#daddybats

Give me a 9 or 10-year-old Dick Grayson who has been Robin for a little bit but is still figuring out his relationship with Bruce Wayne. They are more than a guardian and his ward but not quite yet father and son. They both want that but neither of them have gotten up the courage to say it.

Now give me a hostage situation, during some kind of gala or charity event for the school. One where a lot of rich people and their rich kids are present so it’s very important for Bruce and Dick to be selling the whole secret ID thing, so they have to looking just as pathetic and scared as the other people around them.

The bad guys immediately recognize Bruce Wayne and his brat, and they pull Dick away from Bruce. They threaten Dick’s life, saying that Bruce better cooperate or he’ll have to find a new orphan to to take care of, not like it would be a problem since Gotham has so many.

Dick thinks the fear in Bruce’s eyes is an act. That’s not just Bruce after all, it’s Batman. The Dark Knight. He’s literally not allowed to be afraid, so that look can’t be real.

But it is.

Bruce hasn’t been this terrified since the night he lost his parents. His heart is racing and he has to physically push down a panic attack because that isn’t going to save Dick right now. He doesn’t know what to do. He can’t fight these people, not when he is Bruce Wayne. Without the cape and cowl, he has to be a helpless playboy.

So he does the only thing he can think of: he begs.

Bruce Wayne drops to his knees and he pleads with the masked goons to spare Dick’s life. He’s just a boy. A boy who has already lived through enough trauma. Bruce understands if these people hate him and if they want to hurt him instead, that’s fine. But he begs them not to hurt Dick.

He promises to give them anything. They can have his fortune, his life, whatever they want. Just spare Dick. That’s all he asks.

And a masked woman steps forward, leaning down in front of Bruce with what he knows is a sick smirk. The air around them thins and Dick feels himself shiver fifteen feet away. He hadn’t been expecting Bruce to say any of those things. Sure they were close, they had to be as the Dynamic Duo. But he thought after his parents died, there wouldn’t be another adult who would speak about him like that.

That would care enough to swallow their pride and beg, just for him.

Dick’s ears perk up when he hears the woman speak.

“Anything?” She asks. She sounds delighted, almost like she had won some sort of bet at a bar and not that she was leading a hostage situation.

“Anything.” Bruce confirms.

“Okay.” She stands, pointing her gun in Dick’s general direction. “I want your Mommy’s pearls.”

Bruce’s body freezes in shock.

Dick closes his eyes now resigned. Bruce may have been willing to say he would give anything but those were just words. It was one thing to say it, it was entirely different to actually do it. And Martha Wayne’s pearls were too high a price.

Dick can’t blame Bruce either. He imagined being asked to give up his mother’s wedding ring and felt his stomach turn. No, he wouldn’t begrudge Bruce for changing his mind—

“Done.”

Dick’s head shoots up, eyes wide with surprise. He had to have misheard. Bruce didn’t. He wouldn’t…

“Give me a phone. I’ll call my Butler and he will bring them here.”

And Dick cries. Not because someone is holding him hostage, he doesn’t care about that, but because a wave of realization crashes down onto him with an unforgiving strength.

He isn’t an orphan anymore. He has a dad. Bruce loves him.

Bruce ends up calling Alfred and Alfred, being the badass that he is, gives the Gotham PD a heads up but drives there anyway just so he can sucker punch the woman who demanded his late mistress’s pearls just to psychologically torture his son while holding his grandson hostage.

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Dick *looks nervously at Bruce tying the string to the doorhandle*: Are you sure this is going to work?

Bruce *confidently*: It's how my father did it. On the count of three. One...Two

Bruce: *Slams the door, forgetting his strength*

Dick *gets thrown across the room and into the door with the tooth still attached to his gum* : My nose hurts. Bruce?

---------------

Bruce: This is going to work. Just stand there.

Jason *eyeing the car with distrust* : Why can't we use a door?

Bruce: Doesn't work. I'm going to go slowly. Okay. Wave when the tooth's out.

Jason: *gets drags for two minutes*

---------------

Bruce *visibly annoyed as he ties string to Tims teeth*: Why do you still have your baby teeth?

Tim *confused as to why they're on the roof*: Dunno. Is it a bad thing.

Bruce: Doesn't matter.

Bruce *under his breath*: This better work.

Tim: Why are you sweating.

Bruce: Focus, Tim. I'm going to dropping this rock--Don't look at me like that. It's not heavy, like 25 pounds. On the count of three. One--

Tim: But--

Bruce*dropping the rock*: Two

Tim: *Falls*

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Bruce: I'm just going to tug it out, Damian.

“Oh honey” Bruce sounded like himself again, Damian thought.

The way he sounded when he usually comforted Dick, Jason or Tim. But if he could yell at Tim the way he did, Damian knew he ranked lower on the totem pole of family, so the idea of what Bruce could say, or even do, to Damian scared him.

Which is the reason he flinched when Bruce reached out to squeeze his shoulder.

“C’mon baby, what’s got you so worked up, huh?”

Bruce’s voice was impossibly soft, so smooth, as he sat crouched on the floor so close to where Damian lay, but made no movement to touch the boy again.

Damian looked up, eyes bloodshot, face blotchy as he met his father’s gaze.

Bruce's forehead lines looked deep, and while he spoke with an unbelievable amount of kindness, Damian could see there was alarm in his eyes. Damian had never cried in front of his father before, and over an argument he didn’t even have, made him feel so stupid,

“Habibi, you're worrying me. Please let me just hold you at least.”

Bruce opened his arms up, waiting patiently and Damian stayed silent in thought.

After a moment, a loud sniffle, and tutting a little embarrassed, not being able to look his father in the eye, Damian launched himself into Bruce’s arms.

He felt Bruce’s whole body relax as he did, and it just felt so right. He fit perfectly into his father’s arms, and realized why all his brothers unanimously agreed that Bruce gave the best hugs.

“Baba, I was so scared.” Damian's words were all blubbered through the tears he couldn’t stop.

Bruce hummed, carding Damian’s hair as he did.

“I know Damian, that's why I asked Tim to stop driving, he was being reckless.”

Damian shook his head vigorously, as he remained pressed into his father’s chest.

“Not of the driving, Baba.” Damien took a deep breath. “Of you.”

Damian looked up as his father almost shyly, lip starting to wobble again as he felt Bruce’s arms tense.

“I’ve just never heard you yell like that.”

And it scared me. That part was left unsaid, but both of them understood it.

Bruce let his arms fall from where they held Damian tight, and opted to place his hands on the boy's cheeks, cradling his small face.

“Oh you poor thing.” Bruce crooned, kissing the tip of Damian’s nose. Wiping the tear tracks for the kids faces with his thumbs.

“I shouldn’t have yelled, Damian.” Bruce spoke earnestly. “I just got off a long flight and headed straight to a meeting.”

Bruce sighed, looking into his son’s large, tearful eyes as he did.

“Tim made some mistakes today, and I overreacted. I was just worried about him.”

Bruce paused again, this time pulling Damian back into a hug before continuing.

“Same way I worry about you, sweetheart. So please, if you're feeling anything like this, come get me.”

Damian nodded against his father.

“I’d drop everything and anything for you.”

Damian was still crying, but no longer out of fear.

Bruce sat there, on the floor of Damian's bedroom, rocking his son back and forth as the boy cried himself out.

Damian had never felt so loved.

“Let me go get Tim.” Bruce said after a beat. “Explain how he knows I was coming from a place of love, just didn’t express it too well.”

“No!” Damian leapt up, circling his arms tight around his fathers neck. “Don’t leave me.”

Fresh, unshed tears in Damian’s eyes. The waterworks were going to start again.

Bruce chucked, hoisting the boy onto his hip as he stood up.

Joker just took (1) look at the sassy kids and instinctively knew to look out for their dad mentor next.

i think it would be really cute if the robins all called bruce different variations of "dad".