Three for @ilovemybruciewayne! This answer may be long.
As the title says, it's a rewrite of Battle for the Cowl. I believe the story would have worked better if it centered more on brotherhood, on father and son's relationship, the wish to honor and respect your loving parent and their work after their death. Sure, this theme is present in the original comic, but it's not strong enough imo. I need Bruce to be haunting the narrative like there is no tomorrow.
Just like the original comic, it would be divided in three parts, each from the pov of a different brother: one from Tim, one from Dick and one from Jason. We see each of them deal with the "death" of Bruce, how it impacts them and how they accept it, while the world and Gotham keep on going and crimes spike with Batman gone.
Dick is on one end of the spectrum: he accepts totally that Bruce is gone, and it is destroying him. He is against Batman making a comeback, because, to him, nobody else can be Batman. His fight with Jason is fueled by his devotion to their father, and his anger at the disrespect his brother has shown since he came back explodes.
Jason is on the other end: he is in denial that Bruce is dead, but not consciously. In this fic, and in my personal canon, Bruce's "death" is the turning point of Jason's behavior and criminality. Before it, he is a rogue, and it forces him to re-evaluate his life and actions. But, for that, he has to realize that Bruce is gone, and that's what Battle for the Cowl is leading to. He puts on the cowl because he knows that Gotham needs Batman, but also because he wants to show Bruce how the job must be done (in his opinion) and piss the man off too. He is expecting Bruce to show up in the end, and he only realize that his father is truly gone when Dick shows up instead, yelling about how Bruce loves Jason even after death (shown by the recorded message left for Jason) while Jason dares to spit in the man's face and everything he stands for since Jason came back. The fic will end with Jason having a breakdown over the realization that he will never see his father again and all he has done was pushing him away and hurting him. (Yeah, in my canon, there is none of the Jason's behavior from Dick's time as Batman. Jason runs away from Gotham from the guilt and only comes back when he hears the rumor that the original Batman is back, punches Bruce because he doesn't believe it, realize Bruce is real and runs away again. It takes him a while to actually go back home.)
Finally, Tim is in the middle. He hasn't completely accepted that Bruce is dead, but he also knows that Gotham needs Batman, be it Bruce or not. And just like when Dick refused to be Robin again, when Dick refuses to be Batman, Tim puts on the cowl. Tim is, of course, still suffering from Bruce's death, like his brothers, but it translates in a need to make Bruce's work and legacy live on. I like the idea that Tim didn't appreciate "enough" that Bruce was now his father after he was adopted, so there is also guilt and a need to be a "good" son. His big brothers are being a bit annoying in his opinion. ("I'm the rational one" says Tim, as he believes that Bruce isn't actually dead, even tho they got a skeleton back)
Ngl, I keep changing the title between Golden Boy and The Father, The Son and The Holy Spirit, because this is a fic from Jean-Paul Valley's pov about Bruce, and his jealousy over Dick and his relationship with Bruce. He wants to be Bruce's son, the golden boy, so bad, and he is frustrated at his own failures and how Dick seems perfect in the eyes of Bruce.
Kind of want to change the title to Jamais Deux Sans Trois, which is a French expression literally meaning "never two without three" and used to say that when something happens twice, it will likely happen again, or that you need to try something three times to succeed.
It's a short fic exploring the crack idea of Bruce having three Robins at the same time, with Lonnie Machin and Steph being Robin at the same time as Tim. Bruce is parenting three kids who already have parents after promising to himself that there would be no more Robin.
