Chapter Text
Damian could not help the wide smile that was plastered on his face as he read the text message, thanks to a new app that the developers of Lost Earth had released he could keep in contact with all his online friends, he replied to Superboy telling him he would be on in about two hours as he was going out with his stepmom on an errand.
He was still a little surprised with how close he had gotten with the other boy, well as close as he could get to someone without knowing them in person. He had entertained the idea of proposing that the two boys should meet IRL as they went to the same school and all, but he was nervous to even bring that up to the other boy simply because what if the friendship didn't translate well in real life as it did online.
Colin had tried to persuade Damian to have them all meet IRL but after telling the redheaded boy his fear, Colin said he understood and dropped the matter telling him that he would not push for it until Damian felt comfortable, which shocked the darker haired pre-teen.
He asked Colin a few days later why he would wait for him to be comfortable to meet Superboy, he could have easily just gone and met the other boy on his own. What Colin told him made Damian truly appreciate the energetic pre-teen.
"It wouldn't be cool of me to meet him without everyone else, I can wait." Damian treated Colin at lunch that day at school.
Damian felt a sudden weight on top of him, he let out a groan of frustration as he pushed up on the heavy weight. "Get off me, Jason! You're heavy!"
"Hey, I'm not heavy." Jason said with mock indignation as he continued to lean on his younger brother. "I do not appreciate the implication of me being fat, I am all muscle, baby."
Jason said with a huge co*cky grin, Damian having enough of his older brother's antics decided to quickly move forward causing Jason to suddenly slump to the floor with an oomph as the air was knocked out of him; Damian gave the crumpled form of his brother a smirk of satisfaction.
"Great now I reek like you." Damian said taking a sniff of his shirt and catching a hint of Jason's cologne, he made a face at the scent, it was the one he hated because it smelt like mint and vanilla, a mix Damian disliked greatly.
Jason was back on his feet, a mischievous smile on his face and a gleam of trouble in his teal blue eyes. "Oh I stink huh? First you call me fat and now you call me smelly, this calls for punishment little brother."
Before Damian could react Jason moved forward grabbing Damian pulling him into a hug then suddenly rubbing his cheek against Damian's coating the younger male's face in his cologne's scent. Damian struggled making noise of protest at the sudden assault.
"NO! Jason, stop! I hate this smell." Damian let out a cry of distain trying to push himself away from his brother but Jason was a lot stronger.
"What? You don't like my cologne? That is so rude." Jason said this with sarcasm as he continued to rub his face against Damian's making sure to coat him in the scent like the way a cat would.
"No, I hate this stupid cologne, it smells gross. Roy has crap taste giving you this cheap stuff, I like the one that makes you smell like lavender." Upon hearing that Jason stopped and let Damian go who looked like a very disgruntled cat.
"Hey, my boyfriend does not have crap taste. He likes this smell so I wear it." Jason said with a pout. Damian was still upset at being manhandled and being coated in mint which he hated so much because of his grandfather.
"He absolutely has crap taste! He wears those stupid hats, and those dumb tattoos!" Damian was saying all this to upset Jason as payback for what he had endured.
"Hey his tattoos are sexy!" Jason said with actual indignation not realizing that his father and stepmother had entered the room.
"Whose tattoos are sexy?" Bruce asked making Jason jump turning to look at his father with wide eyes like a deer caught in the headlights. His dad did not know that Roy had tattoos as whenever Roy came to the manor he always made sure to keep them covered up because both Jason and Roy knew that Bruce would greatly disapprove of them.
Jason felt Damian move behind him, he was suddenly very worried because right now Damian could spill the beans and there would be a huge argument between him and his dad.
"He was saying that the new rockstar that has been on the news lately is sexy cause of his tattoos, I think he looks like a bad art project." Damian lied for Jason so smoothly that the older boy was rather impressed by his younger brother.
"Oh Flint and the Firestarters? Yeah the lead guitarist is so hot with those tats." Stephanie spoke up as she entered the main foyer of the manor, she had overheard Damian and Jason fighting and being the good sister she was decided to help Jason out, of course being a good sister she would hold this over Jason's head for when she needed a favor.
"Honestly I don't get the appeal of marking your body up like that; Jason I am sure that Roy would not appreciate you drooling over other men like that." Bruce gave his son a lecturing look as he said that, making Damian and Stephanie silently chuckle.
"Dad, Roy is not a jealous guy. He and I often talk about how hot other guys are." Jason said this with as much teen sass as he could, managing to roll his eyes as well, Bruce was about to lecture Jason again when Selina touched his shoulder.
"Teens today are a lot more modern with their relationships, and it can be a little difficult to understand for old timers like us." She said this all with a joking tone, lightly kissing Bruce on the cheek before making her way over to Damian and asking him if he was ready to go. Giving her a yes the two of them made their way to the car were Alfred was waiting for them.
---
Jon let out a huff of air, he had been dragged along in this shopping trip with his mom and grandma, as much as he loved both of them he was not one for shopping as he was a simple guy with simple tastes; his closet had at least five of the same colored shirts and jeans, Jessica had bemoaned his clothing situation, as had Billy who was dismayed at the sight of not a single graphic tee.
Jon took out his phone, a hand me down of Connor's, going through the new Lost Earth App reading the messages from Robyn which made him smile. He and the other boy had been getting closer as friends as he helped him level up, he was now level 13. He had struck up a friendship with the other guys as well but there was just something about Robyn that drew him in.
Jon had wanted to meet the other boy IRL since he found out that they went to the same school, but he kept hesitating to bring it up as he feared that the other boy might not want to meet, it didn't stop Jon from people watching the other students at school to see if perhaps one of them was Robyn, so far he hadn't really seen anything that would clue him in, and there could be several students that played Lost Earth as well so even if he did find out someone played it did not mean that they were Robyn.
He did notice one new thing though, Damian was hanging out with a redheaded boy as of late.
As if thinking about him conjured him, Jon saw Damian enter the department store with his mom. Jon was surprised once more as he saw Damian smiling as he spoke to his mom; he never seen the generally scowling boy smile once, and here he was all smiles, he even laughed.
Jon was floored seeing all this, no one would ever believe him if he told them that he witnessed sourpuss Damian Wayne laughing and smiling. Things got even stranger as Damian's mom spotted his mom and the two women greeted each other and Damian even greeted his mom and grandma with a smile and polite greeting, Jon found himself making his way over to them.
"Jon, you've met Mrs. Wayne before." His mom turned to him as he approached the group.
"Yeah, at our last soccer game." Jon looked over at Damian as he said the next part kicking himself for not realizing how it sounded. "Before Damian quit."
"I found better things to do." Was Damian's clipped reply a glare sent his way. "Things that don't hit me in the face and pants me."
The last part was said low enough that only Jon heard it, it made him feel a pang of guilt, before he could say anything Damian excused himself saying he needed to pick something out from the boy's department.
Jon was not going to let this lie, he excused himself saying he was heading to the restroom but went looking for Damian, after a few moments he found the other boy, Damian's back was to him.
He approached him ready to clear the air but it would seem that his mouth had other plans.
"I always figured you for boxer guy, not a green brief guy."
Damian rounded on Jon his tan face filled with a bright blush and the stream of curses aimed at him in Arabic felt earned.
----
Jon logged in to Lost Earth, he was in need of some mindless grinding, he had only made things worse with Damian. Trying to make a joke to lighten the mood only made Damian madder at him, the nail in the coffin was when Jon said that Damian smelled really good like mint which seemed to only upset the other boy even more in the end the boy made his way back to his mom and left shortly after, Jon just could not win with that guy.
He entered the Drunken Sniper Inn heading to the upper floor where the rest of his party was waiting, opening the door he was met with an angry Shrike who was having an animated discussion with Robyn who seemed just as mad.
"What's going on?" Superboy asked Butcher Bird who was leaning against the wall.
"The Devs did a crappy update that fragged Shrike's and Robyn's Jobs, it made them into Professions now."
Jon was even more confused now so Drake swooped in with an explanation telling Superboy that Professions were special things they could pick up as players to try their hand at crafting or harvesting, that seemed to make Superboy more confused so Red Hood broke it down as simply non-combat jobs like miner or blacksmith.
"I invested so much into the Perfumer Job! They can't just do this, there was no warning at all!! I demand justice!" Shrike yelled out with indignation.
"Exactly! I was so close to getting the Rune Translator Skill but now it was all for nothing!" Robyn joined in on Shrike's indignant rant.
"You got refunded all your skill points and Stat Points yeah?" Butcher Bird spoke up making both of them turn their glares at him.
"That's not the point B.B!" Shrike yelled.
"Hey I found something online about why the update happened." Drake showed off the window he was looking at which held a news article, Robyn began to read it a scowl forming deeper and deeper on his face.
"So because some new CEO took over he decided that the game needed to be changed simply because he didn't think that some of the jobs made sense?!" Robyn felt his anger grow more, it was bad enough he had been teased and humiliated by Kent earlier that day, but now his Archeologist job had been reduced to a Profession which also meant that all his equipment was now useless.
He checked his inventory seeing all the items related to his Archeologist job now had a red X cross them in the inventory window with [Defunct] on them, when he pressed on the window the only option on them was [Discard] all this just soured Robyn more, Superboy walked over to him offering him a sympathetic smile.
Superboy was about to say something when Abuse threw opened the door breathless trying to speak and failing, the red head just moved forward grabbing Shrike and Robyn then dragged them down to the Inn's first floor. The others looked at each other before following after Pugilist.
Abuse stopped in front of another player finally able to speak he told the other two that the man before them was someone who could help.
The man gave a bow using his top hat to perform a flourish with it, as he stood up they saw that there was a golden apple next to the man's name.
"Hello lads, I am Jervis Tetch. I am one of the Game Developers and I am here to fix some of the issues that our CEO created."
Shrike and Robyn immediately spoke at the same time.
