Consider:
There’s a universe where All Star Batman and Robin is canon (ie: the canon with the infamous “I’m the goddamn Batman” line, where he kidnapped Dick, refers to him almost exclusively via slurs, forces him to subsist on rats, and almost kills a Green Lantern with yellow paint and lemonade), but the modern day is almost exactly the same.
Bruce possibly got help some time between Dick being kicked out and Bruce adopting Jason. Maybe said help was motivated by whatever final incident that led him to kick Dick out, or his regret of it. And then by the time Bruce has Jason, he’s genuinely fine, and so Dick and Bruce come to the mutual awkward conclusion that they’re just… never going to talk about it. Ever.
I can’t decide if it would be funnier for it to eventually be revealed or for Dick and Bruce to just always seem… slightly off. They definitely know something, but maybe it’s just some classic original Dynamic Duo shenanigans. (Cut to flashback of The Horrors.) I dunno, you’re the idea guy of the two of us.
Alright this is probably gonna be a little outside of canon cuz I can’t remember a lot of ASBaR and I don’t feel like going back and also canon is my bitch. There are few different ways this could tbh and I might come back to this post to add a different scenario later but idk. This is also kinda rushed so it’s probably bad sorry.
Anyways, I think the scenario I’m gonna go with is that ASBaR Bruce was acting like such an abomination because he was constantly consuming toxic fumes from the Gotham sewer rats he ate and cuz there’s toxins in the Batcave or something. He was already on the weird side but all the chemicals seriously fucked up his brain. He kidnaps Dick, forces him to live off of rats, is just generally abusive as fuck and tries to kill GL with the color yellow. Dick is slowly being desensitized to Bruce’s abusive and insane lifestyle and starts to come to care about Bruce.
Alfred does his best to protect Dick but is still somewhat complicit in Bruce’s abuse. Then Dick gets nearly demolished by Two-Face resulting in Bruce having a fit and kicking him out. Maybe during this time Dick slowly comes to realize that living on the streets is better than living with Bruce, and that maybe Bruce was majorly fucked up. Sure people were shitty to him on the streets but nobody was making him eat rats or do any other insane shit.
Meanwhile Alfred is incredibly close to quitting or killing Bruce with his bare hands. Bruce says some dumb shit about how he’s better off without Dick, and Alfred smacks him so hard that Bruce ends up with a serious concussion and vertigo. During this time Bruce can barely move but Alfred takes him out of the cave and starts feeding him actual food and it starts to flush all the toxins out of Bruce’s body. Bruce is starting to see more clearly and by the time he’s fully healed he realizes just how insane he’s actually been. But Bruce being Bruce does not want to go to therapy for any of his issues (because how would he even explain this to a therapist?). He ends up tracking Dick down and after a long heated discussion gets Dick to come with him (Dick mostly only agrees because he still cares about Bruce and wants to give him a chance).
They ventilate the Batcave and flush out all the toxins in there and they stop eating rats. They grow to be better. Batman joins the JL and Green Lantern does not mention the time him and his child nearly murdered him because he’s a little too scared to say anything, who knows if Batman carries yellow on him or not. While Bruce is not the violently insane and abusive man he used to be, he’s still not great either. He can be caring and kind to Dick, but also incredibly harsh and still lashes out and gets violent from time to time. It is hard for him to treat Dick like a child, like his child, because that means admitting to hurting a child which is much harder to admit to than hurting a friend, a work partner. Dick endures it for as long as he can because loves Bruce.
Dick forms the Titans and branches out a bit, but never lets the team know how bad it was with Bruce. He and Bruce start to fight more and more often and it starts feeling like Bruce is regressing into who he used to be. Then Dick gets shot at 16, and Bruce snaps and fires Dick and kicks him out just like he had before. Dick is devastated, and Bruce starts to spiral hard. There’s no excuse of the toxins this time around and Bruce starts to wonder if maybe this is just who he is. Dick wonders if maybe he’s been the reason Bruce is crazy all along. Neither one of them reaches out to the other. Then Alfred gives Bruce an ultimatum, either he gets therapy or Alfred quits.
Bruce is desperate to keep the one person he has left in his life, so he gets therapy and finally works through his shit. He learns how to control himself better, learns to be better, to stop being cruel. After nearly a year, Bruce finds Jason and takes him. He gives him Robin. Then Dick shows up again, after Bruce thought he would never see him again. Before he can even get a word out, Dick is up in his face and telling him that he needs to leave Jason out of Bruce’s shit. That he isn’t safe to be around children. But Alfred comes in and vouches for Bruce, explains how he went to therapy and is a better person.
Dick misunderstands and thinks that Bruce went to therapy for Jason. That he changed for Jason. That he only wants to be better for Jason. It hurts Dick so much that he can barely stand to be around them, and when he is it usually ends in a screaming match with Bruce. Dick still tries to be there for Jason, to make sure Bruce doesn’t hurt him and that if he does that Jason knows he can come to him. But nothing ever happens. Not until Dick goes space and returns to a world changed.
Bruce starts to get bad again, and he hits Dick again for the first time in a while. Dick decides that enough is enough, and he won’t be returning no matter how much he loves Bruce. Then he gets a knock on his door, and for a fleeting moment he thinks it might be Bruce. He’s not sure whether to be scared or hopeful. But when he opens the door it’s not Bruce he sees, it’s Tim, their neighbor. Within a few months, Dick ends up right back where he started.
Bruce gets somewhat better-ish as time goes on. He never hurts Tim, and he’s rarely violent with Dick. They never really hash out any of their issues, they just let the silent acknowledgement that they exist linger in the air. Jason comes back violently. Sometimes all Dick can see when he looks at him is the memory of who Bruce used to be. Damian arrives and Dick is hesitant to warm up to him, to let his guard down around him. He’s a product of a version of Bruce that Dick never wants to see again, and Dick worries that Damian might have all of Bruce’s worse qualities.
Then Bruce dies. Dick is stuck battling between guilty relief and devastation. He’ll never get the closure he wants. He tries his best to be there for Tim and Damian. He tries to keep Tim close but only succeeds in pushing him away. Damian ends up Robin. It makes him wonder if he’s doomed to follow in all of Bruce’s footsteps. If one day he’ll wake up and see the monster of Bruce in his own reflection. Somehow, slowly, he gets through to Damian. They’ve finally managed to make things work when Tim comes back with Bruce. It’s a miracle and a nightmare all at once.
Damian dies. Dick does too, but only a little bit. When he comes back, everything has changed again. He’s not sure what he expected, but it certainly wasn’t what he got. It’s tearing him apart - how angry everyone is with him. Jason’s fist feels nearly identical to Bruce’s and feels like he’s a child once more. But they all work through it. Dick never brings up how much it hurt him, and they all move on.
Then the bats all go on a JL mission with some of the founding members. They’re up against some demon god who can transform into your greatest fear. They’re treading through the cave where it dwells when suddenly they’re plunged into darkness. When Dick wakes up, he finds that they’re all bound to the floor of the cave. They all watch as the creature circles them, peering into their souls with its beady eyes. Suddenly, its gaze locks onto Dick. Dick can hardly even get a breath out before the air begins to shift.
Dick knows what’s coming. He knows his worst fear like the back of his hand. It’s rough hands shoving him into a car and it’s the taste of rats and it’s slurs and it’s the color yellow covering everything and it’s the cold musty air of the cave and it’s the goddamn Batman and it’s - it’s - it’s Bruce. It’s Bruce with the small smile he used to give when he was proud, the one that Dick always knew meant “good job”. It’s Bruce with a kind of softness in his eyes that Dick can barely remember. It’s Bruce in a small apologetic voice, promising that he’ll change. It’s Bruce smiling at Jason, patting Tim’s shoulder, hugging Damian. It’s always Bruce and it always will be. Except it isn’t, not really. Not when Dick knows deep down that the only person that fears Bruce is him. Not when Dick knows that the only people scared of Batman are bad people. Not when Dick watches as this false Bruce showers his siblings with love, never once glancing at Dick. It isn’t Bruce, not really. Not when it’s Dick fault that he was like that.
As Dick turns to look away from the image, he can see the vaguely confused looks on his siblings faces, so he turns towards Bruce instead. He sees the pain, the horror, and the nausea etched onto his face. It’s gone the next second, enveloped by the bright green fist that crashes straight into his nose.
