."

"Ibn al Xu'ffasch?" I asked, stumbling on the name a little, and he nodded.

"And she brought me to the mansion, rang the bell, and left me on the porch." He shook his head. "Integration with Bruce, Alfred, the others in the Bat family was difficult," he said wearily.

"Bat family?"

"There's Batman, Dick, who was the original Robin, now he goes by Nightwing, Barbara Gordon, she's Batgirl--"

"Barbara Gordon? The librarian?" I gasped, and he nodded, smiling faintly.

"She's Commissioner Gordon's daughter." The smile dropped off. "You have some history in common. Both of you were victims of the Joker. He shot her through the spine and her legs were paralyzed for a few years before an experimental treatment. During that time she was known as Oracle. She's amazing with computers, there isn't much she can't hack. Then after Dick went away to college, the next Robin was Jason Todd. Jason's mother was blackmailed by the Joker, and she set up her son." He drew a deep breath. "The Joker beat Jason almost to death with a crowbar, pretty much just laid him at death's doorstep. Then he set off a bomb in the warehouse and Bruce couldn't save either mother or son. There's this thing called a Lazarus pit. It can resurrect the dead. Somehow my mother got involved in this--I'm still not entirely clear how, but I think the Joker was working with my grandfather at the time--and Jason was brought back to life. You met him after the incident in the garage." My eyes got big as I remembered the man at Damian's bedside.

"It was a bad experience for both Dad and him, I understand. Dad went completely off the rails for awhile. Jason turned into Red Hood, an anti hero rather than a superhero," he shrugged. "Unlike Dad and Dick, he'll kill. They've kind of patched things up, but Jason tends to keep himself separate. Then there's Tim Drake; he's not as good a fighter as Dick or Dad or me, but he's better than Jason. He figured out who Batman and Nightwing were by observation, and became Red Robin. We didn't get along too well. But he was killed by drones. Then there's me." He sighed. "Also, Dad's been dead too. It's hazardous being in the family." His voice was a warning. I run this through my mind a bit. "And...I've been dead too."

"Holy shit," I blurt out. "I need some context for this. What happened after you were dumped on Bruce?"

"Fought a lot with the family, mostly. I was a complete snot. By the time we met, I'd actually improved quite a lot, believe it or not." A ghost of a smile touches his lips. "My relationship with my dad was pretty rocky for several years. He'd had no idea I existed until I turned up, and he was dealing with a lot, what with Jason and Tim and all. Then he decided to be a better dad, keeping me on as Robin, even though I killed somebody right in front of him." I looked inquisitive, and he pressed on. "It was a villain called Nobody. So gradually Dad and I built a relationship, but I was killed by a villain called Heretic. Dad went through a lot to get me resurrected. That wasn't long before we met. It was...very unpleasant. So that's Dad's side of the story. Mom and Granddad's is more straightforward. I was supposed to get tight with my father then turn over control of his money and business to them and eventually take over the League of Assassins. I won't do it, and occasionally they remind me where I came from, try to get me back in line, like that incident in the parking garage."

He draws back so we're sitting looking at each other. "My line of work is very hazardous," he says bluntly, and I nod. I see this clearly. "Dad could be killed at any time. I might be too, and this time there wouldn't be any resurrection. The last Lazarus pit has been destroyed, so dead really will mean dead. The Joker is the greatest of my family's enemies, but he's far from the only one, and they wouldn't hesitate to hurt anybody close to me. Further, if I get married and have kids, I would give them the opportunity to join the shadow side of the family business too. It's a trust. Gotham needs its protectors, and we're it. It would be a hard life for anyone who chose to share it with me," he says intently. "And this is why I don't take the money or power that the Wayne family has as seriously as most would, because it's the Bat family that is in many ways more important. I don't care about the rent on the suite or the costs of buying you things, because just by being with me you're endangering yourself. It's not payment, but... kind of a balancing of the scales for the risk. To your life, your safety, your love. I'll give you all I have, but that includes Robin along with Damian, and one day I'll be Batman. And now that the stakes have been upped by my mother's appearance, I need you to know just what you're getting yourself into if you stay with me."

"If your mother chose to attack, how would she do it?" I asked after thinking things over.

"She wouldn't unless she doesn't have a choice, she prefers to get others to do her dirty work. She's a good fighter, skilled in martial arts and hand to hand. She was my first teacher," he said, and there's no loyalty or pride in his voice. "She's very intelligent, but her loyalty is to her father. She still has some feelings for Bruce and will help him out from time to time, but she won't cross her father. Ra's is a different matter. He'll attack with any means he has, and that includes biological warfare. He's quite old, having used the Lazarus pits for centuries, quite wealthy, and criminally very well-connected internationally. He's extremely intelligent and has had all that time to practice martial arts, with and without weapons. He's very formidable, but with the destruction of the pits, he's starting to look at the end of his lifespan." Damian's voice was grimly pleased. "He heads the League of Assassins and there will be quite a power struggle when he dies. It might just end up consuming the organization."

"Do you love your mom or grandfather?" I asked.

"No," he said without hesitation. "They've made my life hell, and I look forward to the day when neither of them walks the earth." He exhaled. "Alex, I need for you to really think about this and what it means for you. You're loyal and you love me, but continuing with me... is not safe or really even sane. I need you to contemplate the risks you'd be running. Since we've been together, criminal activity has been unusually light, but that won't last, and I'll be beat up a lot, sometimes severely, and anybody who figures out the identities of the Bat family wouldn't have any compunctions about attacking you to get to me. I'll give you two days. I love you, but I also don't want you to suffer because of me. Think about it and we'll have another conversation."

I stood up. "I'll think about it and come to a decision," I tell him."But until I do, let's carry on together as we have been. And that means that I want you inside me." I offered him my hand and pull him to his feet. Our mouths came together hungrily, and we made our way to the bedroom where we made love, tenderly and with our whole hearts.

The next morning when we got up, we didn't talk about it, and we each got to work. I had a good time sparring with my uncle and watching how he started to teach Pietro. Our teaching styles are going to be different, but I needed to start somewhere. After work, I made some calls.