Was watching some Tik Toks to kill time and I stumbled across that one dad that runs around the house and just scares his kids daily. And I fucking loved it. I imagine Bruce doing it to young Dick and Jason. But not like, EVERY day, neither monthly, just, random days of the year, because he felt like it. And he LOVES to see his kids.. Being kids, being humans. Even if it means Bruce will pretend for the rest of their lifes that he doesn't run around the house or hides in random places to spook them.
After Jason's death, Bruce stoped doing it, Dick is not around anymore that much, there's no reason for him to do it. But now the family is back together. He'll have the house full for at least the whole week plus one weekend, he got time. Barbara, Cass, Steph and Duke are also there. So he finds its the perfect time for him to do it again. He hides in the kitchen's cabinet [somehow. He's Batman.] and waits for his first victim.
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Tim walks in the kitchen to get a snack while waiting for his turn in the videogame, when suddenly, he hears small knocks in the cabinets direction and he just, stops working. He glances at it unsure if he's heard it wrong, he might have, there's no way someone or something snuck in the Manor with, he recounts in his head, nine vigilantes. Not counting the Manor's insane safety system. Sure, they can just be hanging out and relaxed, but they're not careless. The cabinet is quiet, he decides to ignore it, which can be a dumb decision, but no way someone actually snuck in. He goes back to picking up snacks when he hears it again, small knocks in the cabinets direction. Now he's sure he isn't going crazy. He puts the snacks down and goes quietly as possible in its direction to see who or what the fuck is there, come face him, coward. He's not scared, but when Bruce opens the door abruptly [After making sure Tim is still far away enough so the door doesn't hit him] and gets out of it as if nothing happened, the high pitched sound that comes out from his mouth is almost inhuman.
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Bruce's next victim isn't that much longer after Tim, he was planing to spook one at a time for the whole week, but Duke is right there. Okay, he knows he's not able to scare or surprise Duke like he did with Tim but for sure he can confuse him.
Duke got upstairs to take a bath and change his clothes into more comfortable and clean ones after him and Jason got into a playfull sparring in the middle of the living room because he and Steph bet that he could use Jason's own fighting style against him and last at least 10 minutes, which ended up with him getting thrown in the table of drinks, but it was worth it. He's currently leaning close to his rooms door [He has a room, okay?] on his phone waiting for everyone to clean the mess that was made, he's not going to help clean it because hey, he had nothing to do with it, he was the victim. He's starting to get kinda bored when suddenly he sees it. Bruce running as fast as possible, three times down the hall and whispering "Merry Christmas" over and over. It's June. He starts to think that his powers are tricking him or somehow they're breaking but... No. His powers are working just fine. Bruce comes down whispering "Merry Christmas" over and over. In June.
Duke:
Bruce: Running and whispering Merry Christmas
Duke: Bruce what the fuck
Bruce: Still running and whispering Merry Christmas
Duke: Bruce.
Bruce: Merry Christm-
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The next day he decides he'll try Steph. She goes for the fight in fight or flight so he knows to not let her get too close to the China Cabinet he managed to remove the shelves so he could fit in it the night prior. No one barely glances at it when walking by, he could use it more than once but he knows she'll tell the others about it. He's gonna have to be quick in placing the shelves back.
Steph is walking across the hall and Bruce waits for her to be close enough to get startled but not too much to be able to hit, and opens the door softly, which okay, a door opening quietly usually wouldn't scare anyone but its a China Cabinet, and no one is in front of it.
She lets out a short scream and some steps back before realising that its just Bruce.
Steph: Oh my god THIS is what Tim was talking about.
Bruce: *Casually closes the China Cabinet door and starts walking away from it*
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Cass was his fourth victim. He made sure to not spook her that much like the others, she could be... quite scary. He was just going to surprise her. He was hiding in one of the shadow corners and waited at least 2 minutes before saying something to her. Her wide eyes and a paralyzed form could not be much for others, but for Bruce, it was everything. This would be the most he'd get to surprise her before her instincts made her ready to fight, and it was worth it. Seeing her just be. Not a trained to the bones fighter.
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Damian's turn came the next day. Right after breakfast, Bruce rushed off the table, with just the exact amount of time before someone got suspicious, and pratically ran to Damian's room, which he knew his son would get back to it, since he was obviously sleepy from not getting any sleep after another game night with his siblings. And hid under his bed waiting for his youngest son.
The moment Damian stepped in front of the bed to lay down and sleep, Bruce touched one of his ankles, making him scream and jump in the bed before getting something to fight. Worth it.
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He tried Barbara next, but she somehow always knew what he was going to do before he even tried to do it.
She was around the time Bruce did it for the first times, and honestly? She's enjoying it, Steph came after her to see the footage of the hallway the day it happened. Barbara had deleted it the moment she heard her scream. Same with Tim and Duke. Cass wasnt something unbelievable, so she found no use of deleting it. She made sure Dick knew nothing about it. After all, he was the first kid, he knows very well about Bruce's game and wouldn't get startled at all. She wants to see the nostalgia hit him.
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Dick was next. He's sitting in the end of his bed with Damian, who was claiming that something was under his bed yesterday and he refuses to go there, sure that someone hid a trap there because as soon as he was going to fight it, it vanished. Dick finds it amusing that Damian is being a kid, in his own way, so he goes with it, cradling [Against his will, but he doesnt try to fight at all] him and telling him that it must have been the bed sheets or something like that, but never saying that it didnt happen, of course, always validating him. He's almost convincing Damian that it's okay and saying that he's going with him to his room to prove him its safe, but then a heavy unexpected banging in his door startles him so much he falls of the bed with Damian, which immediately runs to the door to fight, because, who in their right minds would bang that loud on a door? But Dick.. Dick starts laughing so hard after a few seconds that tears come down his face and his stomach starts to hurt from laughing so hard. Now it all made sense, but he cant explain to Damian what happened without starting another laughing fit.
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Jason was the last one, Bruce had waited for the right moment to do it, because he still had some hope that Jason would remember it from before the explosion. He wanted to enjoy the week with his kids before seeing more of the crushing truth that happened with his Baby Boy.
He waited for Jason to sit in the armchair of the living room alone before throwing slightly a tenis ball from one of the doors behind him, and ran across the Manor making no noises to get to another room which had a door facing the front of the armchair.
Jason saw the tenis ball rolling and immediately turned his head behind him to see who was there. Once he saw nothing he got up grumbling about something and started walking to the door that the tenis ball came from, but not eve two steps in, Bruce opens the door abruptly that was now behind Jason and runs towards the door Jason was getting to, while asking something that made zero sense. Jason, of course, had almost fallen because of the mattress that was acroos the living room [Siblings nights, no one slept in the room]
Jason: BRUCE WHAT THE FUCK.
YES!!! NO ANGST, NO SADNESS, JUST PURE JOY. YES. I can rest in peace
