for the au game :) a supernatural creatures or shifter au for the batfam and/or pairing of your choosing!
thank you!!! this one was a lot of fun <333
i didn’t end up with either a pairing or a plot for this one, exactly, (there’s kind of a bunch of mini plots tbh) but i had a lot of fun imagining what supernatural creature each of the batkids could be~
i also went over 5 facts but. i blame bruce for that, tbh. he has too many kids :P
After Bruce’s parents are killed by some kind of creature, Bruce becomes a monster hunter. However, one way or another, all the children he adopts turn out to be monsters.
Dick has siren heritage (of the bird variety, not aquatic). It remains dormant until the Court of Owls brings it out of him. He adores the ability to fly, but it leaves him far more careful about his voice.
Jason is killed by Joker, a demon. His return is bathed in hellfire, now a lesser demon himself. He’s managed to keep a tight grip on his humanity, though—even if Bruce doesn’t always appreciate that.
Cass is half-vampire (a dhampir?). Though her need for blood isn’t as all-consuming as a full-blooded vampire, it’s still present, and something she struggles with greatly.
Steph is turned into a werewolf when Black Mask captures her. It’s part of the reason she fakes her death—she leaves to spend time learning to control her shifts.
Tim is a changeling—either he knew the entire time and hid it from everyone, or discovers this himself later in his life. It comes with some small ability to shapeshift and sense what people will find most pleasing. He is able to lie, and well, but is quite sensitive to iron.
Duke has angel blood—maybe he’s nephilim, or the child of a nephilim. (So half- or quarter-angel.) Bruce makes the mistake of thinking that his angel blood means Duke will be the most well-behaved. He’s wrong :)
Damian is half- or quarter-demon, and Bruce really only has himself to blame for that one. Because Talia is a major demon, though, or the descendant of a major demon, he’s about equal to Jason in power. Yes, this causes a lot of problems, lmao.
BONUS: Oracle isn’t just a title; Babs does have some minor precog powers. Alfred is either a (very old) fey or a vampire; he’s just been waiting for Bruce to notice :)
personal headcanon that in earth - 65 , the dc big three were literally just comic books and television series / movies and not actual heroes that existed. so her running into some of them throws her into slight fan - gwen mode.
Alternate title: Five times the batkids' teammates didn't realize they have powers and one time their family already knew?
At the request of etherealizt on AO3
One ~ Oracle
Barbara sighed as she sunk further into the water, blowing a few bubbles away from her nose.
She was having a night of rest and relaxation. She’d told the Birds she was taking the night off and had threatened all the other bats with eternal rickrolling if any of them interrupted. The soft music Dinah had recommended was playing from her phone’s speakers on the counter and the lights were dimmed. She was trying out the strawberry and grapefruit bubble bar Carrie had made and had finally opened the rosé Bruce had gifted her when she’d moved into the Clock Tower. An Alfred-made meal was warming in the oven, courtesy of Jason paying her back a favor. After her bath, she’d eat dinner then watch some of the movies on Dick’s Babs Needs to See This!!!! playlist before heading to bed early.
It was meant to be a nice quiet night.
Which meant that whoever had decided to call her not ten minutes after she had lowered herself into the water and gotten comfortable was going to have some very annoying problems with their technology for the next week.
She gave the phone a good long glare before laying her head back and closing her eyes.
“This better be good,” she growled once she’d connected to her cell and answered the call on speakerphone.
“I know, I know, I’m so sorry,” Mari said quickly. “It’s just… we went on this mission -- just a quick in and out thing, or it was supposed to be -- and we thought we wouldn’t need your help, but we kind of do and now it’s too late to back out.”
Barbara sighed. “I was taking a bath.”
About five thousand miles away, Vixen flinched and looked at her fellow Birds. She mouthed, She’s taking a bath.
Canary flinched as well while Katana and Huntress shared a look and Question shifted guiltily. All five women had stayed at the Clock Tower before so they knew how Oracle preferred to take showers because of how arduous it was for her to get into the bath, even with the bath lift.
The times she actually got to take a bath were to be treasured.
“Shoot, I mean, we’ll handle it.”
“I’d hope you wouldn’t have called me if you could handle it,” Oracle joked.
“No. I mean, yeah, we didn’t interrupt your night lightly, but we’ll figure something out. We don’t want to ruin your b-”
“It’s fine. I’m already logging into my system. What are we looking at?”
She’s already logging in? But that means... Vixen slumped back against the wall she’d been standing in front of as she realized Oracle must have started getting out before she’d even picked up the phone. They’d ruined her night the moment Vixen had pressed call. Well, no reason to waste even more of her night.
The mission went fast with Oracle’s help and the team was out in just under half an hour. They all gave their thanks and apologized again for interrupting her night, but she waved it away before signing off.
“I still feel bad about ruining her bath. Maybe we should get her something to make up for it,” Dinah said as they were on their way home.
“Maybe we didn’t. She got on pretty quickly. She might have just had a tablet near the bath,” Helena suggested.
Renee shook her head. “She had too many things going at once. She couldn’t have managed it all with just one device.”
Tatsu smirked and chuckled, “Even the great Oracle could not handle such limitations. We'll all chip in to show our thanks.”
Back in Gotham, Barbara sunk a little further into the water with a pleased moan.
While it was a headache to manage an entire mission remotely, it was worth it to remain wrapped in the warm water and fruity scents. Thankfully it was just a short one this time, but maybe next time she’ll ask Tim to cover her in case of another emergency.
She started the music on her phone again then reached out to dry off her hand so she could finally grab her wine and start her night of relaxation.
Two ~ Nightwing
Green Arrow frowned as he watched the goon in the interview room. He, Batman, Hawkwoman, Flash, and Cyborg had picked the guy up the day before while trying to locate an experimental power core that had been stolen from S.T.A.R. Labs. They’d tracked the core to a shipping yard, but lost it there. Most of the yard’s crew were clean, but the manager was clearly on the take and knew something.
The only problem was that he wouldn’t talk.
They’d tried intimidation, logic, bribery, and charisma, but nothing had worked. Since Wonder Woman and Martian Manhunter were off-world and Zatanna was unreachable (something about alternate dimensions and a tiefling warlock’s pet eldritch book-dogs), that meant the lasso of truth, mind reading, and truth spells were out.
“There has to be some way we can get him to talk,” Vic said from where he was sitting on the floor next to Wally.
“I could get him to talk,” Shayera muttered, thumbing one of the spikes on her mace.
“No,” Bruce objected as he walked up.
“We’re running out of time.”
“I know, which is why I called for help.”
“Help?” Oliver asked.
“Me.”
Shayera and Oliver jumped and spun around to see Nightwing standing behind them, a wide impish grin on his face.
Fricking ninja bats!
“Oh heck yes!” Wally cheered before bending over in a coughing fit as he choked on the bite of sandwich that had been in his mouth, Vic patting his back.
Dick winked at his friends and looked through the two-way mirror. “Double-R filled me in. This is the guy giving you trouble?”
Bruce grunted.
“I think I’ll be able to take him,” Dick said, walking over to lean against his father. “I’m going to need to borrow Robin for a few days after this, though.”
Oliver swore he could see Bruce’s eyebrow raise beneath the cowl. “For a mission or fun?”
“I need someone small to help with an infiltration… and Jump Wildlife Park has a new Snakes of the Outback exhibit.”
Sighing, Bruce shook his head. “Robin’s benched for the next week, as I’m sure you know. He’s not getting out of it. You can take Catgirl if Catwoman doesn’t need her. I’ll allow a trip to the zoo, however.”
“I’ll take it.” Dick shot him finger guns as he backed towards the door. He then spun around on his heel, high-fived the now standing Wally and Vic, and skipped into the interrogation room. He dropped into the chair across the table from the goon, leaning it back so he could rest his feet on the table. “Hi, there, I’m Nightwing.”
The goon glared at him.
“No introductions then, alright. I’ll make this quick since I’m sure you want to get out of here and I’m currently in a game of hide-and-seek with some of the other bats and I’m not about to lose because B’s having an off day. You tell me what I want to know and I won't have to make you.”
The goon snorted. “Am I really supposed to be scared by that?”
Dick shrugged. “If I wanted to scare you I’d break your fingers. We can try that if you want.”
“The winged chick already offered and it didn’t scare me then either.” The man looked Nightwing over then gave a grin that Oliver was sure set off Batman’s dad mode, even if the man hadn’t responded in any visible way. “You’re welcome to try, though. At least you’re prettier than that bitch.”
Oliver grabbed Shayera’s shoulder when she stepped forward and Vic placed himself between her and the door without looking away from the mirror.
Dick hummed then dropped his legs. The chair fell back onto all fours and he followed the motion so he was leaning against the table, elbows on top with his hand clasped together to create a V that his chin rested on. “You think I’m pretty?”
Oliver blinked and focused his attention on Dick. His voice sounded… different. He couldn’t put his finger on what it was. It just sounded… nice.
Distantly, he was aware there was another voice talking as well.
What was it about Dick’s voice?
Suddenly Dick was standing up and patting the goon on the shoulder. “Thanks, you’ve been a big help.”
The goon nodded, blinking up at Dick in a daze.
Dick skipped back out of the room. “You got everything you need then?”
Did they? Crud, Oliver had zoned out of the entire interrogation. Bats was definitely going to tear him a new one.
Bruce grunted and Dick smiled. “You’re welcome. Now if you’ll excuse me, I’m going to get lost before Batgirl bribes my location out of Double-R.”
And with that, the younger Bat was booking it down the hall.
“I’m going to write up a report on the interrogation. Review the footage and meet up in conference hall F so we can plan our next move,” Bruce said before marching off.
There was a moment of silence then Shayera asked, “What the hell was that?”
Vic rolled his eyes and Wally nodded, “It’s always a little distracting, we know.”
“Speak for yourself,” Vic snorted, elbowing the speedster. “The Titans call it Wing’s Milk and Honey voice. He barely ever uses it, but when he does, he always manages to get the information we need out of whoever we’re interrogating. It’s freaky.”
“It’s awesome. Just wish he’d talk to me in that voice.”
Vic glared at Wally. “I did not need to hear that.”
The speedster snickered.
“Did any of you catch what the goon in there actually said?” Oliver asked reluctantly and was relieved when both Shayera and Wally shook their heads.
Vic made a so-so motion. “I know he said he was working for Luthor and the core got moved to a warehouse just outside Metropolis, but the rest kind of got lost. Dick’s…”
“Distracting?” Wally suggested and Vic elbowed him again.
“Just listen to the recording. It gets easier the more you hear it. Kind of,” Vic suggested.
“Standard Milk and Honey protocol,” Wally said with a nod. “Dick’s just too charismatic for his own good.”
Before anything else could be said, Dick’s affronted yelp came echoing down the hall.
“At least when it’s not one of his siblings.”
Three ~ Red Robin and Batgirl
The Young Justice team had just gotten back from a mission. Bart, Kon, Jaime, and Tim were all resting in the lounge. Artemis had retreated to her room while Cassie and Kara had had to head home. Stephanie had been hanging out with the boys, but had disappeared a few minutes in.
Kon was asleep on the couch with his head resting on Tim’s lap. Tim, meanwhile, was working on a report, his laptop on the couch’s arm so as not to disturb Kon. Jaime was sitting on the coffee table in front of them and playing a video game on the main screen. Bart was curled up in an armchair off to the side, working through his post-mission meal.
A cymbal-banging monkey toy sitting on the shelves behind Bart slid forward a little.
The speedster turned at the noise and blinked at the unfamiliar toy. He shrugged it off and turned back to his food.
The monkey slid a little closer.
Bart turned around and frowned at the toy. He stared at it for a moment then slowly turned back around.
A minute went by, then the toy slid noticeably closer.
Bart spun around, jumping out of his seat and pointing at the toy. “I knew it!”
Tim and Jaime both turned to him, but the Kryptonian-strength earplugs did their job and Kon didn’t wake.
“What are you yelling about?” Tim asked.
“The monkey, it’s moving!”
Both boys looked between the monkey and their friend.
“You’re crazy,” Jaime said, turning back to his game.
“It is!”
“Did you see it move?” Tim asked.
“Well, no, but it’s not in the same spot!”
“Your eyes are probably just playing tricks on you. Maybe your blood sugar’s low or something. You haven’t eaten much yet,” the vigilante suggested before going back to his report.
“Like you’re one to talk about not eating,” Bart muttered as he grabbed his chair and turned it to face the self. “It moved! I’ll prove it!”
Bart didn’t take his eyes off the monkey for the next five minutes, even as he continued to eat.
Then his shadow reached out and tapped him on the shoulder before quickly returning to its proper place on the back of the chair.
He looked up and scowled when he didn’t see anyone. He returned his focus to the shelf, only to find himself nose to nose with the monkey just as it started banging its cymbals.
Bart bolted from the room, screaming about calling someone to come deal with the possessed toy.
Jaime glanced up, then shook his head and resumed playing his game.
A few seconds later Stephanie walked in, her magic bracelet on her wrist, and high-fived Tim.
Four ~ Black Bat and Signal
“Hey, Halo. Don’t turn on the lights.”
Violet paused in the doorway of the pitch-black warehouse, hand on the light switch. “Signal?”
“BB and I are here too,” Lia called.
“Looker? Why are you three sitting around in the dark?” ey called as ey carefully tried to make eir way towards the group by sound and memory.
“Looker and Signal are playing poker. The lights are off so Signal can’t cheat with his vision,” Cass explained.
“And yet the kid’s still cheating,” Lia huffed.
“I am not!” Duke said in an offended voice.
“How are you guys reading the cards?” Violet asked as eir hands finally touched the card table ey hoped the three were using for eir game. “And who’s sitting where?”
A hand came from eir left and brushed against eir arm. “I’m here. BB is next to me and Sig’s across from her. There’s a free seat across from me if you want to sit with us until BL gets here. Also, we’re using cards with braille. I can see the pictures and Sig can read braille so we’re all good.”
“You can read braille?”
“Batman.”
“Yeah, okay, that makes sense.” Violet slipped around the table and reached around until eir hand found the chair. As ey sat down, ey asked, “Is Signal even old enough to play?”
“Does this look like a casino? Who cares? It’s not like I’m sneaking him alcohol or cigarettes or anything,” Lia scoffed.
“Nightwing let me try a sip of beer once. It was awful,” Duke said.
She snorted. “Big Bro probably gave you the shi-bad stuff to scare you off.”
“You know, I patrol Gotham. I’ve heard all the swears before.”
“I am not getting caught swearing in front of Batman’s baby, thanks.”
“Robin and Catgirl are both younger than me!”
“CG is the Cat’s baby and Rob’s an assassin lovechild. You are the Bat's baby.”
Suddenly the room flooded with light, earning hisses, groans, and curses from the quartet.
“Why are you four playing cards in the dark?” Jefferson asked and the four saw him walking up to the table once they’d blinked the stars out of their eyes.
Violet could also now see that Cass was leaning against Lia with one of her arms stretched over the table to hold hands with her brother. The two let go, however, at their leader’s approach and Cass sat up. All three were suited up like Violet, though Cass’s mask was sitting on the table.
“We were playing cards," Lia said. "The dark was supposed to keep the kid from cheating. It didn’t work.”
“Whatever you say,” Duke snorted, gathering up his winnings. He sorted through it, then gave half to Cass.
“Why does she get half?”
Duke shrugged and Cass smiled. “Family helps each other out.”
Lia looked confused while Violet nodded slowly.
Jefferson just sighed. “Right… Well, get this cleaned up then we can discuss tonight’s mission.”
Five ~ Robin and Catgirl
Jon smiled at Goliath as he stroked the dragon bat’s ear. “Who’s the bestest dragon bat? You are! Yes, you are!”
“Bestest is not a word, Kent. Don’t teach Goliath bad grammar,” Damian tutted from where he was brushing Alfred the Cat.
“Gee Damian! How come your dad lets you get so many cool pets?” Kathy asked from where she was laying on Bat-Cow’s back. “I mean, the cow, dog, and cat are normal, -”
“Normal for farm girls, at least,” Colin chirped from where he was scratching Titus’s belly.
“- but the dragon bat’s insane! And now you’ve got a tiger too! Is there anything your dad won’t let you have?”
“Tiger?” Jon, Colin, and Damian all asked and Kathy pointed off to the side where Maya was slowly approaching the Malayan tiger cub that was stretched out on a large pillow and watching the girl through half-lidded eyes.
“That’s Kelley,” Damian said blankly.
“Aw, you named her after your sister?” Jon said, grinning widely at his best friend.
His best friend scowled at him in return. “She is not my sister.”
“I mean, your dad married her mom. That kind of makes her your sister,” Colin shot back and the scowl was turned on him.
“Does she accept pets or am I about to get my arm ripped off?” Maya asked softly as she sidestepped a little closer to the tiger in a crouch.
“Why would you wait this long to ask?” Kathy huffed.
“Kelley couldn’t rip your arm off if she wanted to,” Damian scoffed and turned back to his brushing.
Like she could understand him, the tiger’s head whipped towards him and she bared her teeth. With a low growl, she shifted onto her feet. Alfred realized what was happening as the tiger started bounding towards the bird-themed vigilante and jumped off Damian’s lap just before he was crushed under a juvenile tiger.
“Get off me! Get off me right now or I will skin you and use your pelt as a rug!” Damian snarled.
Jon considered helping his friend, but the tiger wasn’t doing anything more than licking his hair now that she had him pinned. After a quick use of x-ray vision proved that Damian didn’t actually have any weapons on him for once, Jon decided to leave the older boy to his pet and focus back on Goliath.
“KELLEY!”
“You’re the bestest dragon bat in the world, aren’t you? Yes, you are! Yes, you are!”
Plus One ~ Jason
Bruce scowled as he typed away at the computer.
The mission was supposed to be an easy one. Just a quick in and out. But they had gotten just one wrong piece of misinformation and now most of Bruce’s children were lying in the Batcave boasting some form of injury.
Worst of all, Bruce hadn’t been there. He and Selina had been on a date night across the city at the insistence of all the children.
The father paused in his typing to glance around the cave.
Carrie was lying on her pillow in tiger form. Either Tim or Duke had managed to slip a cone around her neck since the last time he’d checked on the kids. Considering the lack of shouting, snarling, growling, or baby roars, Bruce was assuming she was humoring the cone for now. Normally he’d make the boys take it off since it impaired her vision too much for comfort in the cave, but she wouldn’t be running around for a few days and the cone would remind her not to lick at her stitches, something she occasionally forgot while in tiger form.
Speaking of the boys, Bruce could see the cocoon of shadows Tim had wrapped them in on one of the larger infirmary cots. The shadows were meant to help with Tim’s concussion while providing Duke with the darkness he needed to get to sleep. A flaw with Duke’s powers was that it was hard for him to get to sleep in anything but the darkest of rooms, especially after an adrenaline-heavy mission got his photosensitivity at its peak. Normally they’d send him up to rest in his room since Bruce had installed special black-out windows for just this occasion, but Alfred wanted him to remain hooked up to an EKG machine overnight due to an electrical shock he’d received during the mission.
Dick and Damian were on the training mats, though Bruce only knew the former because of the thin, whip-like tail poking out from the mass of feathers to wrap gently around Dick’s leg brace. Otherwise, his youngest was completely hidden within his eldest's wings, bundled up against Dick’s chest to keep the boy from attempting to “train” his recently relocated shoulder “back to form.”
Stephanie was nowhere to be seen, though Damian assured them she’d returned home with the group and the occasional nudging of Bruce’s mug towards the edge of the desk confirmed it. Her bracelet sat next to Bruce, the focusing stone in need of replacement. Thankfully he’d thought ahead and had extras on hand so he’d just need to bring the bracelet to a jeweler friend in the morning to have it set properly.
Cass was curled up in one chair at the meeting table with her legs resting on another as she nibbled at a sandwich with one hand and held an ice pack to her bruised ribs with the other. Her eyes had been closed and she’d looked half-asleep when he’d first looked, but as the sound of a motorcycle reached them through the tunnels, her head perked up.
Bruce turned as his second-eldest arrived. Jason parked the bike and climbed off before pulling his helmet off and looking around. He whistled.
“How’d your mission with the Outlaws go?” Bruce asked.
“Better than the mission these idiots went on, apparently.”
“We got some faulty information. You hurt?”
“Nah. Kory, Artemis, and Biz got to have all the fun this time. Roy and I played sniper. What’s -”
Jason cut off as a black form leaped onto his back. Cass quickly wrapped her arms and legs around him before he could toss her off. Nuzzling into his neck, she cooed, “Big brother!”
“Hey, do I look like a horse!” He huffed, tugging at her arms and legs. Suddenly there was a bird in his place, with a plump body and long legs and neck. He flapped his wings and shook, but Cass had anticipated the change and shifted her grip to compensate.
Bruce smiled at the two, knowing Jason was just putting on a show of being annoyed. It was obvious by the fact he didn’t simply change into pure flames so she’d have nothing to hold onto and the way the feathers around Cass’s chest were alight, the flames rising up to brush against where the ice pack had been resting before.
Phoenixes couldn’t actually heal as some stories stated, but their flames could promote healing and ward off infection. Most importantly, though, they could soothe pains. And despite all his huffing and puffing, Jason hated seeing the people he cared about in pain.
The young man gave one last gentle shake before hissing and stomping off to his and Dick’s nest. He lowered himself down and Cass rolled off his back. She moved around to his front and leaned against the edge of the nest while he draped his neck over her chest. As she began to carefully brush her fingers through the burning feathers on his neck, the feathers on his back lit up once more. From where he was, Bruce could just barely see the faint traces of Stephanie’s face in the flames.
At the same time, Carrie yawned and carefully climbed to her feet before shuffling over and into the nest. She nudged the cone into Jason’s side until he stretched out a wing for her to curl up under.
A moment later, the shadows rose on Jason’s other side and he draped his other wing over them with a click.
Smiling at his children’s antics, Bruce double-checked that Tim had left the shadows open for the EKG machine’s wires then went back to his report.
By the time he looked up again a half-hour later, the ball of near-black feathers had relocated to under Jason's fantail and phoenix flames were covering the whole nest in soothing warmth.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Cookie to anyone who actually gets the book-dog reference at the beginning of Dick's part because I've been spending too much time on Youtube.
Funny story about Halo: I was looking up different characters that have been on the Outsiders team to put with Duke and Cass since I accidentally put Katana with the Birds before realizing she's the only other member of their team besides Black Lightning and didn't want her to show up in two parts (I've decided she runs with both teams in this universe). I decided on Looker because she seemed cool then was reading up on Halo. I remembered the character from clips of Young Justice animated and thought they were cool. I wasn't too surprised to see the original character didn't wear a hijab, but I was surprised that Wikipedia uses they/them pronouns for the part talking about YJA's Halo post becoming Halo. I thought the character was nonbinary until I checked the YJA wiki for something and saw it uses only she/her pronouns. I'm pretty sure that means Wikipedia's just being weird, but I decided to make Halo bigender anyways so she uses she/ey pronouns in this universe.
That was the headline on the newspaper Hal slapped onto the table in front of Batman, making him glance up at him.
“Is there something you needed?” he asked, sounding bored.
“Yeah, I need to know if this is true,” he said jabbing a finger at the newspaper.
“It’s true,” he confirmed.
“And you’re only now telling us about this?” Hal demanded angrily.
“You truly do have a new son? I thought that was mere rumour,” Diana said blinking her eyes and as the others moved in, Victor knew what they didn’t, that his son was Shazam. That the constant reporters around Wayne Manor was keeping the magic user from reporting in. Batman almost couldn’t himself, but he had teleporters in the Batcave to get here.
“No, his name is Billy,” he said simply, hoping to end it there.
“Billy Batson, right?” Victor asked, earning a glare from the dark knight but he just gave him a cheeky grin (the same cheeky grin that Billy often gave him) as Hal burst out laughing.
“Oh, please tell me you're kidding,” he said amused.
“No, completely serious. His full name is William Joseph Batson, thirteen years old,” he said with a smile
“And how did you know about that?” Clark asked him with a curious frown.
“I’m connected to everything. The second Bats here got the test results on the paternity test, so did I,” he said and they nodded their heads in understanding.
“Which means you’ve been holding out on us, buddy,” Hal said pointing at Cyborg. It was one thing for Bruce to keep a secret from them, he was Batman so it was pretty much expected, but this was Victor , who was very much not Batman.
“Nah, I’ve just been distracted,” he admitted with a shrug.
“Distracted with what?” Bruce asked harshly.
“With Shazam,” he said honestly. It wasn’t a good idea to lie to Batman, and keep as close to the truth as possible. Something he had learned from Billy actually.
“Speaking of that crazy bastard, where is he?” Hal asked looking around as if he would suddenly appear out of nowhere.
“Busy with family problems. I doubt he’ll be able to come in for a few weeks,” Victor said honestly. It would take time for him to figure out how to slip away from both the reporters and from Batman after all.
“This has to do with the thing with the uncle he doesn’t trust?” Clark asked, reminding him of his sharp memory that he remembered a few off hand comments. That was probably why Billy was always so careful about how he chooses his words around both him and Bruce.
“Yeah, it has to do with that,” he admitted, because it really did. His uncle was the whole reason he was dealing with the whole ‘moving to Gotham and living with a billionaire’ situation after all.
“Give him our regards, will you?” he said
“I’ll be sure to tell him,” he said with a nod of his head.
“By the way, Bruce. As a reporter, I’m offended you didn’t tell me about this,” he told him with mock offended eyes.
“You were dealing with something at the time of the press conference and it would be suspicious if I contacted you for every interview,” he said easily.
“For who?” Hal muttered, but Bruce was distracted by his buzzing phone.
“I thought you turned it off when you're in uniform?” Clark asked curiously.
“I have a son that doesn’t know I’m Batman. I need to have it on, especially with him just moving in,” he said bringing it up to his ear as he pulled the cowl off. “This is Bruce,” he answered.
“I know you told me to give him space, but he brought a picnic basket onto the roof,” Damian said without hesitation, making Bruce furrow his brows in confusion.
“ Why would he be on the roof with a picnic basket?” he couldn't help but ask, getting odd looks from the others.
“I don't know,” he scoffed, probably rolling his eyes. “He just had Alfred prepare him some food in a basket and climbed onto the roof. I normally wouldn't be concerned, but his wrist is still sprained,” he said idly.
“How long ago did he climb up there?” Bruce asked.
“ Ten minutes ago,” he said unconcerned.
“It's not like it would be the first time you climbed onto a roof, Damian,” he said casually, hearing his youngest scoff and hang up on him
“I'm worried about your parenting style,” Hal declared.
“Should you not be more concerned about your son being on the roof?” Clark asked him concerned, more so because he heard both sides of the conversation, including the fact that his son was injured and should not be climbing onto the roof to begin with.
“I was warned by his foster parents and his case worker both that he likes to climb onto the roof of whatever home he’s staying in. They informed me that if I gave him his space, he would stop doing it so often,” he said making them blink.
“Foster Parents?” Diana asked confused.
“Oh, that’s right. No one’s ever explained the Foster care system to you, have they?” Hal asked her and she shook her head, confused.
“When parents are unable or unwilling to care for their children for whatever reason and other relatives are also unable to care for the child, they wind up in Foster Care, where a caseworker is assigned to them to place them into a forever home. Foster Homes are temporary homes for the children,” Bruce said.
“And foster parents are these temporary parents?” she asked and they nodded their heads in agreement. “That is a most wonderful system,” she said.
“True, but like all government organizations, it has it's faults. Most of the Foster Parents only apply to the system to gain extra money and don’t properly care for the children. Some children even slip through the cracks in the system entirely,” Bruce said.
“That is horrible. Surely they are working to fix this?” she said and they all glanced at each other and tried to explain it further to Diana without working her into a frenzy.
Wayne Manor-
“Is something wrong, Damian?” Billy asked as his younger brother (and that was a weird thought for him still, that he had a little brother) who was climbing up the roof without any hesitation or fear. He probably climbed up here a lot as well, Billy couldn’t help but think (and privately, he wondered if he was invading his space, a place he went to think like Billy did)
“I was wondering about the picnic basket,” he answered curtly, making Billy look at the item in question. “After all, you still have a sprained wrist. It couldn’t have been easy to bring that up here,” he said sitting next to him.
“The view up here is nice,” Billy said looking over the grounds. You couldn’t even see the reporters, too. “And it’s a nice day today, so I couldn’t help but think it would be a shame to spend it inside,” he answered with a smile. “What? Is something on my face?” he asked when Damian stared at him long and hard, as if searching for something.
“Just trying to see if this is an honest response, or another lie, ” he answered curtly, making Billy flinch a little.
“What?” he asked.
“When you smile, it's usually a lie. A mask you wear,” he answered. “This time, it wasn’t a lie, it seems,” he said.
“Not all of my smiles are some mask,” Billy said, maybe with a bit more of an attitude than necessary, but he was still reeling from the fact that someone had seen through it. “It makes dealing with Foster Parents easier if they think you're some naive little kid who’s so grateful to be given a new home,” he said with a start of a sneer on his face. “It makes them feel better about themselves,” he said, anger started to appear in his voice before he quickly looked away, before the bitterness started to show.
“That’s certainly one way to think about it,” Damian said, humming. “But you still didn’t explain the picnic basket, ” he said making Billy smile.
“I like picnics,” he said. “My old family had them all the time, we’d have one big picnic before they went to their dig sites and another while we were at the dig site. The first was just with us, the second was with everyone at the dig site,” he said starting to pull out food, recalling the sound of laughter. He had never minded with everyone else, because they were also like his family. “We didn’t have the picnic when they left for Egypt. I was too sick,” he said, a hint of sadness in his eyes
“I don’t eat meat,” he told him, bringing a can of juice over to him.
“I have an apple if you’re hungry?” Billy said, holding out the fruit.
“It’s satisfactory,” he responded accepting the fruit. “Next time you want to have a picnic, don’t have it on the roof though,” he told him. “There’s a section in the backyard where you can have one,” he said.
“Maybe, but it doesn’t have this view,” Billy admitted, taking a bite from the sandwich as he looked out across the grounds.
It didn’t beat the view from the watchtower, but it was a close second in his mind.
"By the way, I haven't seen Mr. Wayne in awhile and I'm pretty sure I would have noticed him leave, especially from up here," Billy said looking at Damian curiously, who was already making a mental note to inform their father that Billy got curious when he disappeared during the day. He didn't want Billy to know about him being Batman after all and, if nothing else, he would suffer with them.
"I believe he's in one of the studies working on something for the company," he said without giving away anything and Billy hummed, taking another bite of the sandwich. "Was there something you wanted to speak to him about?" he asked.
