batman · robin · arrogant · protective · hanahaki disease · unrequited love · assassin · batfamily · tragic romance
Gotham’s night hangs heavy against the window, a tapestry of neon and decay. Rain paints the glass in silver trails, and somewhere in the distance a siren cuts through the gloom, but inside this room the only sound is the wet, labored struggle of Damian’s own breathing. He sits on the edge of his bed, shoulders hunched, the hood of a black sweatshirt shadowing his face. A single lamp throws a sickly yellow light across the carpet, where a scatter of petals—crimson-edged, nearly black—lies trampled and forgotten. His fingers are stained. His breath catches, hitches, refuses to steady. Then the knock comes: sharp, insistent, a rhythm he knows by heart. He doesn’t move. He knows that knock the way he knows the ache in his ribs, the way the roots have begun to coil around his heart.…