Chapter Text
Damian could barely think with the fog clouding his mind. He could also barely take another step forward through the cold halls of the Watchtower, stumbling towards his living quarters on the massive space station. His heartbeat was pounding in his ears and the fabric of his suit felt so uncomfortable on his skin. Everything felt so itchy and tight and unbearable, but he could not allow himself the relief of removing it. Not until he reached his room, the only safe space he could find solace in within the Watchtower.
He wouldn’t make it to the teleporters in time before the heat would consume him entirely. His breath came out in strained panting as each step became more difficult to take. Unable to hold himself back, Damian took off the tight cowl on his head, revealing sweaty dark hair that clung to his forehead. Without the cowl’s lenses, one could easily see that his poisonous green eyes are clouded with an unnatural haze. Damian gritted his teeth and placed a hand against the wall to steady himself.
“Almost there,” he muttered to himself. A few more steps left before he could allow himself the opportunity to relax and release all inhibition.
He hit the panel next to his door with a little more force than he would have liked and shuffled inside the moment the doors slid open. Damian waited until they closed again before releasing a shaky sigh of relief. With trembling hands, he finally began to remove pieces of his suit, not caring if the expensive armour hit the ground with a thud. Goosebumps prickled on his skin as heated flesh met cool air and was freed from his constricting, faux-Alpha pheromone-filled prison. Uncharacteristic of him, Damian allowed himself to fall into the bed, rolling around in the sheets to cover himself with its odourless scent.
Mind over body, he thought to himself. He tried to stabilise his breathing as he buried his face into his pillows, ignoring his legs as they moved to gather the blankets between his slick-soaked thighs. After calming down, he would immediately return back to the Batcave and lock himself up in a room and ride out the rest of his heat there. He couldn't allow himself to be caught in heat in the Watchtower of all places, or else everything he and his father had built up over decades would immediately collapse into pieces.
And damn, Damian would not even hesitate to neglect his own well-being in order to keep up the idea that the new Batman was and always has been an alpha.
Ever since he presented as an omega when he turned 14 years old, with the approval and support of his family, Damian had taken extreme measures to hide his actual secondary gender from people outside of his family. So as far as anyone in both public and superhero circles knew, Damian Wayne — former Robin, now Batman — was and has always been an alpha. In order to keep up the act, he took specially formulated suppressants and scent blockers to hide the fact that he was an omega. Coupled with the broad physique he ended up growing into over the years, keeping up the lie became easy for him and his family.
Until it no longer could.
“Goddamn it,” Damian hissed as a hand reached down to touch himself there. He hadn't had his heat in decades so masturbation had never crossed his mind at all but if it would help him calm down faster, then he would just let nature take its course.
In his childhood, Damian had been exposed to various forms of poison in order to develop an immunity against them. His father theorised that the same might be happening between him and his suppressants, wherein the continual use of suppressants caused his body to adapt and become immune against it. Because Damian has not had his heat for a very long time, there was no telling when it could start again. As his family drew closer to finding a stronger formula for his new suppressant, so did the possible date of his heat. In order to give his family more time, he had expressed willingness to take a break from their nightly activities and step back from the public under the guise of a trip to Europe about two weeks before the anticipated date.
Everything leading up to the day itself had been meticulously planned out. One of Damian’s many siblings would probably fill in for him while he would be out. He also had scheduled posts up on his social media accounts to make it look like he really was on a retreat somewhere far away from Gotham to explain his extended absence from the public eye.
But for all the contingencies they had, no one planned out anything for “invasion of an alien species that are also targeting omega members on the Justice League”. It was only fortunate that Damian’s generation in the Justice League were mostly alphas and betas. Once the few omegas in their team had been taken away from the battlefield, everything fell into their favour very quickly. When the dust settled after the battle and adrenaline had faded, it was only then that Damian realised that there was something very wrong going on with him.
If it weren’t for Jon insisting on a quick post-battle meeting, Damian could have been home by now. By the time the meeting was finally dismissed, he no longer cared for propriety and immediately left as fast as he could. The painful heat he was suffering through was already driving him insane and he could no longer risk going to the teleporters in his state so he rushed to his living quarters.
Those were the unfortunate series of events that led him to his current situation.
His hips were shaking as he continued to touch himself and Damian bit back any sounds of pleasure that were trying to spill out of his mouth. He didn’t even know if he was touching himself correctly but he must have been doing something right if it was feeling good for him. The heat in his body seemed to build up more and more and he just wanted it to stop so bad. He couldn't make sense of the situation and he was so sure that a name spilled out of his lips, but he didn't know whose it was that he called out.
The next thing he knew, there was a heavy weight pressing against his body and the scent of warm apple pie and cornbread filled his head. Damian turned on his back, facing the person on top of him. His body was caged between their arms and their hot and heavy breaths fell on his burning skin, with goosebumps erupting in its wake. Each breath he took, filled with the other person's scent, chipped away at his reason but it eased the pain that he was feeling in his body. Damian’s arms snaked around the other person's neck and pulled them in closer so he could breathe in more of their scent. Strong hands gripped at his hips and the person above him buried their face in the crook of his neck then inhaled deeply.
“ Alpha… ” Damian called out to the person as their bodies pressed against each other. “ My alpha… ”
The person above him let out a deep and shuddering sigh then opened their mouth. Damian wanted to hear the other person — his alpha — speak and engrave their voice deep inside his brain, but when the other person spoke, it suddenly felt like he was being submerged in cold water.
“I was… I was so worried when I smelled an omega in heat.” Jonathan Kent — former Superboy, now Superman — spoke shakily, his face still buried in Damian’s neck. He had spent many sleepless nights hearing this voice in his head while he wistfully reminisced about the past, so how could Damian not recognise him in such a critical situation? The shock of the situation immediately sobered Damian up but Jon was reluctant to let him go. “Especially when I traced the scent all the way to your room. I know you would never, but maybe they would— Rao, I shouldn't be speaking like this but I was so worried, Dami. I—” His words cut out when his lips came in contact with the skin behind Damian's ear.
Damian’s hands slipped from around Jon’s neck, but the half-Kryptonian man immediately reached out to keep them in place. As he did so, however, he caught a glimpse of the silver band around one of Jon's fingers and the sight of it could not have sobered Damian any faster. “Jon,” he called out, squirming away from his friend's grasp. “Jon, get off of me. You’re married and I’m not your mate. This is wrong .”
Jon pulled away from his neck and met Damian's eyes. The latter ignored the way his knees felt weak at the sight of Jon’s eyes, clouded and near black with how wide his pupils have become. “Wrong? No, but how can that be?” Jon replied, his speech slightly slurred. “If this is wrong, then how could it feel this good? All of this… it feels right to me.” The scent of his pheromones intensified, overpowering Damian’s own within the room.
“No, it’s not!” Damian hissed, struggling to get away from the person above him. On any normal day, he could easily hold his own against just about anyone but those days were not like today. Not only was he in heat but the person he is going against is a half-alien alpha in the middle of his own rut. “Get off me, Jon! Don’t touch me!” he cried out, hoping his voice would break through the haze his friend was now in but Jon remained unmoving.
The half-Kryptonian’s eyes fell down to his lips and almost immediately, Jon closed his eyes and leaned down to kiss them. His tongue slipped in between Damian's parted lips and began to explore the space beyond. Damian felt his hands being guided from around Jon's neck to the space above his own head, his wrists pinned beneath one of Jon's hands. His legs opened to make room for Jon’s knee. It slotted in perfectly between them and Damian couldn’t help but grind himself against it.
Jon pulled away from his lips to take off his suit at a speed that was simply superhuman. Once he was also bare naked, he immediately leaned down to latch onto Damian again. It was far too late for the both of them when Jon draped himself on top of him yet again, one of his hands moving to hold the back of Damian’s neck and the other tightly holding Damian by the waist. The movement of Jon’s lips against his washed away the voice in his head chastising him for submitting, and the thumb rubbing circles on his hip eased all the tension in his body.
His body ached in a way it had never ached before.
His mind blanked out and filled with nothing but Jon.
His heart craved for more of Jon’s touches and kisses.
He wanted Jon no matter how wrong all of this was.
So, with tears in his eyes, Damian finally stopped fighting himself and gave into this sinful act. When he came to after it all, he was tucked under fresh blankets with a warm body pressed against his back and an arm wound tightly around his waist. Damian didn’t have to look under the sheet to know that they were both still naked underneath and he didn’t have the heart to see their legs tangled so intimately either, as if they were a pair of lovers. He carefully extracted himself from Jon’s grip, an act that was easier than he had expected. Finally freed from Jon’s grip, he can finally assess the situation they were both in.
The lower half of his body was understandably in pain but Damian had been in worse situations. There was no sharp pain at the back of his neck that would indicate a mating mark, which was a relief for Damian because it would make sweeping everything about this incident under the rug much easier for him. As he walked to pick up the pieces of his Batsuit, he became aware of a sticky wetness between his legs that indicated that Jon probably knotted him.
He wasn’t particularly worried about that though since he was on birth control despite being sexually inactive prior t o this, but he considered taking a morning-after pill just in case. After all, there was no telling when it came to aliens and their reproductive abilities.
Damian held his suit in his hands and found himself unable to move as the situation finally dawned on him. He had sex with Jon, and despite not remembering anything from it, it was probably the best Damian has and would ever have. But it doesn’t erase the fact that all of it had been a mistake. When he first arrived under his father’s care, he openly expressed his belief that the people who draped themselves on his father were wrecking his family. His hatred for those types of people never stopped even though he now knew that his parents would never get together anymore. Yet, in this situation, hasn’t he become just like those people he hated?
Shaking the thoughts from his head, Damian began to clothe himself albeit with shaky hands. The scent of his pheromones in the room mixed with Jon’s had never felt so suffocating to him. It clung to every inch of his skin and even filled his nose as he pulled his cowl on his face. He couldn’t wait to go home and wash Jon’s scent off of him. He would also have to wash the suit immediately before his family could touch it.
His entire family may have been raised and trained by the world’s greatest detective, but it was still possible to hide secrets from them if he tried hard enough. For all they knew, he was only unable to get home before his first wave of heat and spent it alone in his room in the Watchtower. And he would do everything within his abilities to keep it that way.
“Dami?” A groggy voice suddenly drew him out of his thoughts. Ah, fuck. He forgot about that part. Damian turned his head to see Jon sitting up from the bed, rubbing the sleep from his eyes. “What are you doing in my room? Wait, huh?” His words cut off as he suddenly noticed his nakedness. “This isn’t my room… Why am I naked?” He sniffed around the room and suddenly froze as he was hit with a thought. Panic was evident in his voice as he asked, “Damian, what happened last night?”
The words felt like they were being squeezed out from him as he responded, “Don’t dwell on it too much, Kent.”
“Don’t what ?” Jon asked, jumping off the bed and revealing his nakedness to Damian. The latter closed his eyes and turned his head away. The sight is a blatant reminder of their mistake. “What does that even mean ? I’m being serious here, Damian. What happened?”
“Since you’re awake now, you should go and put on your clothes, Kent.” Damian sniffed. “There’s something urgent that I must do first so I won’t send you off.” He turned to leave but was suddenly stopped when Jon appeared in front of him immediately, using his superspeed to block his path.
“This isn’t the time to be cryptic, Damian!” Jon retorted, his eyes wide in panic as he began to realise the situation he was in. “Did we—” He abruptly stopped speaking, the words catching in his throat. Shaking whatever thought in his head, he continued to rant, “No, how could that happen? As far as I know, we’re both alphas. Unless…”
Jon’s face turned white as the dots connected in his head. His eyes turned to meet Damian’s and the latter was relieved for the cowl that hid whatever expression he must have had on his face. Damian supposed that he could have spoken to deny what happened between them immediately, but that momentary pause between them had been the final nail in the coffin in Jon’s head, ultimately confirming what he dreaded the most.
“You’re not an alpha, aren’t you?” The words somehow felt like knives being driven into Damian’s chest. He could clearly hear the pain and betrayal in Jon’s voice etching itself into his brain and he wished that Jon didn’t have to find out about it this way. “Damian?”
Damian’s arms felt heavy as he crossed them across his chest. He didn’t want to look defeated in the situation as he admitted, “No, I’m not. And, if you know what is good for you, this knowledge will never leave this room.”
“We’re no longer kids, Damian. I’m not scared of your threats anymore.” the half-Kryptonian man sighed in exasperation. “But, this is not the time! Why didn’t you tell me about this? Damian, you were in heat and we slept together. Don’t you understand the gravity of this situation?”
Damian sneered at his words and rolled his eyes. “Oh save me the waterworks, Kent. We're middle-aged men, not hormonal teenagers who just slept with each other for the first time.” he snapped. “Seriously, I don't understand why you're blowing this out of proportion. It was just one night. Unless you're planning to come clean to your husband, the two of us are just going to return home with nothing but a guilty conscience.”
And besides, who would even look at this situation and blame Jon for it? He wasn't the filthy omega that seduced him with his pheromones, after all. Jonathan Kent was an upstanding alpha who everybody looked up to. Damian Wayne was very clearly the opposite of him.
“Oh, fuck you Damian!” Jon exploded in anger. “You're telling me I'm blowing this out of proportion? You lied to me about your secondary gender for decades, went into heat and I probably knotted you too. What happened between us isn't as simple as a one-night stand anymore!”
“It is, if you would just let it!” Damian retorted. He walked closer towards the half-Kryptonian and he found himself standing just a little bit shorter than the other. Damian had long since let go of his hidden insecurities about his height but something about their current situation made him feel small and insignificant — a feeling Damian hated the most — so he jabbed a finger at Jon’s chest as he added, “If this is about you wanting to take responsibility because you knotted me, then I'm going to burst your bubble and tell you don't even bother. Did you really think I'm stupid to not use birth control all this time? This isn't the first time I've been in a situation like this, Kent, so if I were you, I'd just mind my own business after tonight and forget this ever happened!”
Jon suddenly deflated at his words and Damian tried not to feel bad about it. Especially because that last part was a lie. This was his first and likely the only time he'd ever be intimate with someone else. While Damian Wayne often cozied up with members of the elite as his father and brothers did before them in formal settings and had a few relationships over the years, none of them reached a point where Damian could be intimate with them. He barely even touched their hands and yet here he was, living the aftermath of dancing in the sheets with the man he wouldn't hesitate to call his best friend. He felt sick to his stomach.
“What do you mean by that?” he heard Jon mutter under his breath, shocked and confused. “This isn't your first time?”
“Yes.” Damian lied, so smoothly that it felt like his words were fact. “Again, Jon, we are middle-aged men. If you've seen the news articles published about me, you'd know that you're not the only one that got around over the years.”
“But that's different, isn't it?” the half-Kryptonian asked. “You told me it was always just an act with them. For your public persona.”
“Did it ever cross your mind that maybe I was just lying about that because I knew you'd be this annoying about it?”
And maybe it was nostalgia from their childhood days of bickering and petty arguments that suddenly surfaced, with the way Jon swiftly shot back, “Just like how you lied about being an alpha?”
A low blow, they both knew, and the expression on Jon's face immediately faltered at the realisation of his words.
Damian knew it wasn't a good idea but he couldn't help but throw a punch at Jon's face in anger. Distracted by trying to piece together an attempt at an apology, Jon fell to the floor. He had fallen silent now too, the words caught in his throat as he tried to process what had just happened. The two of them were simply agitated due to the situation they were in — Damian understood that but since they were already saying things they didn't mean, it wouldn't hurt if he opened his mouth to say another, right?
“Don't you ever show your face in front of me ever again, Jonathan Kent.” Damian venomously spat out before finally storming out of the room.
With haste in his step, Damian made his way to the teleporters, insistent on getting home before the second wave of his heat arrived and he found himself entangled with Jon yet again. His lower back painfully ached with each step towards his destination, the hand he used to punch his (former?) friend throbbed as he tried to keep it by his side as he walked, and his chest felt heavy with guilt and regret as he thought about what had happened. Damian knew that there were better ways of approaching the subject without spitting out words that he didn't even mean to say but there was nothing he could do anymore.
What was said was already said and what was done was already done , he thought to himself as he punched the Batcave’s coordinates into a teleporter’s monitor. Damian tried to forget the pained expression on Jon's face as he stepped onto the teleporter pad. He didn't understand why Jon seemed hurt by the idea of Damian sleeping around with other people. After all, he didn't like watching Jon get married to someone else as his best man, but he didn't say anything about it, didn't he?
As the teleporter whizzed to life and the Watchtower around him began to blur, Damian really did believe that he could finally put this nightmare to rest. But he wondered that if, at this moment, he knew how this “simple” one-night stand would drastically change his life, was there any way to have stopped it from happening in the first place?
— To Be Continued —