Archive of Our Own ^beta

Chapter Text

Nightwing barely dodged the giant paw whistling towards him. It was easily as big as his chest, with claws that would have made ribbons of his suit and him with it. He dissuaded the teeth that followed up with a heavy crack to the gums from his electrified escrima sticks. Yowling and hissing in pain the creature scrabbled away from him, finally, giving him some room to breathe.

Dick couldn’t help but think that house cats on the hunt were much cuter when they weren’t the size of a bus and convinced you were their next meal. Of course, there was always an exception. Looking at this particular cat, it probably wouldn’t have been cute even if it was normal size. Its ribs were showing through its skin where clumps of its mangy matted fur had fallen out. Its left ear was torn up from an old fight and it had some infected looking scratches from a newer one. Even one of its fangs was broken. The thing had obviously been starved and neglected to the point of abuse back when it had just been a regular cat. Dick felt bad for the thing, even if it was trying to eat him.

With one last pained shake of its head, the giant cat recovered. Focusing on him, it scrunched up in preparation for another lunge. Predators didn’t act like this naturally. He’d proven himself tough and painful prey half a dozen times already. Normally, this would have been the point an animal would go looking for something that didn’t fight back quite so hard. Either it was hungry enough it didn’t care anymore, it was half mad with some kind of disease, or the amateur wizard standing in the middle of the park with a glowing book and a stick topped by a toy cat’s head had done more to the animal than just make it big. He was betting on the latter.

Tom Grey, 16, was the son of a missing animal hoarder. Somehow he’d gotten a hold of a book of black magic and figured out how to use it. Now he was on a mission to teach Gotham what ‘horrible monsters’ cats were by increasing the size of his mother’s animals and releasing them on the population at large. For obvious reasons, he was the primary suspect in his mother’s disappearance, and if they were lucky, she was alive and not her ‘babies’ last meal.

On the bright side, Tom didn’t seem to have the juice to make more that one giant cat. The creatures Damian was battling, on his way to Tom, were much closer to tiger size than swallow you whole size. Giant Cat wouldn’t be a problem much longer either. Tim had sniped it with enough tranquilizers earlier that it should be down for a little cat nap soon. Hehehe, cat nap, he’d have to work that into the take down of Tom somehow.

Speaking of Tim, as Dick dodged yet another attempt on Giant Cat’s part to eat him, Red Robin used the opportunity to swing down from his perch and land on the cat’s neck. He stabbed something shiny and metallic into it before springing away. Rolling to a crouch a little ways away, Tim gave Dick a quick thumbs up and shooing motion towards the villain of the hour, before turning to face Giant Cat on his own. The cat seemed amiable to the change in dance partners, apparently deciding the person who stabbed it was more deserving to be eaten than person who whacked it in the face.

Dick took the offered out and sprinted towards where Damian was disabling the last Big-But-Not-Giant Cats. If he was honest, he was a little worried that Dami would use a lot more force than necessary to take down the scrawny kid responsible for them. Damian loved animals, and he’d been outraged when he saw the condition this particular batch was in. He and their amateur wizard had been in a spitting argument about it basically since the fight started.

Dick had missed most of what they said while fighting Giant Cat, but he arrived in time to hear the conclusion. As the final cat went down, Tom shrieked and let loose some sort of shards of magic from his fingertips into the fallen cats surrounding Damian. “Oh yeah, well if you like them so much then you can just join Mom!” he taunted. The downed cats collectively spasmed, then jerkily climbed to their feet. As the cats attacked, Tom began to summon up a whirling ball of magic. If they hadn’t been before, the cats were definitely being directly controlled now. Damian side stepped lunging animals and battered a few back to the ground as Dick ran forward to help fend them off. Just as Tom lifted the ball in preparation to throw it, one of the cats snapped its teeth around Damian’s calf.

Dick didn’t hesitate. He slammed an escrima into the animal’s head and shoved Damian from the suddenly slack jaw out of the way of the incoming spell. Dami could be furious with him about it later. Between his brother getting hit by a bolt of who knows what kind of magic and an animal that was going to have to be put down afterward anyways, his brother takes priority. It just wasn’t a question for him.

Of course, he didn’t sit around waiting for the thing to hit him either, he jerked out of its path to what should have been a couple inches clearance. Would have been, if it hadn’t turned out not quite as amateur as he thought wizard could course correct the spell mid-air. He didn’t have much time to think of anything as the spell slammed into his chest and his pain nerves came alight in one giant flash before darkness took him.

——————

The shouting was what woke Dick. “What did you do to him!” An angry voiced screamed from the darkness. Was that Damian? His voice sounded off. “What’s the matter I thought you liked animals.” Another voice sneered. That was definitely amateur wizard. Dick needed to get up. He needed to calm everyone down before things went south, and they ended up needing to explain an unnecessary hospitalization to Bruce.

That turned out being easier said than done. The return of consciousness brought along with it the awareness of how much he hurt. Every muscle in Dick’s body felt like it had been through a six hour work out and protested every time he even thought about moving. Nothing felt torn, just frick, he’d really like to not move for a couple days right now. Even his freaking tongue felt like it had been exercised until it just gave out. What kind of spell had that been anyways? Presto-exhausto, now you’re super sore and hate anything in the world that’s not your bed.

Forcing himself to push his protesting muscles to get up, Dick groaned, and then nearly choked on his own tongue as something not even close to his own voice came out. Eyes flying open he was greeted by nothing but darkness. He tried to reach for his throat, but not only was he weighed down by something heavy, his arm was refusing to move right. His wrist would not twist like he knew it could. He discovered legs weren’t moving right either, as he quickly tried to shift them too. Nothing was moving right, his joints were locked up and refusing to rotate like they were supposed to. His entire life, from his childhood in the circus to his nights spent running across the rooftops of Gotham and Bludhaven, had relied on a pretty perfect knowledge of what his body could and couldn’t do. He’d be lying if he said he wasn’t freaked out that it suddenly didn’t respond the way he expected.

He stopped trying to move. No matter how much he wanted to panic, that could only make things worse. He’d been doing this way to long to make a rookie mistake and break something because he couldn’t keep calm. Taking a steadying breath, Dick tried to call out to Damian. He’d been the closest last he remembered, and it was his voice he’d been hearing. When nothing but a yowl came out, Dick felt a rush of relief. That said so many things about his life. He’d been turned into a cat not crippled, that was something he could deal with.

Alright, magically turned into an animal. He knew what to do now. The darkness and heaviness he noticed earlier meant he was probably stuck inside his suit. Which actually was a good thing. First dilemma of being turned into an animal was convincing your teammates that you were you. Popping your new furry head out of your suit generally cut down on the hi-jinks necessary to make that happen. Now that he knew why his body wasn’t responding how it normally did, it was fairly easy to figure out how to get on all fours and start moving towards the direction his head had been. It still hurt to move, but the pain was fading fast.

As he crawled, Dick tried to make as much noise as possible. He didn’t have the vocal chords for actual words anymore, but he could still get an impressive amount of volume for his size. Hopefully Damian or Tim would notice him, before they knocked out the guy who could reverse this.

“You’ve got to be kidding me.” A new voice said. It sounded a bit like Tim but still off. Maybe it was the cat ears? He remembered something about them having a larger range of hearing. That was probably why no one sounded right. Dick could hear someone walking towards him. He stopped making noise as the neck hole of the suit was pulled open and he was blinded with light. “Nightwing, is that you?” Tim said, peering in at Dick.

Dick nodded, squinting at Tim while his eyes adjusted. It was a little jerky, but the message seemed to get across just fine. A look of exasperation crossed Tim’s face as he sighed. “Come on, then.”, Tim beckoned him towards the hole, “Let’s go get you turned back.”

Dick finished his crawl out, and Tim picked him up. Which kinda hurt, his muscles were still sore from the transformation and all. As he was lifted up, Dick got a clearer look at the scene of the battle since he’d been taken out. The cats were all down, mostly breathing, still way to big for comfort. Damian had Tom thrown to the ground on his stomach, arms zip tied behind his back and Damian’s boot between his shoulder blades. The stick he’d been using had been charred badly. The cat toy topper blackened to the point it was nearly unrecognizable. Damian was staring at Dick as Tim approached, eyes wide and a little shocked. Despite his training, Damian was still getting used to some of the weirder aspects of being a hero. Al’Ghuls tended more towards the murder your enemies, not annoy them severely in a way that matched your costume theme. The idea his big brother might get turned into an animal probably had never occurred to him as a realistic possibility.

Kid likely thought he’d been dead. Okay, now he needed to give him a hug. Scared little brothers got hugs, no matter how much they might deny having been scared in the first place. Dick turned his head to Tim and meowed at him before straining in the direction of Damian. Tim understood and passed Dick off to Damian before turning to interrogate their prisoner. Tim could handle that just fine, and there wasn’t a lot he could contribute right now considering the state of his vocal chords, so he pretty much tuned him out to focus on Dami who was still giving him a bit of a wide eyed look.

Now that he was in his arms, Dick ran into a big issue with his original plan. Hugs really didn’t work well with the current set up of his arms. He’d have to figure something else out. What did cat’s do to show affection. Well there was licking people, but that was more of a dog thing, also slightly awkward. Purring would be good, if he had any clue how to do that. Headbutts! He’d seen Alfred the cat do it to Damian when he wanted food or attention. Just walk up and bump him with his head. Damian should understand the gesture at least. Planting his front paws on Damian’s chest Dick shoved the top of his head at Damian’s chin. That seemed to finally snap him out of it. Dick found himself mashed up against Damian’s chest in a tight hug. Which, score, comfort dispensed, big brother duties officially honored.

Dami didn’t try to crush him for to long, letting him up after a bit, scratching him behind the ears as he did so. That actually felt pretty good. “I am glad that you are unharmed.” He said softly. Dick headbutted him in the chin again as acknowledgment.

“Bad news guys.” Tim broke in, “Tom here doesn’t know how to reverse the spell.” Tim gestured backwards to where he’d propped Tom against a nearby tree. Well that wasn’t good at all.

“Are you certain?” Damian said. The way Dami was looking at the guy, Dick got the feeling he was thinking of using some sharp objects to make sure. He trusted Tim to intervene if it came to that.

“Certain enough that I don’t want to risk him trying it on Dick.” Tim replied. Dick fully agreed with this course of action. Bad stuff happened when magic users who didn’t know what they were doing tested out new things on live subjects. He didn’t particularly feel like seeing what it was like to have two heads today. Especially, when they personally knew some magic users in the League that could reverse this with a snap of their fingers. As if he read Dick’s mind, Tim continued, “You should take Nightwing back to the cave. I’ll contact Zatanna. She’ll be able to fix this.”

Damian gave one last longing look at their cat hating villain, then nodded his head in agreement.

Chapter Text

They didn’t even make it to the cave, before Dick got the bad news. Zatanna was busy until tomorrow morning. Unless Dick took some unexpected magical turn for the worse, he was just going to have to spend the rest of the day adjusting to being a quadruped. Bonus, cat boy hadn’t had the decency to release his giant monsters after dark, like all proper Gotham villains. It was barely noon when Damian reached the cave, Dick plopped in the hood of his cape for the trip.

Red Robin would be longer making it back than they originally expected, as well. Turns out the guy hadn’t known how to turn the cats back to normal either. Tim was going to have to stay nearby while the cops tried to secure the animals, just in case one of them woke up or broke containment. Batman, in turn, was searching for Mrs. Grey. Her son had said he’d cast the same spell on both her and Dick, so the probability of her survival and need for aid had skyrocketed. The cats in her apartment were in even worse condition than the ones that Tom had taken out to terrorize Gotham. The healthier ones had made a break for it when Bruce opened the door. They all needed to be rounded up, treated, and questioned if he had any hopes of saving her. Bruce had recruited Selina in the search and rescue, and if they could find Mrs. Grey before tomorrow, Zatanna would be able to change her back at the same time she did Dick. Well not exact same time, it’d be pretty bad for the secret identity if she got that good of a look at him. Still, they could both go back with only one trip to Gotham needed for their magic using friend.

Ah well, big bright side, though. Someone needed to watch Dick for adverse magical reactions, and Bruce had found his social skills long enough to pitch the idea of Damian doing so as being based upon his superior familiarity with animals. Dick got to spend the rest of the day with Dami, and the kid wasn’t even trying to pretend to be unhappy about it. It was practically a vacation from that point of view.

Damian, for his part, seemed intent on not letting Dick walk on his own. Upon entering the cave, he’d gone from Damian’s cape to Alfred’s medical cot for blood tests, and as soon as Damian changed and was examined for injuries himself, he was back into his arms and up the stairs to the manor. Damian was taking the steps two at a time and doing a very bad job at covering his excitement, as he all but ran to his room.

Dick wasn’t very surprised when he discovered why. Rounding the corner to Damian’s room revealed Titus and Alfred the cat by and on his bed respectively. Both pets perked up at their entrance, quickly taking in their master’s presence and then zeroing in on Dick in his arms. Yeah, this made sense. Damian loved these animal as much or more than a good chunk of their family. Of course, introducing them to Dick’s new state would be one of the first things he’d want to do. Damian crossed the room to where Titus was laying.

As he kneeled down to show him to the dog, Dick dug his claws into Damian’s arm. It wasn’t that Dick didn’t trust Damian’s control over his animals. He was certain Damian wouldn’t let either of them try to take a chunk out of him, but Titus was huge compared to him now. He wasn’t super eager to get licked by a tongue bigger than his head, and okay yeah, he was also a little nervous about giant predators after the day he’d had too, so sue him. He was only human after all.

Damian gave Dick a reassuring scratch on the back of his neck, “Titus won’t hurt you Grayson” Damian said. Even though Titus was now sticking his head into Damian’s arms and jamming his nose into Dick’s ribs, Dick had to turn his head up and send a stern look at Dami. Little brother affection or no, he wasn’t actually a cat. He didn’t want Damian forgetting that. That way lay lots of uncomfortable situations. Dick knew this for a fact, he’d been down this road with the Titans before. He’d ended up having to bite Wally to convince him to stop petting his stomach.

The look was ruined when Titus suddenly shoved his nose lower and made Dick nearly jump out of his skin. Flailing backwards, Dick made scratching motions at the dog’s face and managed to force him to back off an inch or two. Thankfully, Damian, unlike some other people he could mention, did remember that he wasn’t actually introducing two animals and stood up, carrying Dick out of the reach of Titus’s wandering sniffer. Dick did not need a dog shoving his nose up his butt. Didn’t matter if he was just being friendly, he had boundaries and that was crossing one of them big time. “Sorry,” Dami apologized on behalf of his pet, and he did look like he genuinely felt bad about it. Dick bumped his head against Damian’s arm to let him know the apology was accepted.

Reassured, Damian sat down on the bed. Right beside where Alfred the cat had gone from lazing in the sun to sitting stock still, tail twitching, as he glared at the new cat stealing both his master’s lap and affection. Dick froze as tried to figure out which way to turn. Titus was working up the nerve to ‘stealth’ sniff him again, and Alfred looked like he would flay him alive if he turned his back. “Alfred,” Damian chided, reaching down to scratch the cat and hopefully assure him that he was still loved, “Be nice, you like Grayson.” Dick thought it was more along the lines of tolerated most days, like his master he was selective with his affection, but Dami’s intervention did provide the opportunity to concentrate on protecting only one of his flanks, literally.

Titus was trying again to sniff parts Dick would prefer stay unsniffed, and Dick had to flip himself around in Damian’s lap were the only areas Titus could easily reach were on his upper body. That, of course, earned him dog breath right to the face and giant nostrils being shoved into his ear. Dami did notice Dick’s obvious distress and pulled Titus away, but not before the dog did exactly what Dick had been worried about and licked him right in the face. Gross, now he got to spend the rest of the day smelling like Titus’s dog food.

Damian kept one hand on each of his pets for the rest of the visit, and Titus did eventually calm down. Though, Dick didn’t trust him not to try again the second he turned his back. Alfred didn’t get more pleased with Dick’s presence. He was a little worried the cat might try to pick a literal cat fight if Damian went to the bathroom.

Alfred the butler eventually appeared and rescued Dick from having to learn combat skill in a new body on the fly. With the flawless logic and snark that could make even Bruce occasionally sleep and eat, Alfred brought Dami around to the idea that, maybe, it wasn’t the safest thing for Dick to be around other animals right now. Damian couldn’t watch Dick every second after all. Dick didn’t really appreciate being painted as completely defenseless, but the appeal to Dick’s safety allowed Damian to be convinced that cordoning off his pets in a different section of the house for the day was for the best.

Dick was initially relieved at the change, but the look on Damian’s face as he left the animals behind a closed door, made Dick feel a bit like, well, a dick. He didn’t really see where he could have behaved differently to make things go smoother, but he felt responsible for his little brother’s happiness. He hated it when he was involved with anything that made him down.

He wasn’t sure where Damian was carrying him when he figured out what he was going to do about it. Meowing softly, Dick shifted in Damian’s arms and reached a paw out towards the ground. He’d try to jump down on his own, but he was a little worried he’d meet the carpet face first if he tried. Still adjusting to the new body and all. Damian placed him on the floor with a curious look on his face. They weren’t anywhere special. Just one of the many many hallways in the manor, but all he needed for this was some soft open space.

Carefully, at first, Dick tested out his ability to walk. It was a bit like crawling around on your hands and knees. Different, but not difficult in the slightest. He still made a tight circuit around Damian’s legs before moving on, just to make sure there weren’t any surprises in how things worked. Next step, sprinting. Picking a spot on the wall a little ways down the hall, Dick took off towards it. He made it maybe five feet, before he sent himself sprawling head over heels across the carpet. He wasn’t certain if he tripped on the carpet, his own feet, or if he’d just really screwed up the concept of running, but he was certain that the laughter he heard and the hands setting him back on his feet both belonged to Damian. Looking up he could see a genuine smile on the boy’s face. He’d always known his baby brother was freer with his emotions around his animals, but it still warmed his heart to see it in person. Stealing body language from Alfred the cat, Dick put on his best that didn’t happen/I meant to do that air. He wasn’t actually embarrassed nor did he care if Damian saw him screw up, but the renewed laughter and fond petting he got from it was exactly what he’d been aiming for. Giving the boy another love headbutt. He picked another spot on the wall and took off once again.

It took him about an hour to master running then jumping and climbing. Damian followed along after him, giggling at his mistakes and rescuing him from the top of bookshelves, which he wasn’t quite ready to try jumping down from himself. Yes, he hadn’t learned his lesson the first time and had gotten himself stuck on the top of multiple bookshelves. Thank god, Damian wasn’t into taking pictures for black mail purposes yet.

When he felt he had finally gotten the hang of the whole being a cat thing, he dragged Damian into a game of tag and hide & go seek. He started by darting away from the boy, then darting back to him, thwapping him on the shins with a paw, only to dart away once again. It only took two iterations for Damian to take out after him when he ran away. They chased and hid from each other all over the house from the wine cellar to the attic. Dick got stuck under an overturned box up there and Damian had to rescue him once again.

While they played, Dick would hide beneath couches and Damian would chase him out with a broom. Damian would hide around corners, and Dick would pad silently behind him waiting for the perfect moment to spring at the back of his knees, making him yelp and jump. Alfred must have gone through the house opening all the doors once he figured out what they were doing. It was the only explanation for the lack of barriers during their chase. Dick would have to give him a hug for it tomorrow. It was so rare to hear Damian laugh this much for this long. He had to keep it up until he just couldn’t run another step.

Dick didn’t know how long it had been before he reached that limit, but when he hit it, he hit it hard. Crawling out to the middle of the hallway, Dick plopped down and meowed pathetically until Damian popped out of the room he was searching and came over to check on him. A lot of weak meows and a rather bad game of charades later, he managed to get across the concept he was pooped and needed a break. He felt the siren song of sleep calling to him, as Damian carried him to his room.

When they arrived, magical wonderful Alfred appeared with a clean bowl of water for him, and he managed to wring a couple more giggles from Damian watching him try to figure out how to drink. Once his thirst was quenched, he caved. Damian was sitting against the headboard, sketch book propped against his knee, with one of his legs stretched out into a sunny spot on the bed. It felt a bit like heaven, as Dick stretched out across it, his back against Damian’s leg. He closed his eyes and let sleep claim him.

—————

Dick woke to the sound of a motor and someone scratching his back. Oh, so that’s how purring worked. He’d have to file that away for future use. Letting his eyes slit open, Dick took in the changes in his surroundings. The spot of sunlight he’d gone to sleep in had moved to another section of the bed entirely, that meant a good chunk of time must have passed. Damian had put away his sketchbook, and he was now reading on a tablet with one hand, while petting Dick with the other. It was sweet how he’d gone through the effort to not jostle Dick or move away from him while he slept.

Environment established and paranoid internal Batman satisfied there were no super villains waiting for him to regain consciousness, he proceed in getting up. Damian startled a bit as Dick yawned and stretched into a sitting position. Dick tried to smile at him, remembered he really couldn’t right now, and settled for pushing his neck and shoulders at the hand that had stopped petting him. Damian started scratching his back again at the prompt, “Pennyworth said that supper would be served soon,” he said, “Do you want to go to the table?” Now that he thought about it, Dick was hungry and he could smell something awfully delicious in the air. Probably why he woken up in the first place. Nodding once in answer to Damian’s question, Dick jumped up onto his chest. While being held was alright, being picked up wasn’t the most comfortable sensation. He’d rather just skip that step if it was an option.

Damian set the tablet down, gathered Dick up, and headed downstairs. When they arrived in the small dining room the family used when company wasn’t around, the table was already set and Alfred was in the process of ferrying food to and from the kitchen. “Ah, Master Damian very good timing,” Alfred greeted, “Please, place Master Richard at his regular seat.” Alfred gestured to the spot where Dick’s normal plate and silverware had been replaced with a place mat and a desert plate. Well it wasn’t like he could exactly eat with a knife and fork right now anyways, much less sit on a chair.

Damian set him down on the place mat, and then took his own spot beside him, waiting patiently for the rest of the food to arrive. There were two other places set at the table, which meant Tim and Bruce were back from the field and would be up any minute now. Alfred had been dealing with vigilante’s need to work on the case until the last possible minute since before he’d been born. He had a good handle on exactly how long it took them to clean up in the cave and make it up to dinner, including time taken to finish those last couple paragraphs in the report that just absolutely could not wait until after dinner. If Alfred was serving food up here and not in the cave, they both would be on time, through no effort on their own parts.

Right on schedule, Alfred placed the last dish on the table and Tim and Bruce both appeared. Bruce claimed his seat at the head and Tim his directly across from Dick. Originally, he’d been directly across from Damian, but the under the table kicking contests had resulted in Alfred forcibly rearranging their seating. Meals had been less of miniature war zones ever since. Unless Jason was over, then all bets were off.

Normally, this would be the time that Dick would force his family into socializing with leading questions and idle chatter. Not just because he liked to hear himself talk, but also because it was often the only time he could find out what was going on with them and they couldn’t escape. For example, he really wondered how Tim had gotten that large scratch down his arm that Dick didn’t remember being there when he and Dami left for the cave, and Bruce was never going to volunteer information on what had become of Mrs. Grey unless someone outright asked him, possibly multiple times. With Dick’s vocabulary stilted to loud or quiet meows and vague gestures with his paws and head, they were doomed to a silent dinner. He temporarily considered beating out questions in Morse code, his family would certainly understand them, but dismissed it for how ridiculously long it would take to get the messages across. They could all finish eating and escape before he would get all the answers he wanted.

He was probably being overly dramatic. It wasn’t like the dinner completely lacked conversation. A few pleasantries were exchanged as everyone filled their plate, and Alfred explained the food he’d made for Dick. Some sort of plain fish, easy on both his new digestive track and taste buds. Never the less, he was a little surprised when no one brought the case up at the dinner table at all. Tim and Bruce probably discussed it in the field over the comms, but Damian had spent the day with him. It was unusual that he wouldn’t be even a little curious about what either of them had found out. Then again, it was completely possible that the case was exactly what Damian had been reading about on his tablet before Dick woke up. If they couldn’t get him back to his real form in the morning, he really would have to resort to Morse code or die of curiosity.

Dinner ended and Damian collected him again, moving down the hall to return to his room. Dick was still tired enough he could have probably happily dozed for a couple more hours by Damian’s side, but he also didn’t feel like being wide awake and unable to patrol at midnight tonight. As they came into sight of the media room, Dick meowed loudly and stared intently at its door. Damian gave him a suspicious look but acquiesced to his request.

Once in the room, Damian sat him down on the couch and Dick took off for the movie cabinet. Dick had to stretch up on his hind legs to reach the row of movies he was looking for. They had a rather good range of old horror flicks, more likely to make you giggle at the visible strings than scream in terror. Dick had been trying to watch the entire collection with Damian the past year or so. It’d had been great bonding material once Damian found out that calling the characters idiots only got him agreement instead of admonishments to be nice.

Dick batted at the third in a series of a truly awful satanic cult in the boonies movie. He’d watched the first two with Damian last week, and he was kind of curious if the blond cute girl lead would actually make it through the entire thing without being sacrificed. Damian snorted, when he saw what Dick was pawing at, “Really Grayson? This again. Can you think of no better cinema to waste your time on.” Dick responded by giving him his best set of puppy dog eyes, technically kitty cat eyes. “Stop that.” Damian said, deliberately staring anywhere but at his face.

Dick shoved off the cabinet, walking up to Damian’s leg and giving him the most pathetic meow he could muster. He couldn’t exactly use his normal methods of picking Damian up and tossing him on the couch. Which was only necessary, by the way, because Tim had teased Damian about watching B-movies when Damian said something surly about Tim watching chick-flicks with Steph. Damian had ramped up the denial of his enjoyment in them in response. It would take a while for him to get comfortable with admitting that he liked the horror movie nights again. Yes, he had nearly torn his own hair out when he figured out why there was sudden backtracking. He loved his little brother’s willingly interacting, but sometimes he really just wanted to build a great wall of China between them all to prevent them from hurting each other.

“I’m not indulging you just because you look pathetic,” Damian glared at him. Dick just raised one paw and set it softly on his leg, meowing again. He was the king wheedling people into doing what he wanted. Even Bruce admitted it. Dami tried to keep the glare up, but failed in the wake of Dick’s overwhelming cuteness. “Fine, we’ll watch your damn movie.” Dick let the language slide, and Damian yanked the movie out of the cabinet. As soon as he was done placing the DVD in the player, he stomped over to the couch. Dick trotted along behind him, jumping onto his lap and curling up after he sat down.

Dick was happy to note, it only took fifteen minutes of watching the movie for Damian to drop the act and get invested. He actually nearly got tossed from Dami’s lap during one particularly unexpected jump scare. The demonic mask had been cheesy, but neither one of them expected it to suddenly flash onto the screen. Alfred stopped by with popcorn at some point, along with strict instructions that Dick wasn’t allowed to have any, and when the movie ended Damian walked across the room and put in another one without any prompting on Dick’s part. It was a good night.

By the time the fourth movie ended, Damian was asleep. Dick found all his sleeping brother’s adorable, but Dami was going to get a crick in his neck and be extra cranky in the morning if he spent the night on the couch. Dick planted his paws on Damian’s chest and then softly bumped the sleeping kid’s nose with his own. “Mhmm, Grayson?” Damian mumbled. Dick dropped down and grabbed the middle of his t-shirt with his teeth, yanking hard. “What do you want?” Damian said a little more alert this time. Dick jumped to the ground. Glancing back to make sure Damian had gotten up and was following him, he headed out the door of the media room. Dick led the sleepy Damian up to his room and hopped up onto his bed.

There wasn’t really a question where Dick was sleeping tonight. Just because he’d been fine ever since the initial discomfort of the transformation didn’t mean he’d remain so. He needed to stick by someone in case something went wrong in the middle of the night. He’s fairly certain Tim would have remembered to warn him if there was any possibility of him transforming back without magical help, so there was minimal chance of him waking up naked in his little brother’s bed. He’s pretty certain that Dami would burst into flames from mortification if that happened. Possibly go so far as to refuse to speak to him for a couple days.

Damian changed quickly in the bathroom, hitting the lights on his way to the bed, and then pushed in beside him. Dick waited for him to settle, before picking his own spot to sleep. Dami still had a tendency to sleep like a plank, but he moved one of his arms out as a concession to Dick’s prodding, allowing Dick to curl up against the side of his stomach for sleep. “Goodnight Grayson” Damian whispered. Dick meowed back just as quietly. It was a little embarrassing how quickly they both fell asleep.

Chapter Text

Morning came, and news of Zatanna came along with it. Turns out Dick’s return to normal was in the back of the queue, as Zatanna headed straight to Gotham Holding to deal with the fallout of yesterday’s attack. Batman had found Mrs. Grey last night, but she had suffered several injuries during her time as a cat. While none were life threatening, she couldn’t be properly treated for them until she was turned back. The cats also weren’t doing well. Containing them was a strain on Gotham’s PD, and some of the larger ones had to be sedated for longer than was strictly safe for their heath. Giant Cat, in particular, had had an adverse reaction to the sedatives used on him and passed peacefully in his sleep. Dami had been rather upset when he found out.

Which he had found out, because Dick and Damian were down in the cave monitoring comms, waiting for Zatanna to finish up in Gotham and head over to fix Dick. After that particular bit of news, Damian had taken up scanning through the case file on the bat computer. At least he had, until he’d realized that Dick was trying to read it at the same time. For reasons that Dick blamed on Jason’s influence, Damian had taken this as the perfect opportunity to troll him and refused to scan down the file to the interesting bits. This of course, led to Dick trying to operate the mouse himself, and then devolved into a game of keep away. Dick was now completely wrapped around Damian’s arm, claws dug into his shirt mouth gnawing on the fingers Dami had curled around the mouse, trying to convince him to let go of the damn thing without actually breaking skin. Damian was trying to pry him off with his free hand, but kept getting clawed at by one of Dick’s paws every time he got close.

They were both so distracted by their rather unfair, in Dick’s opinion, wrestling match, neither noticed the new arrivals in the cave until the flash and snap of Tim’s camera went off. Dick froze, then slowly looked over to where a grinning Tim and a dahing Zatanna had snuck in. Zatanna didn’t even have the decency to pretend she wasn’t laughing at the expression on their faces, well Dami’s face, Dick’s was pretty impossible to read right now. “If your ready, she can turn you back now.” Tim cheerfully informed them.

“Oh no rush,” Zatanna quickly added, holding up her hands to emphasize the point, “I can wait until you two are done.” Oh, he was certain she didn’t mind at all. She’d probably gladly watch and add commentary if they let her, but Dick needed to move if he wanted that picture to survive. Damian didn’t like undignified pictures, and if Dick didn’t distract him, it was going to get destroyed before Dick got a chance to get a copy of his own.

Dick let Damian go and jumped to floor. Walking over to Zatanna, he meowed at her to lead the way. With a wide smile and a showman’s flair she moved towards where Alfred had laid out supplies and they all trooped after her. The supplies were a couple magical ingredients for the spell and a set of clean clothes for Dick to change into. Dick was a little surprised for the need of anything but a wave of her hands, but Zatanna had been very specific about what she needed and he wasn’t going to second guess the expert. Probably had to do with it not being her own magic she was undoing. Zatanna examined the supplies for a moment then turned to Tim, “Could you grab a blanket and bring it over?” She asked, “Dick might not be up to getting dressed right after the spell.” Wait, what? Why wouldn’t he be up to dressing himself after getting turned back?

“You mean like Mrs. Grey?” Tim replied cryptically, “I thought that was just because she was injured?” Oh yeah, that was precisely unspecific enough to give him have all sorts of foreboding feelings about this.

“It didn’t help,” Zatanna nodded in confirmation, “but the spell used was crude. It didn’t have a lot of protections for the subject. Reversing it is going to hurt.” She said, as she began laying everything out how she wanted it. Dick briefly considered going through the effort to request Constantine being contacted instead, but he kind of doubted the guy could be assed enough to make the transformation back painless, even if he did know a way to do it differently.

Tim left and returned with one of the medical cot’s shock blankets in hand. Dick really hoped that this wouldn’t be as bad as Zatanna was hinting at, but he couldn’t dismiss how painful the first time had been. Zatanna nodded on seeing the blanket, then looked to Dick, “Alright, Dick stand right there. Anyone who doesn’t feel like seeing him naked should look away now.” She announced. Both Tim and Damian suddenly found the stalactites in the cave incredibly interesting. If he’d been capable, Dick would have laughed.

With a wave of her hands and some truly impossible to pronounce magical words, a ball of whirling magic similar to the one that hit him yesterday appeared. This time, as the spell crashed into him and his nerves exploded in pain, Dick kept conscious long enough to hear himself scream.

—————

“Grayson, Grayson! Wake up!” Damian’s panicked voice rung in his ears, as his shoulders were shaken violently.

“I’m awake,” Dick mumbled. He tried to bat the hands gripping him away, but thought better of it, when the movement made him very aware of the fact that he was once again in a lot of pain. Instead of moving he opted to pry his eyes open to reveal a very relieved looking Damian. “Ughh, I feel like I’ve been run over by a train.” Dick said to the air in general. He was only half exaggerating too. As bad as he’d felt right after the spell last time this was much worse.

“You were screaming.” Damian said quietly. He was back to the wide eyed look again, which just wouldn’t do.

“Sorry Little D, didn’t meant to scare you. Just got taken by surprise.” Dick lied. That had really hurt, he couldn’t have stopped if he’d tried.

Damian let got of his shoulders and crossed his arms. “I wasn’t scared,” he huffed. Sure he wasn’t. Now that Dick had proper arms again, it looked like it was time to dish out comfort hugs once more. Just as soon as he could move without pain. Thank god, Zatanna had set expectations low for him recovering. Hiding under a blanket for a bit before getting dressed sounded like a really good idea right about now. Speaking of which, he was kind of chilly, like everywhere.

“Uhh, could someone grab me the blanket. I’m not really feeling up to getting it myself.” Dick said. Damian eyes managed to get even bigger and his face turned a bright red. Seems that worry could only trump embarrassment for so long.

Before Dami could do too good of a tomato impression, Zatanna appeared, blanket in hand, “Here you go,” she threw the blanket over him covering his non-existent modesty, “I’ve got to head out to deal with some other stuff today,” she said, giving him a fond pat on the cheek, “but call me if you aren’t feeling back to your normal self in an hour, or if you experience any other side effects.”

She waited for Dick to nod in acknowledgment before moving to leave, “Thanks for the help and bye!” he called after her. Waving at her back. It already hurt less than moving had a minute ago. She waved back, and Tim escorted her from the cave.

Dick turned his attention back to Damian. Who was sitting beside him staring at his hands. Dick worked his other arm out from under the blanket and held it out, “So now that I’m back, can I get a hug, or are you going to make me chase you down while I’m in pain?”

Damian hesitated for a second before all but diving into his chest for one of those death grip hugs he really only did when they were alone. “You will be okay,” Damian said. Dick thinks it was supposed to be a statement, but it came out more like a question.

“I’m going to be fine.” Dick confirmed. Petting the back of the boy’s head.

“You screamed yesterday too.” Damian admitted, voice muffled by Dick’s chest. He had? He didn’t remember that, but that didn’t mean it hadn’t happened. It would explain Damian’s reaction yesterday a bit better if he had. Family members and friends screaming in pain wasn’t something you ever got used to, no matter how many times you heard it.

“Sorry,” Dick kissed the top of his head and gave him a squeeze. Dick gave Damian a minute to draw comfort, before switching to happier topics. “So last night you fell asleep before the movie ended,” Dick said, “I think that means as soon as I get dressed we’re going to have to go back and rewatch it.”

Damian broke the hug and gave Dick an agape look, “No, you cannot make me watch more of that drivel!”

Dick gave him his best shit eating grin, “Really now, that sounds like a challenge to me.”