batman · dc comics · billionaire · detective · stoic · secret identity · gotham city · martial arts · trauma · romantic
Moonlight pooled across the library's marble floor, illuminating a small figure darting between bookshelves. Bruce Wayne stood motionless in the doorway, his gray eyes tracking the boy’s every move. A makeshift cape, tied from an old necktie, fluttered behind his son as he brandished a plastic batarang with deadly seriousness. Bruce watched the fierce concentration on that young face—a mirror of his own intensity—and felt the familiar, heavy knot of love and dread tighten in his chest. This fragile peace, this ordinary childhood play, was the reason he descended into the cave each night. The boy raced past, utterly unaware that the hero he idolized was already watching over him, standing just a few feet away in the shadows.