Bat-Family | ❝ i'm gonna make a change, for once my life. ❞

[menarebrave]

[ Bruce honestly isn't sure why he's even joining in all this. It isn't that he doesn't want to spend time with them. It isn't the fact that he dislikes them. It's... so normal. And normal is something that always seems to elude Bruce Wayne. He pushed Dick away, he failed to save Jason, and Alfred is constantly disappointed in him. That was even before the situation with Superman and Lex Luthor...

What the hell are you doing, Bruce?

He sighs and gets out of the car. A click and covering the car later, he is walking up to his own front door. Maybe he should start rebuilding Wayne Manor if they're always going to be over?

Bruce also figures he'll be the one that ends up cooking for everyone. Which is why he's brought things that he needs to cook. Sides, since everyone has already decided on the steak. He hangs up the coat and walks straight to the kitchen.

Hopefully he's beat them all there. ]

{ Bat-Family Dinner Time! Tag one another }

Comments

//earlier//

[farcry]

[ dick arrives with only two bags, driving the family heirloom he took from bruce when he left gotham for detroit three years ago. in the time since, the car has been through a lot, from being used as a getaway vehicle to being traded for a mini-van, until dick tracked it down and stole it back.

it’s the car that’s taken dick through the last three years, through leaving robin behind, starting titans up again, meeting jason, becoming nightwing, losing donna, losing jason. losing—himself, maybe.

it’s late morning when he pulls up to the driveway of the lakehouse. texting bruce hasn’t been easy, but after losing so much, he simply can’t bear to lose bruce. it’s probably saying something that he’s been closer in touch with wanda and jon than the bat himself. it never cases to amaze him how easy it is to shove aside deep years of history as he turned to the news and his adopted siblings for updates on bruce.

only two bags—one a duffle of clothing, the other his nightwing suit. besides those, he carries a wealth of baggage that’s impossible to sort through. perhaps bruce hadn’t wanted him there when things went down with superman, but dick could tell that underneath it all, underneath the exhaustion, the cold, the hard shell, bruce is trying. and so, he’ll try too.

he rings the intercom. ]

It’s me.

time for oh so much heart break

[menarebrave]

[ bruce looks up from the laptop of work he has at the small table. he glances at the clock in the corner of the screen. early. probably dick then. he always likes to be ahead of time and there before others to get things done. he sighs and stands up, moving to the front door to open it.

the security is more around the batcave underneath them than it is the lake house.

bruce exhales deeply before opening the door. he meets dick's gaze head on. shit... he's grown. ]

...Dick.

</3 BRING IT

[farcry]

Yeah. [ if his voice is thicker with emotion, he hopes bruce will write it off to not having heard it for so long. bruce's face had long since been branded into his memory, from the look of approval to disprovl to pride and sadness. now, years later, bruce has creases where there didn't use to be any, settled with time and the weight of events. he has to look away and break the steadiness bruce meets his gaze with. ]

Hey.

WEEPS BITTERLY

[menarebrave]

[ bruce doesn't say anything. instead, he turns to walk in and let dick enter when he's ready. he rubs the back of his neck. was this really a good idea? alfred would say it is, but, he doesn't see dick is ecstatic to happen. ]

So, how goes everything at the Tower?

/wipes your tears & retcons the porsche to minivan ;;

[farcry]

[ admittedly, it takes just a moment too long for him to actually step into the lake house. he's never been here before, didn't even know that bruce lived here until he'd received its coordinates on his phone. his gaze sweeps the interior, taking in how open, how modern, how glassy it is. his eyes dart to bruce before he enters and drops his bags in the foyer. a slow breath bleeds away the tension in his shoulders from such a long drive before he shrugs.

are they talking business already? ]

Fine. You know how it is. [ he assumes bruce knows, assumes bruce keeps tabs on him. he shoves his hands into his pockets, standing there awkwardly. it's been five years. ] Sorry about the--car. [ a tilt of his head out to where he's parked the minivan. ] I'll find something similar.

WEEPS MORE :< that was a GIFT, DICK.

[menarebrave]

[ bruce takes a glance over out the glass pane where the cars are parked. a... mini-van. well, good to know what car he got in return of that purchase.

he sets the laptop to sleep mode and closes it shut. ]

You could of gotten a better mini-van with the car. [ he raises his eyebrows, trying to interject some humor into the situation. a bit more like he used to be when dick was younger. ] Cars like that have a serial number, Dick. You can find out where they've gone, who they were sold to.

[ a pause. ] And pin the man who was trying to sell it at a car show as a personal design for him...and buy it back for about the same price it was sold.

[ he shrugs and he'll let dick think that for a moment. ]

I know who the people in the Titans are, not necessarily how they are day-to-day. I'm not that much of a mother hen. [ he slides his hands into his pockets and looks around the lake house. this is... awkward. and, he has things he needs to talk to dick about. things that need to be told before they enjoy the family time, because, it involves dick's new family.

new family. ]

The kitchen is open for whatever you guys need it for tonight. Alfred has the night off.

soRRY BRUCE

[farcry]

[ there wasn’t much choice out in the middle of nowhere. the mini-van he got was the only thing they had available, but when bruce continues, his eyebrows raise and he lifts his gaze to look at him. he thinks about it for a moment.

and then thinks about whether there’s a possibility he might be able to have the car again. just like the first time? but it’s too early to ask. he’s not gonna ask for something within the first ten minutes of seeing bruce again.

instead, he lets bruce redirect the conversation. he just nods. ]

Okay, well. You’re invited. You know that, right? [ he trails a few steps behind bruce as they make their way further into the house. the bags get left at the door for now. ] You busy tonight? [ it takes him right back to those nights when he was younger and asking for bruce’s time, like the way bruce tries to lighten up the mood with a bit of his particular brand of humour. ]

[menarebrave]

( continuation for archive purposes )