how long it takes for bruce to come around to liking his childrens partners (+ how the kids told him about their respective relationships)
(i use the term small family dinner and big family dinner a few times in this post, so to just clear up any possible confusion, small is those weekly sunday night family dinners, and big family dinner is milestones n co, like birthdays, big case breaks, someone returning from a month long trip, occasionally charity banquets)
dick comes out to bruce while on patrol, probably mid-beatdown on some random thug, not for any reason in particular, he just realised he hasnāt come out to his dad yet.
dickbin: oh, b, im bi by the way.
bats: okay, thank you for telling me?
dickbin: oh, and agent a said kid flash can come over for dinner so i can introduce him to you as my boyfriend :3
thug: are youā¦homophobic?
bats: i am if heās dating KID FLASH.
it took him about ten years to be okay with wally dating his eldest son.
wally: hey, so when did you approve of dick and iās relationship?
bruce: when he asked you to pass the remote and you put on his favourite show for him so he didnt have to.
wally: ā¦that wasā¦three hours ago?
never really came out, bruce kinda justā¦knew? he showed up with roy for a big family dinner and bruce gave a look
jason: heās my husband.
bruce: okay. does heā¦have to be at the family dinner?
jason: yes. lian couldnāt make it, her and the titans had a sleepover planned.
jason was definitely the first to get married, i think that maybe the outlaws went to vegas, got hella drunk, and then jay n roy woke up in a hotel with a marriage certificate and were just like. well why the fuck not?? (qpr jayroy my beloved)
similar to jason, bruce knew that he was fruity, but tim still came out
tim: hey, b, uhm. i donāt really know how to say this, butā¦im bi.
when tim brang his first boyfriend (bernard) around, bruce was immediately on edge but came around after a few months of them dating, bruce definitely asked tim ādoes he know?ā when introducing bernard as his boyfriend, because he was so sure he had a thing with conner??
eventually, bernard and tim break up, and after some time, tim introduces kon as his boyfriend. bruce, while not surprised, does not approve.
conner who used to stay at the manor frequently and would occasionally be allowed at small family dinners, immediately had those privileges revoked. no sleepovers, no small family dinners, no TOUCHING. if bruce sees or even THINKS. they are being slightly affectionate, bruce yells at them to ābreak it upā
didnāt come out. didnāt think he needed to. bruce WAS surprised about this one though, hell he was surprised damian felt romantic love at ALL.
bruce: please, jon. just bruce is fine.
jon: no thank you :) anyway, damian wanted me to tell you that him and i have been dating for a few months :3
bruce: *looks over to damian* do you know about this?
damian: donāt be ridiculous, father. i was the one who asked him to be my boyfriend.
bruce: oh. okay. well, no more sleepovers.
similar to kon, jonās sleepover and small dinner privileges were revoked the minute he knew, and it took jon saving damianās life five times before he was allowed back at the small dinners. after them dating for about two years, jon could sleepover again, but. they werenāt allowed to have the door closed.
steph has always been allowed at the small family dinners and occasionally the big ones, and one random family dinner, cass looks over at bruce
cass: b, steph and i have been dating for a year on thursday, could you book us a flight to the maldives for our anniversary?
everyone goes DEAD. fucking silent. steph is sat there trembling because she knows how bruce reacts to things like this. the boys are waiting for cassā turn to be judged on her partner choice. but oh no, not this time.
bruce: im so happy for you, cass. how long were you thinking? a week? two?
the boys lose their shit.
dick is screaming his head off because him and wally have been together for fifteen years at this point, and only five of those years bruce has been accepting of wally
jason is torn between laughing to the point he cant breathe and raging because he has a whole ass family with roy, and bruce is still unsure about whether roy is serious about jason
tim is throwing things across the room, heās ENGAGED. to conner and he STILL isnāt allowed at small family dinners, HEāS NOT EVEN ALLOWED IN THE MANOR IF BRUCE ISNāT HOME???
damian is being respectfully disrespectful because he finds this absurd, jon has only recently been allowed back to small dinners and sleepovers even though before damian told bruce about their relationship, it was EXPECTED of jon to be there.
tim looks over at steph once heās calmed down and then is instantly sent into another spiral because bruce is still against tim dating steph even though they broke up years ago.