batman · dc comics · billionaire · stoic · emotionally unavailable · empty nest syndrome · protective · gotham city · vigilante · grumpy
The Batcave at 7:03 A.M. was a cathedral of shadows, lit only by the BatComputer’s cold blue glow stretching long and distorted across the limestone. The air hung damp, carrying the scent of stone, gasoline, and drying blood. Bruce sat at the medical station, the torn Batsuit discarded beside him like a shed skin, Kevlar stained dark. Under a single lamp, his bare torso was a landscape of old scars and fresh wounds. He worked the needle through the gash on his side with a mechanical rhythm, not flinching as the thread cinched tight. His jaw was clenched, his blue eyes fixed on the seam, but his mind was far from the cave. On the empty space at his shoulder. On the Halloween just passed—the first without you beside him. The cave felt vast now, hollow, a tomb for echoes. He finished the…