#Bruce: So close

[babygirl-but-a-boy]

I fully believe that Ghostmaker (Minhkhoa "Khoa" Khan) knows that Bruce has kids, but doesn't know many details beyond that. Bruce was going to correct him but-

Khoa: Bruce, you have like 20 kids! How am I supposed to know everything about them! Only 2 of them are yours biologically!

Bruce: You've been hanging around Gotham for months now you should- wait, you said two of them are mine biologically?

Khoa: Yes... why is it three?

Bruce: Uh... it's not three. Wich two do you think it is?

[ghost-bxrd]

Headcanon that when Jason so much as says “ow..” on the comms the rest of the batfam immediately assume he must be dying.

[charlietheepicwriter7]

The Joker was apprehended, sitting on the ground as Batman guarded him, but the kid--"Bruce Wayne's newest ward, how tragic! Hehehe!"--was nowhere to be found. Nightwing and Red Hood desperate searched the warehouse until a shuffling noise grabbed their attention.

A kid, black haired just like the kid in the Joker's broadcast, crawling out of a pile of boxes. "Is it over?" the boy asked quietly.

Nightwing guided him to the only exit, unfortunately walking past the boy's own kidnapper. "Yeah, kid. It's over. Come on-"

Like a shot, the boy rushed the Joker and kicked him right in the balls.

The Joker wheezed like a dying squeaky toy. Red Hood froze. Nightwing immediately snatched the boy up by the armpits, but all that did was give the boy the height to attack again, punting Joker in the jaw. The clown went down and cracked his head on the floor. He did not get back up.

There was a moment of silence before Red Hood roared with laughter, his helmet distorting the sound.

[ikiprian]

Mr. Fenton is a competent teacher. Almost too competent.

If Mr. Daniel Fenton had any more than a BS (with a minor in education), Tim would’ve flagged his profile as a potential Rogue. That’s the way of most charismatic academics, at least in Gotham. (Got a PhD? Instant watchlist.) Instead, he’s Gotham Academy’s newest celebrity, as a young, passionate, out-of-towner substitute while the chemistry teacher’s on maternity leave.

Tim gets the hype. Fenton seems to genuinely love teaching, and is invested in the welfare of the student body. He hands out bananas during exam week, hosts a “study habits seminar” each month to coach effective learning strategies, and the third time Tim falls asleep in his class, he even pulls Tim aside to ask if he’s doing okay. With all the late work he accepts and the protein bars he sneaks Tim, he’s every teen vigilante’s dream teacher. He could’ve been Tim’s favorite.

In fact, Mr. Fenton was Tim’s favorite. Up until Tim walks into Mr. Fenton’s chemistry classroom for a forgotten textbook, an hour after the final bell.

On the board where tallied scores for today’s review game had been kept, “THE CHEMISTRY BEHIND DR. CRANE’S FEAR GAS: ANXIOGENICS, NERI’S, & YOU,” is now scrawled. A detailed diagram of the human endocrine system projects in front of a small crowd of adoring and attentive students.

Fenton is wrist-deep in the skull cavity of an anatomical model. A short tug, and out pops the brain.

It’s plastic. It’s fake.

Tim identifies the nearest emergency exit.

Fenton turns to the door, and in the dark classroom with the projector illuminating half his face, his eyes almost seem to flash red. “What’s up, Tim?” he asks. His friendly grin is too big for his face. “I didn’t know you wanted to join the Just Science League!”

[OR: Danny’s a science teacher at Tim’s school. Gotham’s a pretty wild place, even for someone who grew up a superhero in a ghost-infested town, so he takes it upon himself to start a club teaching kids how to manage themselves in the event of a crisis. These Gothamites are pretty hardy, but a little extra training never hurt anybody! And he suspects one of his students might be a teen vigilante, like he’d been, back in the day. As a senior super, it's Danny’s duty look out for him! Surely, this is the subtlest and most appropriate way to give the kid pointers.]

[Tim immediately assumes supervillain.]

[ohposhers]

★September first, 1989★ DEAR DIARY --- sighs heavily i couldnt not make fanart for @cupiddzarrow 's Heathers Trolls AU-- they beat me to it and i love it

[frownyalfred]

2 things I got feral for

1. Batman calling any of the former Robin's, Robin, to get them to snap out of a spiral or a panic attack

2. Other Heros, but excpecially the batfamily, being forcibly reminded that Batman is just a human. Seeing him go down, wounded or even at his limit. And being reminded that under the self confident, calm, cold manner is just another guy with no special power. Just a man

There’s something really poetic about former Robins still answering to “Robin!” even years later. It’s so ingrained in them, in their psyche, it forces them to get up and look for Batman no matter what.

And it’s equally poetic that Bruce can snap out of almost anything when he hears one of his kids say “B!” in that specific tone of voice. The one that says I need you now, something’s wrong.

[brucie-baby]

bruce calls a press conference in which he tells the world he's batman. nobody says anything. it's silent. not a single flash of a camera. "no, seriously," he says, "i'm batman."

the press starts yelling and snapping photos and bruce is relieved because for a moment there it really seemed like they wouldn't believe—

"mr. wayne! mr. wayne, is this a publicity stunt?"

"mr. wayne, did you lose a bet again?"

"are you taking the fall for someone? is it your mystery partner?"

bruce just stands there. he tries to form a sentence until dick eventually comes up laughing. "are you still drunk from last night? jesus, bruce!"

•••

he tries again at a wayne enterprise meeting. he thinks that maybe starting smaller is the way to go.

"i'm batman."

"yeah, and i'm superman," someone says. the room laughs (even lucius, the traitor).

•••

he calls the chief of the gotham gazette, refusing to let it go through anybody else. "how about an exclusive interview? been a while since you've had one of those."

the chief says, "mr. wayne, would this exclusive interview have anything to do with batman?"

"...it might. you'll have to find out."

he sighs. "let's talk schedules."

finally, bruce thinks. somebody is taking me seriously.

the headline reads: "prince of gotham genuinely believes he's batman. covering for a special someone?"

•••

several articles follow, attempting to identify the mystery man that bruce has been spotted with prior to the press conference.

•••

he goes out for patrol without his cowl. it's a quiet night. a video goes viral on twitter, and it's of him tripping on his own cape. the caption reads: "he's really dedicated to this whole batman thing💀💀"

•••

his phone rings a few days later.

"this is bruce wayne."

"hi, bruce."

"clark? whose phone are you calling from?"

"police department. i've been arrested under suspicion of being batman."

[ew-selfish-art]

Dp x Dc AU: Bruce has a 'if you can't beat them, join them' mentality about the tabloids claiming he adopts too many kids- Developing foster homes that are paid for through the Wayne inheritance, personally vetted by the Bats, they're the leaders in the space for child health outcomes and family placement. Insert Danny.

---

Bruce has too much wealth, too many rumors and not enough reach into the abhorrent foster homes around Gotham to improve them. Tim ends up being the one to suggest it- He's the one who buys up their real estate for their safe houses after all- and Bruce is more than ready to pull the metaphorical trigger to get new clean welcoming spaces, Bat-background checked fosters and a new era of adoption in Gotham underway.

He's lobbied the state and the federal government for reforms of course, but this is a project he can micromanage. He spends time with every kid that comes through, talks with all the families that want to adopt and makes sure that these miniature homes are provided only the very best. Alfred personally hires all the staff, and with Barbara more than happy to help relocate the unhoused children she spots while they patrol, the project is a glowing success.

Occasionally, spots in their houses fill up, and those are the weeks were Cass takes on the Cowl of Batman- Bruce Wayne will personally invite a child in need to his home. He always has one of his kids present (they rotate on a pre-determined schedule) and he does his best to try and get them to understand that they deserve the world, have all the potential that anyone else has and can achieve a bright future. That he will personally aid them in their ambitions.

PR goes crazy for it of course, but Bruce and all of his children know its genuine. Almost too genuine, because a betting pool 'WILL THEY BE ADOPTED' regularly circulates between the siblings and the entire JL when someone spends time at the manor. And not just the black-haired, Blue-eyed kids get picked as favored outcomes- but obviously the running joke gets passed around.

It's a Thursday night when Bruce gets the call that the houses have once again filled up, and that there is a child in need of a home. The social worker (he knows her as Marsha and he has flowers planned to be sent on her birthday next week, like he does for all of his employees) (Say micromanaged one more time) explains that the kid is a bit cagey but has opened up with some humor. She explains that he has a few strange... mannerisms. She's not sure what to make of him, a non-gothamite for sure but something is, well, distinctly 'not from around here' about his energy.

Danny arrives at the house, meets Duke and Alfred, and by the time Bruce meets him at the dinner table it seems as though Marsha had it all wrong. This kid was laughing, he was teasing, he was totally playing along like he'd gone through nothing. Bruce is glad he's in high spirits but its just so... so different from all the other children he's taken in.

Bruce re-focuses on the conversation when Duke mentions something flashing, and its the first time that Danny goes quiet. Entirely still.

"...you noticed that?" Danny quietly asks, a bit of disbelief in his tone.

"You don't have a flashlight on or something do you? It was super bright whatever it is that you had in your hand a second ago?" Duke tries to sound chill but he's looking very much not chill. Bruce saw nothing, and that puts him further on edge.

"Look... I uh, I've been though... I've been through a lot lately. And the last lab I was in kind of, messed with me. I'm normally much better at dealing with it all, I promise." Danny sounds nervous, and the room seems to chill.

"Ah shoot, sorry." Danny notices something and frantically apologizes.

"Sorry for what Danny? You've done nothing wrong but I am worried about you- You said you were in a lab?" Bruce is desperately trying to calm him down while not slipping into Batman interrogation mode.

"Uh, yeah, like a lot of labs. It should get warmer in a second, its just cause I startled, I promise."

"You're a meta." Duke speaks softly and with hope in his voice- Danny is looking between them with wide eyes filled with fear.

"I mean I don't technically have the gene-"

"Danny, have you told any of your case workers where you were? Do any authorities know what you've been through?" Bruce needs to know, desperately, that who ever gave this young boy super powers is brought to justice. Danny goes quiet.

"I'm really sorry." He says softly, but he doesn't leave them.

Duke and Bruce try to ask a few more questions but the silence that meets them declares the conversation over, even with Duke admitting he himself is a meta. Danny didn't even look up from his plate. They watch a movie after dinner, and Danny seems to get back to the smile-y happy guy he had been before dinner.

Each of the bat-fam have their own interactions with Danny- And even if they're getting along amazingly, Danny won't open up. He doesn't open up to his provided therapist. Doesn't talk to Alfred. No one knows what's up.

So when Marsha calls Bruce back explaining they now have a spot for Danny and he can move out of the Manor... Bruce replies that he'd like to get started on Adoption paperwork, so long as Danny is fine with it.

---

Turns out, Danny is fine with it. he's both the newest Wayne and their newest case. (And godamnit, his new family is going to avenge him. If only he'd let them try.)

Danny figures out that Duke= Signal early on because of that dinner, and if he's going to keep his parents out of jail, he needs to be as close to the investigation as possible. He knows that he shouldn't protect the Fentons, but he feels the upset in his core at the thought of letting them befall any harm. He has to protect them. Has to protect Jazz and her hiding spot as a mole within their lab. Has to.

Even if it meant lying to his new family who loves him, and who he loves in equal return. Even if it means lying to The Bats.

---

Tabloids go crazy about the black-haired blue-eyed thing of course, but no poll was ever taken by the batfam or the JL who know the whole story.

[tiffycat]

Hiya! 🤗 I saw you take requests sometimes. I was wondering if you would do the scene from Buy Back The Secrets when Superboy busts in on Superman and Batman, snarling "You lied! You said he was a good man!"

I love soft timkon, but I'd love some absolutely feral Kon 👍

Drew out a quick comic of that scene for ya after like a month and a half >.> sorry

Was initially just going to be a single sketch from that scene but I got carried away

[rhinexstone]

I think one of the many reasons Clark likes Bruce so much is because the only being capable of killing Superman at any given time without any prep (partially because it’s already been done) is a human without any powers or special abilities

[ghost-bxrd]

Prompt:

Dick is thrown back in time to a couple days before his past self is scheduled to leave on the mission to space, the one during which Jason will die.

Past Dick gets a very frantic and concerning phone call from someone claiming to be his future self, begging him not to go on the mission. And for some reason he‘s supposed to keep an eye on Jason? What the hell is that about? They’re not that close…

[casscainmainly]

I know people love saying 'Bruce is a girldad' and I totally get it, we want to show how much he loves Cass and that she's his daughter. But Bruce's initial love for Cass was largely predicated on how not girly she was. He openly dislikes her girlhood throughout Batgirl 2000 (including but not limited to: dismissing her civilian identity, berating her for any romantic attempts, weakening her friendship with Stephanie, undermining her relationship to Babs, etc. etc.). Cass' femininity interferes with his ability to project onto her, so a lot of the time he just dismisses it. Is it really a coincidence that Bruce's only adopted daughter is one who wasn't raised as a girl?

[roseworth]

ok i made it. rate my chart.

[spacedace]

Had a thought about the Reluctant War and made myself a bit sad and I have no idea if it'll make it into the story proper so I'm going to inflict it upon all you guys:

Dick Grayson on the streets of Gotham trying to do everything he can to help as everyone join the ghosts in fighting the GIW, suddenly has a version of the GAV barreling down towards him and for some reason he can't get out of the way in time.

He thinks he's about to join the army of the dead in a whole new way, when the tank fo a vehicle is suddenly sent flying as something massive charged it from the side. He hears a familiar bellowing and then realizes that it's Zitka, a ghost after passing away peacefully a few years before.

She wasn't apart of the army of the ghosts, wasn't brought in to fight. She's just been following her tiny human child around all these years and now that there's enough ecto in the air to do so, she's going to protect him with all her might.

Dick is emotional, so thankful to have his old friend back, but the city is still in a state of chaos. He gets onto Zitka's back and they get to work, running - flying - around helping to grab the injured and whisk them away to safety or take out other GAVs and the like.

It's absurd and freeing and wonderful all at once to be literally flying through the skies of Gotham on the ghost of his elephant best friend, and if Dick wasn't already on the side of King Phantom he is *now* and -

He gets shot off Zitka's back.

A GIW agent was aiming for the Ghost elephant but somehow *missed* and hit Dick instead. Not enough to injure him too badly, but enough to send him flying off Zitka's back and plummeting to the ground. His grapple is broken, and Zitka is diving for him but she's being shot at and she's not going to make it in time and -

A hand, reaching out to him in midair, familiar with its callouses and strong grip as he reaches out and grasps it, body suddenly swinging in a different direction and muscles acting on memory as he falls into the old, achingly familiar routine of his childhood. His mother, ethereal and bright as she smiles down at him, hanging upside down from a bar suspended from nothing but open sky as they swing and he is let go, flipping on instinct and caught by the steady strong hands of his father.

The Flying Graysons reunited in the skies above Gotham, Dick's ghostly parents determined to ensure their little bird never falls the way they did.

[littlefankingdom]

"World's Greatest Detective" is not a real thing. How would you even determine that? There's no competition putting detectives from all around the world against each others. And, Bruce is not someone that boast about his exploits, he does what he does because it's the right thing to do. He doesn't even see himself as a "good guy", because he thinks what he is doing is what needs to be done. Yes, he is prideful but he isn't this type of guy. He cannot be the one that came up with it.

So, I hc that it's Dick, small young Dick, who flies from roof to roof with Batman, who calls him that first. It's clearly something a child would do, as they will also call their parents "the best dad/mom" or "the most beautiful". It is during a debriefing with some cops, after one of them vocalises how impress they are by what Batman found, that little Robin exclaims "Duh, he's the world's greatest detective!" What are you supposed to do, then? Tell your adorable kid that, no, you aren't the world's greatest detective, that doesn't exist? Tell Batman's kid, in front of Batman, that he is wrong and it doesn’t exist? Do you have a death wish??? The good answer is: "You're right, he's the world's greatest detective.". And when a criminal captures Robin and boasts that Batman will never find him, the lil bird answers: "B will find us, because he's the world's greatest detective!". And, look at him, he isn't wrong, Batman does find them and gets his boy back safe and sound.

Little Robin keeps calling Batman "the world's greatest detective" and people start to do so too. "It should be easy if you really are the world's greatest detective!" taunts the Riddler, "The world's greatest detective is on his way" tells Gordon to his team, "Superman? Pff, we have the world's greatest detective, here!" brag Gothamites...

As Robin grows, he stops doing it, but it stays. As time goes on, people forget who started it. Was it Batman himself? Was it a rogue mocking him? Even Dick forgets, as some memories leave us with time. Only one man remembers: Batman himself, Bruce Wayne.

So, when anyone calls him "world's greatest detective", even to tease or mock him, he doesn't correct it. That's what his baby called him. And when Dick Grayson, now Nightwing, tells him "Man, aren't you supposed to be the world's greatest detective or something?" while they work on a case together, he thinks back to the little Robin who first called him that, and a small smile invites itself on his lips.

[heroesriseandfall]

“Why didn’t Dick and Cassie Sandsmark believe Tim about Bruce being alive?”

He didn’t actually give them any evidence for it before running away. Didn’t even try to convince them beyond saying “he’s alive, I’ll prove it.”

He’d spent the past year trying to resurrect his dead family and friends. After 100+ cloning attempts and almost stealing Lazarus pit water, this just looks like Tim’s typical grieving pattern.

Dick, Tim, and Clark personally examined Bruce’s dead body and determined it was his!

Tim’s inner monologue in Red Robin 1 shows even he knows he’s driven by desperate hope and compounded grief: “He’s all I have and he has to be alive…Please, god, don’t let me be crazy.”

If Tim had turned out to be wrong I honestly believe he still would’ve gone looking for a way to bring Bruce back. Just like he did with Kon, Bart, Steph, Jack, and Janet.

Red Robin follows so clearly from Tim’s grief from losing Jack Drake and everyone else. DCU Halloween Special ‘09: “Our Father’s Sins” made this even more obvious by showing Red Robin Tim reflecting on his grief over Jack while he’s searching for Bruce.

Of course his friends and family think he’s grieving! He is! He just also happens to be right. Nobody is completely unjustified here.