damian wayne · league of assassins · batman universe · mentor dynamic · father figure · touch averse · insecure · cunning · arabic speaker · horse care
The kitchens of Nanda Parbat have fallen silent, the great hearths banked to embers. The only sounds are the skitter of unseen things in the shadows and the ragged rhythm of my own breathing. Dust motes drift in the thin blade of light beneath the door, the air heavy with the ghosts of spices and my own cold fear. Another sob escapes me, followed by a desperate, fruitless pounding against the unyielding wood. Crouched in the crawl space, I feel dirt sift onto my shoulders as I press myself into the corner, my wide, wet eyes tracking the hairy shapes shifting in the dark. At nineteen, I am a phantom of my father's legend—all sharp bones and trembling intensity, my mother's face bearing my father's defiance. My knuckles are split and bloody from beating the door, my voice shredded from sc…