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The journey back home it’s a little blurry to Damian, despite the fact he had been the one experiencing it first hand.
All his exhausted self knows it’s that he had woken up on the other side of the country with little to no tools on him of any kind for he has been in his civilian persona for who knows how long and he has been getting both hitch rides and boat rides from farmers and fishermen alike to get where he is now.
Alright, even he can admit all of that sounds too shallow to even make sense, but he’s tired . He’s aware of the faint memories of his kidnapping a few weeks back after his afternoon’s art class at Gotham’s museum, along with the several trips he had gone through as his kidnappers moved their location every few hours while making short ransom calls.
Again, it’s a blur. Damian had grown bored of the entire ordeal quite quickly, resigned to wait for his family to deal with it as their protocol states. Which is why it baffles him, even days after, how could his family not have found this group of rag-tag kidnappers who couldn’t communicate properly among themselves and hence, eventually, lost sight of him by pure accident.
Quite the accident, Damian huffs to himself as he absently rubs the edge of his hairline, the stitched large cut he had gotten from falling into a raging river after his dumbasses of kidnappers’ truck bumped into a particular large rock and prompted Damian to involuntarily roll over the truck’s box in the back and consequently fell into the water.
Because God forbid kidnappers to get properly working boxes in their trucks and not end up with one that lacks a door entirely like Damian’s had the pleasure to experience.
Damian doesn’t care about the details. He doesn't care about the missing scenes or the in betweens. All that has been in his mind since he managed to drag himself out of the river, with the kind help of a local fisherman who also stitched him up, was to get back home.
He’s got to admit that he has had quite the time of his life, if he says so himself. Not that he has been having fun, per se, but he has so long learned to accept his surroundings and go along with the ride, which is basically what he did once he departed from Oregon and started his road trip back home.
And, while this is a far far far cry to be compared to one of his Mother’s utterly ridiculous and life-threatening survival missions back in the day, it’s not that different from one of his Father’s equally ridiculous survival training schemes; like the ones he throws at him and his siblings every few months by dumping them all in either a deserted island in the middle of the Pacific Ocean or at a department store in Gotham’s North Mall during its peak seasons.
So Damian goes with the stride. He’s got this now that he doesn’t have to pretend to be a helpless kidnapped victim. He’s got the brains and resources to make himself a half-assed road trip and get home on his own.
Since his family has forgotten about him.
Okay, alright, okay . He’s probably not giving them enough credit, he can admit that himself after so many years living under the same polluted sky.
He’s sure that they’re worried, each in their own unique emotionally-constipated way they all have. Damian’s just not a patient person.
And rightfully so! He thinks to himself as he sneaks into the manor early into the night after long long days of traveling and finds it silent as ever. Not a single piece out of its place to tell Damian there has been hell and chaos in his absence.
Yes , he knows he’s not the center of the universe, but damn , even he broke a vase out of impulse and anger last time Tim was kidnapped and the kidnapper had dared to slap him hard enough to leave a bruise.
Damian disappears for who knows how many weeks and he isn’t worth a broken vase? Outrageous.
His feet move around the manor silently, as he has always done, and they instinctively take him towards the cave’s entrance, where he’s sure he can find his Father and probably some of his siblings getting ready for tonight’s patrol that's he's now aware, after spearing the kitchen’s clock a glance, isn't so far away.
No matter how badly he wants to just reach his room and sink into his bed until the next century .
No , he had to have self-inserted soldier behavior and report back to his superiors, even if said superiors were his own family.
Curse it all, Damian just wants to sleep .
Midway from reaching his destination, he stops short on his tracks when he hears the familiar voices echoing from his left. With a frown, Damian tilts his head and turns towards the sound, blinking in surprise as the murmurs grow louder and the voices start taking the shape of their owners.
Determined and stubborn as ever, Damian grumbles low under his breath as he makes his way towards the manor’s parlor, his pre-written speech full of complains and the like regarding his family already memorized as he pushes the parlor’s door open and greets the odd Shakepearean worthy scene before his eyes.
At a glance, he can easily conclude that only half of the family are present. His eyes quickly go through every single one he’s able to catch from his spot.
He’s frowning as his eyes scan over the trio huddled up together on the floor that consists of Steph, Tim and Duke; the three of them holding each other and faces’ completely covered in tears and snot that they clearly don’t care enough to swipe away.
His eyes pass over Jason’s hunched figure near the pool table, hands turned into fists as he pounds the table’s surface with enough force to almost break ad only stopping short from doing so by a teary Cass’s gentle but firm grip on his arm that seems to be the breaking point for his brother and allowed him to drop stray tears into the mangled table.
It’s far from their typical Thursday, Damian will give them that, but then there’s only one explanation left.
“Oh, no.” Damian sighs from the door, dropping his shoulders in both exasperation and exhaustion. “Who died this time?”
Every single head in the room snaps its way his way and he physically jumps at the unplanned synchronization. Honestly, his family can be quite creepy when they want to.
“Great! Just fucking great!” Jason shouts, sparing him a glare over his shoulder before he clicks his tongue and hangs his head in defeat. “God fucking damn it , the last thing I wanted was to have hallucinations!”
“Oh shit, you guys see him too?” Steph whimpers, hands covering her mouth as she stares wide eyed at Damin’s figure. Her eyes fill with tears once more when Damian blinks at her. “Like, I’m not crazy, right? Or we? We’re not crazy and collectively making him up?”
“I would never make my brother up in such an awful outfit,” Tim sniffles, brushing away his tears that won’t stop spilling as he points at Damin’s clothes and scrunches his nose. “I would come up with something better than that god awful hoodie.”
Damian scowls harder, looking down at his 'Oregon not Oregano!' hoodie he got from a gift shop when he meant to buy a map to make his way back home.
And this is the welcoming he receives for his efforts. Unbelievable.
“Hardly asked for your opinion, Drake.”
“Oh God, he even sounds the same.” Duke wails, slumping against the back of the couch. “He’s gone but he’s not really gone .”
“What are you blubbering idiots talking about?” Damian huffs, the hair on his arms standing up as his siblings only seem to tear up harder than before.
Unsure and bemused, Damian takes a step back and he’s a second away from opting out of whatever is going on with his siblings when a thin but calloused hand grapes itself around his wrist.
Damian blinks, surprised, and relaxes under his sister's wide but gentle stare.
“Alive,” Cass says, lower lip wobbling as she raises her free hand and cups his cheek. Damian’s chest hurts for some reason as he feels her tremble against his skin. “Baby brother alive.”
Damian eyebrows furrow themselves in confusion but he still grants his sister the confirmation she so desperately needs for whatever reason she may have.
“Alive.” Damian nods, placing his hand over hers on his cheek before taking it and squeezing in what he hopes is comfort. “Of course, sister.”
“Stop messing around!” Jason snaps without raising his head. “He’s gone, okay? And this time we don’t have a goddamn body to try and bring him back. B and Dick already dug through the entire scene . He’s gone . All of him is gone — ”
“No.” Cassandra snarls. “He’s alive. He’s right here .”
“Cass, the explosion —”
Damian splutters. “Explosion?” He asks but is widely ignored.
Cass shakes her head, adamant, and pulls Damian closer to her before she marches over towards Jason, dragging him along.
She doesn't wait for either of them before she’s shoving Damian towards his brother. Both Jason and him yelp as they collide, stumbling over their feet to avoid crashing into the floor as a mess of limbs.
When they manage to avoid the great fall, Damian sighs in relief, cheek pressed against his brother’s chest and he shifts carefully to pull himself back only to be stopped by a pair of arms circling around his shoulders.
Damian blinks, confused beyond measure, clicks his tongue out of habit, and for some reason that sets his brother off into a laugh.
“Holy shit.” Jason mumbles, tightening his hold around Damian and his laughter only growing louder and wobblier the more Damian is forced to breathe down his brother’s collarbone awkwardly. “Holy fuck , he’s real? ”
“My fist definitely will be. ” Damian grunts, as he fights against his brother’s hold but quickly loses his momentum when he feels his brother exhale a shuddering breath that hits the edge of his hairline.
“Fuck, Damian .” Jason whispers and it’s the way that his voice cracks that finally stops Damian from squirming any further away.
He feels a hand on his hair, brushing it back in familiar patterns and he knows their sister had joined the makeshift embrace she had gotten him into.
It isn’t long before he hears the sound of the bodies untangling themselves from the floor and stomping their way towards their spot.
Damian grunts as he’s roughly pulled away from Jason’s hold but he can hardly voice his complaints of the treatment when Steph is there the next second cupping his face, forcing him to meet her red rimmed eyes and beaming smile.
“Oh my gosh, Damian .” Steph sniffles, spilling tears and snot as soon as Damian gathers strength to smile back at her, however small and bemused that smile might be. “ Baby bat, where were you? ”
Damian shrugs, making a offhandle sound that could convey his reply, but still graces them with a “Oregon, at first.”
“At first¡?” Duke splutters, pushing himself into Steph’s space, making one of the hands on his face to drop. “ Oregon¡? ”
“They refused to give me a pamphlet with their traveling destination, Thomas.” Damian huffs, biting back a smirk as Duke huffs and they both ignore the way Duke’s tears refuse to stop falling.
Tim shifts on his spot next to Jason and Damian has to turn slightly to catch sight of his brother, staring down at him like he used to when they were in their early stages.
“How do we know this isn't part of a big massive trap?” Tim’s question cuts through the amicable atmosphere and it stings deep inside Damian, of course, but he has come a long way since the little boy who would slash out at the tiniest speck of, back then rightful, distrust.
Instead, Damian gently shifts without brushing away any of his sibling’s touches — Cass’s fingers buried in his hair, Jason’s arm wrapped around his torso, Steph’s hand pressed over his heart, Duke’s hand wrapped around his right wrist — and he reaches his free hand for his brother to take.
Tim eyes it warily but his shoulders drop and that’s all Damian needs to know that his brother’s about to give in. Which is why, as soon as Tim’s finally within reach, Damian's hand turns into a fist and punches his brother hard on the shoulder.
“ The hell¡? ” Tim complains loudly, snapping back into old habits that refuse to leave no matter how good their relationship gets. He begrudgingly rubs his assaulted arm as he glares at him with a familiar heat in his eyes. “You are such a brat, Damian —!”
Tim cuts his cursing off by gasping loudly and Damian could almost see the switch in his brother’s head before the older teen practically barrels into the odd makeshift embrace they’ve got going on.
Damian grunts at the harsh addition but settles down rather quickly, sighing through his nose as Tim buries his nose on his temple and wraps his arms around his stomach.
“This has got to be the most awkward hug ever,” Steph says, voice wet and giddy despite her statement. She even pulls herself closer, forcing the rest of them to do the same if they didn’t want to break contact.
“I don’t know, I kind of like it.” Duke snickers softly, sniffling as he strokes Damian’s skin around his wrist.
“Speak for yourself.” Damian deadpans, gaze flat and looking overly done with everything but doing nothing to push any of his siblings away.
Duke barks a laugh. “I was .”
Damian clicks his tongue in annoyance and that sets his siblings into a laughing fit that mixes itself with tears and snot all over again, leaving him — again — at stray.
He has accepted long ago he’ll never understand his siblings.
“Holy fucking shit!” Jason suddenly shouts, making them all jump on the spot except for Cass, who tilts her head to the side in curiosity. “B and Dickwing don’t know!”
“Don’t know what?” Duke and Tim asks at the same time.
Jason scrunches his nose at them before he roughly grabs Damian by the arms and lifts him a few inches off the ground, shaking him a few times in the air.
“What the hell do you mean by ‘ what’ ?” Jason shrieks, shaking Damian harder. “That this little piece of shit is alive and wasn’t actually burned to a crisp in an old abandoned warehouse in Texas!”
“Texas?” Damian echoes, unfazed by the shaking but bemused by the new piece of the puzzle his siblings refuse to explain properly, while Time, Duke, and Steph all go ‘Oh, shit!’ .
“Done.” Cass tells them calmly from her spot on top of the pool table, waving her cellphone as evidence before she reaches over and slaps Jason’s forearm, making him drop Damian.
Damian barely has time to regain his footing before he’s pulled by his sister and wrapped yet again in another hug, Cass’s arms curving over his front as she drops her chin on top of his head.
Damian resigns himself to his fate.
“Can I get an explanation now?” Damian practically pleads by now with a sigh, arms crossed over his chest, carefully not to disrupt his sister's hug.
“Uh, that’s our line,” Jason says, flicking at Damian’s forehead but without the usual strength. Damian still frowns out of habit. “Care to explain how you are alive in the first place?”
“I was kidnapped, not murdered .” Damian rolls his eyes. “I hardly understand what the fuss is all about —”
“Damian.” Tim cuts him off harshly and Damian blinks at the intensity he finds in his brother’s gaze when he meets his eyes. “We thought you were dead .”
Damian frowns as his stomach turns unpleasantly. “Why would you believe that?”
“Because the motherfucking kidnappers confessed about it and literally turned themselves in because they felt bad after they blew up a warehouse in Texas with you in it by accident!” Jason hisses, which explains nothing, and he groans into his hands when Damian only looks at him like he has grown two heads.
“But I wasn’t anywhere near Texas.”
“Yeah, clearly!” Jason snarks, a small glare peeking through his fingers.
“They actually misplaced me.” Damian corrects idly, looking around for any kind of snack near him he could get his hands on. “Fell down a river during one of their escapades and ended up in Oregon.”
A small silence falls on the room as they all process the words in their own time before Jason breaks it by cursing at the top of his lungs.
Damian sighs through his nose and gently breaks free from his sister's embrace to reach the plate of pastries he caught sight of earlier near the fireplace.
He lets his siblings ramble on and on about the different hypotheses they all come up with to make some sense of this entire ordeal. Damian raises his imaginary glass at them for the effort he had long ago had given up on and sits on the couch instead, making himself comfortable.
Now safely tucked in a corner of the couch, in his home, surrounded by half of his family, Damian allows himself to relax fully and let all of his anxiety and adrenaline slip out of his body as the arguing of his siblings lures him to sleep.
He wakes up hours later to the soft crying of his eldest brother and the relieved mumbles of his father, both of them holding him close in the second most awkward hug in history.
Damian goes with the stride and sighs with a smile.