Coup De Grace | D. Wayne

[21] The Art Of Matchmaking

An awkward silence lingered between Damian and Ember as he took her to the room Alfred had prepared for her beforehand. He knew which room it was because it coincidentally happened to be on the same floor as his, a coincidence that he was certain Tim had something to do with.

He would deal with Tim later, he reminded himself, pushing open the door to the room and placing Ember's bag by the wall.

"This is your room," he remarked in a slightly stiff voice, "if you need anything, my room is across the corridor. There."

She nodded, looking in the direction he had pointed, "Thank you. I appreciate the hospitality you all have shown to me even though it was so short notice."

He didn't know what to say to that but replied with what he thought could pass off as a decent response, "It's no issue."

The silence took hold of them again and though Damian knew he should leave, he felt as if his feet were rooted to the threshold, refusing to let him go.

"Mister Wayne, is there anything I should know about staying here?"

"Pardon?"

She elaborated, "I mean... Every family has their set of rules and I don't want to cause you any inconvenience whatsoever."

Damian thought about it before replying, "With the family I live in, we should be the ones more worried about causing you inconvenience."

"I don't think so, your family seems lovely," a slight smile graced her features at last.

"You've only met the decent one of my brothers," Damian shrugged nonchalantly, "but don't fall for Richard's professionalism. He can be a wreck on some days... Most days."

She had probably not expected him to be so open about his own brother's behavior. "Oh... And what about the others?"

"The others? Don't even get me started. You're a journalist, you would know half of the atrocities my family gets into," he remarked but that conversation had worked on breaking the ice between them.

"If you say so," she laughed softly, taking her bag from the door where Damian had placed it earlier. He instinctively stepped back, catching a faint whiff of her familiar perfume.

It reminded him of how she had hugged him out of sheer relief at the Gotham Daily's office when they had saved her from getting abducted. He hadn't been able to get rid of that strange feeling that had settled in the bottom of his heart ever since.

"Though I've always wondered whether all that we hear about you guys in the press is true or just an exaggeration."

"Depends on which story and which Wayne you're talking about. If it's anything about Drake, no matter how ridiculous it seems, it will most definitely be true."

He was right in that sense. She knew from personal experience that most of the things the press said about the youngest Wayne were just baseless assumptions.

He was stiff but not intimidating, at least not to her. His words were always calculated as if he used them sparingly due to some kind of daily word count that he shouldn't exceed. But he wasn't hostile or menacing as the press often liked to describe him. And so far, he had only been much nicer than she had expected.

"Dinner will be laid out soon," he spoke up, breaking the silence that had gripped them again. Knowing it had been long since he had brought her upstairs and his brothers might be already placing bets on the two, he took a step outside her room, indicating that he was going to leave. "If you want to have it here by yourself, I can ask Alfred to-"

"No, it's alright," she replied but then added quickly, "I mean, please don't make any exceptions for me. I'll just come downstairs, no problem."

"Right. Take the staircase and come straight to the first floor. The noisiest room there will be the dining room."

She nodded with a smile, "Okay. Thank you."

He didn't reply but gave her a look of acknowledgement then stepped out at last, closing the door behind him.

Something about her made his heart skip a beat.

Just a beat, nothing too serious or so he thought.

***

"Ten minutes and thirty seconds," Tim spoke up, right in time to see Damian walking towards them. Seeing him, a teasing smirk spread on his face, "So were you giving her a tour of the house or something?"

"No."

"It took you longer than we expected."

"You know a tour of the Manor takes half an hour at least," Damian remarked, ignoring him because he was well aware that Drake was going to annoy the hell out of him.

"But still, it doesn't take ten minutes to just go up to your floor and come back."

Richard intervened before Tim's remarks could cause a deadly feud, "Tim, leave it be. We have a guest with us tonight, behave."

"What? I'm on my best behavior," Tim replied, flashing a bright smile. His spectacles were slightly askew and the thermos beside him had been refilled for what seemed like the fourth time.

That once, Damian shot him a glare, "Drake, you are a disgrace."

"I know. Thank you," his smile only widened, the caffeine high starting to settle in. 

Whenever Tim consumed a lot of coffee alarmingly higher than his daily dosage, his mood would instantly soar on cloud nine. But neither of his family members was happy to see him like that because when the effects would finally wear off, he would lapse into an even worse state than usual. It happened almost twice every week despite Steph and Damian's threats to forcefully make him cut down on his caffeine intake. 

In a while, dinner was laid out and Ember had come downstairs to join them as well. Steph immediately took her under her wing, getting her to feel comfortable with them even though they had just met each other for the first time.

Damian felt grateful that Tim wasn't functional enough to befriend Ember just yet because highly caffeinated Tim Drake was certainly not the best person to talk to. And considering the extent of how much he knew about Damian's predicament regarding the redhead reporter, it was safer for him if he kept Tim away from her lest he said something inconvenient.

But he couldn't keep himself away from Ember for long as after dinner, Steph suggested that he should show her the gardens as well as take her to see Titus. 

Damian couldn't help but think that his family was being far too obvious in their attempts to set them up together. They should know better than to take every chance they could to send Damian off with her, she might get suspicious and it could end up embarrassing him as well.

But he couldn't object to their suggestion as moments after, he found himself outside in the Wayne Manor's gardens accompanied by their guest.

At that rate, Damian wasn't even sure whether Richard had suggested Ember to stay at the Manor for her safety or it was just a ploy set up by all of them together to play matchmakers.

***