#in my head...dick is 30 jay is 23 tim is maybe 19/20 and damian is 14

[princemonday]

what are your guys thoughts on batboys ages?

[sassycassie-s-series]

All My Fault 32

By: SassyShoulderAngel319

Fandom/Character(s): DC, BatFam - Damian Wayne/Batman

Rating: PG-11/T- (for implied mature themes but nothing explicit)

Notes: (Masterlist) This story is so long. It really got away from me and got out of hand but... heck I still dig it! Also I’m aware this has taken forever to update, please don’t be mad at me.

Tag List (Open): @batboys-and-other-messes @welovegroot @probsjosh  @spooder-moon @lostredrobin @haylo4ever @na-n-na @rachelmorganroth  @reclusive-chicken-nugget

Ch 1, Ch 2, Ch 3, Ch 4, Ch 5, Ch 6, Ch 7, Ch 8, Ch 9, Ch 10, Ch 11, Ch 12, Ch 13, Ch 14, Ch 15, Ch 16, Ch 17, Ch 18, Ch 19, Ch 20, Ch 21, Ch 22, Ch 23, Ch 24, Ch 25, Ch 26, Ch 27, Ch 28, Ch 29, Ch 30, Ch 31

^^^^^

I got swamped in a Superboy hug the second I entered the parlor. “Cloudy!” Jon exclaimed. “I can’t believe you’re alive! How come you still look the same as how I remember you? Shouldn’t you be older? How long have you been home without telling me? How come you never said anything? What’s really going on between you and Damian? What—”

“Kent!” Damian protested. “If you could shut your trap long enough for either of us to explain anything, that would be helpful.”

“Damian, play nice,” I said, giving Jon a hug back. “We’ll explain everything, Jon. Just settle down a little, okay?”

“Okay. Sorry,” Jon said.

The three of us sat down and Damian and I explained how I ended up in the future without aging after going missing for eight years. I laughed when he said that his parents hadn’t told him I was back even though his mom interviewed me—as Cloudburst—and his dad had Tweeted me when it was first discovered I was alive. “They probably thought you already knew,” I reasoned. “It’s not their fault you never check your social media.”

“Mm. Yeah probably,” Jon agreed sullenly.

Explaining that Damian and I had fallen in love with each other was a little more complicated, but after a lot of awkward silences and searching for words, we managed it. “But you can’t tell anyone,” I added at the end. “At least. Not yet. Just… don’t say anything about it. Please, Jon?”

“Can I talk to Richard about it?” Jon asked.

“No,” Damian and I said at the same time.

“Why not?”

“Because given half a chance he’d tell the entire Justice League about it. We don’t need anyone encouraging him,” Damian said.

“Why don’t you call him Dick?” I asked Jon, not meaning to change the subject exactly but genuinely curious.

Jon refused to meet my eyes. “Because it’s a bad word,” he mumbled.

I giggled. “Jonny, please never change,” I said.

Damian pinched the bridge of his nose. “Kent, you’re eighteen,” he said.

Jon pointed at me. “She’s twenty-one and she doesn’t swear!”

“Fair point,” I said, giving Damian a look. “But Jon, you still can’t say anything until we… go public about it, okay?”

“Ooh! Like a secret romance!” Jon said quietly.

“Yeah!” I agreed with a smile.

“Something like that,” Damian said, still pinching the bridge of his nose in exasperation.

^^^^^

“Dick!” Jason hissed, hurtling around the doorframe and into Dick’s room. “Dick guess what?”

“What?” Dick asked, looking up from his phone.

“Cloudy and Damian—”

“Got it on? Did the dirty? Had some hanky-panky? Whatever euphemism you’re gonna use, I already know,” Dick said with a smile.

“How did you find out?”

“I heard shouting from Damian’s room and went to make sure nothing bad was happening and apparently Jon had snuck in through Damian’s window to ask him about something and found them lying naked in bed together. Which they still were when I got in there,” Dick said. “How did you figure it out?”

“I found Cloudy sneaking back into her room wearing the same clothes as yesterday and her hair was messier than usual. She said she passed out in the game room but I went in there after patrol this morning and she wasn’t there.”

Dick laughed. “I can’t believe it worked. And Bruce and Alfred thought a sleepover in Metropolis for that shareholders meeting or whatever was a waste of time,” he said. “BUT the two of them have sworn me to silence.”

“Yeah Cloudy practically begged me not to tell anyone,” Jason agreed.

“So we’re telling Cass and Tim right? Because they’re in on our little plot?”

“Absolutely.”

“Alfred will probably figure it out in two seconds, but let’s pray Bruce never finds out,” Dick said. “Because if he finds out…”

“He’ll kill them both. Twice,” Jason said.

“I wouldn’t go that far, but he might undo all our fine work of getting them alone all the time.”

“What do you mean? You don’t think he’d kick Cloudy out of the house, do you?”

“No. No. He wouldn’t kick Cloudy out. But that doesn’t mean he wouldn’t forbid them from ever being alone together ever again while they both live in this house,” Dick said.

“And if they really love each other, one or both of them would move out immediately,” Jason mused.

“Yeah probably,” Dick agreed, chewing on his lower lip. “We gotta make sure B doesn’t find out for a while.”

“When’ll he be back from Metropolis?”

“Tomorrow, I think. It was a business trip. Something about boring board meetings at the Daily Planet.”

“So we have that long to make sure he doesn’t find out,” Jason said.

“Yup.”

“Then I guess we have some work to do.”

“Guess so,” Dick agreed.

^^^^^

“Maybe it’d be better if we just… never said anything,” I said to Damian and Jon, winding the end of my braid around my fingers.

Damian gave me an appalled look. “That was one of the best nights of my entire life and you wish to pretend it never happened?”

I sighed, refusing to meet his eyes and instead looking at my knees. “Just… just for a while. Just until we decide… what to do. Your father would kill me—and then you—and then me again if he knew what happened.”

“I assume he will walk into the house and immediately realize. He was called the greatest detective in the world for a reason,” Damian said.

I rubbed my temples. “I know. But… what else can we do?”

“Uh, guys? I feel like I shouldn’t be here for this talk,” Jon said, raising a hand like an awkward schoolboy trying to make a comment in class with a teacher he was scared of. “Really. I just came to get Damian’s help on something I’ve been following in Metropolis. You two should really talk about this in private when I'm not here.”

Damian sighed. “Fine. Come with me to the Batcave, Kent. We’ll discuss there. McCl—Nora, would you care to accompany us?”

“No, I uh, I’m going to go have a word with Dick. And maybe Jason. I’ll see you later. Good luck on your case, Jonny.”

“Thanks Cloudy,” Jon said, giving me a hug as we all stood up and left the parlor.

I climbed the stairs to Dick’s room and knocked on the door.

“Who is it?!” Dick called.

“Cloudy,” I replied.

“C’mon in!” Jason’s voice said.

I opened the door and shut it behind me. “Fantastic. Two birds with one stone. Almost literally,” I said quietly. Both of them glanced up at me. The streak of white in Jason’s hair was lit up a pale blue in the light of his laptop screen. Dick was on his bed and Jason at the desk. They both looked interested.

“I think I know what you’re going to say, Cloudy,” Dick said. I cocked an eyebrow.

“Oh yeah?” I challenged.

“Yeah. You’re going to order us not to tell anyone,” Dick continued, unperturbed.

“And we won’t,” Jason added.

“Except Tim and Cass,” Dick amended.

“What?! No!” I shrieked. “Listen, if every child in this family knows, then it’s just a matter of time before Bruce finds out and kills me, and then Damian, and then me again and then—”

“Nora! Relax,” Jason protested. He used my real name so I knew he was serious. “Big bird and I are taking care of it as we speak.”

“Huh?” I asked eloquently.

“Girl. Seriously? We’ve been trying to get you and Damian together since you got here and he pulled off his body armor and you stared at him!” Dick exclaimed. “Tim and Cass are in on it too! Why do you think we all convinced Alfred to force Damian into monitor duty for the night when you were taking the night off? His knee injury wasn’t even a pulled muscle. Two ibuprofens and he would have been fine for the night. But no. We wanted you to be alone together. We didn’t need backup at all. And hey, it worked.”

My face went slack the longer Dick talked. “Yeah but what do you mean you’re taking care of it?”

“There’s hallway footage of you two, er, kissing rather passionately that I'm currently erasing and replacing with earlier instances of you two going to your own rooms and then you sneaking out of his room this morning is also being erased and replaced with a couple seconds of nothingness until you came out of your own room all showered and dressed,” Jason said.

“Why?”

“Because we don’t want B to find out yet either,” Dick said.

“Why?”

Jason shrugged. “We don’t want either of you to move out yet and we figured one of you would if Bruce found out. Probably you.”

That was a fair point. “So… you’re not going to tell anyone?”

“Except Tim and Cass,” Dick said distractedly.

“No!” I protested. “No one!”

“We’ll keep the details secret if it means that much to you,” Jason said. “We’ll just say that you two finally admitted your feelings for each other or something.”

I sighed and put my hand on Jason’s shoulder. “Thank you. Seriously. Thank you.”

He smiled at me. “You’re welcome, Cloudy,” he said, reaching up and patting my back. “Can’t guarantee Tim won’t figure it out but—”

“But at least you’d have done your part,” I finished.

“Something like that,” Jason agreed.

I nodded—and then bit my lip. “Jay, can I ask you a question and have you give me a square answer?”

Jason pursed his lips. “I'm really more of a triangle guy but sure,” he said. I smacked him lightly upside the head. Nothing too painful. “Ow, hey!”

I looked him dead in the face. “What should I do?”

“Kid, that’s not a question I can be objective about. You know that,” Jason said. “I love you, Cloudy. You’re exactly the sister I would have loved to have my entire life but I only got you for a couple years. I want to protect you as much as I can but at the same time I want you to be happy.”

“How come you’re not asking me?” Dick asked.

“Because I already know your answer, Richard,” I said seriously. “Something corny about following my heart or doing what makes me happy. Plus I know you saw Damian as more of a son than a brother when you were both younger and I know you want him to be happy.”

Dick grumbled under his breath—something about me making a good point. I turned my attention back to Jason, eyebrows raised expectantly.

He sighed. “Cloudy: do what you want. Are you, like, actually legitimately in love with Damian?”

I chewed my lower lip for a moment. “Yeah,” I said.

“Then, heck, Clouds, date him!” Jason said. “Do what you want and what makes you happy. We both know if he’s ever less than respectful of you that you could kick his butt.” He used heck the way I believed it was originally intended to be used—like he couldn’t decide which curse word to use and ended up combining them. “Look, if you wanna be with him, then just do it. It’ll be a lot easier on all of us if you did anyway.”

I cocked my eyebrow again. “How so?”

“I swear every longing look you two threw at each other across the cave when you thought the other wasn’t looking was going to take a year-and-a-half off my lifespan.”

“He’s not alone,” Dick added. “I noticed too.”

I grunted. “Mm. Thanks,” I muttered.

“No problem. Now rest assured that everything is fine here and we’re taking care of ensuring Bruce doesn’t find out and go be with Damian if you want,” Jason said, giving me a smile. He shook his head. “I can’t believe I'm condoning anyone I'm close to being in a relationship with the little gremlin but…” He shrugged.

I ruffled his hair. “Thanks, Jay.” I looked over at Dick. “And thanks Dick, too. Both of you. For… everything, I guess.”

Dick chuckled. “That’s what brothers are for, right?” he asked.

“Sure,” I said. “See you later.” I ducked out of Dick’s room.

“See ya!” Dick and Jason chorused as I shut the door.

---

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