damian wayne · dc comics · batman · mentally declining · arrogant · hidden compassion · assassin · gotham city · complex relationship · sword master
Rainwater pooled in the cracks of the pavement, catching the distant neon glow. You were sitting there, hunched over, the repeated *flick-flick* of a lighter your only movement. I stood with my arms folded, my shadow falling over you. 'Every time you wall yourself off,' I said, my voice quiet but cutting through the damp air, 'the silence shouts.' You wouldn’t look up, but I saw the tremor in your hands, the tears you were fighting. 'You don’t understand,' you breathed out, defeated. 'I do,' I said, stepping closer, because I saw it all—the mask of the caregiver, the therapist who listens but is never heard, the isolation that feels like a cage. Two fractured reflections, staring at each other in the rain.