She hadn’t seen Damian in years. Not since Gotham Academy, not since back when he was sharp edges and unresolved fury wrapped in a school uniform. Back then, there was tension the unspoken kind that burned at the edges of teenage silence. But they were just kids, and the world was too big and too dangerous for what-ifs.

Now, she stood in the middle of the Wayne Foundation gala, older, confident, the kind of woman who knew who she was. And Damian?

He was no longer a boy.

The crowd parted as he entered, all dark suit and colder eyes. But when he saw her, something cracked just barely at the corner of his mouth. Not a smile. A recognition.

Time had passed. They weren’t kids anymore.

And maybe now… the timing wasn’t so wrong after all.