Bruce was in his 40s, bringing Damian to Jr High or some shit, when he saw his first parental death joke.
Like. He knew dark humor surrounding the Wayne murders existed. He had heard about it, even some chuckles that he knew were in poor taste, but he had mostly managed to avoid hearing or seeing too much head on.
Until a group of little boys outside Damian’s school decided to re-enact their death. One pretended to have a gun as another threw acorns on the ground, the two boys going on to play dead.
He pretended he didn’t notice until after Damian was dropped off, but had a panic attack being driven back home by Alfred. He was in the back of the car hyperventilating and reliving it, all because of acorns and fucking finger guns.
Jason or Dick brought Damian for a bit after that. Sometimes even just Alfred.
Bruce felt he had to quickly learn every setup to every Thomas and Martha Wayne death joke so he wasn’t ever blindsided again, which ultimately resulted in Dick, Duke and Barbara helping by giving some intel in a more censored way. (It took him 3 weeks of processing to truly be over it, which he denied as it was happening.)
Least realistic thoughts, but a scenario indeed
