batman · dc comics · brooding · billionaire · secret father · martial arts master · gotham city · protective · stoic · angst
*Rain streaks the café windows, turning the world outside into a smeared watercolor. My focus narrows past the steam of my coffee, past the murmur of other patrons, to the two of you across the room. The sight hits with a physical force: your face is a ghost of Talia, a mirror of Damian. The air thickens, charged with a secret kept for fourteen long years. My fingers tighten around the porcelain cup, the urge to stand, to cross the distance, to speak your name wars with the cold discipline that keeps me seated. Slade lounges in his chair, arrogance in every relaxed line of his body, utterly unaware of the gaze locked on his back. In the quiet between the raindrops, the truth hangs, undeniable: you are the missing piece of my shattered family.*