I do not own any of these characters! They belong to DC Comics respectively and I am only using them for my, and other's enjoyment, thank you! I hope you enjoy!

1.

Damian sat across from Dick with a scowl on his face. It wasn't an unusual position, but it was Christmas time and generally Damian was pretty good maintaining the façade of fake enjoyment. Well, Dick knew that Damian was actually enjoying himself and Damian knew that Dick knew that Damian was enjoying himself but they never addressed it. Currently, they were not-arguing over who got to give the gifts to each other first.

Dick's, I'm-the-oldest-argument could only go so far and Damian knew he could get Dick to sway after a couple of hours with the I've-only-had-a-few-Christmas's-before and I want this one to be good. In the end, Damian won, and so the next morning it would be deemed that Damian would give his gifts, then Tim, then Jason is he decided to show up and if he had any, then Bruce, and then Dick because Dick always gave his gifts first so it was only fair he gave his last.

"I don't think you're being very nice to me, Lil' D," Dick said, pouring the kid some hot chocolate. Damian sat across from him on the counter, head resting on his arms as he leaned over the cool stone.

"According to Drake, you've always given your gifts first," Damian inquired, "thus the tradition should end. I'm the youngest, and I haven't have very many Christmas's."

"Pulling the youngest card on me? That's low, Kiddo," Dick laughed. He slid the hot chocolate across the counter. Damian held it tightly, pulling it close to him. They were still at the penthouse, waiting until Bruce himself got back from, where was he? Indonesia? Apparently Tim was already at the Manor, having volunteered to help Alfred set things out. Dick and Damian had just gotten back from patrol a little while ago. There was a duffel bag on the stool next to Damian, and Dick still had to shower and get his own bag ready.

"You always pull the oldest!" Damian snapped, but the tone wasn't his usual sharp anger that it normally was.

"So, I get first dibs!"

"It doesn't work that way!"

Dick rounded the counter and ruffled Damian's hair. The kid had long since stopped pulling away and occasionally he would lean a little into the touch, just enough to keep his older brothers hand on his head a little longer. But then Dick pulled away, said he was going to shower, and disappeared down the hall leading to the bedrooms.

Damian stared after him, the slight smile on his lips fading away. He wasn't particularly fond of the idea of going to the Manor. It wasn't that he didn't want to spend Christmas with family, he just didn't understand why they had to spend it there. Or why Drake and Todd had to come, but he didn't voice that out loud. Damian was perfectly content with spending Christmas just with Grayson, in the penthouse and not at the Manor. Maybe Gordon could come, because that would make Grayson pleased, and then that would be alright.

He looked over at the bag that Dick had already packed with the Christmas presents. He'd gotten Tim a history of Computer design and graphics, something Drake had never had the time to read up on and he'd gotten Todd a new gun holster, despite the fact that Grayson was vehemently against the guns in the first place. Damian didn't know what Grayson had gotten his father, nor what he'd managed to find for Damian.

Not that Damian had looked at all.

He was above such childish things.

Damian slumped over and lightly tapped his fingers across his hot chocolate cup, his frown deepening. Did he have to share Grayson with the others?

Damian glanced over where the sound of the shower was coming from. They could stay here at the penthouse, by themselves, and enjoy the snow falling around the city of Gotham. Perhaps they'd sleep on the couch to the view and in the morning, Grayson would make up breakfast and some more hot chocolate and they'd open their presents and enjoy a silent Christmas morning. Damian would be perfectly content spending time just with Grayson, a man who cared for him and wanted Damian to have a wonderful Christmas despite the harsh previous year.

Grayson would be a good father.

The thought hit Damian like a brick. He blinked, his eyes flickering to the hall again before he slipped off the stool. He padded over to the couch, falling into it and slumping over. If Grayson ever did find someone, would he replace Damian? There was Gordon, but they weren't even sure if she could have children. And Damian, who would never admit it, liked Gordon. And even if their relationship had had plenty of ups and downs, Grayson and Gordon did love each other. Grayson could have a family one day, without Damian. And the boy wasn't sure how to feel about it. Because, as much as Damian was loathe to say it, Grayson was a father to him.

He would tuck Damian in at night and remind him of his homework. He was the one who took care of Damian's school problems and his training and he would be the one to make Damian feel like the boy, the child, he was.

And he was Damian's Batman. He was the greatest Batman, better than perhaps Damian's biological father. He'd overheard, one time, Cain and Drake talking. Cain had insisted, rather out of the blue, that Grayson was better for Gotham, for the Batman mantle, and for Damian. Damian had listened intently, hiding behind one of the other doors into the library.

"Damian needs a father, and we both sure as hell know Bruce isn't it," Drake whispered to Cain's proclamation, leaning forward over his plate of reheated spaghetti that Alfred would normally never had left in the library.

"Dick is," Cain agreed. "He's a better father."

"Bruce was… he doesn't know how to handle him," Drake said, frustration entering his tone.

"Not good for Gotham. Dick is," Cain repeated. "Better Batman, too."

Damian heard Drake shuffle, and his voice was further away than before. "Dick's… strong. Strong than I think we give him credit for. And he's been doing this the longest too. He knows how to deal with kids."

"Brings Damian out of his shell," Cain said, moving around the library and closer to where Damian was. He leaned back further into his little niche, thankful he hadn't grown too much yet.

"Damian deserves better than Bruce," Drake seemed to agree. There was more shuffling, and Damian heard books being moved across a surface.

"Has Dick," Cain said, moving away from Damian again.

"Yeah, Dick's… good for him, really good. I know he cares for the Demon, despite everything," Drake said. Damian could feel the scowl on his face.

"Something wrong?"

"I don't particularly think the kid deserves Dick's love," Drake said.

Damian felt his fingers curl into fists.

"None of us do," Cain whispered.

Damian left after that, slipping away down from the manor. He returned up to his room to gather the rest of his things that Dick told him to get. They'd be heading back to the penthouse that afternoon. But he didn't get any packing done. He sat on the bed and thought about the conversation that he'd overheard.

He didn't deserve Grayson's love, no. But Grayson, despite everything, did anyway and perhaps that was why Damian loved him back. Because he knew he didn't deserve it and yet Grayson cared so much anyway. Damian's view of what a father should be had been so skewed and Batman's distrust hadn't helped. Grayson had taught him so much. And how did Damian repay him? He ignored his feelings, thrusting them away for a father who still distrusted and couldn't be around him.

Damian's adopted 'brothers' were all by choice. Damian had been practically thrown at Bruce Wayne, and he'd been raised to believe in everything that Bruce Wayne despised. He had killed before, something Bruce Wayne had never ever done, and he'd been raised by the League of Assassins under lies. And Bruce Wayne… didn't know what to do with Damian.

He was brought back from his memories at the sound of Grayson walking around the kitchen.

"You good D? We gotta head out soon, I'm all packed up!" Grayson exclaimed, clapping his hands together.

"Yes," Damian said, shooting up from his slumped over position on the couch. "What took you so long?"

"It's late? And I love hot showers," Grayson said, walking forward to ruffle the kids hair. Damian didn't pull away, smiling a little underneath the older man's hand.

"You're such a girl," Damian said, standing up and brushing himself off. Not that he'd been on the couch for that long, but the motion seemed appropriate. And Grayson didn't dust nearly as much as he should.

"Thank you!"

"It wasn't a compliment."

"Well it's not an insult," Grayson said, pulling up one of the duffel bags from the stools. "Let's go, it's Christmas!"

Damian followed behind, grabbing his own bag and slinging it over his shoulders. He smiled a little, the thought of spending Christmas with the man who was more of a father than he ever deserved a comforting thought on his mind.

To be continued...