Chapter Text
Jon is 13 [] Damian is 15
Emma was pretty, Jon knew that, everyone knew that.
Kathy had once told Jon that Emma was the prettiest girl at the school, and Jon had agreed.
She was very pretty, with pretty blonde hair and pretty green eyes.
She was nice to look at.
But her hair was a bit too blonde for Jon to be attracted to her, and her eyes weren’t green enough for him to want to get lost in them.
Then she asked him on a date, and since Jon was terrible at saying no, he said yes, and soon they were dating.
Now, when expressing his worries because he “didn’t love her” to his mom, Lois had replied saying that “You don’t have to love her, you’re still young and learning, you don’t need to love right now,” and so, Jon had taken that to heart and he hadn’t worried so much anymore.
He was on another date with her, they were at a small café and Jon was having a good time, Emma was pretty and nice, and she liked animals.
She was fun to talk to.
Then he heard it.
Damian’s heart, it was normally pretty calm, even in fights it didn’t start beating too wildly, but right now, it was beating around erratically and Jon immediately tensed.
“I’m sorry Emma, I forgot I had to do something.” and then Jon was rushing out of the café, leaving a couple of crumpled up bills at the table for Emma to pay with when she’s done. He couldn’t stay behind.
Not when Damian needed his help.
It had been a year now, and Emma had stuck around a lot longer than Jon expected, he’s happy though, Emma was nice and she felt more like a friend than a girlfriend so he didn’t mind.
But she had recently started pestering him about meeting Damian—who was his best friend who he apparently won’t shut up about—so Jon let them meet.
Emma was standing in a sundress that went to her mid-thigh, it was a very nice yellow colour that brought out the colour in her eyes and reminded him of Damian and the yellow robot’s they had taken down just yesterday.
“Jonathan,” Damian said, coming up behind him and Jon bit back a grin at his smooth voice.
He spun on his heel, hugging Damian — who didn’t even pretend to not like the hug as he rested his head on the younger’s shoulder.
“Dami!” Jon giggled, completely forgetting everything about Emma as he inhaled the smell of the fabric softener Alfred used.
Emma awkwardly coughed, and the two bows separated looking only slightly embarrassed.
“Damian, this is Emma, Emma, this is Damian,” Jon quickly introduced the two, subtly using his X-ray vision on Damian to see if he was hurt, frowning as he noticed the stitches in his shoulder.
“Don’t give me that look,” Damian said, poking the space between Jon’s brows.
“What look?” He asked, only blushing slightly at being caught.
“The look you get when you’re trying to see right through me and you find something concerning,” Damian said, and his voice was so calm and normal while he said it that Jon almost laughed.
“I just worry,” Jon mumbled, gently touching Damian’s right shoulder, where the stitches were.
“I’m fine,” Damian promised, gently holding Jon’s hand as the younger pouted.
“You two must be very close,” Emma awkwardly said, trying to insert herself into the conversation.
“I have known Jonathan since he was ten, he has not changed much,” Damian said, a confident smirk finding its way onto his features.
“Liar!” Jon said, lightly smacking the older who just grinned at him.
“That’s great.” she smiled, but it was obviously strained, “I’m Jon’s girlfriend,” she said.
And Jon had almost forgotten about that, it’s not that he didn’t know , it’s just… he had gotten so used to just thinking of her as a friend that he had forgotten they were supposed to be romantically involved.
“Congratulations, I am sure Jonathan has been an acceptable boyfriend,” Damian responded, raising an eyebrow in amusement as he looked at her.
She was shorter than both of them, and also much more fragile, Damian could kill her within seconds and so could Jon. It was almost funny, the way she was trying to make herself look bigger, the way she tried to make her voice sound confident as she pulled rank over Damian. Not that she was in any way above him.
“He is more than acceptable,” she said, smirking now, “I’m sure you know what I mean,”
Damian almost laughed, having to cover it up with a cough as Jon went completely red, moving to hide his face in Damian’s shoulder.
“That’s… great, really,” Damian said, voice oozing amusement and disbelief as he looked at her.
Jon almost felt bad for her.
Emma hadn’t lasted for long after that, they broke up a week later with her saying that “she wasn’t being put first” or something like that, Jon wasn’t really listening, Damian was out as Robin and they had encountered the Joker so he was much more focused on that than anything else really.
When he told his mom they had broken up she had been confused.
“I didn’t know you were still together,” she had said, and he had shrugged saying that he honestly forgot too.
Jon is 15 [] Damian is 17
Cynthia was different from Emma, she was smart and cute and had black hair and brown eyes.
Her hair was almost the same colour as Damian’s and it confused Jon a lot when he would see her from behind and walk a little faster to meet up with Damian just to get disappointed when he realised that it wasn’t him.
He wished she would grow it out so he wouldn’t be as confused.
She had quickly become friends with Kathy, which Jon was happy about.
Kathy was one of his best friends and very important in his life.
He had made plans to introduce Cynthia to his parents that weekend and had invited Damian to come join them because he was a huge part of Jon’s life.
There was a knock on the door and Jon hurried to be the one to open it, and standing there, bundled up in a big coat, gloves and a scarf, was Cynthia.
She smiled brightly as Jon welcomed her inside, kissing her on the cheek as he did so which made both of them blush.
Yeah, this relationship was much more serious than Emma.
He showed her around the living room, pointing out the couch he had helped pick out and the wall that he had run (flown) into as a kid.
Then he went into the kitchen and introduced Cynthia to his mother.
“Mom, this is Cynthia, my girlfriend,” Jon said, a smile on his lips as he saw his mom stop what she was doing to look over at them.
“Oh, hello,” she said, sounding almost suspicious.
“Hello Mrs. Kent,” Cynthia said.
Then the conversation kinda just fell flat, his dad came in and there was the same awkward greeting as he also looked at her suspiciously before a knock was heard.
“I’ll get it!” Jon quickly said, running towards the door (and if it was a bit faster than any normal human was able to run, then no one needed to know that) he could hear his parents laughing behind him at his excitement.
“Jon always gets this excited when Damian is coming,” Lois told Cynthia as the two girls set the table.
“I’ve heard a lot about him,” Cynthia said, fiddling with her sleeves as she took in deep breaths.
Lois didn’t get to respond as Jon came into the room, holding onto Damian’s wrist as he pulled the older boy into the room.
“Cynthia, this is Damian, Damian, meet Cynthia,” Jon introduced them to each other, staying by Damian’s side.
“Hello Cynthia,” Damian said, shaking her hand, she was slightly star-struck as she stared at Damian Wayne who was somehow best friends with her boyfriend.
“Hi,” she said, voice weak as she stared at the celebrity.
“Mom made pie,” Jon gushed, pulling Damian towards the table and down so they could sit next to each other, leaving Cynthia to sit beside Lois and in front of Damian.
“So, Damian, how has school been?” Clark started, sending the salad around the table.
“Fine, my classmates are all dolts and I honestly don’t see the point in staying there.” he scowled.
“Come on Dami, you don’t mean that,” Jon said, patting his hand reassuringly.
“Of course I do, the fools couldn’t tell the difference between Shakespeare and Picasso!” he said, genuinely frustrated as the Kents burst out laughing, Cynthia weakly joining in.
“I’m sure they’re not that bad,” Lois said, smiling a soft smile that only came from years of getting to know and growing attached to a person.
“They are,” his scowl deepened, “I’d rather go driving with Jonathan than be around them,” his face was completely neutral as he said it, and it made the Kent’s burst out laughing again as Jon grew red in the face.
“Hey! I did okay!” he weakly argued.
“No, you didn’t, Todd still hasn’t stopped talking about the dent you made on his motorcycle,” Damian said.
“This is why most of your sleepovers are here, we can’t afford to replace everything in the manor just because you were being reckless Jon,” Clark said, his voice seemed serious but there was a hint of mirth in his eyes.
“Dick has already destroyed everything in the whole place,” Jon muttered, aggressively stabbing his fork through a tomato.
They continued talking like that for a while until Lois remembered that Cynthia existed.
“So, how did you and Jon meet?” Lois asked, Cynthia looked a little grateful to finally be included in the conversation and Lois grimaced as she realised they had been ignoring the poor girl in favour of talking about Damian and his newest animal sanctuary.
“We share the same history class, and he was really cute so I asked him out,” she said, grinning at the thought of their first date.
“I can’t imagine how he could impress you in a history class,” Damian said, and Lois laughed.
“I’ve gotten good!” Jon defended, even if it was a pretty weak defence.
“I knew more about world history at three than you do now,” Damian deadpanned.
“I’m sorry Jon, but even I knew more about earth’s history at three than you do,” Clark said, and there was definitely something Cynthia was missing here, judging by the way the rest laughed and how Jon’s ears started burning red.
“I am glad he has found someone who doesn’t judge him for his lack of knowledge.” Damian finished the last of the salad on his plate and smiled at Cynthia.
“Jon is very smart, probably one of the smartest at our school,” Cynthia said, and it shocked Damian to not see any hint of a lie on her features as she said it, like she truly believed it to be true.
“See Dami! I’m pretty smart for a normal person, it’s just that not everyone can be a genius like you,” Jon said, bumping his shoulder with the other.
“I have upwards of ten siblings and they could all beat you in a knowledge-based quiz. Clearly, if even my siblings can beat you, everyone can be a genius,” Damian said, leaning into Jon’s personal space so there was only a couple centimetres between them.
Cynthia felt a bit like she was intruding on their moment as they seemed to have a staring contest.
Then she remembered that Jon was her boyfriend, and they were just friends.
So why did they seem so intimate? Why were they moving and working like they were one entity, when Jon had almost dropped his fork Damian caught it without looking away from Lois whom he had been having a conversation with. Why were Clark and Lois looking at each other knowingly like they were watching their son and son-in-law bicker?
Something ugly started twisting inside of Cynthia’s stomach as she realised why they had looked at her like she wasn’t supposed to be there.
It was because she wasn’t.
Because Jon had never been single.