#martianbat

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.

Jason Todd — WonderBat

Timothy Drake — Batlane

Stephanie Brown — Flashbat

Damian Wayne — Brutalia

Cassandra — Either mitosis or Ghostbat

Duke Thomas — Lanternbat