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Bruce hears the thundering of tiny feet long before he sees the small person they belong to.
The manor reeks, the stench of panic and fear blowing his nostrils wide.
Bruce glances despairingly around the room. Furniture has been upturned, paintings torn from their hooks, and broken shards of pottery litter the floor.
There’d been a break-in, and Bruce had been at work instead of here—with his Familial Beta, Alfred, and his twelve-year-old, unpresented, foster son, Dick.
The footsteps come to an abrupt halt as a small body slams into his side, but Bruce is far from knocked off his feet, built solidly as he is.
The police are still outside, speaking with Alfred, who is presently sitting in the back of an ambulance getting several cuts and bruises attended to. Bruce had made sure to thoroughly check the man over before he’d come hunting for the other member of his family—and he would be sure to continue the fussing later as well. But right now…
Dick melts against him and Bruce swiftly falls to one knee.
“Dick,” he soothes, aiming for reassuring and allowing a deep Alpha hum to find its way into the sub-resonances in his voice.
Curling his arms around the boy’s shoulders, he lets Dick bury his face into Bruce’s shoulder, and a fresh wave of tears fall. Relief pours from the boy’s scent and a frantic purr stutters to life in his throat.
“You were very brave,” Bruce tells him, rubbing circles on his back as he scoops the child up into his arms. Reflexively, Dick wraps his legs around Bruce’s waist and lets himself be carried. “You were very brave, Dick.”
Dick doesn’t say anything, but Bruce doesn’t expect him to. His shoulders are shaking and Bruce can hear the little choked-off sobs, and feel the wet puddle expanding through his dress-shirt.
In all honesty, he feels equally as shaken by the intrusion, but he’s an adult. And an Alpha. And Dick needs him to be present right now. Needs Bruce to be a rock in the middle of the ocean during a raging storm; something firm for him to cling to.
“It’s going to be okay, I promise,” he continues, walking slowly down the hall now, assessing the damage as he goes. “You’re okay. Alfred’s okay. I’m here now, you’re safe.”
The library is the first room he comes across, and he ducks inside.
Inside, books have been thrown from the shelves, and the drapes have been ripped from their curtain rods. The intruders really did a number on the house.
Only one sofa remains upright.
The primal, Alpha part of his brain is furious and distraught. Someone had come into his home and terrorized his family. He wants to rip them limb from limb, he wants to tear them to shreds, but he’s mostly grateful that Alfred only has minor injuries and Dick made it through the frightening event unscathed.
Slowly, Bruce eases himself into the lounge and keeps his scent carefully calm.
Dick doesn’t leave his lap. The boy only clings harder when Bruce does his best to procure a soothing, comforting scent, purposefully allowing it to drape over Dick like an immovable blanket.
The silence is… disconcerting, to say the least, but understandable. In the four years he’s known and loved Dick, the boy has grown inside his heart in a way Bruce never thought would be possible after the death of his familial Alpha and familial Omega.
It’s quieter in here, away from the police and the flashing lights of the ambulance, and Bruce spends the next ten minutes soothing Dick, just holding him as he cries himself out — and only notices the Alpha policewoman slip inside the room when Dick shifts minutely and the second scent touches his nose.
“Mister Wayne,” the woman begins softly, gently, careful of the upset child in Bruce’s arms, for which he is overwhelmingly grateful for.
She steps carefully through the wreckage, looking sympathetic at the messy, broken state Bruce’s house has been left in, and up-rights a desk chair.
“Mister Wayne,” she starts anew. “I am sorry about this, but I do have to ask you a few questions… and get a statement, and such.”
The boy in his arms moves, but only to turn his nose into the crook of Bruce’s neck as he nods.
“Uh, actually,” she gives him a tight smile, glancing between them. “I meant, just the two of us, if possible. I don’t think—”
A pitiful whine crawls up Dick’s throat. And Bruce gives the boy an extra pat. Dick is obviously unwilling to move, however, and while Bruce feels resistant to give him up, he would rather not force Dick to sit through another round of police questioning if he can help it.
“Alright,” he agrees with a reluctant sigh, already gently starting to pry Dick’s arms away from his shoulders.
“—Dick. Dick, you need to let me go. It’s just for a little bit. I’ll be right back, I promise.”
A shudder runs through Dick’s whole body, and he seems even less inclined to let Bruce go.
“Dick, please—” he tries, just as unhappy about being parted, but conscious that, if they ever want to find who did this, Bruce needs to assist.
Another more insistent whine makes its way out of Dick’s throat.
And then Dick does something Bruce has never heard him do before.
It all but bowls him over, and his hands freeze in place atop the boy’s biceps.
Bruce can smell the submission before he hears it in the child’s voice.
“ B— Alpha, no.”
He stills.
Without conscious input on his part, Bruce’s hands slip back around Dick’s frame and tighten again.
The policewoman across from him looks back mildly, but Bruce feels like he’s just been hit by a truck.
Dick just called him ‘Alpha.’
Dick’s never called him that before.
The boy has never even given any indication of even seeing Bruce as his familial Alpha, and Bruce was alright with that—Dick had had a father, after all. And it didn’t stop him from seeing the child as his own anyway, even if he knew he would never fill that role in Dick’s life.
But.
The desperate pleading quality to Dick’s voice, underlaid by the child-like submission, makes Bruce briefly fear he’ll never let the boy slip out of his arms ever again.
“Dick?”
Another purr starts in Dick’s throat, another desperate attempt at getting Bruce to stay. It works.
“Alright,” he sighs, sagging back into the sofa. “Alright, I’ll stay.”
He sends the woman an apologetic smile.
“Sorry,” he says. “I don’t think I’m going anywhere for a while. If you want to ask your questions, you’ll have to do it here.”
In return, she nods back, and shoots him an understanding look, giving in easily to his request.
The boy in Bruce’s arms curls up in his tight embrace, and halfway through the statement he ends up giving, he hears Dick’s breathing even out. The questions only take around fifteen minutes.
“I think that just about covers it,” the other Alpha sighs, tiredly, flipping her notebook closed as she wraps up her queries and starts to stand. “Thank you for your time, Mister Wayne.”
Bruce stands too, and isn’t surprised when Dick remains, blessedly, asleep in his arms. After the day's events, he’s just glad the boy is getting some much needed rest. The stress in his scent has slowly dissipated, mellowing into its usual hazelnut and soft, milky aroma.
It warms something in his chest that Dick feels so utterly safe in his arms to fall asleep in them.
The woman smiles.
“I remember when my eldest was that age,” she says to him then, her eyes turning soft. “All cute and cuddly.”
Bruce feels a spike of fondness shoot through his chest, and he lifts a hand to smooth down the locks on the back of Dick’s head.
“We’ll let you know what comes of the investigation, Mister Wayne,” she adds more seriously. “Thank you for your time.”
He returns the sentiment and follows her to the door of the room, seeing her out.
Only when the door closes behind her again, does Dick start to stir.
Long eyelashes start to flutter open, brushing softly against baby-soft skin. “B?” Dick mumbles.
“Right here, chum,” he returns, pressing a kiss to the boy’s crown.
In return, he’s rewarded with a sleepy smile and the faintest of purrs. It makes his heart constrict with another bout of fondness.
Dick hums something then, so quiet that Bruce almost misses it —
— and then he’s sure he almost melts into a puddle on the floor.
Bruce brushes a salty tear-track from Dick’s cheek with the pad of his thumb and kisses the boy’s crown again, for good measure.
Another soothing rumble of his own comes to life in his chest as Dick’s eyes start to fall closed again.
“I love you too.”