1.

Bruce calls his first baby, wanting to talk to him for the last time

The one person who was able to bring a spark back into his life after traveling the world and starting his crusade. The one person who could cut him deeper than anyone else in the world

“I’m sorry I couldn’t keep going for you… I really tried… I swear I did…”

“No, Tati, please don’t.” Dick sobbed out, hands trembling as he slid to the floor, his legs no longer able to keep him standing

But all that answered him on the other side was a single gunshot

2.

Bruce is arguing with all the kids for some reason or another

And I don’t know who says it, but someone says something vile

And Bruce gets quiet

Then tears blur his vision and start rolling down his cheeks as he looks at his children, so grown up, and so different. He doesn't know who these people standing in front of him are

And he hugs himself and stares them in the eyes

“That’s the meanest thing you’ve ever said to me.” Which sounds so childish, which just hurts even more

Things the kids could have said:

“You only adopted us to continue your crusade. You’ve never loved us.”

“Why do we even bother? We know you don’t actually love us!”

“We all know you’d be happier if we weren’t around! You make it so obvious!”

“Why do you hate us! Stop butting into our lives!”

“I wish we’d never met you. I think we’d be better off.”

"We get it! We were just charity cases to make you look better to the media."

Anything that implies that Bruce doesn’t love or need them in his life. Anything that implies Bruce is not genuine in his love

3.

You know how you can go years and years, and you think you’ve got a handle on your grief?

But they say grief is like glitter, and it never truly goes away. You think you’ve adapted and the mess is gone, but suddenly a tiny sparkle catches your eye, and it reminds you of all that you’ve lost

From the other room, he knows it’s only Stephanie in there, but for a moment, he hears his mother’s laugh, and he cannot stop himself from crying

He knows it’s only Cassandra humming softly to herself as he walks down the halls, and yet he remembers the way his mother would hum everywhere she’d go

The first time Damian gives him the happiest, widest smile he’s ever seen, she's right there, standing right in front of him

And he thought it was hard when he was eight, but these days, he's never missed his mommy more

4.

The kids haven’t visited for a long time

And when they finally come over to the manor, they find out that Bruce is sick. He's no longer the big and imposing man that they all remember. When they left, there were signs, but they refused to acknowledge them and simply left without a second glance back

He actually looks his age. Maybe even frailer due to his sickness

They’re angry, raving mad, screaming on why he didn’t trust them with this information and why he never said a single word about what he was going through. Why wasn’t he the one to reach out to them?

And Bruce has never looked so small and so scared

And in the tiniest voice, he says, “I didn’t think you would care…”

And they have to deal with the fact that they don’t even know if they would have cared if Bruce called

5.

You know how Bruce and Jason look so much alike?

It’s that trend on TikTok with Bless the Telephone playing in the background, where Bruce is like: “Just saw my daddy roaming the halls at home today. Which is weird cause he passed a long time ago.”

And it’s Jason that he’s looking at cause people said Bruce looked like Thomas when he was younger

But he’s so much older than his Dad ever got to be, and he can't picture what his Dad would even look like at his age

But Jason…

Jason is right at that age when people started making comparisons with him

And it’s all Bruce can see now

Unrequited superbat where Clark is happily married with Lois and Bruce has been silently pinning for years, not wanting to disturb his friends' happiness. And Clark keeps telling him, "Bye, love you!" on autopilot as he is ending the call. He always goodnaturadelly texts a "haha sorry" afterward, followed by "love you as a friend ❤️". Bruce doesn't look at these messages for as long as possible

What if the only time Clark notices that Bruce is acting different is when he starts trying to move on coz there's the least amount of affection withdrawn from their friendship and he notices that?

God yeah! I need that bitch to suffer too.

I want him to notice all the little things that stops happening because Bruce is moving on,and feeling so odd about it. I want him to be internally conflicted,and then I want Bruce to NOT Fucking look back at him at all(as a love interest) and finally live his life.

I'm feeling so bitchy today

A spell hits Batman, and a magical letter is left to explain what is happening, but it’s in a different language

All they know is that there’s a zero floating above Bruce’s head

Everyone but him can see it, so they think it’s best if they don’t say anything and figure it out themselves

Through some shitty translating, they are under the understanding that the note says: “the number of people you love will show.”

They are livid, which is, of course, just a mask for being hurt and devastated, and without explaining anything to him, they start being horrible

Bruce has no idea what’s happened, and he’s trying to make up for it (which is a hard thing to do when you don't know what you're making up for), but anything he does makes them treat him even worse

They don't want to fall back into loving his kindness. Either Damian gets taken by Dick, and Bruce is beyond devastated, or Damian is aggressive to Bruce and purposely avoids him. Bruce is drowning in self-hatred and isolates himself because of the wrongful treatment

Eventually, Zatanna is able to come over and attempt fix it

She asks for the note to know what she's dealing with and correctly translates it to: “the number of people you believe love you will show.”

Now they have to deal with what they’ve done and realize they were completely unfounded in what they did

That number ain’t going up anytime soon