TITLE: Introduction to Music: A Lesson by Jason Todd and Stephanie Brown

Jason and Stephanie had kidnapped Damian.

And it was honestly going a lot better than she'd expected it to.

Okay. Fine. They didn't kidnap Damian. Just... forcefully contained him. Alfred was on their side, though, so it's okay and nobody can be mad!!

Besides, it's for the greater good. The greatest of all goods.

Damian had to learn about music. It was crucial to his development as a somewhat normal kid.

Plus, music is awesome. Why wouldn't they show him the ropes?

...

"Alright, Damian." Jason says, pushing his brother into the comfortable leather chair that sat in front of the large tv. "Prepared to be wowed."

"Preparing." Damian responded dryly, taking a sip of the tea Alfred had brought them.

Stephanie grabbed her computer and pulled up the slideshow. "Feast your eyes on beauty."

Damian rolled his eyes, but listened as the slide show began.

The first slide said: Introduction to music. A lesson by Jason Todd and Stephanie Brown

Damian nodded his ascent, and Stephanie grinned, clicking a button that made the slide fade out into the second one.

The second slide said: Home Free with two different pictures of 5 men standing on a stage and singing. Damian laughed when he read what Jason had written under the title. It said, -Because Stephanie is a weirdo genius* that insisted we use photos. Under that, was a list of info about the band, and under that were 5 songs.

"Alright, so." Jason started, clapping his hands. "This is Home free. They are an acapella country band. Which means they don't use instruments, only their magnificent voices."

"They're amazing!" Stephanie said, "And super popular, as they should be. Here, listen to one of their songs!"

She went to the song on the far left and clicked it, nodding when it started to play. The video started with the band logo, and the title of the song: Thinking Out Loud/Let's Get it On. One of the band members was leaning against a building and sang out the first chord in a high voice.

Stephanie paused the video, and dramatically put her hand to her head, pretending to faint.

"This is Tim Foust, who is known for his remarkably wide vocal range covering 5 octaves and his bone vibrating bass notes." Jason said.

Steph unpaused the video.

Damian listened attentively as the song played, nodding along to the beat. They went through all 5 songs, and by the end, Damian could certainly say he was a fan.

They were pretty good musicians.

Stephanie clicked to the next slide.

...

The Third Slide said: Taylor Swift with 3 pictures of a sassy looking blonde woman. Under the title, it said: -Aka: The Cat Queen. She's the best

"This is Stephanie's favorite, I take it?" Damian speaks up, before either Jason or Steph can say anything.

Stephanie winks, while Jason looks affronted. "Excuse YOU!!" Jason says, "I LOVE Taylor. I am a Swifite and PROUD OF IT!!"

"What, pray tell, is a Swiftie?" Damian asks.

"Her fans, of course." Steph answers.

Damian nods, as if he isn't still dying of confusion. "Oh. Of course. How silly of me."

"Anyway." Jason said. "Taylor is the best, she's got a bunch of songs, and she's a sweetheart unless you get on her bad side."

Stephanie cackles as she plays the first song.

"Draw the cat eye, sharp enough to kill a man. You did some bad things, but I'm the worst of them. Sometimes I wonder which one will be your last lie. They say looks can kill and I might try." is as far as the song could get before Jason was screaming into a pillow and Stephanie is in the corner, vibrating with excitement. Damian just listens, his face turning up in a smirk as he listens.

"I like it." He says.

"Of course you do." Steph says, as if there was no doubt. "It's my second favorite."

"What's your first?" Damian wonders. Stephanie blushes, while Jason smirks. "Why are you making those expressions?"

"Cause her favorite song is Gorgeous, which reminds her of Timbit." Jason manages to get out before he is hit in the head with a pillow.

A pillow fight ensues.

Damian skirts around them, to the laptop. He clicks on the next slide.

...

The fourth slide said: Alec Benjamin. The photos were next to three of his songs on the far right, while all the information was below the title.

Damian skimmed the text, reading over how exactly Alec rose to fame and what his most popular song was.

The two behind him were still hitting each other with pillows, deaf to everything happening on the tv, as he listened to all 3 songs.

Damian made a mental note to look at all his songs later, and clicked onto the next slide.

...

He clicked his way through the rest of them quickly. Learning about Shinedown and Em Beihold and Jax and AJR until finally there were only two left. This just so happened to be when Jason and Stephanie called a truce.

It's a good thing, too. They'd started using chairs instead of pillows around slide 6.

...

The ninth slide said: Cooper Alan, with two pictures of a blonde man two the right. Under the pictures, it had all the information Jason and Steph had deemed important.

"Oh I love this guy!" Steph said, stopping her attack on Jason. Jason sighed in relief, putting down his chair as well.

Damian glanced over, relieved that they'd stopped with their nonsense, and clicked on the first video.

Jason started laughing immediately as it started. "This is my theme song!" he said, copying the dance the group in the video was doing. Stephanie snorted, grabbing Damian's hand and forcing him to dance with her, despite his protests.

"Cause I can't dance for shit-" the singer was... well... singing. Jason was shouting along to the lyrics, only proving how awful a dancer he was as he rolled his hips.

Damian escaped Stephanie's evil clutches and lurched for the computer, quickly going to the final slide.

...

The final slide said: Ren. This was the one Damian paid the most attention to.

Stephanie and Jason had stopped dancing, and Steph grabbed the computer, deciding to take over.

"This guy is amazing." She whispers, "And I think he'll be your favorite. We can play the songs a couple of times so that you can hear it all."

Damian nodded his assent, and Steph started the first video.

The video began with an empty room. A person wearing a lab coat and a pig mask wheeled a man holding a guitar and wearing a patient's garb in a wheelchair into the room. The pig man then left. The man started to play the guitar.

And then, a couple minutes later, he started to sing.

"Hi there Ren

Its been a little while,

Did you miss me?

You thought you'd buried me, didn't you? Risky...

Because I always come back

Deep down you know that...

Deep down you know I'm always in periphery

Ren aren't you pleased to see me?

It's been weeks since we spoke bro, you know you need me

You're the sheep, I'm the shepherd

Not your place to lead me

Not your place to be biting off the hand that feeds me

Hi Ren

I've been taking some time to be distant

I've been taking some time to be still

I've been taking some time to be by myself

Since my therapist told me I'm ill

I've been making some progress lately,

And I've learnt some new coping skills

So I haven't really needed you much man

I think we need to just step back and chill"

The song continued on, and Damian quickly caught on to what it was about. A war between your mind. The voice inside that tells you everything that is wrong with you. It was... genius.

He listened in rapt attention, as the song came to an end, and Ren started to speak. "When I was 17 years old I shouted out into an empty room, Into a blank canvas, that I would defeat the forces of evil, And for the next 10 years of my life I suffered the consequences... With Illness, autoimmunity and psychosis

As I got older I realized that there were no real winners. Or no real losers in physiological warfare. But there were victims and there were students

It wasn't David verses Goliath, it's was a pendulum eternally Swaying between the dark and the light, And the brighter the light shone, the darker the shadow it cast

It was never a battle for me to win, it was an eternal dance, And like a dance, the more rigid I became the harder it got. The more I cursed my clumsy footsteps the more I suffered. And so I got older and I learned to relax, And I learned to soften, and that dance got easier. It is this eternal waltz that separates human beings. From angels, from demons, from gods. And I must not forget, we must not forget, that we are human beings."

The video ends.

"...Wow." Damian whispered into the otherwise silent room.

"I know right?!" Jason exclaimed. "It's so good! And when you listen to the rest of his songs, it makes it all the more obvious how much of a genius he was."

"What's your favorite song by him?" Damian asked.

"My favorite song is Hi, Ren." Stephanie answered, "But after that It would be Sick Boi."

"Mine is Chalk Outlines and Dear God." Jason said.

Damian nodded. "I will have to check him out."

...

It had been 3 hours and Damian was nowhere to be found.

Tim was officially worried. He had searched everywhere he could think of, but the youngest Wayne wasn't anywhere.

He was walking past the Theater Room when he heard it.

Music... and was that? Stephanie and Jason singing?

Maybe they would know where Damian was.

He opened the door to the room and froze, staring in shock.

Stephanie, Jason and Damian were all doing various dances to Niall Horan's song, Heaven.

And none of them could dance very well.

Tim pulled out his phone and started recording, an evil grin on his face.

Jason just so happened to look over just as he was starting to leave. "HEY!!" Jason shouted, startling the other two, "ARE YOU RECORDING US?!" Tim just smirked, turned, and ran.

"GET BACK HERE!!"

..................

Apparently Jason and Steph have turned into my music-loving bats, and honestly I am 100% alright with this. I think it's great.

I made the slideshow. It took forever. Please look at it I'm very proud.
https://docs.google.com/presentation/d/1vaaREvSjaWYob4NmmBXLEgcWwKXH7y0CKgUuCwH6eEI/edit?usp=sharing

If the link doesn't work, check my profile, cause I posted it there too. You can also check Tumblr, I go by Joy-4-Joy

It has been?? So long since I updated this story. If I'm being honest, I kinda forgot about it. But then I was listening to Ren today and I was like: wait a quick second. Idea! 💡Introducing Damian to music? Hell yeah!