Work Text:
Damian tried everything he could to get out of going. Unfortunately for him, Alfred Pennyworth is not an easy man to fool. Many people would question if it was even possible to.
“I thought you said you weren’t coming on the field trip?” Maps asked.
“Pennyworth emailed the school when he did not receive the permission slip.” Damian had thrown away the slip almost immediately after the teacher passed them out. He had hoped if he didn’t say anything about it, no one would give permission for him to go.
“Yes!” She cheered. Damian rolled his eyes. Maps went on to ramble about the field trip and
Damian tuned her out.
Of all places, they had to go on a field trip to Wayne Enterprises. The worst part of it all was his siblings knew about it. If Damian knew his siblings at all, which he did, they were going to do something dumb.
Escaping was the only thing on his mind as the bus pulled in front of WE.
Damian and Maps were sat in the back of the bus. He had hoped being the last one off would help him blend in with his classmates. He did not consider who might end up being the tour guide for the class.
Dick saw Damian step off the bus and make an attempt at blending into the crowd of freshmen. A grin took over the acrobat’s face as he sprinted across the room, scooping Damian off the ground in a hug.
Damian’s classmates watched in horror, a few taking several large steps back. Dick set Damian back down, aggressively ruffling his hair for good measure. “Damian!” He cried.
Damian smacked away Dick’s hand with a glare. “Don’t touch me.” He growled.
Dick didn’t ignored Damian, instead opting to ruffle his little brother’s hair again. “Cute.” He commented. The entire class froze. After a solid minute passed, shocked whispers broke out.
“Did Damian Wayne just let someone live after they touched him?” One of the kids asked.
“That guy did not just call him cute and survive! ” Another exclaimed.
Dick fought not to laugh at what he heard. He instead opted to act like he heard nothing. He waited until the other bus had finished unloading to take another jab at the carefully constructed reputation Damian had built with the students at Gotham Academy. Not difficult with a name drop. “Anyway! I’m Dick Grayson-Wayne, I’ll be one of your tour guides today-”
“One of them?” Damian cut in angrily. Dick continued ignoring him. Like a misbehaving cat.
“-obviously this is the lobby, over at the desk here is Hasam. This man has put up with misbehaving Wayne children for over a decade and is still here!”
Hasam didn’t stop typing as he responded in a monotone voice. “Always good entertainment.”
“Into the elevators, children! It will have to make a couple trips.” Dick announced.
The freshmen were whispering amongst themselves about how Damian Wayne was evidently soft for his older brother.
Dick waited until everyone was off the elevators before continuing the tour. “This is the primary floor for the Wayne Foundation where-”
“Where you already know its purpose unless you’re new, or you live under a rock.” A man with a white forelock and a biker jacket cut in.
“Why are you here?” Damian yelled.
“Why not?” The man replied with a smirk.
“And this is where I pass you on to a tour guide more familiar with this area!” Dick announced before turning to Jason and Damian. “Play nice.”
Damian made a series of noises the older brothers elected to ignore.
“Right. I’m Jason Todd-Wayne-”
“Isn’t he supposed to be dead?” A girl closer to the front of the crowd asked her friend. She evidently did not mean to ask as loud as she did seeing how her face turned bright red once everyone turned to look at her.
“I got better.” Jason answered, completely deadpan.
Outside of making a few jokes at Damian’s expense, Jason actually took the tour pretty seriously. Despite his earlier comment, he explained the purpose and basic functions of the different Wayne Foundation charities.
“Next we are going to walk to the elevators and move on to the biotech portion of the tour.” Jason sighed, sounding completely bored of the situation.
Jason didn’t get on the elevators with the school. He gave Damian a half-hearted wave as the doors slid shut before pulling out his phone to punch in a phone number.
“Are you serious?” Damian hissed under his breath once the elevator opened.
A teenager sitting on a desk snapped his head up. “Oh, hi, Damian?”
“Thomas.” Damian huffed.
“I’m only here ‘cause I got blackmailed by Jason. And I needed help with my homework. I’m not the tour guide.” Duke had his hands raised in surrender.
He huffed again, arms crossed and eyebrows pinched together in a truly impressive glare.
“I’ll just- uh, go get her!” Duke scrambled off the desk, sprinting into a nearby unlocked office. A moment later, an actual employee left the room and continued with the tour.
Damian thought it was finally over. He thought maybe it was only the three siblings that decided to make the field trip more miserable than he had prepared for. Then the tour went on to the Wayne Tech branch.
A wave of horror crashed over him the moment the elevator doors opened. Right in front of the elevator is the conference room. The conference room with glass doors and walls.
On the large monitor, in plain view, was Bruce Wayne talking to a room full of board members. Board members that included his third oldest brother, the CEO of WE.
Damian tried to turn around and go right back on the elevator. In doing so, he almost ran into his only sister, Cassandra. She only said one thing. “No.”
Damian slowly turns back around, making eye contact with Tim. Tim opens the glass double doors, inviting the high schoolers into the room.
“Damian! There’s my wonderful youngest son!” Bruce cheered. Not only was he on “Brucie” mode, he was also more sleep deprived than usual.
Damian tsks and turns up his nose. Then he spoted movement in the back corner of the room. "What are you doing here?" He yelled.
"I was invited. I was also offered free food." Jon shrugged.
“How’s my baby brother?” Tim cooed. Maps was trying not to laugh.
The two boys might have improved their relationship, but Damian was still Damian. Meaning Tim was probably dead.
One of the other freshman boys snickered. “Yeah, how is little baby Damian doing?”
Tim turned to look the boy in the eyes. A terrifying sight considering Tim had just recovered from the flu, making him a sickly looking pale man with red eyes and more muscle tone than someone recovering from the flu should have. The young CEO leaned in, whispering quietly enough the teacher couldn’t hear. “When he kicks your ass in one of the empty offices, they’ll never find the security footage.”
Damian would have to write his entire family's obituaries, excluding Alfred and Cass. He respected Alfred too much, and he could never win a fight against Cass. He decided next field trip, he'll just skip.