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No one had expected Damian to present as an omega. Bruce was an alpha and Talia was a beta, making the chances of Damian being an omega very low. Not to mention, Bruce had thought that Talia would have tweaked everything about Damian, including his second gender. This was an awful mistake on Bruce’s part, because it left him woefully unprepared for a presenting omega.
When Damian had turned fourteen, Bruce had been trying to mentally prepare himself for the stupid posturing that happened when a new alpha presented. Bruce remembered Dick’s alpha presentation and what a horrible experience the constant challenging and overwhelming teenager scent everywhere had been. But Bruce knew that Damian’s alpha presentation would be oh so much worse. Dick was an easy-going alpha most of the time, Damian was the opposite.
So Bruce had been carefully working on helping Damian feel more independent by giving him his own credit card to spend as he would and looking into the teen titans. The Titans had been a great way for Dick to come into his own as an alpha without Bruce losing his mind.
But all these efforts were in vain because Damian presented as an omega and they were all so very unprepared. Even Alfred was caught off guard by the development. The whole presentation had been an event of sorts.
–
Bruce had been in the cave for 12 hours now, not coming up for food or human interaction once. The only person he’d seen was Alfred who came periodically with tea and sandwiches, which Bruce hurriedly and distractedly scarfed down before turning back the batcomputer. Bruce heard the light tapping of polished leather shoes and knew Alfred was approaching.
“Master Bruce, I’m afraid we have a bit of a situation upstairs,” Alfred said tersely. Bruce’s brows furrowed.
“What kind of situation?” Bruce said, eyes scanning over the forty-third police report.
“It’s a bit hard to explain,” Alfred said, there was a hint of amusement there, but mostly exasperation. Bruce pulled his eyes from the screen and looked over towards the butler. “I’m afraid that Master Damian has presented,”
Bruce sighed and headed upstairs begrudgingly, ready to have to fend off an angry rut alpha trying to claim his territory.
He’s sure that he would have to calm Damian down from whatever storm he’d worked himself up into with all the new aggressive hormones he’d acquired. However as soon as Bruce opened the door to Damian’s room, he knew that he was dealing with something else entirely.
The smell of omega was overwhelming as soon as Bruce opened the door. It was the overpowering scent of cinnamon, jasmine, and something heady like burnt wood, with a sweet undercurrent to it. That would have been surprising enough on its own, but the scene in front of him threw him for a loop ten times more than any scent could have.
“Damian! You can’t keep me here!” Dick cried out. Damian’s bed had been pushed into the corner of the large room and had a nest built on top of it. From what Bruce could tell the nest had been built in an extremely meticulous way, it almost seemed like the clothes and blankets were folded and tied so that they would take tons of maneuvering to undo. Bruce could see that Damian had decided that everyone’s sheets and clothes now belonged to him, by the way that almost none of the garments in Damian’s nest were his own.
However, the most shocking thing was that Dick was in the middle of the nest, tied up from head to toe. Damian had Dick tied up good, Dick’s arms were bound together and to the headboard from elbow to wrist and apparently Damian had seen it necessary to tie each of Dick’s fingers up to the opposite one, so that Dick’s hands were in a permanent clapping position and not able to move an inch. Dick’s legs were also bound to each other all the way down and to the footboard. Bruce could also see that there was some weird rope configuration around Dick’s neck and torso, most likely keeping him from thrashing around too much without strangling himself. Damian was curled up into Dick’s side, face in Dick’s neck and arms wound around the older man.
It was certainly not what Bruce was prepared for, this hadn’t even entered Bruce’s mind as a possibility.
“Be quiet Grayson, you are disturbing me,” Damian said, the words half muffled against Dick’s collarbone. No wonder no one thought he would be an omega. Bruce knew that omegas were often clingy and demanding during their heats, especially young ones like Damian, but this was unprecedented.
“What’s going on here?” Bruce said into the heavy room. Neither of the two had noticed before. Dick lifted his head as much as he could.
“Bruce! Damian fucking drugged me!” Dick sputtered, and Bruce was sure that if the scent of Damian and heat wasn’t overwhelming, he would have smelled Dick’s sour frustrated scent. That at least explained how Damian managed to get Dick into this position in the first place.
“Language Master Dick,” Alfred said from behind, sounding amused.
“You were fussing entirely too much Grayson,” Damian said, a little muffled since his head was still in Dick’s collarbone.
“I was trying to help!” Dick sputtered, squirming as much as he could without strangling himself.
“I did not need your help,” Damian complained. “I am perfectly capable of acquiring sustenance and a heating pad,” Damian said. Bruce could see it in his head, Damian starting to reek of omega and Dick running around frantically, grabbing water bottles and blankets. Bruce sighed.
“Quite an impressive nest you’ve built Master Damian,” Alfred said, “I especially appreciate the decorative alpha,” Alfred had a soft smile on his face. Dick sputtered incoherently.
“Alfred you traitor!” He cried.
“Thank you Pennyworth, you are welcome to join us,” Damian said, practically purring at the praise. It was perhaps the most agreeable that Bruce had ever seen the young boy.
“Master Dick seems to be taking up quite a bit of room in there, I’m not sure Master Bruce and I could both fit,” Alfred said fondly. Bruce’s head whipped over to Alfred. Bruce was still in a state of shock really. Would Damian even want Bruce in his nest? After all, sometimes it seemed like Damian was much closer to Dick than Bruce. Bruce wondered if Damian even saw him as a father really beyond blood.
Damian sat up and his brow furrowed in intense concentration and he looked the same as when he was taking down Two-Face or the Joker. Damian reached over to push out the sides of the nest a little bit more, creating more space, but still not quite enough for Alfred and Bruce. Damian then moved from beside Dick to sitting on top of Dick’s stomach without missing a beat.
“Damian! My kidneys!” Dick wheezed but Damian paid him no mind. Damian looked smug.
“Now there is enough room,” Damian said. Bruce hesitated at the doorway. Still in shock that his son wanted him in his nest, that his son was growing up so fast. Damian seemed to wilt at the hesitation. “Of course, I understand if you have other matters to attend to,” Damian said but the heat fever was making the devastation show clear on his face, and he was distractedly rubbing the scent gland on his wrist into Dick’s jaw, it seemed to soothe him a little but not enough in Bruce’s opinion.
“No, of course I would love to stay in your nest,” Bruce said quickly, his t-shirt and sweatpants probably didn’t smell the best right now, but there was no way he would let his son think that he didn’t want to stay with him.
“Hm, I will be right back to join you Master Damian,”Alfred said, “Master Bruce, I expect that you will be on the other side of Dick, I will not be doing any sort of clambering tonight,” Bruce nodded, dazed. Damian beamed.
Bruce carefully climbed over the footboard and into the small space between Dick and the wall. He was plastered to Dick’s side and by extension Damian’s side since the younger boy was now laying on top of Dick like he was just a body pillow. This close up, Bruce could smell Dick and to his surprise there was no frustration or anger in his scent, only fond exasperation, it was an amazing scent and Bruce couldn’t help himself from nestling a little closer to Dick’s hair to get more of the caramel popcorn scent and Damian’s sweet spiced scent.
Bruce himself had always had a rather traditionally alpha scent, that Alfred told him consisted mostly of sandalwood, wine, leather, and, to his chagrin, sweat. When Dick had presented Bruce had been surprised at how almost androgunous his scent was. Sometimes people couldn’t even tell Dick was an alpha when they only briefly met him due to how unusual his scent was. It was a mix of buttery caramel popcorn, spandex, and something that seemed almost warm, like smelling a bright stage light. It was only after Dick did physical activity and the testosterone filled his scent that he really smelled like an alpha. Bruce had seen the way Dick beamed when people told him he smelled like a circus.
Now that Bruce was getting a chance to smell Damian without the milky scent of pup overpowering, Bruce noticed that he smelt a bit like Talia. Talia had also had that sharp jasmine scent but Damian’s was mixed with more cinnamon and rather than smelling like incense like Talia had, he smelt like a roaring fire. Plus, there was an undercurrent of sweetness everywhere. Bruce knew that most omegas smelt like flowers or baked goods, but while Damian certainly smelled sweet, it was not the common type of sugar that lots of omegas smelled like. The sweetness seemed almost sharp enough for Bruce to cut himself on.
Alfred re-entered the room, he had a vest on instead of a tailcoat and he had on those dorky slippers that Bruce loved. Alfred settled down on the other side of Dick and started stitching up Tim’s Red Robin costume; it had several slashes in it after a particularly rough encounter with Poison Ivy’s thorns. Bruce briefly tensed, wondering if Tim’s scent was going to start making Damian edgy but the boy was just starting to snooze softly into Dick’s chest.
Although Bruce was on the other side of Dick, he could still smell Alfred’s clean scent. Alfred smelled like lemons, ink, lavender, and that old people scent. It had been a long time since Bruce had smelled it this strongly, with all of Alfred’s clothes in the walls of the nest it was impossible not to notice. Alfred was a beta and his scent already wasn’t very strong, but Alfred also hardly ever scent marked people. Sometimes, Bruce wondered if the lavender detergent he bought was a roundabout way of making his scent more present in the manor.
It had been a long time since Bruce had laid in a nest with Alfred or even Dick. It made Bruce nostalgic for those times of when his mother would make a nest in the living room on the huge couch and they would all settle in to read or watch a movie. His parents had been gone for so long that Bruce could hardly remember what they smelled like. Bruce had to stop thinking about it otherwise his scent would start to turn sour in sadness.
Sometimes, when Dick had first come to the manner. He would make a nest, one that was horribly messy and falling apart, but still somewhat resembled a nest and then he would make Bruce sit in it with him. When Bruce asked Dick why he stopped making them, Dick simply said that he was never able to make one as well as Mary Grayson did so why even try. Bruce had tried not to be sad.
“Psst” Dick stage whispered and Bruce leaned up a bit so he could look at Dick’s face. “Will you at least untie me a little,” Bruce raised an eyebrow. “I’m losing circulation! My muscles aren’t meant to be all stiff like this!” Dick said. Bruce’s lip quirked and he checked Dick’s fingers and arms for circulation. Damian had tied them perfectly so as to be as tight as they could without causing any damage.
“Your circulation seems fine to me,” Bruce said.
“Bruce!”
“I don’t know Dick, I would hate to upset the omega of the house,” Bruce said, pretending to be conflicted, Dick saw right through it of course and scowled.
“You're a horrible, awful person B!” Dick bemoaned and then turned his sights on Alfred. “Alf! Come on, you gotta free me! I can’t even hug back!” Dick whined. Alfred kept his eyes firmly on his stitching.
“I’m afraid that if I untie you, you might start trying to add that horrendous polka dot shirt to the nest again, I just can’t take that risk Master Dick,” Alfred said snidely and Bruce’s lips twitched.
“Alllllfred!” Dick said, quite whiny for someone who was not the newly presented omega in the room.
“Quiet Richard, or I’ll gag you,” Damian said from Dick’s collarbone, not opening his eyes, exuding a satisfied scent. Bruce felt as though things couldn’t be more perfect, even if the soft rope was chafing against his arm a little.