cherry red pies, pretty pink skies
word count: 1.5k || pt2 of sparkling green eyes, dazzling green lines
summary: Damian's sweet baby has her first ballet recital
"Dami, can you—"
"Don't worry." He hums, showing you the pamphlet he had picked up earlier.
You never thought you'd be worried over ballet lessons. His sweet daughter was having her first recital, and he had cancelled a whole day's worth of plans in order to make sure that everything would go smoothly. You found it cute, though you were no less worried than he was. You could just never quite know what would go wrong in Gotham. The possibilities were endless... even with private security around the vicinity of the theatre.
You wonder if it's possible to be even more anxious than Damian.
"We'll be safe." He hums, hand reaching for yours as he runs his thumb over your knuckles, and you exhale.
"We'll be fine." You mumble. "We'll be fine."
"And if not then I get to shoot at Drake once."
"WHAT."
Damian doesn't elaborate more on it, but when you catch a blur of orange in the dark, you get the general idea.
Well, at the very least, you feel a little more at peace knowing that someone is taking care of security. You wonder if Tim's out on the roof only to hack the cameras, though.
"Is he?"
"No." Damian shakes his head, showing security the ticket. "Not this time."
You wonder just how worried Damian is over this entire situation, then.
"Are you worried that she'll mess up on stage at all?" You follow him to the center seats in the middle row, sitting down as he helps you down first.
"She's our blood. She's perfect even if she somehow does mess up. In that case, it would be improv, which we both know is something only the most talented can dream of doing."
You hold back at laugh at Damian's words.
"Besides. We've both seen her practicing. She'll be alright." His hand covers yours, tapping gently at your fingers.
"I think she'll be fine." Cass hums as she slides next to the two of you, small bouquet in her arms, Bruce following shortly after.
"She's going to do the best out of all her peers." Damian rolls his eyes.
You can only laugh.
In a way, Damian isn't wrong. Out of all those in her age group on stage, only your daughter somehow manages to remember the routine from start to finish, and when it's the end, you can barely contain your excitement to greet her. Damian follows after you with the flowers he had put in the trunk, small bouquet of congratulatory flowers in his arms as you pick up your precious baby girl and spin her around.
"You were great, baby." You grin, bouncing her in your arms.
"Thank you, mama." She mumbles. "Hi daddy."
"Hi, princess." Damian imitates a light curtsey, offering her the flowers. "Well done on your performance."
"Thank you, baba." She mumbles, cheeks flushed as she takes the flowers from her dad. "I didn't mess up."
"I know." He hums, holding her hand. "We're proud of you."
Your moment is interrupted when she spots Cass, eyes lighting up as she reaches from your arms for her. You hand her over with a gentle roll of your eyes, and Damian watches as she babbles nonsensical things that Cass entertains, flowers handed to her as she continues, thanking her in the same breath, going back to speaking.
"She takes after me for all that talking." You grin, patting Damian's hand as he rests it on your elbow.
"She's much more formal than her peers." Damian scrunches his nose. "Perhaps due to my influence."
"It isn't a bad thing." You wave as you watch Tim and Jason walk in. "You guys missed the whole thing."
"Oh, no we didn't" Tim shakes the camera in his hand, popping out the SD card and tossing it to Damian. "All on video with photos."
"Much appreciated." Damian nods.
You wonder if Damian's family adores your little girl a little too much. She greets the rest of her uncles with a grin, excitement that only a child can experience making her little body shake with excitement. At one point, Dick calls to let you all know that dinner was ready at the mansion, and you offer to take your little girl from Cass.
"I wanna stay with aunt Cass." She pouts.
"What if she's tired?"
"Baba will carry you." Damian opens his arms for her, and she leaves Cass' embrace reluctantly. "Good girl."
"Sorry about that." You laugh. "She was excited that you watched her perform."
"Thank you for inviting me." Cass hums. "She'll be great."
"I'm sure it's because she saw that photo of you doing ballet that one time while visiting Bruce. She's been enamored with the idea ever since."
Cass only hums, glancing to the side as she waves at your daughter — who's still looking at her.
"I'll take her off your hands tonight after dinner." Cass laughs. "I'll bring her back tomorrow."
"Well, it is her summer vacation." You sigh. "Baby, you wanna stay with Aunt Cass for the night?"
"Can I?" She blinks up at you expectantly, and you look up to Damian.
"Do you want to?"
"It would be nice..."
"Then yes." He hums. "Don't trouble her too much, alright?"
She nods, grinning at Cass as she smiles back.
You have dinner with the rest of the family, their soulmates all present, handing your daughter small gifts of celebration as she thanks everyone with a polite nod. She reminds you very much of Damian, and from what Talia had told you when he was a baby, your daughter seems to be the exact image. At the very least, you hope that she'll grow up without the trauma that Damian had to experience because of his blood. He does a great job at keeping her separate from his life in the streets of Gotham.
You wave goodbye to the family as your daughter gives you both a small kiss goodbye, promising she'll be good for Cass for the night. You have a feeling that means she's going to stay up past her bedtime practicing ballet with Cass again, but as long as she doesn't stay up too late, she'll be fine.
"How late do you think she'll be up until?" You mumble to Damian as he holds your door open for you.
"I'd argue anywhere around 11 to midnight." He nods as he closes the door for you.
"I hope she has fun, then." You chuckle, watching as the manor's doors close once more.
"We'll have our fair share of fun."
"Ugh, I can't wait to get a glass at home."
"Would you like to look through what just arrived? Drake dropped it off before patrol to me."
"You know, for someone who claims to just tolerate him, you sure do rely on him for a lot." You turn your head to glance at him, and he sighs.
"Siblings."
You found that Damian was highly sentimental after marriage. From the wedding invites to the clothes he wore first when he met you, he knows every moment and minor detail of you. In your room, other than the shelves of mangas he collected as a teen, he also keeps photobooks of the two of you through each year, and all six failed engagement ring attempts are framed on the wall in the living room. You are lucky, you think. Your hopelessness had paid off... or rubbed off. You hadn't known it was possible to be so enamored with someone. Maybe his brothers rubbed off on him.
"Do you want a snack with the wine?" Damian hands you a glass, lips curled upwards gently as you grin at the package.
"I'll be fine. You kept it in the delivery box?"
"You like opening boxes." He hums, settling next to you on the couch as you open the box to find a booklet.
"Oh, from our wedding?"
"These were the behind-the-scenes that Drake got." He hums. "I did not enjoy that he got to see you first on the day of the wedding, but he did give this to us... even if it is years late."
You smile, patting Damian's shoulder gently as you flip through it with him, humming as you point at certain photos, watching as Damian texts Tim to send him the digitals later. You raise brows at certain people, and he tells you each one's name, lips quirking up in amusement when you roll your eyes at some of your friends. You wonder if the development would have happened had you not taken the risk and asked him to be your plus one to the wedding so long ago.
You yawn at one point, and Damian's hand rubs circles on your back.
"Bedtime, habibti?"
You yawn more in response, nodding slowly as you cover your mouth. "Bedtime. Are you going to frame any photos from it?"
"Most likely the one in the back. We should get a family portrait sometime as well."
"Yeah?" You start getting up, pausing mid-way to yawn. Instead, Damian picks you up with ease, waiting for you to wrap your arms around his neck, pressing a kiss to your forehead. "Thank you, Dami."
"Anytime. Rest well, habibti."
"Mm... you too, beloved."
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something that i feel like goes suprisingly underacknowledged in the twewy fandom im regards to the final game between neku and joshua is that, in a sense, neku has to choose between himself, and between joshua. he had to choose between their worlds and existences — not just in regards to what happens to shibuya.
the loser *should* have been erased — the only reason neku wasn't was because joshua changed his mind. this wasn't just a battle about who gets the right to do what they want with shibuya, it was a battle for who gets the right to *exist*.
if i'm being honest? in that moment, i highly doubt that neku was thinking of shibuya — how could you, when you have a gun pointed at you by your friend who you had related to more than anyone else, you're thinking about the fact that you've been betrayed and you're in a life or death situation and fuck am i really supposed to kill him???? i can't do that. how am i supposed to do that. neku mourned joshua, neku grew from it, neku blamed himself for it (survivor's guilt × 2. new achievement unlocked!) only to now figure out that he was alive.
that's the beautiful thing about neku's character development, however. the neku of w1 would have killed joshua. hell, even the neku of w2 probably would have killed him — and joshua knows this.
the neku at the beginning of the game would have NEVER chosen joshua over himself, he would have never given up his world — his very existence — for someone else — much less someone who annoyed him as much as joshua did. and joshua actively tried to push him further into this sort of mindset during week 2 — encouraging his self actualization loop, because he didn't think that neku (or himself, really), was capable of change. joshua wasn't in shibuya during week 3 to see how beat changed neku.
joshua wouldn't have been able to guess that neku wouldn't have taken the shot.
that's the beauty of the writing and of the ending. the player and joshua expect neku to take the shot. we saw what he did to shiki week 1. but he can't. neku sakuraba went from "fuck the rest, you keep your values, and i'll keep mine, i don't need other people", to willingly letting someone kill him because he valued them too much to kill them.
yes, in the larger sceme of things it's about the fate of shibuya (which is a whole other topic when you consider how shibuya is essentially a reflection of joshua but i digress), but on a more personal level, it's about what neku values more in that moment. does he value his friendship with joshua more than he values his own life.
neku by all means should have chosen himself over joshua, but he didn't.
i think that's why it touched joshua so much.
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