Summary: It just became a Birthday tradition
Notes: This started out as 5 years… now it’s 7… I literally hate myself.
Leia didn’t even care if she almost dropped her rather heavy window pane down on Damian’s fingers. Or that the caped boy had to pull back so fast she thought he might fall from her 6th story bedroom window. Part of her hoped he would. But also not, because then she would have to feel bad for him.
“Open up!” He demanded banging on the window again. “I have something from your Guardian Angel”
She turned back around to see him holding up a brown paper bag from her favorite dessert place. Slowly -painfully slow- she opened up the window. Make the boy wait a little. “Only because it’s from her. Why are you even here?”
“Something came up and she said she would do my extra shifts in the Batcave if I delivered this.” He held out the small brown bag. Leia opened the bag to find a small candle in a cupcake and a card. After reading the card she gently broke the cupcake in half and giving half to Damian
“Whats this for?” He said eyeing it warily.
“It’s my birthday.” Was her simple response.
The card lay on the chair next to her window.
“Happy birthday little one! I promise tomorrow I’ll come by. But today, he needs a friend.”
The start of the school year she had gotten a scholarship to Gotham Academy. She wasn’t sure how she had gotten it seeing as she wasn’t the smartest kid but she was determined to do her best.
Which wasn’t really that great to be honest. These kids were just so smart and cool and she was some small girl from the slums. All she wanted was to fit in. Make friends. Excel at school.
Was that too much to ask?
Especially when you consider Damian Wayne your friend. Or Leia liked to THINK they were friends.
At this point, she was privy to his secret identity. It hadn’t taken long after starting school and also being on the “in” in the superhero world. However, being friends with the rude angry boy was like a rollercoaster of emotions that Leia -a girl who was dealing with her own new blossoming range of emotions- was never quite sure how to deal with.
Like today. It was her birthday and she was supposed to feel special yet he kept making snide remarks about how she was too old to be this excited and honestly, just leave him alone. He didn’t care anyway. At first, she had brushed it off but after a while, she got so mad at him she had ended up calling him a boring crusty old man. Which really wasn’t that bad of an insult. In fact who even thinks to insult someone by calling them a boring crusty old man?.
Leia apparently, and Damian apparently found it very insulting because it set him off and they had ended up fighting the rest of the day. Which was really Leia telling Damian calmly why he was wrong and Damian yelling at her.
However, when he yelled that no one cared it was her birthday since she had no friends in front of the entire class that one hurt. This year, like last, her mother had to work and her Guardian Angel was away helping with some overseas issue. So in a way, the crusty old man was right: she had no friends.
That night she sat by her window angry scribbling why she hated Damian Wayne. She had already exploded two pencils and accidently sent a pad of paper on fire because of it. The smoke had caused her to open her window to get some fresh air. Or as fresh as you could get that aria of Gotham.
It had been oddly warm for that time of year. Her new blue drapes that her Guardian Angel had given her blowing in the wind as she tried to write a letter to said, girl. Tears of pure frustration falling from her cheeks. Angry at herself for being angry. Angry at him for being so mean.
She had never gotten up so fast. He barely had time to react as two hands shoved him out her window in a blind rage. She had never in her rather short life, been this mad at anyone.
Luckily for the caped crusader, he was also hanging from his Batarang so he basically propelled away from the 6 story window only to swing back, his feet landing on the bricks next to the window.
“I don’t want to talk to you!“ She yelled leaning so far out her window he wondered for a moment if she was about to fall out. Or maybe pop a blood vessel with how her face bright red her face was. "You’re a jerk!”
It was his turn - for the first time in their relationship - for him to be the calm one while she ranted at him, “What?” He asked, “I always say that stuff?”
“But that was in front of everyone… and… and just because I take it doesn’t make it right!”
“Why do you care what they think?”
She looked away biting her lip pulling herself back into her bedroom. He cautiously came closer to the window, but not too close. He knew what her powers could do, especially when she was mad.
Damian held out a paper bag, “Friends are a waste of time and a distraction.” She reached out taking the bad opening it to see her cupcake with a small candle.
He almost doesn’t come, that year. He had gotten into a fight. A bad one. They had been able to finally catch the Joker and his goons but not before Damian got a pretty bad cut on his arm.
Batman had tried to get him to come back to the Batcave with him but Damian had a tradition to uphold. And Damian wasn’t one to break a tradition.
Besides the thought of making Leia cry again on her birthday was something he never wanted to do again.
So here was he was, leaning into her windowsill dripping blood all over her blue drapes.
However, Leia didn’t even seem to notice her favorite room accessory becoming ruined as she pulled him into her bedroom. He didn’t protest much as she made him sit on her bed so she could look at his cut.
“I didn’t bring you your cupcake…” he mumbled as she helped him rip away the material of his sleeve so she could see his arm better.
“Mommy’s a nurse,” she said getting up, “Wait right here.” she was only gone for a moment - the apartment she and her mother shared wasn’t very big - returning with a rather large first aid kit in her arms. Setting it down she pulled out some cleaning supplies.
“I bet the other guy looked worse.” She said as she dabbed his wound.
He scoffed as he tried not to act like the alcohol didn’t sting a thousand swords. “Of course”
“The Joker and a few of his minions. Nothing too difficult for Father and I”
As she cleaned him up he regaled the tales of valor that he had done that night. Leia listening with ruptured interest. He would never admit it to her but… it was fun.
“Today’s my birthday,” Leia said opening her window looking up at Damian who hung in her windowsill. A bright smile on her face.
“I know,” he said coming into her room. It hadn’t changed much in the past four years same tattered bedspread, teddy bear, and posters of all her favorite superheros. He couldn’t help but smile at the one of him next to her Guardian Angel which was placed lovingly above her desk.
“Where’s my cupcake?” she asked looking at him expectantly.
“I brought you something else instead,” He said holding up a black mask. It had been Faith’s idea. Not that he would admit that to Leia. Especially not after her entire face light up like the rocks she would charge with her superpowers. No he was going to claim this idea all for himself and just bask in her joy.
“You got me a mask!?!” and maybe her stupidity.
“I’m going to take you for a run over the city.”
Letting out an excited giggle Leia quickly put on the mask before grabbing his hand letting him pull her out of her window.
She sat behind him blindfolded as he drove his motorcycle into the Batcave. Her face was buried in his back as to keep the surprise he had promised her as much of a surprise as she could.
If there was anything Leia loved, it was a surprise.
Once they had stopped he gingerly helped her down. “Are you ready?” he asked. She nodded quickly as he gently tried to take her blindfold off. “Stop moving!” He snapped suddenly annoyed at the fact that Leia couldn’t stop fidging excitedly. Honestly, she was the same girl from 5 years ago! It’s like she hadn’t grown a single day.
He wasn’t sure what he was expecting but whatever it was, it wasn’t quite to the level of what happened. Leia stood there for a moment as if in total shock. Her hands covering her wide open smile as her gray eyes looked around the room.
“Oh my God Damian!” she finally squeaked. “Is this…?”
“Where else would we be?”
“OH MY GOD!” She began running around the room looking at everything pointing to stuff as if it was also his first time there.
“Oh come look at this! It’s the Original Batgirl’s costume!”
“WOW Look at this huge coin! It’s got to be Two Face’s!”
From there place by the steps to the Batcave Stephie Brown and Alfred watched on. An amused smile spreading on the blonde’s face as she watched the rather flustered boy followed a fangirling Leia drag him around the batcave.
“Awww Damian has a little girlfriend.”
“DAMIAN! Look! It’s a giant dinosaur!” Leia said pointing up at the T-rex the towered above her. From where she stood she looked like a tiny little ant about to bet devoured by the huge monster.
She had met Paul at school. She had known him in passing for years since they had been going to school together at “the rich people school ” as she called it. While before they had just been acquaintances this year they had started to talk more. Soon they were inseparable, much to Damian’s annoyance.
Paul was loud and showy. There were many the girls that liked him yet, for some reason, he wanted to be around Leia. Maybe it was because she was no longer the bucktoothed girl with chubby cheeks. Most of her baby fat was gone from nights running the streets with Damian or Faith. Damian wasn’t an idiot, he knew she was a pretty girl. But he always saw her as the dorky little girl who had totally nerded out when he had brought her to the Batcave.
But that wasn’t how Paul saw her.
They started dating a few weeks after school started. He taught her how to kiss and gave her butterflies. She was all smiles and giggles at everything he said.
For some reason, it bothered Damian.
But what bothered him more was when the rumors started. Paul was sleeping with another girl.
Some of other guys had heard him talking about how Leia wouldn’t sleep with him so he had to “get it somewhere else.”
Damian would have killed him. If Leia hadn’t gotten to him first.
“It’s over” She had told him in the cafeteria in front of everyone. “No hard feelings.”
She ditched school after that.
After all, it was her birthday, she could do whatever the hell she wanted.
Damian found her curled up on her bed hugging Mr. Fluffy McSmith the third. She wasn’t crying, just laying there staring at her poster of Kid Flash that was by her door.
She glanced at him then rolling onto her back she patted next to her, “Join me as I wallow.”
“I can destroy him if you want,” he said laying down next to her. Their shoulders touching as they both stared up at the ceiling where they had put the plastic glow-in-the dark stars up a few months ago.
“Naw, leave all that Robin power for the real bad guys.”
“I don’t know many who are worst than him.”
Much to his pleasure this comment caused her to smile. They laid there for a few moments in their own thoughts. Finally, she gave a loud sigh dramatically throwing her arm over her forehead.
"No more relationships for me! I have decided I’m going to live in a real hovel in the desert.”
“Maybe it’ll be more spacious than this place.”
She giggled turning to him, “Rude! I love my apartment.”
He glanced at her watching as she brushed a few annoying stray tears from her cheeks. “I do to” He whispered, so quietly that only he could hear.
“Happy Birthday,” He said as he hung in the windowsill leaning in as he looked down at her. She smiled up at him her gray eyes lighting up.
“You know,” she said giggling, “This is the first year you have wished me a happy birthday.”
“I’m kind of a jerk aren’t I?”
“You’re my jerk,” she said as she leaned forward. Maybe it was teenage hormones. Maybe it was the way the moon shone into her room and played with her gray eyes. Maybe it was something that had just been there all the time.
Whatever it was, Damian felt his heart skip a beat.
“Can I make it up to you?” he asked leaning forward kissing her.
