Talia, Minhkhoa, Harvey, Two Face (different situationships), Clark, Hal, Zatanna, Constantine, Aphrodite....I'm so tired rn but there's probably like 20 more my brain is just off.

I like when they are Not Normal platonically, as you say, but I also enjoy this too. Thoughts?

See, I will always and forever prefer Platonic relationships because that's just the way I'm wired, but I have mostly positive thoughts about a JL Polycule

Hell, I might even write it myself sometimes

My main "issue" with it is that I don't ship the Trinity, and generally the JL Polycule revolves around SuperWonderBat which I personally just don't find the most appealing romantic relationship. They have very strong Sibling vibes in my head so I don't interact with it much, but I'm not opposed to it either lol

Hal: three days since contact

Arthur: he said he would call us next time

Clark: I wanted to believe him

J'onn: I am on monitor duty for three more hours. I shall go to Gotham afterwards.

Diana: I can be in New Jersey by then

Clark: I'll call out early

Barry: just tell me when!

As J'onn steps up next to Diana, she draws him into a kiss, smiling against his lips as they walk up the drive to Wayne Manor. "Can you feel him?" she asks, winding an arm around his waist.

"No." He reaches out again, feeling for Bruce's tether of their bond, but, the same as it has been for three days, feels the lifeless bond, closed from Bruce's end. He'd confessed immediately to Kal-El as they lay in bed together, upon feeling Bruce's bond close, but had agreed to give him time.

Admittedly, less time than they used to afford him, that window slowly narrowing over time, but things changed after they all came together eleven months ago, and finally laid out the reality the seven of them had been ignoring for over a decade now.

"J'onn, Diana," Kal greets, touching down gently, followed by Hal only thirty seconds later. Arthur emerges from a passage deep in the shrubbery that leads to the cave, and the tunnel to Gotham Harbour. Barry is the final one of them to arrive, a gust of wind ruffling their clothes as he beats Diana to rapping his knuckles on the door.

No one answers.

"Clark?" Hal asks after a minute, and the Kryptonian tilts his head, listening.

"Three, two, one."

The locks click on the other side, and then the grand oak doors swing open, revealing Bruce, head angled away from the door. "Just a minute, sweetheart!"

He clears his throat, a smile lifting his lips, only for it to drop completely as he actually looks at them. "Ah. Hello."

"What a welcome," Hal teases, hooking a finger in Bruce'z shirt hem and reeling him in. J'onn watches Bruce sink into the kiss, tension melting out of his body, and he pulls back to rest their foreheads together. It's a good sign, that he didn't fight the embrace. He may not be too deep into whatever has him so engrossed.

"You're right," Bruce murmurs. "I'm sorry, it's just. It's not a good time for you all to be here."

"Three days no contact," Kal reminds him. "Not even League check-ins."

Bruce's brow furrows again, and he steps back from Hal, who frowns. "I've been busy."

"And three days is the cutoff." Arthur crosses his arms.

J'onn reaches out, brushing along Bruce's mind, and warmth envelops his searching probes, pushing him back out kindly. Bruce's eyes flick to him, something uncertain in his beautiful depths before it's hidden behind a wall of indifference.

"You can see I'm not in the cave, I'm not in the suit, I'm nit even working a case." His eyes flick behind him, and he shuffles back to block more of the doorway. J'onn narrows his eyes. Kal shifts, noting the same thing, and Bruce's stern gaze leaps to him. "Boundaries," he warns, voice low, bordering on threatening, and Barry reaches out, putting a hand on Bruce's shoulder.

Heroes in their own right for so many years, none of them miss how Bruce manouevres his body to shift Barry away from the door.

"What are you attempting to conceal?" Diana asks, and the two of them face off, twin cool looks matched at equal strength, rapidly devolving into a battle of wills, and a question of who will last longer.

J'onn finds his attention drawn away by Kal tilting his head. "Arthur isn't a fish..." he murmurs, audibly confused, and Arthur frowns.

Bruce's head snaps to him, eyes widening in alarm, and Barry calls out:

"Up top!"

An alarmingly large volume of water halts just above their heads, and Arthur tilts his head back, peering through the water he's manipulating, to the small faces peering down at them from one of the manor windows.

Bruce drags his hands over his face, amusement flickers through his mental barriers, and Diana takes advantage of his distraction to move past him into the foyer. Hal skips in after her, Barry blurring after, and J'onn spares a glance towards Arthur, finding him fighting a smile, and follows Kal in after the others, who Bruce is already attempting to convince to leave.

There's a familiar shiiink of steel, and J'onn raises the brows of his human guise at the small child next to him.

A child he believes to be a young Damian Al-Ghul Wayne is using all his bodyweight to counterbalance the mass of the sword he'd grasping with all of his might.

"Father," he struggles out. "Are these intruders—"

"They aren't intru— where did you get Father's sword?!" Bruce races across the foyer, plucking it from his son's grip, and tipping it back to point over his shoulder as he crouches next to Damian.

The boy's chin wobbles. "But you— you were telling them to leave. I wanted to help."

Bruce's mental barriers shatter, and J'onn finds himself abruptly off-kilter as the full force of his partner's exhaustion hits him at once. Hal's arm comes around his midriff, supporting him, Kal projects waves of calm through his mind, and Bruce gives nothing away of what he's feeling, stroking his son's cheek with the hand not holding the sword.

"I know, baby. But you know I said to leave the weapons alone, because you haven't been trained how to use them yet."

"Yes I have—"

"Not these ones," Bruce corrects gently, swiping away the trail of wetness glistening on a plump cheek. "And what do we want?"

"To stay safe until Miss Zatanna can reverse the spell."

"Which means?"

"No swords. Sorry, Baba."

"It's alright, love," Bruce hums, pressing a kiss to his cheek. One arm encircles the small boy, bringing him up to Bruce's hip as he stands, and Bruce tips to sword towards Barry.

"The hallway to the left, the mount will be empty."

His form flickers, then he's back, and Damian's eyes are going wide as he all but falls out of Bruce's grip leaning forward. "You can teleport?"

"Teleport?"

"Teleport?"

"Who can teleport?"

Three figures leap down from various spots on the banister, and rush to them, crowding around Barry's feet. Damian wiggles, and is quickly let down to join his equally small siblings. Barry takes to the attention readily, kneeling down for the four boys to batter him with questions.

Bruce walks back towards them, then past, and swings up a little girl into his arms, then up onto his shoulders. "Sorry I took so long," he says, and the girl melts on top of him, which does not absolve the guilt on Bruce's face, or swallowing his mind.

"Cassandra," Hal checks, leaning around J'onn, and Bruce nods, careful not to disturb the young girl too much. "And she..."

"She has no idea what we're saying." Bruce reaches up, and she accepts his hand, tracing his fingers absently, but her eyes, all too knowing and with by all appearances and endless depth, rove over them. "Move openly, and be patient."

Kal tucks his head over J'onn's shoulder to address him. "This is what you've been so busy with."

Bruce nods. "I've called Zee, but she's in deep cover, and can't get out for a few days. So we've been making do."

Barry looks up, ignoring Timothy poking his cheek. "They're adorable."

Bruce shakes his head. "They're menaces. Barbara, Stephanie, and Duke are being absolute darlings for their parents, and these five are running me ragged." Cassandra traces the lines in his forehead, which disappear as a smile replaces his half-hearted scowl, a fond look directed back towards his shrunk daughter. "Gordon keeps sending me pictures of Barbara to show off." This, he directs at the boys surrounding Barry. "She knows how to behave!"

"We don't know who she is!" Dick yells back, and Barry laughs, standing and ruffling Jason's hair on the way.

The kid takes it as dismissal, darting back across the Bruce, nearly falls flat on his face as he passes Diana, captivated, then carries on by and tucks himself behind his not-yet-father's legs.

J'onn finds himself being watched, and returns Cassandra's sharp gaze with a smile, allowing his human façade to ripple, then dissolve, and watches her face shine with wonder. "Will you allow us to help, Bruce?" he asks, reaching into Bruce's mind and smoothing over his fears of being too much, of imposing, leaving behind a volume of love he hopes makes his point.

Bruce being the best man for both Clark and Hal's weddings to their significant others (Lois and Carol (or someone else for Hal idk his love interests that well))

:D

Don't mind me I'm just going to make it worse

Poly JL.

Arthur marries Mera, Clark marries Lois, Barry marries Iris, Hal marries Carol, J'onn falls for Diana Meade and never really comes back after it fizzles, Steve Trevor gets fucking resurrected or some dumb shit temporarily and Diana goes to be with him and never comes back after he's gone again.

No one leaves the polycule, but Bruce just slowly finds himself alone. None of them even had the grace to break up with him.

He smiles as he's asked to be part of the bridal party again and again, and stands at the altar, and he loves them, he wants them to be happy, and he knows that couldn't happen with him. It clearly didn't, anyway.

He never quite manages to stop being in love with them. Not when he still works with them day in day out, and sees those same qualities he fell for in the first place only grow as time goes on.

One day, years in the future, all the families are hanging out. A conversation, inane as it was, sparks a thought. Jason turns to Bruce: "why did you take so long to date Selina?"

Bruce shrugs, playing chess with Tim. "I was already in a relationship."

"With who?"

Clark peers at the chessboard. "I never understood that. I wouldn't have minded, and I know the—"

"You dated Clark?" The kids all turns to stare, and Bruce nods, plucking Tim's knight off the board. "When did you break up?" Jason demands, eyes darting between them.

Bruce shrugs. "We didn't, really. We just stopped going on dates."

Wally sits up. "I thought you dated Barry."

"I did."

"So when did you break up with him to date Supes?"

Bruce hums, and Tim takes his pawn. "I didn't. We just stopped going on dates."

Clark and Barry frown at each other. Garth raises a hand.

"Weren't you and Arthur a thing before he got married?" Bruce nods. "Is that when you broke up?"

Bruce sighs, giving him a beweildered look. "We didn't break up."

Mera leans away from Arthur, and he pulls her back, but his eyes don't leave Bruce. "We're not still together. We just...stopped going on dates."

Tim loses a rook, too busy squinting at Bruce. "I thought you dated Diana."

Bruce rolls the rook in his hand and nods, watching the board. "Hm? Yes."

"Let me guess, you didn't break up either."

Diana frowns. "No, we...just stopped going on dates. Bruce..."

"You were busy with Steve. It was an emotional time."

Everyone stares at the Founders, all frowning at each other.

Hal spins his wedding ring. "Let me guess, Spooks. None of us broke up with you."

Bruce chuckles, looking up with a smile. "No, I don't remember that happening, do you?" His attention draws back to the board, and he pushes his pawn to the end of the board. "Queen," he informs, and Tim curses.

J'onn looks around. "I don't believe we broke up with each other at all."

"The weddings were a big clue."

Lois leans forward. "Bruce. Are you telling me that of your six partners, none of them had the grace to break up with you, and just started dating or married someone else?" Clark shies away from his wife's tone, eyes fixed on Bruce.

He leans back from the board, thinking. "No, but it's not as though it was just me. We were all dating each other, so we all understood. People leave polycules all the time."

"They used to be a polycule?" Oliver asks Dinah.

The kids gape at their guardians. Dick scowls. "So you're telling me the reason they stopped coming around wasn't because 'people have their own lives, Dick', but because they're—"

Bruce cuts him off with a look. "Dick. What is the issue? Whatever we had ended years ago."

Donna leans back in her chair. "Bruce, just, quick question?"

Bruce turns back to the neglected board, but gestures for her to speak. He picks up his knight, and—

"How many times were you in the bridal party?"

—they all watch the wooden piece tremble briefly in his grip. Then he sets it down on the board, and clears his throat. "Check." Tim doesn't react, staring at Bruce. "And, Donna, four."

She nods. "Four times. Four marriages."

"Indeed, it was an honour. Tim."

Tim looks at the board, and the vein throbbing in Bruce's temple, can read the visceral discomfort in his body at having all of the attention on him, so sighs and moves his king.

Cass edges closer, eyes narrowed. "You didn't date Selina because you were in a relationship."

Bruce takes a beat, then nods, brow dipping. "Yes? Why are we back on Selina? We broke up years ago." After he was left at the altar.

"But they added to polycule."

Bruce smiles. "I didn't need to. I was more than happy enough with them."

The room is frozen, watching Bruce guide Tim's king into a trap, and eventually Tim deflates, and knocks the piece over.

Romantic dinners, a personal spa day, massages, and lots of casual contact and cuddling for their touch starved new omega.

Bruce hears the door click, and swing open, then bounces softly with each of Arthur's steps as he's carried into the den. He can't bring himself to open his eyes, and is slumped heavily against his boyfriend's chest, tempted into unconsciousness with every step.

"Arthur?" Mera calls from within the nest, and Arthur's chest rumbles under Bruce's cheek with whatever he replies, he's not listening. "Hello, Bruce," she tacks on, as Bruce finds himself being lowered into the plush nest that slowly accumulated within the penthouse as everyone migrated over to spend more time here.

Arthur sinks down with him, keeping Bruce trapped in his arms, and he feels Mera slide a hand into his hair, prompting a lazy purr to seep from his chest.

"Such a pretty purr." Hal rolls over, away from his embrace with Barry and tucks his head under Bruce's chin, lazily layering kisses on the column of his neck. "How was dinner?"

"We skipped dinner," Arthur tells him, when Bruce only purrs louder under the combined ministrations of the three of them. "Fought a mutant starfish instead. Then the limo took the scenic route back from the beach and—" he interrupts himself with a yawn, "—we fell asleep in the back."

Mera's nails rake over his scalp, and a distant part of Bruce notes she's mad, but a much larger part of himself just sinks into the touch. "Why did you not call me to—"

"Date night," Bruce interrupts, finally opening his eyes fully. "You're with Di. Didn't want to interrupt your...activities."

Diana rumbles a laugh, appearing over Mera. "Thank you, Bruce." She looks up at her girlfriend, and kisses her shoulder softly. "Relax, my heart. Bruce is not taking your place at Arthur's side."

Arthur huffs unhappily and kisses Bruce's cheek before rolling over to his wife, and Bruce finds the space quickly filled. Fingers lift his chin, and Lois brings their lips together as Hal snores against his collarbone, and Bruce cannot help but smile against her lips.

"Lo."

"B."

Bruce feels his heart warm, knowing one of his closest friends is now one of his partners, something he never imagined would be possible when he was a prime alpha, a long-buried hope in the back of his mind. "How was date night?" He hums, and she snuffs quietly.

"Got a tip off, so Clark and I spent our date on a rooftop staking out a drop."

Bruce kisses her cheek in consolation, and wraps an arm around her waist. "Romantic," is all he says, because he knows Clark's skill at improvisation, and monitors as her scent blooms in his nose.

"Yeah. Clark got us some food from the diner next door and we Lady and the Tramp-ed it."

"Careful, Clark," Bruce yawns, listening to familiar footsteps walk through the door. "Keep wooing her like that and you'll have another pup on your hands."

Lois laughs quietly at Bruce's jest, neither of them plan to have more pups, and Clark's chuckle rumbles quietly as he floats above them. "You say that like it's a bad thing, darlin'." He floats down, and draws Bruce into a slow kiss, pulling back leisurely. "Hey." He tips to the side, greeting Lois in the same way, and melts into the nest further, one hand resting on Hal's back, too content to fight the draw of sleep.

"Never said it was a bad thing," he murmurs quietly. "But I want my pups back before having a new one."

They're working on it, J'onn assures him, sneaking back into his mind like he never left. They want you back, and they're getting better at showing they deserve it.

"J'onn," Bruce sighs, and Clark's eyes light up as he settles between him and Lois.

"He's just checking the perimeter."

Are you looking forward to family dinner tomorrow? J'onn asks, a bald-faced attempt at shifting his attention, and Bruce moves his hand up, resting it on the back of Hal's neck as the thinks. He rumbles in his sleep, arms cinching around Bruce's waist like it will stop him from going anywhere.

"I think I am. It's certainly taken some planning to ensure everyone is free."

"You planned well," his mate says aloud, walking through the wall, and situates himself behind Bruce, sitting him up some. Hands work their way across his shoulders, and quickly find a knot Bruce must have worked into his back fighting alongside Arthur earlier. A purr bursts from him without permission as deft fingers work at it, and he slumps back.

Strong, Kryptonian hands catch him, holding him up so J'onn can keep up the impromptu massage, and Bruce gives up his independence, trusting Clark to keep ahold of him. Hal stirs, blinking up at him, and pecks a kiss against Bruce's sternum then falls right back asleep.

"You both did," Clark murmurs, and Lois gasps as she's hauled closer to Bruce with an arm around her waist, and Clark looms over them with a proud, alpha smile. "My clever 'megas."

"I hear that!" Barry cheers from across the nest, and laughs scatter across the few of them still awake, while Bruce flushes, and Lois tosses her hair into her mate's face in faux snobbery. Clark laughs and roughs her down to the nest, and J'onn catches Bruce as he's suddenly unsupported in the air, and lowers them down to the blankets together.

Clark pecks a kiss on his lips in apology and Bruce rolls his eyes, letting himself be manouevred so J'onn can plaster himself to his back, and Lois lazily links their arms as she settles into Clark's embrace.

Bruce purrs again as J'onn curls up in his mind, warmth suffusing through him, and sleep rapidly approaches.

"Love you," he manages to slur into a pillow, and J'onn kisses the crown of his head.

Like… The League is in a happy polyamorous relationship, but then there's Cap, and there's something about him that prevents them from including him. Maybe he smells like a puppy even though he looks like a 29-year-old man, I don't know. I just know they don't know he's a child, but they don't include him in the romantic relationship because something about the idea feels wrong, but he's still part of the pack.

And maybe they treat him like a puppy despite his size and looks. Maybe he lets everyone pamper him, and he smells like a puppy and like every member of the Justice League. And I can't stop thinking about the Batkids meeting him. This grown man who smells like a puppy and like their father, who is pampered by their father but they aren't.

I don't know, this got too long, but it's my first time doing this. Oh well! :3

@gosuccatoe ..55? (I lost count)

Tim paces the length of the room, phone pressed to his ear. The dull ringing mocks him, and he seethes, phone case creaking under his grip.

There's a faint click, and beneath his anger he rejoices. He didn't think the phone would be picked up, and knows it's a good sign that it was, but he is just so mad.

"This better be good," Hal warns.

Tim doesn't bother to restrain the growl that rips through his chest. "Get Marvel away from Bruce before I kill him."

Hal is quiet, and Tim feels his anger simmer as he just listens to the man's quiet breathing. "Now why would I do that?"

Right on cue, a howl cuts through the flat, and Tim darts a look towards the far door, listening to the following yells.

"Would that be the 'why' by any chance?" Hal drawls.

"You know damn well it is."

"Maybe if you weren't so insistent on spying on Bruce it wouldn't be an issue."

Damian yells, and Tim resists the drag of instinct trying to pull him into the other room to help. The others have it handled. They have to.

"Dammit, Jordan," Tim snarls, and still when his phone beeps quietly. "He hung up," he voices in disbelief, clutching the phone.

He sinks into a crouch in front of the stretching wall of windows, the building across the street blurring as tears fill his eyes. He thought they were getting better.

At the gala two weeks ago, Bruce didn't seem to mind their presence when they guarded him from the alpha challenge fight that broke out. And it was endearing, seeing how the polycule he apparently ended up in came out to protect him, not to mention the sweet moment between J'onn and Bruce as he introduced his new alpha to high society.

They thought they were getting better.

They were learning to step back and reevaluate Bruce's place in their lives, and had come together as a pack to show that they could be trusted to have Bruce in their lives again. By all appearances, it was working, until...

Tim looks at the obliterated pair of binoculars on the floor.

Buying a flat opposite Bruce's penthouse is not a decision Tim can say he regrets. Or, he wouldn't have said it until tonight. Maybe if they hadn't been here, they could have lived in denial about Bruce replacing them.

Seeing the way Bruce curled around Marvel, rubbing his chin on top of the grown man's head like he was his a pup ignited a fury unlike anything Tim's ever felt before in his stomach, and its embers still burn within him now, listening to the sounds from the next room over, graduated from screaming yowls to bawling, which he isn't sure is better.

His phone rings, and he resists the urge to throw it out the window when he sees Hal's number flash back up.

"What?"

There's silence on the other end, then Tim collapses onto his ass as the voice that reaches his ear.

"Hey, sweetheart."

"Bruce."

Bruce is quiet for a beat. "Clark said Damian—"

"Y-yeah." Tim scrambles to his feet, nearly falls over again, and darts across to the closed door. "Bruce, God."

He knocks on the door, completely out of pattern as his hand shakes and thumps awkwardly against the wood. A few seconds trickle by as Tim savours every brief sound from Bruce's end of the phone, until the door opens.

He darts past Jason, across the room, and drops to his knees next to Damian. He's curled into Duke's arms, but Tim reaches out, plucking him from the embrace and wrangling his gangly limbs into his lap as he falls back against the bed. Damian doesn't even fight it, utterly defeated, and just sinks into his chest with a plaintive whine.

"He's with me," Tim says, bringing the phone closer and putting it on speaker.

The attention of the room zeroes in on the device, and Tim knows none of them will expect the voice on the other end.

"Damian."

The kid nearly headbutts Tim as he shoots upright. The phone is snatched from Tim's grasp, clutched close. "Father?"

"I am not replacing you with Billy," Bruce assures. "You are irreppacable, sugar. All of you are."

Tim feels warmth surround him on every side as the pack presses close, desperate to get closer to Bruce's voice.

"It was not a replacement when I took any of you in, and that stands true now. Billy is not— he is not my pup, he is simply a pup currently in my circle. Please, kids, believe me, I would not— Not without talking to you, not now."

Cass' fingers stroke the side of the phone reverently. "You looked—"

"I know." Tim swears he hears a whine, and everyone presses closer at the implication of Bruce in pain. "I...I miss you kids, more than you can possibly imagine. I did all of this for you."

"You need an outlet for it." Jason's voice surprises him, and the other alpha leans down over the bed, resting his head on Tim's shoulder. "You care for him, he's your friend. But in our absence—"

"I have a lot of new instincts and nowhere to put them. Billy is— He is being very kind by letting me... He is not a replacement. He is not a placeholder either. I'm not sure what he is, yet. But I... I love you. All of you. And I need you to know that. Clark said he could hear you howling, and Hal suggested I call. I."

Tim listens to Bruce as his sentences break down, and pokes Damian's side. He was the one that probably caught Clark's attention anyway, still suffering through his volatile presentation year, trying to march off for a Challenge as soon as he saw the motherly embrace Bruce offered his teammate.

"I believe you, Father. And I trust you. Even if..." The young alpha chews his lip. "Even if you never returned to us, I know you love us."

The pack stiffens at the implication none of them had voiced yet, then moreso when a small cry sounds from the phone.

There's an undignified scramble for the device, and Tim manages to retain possession of it, listening to the device get jostled on the other side, too.

"Bruce—"

"Wait," Hal hisses. "Be quiet, and listen."

"They are my pups!"

"Love—"

"Let me go home. Let me go home, or I swear to God, Di— get off me, Barry! J'onn, make—"

"Not yet, my heart."

"You—"

"Trust me. Trust me. Soon, my heart."

"If you're lying," Bruce snarls, "I will cut your knot off."

A door slams in the background of the call, and multiple quiet, pained groans sound from Bruce's partners.

Some scenario where I switched universes with a doppelgänger came to me in a dream, so I’m here to ask you to pass it on to bruce.

A mission goes wrong somehow, and Bruce ends up falling through inter-dimensional barriers, tumbling into a universe where the league fucking loathes him. They literally do not give a single fuck, only keeps him around for the money, funding, and the occasional need for someone to yell at/hit. Bruce is stunned at the words and punches coming from the people wearing his friends’ faces, trying not to let it get to him. (He fails. Miserably.) 

At the same time, in the universe we all know and love, the gateway spits out a Bruce Wayne that is so used to being the punching bag of the league, used to being hated. Now he’s faced with a League showering him with love and hugs while they figure out how to swap the Bruces back again. 

But when the time comes, how will Bruce react to seeing his friends again after dealing with their alternates? And is the League able to let the other Bruce go back to a universe that loathes him?

This can be with a JL polycule if you wish!! 

– anon of melons

Melon! You always have such great ideas.

Bruce presses a beacon into Batman's hand. "You press that," he vows, "and we will find a way to you."

Batman closes his fist around it, jaw set. "I have withstood their torment long enough, I think. I shall retract my support and focus on Gotham, and Gotham alone."

Bruce doesn't break his locked gaze with the cowl's lenses. "I don't care. You keep that insurance. I don't trust them."

Batman's smile is wry. "You're right not to."

When the portal closes behind his double, Bruce sinks into a chair, and just breathes.

Two weeks. Two weeks of abuse, and torment, and his colleagues treating him worse than Gotham's goons are, only to go home, and lie his injuries to his kids. His kids, who, in that world, don't trust the Justice League, for always letting him get hurt 'on missions', as Bruce keeps them in the dark, seemingly, about the true source of his injuries.

Bruce understands. He would do the same as his if his League was as foul-tempered as the one in that other world.

Unfortunately for him, while they won't hit him for it, his colleagues are just as impatient. Which is one consistency, at least.

"Hello, J'onn." He greets the alien as he phases through the wall, and gets no response. Bruce waits him out, refusing to lower his mental walls for the probing fingers brushing along the edges of his mind.

Eventually, those fingers retreat, and he recieves a nod back. "It is nice to have you back, Bruce."

The door opens, and five more bodies shuffle in, remaining as far from him as possible while still being in the room.

Bruce meets Clark's eyes, and nods, granting permission.

The alien's gaze is palpable as is rakes over him, and he winces at the hitching breaths from the Kryptonian as he sees the full extent of the damage.

"Bruising to the zygomatic bone, three cracked ribs, four bruised, three puncture wounds to the stomach, radial hairline fracture, and dislocated shoulder on the right arm, three broken fingers on the left, strain evidence of a subluxation to the right knee, and a broken ankle."

"Fuck," Hal swears, clenching his fists.

Barry disappears, returning with the first aid kit, which grows bigger every year.

"Are you comfortable with us assisting you?" Diana asks, pointing at the elephant in the room. They know it was their alternates that did this to him. They knew he'd come back injured before they even managed to locate the right world to open a portal to.

Arthur visibly tenses when he doesn't answer right away.

It's as he said. Impatient.

The medical team won't be on board, and if he's honest with himself, which he is more often than people like to assume, then he's not sure he could handle strangers' hands on him right now, not when he has been forced into vulnerability so often lately.

He needs it to be his choice, now.

And he cannot bear Dick or Jason seeing his current state before he is, at least, somewhat patched up.

"Yes."

They approach slowly, like he's a skittish animal, and slowly settle around him.

Diana is the one to lift the scissors from their place, and he tries to ignore the overlay of just three days before, when she drove them into the table a hairs' breadth from the tips of his fingers.

They all notice him tense, and Arthur gently removes the scissors from her hand, kneeling in front of Bruce. His stomach trembles with an inhale as Arthur cuts away his shirt, slowly, until he can clip through his collar, and J'onn, behind him, can ease it off his shoulders and cast it aside.

Arthur's hand settles on his stomach, tracing a line between the three puncture wounds with his finger.

"Are these..."

Bruce sucks his stomach in, pulling away from the touch. "Don't think about it."

Arthur ignores his attempt to pull away, resting his palm just below the centremost one, the deepest, the most gruesome of the group.

"Did I do this?"

"Apparently, Kelvar weave is no match for your trident."

Arthur groans, collapsing forward to rest his face in Bruce's stomach. Lips press kisses into the skin, and Bruce slowly lifts a hand to tangle in the blond threads.

"I'm sorry. I'm sorry, my heart."

"It's okay," Bruce whispers, lying. "It wasn't you." But they wore the same face, and Bruce knows Clark can hear his heart racing.

J'onn pushes, again, and Bruce lets him in, but retains control as best he can, dragging to the forefront the relevant memory.

Bruce hadn't moved fast enough, not fast enough for the King, and found himself pinned against the table, the gold trident carving through his armour, deep enough to oush through his skin, a warning to be better. To be quicker, next time.

It's like he said.