fandomtrash74 wants some overprotective damian and we do enjoy that here

also hi you can't escape birdflash and i let them know and they said yes so get fucked

also also i genuinely don't know what wally does for a living? i know at one point he was a police mechanic and a product testor but like...what does he do now? tbf i don't really read the flash comics so that doesn't help

EDIT: TW BLOOD

There was something around Dick Grayson that made people protective of him no matter their age. It'd been a trait of his from when he was little and continued throughout his life, including now when he was in his early twenties. Granted, most heroes had known him from being a little nine-year-old running around in shorts doing flips over the edges of buildings so he could see why they were protective. Though, it did surprise him when people younger than him were taking on the protective role everyone else had. So was everyone else for that matter. Damian was the most well known in his category mostly because his protective nature was so obvious. You couldn't even glance at Dick without the ex-assassin watching you carefully, a glare firmly setting on you. Dick was unsure of how it got to the point that it had. It felt like one day Damian wanted him dead but the next he would kill to keep him around. The only event he could think to trigger such a thing was looking after the boy after Bruce kicked the bucket. After then, they'd worked much more closely and spent so much time together that it almost felt right to be Batman. Almost. Still, it couldn't just be that but Dick didn't want to look into it any further. But why explain the fierce over-protectiveness he received from Damian when I could show you?

It was a typical rainy Gotham night. Batman and Robin were once again on the streets in search of criminals to stop and shared some light one-sided conversation. It was always one-sided, Batman doing all the work whilst Robin only replied when he was asked to, but it felt right that way. There was something funny about how the roles reversed. A chatty Batman and a silent Robin. By now, the regular convicts of Gotham knew there had been a change in titles. Some dared to bring it up and even fewer had the balls to try and take credit for it. All of these were swiftly dealt with in the harshest way possible. The previous owner of the Batman cowl had been a prick but neither the inheritor of the suit nor his protege were happy about his absence being brought up. "I'm thinking we go to Mama May's for coffee tonight. You've not been there before and it's better than Dunkin's stuff. You can't have too much though or you'll be up for days. Not that you'd need it to stay up that long. Hell just make me watch Saw again and I'll be up anyway. Never been good with that gore. Reminds me of the not so fun stuff I keep in the vault," Batman rambled aimlessly. He looked down to Robin to see how he was keeping up and found that he was a little closer upon the mention of the vault. He cackled softly at that but didn't bring attention to it. He'd learned not to point out when he noticed Robin do small things like that. It did make him laugh though. He reckoned that if the boy could, he'd be fighting the memories that kept Batman up at night and following him around during the day whenever he had a quiet moment. "Oh we should have a horror marathon! You'll be fine with it all and I might just prove how much of a wuss I am really. You can choose some and maybe we could let Alfred have the night off too so it's like a night off for everyone," he continued. He went to continue his thought but paused, the air suddenly knocked out of his lungs when he twisted his body in the wrong way. He instinctively grabbed his side which wasn't his smartest decision as it hurt more upon touching it. Robin shot him a concerned look and stopped, immediately scanning his eyes over him for whatever caused the pain. "I'm alright," Batman assured him.

"Is it your side again?" The older nodded. "How bad?"

"Nothing I can't handle. Just caught me out. Honestly, who would've thought a little stab wound would cause so much trouble."

"It was done with a serrated dagger and had poison on it. There is nothing little about it. This is your first patrol with it, perhaps there's still poison in your body that's being triggered by you overexerting yourself or you pulled some of your stitches," Robin theorised. Batman shook his head and tested how it would feel to move again. Finding that it didn't hurt as much, he looked to his partner with a confident smirk. 

"See? I must've just moved the wrong way. As long as I take it easy tonight I'll be right as rain. Now there's an odd phrase." Robin hummed, displeased at his concern being so easily shaken off and even more displeased when his hair was messed up by the older. "C'mon, we best be going. Our break isn't till one and the night is young. I heard Ivy is planning something so we may as well get ourselves warmed up." Again the younger let out a hum. "I'll be fine Robin."

"As long as I'm with you, you will be."

"Aww."

"Not aww. It's just a fact."

They were a few blocks down when Batman's side acted up again. His body kept tensing up with each new wave of pain which made it rather tricky when he was trying to make jumps over buildings only to crunch up in the middle. He'd nearly missed a jump or two but he was good at damage control and managed to not die. Though with Robin by his side, he doubted that the risk of death was something to worry about. On the last jump, he missed the edge completely but managed to grab onto the fire escape and caught himself before hitting the ground. He let out a cry of pain as the side he'd been stabbed on stretched out and he swore he could feel the stitches popping one by one. He let go and dropped to the floor, landing a little less gracefully than he'd prefer. "Grayson?" Robin called, artfully navigating the metal structures to get him down to the ground faster. The moves looked awfully similar but right now Batman was much too worried about the pain in his side to care about borrowed moves. "Are you okay? Is it your side?"

"Yep. Think I need a minute. Hey, do you remember me taking my painkillers? Or like any pills today?" he asked, the thought suddenly coming to mind. It hurt a lot but he'd had similar injuries in the past and the only one that hurt as much was that one infected one he got four years ago thanks to him forgetting to take his medication. In his defence...he didn't have a defence he just forgot where he put them and then forgot to look. 

"Not today no. I did tell you to take them before I got dressed as did Pennyworth twenty minutes before we left."

"Uh. I don't think I took them."

"How long do you think you've not been taking them?" Batman thought for a moment then shrugged. "Have you been checking it at least?" 

"I mean not really? The bandages are in the way," he replied. "But my body is usually fine."

"Usually doesn't mean always. That is very evident."

"Meh. Suppose this might bench me after tonight."

"After?" Robin repeated with a scowl. He folded his arms across his chest and with that one motion Batman knew there was no reasoning with the younger. He was the personification of the phrase you can lead a horse to water but you can't make it drink. Batman could try to reason with him and point out how Gotham needed to see Batman regularly before death rumours were thrown around but Robin would hit back with being perfectly capable of taking over and that if he had to be benched for injuries so did his brother. 

"Robinnn," Batman whined. 

"I'd rather you not die from a silly infection you refused to take care of."

"Hey! You know I forget."

"Exactly which is why I reminded you. I shouldn't have to make you take your medication like a mother would a child," he snapped. "And stand up will you. If you haven't caught something already, you'll definitely get it sitting on the dirty floor of an alley."

"I'm wearing a full-body suit!"

"And with your luck, you'll somehow manage to catch something. On your feet."

"If you two are quite done, I'd very much like to kill you."

The pair snapped their heads towards the voice and found Poison Ivy standing in a doorway of one of the buildings, her vines at the ready. Robin scowled at her and looked to Batman who was scrambling to his feet. "I heard you're injured, Batman. On your side, I do believe?" A vine suddenly shot out and attempted to jab him in the side but luckily he managed to dodge it. He cartwheeled out the way as Robin went in for the attack. He grabbed his escrima stick and pressed the button to extend it. As he did, a second vine was sent towards him but he managed to jump on top of it and put the sharp end of his stick - which Batman wasn't entirely happy about but caved and let him have it - through the vine. Poison Ivy huffed loudly at him killing one of her beloved plant babies and threw one at him which he annoyingly dodged. Whilst she was busy with Robin, she left one vine spare to deal with the injured Batman. She doubted he'd be able to fight so he'd stay on the defensive until he got too tired which would be when she'd take her chance at getting rid of one of the two people currently plaguing her existence. She was right of course. Batman stayed on the defensive until he got too tired at which point it was already too late. "Hey Robin, your mentor definitely isn't meta right?" she asked with a smile.  Immediately Robin shot a look at Batman who had a vine wrapped around his waist lifting him off the ground. The situation wasn't made much better by the fact that the vine was tight in the place his stab wound was. This would be one hell of a recovery and the younger was going to spend every minute of it saying I told you so. You'd think a grown man would remember to take the medication that would keep him working. Maybe this was his idea of calling in sick only he was actually sick. It would be one weird way to get holidays but to each their own. 

"I'm sensing this is going to end badly for me," Batman quipped as he struggled against the plant's hold. He couldn't get to his utility belt either which he very much needed. Robin went to help but was overwhelmed by multiple vines looking to stand in the way of himself and his mentor. Big mistake but what did they know? They were plants. 

"I always did wonder if you could fly. How about we test the theory?" Ivy announced, her smug smirk growing as the vine holding the hero reeled back. He took a deep breath as it did and came to the conclusion that this would hurt like hell. Even more so if he survived being thrown. He guessed from the angle and the strength of the rather thick vine that he was going to go about a block down and hopefully land on a rooftop. Emphasis on the hopefully. 

"How about we go through a hypothesis first and see if this is ethical?" Batman responded, wiggling and thrashing but ultimately getting nowhere. Well, he was getting somewhere but he had his own desired destination which was the ground. He braced himself and felt the wind rush against his face as the tightness from around his waist released. Whilst in mid-air he tried to remember if you were supposed to curl up or layout flat. Then he remembered literally only a handful of people had been thrown like this and an even smaller number weren't meta and an even smaller number had- too late the gravel rooftop was already too close. 

Robin watched helplessly as Batman was flung and cringed when he heard his body hit the gravel. His teeth gritted together as his initial shock turned into blind fury. He attacked the vines, slicing them down effortlessly and turned his attention to Poison Ivy who was laughing. She seemed quite pleased with herself which didn't help Robin's unbridled anger. He tightened his grip on his escrima stick and began running at her with a cry of rage. She turned to him and her eyes widened as she saw that expression now villain wanted to see. Granted, she knew she'd get something similar when she decided to chuck his mentor a good block away but she'd aimed for the roof! How was that not worth some mercy? She swung her arm, sending a flurry of vines to protect her but they were all cut down immediately. Ivy reeled back and went running back inside when something was thrown at her feet. A gas suddenly consumed everything in her immediate area and burned her eyes as well as her throat. It clouded her surroundings with a thick grey fog which didn't help her already hindered sight. In a pinch, she created a large wall of thick bamboo and tried to recollect herself. "You brat! Such a cheap trick!" she yelled out in frustration. She probably should've known better than to mess with the overprotective little shit. Harley had warned her that he was worse now than he ever had been. Harley did have a tendency to over-exaggerate though but it seemed this was one of the very few occasions she was telling the truth. Shit. She hoped that the no-kill rule was still in place because that was about the only thing that would save her ass. She tried to listen out for the hero stalking her but he was silent. He was either not moving or, more worryingly, he was just that light on his feet. "Where are you?" she growled. "Did you run off to save your Batman? It was so easy to get the better of him. Maybe he's simply not worthy of the title." She barely finished her taunt before the sharp end of an escrima stick suddenly broke through her strong plant barriers and straight into her shoulder. Ivy let out a yell of pain and fell to the ground, clutching the weapon now lodged in her body. Robin's green combat boot kicked through the vegetation and he took hold of his weapon. He stepped on the woman's chest and pushed the escrima stick in further until it went all the way through. He seemed to enjoy her cries and helpless squirming but stopped for a moment as though he'd heard or remembered something. He tutted and kept his boot firmly pressed against the villain. 

"Touch him like that again and it'll prove to be your downfall. Understand?" he asked gruffly.

"Fuck- fine! Just get off me you crazed bastard," she snapped back. 

"Count your days," Robin muttered. He pressed a button and the stick retracted into its more compatible form. He returned it to its place on his utility belt and admired his handiwork. "Follow me and you'll meet your end tonight." He finally got off Ivy's chest and immediately set off in the direction of his mentor. Ivy sat there for a moment. This Robin was protective and he was only a child. They'd have to keep an eye on him.

"Where is he?" Wally exclaimed as he entered the Batcave. He'd seen Batman's presence suddenly disappear after reportedly "being thrown across a street" and he feared the worse when he couldn't get a hold of him either. Alfred had been cleaning when the speedster ran in but couldn't quite understand his urgency. Then again, he never really got why any of the speedsters went around with such urgency. He was sure he remembered a time when Wally broke the sound barrier to get a cookie. 

"I presume you mean Master Dick?" he asked. Wally nodded eagerly. "He's upstairs recovering as he has been for the last few days. Were you not contacted?"

"No, I wasn't," Wally stated bitterly.

"How odd. I'm sure I told Master Damian to tell you. Though this does explain your absence at Master Dick's bedside," the butler thought aloud. It was then they both realised his mistake. He left Damian in charge of contacting someone he considered potential threats or more accurately someone he saw as competition for Dick's attention. Alfred sighed to himself, disappointed that he never followed up on his request, and made a mental note to talk about it later. "My apologies. Master Dick is staying in his bedroom but I doubt he'll be awake. He's on a rather large amount of pain medication at the moment and that's always made him drowsy. I trust you remember your way around?" 

"I do. Thanks, Alfred," the ginger replied. He sprinted up the stairs that would lead to the ground floor of the mansion and from there rushed up the stairs with Dick's room as his goal. Even though the butler hadn't mentioned anything serious other than saying he was on a lot of pain medication, he still feared for his acrobat. Wally swung open the door and only just about caught it before it could slam against anything and his eyes soon fell on Dick's sleeping form. He cringed upon seeing the deep grazes on the smaller's skin and the number of pill bottles sitting on the cabinet next to the bed. He quickly found a seat in the armchair facing the bed and carefully reached over to hold his hand. He moved closer to get a better look and frowned as he counted the grazes that were scattered around the acrobat's body. He supposed it was to be expected since he'd heard through the news a few nights back that he'd been thrown a fair distance but seeing it was something different to thinking about it. His touch made Dick stir and open an eye for a moment then shot up upon seeing a ginger blob. No one who was ginger lived with him. Upon sitting upright so instantly, he caused pain to rivet through his body and let out a pained whine. "It's alright Dickie. It's just me," Wally assured him. 

"Sorry. Half asleep," he mumbled, letting himself be laid back down. He gratefully accepted the kiss on his forehead he received though it didn't really dull the world of pain he'd put himself in. "Finally get off work then?"

"What? I took that week off remember?" Dick quirked an eyebrow at that.

"But Damian said you'd been called in and given work? That's why you weren't coming here for a while?"

"Damian has a bit of a fibbing problem. I wasn't even contacted about what happened," Wally explained. "I'm sorry though. Should've known something was up as soon as the news said you'd been thrown but you know how Gotham media can overexaggerate."

"Nope, I was really thrown. Yote so to speak. Yeeted maybe?"

They were joking about the days of Vine when the troublemaker that was Damian walked in with a roll of bandages. He scowled upon seeing the uninvited guest and coughed obnoxiously to announce his presence. "I see we have a visitor," he stated coldly. He glared at Wally as he took the spot closest to the acrobat, giving him an expectant look. Dick swiftly sat back up uncomfortably, going slower than last time to ease the transition, and let him get to work changing his bandages. 

"I can do that Damian. I'm sure you have many more important things to do," Wally suggested with a pointed tone. He didn't like the kid being so close to Dick and being so overbearing with protecting him. Everyone knew Dick thrived when he was around people, especially his boyfriend Wally, so it was well known that he needed those people when he was recovering. They found it kept him occupied and an occupied Dick was a Dick that wouldn't randomly decide he was completely fine only to collapse about half an hour later. Yet Damian refused to tell him what was happening and could've jeopardised Dick's whole recovery! Well, not the whole recovery but it sure felt that way to the ginger. 

"I'm quite capable of doing it," the younger snapped.

"Play nice Dami. You're in trouble as it is for not telling him about what happened," Dick reminded him though his tone was lighter than it should be. At least in Wally's opinion. The medicine was probably mellowing him out or he knew being mad wouldn't go anywhere. Especially not right now when Damian was changing his bandages and could easily hurt him if he wanted to. 

"Pennyworth and I have this handled. He didn't need to know," he argued. 

"I'm his boyfriend for God's sake. I deserve to know what happens! He's got other people in his life, not just you," Wally snapped. He sat back in the chair with his arms folded and pouted. He was going to make sure once he gets Dick alone he'll stay alone. No more bringing Damian along on date night because he needed the time out. Nope. The kid could sit alone in the Manor. "You're so overbearing."

"Wally," Dick said in a low warning tone. The taller looked at him exasperatedly and threw his hands up dramatically before swinging them back to hit the chair with a loud thud. The two bats stared at him unamused, glancing at one another and then back at him.

"What so I get the intimidating voice for pointing out he's too overprotective but he gets your telling off a puppy voice for keeping me in the dark about my own boyfriend?" the speedster whined. 

"He gets a pass because he's a child. You don't because you're a grown man jealous of him. You know I love you so you don't need to worry about him," Dick pointed out as the younger finished up his work. He nodded to himself, happy with the now crisp white bandages and put the bloodied ones in a bag to put in the biohazard bin downstairs. Was it necessary? No, but they didn't like to risk things and they could hear Leslie screaming in their heads every time they thought about throwing them in the regular bin. 

"Besides, I'm actually helping you. I'm keeping Grayson safe after all," Damian said confidently.

"Smothering him more like."

"I can't help it if I don't want to lose him as I did my Father," he barked back. 

Wally tensed up at that response and pressed his back against the chair, hoping it would swallow him up. He wanted that even more when he got a thunderous look from his boyfriend. Definitely in the dog house for that one. "Aww Dami, come here," Dick called, opening his arms up. Damian put his supplies to the side and gladly accepted the hug. Only he didn't accept the hug for comfort.  "I'm not going anywhere anytime soon." Damian turned his face to the ginger and gave him a smug wink. Wally stared at him in contempt. This kid brought a nuke to a knife fight and he knew it. Great. He was dealing with overprotective Bruce again but now in the form of a child with the capability to lie with perfection and the knowledge to kill him then make it look like an accident.