"Time is relative. And it doesn't really care about what we think. Our quantification of time is arbitrary, all things considered." He says plainly, shifting slightly in place. He'd long since learnt the art of sitting still in one place for hours, it came in handy when he had to do stakeouts. Or when he had to watch the equipment for Lucius in the day. Either way, just because he knew he could sit still doesn't mean it's very comfortable.
"You can't convince everyone to like you, Superman. And you probably won't have the time to convince them all to like you. Proving yourself to them might help, but it also might not. Instead of worrying about it so much," He shifts again, rocking back a little, his head falling slightly back as he does so, "you should focus on yourself."
"Tell me, are you satisfied with yourself? Have you proven to yourself, whatever it is you want to show the humans?"
Bruce has always been big. He'd shot up like a bean sprout as a teen, had only grown bigger with age and proper meals and exercise. It wasn't a huge issue for him, to be intimidating and scary. People were always afraid of things bigger than them. Different from them.
He had once been convinced that if he just grew bigger, more powerful, more intimidating, he would be able to scare the Gotham underworld. It was a long long time ago, when he had yet to actually delve down into the depths with Ozzie in juvie. In his time, he had learnt that the only one he needed to prove sonething to, was himself.
You are your worst critic, what an accurate saying.
Bruce hadn't yet proven himself to anyone. It was an uphill battle, even now. With every foe beaten, a new one emerged, more terrifying than the one before. It worried him, every time he was reminded of just how deep the atrocities went. How horrible people could be, how callous and cruel and self serving the people they trusted and voted for could manage to be.
Gotham had always been a sorry city. With or without monsters like Bane, and whoever it was behind him.
But Bruce could do something about it. Bruce would do something about it. Whatever it takes.
He hums as Kal remarks about his methods. His gaze grows a little distant, memories that have always been on loop in his mind pushing to the forefront in an instant. The tents, the suffering people, the white supremacists who were so brazen, so sure in their strength as they tormented innocents, the fire.
Brutal, Bruce is brutal. The fight is always brutal. In moments like this, sitting on a random ledge without bones crunching under his fists, he could maybe see it. In moments like this, with the sun slowly rising in the distance, a sluggish pace fitting for a magnificent celestial object, he could see in him what his mother always called his gentle soul.
But Bruce wasn't gentle. Batman wasn't gentle. Maybe to Kal, Superman, who had faced all sorts of adversaries, Bruce wouldn't be so brutal.
Batman was a necessary evil to clean the streets of Gotham. Batman was violent because violence was the language his city knew most. Batman wasn't afraid to do the dirty work, wasn't afraid of going the extra mile to achieve his goal.
But if his father saw him now, would he be proud? Would he look at Bruce and see any trace of the kid he had raised and left behind? Would he see the blood on his hands and rebuke him?
In some ways, for all that he has grown, he is still that scared little kid who hid amidst the bats that ill fated day.
"Maybe. Maybe not. We've just met after all."
In his heart, he knows they deserved it. He knows he wouldn't have done it differently. But the ashes still blocked his airways, the fire still licked too close, and the memories still haunt him.
At Kal's question, he tilts his head to the side a little, reminiscent of one of Selina's little cats. "Not really, no. They are still afraid." He remembers Officer Gordon with her information she was willing to give him, and the people who rested easier at night with the knowledge that The Batman was stalking the night. Even if they were afraid, even if they didn't trust him just yet, he would do his part.
Bats are communal creatures, and they crave connection. Maybe they feared him less for being on their side, but every villain he had faced till now had also been human once. It didn't really make much of a difference.
"The monsters people fear the most almost always end up being other humans. Politicians, corrout cops, the mafia," People who didn't care who got hurt, "I don't think they trust me more because I'm human. Its highly likely I'm just the lesser of two evils "
"If you're worried about your heritage scaring people away, don't give it too much thought." Bruce wondered if Kal knew about the alien obsessed population all over the world. A small smile emerges at the thought.
