Anon who asked for Bruce to be killed with hammers here. I am not sorry at all for what I prompted you to bring into the world, you executed it amazingly.
Still, to balance things out, can we give Bruce some bonding time with Ace (the dog)? Any interaction involving those two I enjoy immensely :3
Hope you're doing well ^^
Bruce looks down as a wet snout nudges his hand. Ace pushes his head into his palm, and Bruce strokes over his head, smiling down at his boy. Then he spots the trembles, the tucked tail, and coos, leaning down to stroke his sides.
"Hey, puppy," he coos, keeping an arm firmly around his sleeping son so he doesn't slip off his lap.
Thunder rumbles, echoing around the caverns of the cave, and Ace whines and puts his paws up, trying to climb into his lap like he usually does during a storm, and something in Bruce's heart breaks when he has to push him down, his lap occupied.
Ace's teeth snag in Dick's pyjama top, tugging lightly, and Bruce gives him a warning look. "No, Ace."
Thunder cracks again, and Ace shakes, pushing under Bruce's legs to hide. He's never liked storms, not since Bruce took him in from the streets, where he probably had nowhere to hide from the awful weather.
Dick doesn't like them either. He doesn't like to admit it, but he always has more nightmares on those nights, so Bruce feigned ignorance when Dick refused to go to bed and curled up in his lap instead. Guilt slithers through him, that he forgot about Ace, probably all alone upstairs in the manor.
Even Bruce winces at the volume of the storm as the cave makes it echo as it picks up outside, signalling one of Gotham's trademark weather patterns of storms that ravage the city. Batman and Robin don't usually go out during those, because no one else does either. Protocol is barricade yourself in with supplies and flood-prep your entryways, and it stays that way until the storm passes.
Bruce glances at the passageway up to the manor. It will barely be any quieter up there. It's not condusive for Ace to stay down here, where everything is amplified either.
He gets a sleepy murmur, and Dick raises his head, blinking blearily. "Climb on my back, sweetheart." Dick mumbles something, smacking Bruce in the face with Zitka as he clambers around to his back, and goes back to sleep, soft snores floating up to his ears. Bruce eases his chair back, and snatches Ace before he can bolt, wrangling the German Shepherd into his arms.
With all his valuables secured, Bruce starts off to the other side of the Cave, and less than a minute later, materialises in the Watchtower. He sets Ace down, brings Dick's legs around his hips, and grimaces as the dog retches and throws up on the floor. Zeta travel can't be fun for a dog.
He pads back over to him, ears low, and Bruce lets a few hundreds drift to the floor, gives an apologetic look to the camera, and leaves the small puddle behind, guiding his dog down the hallway to one of the common rooms. Dick grumbles, still fast asleep, as he's set down on the couch, and Bruce pulls him into his arms, letting Ace hop up and bully his way into the hug too.
The door opens, and Bruce looks up, nodding at Clark and Diana as they enter.
"It's nothing I haven't dealt with having Krypto or Shelby. At least Ace can't eat precious metals."
Bruce blinks. "That is...an upside, yes."
Diana kneels next to the couch, giving Bruce an amused look as she strokes a hand over Ace. "Is Gotham not good enough anymore?" She teases, and he rolls his eyes.
"Har har. We've got a storm in the city. Neither of my boys like them much."
A blanket wafts out, then settles over him, and Bruce eyes Clark above him. "You don't need to—" He stops talking to yawn, and Clark grins at him.
"Five hundred probably covers a blanket as well as cleaning up after Ace, Bruce."
"Two hundred and fifty," Diana corrects tersely. "I want my cut."
"You stood there and watched me clean it up!"
"I played an integral role of moral support, Kal-El."
Bruce yawns again, their bickering lulling him into sleep, and he feels the couch dip, quickly followed by Diana guiding him to slump against her.
Clark lifts his legs to lay them over his lap and scooch up closer, letting Dick sleepily wiggle his way between the two of them, while Ace splays out in Bruce's arms, minute trembles still running through him.
"—gagging at the smell while I cleaned it up," Clark says, when Bruce tunes back in, clearly not done bickering.
Bruce focuses on Ace, hushing the breathy whine, and pulls him up to smack a kiss on his head. "Storms gone, baby," he assures, and Ace burrows into his chest.
"Because it was unfathomably foul." Diana burrows her fingers into Ace's fur, stroking over the tuft of fur bursting up around his collar.
"He's a dog, what do you expect?" Clark rests a hand on Ace's thigh, scratching just where he likes it above his tail, and it thumps sadly against Dick's ankle.
"Compensation for being in the same solar system as that substance," Diana gripes.
Bruce chuckles at their antics, and when Ace noses at his mouth to investigate the sound, clasps a hand over his muzzle to guide his vomit-breath away, and kisses his head a dozen times.
"You didn't even put any work in, Di."
"I'll give you another five hundred." Bruce's voice is rough as he speaks into Ace's fluff, but Diana's chuckle is smooth as she entangles their fingers where they rest in Ace's fur. He noses at her too, and she bumps their heads together in the same peculiar way they always have, before he sneaks his head back under Bruce's lips for more kisses.
"No, I think I'll survive," she hums.
"A night like this with you is compensation enough," Clark offers, putting what she left silent out into the open, and Bruce knows his cheeks are pink.
"Mhm." Diana relaxes onto him, one arm slung around his lower back, the other invisible beneath the layers of Ace's tan fur.
Clark leans in closer on his other side, Dick trapped firmly between them as the Kryptonian rests his forehead onto Bruce's shoulder, where he'll probably stay for the rest of the night.
Bruce pulls Ace a bit closer, and allows himself to relax fully, surrounded by all his loved ones together. He kisses Ace's head one last time, and finally falls into slumber.
jbbartram-illu
dededos
tangentwithtanner
germansingergirl
areudirty
jacobvanloon
2087
