Batman plus one-shot

Dynamic Duo/Nightwing and Flamebird

Dynamic Duo/Nightwing and Flamebird

Dick had to be honest: he had been extremely afraid taking on Damian as his Robin. Bruce was dead, Tim was off the rails as far as he was concerned believing that he was alive, Cass was gone, Stephanie was who knows where most of the time, and Duke? Well, he was just trying his best on the day shift. No, Dick wasn't getting any help as Batman. Worse, Jason was in one of his 'rough patches' which meant the mantle of Batman - which he never wanted to begin with - was being contested.

And on top of all that, was Damian.

He was well trained, sure. Well trained to be a League of Shadows assassin that relied heavily on surprise and lethal tactics. There was other knowledge there too, but that was what he preferred, and what had become his first instinct. Bruce only had so much time with him before, well... Yeah.

And, as much as Dick hadn't thought of it in the moment, how much help would he have been able to offer? Damian was different from all of them in a big way. Fighting wise, but also...

Tim's beginnings were wholly not athletic, which was a complete one-eighty from Damian. Maybe that was the difference between them: a detective learning to fight, and a fighter learning to sleuth. Either way, the boys couldn't be more separate. Damian had a rigid routine that he followed to the letter every single day, and Tim had more of a sloping pattern to his weeks. Damian ate three meals at normal times, Tim rarely showed up to the table at all, just snacking the entire day.
Which meant that he missed one of the funniest things Dick had realized early on about Damian: he was insanely good at catching thrown food in his mouth. It had started out as one of his stories from back when he was a Titan, and ended with various breakfast cereals being hurled across the dining room. Damian swore up and down it never happened, but... That was one of Dick's first realizations that, underneath all of Ra's and Talia's training, this was still a normal eleven year old boy.

Stephanie was rarely around, considering how busy she was and how she and Damian got along, but if Dick had to guess their biggest difference, it was humor. She herself wasn't all smiles and rainbows, not even close. But if there was one thing Stephanie liked to do, it was being able to make a joke out of a situation. It was something Dick had appreciated with her as Robin: getting some of that humor back. But, for the most part, Damian tried to stay serious. Everything about him, from the scowl on his face to the way he clicked his tongue, was an imitation of either Bruce or Ra's... Neither of whom were really known for their incredible senses of humor. When he did try, the jokes tended to be, well... Rude.
But, over time, Dick had watched his sense of humor come a long way from the uptight little boy he started out with. At first he would have threatened death on anyone who made fun of him, but now? He had learned how to laugh at himself. It had taken a while for him to feel okay with laughing at all, and a long process, but hearing him try to suppress giggles on Friday movie nights? Was like music to Dick's ears.

Let alone Jason... Their upbringings almost couldn't have been more different. With how many stark contrasts there were between the two of them, their similarities almost stuck out in a more jarring way. Neither of them could back down from a challenge. Both of them thought in black and white boxes of good and evil, just with different definitions on the two. Neither one could stand an untidy room.
They never got along while Damian was Robin, sure, but once they were both a couple of former Robin's occasionally being stuck in Wayne Manor together? Dick had been amazed at what fast friends they were. And, as it turned out, they shared the same taste in Video Games. Go figure.

But, as a whole, when it came to being Robin...

"I do not feel the title suited me." Damian admitted, swinging his legs over the rooftop they sat on. "I fought for it at first, but... Promise you will not tell this to Drake?"