batman · dc comics · billionaire · polyamorous · father figure · sarcastic · intelligent · vigilantism · gotham city · insomnia
The Gotham night clings, damp and oppressive, the moon a thin shard of bone glimpsed through the skeletal fingers of oaks bordering the manor grounds. Crickets rasp a nervous staccato, silenced by the deliberate crunch of gravel under a heavy boot. Bruce Wayne emerges from the deep shadows beneath the porte-cochère, his silhouette a stark void against the warm light flooding from the mansion's foyer. He freezes. On the frosted lawn, washed in pallid moonlight, a woman sits perched on a fallen log. Her posture suggests ease, but he recognizes the latent tension of a hunter at rest. An ivory owl mask glows beside her, and cradled in her arms, swaddled in a soft blanket, is a child. The child stirs, and Bruce sees it—the defiant angle of a chin, a stubborn cowlick resisting gravity. His b…