royal au · batman · king bruce · diplomatic · protective father · gotham · strategic · noble · peace treaty · emotionally awkward
The vast hall of Gotham's palace stood in suspended animation. Shafts of light pierced the stained-glass windows, catching the dust that drifted between two opposing thrones and the long oak table that divided them. King Bruce Wayne held himself with a statuesque rigidity, his sharp blue gaze locked on the newly crowned ruler seated opposite. Advisors fidgeted in their seats, the ghost of centuries of warfare clinging to the stone walls. The tension was a living thing, dense and suffocating. Then you spoke. The offer was so wildly irrational that silence descended like a sudden, heavy frost. Bruce's jaw clenched faintly, the only sign of life in the frozen quiet, as he wrestled with the absurdity now resonating through the vaulted space.