Keeping it Quiet - Bruce Wayne x Reader
Request: Hi, do you think you can do a soulmate au with Bruce Wayne with an s/o that’s younger than he is? (About Dick or Jay’s age)
- I’m going to admit I wasn’t that sure about this request at first since I was trying to work my head around the age difference - adult life is a big difference in teen life. If the batfamily aged slightly normally (I made my own timeline ages ago) I have Bruce around 42-45 and Dick around 29. I had ideas though so *shrug* sorry if this is a bit of a mess.
Warning - 13 Year Age Gap (nothing illegal)
Soulmate AU - There’s a tattoo on everyone’s body somewhere that matches up to someone else’s.
Bruce was a little confused. He didn’t like being confused. He was Bruce Wayne, Batman, greatest detective alive (when Tim was sleeping). He was supposed to understand the universe. He decided to ignore his lack of a soulmate as the universe giving him one - he didn’t have to worry about someone else getting dragged into the fight. But he also had to live with the fact all of his friends had soulmates and were settling down to a degree. Hell, Clark had a ten-year-old kid.
He had hidden his soulmate tattoo from Tim, he didn’t trust him not to somehow locate the person. Bruce wasn’t sure if he wanted to find you or not, he could create some kind of finder just to keep tabs on you, but he also thought that would be incredibly creepy and he wasn’t fond of you finding out he’d known about you for years. He’d been watching. It was all too creepy for him.
He’d also hidden the tattoo from Damian. His poor angry son was bad enough at adapting to new crime-fighting members of the family. He viewed himself as Bruce’s only true family, and sadly Bruce didn’t trust Damian to react well to a new part of the family that would be permanent and completely connected to Bruce. He feared replacement. Bruce knew that. He didn’t want to make the same mistake with Damian that he had made with his other sons.
He didn’t expect to find his soulmate, but that was okay because he’d found a family anyway.
He didn’t expect to walk into the Batcave and find Dick sitting with a woman his age, that Bruce didn’t know. Especially since Dick was in costume but without his mask on.
“Oh hey, Bruce,” Dick said lifting his head slightly. He did a double take and started to panic. “Bruce! So, I know you have the no identities rules and everything, but I really needed some help with the case you gave me and I didn’t actually tell her.”
“Shhh!” you held her hand up to stop Dick talking, tapping at the keyboard for another minute before pushing it forward in annoyance. You groaned before turning the chair round to look at Bruce. “Too little too late, I already know, there’s no point being angry, he didn’t tell me actually, you were messy.” you had a gleam in your eye and seemed quite confident for someone facing his batglare.
“Messy?” he raised an eyebrow
“Messy.” you smiled and brushed your hair behind both of her ears. “Forensic’s Unit in Central City, you vigilantes are so lucky no one but myself seems to check all the blood at a crime scene. I mean, I knew Barry Allen couldn’t have been fighting Killer Frost, but his blood was where the Flash had been, same with Oliver Queen when I went to Starling - that man bleeds a lot, there is no way he’s okay. Same with your family. I was sent here to help Officer Grayson with a case that was similar to one in Central. Seriously, you guys need to stop leaving so many clues.” she looked pointedly at Dick
“Who are you?” Bruce felt himself smiling as he started to look at what you’d been doing on the Batcomputer.
“(Y/N), hi, nice to meet you Bruce Wayne, Batman,” she mimicked Dick’s awful Dark Knight voice when she said Batman and Dick started laughing. Bruce pulled his son aside as you returned to tapping on the keyboard.
“She’s obviously smart, but how long have you known her?”
“She’s been working with Barry for ages, quiz him if you want her life story. Wally introduced her to me a few months back, and she arrived in Bludhaven two days ago to help me in real life. I dragged her to Gotham with me since I needed a fresh pair of eyes. She figured out my identity, and I needed help, I should have given you a head’s up, I’m sorry.”
“Yeah, yeah…” Bruce started to watch you type.
“Got it.” you yelled, jumping up and pumping your fist in the air to grab Dick’s attention, “Your criminal is here!” you pointed to the map on the batcomputer screen.
“You’re the best,” Dick said, placing his mask on and jumping into action, leaving her in the cave
“Don’t forget it,” you yelled after him.
After meeting Dick Grayson, you felt your life shift into a new era. Sure, you’d helped the Flash guys out when they needed you, and you had been working with the Police for a while now, but Batman and Gotham was a whole other thing. More hardcore, more frequent, and a lot darker. You didn’t like to think about how many dead children and ruined bodies you’d helped find. It was taking all your energy to just keep your positive vibes aesthetic. You were twenty-nine, that was still quite young in your mind, and you were determined to stay bubbly and smiling till the day you died - no adult responsibilities would crush your spirit.
You’d removed yourself from the Batcave pretty quickly after being recruited to help the entire family. It felt weird, like Bruce was always analysing you or looking for a reason to kick you out. Instead, you removed yourself from the equation and worked from your fire escape. Getting a job with the GCPD was easy enough when you’d spent your life making connections in Police Departments. A few of the boys would swing around each night and you’d give them a location or run some tests to help them save time. You and Tim had started exchanging technology to see who could give the biggest upgrade. You never saw Bruce, he’d speak to you over the network they had - exchanging a few things, but you didn’t expect him to land on your fire escape.
“I need your help,” he muttered, the Batman voice making you jump slightly.
“Quick analysis of this,” he handed over a bag of what appeared to be dirt.
That was precisely what it was. Plain old dirt you’d find in any park. It turned out he’d grabbed the wrong thing off the ground in his hurry, and now the Batman was freaking out in your apartment.
“Okay, relax!” you yelled. Instead of just going to get the correct sample he wanted you to analyse, he’d started pacing, rambling and shaking slightly. “You are not in the right mindset to be punching anyone right now so sit down!”
“What about Damian? You haven’t said a complete sentence in the past fine minutes!”
“Damian was taken, I don’t know who by or where, I just know his comm is down and we can’t track him. The park was his last location.”
“Then let’s go!” you shouldered a bag filled with stuff you’d need and shoved your keys into your jacket pocket.
“Come on, man, get your head on straight. Take me to the park so I can see if I can help.” you opened the door, took out your phone and used an app Tim had given you to start flicking through Gotham security.
“Stop me then.” you rolled your eyes. “Or at least get on your own way and do something to save your kid instead of freaking out here.” He didn’t respond, just pulled you back into the apartment, grumbling, and took you out of the window with him.
Dick had talked to you about flying before. He’d said how exhilarating jumping out of a window or off a roof was. You’d called him crazy despite the fact you had been a parkour enthusiast in college. You knew what it was like to jump stupid heights and run on the edge of a roof. Travelling through Gotham via grappling hook was something else though. You were clapping, reaching out your hands, very tempted to whoop - the only reason that you didn’t, was because you didn’t want to draw too much attention to yourself.
Bruce didn’t want to admit how pretty you were. Landing in the park, looking at your face after he’d dropped you to the ground. Your hair had been tangled slightly by the wind, your ears were red, but you were smiling so perfectly. You didn’t care about being in the park in your pyjama’s, only a shirt for a jacket. You were smiling, laughing to yourself, youth radiating off you. He felt awful. You definitely weren’t a kid, but everything about you seemed new and refreshing, untouchable to someone as damaged as him. Admitting you were pretty, intelligent, into similar things as him, would make him want to get to know you and drag you further into danger. But he couldn’t stop himself from following you as you worked.
You quickly scanned security footage again, watching what he’d already seen, before moving to examine the spot Damian had been standing before the camera’s went out. You dropped to the floor, carefully picked things up with tweezers, examined an area of the tree where there were dents he hadn’t noticed before. You twirled round to wink at him, using a travel analysis kit you owned to run a substance from the dent and cross-check it against locations Damian had already been.
“Hey, you young ones!” you yelled to a group of high schoolers nearby. “How long have you been here?”
“Why?” one of the boys scrunched up his face
“This is Gotham, I’m looking for someone.”
Bruce didn’t like the sympathy on each kids face. Everyone knew how difficult Gotham could be, and even with everyone he saved, people still died - vanished - too often.
“A few hours?” one of the girls shrugged
“You see Robin pass through?”
“You see anything strange going on?”
“That van’s been here for awhile,” a different girl said without hesitation, pointing to an unlicensed van parked outside the gates
“How’d you know?” one of her male friends asked.
“Girls notice those things,” you answered for her. “Stay safe guys, don’t want any of you to get hurt and it is late.”
They nodded and you turned back to face Batman. Bruce had stayed out of sight in a tree. You held up one finger to communicate wait and walked towards the van. He wanted to tell you off for being so risky. You weren’t trained, you could get hurt if this van was dangerous. But Damian was the one taken. And you were just trying to help. He was only metres away. He then became confused when you just walked past the van and reentered the park, doing something on your phone.
“Give me a second.” you pursed your lips.
“Why do you do this, you could be doing almost anything, your bright, you learn quickly, why work for the police?” he couldn’t help himself from asking.
“My mum was an officer. She balanced being a single mother of two and trying to save Central City. She was my inspiration, my biggest fan, the best person I will ever meet. She decided the police wasn’t enough for her, as much as she loved it, joined the army, rose the ranks. Shot in action, paralyzed from the waist down.” You tapped away at your screen, “I went into police work to continue the work she loved the best I could. My brother was an adult when she went to fight so raised me from then on and went off to fight when she couldn’t. He saved a tonne of lives, came home for a visit and was killed by a meta who then escaped the police. I caught him and got hired instantly by Central CPD. It’s a way to be connected to both of them when I was always more of a science than a fighter.” you finally looked at him. You didn’t look heartbroken or distraught, you seemed at peace with the loss. Maybe that was what happened to people who dealt with their grief. He could learn from you.
“He’s there, no clue who those goons work for, but it’s the same person, same residue on the tires as the tree.” you transferred the map on your phone to his and smiled. “I’ll head to the cave to see if I can get you anything else, keep me updated.” you waved him off, and surprisingly enough, his crazy mindset from earlier was gone. He was going to rescue his son, and you were working from the cave to help him. Knowing you were there had made him relax, and he wasn’t quite sure what to make of that.
The rest of the night didn’t go smoothly. No one was relaxed, and everything was a bit of a panic. Bruce crashed into the Batcave with Damian in his arms, bleeding from four huge gashes across his chest and chocking on some black mush he didn’t seem able to cough out. His limbs were hanging off him like he was a doll, his eyes glassy and unmoving. You clicked that he must have been paralyzed then and summoned Alfred down. You didn’t wait for the butler to arrive before trying to help. You weren’t a doctor, but you’d been trained enough time through the years and you needed to work out what the black much was.
You shoved Bruce back from the body, tied your hair up and threw your overshirt off. You started working, analysing the goo on Damian’s cuts and the mush in his mouth as Alfred arrived, proceeding to help him stitch the boy up. You had full access to the Batcave’s supplies meaning you could easily make a cure up once Damian could breathe. First, you had to tip his head tot he floor so the mush could fall out, second, you needed to inject the cure, third, you needed to watch his vitals, fourth, you needed him to wake up from the paralysis and be okay. You broke the evening down into those four steps. Alfred had blood on hand if Damian needed it, but you were sure whatever was stopping him from waking up could be cured.
After three hours, thirteen minutes and twenty-six seconds, Damian gasped through his mouth (his nose had been working the entire time, but it still hadn’t been fun). His fingers were riggling slightly, feeling slowly returning to his body. He panted, muttering the words sorry father over and over before finally thanking you and Alfred. You felt honoured, you knew Damian didn’t thank many people, but maybe nearly dying had made him re-evaluate a few things.
Bruce took Damian to his bed before returning to you in the cave. It was about four in the morning, and you had to be working in two hours time.
“Is he okay, shaken up from a run in so close with death?” you asked, leaning against the table you had been cleaning before Bruce came back. With the cowl mask gone, and him just standing in human clothes, you finally put two and two together. Sure you’d known that Bruce was Batman, but you’d never properly seen the two as one person until then. He was tired, hunched slightly, scarred. Human. Bruce Wayne.
“Damian’s already died before. Running close to death is part of the job…”
“Do you want to talk about it?” you offered, not sure what else you were supposed to say to that. He started laughing and you regretted saying anything at all. “You don’t need to laugh at me!” part of you glowed inside. Even if you regretted speaking, seeing him smile made you go all warm and fuzzy. You had made the Dark Knight laugh!
“I’m not laughing at you, not at all.” he shook his head quickly, “But people have been telling me to talk to them for years while being hypocritical. The number of times Clark tries to tell me to talk to him when he refuses to talk about things just as much…hearing it from you is different.”
“Surely Alfred’s said it to you.”
“But Alfred’s my guardian, I can’t do what he wants me to do.”
“God! Playboy, billionaire, superhero, angsty rebellious teen.” you held up your hands like you were conducting an orchestra with the new title.
“Don’t you have somewhere else to be? How come you could just move to Gotham so easily?” He was still smiling, and now he was curious about you.
“I’ve never been much of a settler. All my school friends met their soulmate’s early on and it just feels odd to be the one single person in a room of couples. My mum finally died a few years back, wow, I should not have used the word finally then but like you know what I mean. She survived a lot and her time finally came. I’ve been looking for a place that felt right and Gotham did. But I should probably be heading home. Gordon’s expecting me at work in two hours and I need some sleep.”
You turned away from him and carried on packing up your stuff. The overshirt was gone, and the pyjama tank top meant your shoulders where bare. He almost jumped when he saw the soulmate mark just inside the right tank sleeve. His soulmate mark. You were his soulmate. But you were so much younger than him, so much happier than him.
He’d only tried to know you that night and felt such a strong connection, and you were his soulmate, so of course, he would have felt a connection. You settled in Gotham because it had felt right, because he was here. You had met Barry, Wally, and Dick, before finally meeting him - like the universe had been trying to get you two to connect through other people but never actually succeeded until now. He was screwed.
His soulmate would cause the press to have a field day. Especially since you were younger than him. He could only imagine all the awful things they’d say. She faked the mark and is a gold digger. Only using soulmark to get money off him. Secretly cheating on him with Dick. The press could get awful creative when they wanted people to read their articles. He couldn’t put you through that.
“Why don’t you just crash here tonight, there’s spare room, and we might as well get you one, who knows how often you’ll end up crashing here.” he felt himself saying anyway.
“Realy?” you raised an eyebrow at his tense body. He didn’t want you to think he was just saying it out of obligation so relaxed and nodded.
“I’ll also send Jim a message, he owes me a few, so I’ll tell him you’ll be off work for a day or two.”
“Thanks!” rubbed your eyes. “I need the break, to be honest, and a mansion is a very nice break. Lead the way,”
This dilemma was his to deal with, for now, his secret to keep quiet, but dipping you into the Wayne family life wouldn’t hurt anyone.
