#Bruce has issues

[strangedesired]

I’ve seen a lot of posts about how much the kids like to be with Bruce and Batman because he makes them feel safe (being carried by him, tucked under his cape, etc,,)

But what about the hc that it is actually for Bruce instead. Like they just know how much he needs those interactions so he can convince himself that they are alive and still with him, so they just let him do what he needs to do to convince himself that his babies are safe.

For example:

Jason doesn’t like to stay at the manor because of the tension and the trauma (obviously) but every once in a while he has to spend the night because he’s too tired to get home or his safe house has been compromised and he needs a day before he can figure something else out. On very rare occasions, though, Jason has a little too close of a call and he needs to “use the caves medbay” (he actually needs to make sure that his family is alive and he’s not in another twisted reality where he is ripped away from them without saying goodbye)

One of these nights Jason has just gotten into bed after his abdomen had been stitched and wrapped, when he hears the door shift open and extremely light footsteps walking towards the bed. He turns over, expecting to see Damian coming to tell him goodnight (and that he should not have been so foolish as to let himself be shot but they both know that means Jason scared him and he wants to make sure his brother is okay) but instead he sees Bruce, looking apprehensive but also so so relieved.

Jason: B? Whats wrong?

Bruce: Nothing, sorry to disturb you, I’ll let you rest.

But Bruce does not turn to leave, he stands at the foot of Jason’s bed and just,,, stares at him.

Jason is a little alarmed, but mostly just confused. This is the most he and Bruce have seen of each in weeks and he doesn’t know what Bruce wants. But then Bruce moves up the bed so he can smooth Jason’s hair back.

Bruce: I’m glad you’re okay, Jay.

Jason is pretty taken aback, and he briefly thinks about removing his hand and telling him to fuck off, but he can see in the weary way that Bruce is standing, with his shoulders hunched and his knees locked, the way he keeps checking over Jason and stalling on his chest to make sure he’s still breathing, that he needs Jason to accept this comfort that he is trying to offer. So, he leans into the hand a little bit and hums softly.

Jason: Me too, B.

Bruce’s shoulders drop just a little and he cards his fingers through Jason’s hair one time.

Bruce: Goodnight.

Bruce removes his hand and hesitates for a second before he turns around and walks toward the door. When he reaches it, Jason hears him whisper.

Bruce: I love you.

Jason feels a rush of warmth and wrestles for a second with what to say back, he can’t quite make himself tell Bruce that he loves him, even if it’s true, but the hand in his hair was nice and he wants Bruce to keep trying, despite his tendency to fight against it.

Jason: Night, Dad.

Jason turns back over and pretends not to hear Bruce suck in a sharp breath and softly exit his room.

And if Bruce has a couple of tear tracks on his face by the time he makes it back to his own bed, that’s no one’s business but his own.

[ifyoucandaniel]

this is so stupid but here’s a little comic i made for a little bingo au me and @twisted-tales-told came up with a few weeks ago. pretty much just the idea that jason needed a cover at some point and stumbled in on bingo night and was quickly adopted by the little old ladies there. now he plays every friday and has beef with dora and gets sent home with banana bread :) clara is trying to set him up with her grandson and all of her problems with her land lord have mysteriously been solved :))

being involved in his community is very important to jason and he loves seeing them host community events bc it feels like his home is healing

bonus: none of the bats have the faintest idea what Jason does in his spare time aside from babs and dick is so butthurt he wasn’t invited (not pictured: nightwing outside the bingo hall window looking in look a kicked puppy while jason flips him off)

(this is my first comic pls be nice it’s just a sketch)

[angstandhappiness]

DUDE

i feel like the fandom as well as dc characters in general like to give bruce a lot of grief over his choice of side-kick. you know, the age old but so god-awful true argument that robin is a child, hasn’t come close to puberty, and has no place in their world of crime fighting and seeing the worst of humanity daily. and they’re all right, don’t get me wrong, but it’s funny how everyone seems to forget that bruce knows. he’s more intimately aware of robin’s youth than anyone else in the entire universe

how could he not be when robin tucks himself into batman’s cape on cold and windy nights, teeth chattering away as his small body winds the heavy kevlar around his tiny shoulders? how could bruce not know when robin pesters him for snacks and treats during patrol, pointing to and calling out to street vendors and folding his hands together in a mimic of a plea for ‘just one pretzel, c’mon b! just one’? how could bruce not know when robin loses a tooth and asks excitedly if the tooth-fairy will know where to find him since he doesn’t live where he used to? how could bruce not be aware of exactly how young robin is when he whines and cries over skinned knees, arguing to be carried home and laughing when batman complies, surprised at how light the boy is in his arms?

and it hurts bruce more directly than any blow he’s ever received when the league glares at him and accuses him of child endangerment. it feels like getting sucker punched in the stomach when alfred tuts and tsks away when robin returns home with bumps and bruises, the smallest of side-eyes sent in his direction. it hurts because it’s all true and yet his heart feels like rupturing when robin smiles despite his age and reassures bruce that it’s all okay, he doesn’t mind getting hurt, he’s strong, he’s brave, this is nothing. 

except it’s not nothing and robin is so young and such a child and bruce knows. he knows and he can’t do anything about it because he also knows that, just as he was born, fated, to be batman, he knows that the boy was always meant to be robin. it doesn’t matter if bruce stopped him now, said no and barred the boy from ever parading the name robin ever again. it’s too late. he tells himself over and over again that it was better this way, to have robin by his side rather than the boy running off on his own, but it kills bruce. it kills him because robin is… the boy is meant for better things in life. his child deserved better things in life but he’s batman and he can’t change that

robin is a child and he can’t change that

[timmydraker]

Tim who can and will sleep anywhere.

It’s not just a matter of falling asleep at his desk or while at the dinner table, though those things do happen.

No, he’s fallen asleep in the middle of a sparring. He had a tired look on his face while going agasint Dick and then shrugged and said, “we’ll finish later.” Then laid down right there and went to sleep.

He’s been found in some odd places, most of which are not at all comfortable.

Some examples being:

The floor of the kitchen, with a packet of chips gripped in his hand like a lifeline and his legs tucked up under him like a frog.

Under Bruce’s bed and he was only found before sometimes he snores like a little kitten.

In the trunk of Dick’s car after he made it back to Blud. He even had a line of drool coming from his mouth as his brother promptly freaked out.

On top of the fridge during a big heat wave, half dangling off with his arms and legs over the side and head tilted at an off angle.

In the shower’s of the cave with the water running over his head as he curled into a ball, leaving Jason to go in and be faced with Tim’s pale ass staring at him. (He panicked and instead of Turing away he kicked Tim in the ass and was not sorry for even a second. He’s traumatised.)

In Barbara’s chair. She didn’t even notice him come into the tower until he was crawling into her lap and gave her a mumbled greeting before conking out instantly, somehow bypassing her security which he genuinely cannot do normally.

In the pool room with his feet in the water and socks on his hands for some unknown reason.

He doesn’t do it unless he feels safe, and he’s easy to wake up in cases of an emergency, and so everyone feels sort of proud when he chooses them. It’s not always he seeks someone out, but most members of the family start checking under their bed and in their closest (he got quite a few jokes after that one) just in case they have been Chosen.

Most people think it’s not often he sleeps without being exhausted, but he’s a power napper and will take any chance he has free to do so.

You must be careful moving him because he tends to smack people. He will push and whine at you if you try, grumbling like a petulant teenager about needing out ‘five more minutes’. Damian learnt this the hard way when he tried to move Tim from his bedroom doorway and Tim kicked him in the shin.

He can be calmed down if you put chamomile tea under his nose but this might wake him up in a mood as he demands more tea for being disturbed.

Bruce made it a rule that Tim must be checked on if he hasn’t said or done anything for a while after he was found under the Batmobile in a plank position.

[bruciemilf]

One of my biggest gripes about the dc fandom is how simplified and stripped down ‘child soldier’ became as a term.

Like, ya’ll, I don’t think forcing a rich guy to take you in and make him teach you martial arts is equal to having your entire childhood ripped from the root up for military purposes. That’s just me tho idk

[kierancaz]

Does anyone else not like the way Damian is drawn in the new Batman and Robin comic ????

Like, after his solo Robin series, I just cannot look at him like that. He looks almost exactly like Jon.

Where is his tan skin ??? His green eyes ??? HIS HOOKED NOSE ???? They took away everything that made his design cool and interesting and new and pretty and also just like a huge part of his ethnicity.

It just bothers me so much like I want to read the comic bc it does seem pretty interesting but Damian’s design is making it soooooo hard. It extra sucks bc the art style is amazing. I actually love the way Bruce is drawn and also White Rabbit is super cool. Damian is just throwing me off so hard like that’s literally not him that’s Tim or Jon or Dick but that isn’t Damian Wayne/AL GHUL like tf look at this

He’s pretty yah, whatever, now look at this:

THESE ARE NOT EVEN THE SAME FUCKING PEOPLE ???? It’s not even a difference in art style bc there was plenty of variations in art style in the Robin series but he still had his main features I mentioned earlier.

Idk call me a nitpicker or smth but this bothers me so much if it doesn’t change at some point I don’t think I will be able to read the new Batman and Robin series.

[tim-drake-scholar]

Hey idk if anyone else needed this but hey look at Bruce not just giving his approval, not just giving affection, but truly appreciating Tim Drake and everything Tim has every done to help Bruce/Batman. I just think it’s nice

[frownyalfred]

Seeing your little boy be a father that you never got to be I know Thomas feels sickkkkkkkkkkkkkk

Your son is literally older than you and is rolling his eyes at the new way schools are teaching their kids how to do math and you just mourn that you never got the chance to do the name

I'm sure it exists and I'm just missing it, but I want a resurrection fic where Thomas is like "oh no my son really did outpace everything I've done for this city" and legitimately recognizes that Bruce is objectively a greater man than he was at the same age, instead of Thomas just mentally shitting on Bruce for choosing violence. Like yes, I eat that up too, it's delicious angst, but objectively speaking your son did SO MUCH more than you did for Gotham, and even just as man in his own life.

Master martial artist by 30 - one of the best in the world

Holds doctorates or the equivalent in multiple subjects

Raised multiple kids into notable heroes

Founded the Justice League

Continued the Waynes' foundations + charity work in Gotham and improved their reach and support

Wayne Enterprises/etc - while the work focus shifted, the work, profits, and employees are even better than Thomas' time

Founded Batman Incorporated, if you're including that

Helped root out corruption in GCPD and other city organizations

Consults/liaises on so many international and intergalactic cases it isn't even funny

But a lot of times, DC and/or fic focuses on Thomas being disappointed in Bruce?

like dude. your son has a DINOSAUR in his BAT CAVE and those two things aren't even the most interesting parts of him.

[welcometogrouchland]

♫ I do what I want/Crying in the bleachers and I said it was fun/I don't need anything from anyone ♫

(ID in Alt) you guys ever think about your own posts and get upset?? Anyway Damian Wayne I love you I'm so sorry your life is like that

[cyanbeetle]

Trinity thesis

[sarahreadstoomanycomics]

Okay I'm back to rebuilding my funny comic panel collection.

[hood-ex]

I will say that, as someone who takes care of an 8 year old, it is pretty hilarious to think about Dick fighting crime so young. Like there's just packs of animal crackers in the batmobile because Dick will get hungry during the middle of a case. And god forbid Bruce forgets to pack a water bottle for Dick because then he'll just hear a litany of, "I'm thirsty, I need water." I mean, I know Dick is usually depicted as more mature/responsible than your average kid, but it's so funny to think about Bruce and Alfred having to deal with some of those typical kid needs and behaviors.

[starry-bi-sky]

Blood Blossom Au: Baby's First Commissioner Meeting :)

TL:DR This Post: Danny (orphan) gets poisoned with blood blossom extract by Vlad. He runs away from him and ends up under the care of one Pre-Robin Battinson Batman! Starry is loudly pushing her batdad agenda.

(Also known as "Late At Night, When The Nightingale Sings" on my ao3!)

This was a fun rough idea I've been sitting on for weeks, thinking about how Commissioner Gordon and Nightingale's first meeting might go.

---------------

Commissioner Gordon likes to think that he's adjusting to the new normal of Gotham very well, -- the new normal being grown men running around dressed like bats, in military-grade strength body armor, committing acts of vigilantism, -- and slowly, little by little, he was no longer being surprised when this new normal pops up out of the shadows like the world's most terrifying daisy. His shaving lifespan thanks him for it.

....

The kid is a surprise though.

Granted, he seemed to be a surprise to the Bat too.

There's been a string of murders lately, -- which, in Gotham, is kind of like saying there's been another storm during monsoon season. And there's just been another; in some dilapidated building down in south Gotham, with the broken, boarded-up windows and mildew-crawling walls to match. The victim is a man in his thirties, multiple gunshot wounds to the chest, left in the center of the room for the blood to pool out around him.

The place is already secured when he arrives, the building swarmed with officers and the forensic detectives. The Bat emerges shortly after he does -- or, he might've been here the whole time, hiding someplace dark and shadowy. For his own sanity, Gordon doesn't think about it too hard.

The kid is a surprise, and he appears like a bolt of lightning.

He shows up in the middle of a conversation Gordon is having with the Bat.

A whistle, sharp and loud, slicing through the air, meant for open air rather than a confined space. Gordon's ears pierce and protest the sound, and the solemn, murmured chatter floating through the room abruptly cuts off like the swing of a gavel. As he turns towards the sound -- as they all do -- he swears, up and down, that he sees Batman's shoulders jump, just slightly.

At the source, perched on the window, is a boy. A boy in a gray-blue scarf and an oversized black hoodie, one that hangs off his frame and has ace bandages wrapped around the wrists in some attempt to cinch the sleeves. The hood is up, big like the rest of it, and threatens to swallow the upper half of the boy's face whole in the fabric. What upper half Gordon can see, is smeared with some kind of opaque, black face paint. He's holding onto the side of the frame with one hand, on his hip is a grappling hook. A familiar grappling hook.

Gordon has multiple questions, and his officers tense up.

Martinez puffs up, brows furrowing as his face shapes into a frown. Shoulders rolling back. "You can't be here, kid--"

The reaction is immediate, like a spark to gunpowder, the boy yanks his fingers from his mouth and his mouth twists into a scowl. Head snapping over to Officer Martinez, his hood manages to stay on but Gordon swears that as he bares his teeth, the glint makes them look sharper than they should be. His voice is rasp and quiet and harsh; snappish in its hissing; "Put a fuckin sock in it, Martinez. I'm not stayin."

Martinez reels back, and the boy immediately veers his attention off him. Like a switch, his demeanor drops. Despite half his face being covered, his mouth twists into a cringing, apologetic smile. Slanted and off-beat, embarrassed. It'd be disarming if this wasn't Gotham, and if he didn't just hiss at Martinez like he was about to bite his head off.

"Sorry." He whispers, voice deceptively polite and softer now. Gordon has to strain his ears to hear him. "I was looking for him."

He points his finger towards-- Gordon? No, Gordon follows the direction, and finds himself looking at -- the Bat.

The Bat, who always looks stiff as a pole, now looks even stiffer. Somehow. Well, the explains the grappling hook attached to the boy's waist.

"What are you doing here?" The Bat says, gruff and unable to completely smother the stumble of surprise in his tone.

The boy still holds a sheepish smile, and slips off the window ledge. His feet hit the creaky boards with a near-silent thud, the Batman finds his feet and rapidly begins crossing the room.

Gordon notes the slight tremble in the boy's legs as he straightens. He adjusts his scarf, which droops close to his knees now that he's standing, and slings a backpack -- how long has had that? -- off his shoulders. When the Bat reaches his side, he does as he always does, and looms over the boy like a spectre. A threatening mass of shadows cloaked in all-consuming black. Standing next to him, the boy looks teeny in comparison.

The Bat is a man who terrifies even the most hardened criminals, Gordon has seen grown men shiver in fear at the mention of his name. And yet when the boy looks up at him, he doesn't even flinch.

Instead, his sheepish smile melts away like ice under the sun, holding only traces of his previous embarrassment. It remains as a shadow on his face, a small upturn at the corners of his mouth. The boy pushes his hood back just enough to reveal glinting, ice-flint eyes surrounded in tar-black face paint. He holds the backpack up with one arm. "You forgot this."

[timmydraker]

Tim Drake first took a life when he was twelve.

It wasn’t in an armed robbery or attack from a rogue, not to protect himself or in defence of an innocent.

In fact, it was practically an innocent that he killed.

Batman was so deep into his grief filled rage that he was attacking any poor mugger or civilian in the wrong place at the wrong time.

Albert Jones, a thirty year old man working as an apprentice to his father’s shoe repair shop, was dealing with a recent heartbreak with some pick me up drugs.

Batman didn’t give his usual speech of ‘find another coping mechanism and don’t let me see you here again’ and instead swung at both dealer and customer. The dealer, a teenager no less, was left with two broken legs and a busted shoulder.

Albert was left with bruising all over his face and three stomps directly onto his chest.

Tim found him gasping for air as blood filled his lungs and was left with the truth of this man not having a chance. No ambulance was going to be able to save him like all the others, there was no basic first aid or well educated aid that could save him.

This was going to be the first murder of Batman.

Unless…

Tim didn’t feel good as he picked up the knife from dealer had tried to use on the bat and quickly jab it into the man’s neck.

And then he stabbed again.

And again.

Albert Jones was dead by his hand, not Batman’s, not Bruce’s. Tim’s.

The dealer, who was really just a kid, ended up taking the fall as Tim had selfishly planned.

Batman didn’t even notice or recognise the faces of either man on the news.

Albert’s father sobbed on TV, talking about his son didn’t even like being an apprentice but knew his father needed the help with his growing arthritis. He talked about how his son had been in an emotionally abusive relationship and just wanted to feel better for a bit, he wasn’t a druggie, not really.

Tim throws up and wears gloves for weeks to avoid looking at his hands. He swears he can see blood in them and not in a metaphorical sense.

Nobody ever finds out and when Tim becomes Robin and gets Bruce to stop hurting people so badly, he decides it’s worth it. That innocent life was taken by him, so his death isn’t on Bruce’s soul. It’s okay, Batman is still good and he’s getting better, which he wouldn’t have been able to if he had cleared his head and found out he took a life.

Robin never takes a life, not exactly, but seen as he’s already killed someone with his own hands, Tim doesn’t really hesitate at opportunities to leave certain people to die.

Rapist, pedophiles, zoophiles, fascist… it doesn’t really count if he didn’t double it by his own hands and he’s done that anyway, so who cares if a few stray people die from the new Robins pack of skill and baby faced newness to the horror of the world.

Batman always yells at him, ups his training, but Tim doesn’t care if it means leaving that one bad person behind helped him save more decent lives.

Red Robin kills more… purposefully.

Not in a serial killer sense, he’s not stupid, but in a ‘blowing up the entire LOA and just assuming Ra’s will dunk at least some of them in the pit’ kind of way.

Truthfully that’s it.

He’s not like Red Hood or Slade or Harley, he just doesn’t mind bending and shifting his moral compass every now and again to better fit certain situations.

Like when Kon’s clones woke up and he had to slaughter them all with an emergency kryptonite sword he kept on stand by.

Or the two he had to track down and hunt after they escaped and, thank god he planted trackers in them, because they weren’t Kon and instead seemed more like animals that couldn’t even talk.

Oh and that one time this guy tried to drug Damian at a gala and Tim managed to ‘dispose’ of the guy before Damian realised what he had tried to do and did something stupid.

There was also that time he cut of Ra’s head in a luckily opening during a fight and kept it in a jar in The Nest as revenge for the whole spleen thing…

But that doesn’t count, cause he just got brought back to life.

[alizalayne]

it's so amusing that when you're an author who is like any minority, you have this caveat where if your book gets banned, you kinda have to mentally acknowledge whether it was banned by Bruce, the one really bigoted guy who wastes everyone's time in florida. idk how bruce is doing. you don't need to learn who he is really which is why im not using his surname. but if you have a book out commercially, bruce has probably written "damaged souls" on a form about you. so there's a street cred element to all this like did people really have a vendetta against your work...? or was it just bruce again

[batcavescolony]

People who say "Batman was better without his kids" must really like the whole ELEVEN issues that Bruce had before Dick was introduced because that's the only time he didn't have a kid. Bruce Wayne/Batman was introduced in ’Detective Comics' #27 and Dick Grayson's Robin was introduced in 'Detective Comics’ #38. Dick was around before Alfred existed, if we can have Alfred why can we have the Robins?