DICK AND REMIEL'S wedding was a quaint and intimate affair. With the whole secret identities thing, only a small group of guests ended up getting invited. Family, of course, along with some close friends.

But it was more than enough. Auntie Shan Ling sat at a table filled with members of the Yuannan Mountain Sect, looking slightly dazed. She'd expressed amazement over and over again at how quickly time passed, and Odile was inclined to agree.

It was a mix of a western and Chinese wedding. Remiel opted for red instead of white, adorning a neo-Chinese dress that Odile had helped carefully pick out. Odile herself, of course, opted to dress in a light shade of pink, and with some convincing, had gotten Damian in a matching suit as well.

He looked adorable. She kept turning over to glance at him, so much that he started to seem embarrassed.

Dick was in a dark blue tuxedo, looking dashing as he exchanged vows with Remiel. Odile spotted more than one individual amongst the guests who seemed like they were on the verge of shedding tears. Even Bruce looked abnormally emotional.

Under the table, Damian's hand reached for hers. It took more than a year for the wedding to finally come into fruition, the previous two dates having been pushed due to unforeseen circumstances (a massive breakout in Arkham Asylum and a near world-ending incident respectively), but third's a charm. Finally. A proper wedding.

They both deserved it.

Odile's own wedding was four years later. She was twenty-four, Damian was twenty-six. This one was significantly grander. Talia al Ghul was allowed to be present, though she stuck to the corners as a quiet observer.

Odile Dai-Wayne.

Remiel hadn't taken Dick's name, but Odile wanted to with Damian's. Dai was not a name she felt too much of a connection to in the first place, and it just felt... right to be a Wayne.

The event was held on the grounds of Wayne Manor. Limited reporters were allowed in—it was still, after all, the marriage of the Wayne heir with someone who was supposedly also a rich heiress. And someone publicly known as the head and face of the Wayne Foundation.

Her orphanage was long opened by the time she got married. And it was from there Remiel and Dick chose to adopt their first child. At thirteen, Samantha was one of the children at the orphanage whose chances of adoption lowered by the second. But Remiel and Dick hadn't time to take care of a younger child. Sam, already fairly independent due to a rough childhood, seemed like a good option.

And, according to Remiel, the girl had an affinity to qi, probably from her half-Chinese descent. Shan Ling seemed to agree. So now Samantha spent a few months a year in the Yuannan Mountains with Shan Ling and the rest in Gotham, almost in reverse of Odile's earlier years. The girl was still fairly reserved, but she was slowly opening up.

Bruce seemed entertained by the prospect of having grandchildren. He retired a few years after Odile and Damian's marriage, passing on his mantle to Damian. Bruce was past his prime and acknowledged it, opting to work behind the scenes alongside Cecily and Barbara. Their lines would be replenished anyways. Newcomers would come and go. The world would always have superheroes, and the world would always need superheroes.

But Odile took a small break from all that when she gave birth to her first child at twenty-six. Nathaniel Dai-Wayne was born in a private suite of the Gotham Hospital, with his father rushing in a few minutes later after having been alerted mid-patrol. Odile had let out a hearty laugh at Damian's dishevelled appearance.

He leaned forward to press a kiss against her forehead. "I am so sorry I'm—"

"No. Don't be." Odile flashed him a grin, laying her hand on his. "I'd hate it even more if you were here panicking and moping about it all day. Saved anyone today?"

"I did, actually. Stopped a mugger, had a run-in with Punchline and threw her back into Arkham—"

"Oh, for the love of god," cut in Remiel's voice. "Damian, would you like to not list all the villains you've fought today and instead take a glimpse at your baby son?"

He did exactly that, and Odile could swear her heart almost melted at Damian's expression upon seeing the child. And despite all the pain and extreme discomfort she'd gone through in the past ten months... It felt worth it at that moment.

But it didn't mean she wanted to go through it all again. Which was why they opted for adoption with their second child, the nine-year-old daughter of a member of the Yuannan Mountain Sect who died of illness.

The first time they met, Odile stared at the girl for a long moment. She'd been the same age when she'd lost her entire family. And now here this child was, in a similar situation. But she wouldn't be left to her own devices.

No. Odile refused to let this girl go through what she had before.

The girl's Chinese name was Huanlian. Calling lotuses. Odile decided to name her Cassiel. Cassandra had seemed rather pleased at that, along with being named godmother to the girl. And really, Odile chose the name because of Remiel too—Remiel had been named after an angel. She wanted to continue the tradition.

(That, and all their names seemed to end with some variation of -iel. Remiel. Odile. Nathaniel. And now, Cassiel.)

So two became four.

To her own chagrin, Remiel became pregnant with twins the year she turned thirty-nine. She hadn't been all happy with it—both she and Dick had thought it unlikely to have their own biological children, and Remiel almost seemed disheartened at her own pregnancy. But nonetheless, ten months later, baby Wallace and Liliana were brought into this world. Samantha was at this point in her late teens, and seemed to act more like a mother figure than Remiel herself.

But Remiel got used to it. Remiel learnt to fit into the role, how to be a mother to infants, and then toddlers.

The happiest one of all was, of course, Bruce, who reconciled with Selina Kyle and happily entertained himself with a plethora of children and grandchildren, both biological and adopted.

Some of them grew up and joined their crusade against crime. Some chose more ordinary paths, but that was alright too. A few of them joined Odile's side.

The Dai-Wayne Foundation was set up the year Odile turned thirty-two. A subsidiary of the Wayne Foundation, it focused on the gradual reconstruction of the East End. It would be an effort that took years. It might never be completed at all. But one building after another, one person after another, she'll make sure the dominoes of change start to fall. And with Damian completely taking over the reins of Wayne Enterprises, they were capable of so much.

People liked to call Odile a dreamer. But that was her biggest strength. Time and time again, Odile Dai took the steps to turn her dreams into reality. To paint the world in her image. To leave every place she went better than she originally found it.

—

BUT ALL THAT was in the future. In the far away future, after many bouts with evil and close calls with death and severe injury. Odile Dai liked to focus on the now.

It was a week before their wedding, and like every night in the past few years they'd spent together, they both laid on the sofa. He read. She worked away on her laptop.

Suddenly, he looked up from his book and observed, "I haven't seen you painting in a while."

Odile glanced up, blinking. "I mean, I've been quite busy. Not exactly much time for me to sit down and draw, between planning our wedding and working on my new project."

"And fighting crime," Damian remarked. "You know you can take a break from that. The city will live without Cygnet roaming the night."

Odile shrugged. "Really, it's for my own sanity more than anything. I can't think of anything more torturous than sitting at home and twiddling my thumbs while the rest of you fight all the bad guys. I can't just sit here and wait for you to come back to me, Damian. My heart can't take it."

His gaze softened. "I'm just scared you're stressing yourself out. I know you paint to destress."

"It's one of the ways," she agreed, "but so is crime-fighting. And sitting here chatting with you. Which is why I'm marrying you, Damian Wayne."

A silly grin made its way on Damian's face, a rather foreign expression that had slowly become more familiar to Odile in the months after their engagement. He'd opted for a quiet proposal on the balcony of Wayne Manor, while their family was gathered in another room on a snowy Christmas day.

She'd said yes without hesitation.

(She wasn't Remiel.)

"Odile Dai-Wayne. I love the sound of that, have I told you?"

"You have many times since I've informed you how I wished our last names to be hyphenated, Damian Dai-Wayne." She rolled her eyes. Really, his full name was going to become Damian al Ghul Dai-Wayne, but on all official documents, they were opting out with the al Ghul part. A bit too jarring.

And no matter what, Odile wasn't sure she wanted her future children to bear the name al Ghul. It was a name that had too many lives attached to it. Too much blood.

The company was staying as Wayne Enterprises, though. Neither of them had seen a point in altering the name there. Wayne Enterprises meant something to the city of Gotham. It was a symbol, just like that of the bat.

Why change something that was already working?

"You should paint us on our wedding day," he surmised. "Well, not during our wedding day, of course... But you should paint us."

Odile let out a gentle laugh. "I will, don't you worry about it." But then an idea sprung into her head, and she sat upright, placing her laptop on the table. "You know what, do you want to see something?"

He arched his brow. "See what?"

"All the paintings I've done of you over the years." A smile appeared on her lips. Once upon a time, she'd have found it embarrassing. But they were getting married. And she knew every part of him, and he ought to know every part of her too.

Her little folder boasted hundreds of paintings of him. And she'd definitely lost some looser sketches along the way. He was her favourite subject to paint and draw, after all.

Damian blinked. "I thought you didn't..."

"Well, times changed." Odile jumped onto her feet, reaching forward to grab Damian's hand. "Come on. It's all in the studio."

And that was how they found themselves on the floor of her studio (though half of that had now also been transformed into an office for both of them) as Odile opened her drawer. Her DW folder was one of the top ones, so it didn't take long for her to locate it.

With some satisfaction, she made a mental note to herself to change it to DDW soon.

It was, really, the little things that made her the happiest.

But she laid down the file on the ground and grinned at him. "It's all in chronological order. From the day I started painting. I collected all of them, Dami."

He wasn't looking at her. He was looking at the first painting there. A rough sketch, done rather poorly. One of the first paintings she'd ever done. It was his side profile, sat before a window, a book in his lap. The library in Wayne Manor. He probably hadn't even realised she was painting him, even though she'd sat right there.

And the second picture. This one done with watercolour. Him as Robin, locked in combat with the Joker. She'd done that one from memory after a long night out. She hadn't been able to sleep. Hadn't been able to get that image out of her head.

And dozens and dozens of paintings after that. Half of them he must have no idea she'd ever drawn. Because he seemed to be dumbstruck as he went through all of them, and they sat there for what felt like hours. Odile started off offering little tidbits on why she'd drawn them, introductions to specific pieces and gateways to specific memories, but eventually she'd stopped talking. Just watched as he flipped through the paintings.

"You'd love me for so long," he finally said quietly, his voice almost shaky, "and I had no idea."

"But you do now," she replied lightheartedly. "I just wanted you to know how much this means to me. How much you mean to me. If I haven't already made it clear enough."

"No. No. You've made it very clear." He stared up at her. "I am so lucky."

"We're both very lucky to have each other." She knelt before him, taking his face between her hands. "As long as we're both breathing, we'll never be alone."

"And to think," he hummed, "that this all started in a peach blossom forest. With a fight."

"Where we tied." She grinned. "Incredible how much a simple event can lead to, right?"

He let out a chuckle, leaning forward to kiss her on the lips. And she leant into him, returning it with fervour, and then the night was lost.

Odile Dai loved Damian Wayne. And he loved her right back.

THE END.

(27/07/2024-28/10/2024)