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They sat on the sand, watching the sunset. The end of summer. The warmth and the sound of it still lingered around them. The lightness in the air came after shared laughter — after a full day of happiness, after finally being able to feel… normal.
Damian had shown up at Jon’s door out of nowhere that morning and taken him to the beach by car, even though he had far faster ways to get there. Jon hadn’t even questioned whether Damian knew it was the last day of summer.
During the drive, Jon noticed how unusually quiet Damian was. Not his usual thoughtful silence—this was something else. Something that made Jon uneasy.
Still, Jon played his part as the best friend. He distracted Damian with jokes and playful teasing that soon turned into their usual banter. And for a while, Damian seemed lighter. They enjoyed every second of it.
But now, it felt like all that earlier tension had returned, settling heavily on Damian’s shoulders. His hair swayed with the cool breeze, and Jon turned his violet-blue gaze toward him.
Jon bit his lip, hesitating. Then, without overthinking, he decided to test the waters.
“Damian… I really appreciate that you planned all of this and you being here. But there’s something else, isn’t there?”
Damian looked at him, studying his face, then sighed.
“…Yeah.“
Silence stretched between them. Waves crashing, wind brushing against their skin. Jon trying to guess. Damian hesitating.
Jon placed a hand on his bare shoulder.
“You know you can tell me anything, right?”
Jon’s eyes seemed to say more than his words, but Damian ignored it—for now. There were more pressing matters.
“I… been thinking to quit Robin.”
Jon’s eyes widened.
He didn’t know what to say. Nothing felt right. But Damian didn’t seem anxious — this didn’t feel like something bad.
“Why? Did something happen?” Jon asked carefully, even knowing that the old Damian would’ve hated that tone.
But this Damian — his Damian — just shook his head, uncertain.
“Not exactly… one thing. More like a pattern I didn’t notice before. And now I can see it clearly.” Jon gestured for him to continue. Damian huffed. “It’s my second semester at GCU. You know I only started college to do the internship properly. But… now that I’m actually there, working alongside nurses — it’s different. I thought nothing would change. That I could balance patrols, university, and a social life.”
“And the great Damian Wayne couldn’t handle the pressure?” Jon teased, nudging him lightly. Damian let out a small laugh.
“No. I can handle it. But I’ve realized some things. Things that once felt right… now feel inhuman.” He paused. “I’ve assisted patients — prisoners sent there by Batman and Robin. Seeing things from that side again… it’s kinda ironic.”
“Damian, they’re bad people. They got what they deserved. I don’t agree with excessive violence, but… they have to pay for their crimes.”
Damian turned sharply to him.
“That’s exactly it! What kind of justice is that? Who are we to decide how much someone should suffer?” His voice tightened. “Yes, they’re criminals. Yes, they should pay. But what we do — what I do — I don’t identify with it anymore. I’m breaking people, Jon. I don’t want to hurt anyone else. I’ve seen hell. I know what it’s like. I don’t want to be a demon anymore… like everyone always said I was. I want a chance to be good. To make a difference by healing.”
Jon smiled softly and pulled him into a hug. Damian adjusted, letting himself melt into it.
“You’re not a demon, Damian. You’re good. You always were. Everything you did came from loyalty.”
Damian’s eyes filled with tears.
“You’ve saved far more lives than you’ve taken.”
Damian shook his head again and again, voice breaking.
“No, Jon… it’s not like that. It was hundreds — I —”
“You were a child,” Jon interrupted gently. “None of it was your fault.”
And that was when Damian broke.
Jon just held him tighter, listening to his sobs, feeling his own heart shatter with each one.
“Please don’t blame yourself that much,” Jon murmured. “It hurts to see you like this. I prefer when you call me an idiot or try to prove you’re better than me.”
A weak laugh escaped Damian.
“I’m not better than anyone.” He pulled back. “I’m nothing. You’re the best person in the world and still… you. Kind. Selfless. Humble. I should tell you more often how much I admire you.”
Jon smiled — a smile so warm it made Damian want to smile too.
“For me, you’re the coolest person in the world. I mean— who else could beat my dad?”
Damian snorted faintly.
“My father could. And I could beat you too.”
Jon scoffed.
“You couldn’t even when we were kids. Maybe when you grow taller than me.”
Damian flipped him off. They both knew that would never happen.
They laughed.
“Idiot” Damian muttered, smiling in a way Jon had never seen before.
“We’ll never have to fight anyway,” Jon said. “We’re best friends, remember?”
They looked at each other.
“How could I forget?” Damian said. “We’re the Super Sons.”
Jon burst out laughing.
Damian smiled, closing his eyes as the wind brushed against him, carrying away the weight on his shoulders.
Jon’s presence always made him feel better. Made him want to be better — just by existing.
Like his past no longer defined him.
The sun finally began to set.
Summer was ending.
Everything felt right.
Like it was meant to be.
“You know what, Jon?
Damian started, lower. Jon murmured.
“I know what?”
The wind passed by them. Damian looked at the horizon, his green eyes focused on the view of the sea waves in the distance. A few minutes passed in silence. Jon didn’t pressure him.
He just followed Damian’s gaze and stood there, quiet and waiting patiently. He always felt like that next to Damian.
Damian opened his mouth.
“I’m not in love with you anymore.”
The words came out quietly, carried away by the wind like a secret not meant to be heard.
But Jon heard them.
And froze.
“What?”
Damian turned to him.
“I’m not in love with you anymore.”
Silence.
“I… didn’t even know you ever were” They stayed there, feeling kinda strangers. Jon wanted to scream. He wanted to ask him why it’s not anymore. The reason why he fell in love. He wanted to know why only after so long. After so many years. “Why you tell me now?”
Damian sighed.
“I just… felt like I had to. All this atmosphere of companionship, you know, I thought it was rational to let me know. I... preferred to keep it before it caused a disaster between us. I had so many doubts and I...” Damian looked away, head down. Suddenly shy. “I thought you would leave me again.”
“Damian… I never wanted to leave you.” Jon muttered low and pulled the other back to his chest, resting his chin on the other’s head. “I’m sorry.”
Jon felt when Damian wrapped his arms around his torso. Damian leaned over, leaning his head against Jon’s chest. He was fine, but then he felt his lower lip tremble and Damian closed his eyes tightly.
Jon felt Damian’s fingers cling to his shirt to what he could feel getting wetter where Damian’s face was.
All that previous sentimentality made him sensitive. And he was already there putting the accumulated emotions out, why not allow to live it?
Jon felt it — in the way Damian’s arms tightened around him, the way his fingers clutched at his shirt like he was afraid Jon might disappear again.
And then there was warmth.
Not just from the sun that had already dipped below the horizon, but from something deeper. Something shared.
Damian remained there for an instant, motionless, as if he was learning to exist inside that embrace. Then, little by little, his shoulders relaxed, and he let the weight he carried run away, dissolved in Jon’s warmth and the constant whisper of the sea.
“I know..” he replied, almost in a breath. “I think it just... took me a while to believe that you could stay.”
The wind passed between them, soft, as if it wanted to keep that moment without interrupting it. Jon tightened the hug for an extra second, like someone who makes a silent promise, not with words, but with presence.
“I’m here now.“ Jon said, firm, although low. “And I’m not going anywhere.”
The silence that came after was no longer strange. There was no longer that invisible tension between them, just something new; delicate, undefined, but alive.
Jon’s mind wandered for a moment.
What if he had never left?
What if he had stayed?
Would they have grown up side by side? Would that quiet, childish crush have turned into something more? Would they have had a real chance?
Damian would never have allowed it back then. Not until Jon was fully grown. No matter how much Jon might have pushed, teased, insisted — Damian had always been too rigid, too principled.
Jon knew him.
That thought hit him harder than expected.
And suddenly, he didn’t know what to do — except hold him. Just hold Damian as he clung to him like he might be taken away again.
Damian looked up, his eyes meeting Jon’s with a softer intensity than before.
“I said I’m not in love with you anymore...” he started, hesitating for a brief second. “ But that doesn’t mean that what I feel is gone.
Jon frowned slightly, attentive.
“So what do you feel?”
Damian looked away to the horizon again, as if the words were hidden there, between the end of the sun and the beginning of the night.
“I think... it’s grown. Changed.” he took a deep breath.“It’s no longer something I need to hide or fight against. It doesn’t consume me like before.”
Jon was silent, absorbing every word.
“And is that good... or bad?”
Damian stared at him again, and this time there was something almost vulnerable in his expression.
“I still don’t know.”
So Jon did the only thing that felt right.
“Hey… just so you don’t feel so bad,” he murmured, voice soft, almost hesitant. “I was in love with you too.”
Damian pulled back immediately.
There was no hesitation, no attempt to hide the vulnerability still written all over his face. His eyes searched Jon’s like he was trying to find even the smallest trace of a lie.
“There’s no point in lying about something like that,” Jon added gently. “It was before I went to space. Before everything happened.” He smiled faintly. “I guess… I fell for you when I finally got to see who you really were. Under all that indifference. Without all the bitterness. You were always more than what you showed, Dami. And I… couldn’t help it. Even if I didn’t understand any of it back then.” a pause. “You were my first love.”
The words lingered between them.
Damian felt them settle somewhere deep, somewhere he wasn’t sure how to reach.
My first love.
“And now?” Damian asked quietly.
Jon blinked.
“…Now?”
Damian hesitated for a fraction of a second.
“If we could — hypothetically — go back to that feeling… do you think it would work now?”
Jon thought about it.
Really thought.
“…I don’t know.”
Damian looked away, jaw tightening just slightly.
“Right.”
Jon nudged him lightly with his shoulder.
“What we had back then? That was… messy. Too intense. Too impulsive. We were kids. It wouldn’t fit who we are now.”
Damian barely registered the explanation.
“Forget it,” he muttered, starting to stand. “It was a pointless question —”
“I didn’t say that.” Jon grabbed his arm, pulling him back down beside him. Damian didn’t look at him. Jon’s voice softened. “I meant… we’d have to grow into it. Into something stable. Something real.”
That made Damian pause.
“…Oh.”
Jon smiled.
Damian huffed under his breath.
“And if it weren’t for your ridiculous growth spurt, I never would’ve looked at you like that” Damian added dryly.
Jon laughed.
“Oh yeah? ‘Cause you were a so mature thirteen.”
Damian rolled his eyes, clicking his tongue and turning away in mock annoyance.
Jon’s laughter slowly faded.
The wind picked up again, carrying the scent of the ocean, the sky darkening by the second.
Jon looked at Damian.
And for once — He didn’t overthink. He didn’t hear anything but the beach sounds. He couldn’t focus in anything else besides Damian. Not when only he mattered.
“Honestly…” Jon murmured, reaching up and gently tilting Damian’s chin toward him.
Damian stiffened slightly at the touch.
“We both know that was just a childish crush.”
A beat.
“But what if… just out of curiosity…” Jon leaned closer, voice dropping to something softer, almost conspiratorial. “I kissed you?”
Damian blinked.
Jon’s face was close now. Too close.
“Would you let me?”
For a second, Damian forgot how to breathe.
“…Yes.”
It came out barely above a whisper.
Jon smiled.
Closed his eyes.
And closed the distance. It was slow. Careful. Foreheadto forehead. Nose brushing nose. And then — Their lips met. Soft. Tentative.
And then everything in Damian just despair. The tension. The weight. The past. All of it. It melted away the moment he felt Jon. Warm. Real.
His body reacted before his mind could catch up. He leaned in, chasing the contact, deepening it instinctively. Their lips moved together, slow at first —testing, learning — and then not so slow anymore.
Damian’s hand came up to the back of Jon’s neck, gripping. Jon’s arms wrapped around his back, pulling him closer. Too close. Not close enough.
The kiss turned deeper, hotter — messier.
Jon’s tongue brushed against his without warning and…
Everything spiraled.
Damian shifted, pressing into him, their chests flush against each other. Jon tightened his hold, anchoring him there, like he wasn’t planning on letting go anytime soon.
It was overwhelming. Too much. And somehow… Not enough.
Damian broke the kiss with a sharp breath, teeth grazing Jon’s lower lip on the way back.
His heart was racing.
Too fast.
Way too fast.
“Damn, Jon…” he exhaled, trying to steady himself.
His hands trembled slightly as they clenched Jon’s shirt tighter.
He dropped his forehead against Jon’s chest, eyes squeezed shut.
Jon’s hand came up immediately, fingers threading through Damian’s hair.
“Damian…”
Neither of them really knew what to say.
So they didn’t.
Time passed.
The sun was already gone.
And still… they stayed like that.
Jon almost thought Damian had fallen asleep, until he felt it. A hand slipping under his shirt. Warm fingers against his skin. Grounding. Like Damian needed to be sure he was real.
Then… a quiet sniff. Jon frowned.
“Damian?”
No answer.
“Hey… are you okay?” A small shake of the head. Jon’s chest tightened. “We can… pretend this never—”
“No.”
Damian pulled away immediately.
There was something in his expression, something close to fear.
“No, Jon. We’re not pretending that didn’t happen.”
But his eyes betrayed him. Tears slipped down, and Jon hated seeing them there. He reached up, wiping them away gently. So gently it barely counted as touch.
Damian caught his wrist, pressing Jon’s palm fully against his face. And for a moment… he just stayed there. Leaning into it.
“You don’t get to say that,” Damian said quietly. “I can’t live in a world where I have to pretend I didn’t feel that.” His voice softened. “Not about us. Never about you.”
Jon smiled.
Soft.
Warm.
“Then don’t.” A pause. “We’ve denied this long enough.”
This time… Neither of them knew who moved first.
They just knew they weren’t stopping.
Not yet.
Not when it finally felt right.
Jon’s hands were still resting on Damian’s back when their lips met again.
This time was… Slower. Deliberate. Like they were trying to memorize it. To understand it. To *learn* each other. Damian was the one who deepened it first.
His hand slid up to the back of Jon’s neck again, fingers threading into his hair, pulling him closer with more certainty now. There was still urgency—but it wasn’t frantic anymore.
It was curious.
Intentional.
Almost… reverent.
Jon let out a quiet breath against his lips, the sound soft and warm between them. The ocean breeze brushed past, lifting strands of Damian’s hair, cooling skin that still burned from the contact.
When they finally pulled apart, they didn’t go far.
Not even close.
Their breaths were uneven, shared in the small space between them.
Jon rested his forehead against Damian’s.
“Okay…” he murmured, still catching his breath. “That was definitely not a childhood crush.”
A small, rough laugh slipped from Damian.
“No.”
Silence settled again.
But this time, it was heavy in a different way. Jon studied him up close. The slight redness of his lips. The dampness still clinging to his lashes. Something in Jon’s chest tightened.
“…Are you crying again?” he asked quietly.
Damian wrinkled his nose, clearly annoyed with himself.
“No.”
Jon raised an eyebrow.
“Damian.”
A pause.
A sigh.
“I am… emotionally overwhelmed.”
Jon let out a short laugh.
“That is the most medical way you could’ve said ‘I’m freaking out.’”
“I am not freaking out.”
“You’re kinda freaking out.”
Damian dragged a hand down his face, exhaling slowly.
“I just realized I didn’t completely get over something I thought I buried years ago.”
Jon tilted his head slightly.
“…Same.”
Damian looked at him again.
Jon’s expression had shifted—more serious now.
“I really thought that was in the past,” he admitted. “When you said you weren’t in love with me anymore, I thought it was just… nostalgia.”
Damian listened carefully.
“And now?”
Jon exhaled softly.
“Now I have no idea.”
Damian nodded after a moment.
“Fair.”
Jon blinked, almost expecting something more dramatic, but Damian just looked… thoughtful.
Normal thoughtful.
“You sounds weirdly calm now” Jon pointed out.
Damian looked out at the dark ocean, the scent of salt heavy in the air. A shiver ran down his spine as the temperature dropped.
“I’m not calm.”
“No?”
“No.”
He turned back to Jon.
“I’m just trying not to ruin something that might matter.”
Jon blinked.
“…That was very mature.”
“I am mature.”
“Sometimes.”
Damian shoved his shoulder lightly. Jon laughed, the tension easing just a bit.
The wind passed between them again.
For a moment, neither spoke.
Then Damian said it. Simple, direct, like always:
“I still like you.”
Jon met his gaze.
“…Yeah. I noticed.”
“Not like before.”
“That’s probably a good thing.”
“But I still do.”
Jon went quiet for a few seconds. Then, just as honestly.
“Then I guess that makes two of us.”
Damian held his gaze.
“…So that’s it?”
Jon tilted his head.
“What do you mean?”
“I mean—” Damian hesitated, but only briefly. “We like each other.”
Jon huffed a quiet breath, almost amused.
“When you say it like that, it sounds really simple.”
“Isn’t it?”
Jon thought about it. Maybe it was. Or maybe they were just choosing to make it simple.
“…So what are you suggesting, Dr. Wayne?”
Damian considered for a moment.
“Nothing impulsive.”
Jon nodded slowly.
“Yeah. I agree.”
“We’re best friends before anything else.”
“Always.”
Damian took a breath.
“So… maybe we start slow.”
Jon smiled.
“Slow by human standards or Damian Wayne standards?”
“…Human.”
Jon blinked.
“Wow.”
They both laughed softly.
And just like that—
It felt lighter again.
Jon tilted his head, studying him once more.
“But just for the record…”
Damian raised an eyebrow.
“Yes?”
Jon leaned in slightly.
“That was a really good kiss.”
Damian tried to keep a straight face.
He didn’t entirely succeed.
“…It was acceptable.”
Jon stared at him, offended.
“Acceptable?!”
Damian’s fingers curled lightly into his shirt, tugging him closer.
“I would need to test it again for a more accurate evaluation.”
Jon laughed.
“That was the most obvious flirting I’ve ever heard from you.”
Damian shrugged.
“I’m adapting to the situation.”
Jon just looked at him for a moment.
Completely, utterly gone.
Then he leaned in again.
And kissed him.
This time, Jon cupped his face, thumb brushing along Damian’s jaw with a softness that made something in Damian’s chest tighten again — but not painfully.
Not like before.
Damian’s fingers tangled into Jon’s hair, pulling him closer as their lips moved together, more natural now. Still intense — but steadier.
Familiar, already.
When they pulled apart, they were both smiling. The sky had gone dark. Stars began to appear above the ocean. Summer was over. Winter was coming. And yet… They were still warm.
For the first time since they had arrived at that beach… Neither of them pretended this wasn’t the beginning of something.