#he'd use a leash but he hated when alfred used one on him so he can't do that to his babie

[millylotus]

*Cass slips into the car without a sound*

Bruce: Wait where have you been?

Cass*smiling*: Nowhere

Bruce*turns away unconvinced*: Hrnn

*Cass takes a sleeping puppy out of her bag & hands it to Damian who gives her $50*

I feel like the kind of parent Bruce Wayne is, with all his kids, he has to use clues to figure out which one he left behind at the grocery store.

It's too quiet. Shit. "Did we leave Dick-"

"Yeah," Tim said, not even looking up from his phone. "Cereal aisle."

Bruce sighs and turns the car around.

[xxgoblin-dumplingxx]

still trying (and failing) to study for an exam, still wanting some more arranged marriage with bruce you’ve gotten me hooked and i can’t concentrate on anything else

Bruce watched you walk away from him and took a deep breath before calling Alfred. He didn't care what Alfred went to do- as long as he wasn't there when you got there.

It was too late to be honorable about it. He may as well keep acting like an ass. But at least sending Alfred on a goose chase would give you a way out. A little bit of dignity. You deserved that much. More than that much. But if all he could do was keep you from having to answer questions about your sudden need to see an aunt no one had ever heard of- so be it.

And if you couldn't go through with it and decided to keep the baby- Bruce would deal with that too. But he could still see the look in your eyes. Years of practice had come into play and you'd given him nothing. Any emotion you felt was carefully concealed behind a stony, indifferent stare.

You'd come here for comfort. Needing someone, anyone to hold you. But- not Bruce. You didn't want him anywhere near you, not that Bruce could blame you. He'd been allowed a life. Allowed choices. And while Bruce had known early on that your father had kept you on a very tight leash it wasn't until you'd come to trust Batman that he'd learned how short. He wasn't willing to let ANYTHING jeopardize this match. You weren't allowed anyone or anything that might foster rebellion- or love.

His initial assessment of you as shallow, vapid, and a little dull had been deeply unfair. You wanted so much. Had learned so much- thinking that maybe if you couldn't be loved you could be useful. Could trade your skills for freedom. You were passionate and kind. Brave... There was a fire that had stayed lit despite of, or maybe because of, all the attempts to stomp it out.

The only words you'd said were, "What did I ever do to make you hate me this much?" Said in flat tones that only just barely masked the tears.

"Sweetheart," he'd tried, reaching for your wrist. Hoping against hope that you'd let him comfort you. Let him try and make it right.

"Don't touch me," you said. The same flat tones. "Don't follow me. And if you try to stop me-"

"I won't," he promised. He didn't want you to finish that threat. Exposure didn't scare him nearly so much as the thought that you'd threaten to do something to yourself. "Whatever you decide," he said. "It's your body, I just. I'm sorry. I never meant-"

"Don't."

Bruce stood on the roof, watching the Valet bring the car around, watching you speed off down the street. And he promised himself that as soon as you left the city, he'd turn off all the GPS trackers. You didn't want him anywhere near you and he couldn't- wouldn't step in while you were in a place that vulnerable.

He couldn't change what he'd already done, but he could protect your dignity now. Make excuses to explain your absence and hope no one called the cops.

[mr007pennyworth]

It wasn't Gareth's fault that he was suddenly hit with such a memory

The phone slips a little from his grasp and he allows it to rest against his knee as he blinks. Sanderson. 'I’ll get bored if I don’t have something to do...'

Jack was always moving. He always found something to do, he found everything but productive working...boring. He even hated taking time off, when they had any free time as Lieutenants he would be the first one to rush off and go shopping to do DIY, drag Alfred around some library or another because he wanted to do stuff for part-time courses, he'd even picked up packing bags in the supermarkets over Christmas because he didn't want to be at home with his father and sister. He had to be in charge of himself or he wasn't living.

He feels sick as he snaps back to sitting on the sofa beside Gareth and gulps. Glancing back down at the picture of the coastal views on the phone makes him wonder if he'd grown too used to Thomas's throw-away freedom...Alfred had been paid more and more every year to do more around the manor, and then they died, Bruce paid him not only to play Butler but take the helm of the boy's life as he tried to get through his teens...Alfred had always had something he needed to do, washing, cleaning, planning, driving...paying bills for god sake, building Batman's cave...but now, well, retiring from being Bruce's official Head of Security so he could have the time to live with Gareth in London, meant he didn't have all that too do. Sure he cleaned, he did the washing, ironing...the cooking...he was pretty much Gareth's housewife now, he was too used to having Thomas or Bruce as an owner 'your my old dog now Alf your safer on a leash than out there and you know it'...and Jack had painted himself on Gareth? The anger that flashed in his chest was quickly pushed down when he told himself he was overthinking what Gareth had just said...Alfred already knew Gareth's job was important, being the Head of MI6 was a twenty-four-hour commitment.

Sighing he glances at Gareth before bookmarking the page and tucking his phone away. "Not in the mood for a DIY project then?" he finally asks when he can trust his voice, reaching for the cooling cup of tea on the table. "I'm not suggesting we take a week off to do nothing you know, plus we have access to a jet we can move within hours if you have to come home, there will be plenty to do with building a second home, I'm not fond of doing nothing myself, I've spent years being another man's dog Gareth, it's not like I spent the last thirty years doing nothing...once I could walk again that is anyway..."

mr007pennyworth​:

He opens up the photos of the house and very slowly looks them through turning the phone closer to Gareth.

“I am happy, perfectly happy in fact, and I know you still love me like that it’s not really the case of what we know, it’s more…how much time we have to actually enjoy it you know? Like back in the army we had all that time off duty to enjoy being together, now, after not only finding each other again, everything that happened in Gotham and now planning this move to London we haven’t really had a minute to just appreciate being together have we?” He leans closer, settling himself against Gareth as he browses the pictures, already planning colour schemes and dinners on the patio.

“I’m not saying all the weekends haven’t mattered but I mean just us, just us alone with nothing else to think about for a bit, no work, no Bruce…as much as planning a month-long honeymoon would be nice, I feel it’s not plausible, for one you have work to think about and I’m not all that great travelling too much in a short space of time, this is more what we need, sometime before we get married to just indulge in this, give our relationship the attention it deserves for a moment before the wedding while we have time, afterwards we can do things around when your free, a long weekend here and there I’m sure we’ll find, but…” He pauses at the picture of the view from the bedroom that overlooks the sea, a beautiful coastal sunset.

“Perhaps buying a holiday home is what we need, our space, our time, just us, our hideaway to exactly how we want it, somewhere where we can’t easily be disturbed…not to mention its something we deserve after all these years” he smirks. Nope, not unless Bond was about to start jet-setting to them every morning…

His arm slowly retracts from behind Alfred. In some way he suddenly feels guilty; the main reason they don’t spend as much time together as they used to in the army, is his job. If he wasn’t working so much, he would spend a lot more time at home with Alfred - but that is the difference between the two: Gareth needs the work, he needs something to do, can’t sit around and do nothing. Not for long, anyway, And Alfred is the more relaxed one, he can spend days just lazing around. Gareth is bored after just one day. Two at the most.

His gaze is still on the phone screen, but in all honesty, he doesn’t really register the pictures on it. His hand moves up, rubbing his brow for a moment. Buying himself time to find an answer. “Alf…” he finally begins, sucking in a deep breath. “I…well, agree. But…you know work demands my full attention.” And some certain agents do, too. “There is nothing I would rather do than spend time with you, but we’re not in the army any longer. We’re not twenty - well, thirty respectively - anymore and…” A sigh. “I can perhaps take off a week, but you know I’ll get bored if I don’t have something to do and…I’m afraid I’ll only get on your nerves eventually.”