Found a npa elseworld in the dredges of the drafts!
Dick, Jason, and Tim, have all been bonded to Bruce at least once in their lives. Barbara+Steph aren't his kids, and he met them, Cass, and Duke, later in their adolescence.
But he had Dick since he was eight. Jason since he was twelve. Tim has been in his life since he was twelve.
And each time, when all the signs were showing that the boy was going to present, for ease they're all showing the aggression of a pup about to go into a rut and become an alpha, and Bruce sits them down, dead serious, and asks if they want him to comfort them during his ruts.
They say yes, grasp onto the chance with both hands. Presentations are usually spent with pack, the sexual element comes in as they mature further, not immediately. But it's still terrifying, often painful, and they don't want to go it alone.
So they go into rut, and Bruce spends days, nearly a week, cuddling them in a nest they've never visited before, scenting them to keep them calm, sparring with them to displace their surging aggression, then doing it all over again. Then their rut fades, they come out the other side, and Bruce smiles at them softly, and asks if they can feel their bond with him in their mind. They say yes, and Bruce tells them to follow his instructions. Imagine a hand, holding onto the bond that connects them, and pull really hard. They're wary, but they obey, and the bond snaps. Bruce falls aside, groaning in pain, and Alfred comes in, carrying them out of Bruce's room.
Bruce allows them to scent him during their ruts, but is so convinced they despise the idea of being pack that he coaches them into breaking the bond right afterwards.
Dick gets the offer of Alfred, rather than Bruce, but he chooses Bruce. Jason is offered Alfred or Dick, he chooses Bruce. Tim is offered Alfred or Dick, or they can find a way to get Jack and Janet back to America in time, he chooses Bruce.
All three are carried, protesting, thrashing out of the room by Alfred afterwards, and don't see Bruce for a day, but when he finally emerges, never brings it up again, and they heed Alfred's stern, repeated warnings not to.
Then Damian starts showing the same symptoms, and the pack is buzzing, realising Damian will present soon. Bruce sits Damian down, and makes him the same offer. Bruce, or the rest of the pack. It's so much bigger now, than what his brothers had, but he still chooses Bruce.
Dick, Jason, and Tim corner Damian later that day, and demand to know if Bruce asked him yet. When he confirms, they sit him down, and warn him. After his rut is over, Bruce is going to tell him to do something, he'll frame it like a trick, like something fun will happen, but no matter what, don't give in. Leave the room, if that's what's necessary. Damian demands to know why, but they refuse, and disperse before he can extract answers.
He goes into rut, he and Bruce seclude themselves away, and sure enough, when the haze passes, and he feels like himself again, Bruce tells him to pull on their bond. He's only just realising they have a bond, and recoils at the idea of ridding himself of what he's wanted for so long.
It devolves quickly into an argument, Bruce resorting to ordering Damian to do it, but there are tears in his eyes, and Damian does as his brothers said, and leaves. He throws himself out the window, and Jon catches him before he hits the ground.
He zips them to the Kent farm, per request, then collects the other boys too, and lets them meet in the barn. Greetings are given, fresh scentings now he's presented, and has his own distinct scent, then he demands to know what's happening. Then he gets furious at them for risking him like that, using him as a guinea pig to see if Bruce didn't want the bond, or if he was doing it for a different reason, by seeing if he would break the bond himself if Damian refused.
He's furious, but he understands. So they sit down, and plan, and discuss, and when a very confused Clark comes out, and tells Damian Bruce said "it's for the best", they only get more suspicious. Slowly, other members of the pack start contacting them, but they know Bruce is 99% probably looking at their phones, so start using intermediaries to pass along the information to fill in the others.
Damian, occasionally, toys with the new bond. He has felt nothing but panic, and fear from Bruce, since leaving Gotham, which only makes them more convinced that he has deeper motives to the way he acts.
They go back, eventually, they have to, and Bruce looks like shit. Drawn, pale, he's lost a bit of weight, and can't tear his eyes off Damian. Cass wraps Damian up in a hug, and tells them he's been a wreck since they left. He won't patrol, he paces the whole manor, it's all they can do to get him to eat, because he feels sick all of the time. Duke adds that he heard Bruce saying to Alfred that he never should've done 'it', that he shackled Damian to him.
