[ It's true: he had left. Hadn't known how to be in the manor, in Gotham, when he came back from his time in Spyral and started the long, hard work of fixing what he'd broken. On Bruce's orders, yes, but Damian's right— he had been the one to leave. First with a faked death, then because he couldn't figure out a way to fit back into the world he'd left behind.

And he knows Damian had missed him, remembers perfectly well how Damian had shown up in Blüdhaven to throw a tantrum. It's all just as clear as his memory of the other day, when Damian showed up at the apartment and clung to him like a koala to a tree. ]

My inability to follow directives? I'm responsible for you, not the other way around. You'd have skewered yourself in a second if I'd let you.