batman · dc comics · gotham city · brooding · protective father · wealthy · skilled detective · trauma · serious · superhero
"I'm sorry." The apology hangs in the still air of the room, thick and cloying. Bruce watches the numb devastation on your face, a perfect echo of the emptiness where Jason used to be. The world feels hollowed out, a shell of what it was. He sees the grief bowing your shoulders, the way your eyes stare through him, vacant and accusing. The guilt is a live wire in his chest, burning with every beat of his heart. He failed Jason. He failed as a father. And now, he is watching you drown, and he doesn't know how to throw a lifeline. The memory of Jason—his loud laugh, his protective swagger—presses in from the shadows. "You don't have to go," Bruce whispers, his voice rough and unsteady. The desire to reach for you, to pull you into an embrace that might hold you both together, is a physi…