Donât know if you still need prompts but here you go
One of the kids (could be one of his, could be one of the other sidekicks) not listening to Bruce during an emergency and Bruce having to go in and save them and getting so badly hurt, but not dying, and that having to permanently end to his vigilantly/hero careerÂ
A bang snaps all the young heroes to attention, eyes snapping to the front of the room, conversations shorting out in a heartbeat.
Batman's cool gaze sweeps over the group selected for training today, as he rests his weight on his walking stick.
"Pair up," he calls, voice carrying sharply across the room. Dick leans over the mezzanine, watching as heroes shuffle across the room. Never allowed to spar with the same person twice, he watches Jon and Lian scurry away from each other, corrected by a click in the back of Bruce's throat.
"He's getting used to it," Clark remarks, settling in next to him.
"He's enjoying it." Diana finds a place at Dick's other side, and he shies away from the black tresses brushing past his shoulder, tickling his bare arm. Clark bobs his head mildly, agreeing with the correction, and for a while, none of them speak, instead watching as Bruce leads the pairs into this week's session.
Clark edges aside, making room for Barbara as she rolls up, and Dick shakes his head. "No, he was only using that after showing Kord the pin last week."
Diana makes a noise. "I still do not understandâ"
"We aren't perfect," Barbara interrupts. "Sometimes we push too far." Dick drops a hand to her shoulder, squeezing, and she groans, digging her fingers into her eyes. "Sorry, Diana."
Dick rubs his thumb slowly, a measly attempt to comfort her. Ever since it happened, since they finally lost the Batman, she's been so protective of him. It makes sense; even if being questioned on it grates, sometimes, he understands it. He understands that she knows what it's like, what Bruce was going through. Losing what you've spent yearsâdecadesâbuilding yourself around. Your own body that you had trained to perfection giving out on you.
He reaches up, almost subconsciously, to run a finger over the scar from KGBeast. As much as he hates it, and is grateful for it, he cannot relate to Bruce in the same way Babs can.
"He has new limits," Babs carries on, less curt, this time. "It's...it's hard to remember that sometimes."
"For all of us." Clark doesn't look at them, his eyes are firmly on the scene below, but Dick can almost envision his expression anyway.
Losing Batman wasn't easy. Not when he was always there, for whatever you needed.
Bruce is still here, thank God, but...not for 'whatever' anymore.
Dick hums, following his gaze, and watches Bruce lift his stick, using the end to nudge Wally's foot a few centimetres back, widening his stance. Opposite him, Damian smirks, which quickly disappears, along with Dick's own, when Bruce hurriedly brings his stick back to the ground, before his legs give out.
"Maybe he should still be on the crutch," Diana murmurs. Dick sees her point, with the way Bruce is white-knucklng his stick, but he can also hear Barbara's point before she makes it.
"He knows himself best. If he feels he doesn't need the crutch today..."
Another bang sounds through the room, as Bruce brings his stick down on the floor, and the room becomes a flurry of movement as the sparring begins. Bruce walks between the lines of mats, offering correction where necessary, and Dick feels the sparks of a smile light on his face.
Bruce is really in his element doing this. Maybe they should have put him in charge of training sooner.
Then Bruce reaches the end of the mats, and those sparks are smothered under a wave of apprehension.
Bruce watches the spar, and Kon is sent to the floor by Roy's punch. Bruce looks down at the clone, and is simple with his feedback that Dick strains to hear over the din. Quieter, now, than it was mere moments ago, like it always is when Bruce approaches the furthest mat.
Heroes are nosy gossips, Dick learned quickly after becoming Robin, and what is a more tantalising bait than a Justice League founder talking to the hero whose fuck-up nearly cost him his life. Cost him almost everything but.
"You are too easily distracted," Bruce says. Sharp. Clinical.
Kon swallows, and nods, sprawled across the floor. "I know, sir."
"He was doing better," Clark groans, putting his face in his hands, peering through his fingers.
Therein lies the problem. Kon is always doing better, until Bruce pays too much attention to him.
The kid is always training. Every week Bruce leads a session, summons randomised across the Justice League, the Titans, Young Justice, and the Teen Titans. No one knows if they're being summoned until Bruce sends out the call. But Kon is present every week.
If Dick stops by the gym, Kon is there. If he peeks his head into the training sim to check if it's free, Kon is there. If anyone is running a training session, Kon is there.
"Has he been on a mission yet?" Dick asks.
Diana shakes her head. "He still won't let himself be assigned. Says he's not ready."
Bruce holds out a hand to Kon, and Barbara hisses through her teeth at the Super's flinch. That hasn't stopped either. Over a year onwards, and the kid is still scared that every outreached hand is Bruce finally taking his retribution.
The kid takes Bruce's hand, standing, then drops it like it's poison.
"Again," Bruce commands, stepping back to the edge of the mat. "Arsenal, what is his weakness?"
Ah, yes. Bruce's favourite training technique.
High above the rest of the room, morose chuckles make their way out of each of them. Who would have thought that Bruce's penchant for contingency plans would come in so handy.
Every session, each partner must label their opponent's weakness they've noticed. The ripples of discomfort through the League when he first laid out his rules have long since disappeared, as everyone has become, one: far quicker at spotting holes in an enemy's defence, two: fixing their own, and three: covering their teammate's blind spots.
"Easily distractible," Roy reports.
"Be specific," Bruce gripes, staring Kon down.
"He's letting his emotions lead him."
Roy licks his lips, eyes flicking between the pair. "You."