#you cant convince me this Bruce doesn't have so much room to emotionally grow

[non-licet-bovi]

(Maybe half a year after Bruce takes in 9/10 yo Dick, and Dick is moving past the whole “I’m Mini-Vengeance and I require VIOLENT REVENGE post-haste” thing. Bruce is still trying to learn how to not be Alfred and let a kid sit in the ambiguity of whether or not he’s your actual child for years. Alfred is a lot better now, of course, but Dick doesn’t need the decades of the pent up emotional constipation that Bruce developed.)

Bruce, in the midst of casual conversation with his gf: I told them that my ward–

Selina, forcefully, in a way that he immediately knows is personal: Do not call him your ward. 

(Bruce rarely refers to Dick as anything other than Dick, especially in private, but he is caught up in retelling a story from a recent event.)

Bruce, momentarily quiet in surprise: I don’t know what else to call him in public.

Selina: Yes you do, Bruce. Do you need me to talk it through?

(They do this more: asking if they need clarification instead of assuming things about each other and being incredulous when they aren’t immediately understood. They know so much about each others’ heads, they can forget that they learn things about each other before they learn it about themselves.)

Bruce: Yes. (He pauses.) Please.

Selina, nodding: A child can be the ward of the state, but not of a person. Not really, anyway. A ward… it’s not a personal relationship between humans it is a clinical, removed, cold descriptor. It is a necessity more than a choice. Please, baby, just call him Dick. Say you’re taking care of him. 

Bruce: I understand. However, it’s… vague. Normal people don’t like vague. (Bruce knows this because he is full of vaguerees that normal people don’t know how to accept. Selina and Dick are too.)

Selina: You can handle it. But– Dick probably doesn’t like vague either. Talk to him. Baby, I know you. He’s your son. He’s been your son for a while. Call him that. 

Bruce: You’re right. I will.

Selina: And talk to him about adopting him. Hell, talk to me about it. Maybe I want him too.

Bruce, hesitating: Do you?

Selina, seeming to realize what she said, pauses for a while: Yeah. Yeah. 

Bruce: Then we should talk to him. I mean– after I talk to you about it. 

Selina: Okay. Yeah. Right. You should talk to me about it. Soon. 

Bruce: Alright.