Bruce's adopted kids look like him. In ways no one can deny, they all have the same nose, the same hair color. Every one of them has the same cowlick on their forehead, just to the left of center. Even Cass.
They aren't his. They don't have his DNA. But they look like they do. They all have the same icy blue eyes, the same strong jaw, the same broad shoulders.
Bruce's biological children look like their mothers.
Damian has Talia's eyes, her lithe build, her instincts, her smile, and a laugh that purrs more than booms, just like Talia's does. Helena has Selina's jaw, her eyebrows, her long neck, and collar bones that stick out further than they should, just like Selina does.
People talk, about that, about what it could mean. People talk, and they bitch, and they theorize, and they condemn.
And Bruce smiles. Because his biological children look like their mothers. They remind him of them. And his adopted children? Well, no one looks very close. His adopted children don't have the same eyes. Dick's are almost turquoise, Tim's have hints of green, Cass's eyes are not even blue, though no one ever checks. Jason is the only one with close to the same pale blue as Bruce. And their hair? Dick's hair is not black, like Bruce and Tim, it's a deep brown. And it curls. Tim's hair doesn't curl at all, neither does Cass'. Jason's cowlick is on the right, and Dick's does not exist. Jason's shoulders are broad, his neck thick. He's over six feet tall. Tim and Dick are slim, and neither stand above 5'10. Cass' shoulders are wide, but her muscle doesn't build like Bruce's does.
In fact, Cass is shaped exactly like Lady Shiva. Dick's face is almost identical to Mary's, though he inherited his father's jaw. Jason's eyes have the same tilt that Sheila's did, but they smile the same way Catherine's would. Tim has Janet's thin nose and round brows.
And Bruce smiles, because Dick pronounces his "T's" the same way Bruce does. And the sound of Jason's footsteps are almost indistinguishable from his own. And Cass laughs like he does, deep and booming. And Tim thinks every thought Bruce does, a second before Bruce manages to.
Because they are his children. Their mothers—faults and flaws and general atrocities aside—are the reason Bruce now is proud of the people they've become. So he thanks them. And he ignores the mean-spirited speculations of the rest of the world, because nothing is changed, at the end of the day.
(Damian has Bruce's nose, and Helena has his ears. He thanks their mothers as well.)
