Detective
Anon: after your last imagine I can't shake college Damian off my mind, can I request one about him and his s/o in college? I don't really have an specific idea but something like walking them to class, studying together, getting each other coffee and just overall taking care of each other. Notes: I didn’t get to cover everything in the request because there are too many scenes and I didn’t wanna turn this into a bullet point fic. Hope you like it though! Words: 2,774
“No.”
The girl that approached the table looked forlorn and her friends slowly helped her walk away.
“Ugh,” Will groans. He’s one of Damian Wayne’s friends and their varsity is currently doing charity work for Gotham Academy. Will took a brilliant idea from the internet where they set up a table offering people to walk them around campus if they feel bullied or generally unsafe.
“You can’t keep saying no to people, Wayne. That’s not how the charity works.”
Damian clicked his tongue. “I know exactly how this works, and those girls did not need assistance.”
“Yeah. In the bedroom, they did,” Mike laughs and tries to fistbump Will who just stares at him until he puts his hands down.
Damian’s attention is already taken by you. He kicks back his seat to leave.
“Where are you going now?” Will whines.
“Helping someone who actually needs it.”
You’re walking to your next class while looking over your shoulder every now and then. To Damian, they’re simple signals of someone who feels like they’re being followed. So he stands right in front of your path in the middle of the quad where there is a multitude of people around. You almost bump into him but he quickly takes a step back to give you your space.
You know him. Everybody on campus knows him. He’s the greatest player the football team has ever had. Too bad he left halfway through his first semester and joined the swim team instead.
Damian is staring down at you from being almost a foot taller. Then something catches his eye and he looks at someone behind you who quickly hides behind a statue.
You see a small snarl on the corners of his lips before he starts taking steps around you. You stop him immediately.
“You can’t--”
“Why not?” Damian quickly asks.
“If you-- if you get in a fight again, they’ll kick you off the team.”
Damian raises his eyebrows in thought, “That doesn’t sound like much of a loss to me.”
“Please don’t.” You grip his arm tighter.
He stares at you, “Why haven’t you reported him?”
“He-- he hasn’t done anything. He’s smart. He keeps his distance and no one has actually noticed him following me around.”
“I did.”
And you want to thank him for that. This whole semester has been a nightmare for you. It started with your survival instincts kicking in, always warning you that you’re in danger. Your gut has never failed you so you listened. But this stalker is so good that he’s hidden himself well from all of your friends. Friends you’ve lost because they deemed you too paranoid and anxious.
“Come on.” Damian’s voice saves you from your thoughts. “I’ll walk you to your class. Spanish, right?”
You’re stunned, “How-- how do you know that?”
He rolls his eyes and then points at your books. “It’s the one on top of your pile. Lucky guess.”
You suddenly feel assured and laugh a little. “You’re quite the detective.”
His eyes widen at the comment and he slowly turns back to you. “You have no idea.”
Damian walks you right up to the door of your classroom. As soon as you thank him, he leaves and heads for his own class. When it’s time for lunch, you’re surprised to find him standing against the wall outside of the room.
“You’re here.”
“Do you have another class?” he asks you while his eyes roam the hallways.
“No, I’m about to have lunch.”
“Okay. Let’s go.” Without giving you time to respond, he starts walking to the cafeteria and you try to keep up with his strides.
So far nobody has paid attention to the two of you. But when Damian carries both of your trays to your table, the staring and the whispers start. There are even some flashes from cameras that almost blind you.
“Sorry,” he mutters under his breath while concentrating on his food.
You shake your head as you watch the lines on his brows and the irritation on his face. “It must be hard being a Wayne,” you say.
He grins at the thought of what it’s like to be a real Wayne beyond what the gossip columns say. “I wouldn’t trade it for anything. It’s all this stupid attention that I hate.”
“That’s probably why you don’t date, huh?” Damian looks up and stares at you with a raised eyebrow. You quickly wave your hands, “It’s just that-- my friend-- well my old friend-- she asked you out once and you said you’re not interested. We teased her that maybe you’re just not interested in her but--”
A sudden flash hits the side of your cheeks and Damian is quickly leaving his seat and marching over to another table, the table where your stalker is sitting with a camera pointed at you. You wince at the sight of it.
Damian grabs the man’s camera still strapped around his neck. “What? Did you think you could hide your flash among these paparazzi wannabes?” Before he could say anything, Damian takes off the camera and starts flipping through the pictures.
“Hey, man! That’s mine!”
Damian scoffs. “Really? That’s good then. You can get it back from the cops.” Damian turns the camera around and shows the stalker a picture of you in the girl’s shower. His eyes widen and quickly tries to run but Damian grabs him by the collar and slams the side of his head against the table.
You watch all of this go down from your table. People’s murmurs are louder, trying to figure out what’s going on. When word reaches you that Damian is calling the cops, you feel a new kind of relief wash over you. Suddenly, your shoulders felt lighter and it’s easier to stand up straight.
Damian stays with you the whole time. Whenever the officers and the stalker’s voices got too loud, your voice would falter and Damian would speak for you, authoritatively holding everyone’s attention.
Once the stalker was detained and all evidence tagged, you and Damian walk back to campus.
“You seem… happy.”
You didn’t even notice you’re smiling until you touch the upturned corners of your lips. “I feel kind of free… like a bird.”
Damian snorts to himself, “Yeah.”
You mull something in your head and speak your thoughts out loud, “You planned that, didn’t you?” Damian stops walking and he’s looking at you when you turn around. “You knew he wasn’t just following me, and that he wouldn’t pass up the opportunity you created.”
Damian’s brows furrowed, “I apologize for using you as bait--”
“No!” you interrupt and hold his hands, “I was just thinking that it’s ingenious. Forget being a detective, you’re almost as good as Batman.”
Damian smirks. You suddenly see a whole new side of him probably no one on campus has ever seen. A playful one. “Just almost?”
When you reach the dorms, Damian walks you right up to your door. He takes a quick look inside to make sure you’re roommate is already there. Before you let him leave, thinking this will probably be the last time you’ll be together again, you gather up the courage to hold his arm, stand on your toes, and kiss him on the lips. “Thanks. For everything.”
Damian gives you a look before he nods and leaves. You watch a small shade of red reach the tips of his ears as you cover your own blush.
The next day, Damian Wayne is back at the table with his varsity friends. You walk by and only mean to wave at him before your next class. But as soon as he saw you, he shrugs off Mike’s arm from his shoulder and gets up to leave.
“Dude, no. You’re bailing again?” Will whines.
“You have more than enough people here. Just message me.”
Will slumps down in his seat and crosses his arms, “Yeah right. It’s not like any of us has your number.”
“They don’t look too happy about you leaving,” you tease as he approaches you.
He shrugs nonchalantly, “They’ll live.” He gives you a long look before he raises an eyebrow in curiosity, “You seem happier today.” You quickly blush and immediately think of the kiss from last night. “You’re thinking about the kiss, aren’t you?”
You stare at Damian with wide eyes. You wonder if he’s either a real detective or you’re just too obvious. You laugh, “You, too. I mean you’re actually teasing me. Where is the always-reserved Damian Wayne of Gotham Academy and what have you done to him?”
He smirks and points ahead to the direction of your next classroom, World History. You look down at the top book in your pile and roll your eyes. Definitely the detective. Definitely obvious.
After class, there’s no Damian standing outside waiting for you. You try not to feel the tiny pang in your chest and walk to your Figure Drawing class. As soon as you walk in, you come face to face with a very naked Damian Wayne.
When Damian returned to the varsity table, Will had given him punishment for bailing twice in a row and volunteered him to be the model for a class. Damian has absolutely no problems with appearing naked in front of anybody. To him, this was just a chore he had to do to live up to his civilian identity.
But as soon as he sees you walk in through the door and your eyes roam from his head all the way down to his toes, he grits his teeth. “I’ll kill him.”
“Y/N, please. You’re already late. Take your seat.”
Your lecturer’s voice jolts you back to your senses and you quickly take a seat on the far side of the room. It’s one of the most grueling classes you’ve been in since you got to the academy. Damian avoided your eyes the whole time.
“Y/N, wait for me.”
Damian calls out while he put on his clothes. You’re already standing by the door and a lot of people had stayed to continue to watch him. When they heard him call out to you, they instantly turn and glare.
As soon as he reaches you, he puts his arm around your shoulder and you walk out together. You can feel the heavy weight of his arm rest on top of you.
“Do you have another class?” he asks. You shake your head, still unable to speak to him because you keep seeing him naked inside your head. “Good. Let’s have lunch in the city.”
Damian takes you to a small diner hidden in a corner between the business district and the Narrows. The lunch rush is already over and you find yourselves in a corner booth.
“Wow,” you say. “I never expected you to eat at a place like this. You’re more down-to-Earth than I thought.”
“As opposed to what?”
“Oh, I don’t know. Being a rich kid? Everything handed to you on a silver platter?”
“Trust me, Y/N. Nothing was ever handed to me. Everything I have-- everything I am, I worked for.”
You prop your elbow on the table as you look at the once menacing Damian Wayne. The past two days, you’ve spent with him have completely changed your opinion about him and a little of the ancient Wayne family.
Speaking of.
“My family’s here,” Damian mutters as he scoots over until he’s sitting next to you, freeing up his side of the booth. A group of four walks into the diner and start heading for your booth. “Damian!”
“Good morning, Grayson. Cain.”
Two of the four, nod their heads at you. While the shortest boy, who is still taller than you, crosses his arms. “Rude. What about us?”
Damian doesn’t pay him any attention. You watch as they enter the booth in a single file.
“Late night?” Damian asks.
The one he called Grayson gives a long sigh as he sits next to Damian. “You have no idea. Would’ve been faster if Rob-- Ow!” The tallest of the three elbows him and nudges his head toward you. “Oh, hello there.”
“Are you on a date?” asks the girl he called Cain, smiling.
“Yes.”
“We are?” you ask right away. You tried to keep your voice low but from the way their eyes widen, you know they heard you.
They look at each other and smirk. “Looks like you forgot to inform your date,” teases the tallest one.
Damian smirks to himself before replying. “Y/N can’t think straight at the moment. Still a little flustered after seeing me naked.”
Damian pulls you closer to him to avoid the spray of water from one of his siblings. “We really shouldn’t be letting you loose into society without a harness, Drake.”
“It was for figure drawing class,” you chuckle to break the tension, and try to appease their wide eyes with your waving hands. “I’m Y/N by the way. I go to GA, too.”
“I’m Dick,” one of his siblings reaches around Damian to shake your hand. “These are Cass, Jason, and Tim. We’re Damian’s siblings--”
“Adopted.”
Jason looms over the table and grabs Damian’s head to harshly rub his knuckles into his hair. “You don’t have to say that every time, demon.”
“Todd-- Stop it--”
Dick tries to pry them apart but ultimately fails and accidentally gets punched by one of Damian’s flailing limbs, making Jason laugh. “You may have gotten bigger, but you’re still a runt!”
“Not-- as much-- as Drake--”
Tim, who’s sitting at the outer edge of the booth across from you, apologizes for his brothers with a sigh. “I wish I could tell you that we’re not always like this.”
You smile at the thought and finally realize why Damian is always so reserved on campus. He’s the youngest of such a big and lively family. Dick and Tim are familiar, too. You’ve seen their faces on the Legacy Wall of the academy. You’ve seen a few pictures of Jason and Cass, too but not as much.
This is what Damian meant when he said he’s worked hard for everything in his life. It must be hard living behind so many giant shadows.
When Cass finally intervenes and disentangles the boys, you place your hand over Damian’s as he sits back down. He turns to you and you give him a supportive smile.
He smirks and raises an eyebrow, “You keep getting into a better mood each time I look at you.”
You blush a little because who would ever expect someone to just say things like that. “Maybe your company just does that to me,” you tease back.
You hear a quick snicker from Dick and both of you turn to him. He’s visibly whispering to Cass but it’s audible enough for you to hear. “They’readorable.”
After that, Damian never took you back to the diner again, not wanting to let his siblings see the two of you together. But on campus, you are almost always together.
“Stop! Stop!” you laugh and try to protect yourself from the whirlwind of water Damian is sending your way as he shakes his head. He had just finished training and met up with you at the stands where you’ve been studying while waiting.
Damian leans down and kisses you on the lips. Your eyes widen before they slowly close as you let him lead. You hear catcalls from his teammates and you can already guess that Damian’s flipping them off.
“Okay. Come here.” You break the kiss and pull down the towel he had draped around his shoulders. You use it to properly rub his head and dry off his hair. “You must be tired. That ran longer than usual.”
Damian tries to look at you as you keep drying his hair, “Competition’s next week so we’re doing last-minute checks on everyone’s forms. Did you wait long?”
You nod your head like a child. “Been here since morning. It’s so hard to date a varsity,” you groan.
Damian takes the towel from you and rubs your face with it. “Think that’s hard? Try dating a vigilante.”
You giggle as you try to fight Damian for the towel, “I wouldn’t mind that. Batman seems to be getting hotter these days.”
You’re only teasing him and he knows it. But you don’t know that the mantle of Batman has been passed down to him. So he laughs out loud and it’s one of those rarest moments you want to treasure but you also can’t resist the urge to just kiss this happy and carefree version of Damian Wayne.