Chapter Text
For once, Bruce was postponing putting his Batsuit on. Usually Alfred or one of the boys would have to drag him away from the computer and his cases, sometimes literally. Not tonight.
Come on, old man. You can make new friends, you love making friends. Jason loved making him miserable.
Yeah! Doesn’t that sound fun! Dick didn’t understand his brother’s sarcasm or chose to ignore it.
No, Bruce grumbled. He still put on his gloves, finishing the long process of dressing for the evening. He may not want to go to his first League meeting, but he wasn’t dumb enough to miss it. Not after Alfred stated that Bruce would be going.
Tt. I do not see why Father should waste time with those inferior beings anyway, Damian scoffed. He had a scowl on his face. One that could normally be considered fearsome, if it weren’t on a child that was riding his older brother’s shoulders. Bruce just thought it was cute, not that he’d ever tell Damian. His night was lousy enough already without being stabbed by his baby. Though, maybe if he got stabbed Alfred would let him stay home. No, he’d know Bruce was trying to get out of the meeting and make him go anyway.
I think they’re kinda cool. Tim spoke quietly, holding Jason’s chest like a baby koala. They were still working on Tim giving opinions without him worrying about the family shutting him down.
See Timbers gets it, D. Dick grinned wildly. Plus Dad is a lonely old man. He needs adult friends that aren’t a part of the family. Damian rolled his eyes but dropped the subject. His sons hated him. There was no other explanation for them being so happy right now. Well, Damian didn’t seem happy, but that was his usual state, so he didn’t count.
You’re going to be late if you don’t get moving. Correction, Dick hated him.
I know, he sighed.
Don’t worry, they won’t kick him out. They met Alfred. No way they’d risk his wrath. Jason saw right through him. He grumbled a bit more, taking every second he could before he left.
Ok, ok, I’m leaving. Don’t burn down the city and if anything happens call the emergency comm, got it?
We’re not babies, get out of here. Dick said, pushing him towards the Batcave’s zeta tube.
A bright light enveloped the Bat before fading just as quickly. He made sure the zeta did not announce his arrival, the Justice League really did have terrible security. If he was going to be forced to join this team by his father, he was at least going to have some fun with it. And creeping out the League was definitely fun.
The League was already afraid of him and his boys without trying, but that didn’t mean Batman couldn’t add some theatricality to the whole thing. Alfred couldn’t get mad at him, either. He may not appreciate rudeness but Alfred could never say no to theater. That’s how Bruce had convinced him that they should arrive and disappear in the dark, the last time they had shown up here.
As much as the boys had been annoying him about being late he was still here twenty minutes before the meeting would start. The League hadn’t given them any info on when to meet them again, and he hadn’t asked. He could find out perfectly well on his own, and if it added another layer of mystery he wasn’t upset about it.
He slipped into the room the meeting would be in, lights off and chairs empty. He considered the best way to spook them a bit, without coming off as an enemy. Alfred wasn’t going to allow him to ditch this group without a good reason, so he might as well try and be friendly with them. Or at least not become enemies. He had enough of those already.
Looking around, he noticed that they had added a seat for him. They seemed to sit in the same places every time, considering that had been the case both times he had interrupted their meetings before. He’d already done the ‘flickering lights voice from the shadows’ thing so that was out. Plus he had nothing to say. He supposed he could wait until they were all properly distracted before simply appearing in his chair. He was sneaky enough to pull it off, especially knowing that his missing heartbeat and breathing wouldn’t alert Superman to his existence.
Having decided his course of action he figured waiting in the rafters was the best place to watch from. Using his large, deadly talons he quickly scaled the wall. A few puncture holes were left, but they weren’t any larger than if someone had used a nail to hang a painting. He’d mastered this a long time ago. Once he was safely in the rafters he curled up, content on waiting for the meeting to begin.
He may have dozed a bit -sue him he’d been wrangling 4 immortal hell children for decades. He was a little sleep-deprived- because the next thing he knew Wonder Woman and Superman were walking in, side by side.
He’d reserved judgment on them all in the wake of the misunderstanding with his children. Better to have a clean slate in the beginning. Plus his kids did really like the gifts they had been given. Despite this, he felt Wonder Woman and Superman were heroes he could come to respect, even if Superman was a walking ball of light. Ugh. Batman wasn’t sure about Martian Manhunter. He seemed calm and wise. A respectable foe or ally. But he did not trust the fact that he could read minds. Tim had assured him that the alien could not read their minds unless they allowed it, but Bruce wasn’t convinced. The other two, Flash and Arrow, he didn’t see himself becoming buddies with. They were loud and annoying, as far as he could tell. Ok, maybe he had already judged them, but only he had to know that.
“I’m just saying, Di, I’m not sure he’ll show up. We didn’t even tell him about the meeting. ” Superman was hovering over the ground, as opposed to walking next to his co-leader. He seemed to droop as he spoke to her.
“He will show. He does not need us to tell him these things. You saw his father, I am sure he knows about the meeting and that he is welcome to come. ”
Oh, they were talking about him. He appreciated Diana’s confidence. At least one of his new teammates knew what he was capable of. Even if it did slightly hinge on Alfred. His father had taught him, though, so he allowed it.
“I guess, it feels rude not to give an invite, though.”
“I am sure the Bat will understand. We were not exactly expecting his last drop-in, after all. If it makes you feel better, you can catch him after this meeting and let him know about the next one.” He’d have to disappear quickly if he didn’t want to be cornered by Metropolis. His sunshine attitude gave Batman the shivers. Who could live like that?
Superman, of course, brightened at the prospect. “Yeah, that sounds good! Plus, I brought more gifts for the Birds, they seemed to really like the last ones. That’ll be a good chance to give them to him.” Fuck, now he had to stay behind or face the wrath of four grumpy kids.
Martian Manhunter floated in the room, choosing to phase through the wall rather than use the door. He nodded politely to the other two present members and sat in his usual spot. Superman and Wonder Woman were discussing evacuation methods now. Bruce tuned them out, he’d already read all of their files. He watched the Martian instead. He hadn’t reacted to Batman when entering the room. That didn’t mean he did not notice his presence.
After he had been staring at the alien for a few minutes -without any changes- the last two members arrived. Four minutes late. Bruce definitely would not be getting along with them easily. Especially not Flash, with the way he talked nonstop at a million miles per minute.
“- so then I had to run all the way to the other side of the city just to get a poster, but it turns out they didn’t have green posters so I had to grab green paint and paint it and dry it by running around with the poster, but a lot of the paint came off while I was running so it turned out to be a very patchy green, which isn’t what we needed- ”
“Flash, Arrow, now that we are all here we may begin the meeting.” Wonder Woman, thankfully, cut off the speedster. Batman liked her the best.
“The Bat isn’t here yet, Di?” Superman frowned.
“He will be, in the meantime, I advise we begin the meeting, I’m sure the Bat will drop in when he is ready.” She definitely knew he was here. How had she noticed? She must have seen the holes in the wall. He was impressed. She was definitely his favorite. Jason was going to be insufferable if he ever found out. He always found out.
It made his job a bit easier since he only had to wait for four of the five heroes to be properly distracted. Given Flash’s attention span, he was zoned out in under five minutes. Arrow followed right behind him.
His seat was next to Martian Manhunter, which put him at a slight advantage since the man would not be looking at him directly. There was a good amount of space between the chairs which meant he wasn’t at risk of brushing up against him either. That only left Superman, since Wonder Woman apparently couldn’t be fooled.
The Bat waited until Superman turned his back on the round table, presenting a slideshow about property damage, to drop down. He descended silently, close to the wall. It wouldn’t do to have one of the members notice him fall from their peripheral vision.
He made eye contact with Wonder Woman, who was looking his way out of the side of her eye. She smiled kindly before turning her attention back to Superman’s lecture. The Bat slid forward and sat in his chair quietly. He opted for curling up here, as he had been in the rafters, like a big black cat. The claws, eyes, and fangs only emphasized the look. Batman didn’t care, he was comfortable.
Superman finished his slide on the structural integrity of bridges and turned around. “So we need to make sure that any battles occurring near rivers or oceans are- FUCK.” The Bat simply blinked at him. Flash and Arrow jumped out of their seats together, Flash darting behind the archer. Manhunter looked over, slight shock on his face. He was either a really good actor, or Tim had been correct and the alien couldn’t sense their minds without permission.
“How long has he been there!” Flash seemed like he was going to faint. Bat heard a faint I didn’t know he could teleport come from the other part of the duo.
“Thank you for coming Batman, we are glad to have you on the team,” Wonder Woman greeted. Batman chittered a quick of course back to her, not that they could understand the batfamily’s language.
Superman had taken a second to calm down, hands on his knees, before straightening up again.
“Glad you could make it, Bat. Please never do that again.” Bruce would make no such promises. He was having a lot of fun. Superman continued his bridge safety talk.
Bruce realized quickly that all the information they were going over was in the files he read. Did the others not read their own files? Or had something happened that required a refresher? Given that no bridge-related disasters had occurred lately -and the apparent lack of attention span from two of the five other members- Bruce decided it was the first one.
Content that he wouldn’t miss anything, he stayed curled up and rested his head for a while. He wasn’t foolish enough to sleep in the middle of a group of relatively unknown people, but he could tune out Superman’s words for a while.
“Is he asleep?” Arrow asked. Taking the wonderful opportunity that the green archer had presented, he quickly turned to stare at the man.
“Eep” the man yelped at the sudden attention. “Guess not.”
“Arrow, please pay attention and do not interrupt the meeting.”
“He was sleeping!” He shouted, offended by Wonder Woman’s scolding.
“He was not, and even if he was, I’m confident that he knows this information a lot better than you. Please do not interrupt again.” Arrow grumbled while Flash snickered at him, glad to not be the one in trouble this time.
Batman rested his head again until the end of the meeting. Once Superman declared them done, the Bat swept into the hallway. He supposed he had to wait for Superman for his kids’ gifts, but he didn’t have to wait in a room full of people. He stood near the zetas waiting for Superman to come flying in.
“Batman wait- oh,” he hesitated realizing that the Bat had expected him to follow. “Er- I just wanted to apologize about the misunderstanding with your sons. I feel pretty bad that we scared them so much.”
Bruce grunted. Superman disappeared for less than a second, just to reappear with a small stack of presents.
“Okay, anyway I got these for them as an apology. I hope they like them.” He handed the Bat the packages. “And this one on top is for you.” Batman blinked at the alien. He was just tricked into taking his first gift, and he didn’t think the hero in front of him even realized.
Thank you Alfred would kill him if he didn’t say it. And he did actually kind of appreciate the thoughtfulness of the man.
“Uhh, you’re welcome? I think.” Superman beamed, still clueless to what the Bat was saying when he chirped. “I know you don’t exactly need an invite, seeing as you can find the info out for yourself but the next meeting is the 18th of next month. Now you don’t have to search around for the date.”
Batman made a rumbling noise in acknowledgment.
“Ok, see you then. Let me know if the Birds like their presents! Bye!” He flew back down the hallway.
Bruce looked at the stack of gifts in his hands and Zeta’d home.