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Fathers day wasn’t something the members of the Wayne mansion talked about. Not that any of them didn’t care for Bruce or even Alfred, but it just wasn’t something they cared to bring up. Most of the family had actual fathers outside of being adopted or taken in by Bruce, so the man never expected anything of them on this seemingly normal day. Most of the family members were well past the ages of making silly cards or even giving small nick-nacks they think Bruce may like, well all of them except Damian.
Damian wasn’t used to having a father figure, he didn’t have one for the first 10 years of his life. He never got to experience fathers day. Hearing people talk about what they do with their fathers on the weekends is hard when all you and your father do is fight crime. He wasn’t sure to talk about this when all his siblings must have dealt with the same issue as him, some of them had actual fathers that weren’t named Bruce Wayne.
At school he had teachers make comments about making cards or something that their father would like but he couldn’t even think of Bruce as his father with how little he saw him, with not knowing him, and then thinking he was dead and all. Sure, he tried, he made cards for Bruce but they all felt forced and insincere. He felt like Bruce wasn’t really his dad, yeah he was his ‘father’ but was he his dad?
~
Father's day continued to come closer and Damian still couldn’t make anything to give Bruce that he thought was worthy. What was he supposed to say to him in his stupid card anyways? Thanks for not wanting your son to live with you? Or how about how nice it felt to be treated horribly because he wasn’t as picture-perfect as Bruce always wanted? Damian just couldn’t happily writew “I wish you a Happy Fathers Day” on a card and right Bruces name on the front.
Now, there was someone Damian did look up to in a sort of fatherly/brotherly way. Grayson always treated him fairly, never treating him like he was a monster due to his upbringing. He didn’t know if it was appropriate to give Dick a gift for fathers day but when he tried writing a letter to the man it came off much easier than it did when he wrote to Bruce. So instead of writing a card for Bruce, he made one for Dick. The card he wrote was small, nothing too extravagant in Damian's opinion but he couldn’t wait to give it to Grayson.
~
The day of fathers day came quicker than Damian thought it would. He didn’t know how you were supposed to give Dick his gift so now here he was, standing outside of Dicks front door. The doorbell had already been rung and he could hear shuffling from the other side before it swung open, Dick standing on the other side with a confused expression on his face.
“Dams? What are you doing here?” He heard the older ask.
“Happy Fathers Day Grayson,” Damian replied shoving the card into Dicks hands.
Dick stood there in silence, confused about the words that came from Damian's mouth. He looked at the card and back towards Damian.
“Damian, what do you mean happy fathers day?” Dick asked quietly.
“I realized you have always been more ‘fatherly’ than father so for fathers day I made you a card, to thank you for everything,” Damian replied, looking at his shoes embarrassedly.
Dick didn’t say anything for a moment before speaking up. “Thank you for this Dams,” He said waterly, tearing up.
Damian nodded his head, still not looking up from his shoes before he felt himself being pulled into a hug. He hesitantly hugged Dick back, giving him an awkward pat.
“Thank you so much, Damian, you don’t know how much this means to me,” Dick whispered.
“Thank you for raising me when no one else would Grayson,” Damian whispered back, giving Dick a tight squeeze.