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There were always bets in the Justice League; it was normal and even expected. Adult men and women who dedicated themselves to saving the day had to have some fun, there were always bets about the secondary genders of their comrades-in-arms; not many would say if they were beta, omega, or alpha, just as they kept their identities secret
But the founders know each other, they know each other's identities and their secondary genders, they knew that Clark and Dinah were alphas, neither Diana nor J'onn had a secondary genders, Barry and Oliver were omegas, and Hal and Arthur were betas
But the one everyone didn't know was Batman, the infamous Dark Knight who wore military grade blockers to mask his scent as if his life depended on it
Everyone tries to guess, getting as close as they can without scaring him, trying to ask him, or simply sniffing him subtly
But his scent always deceived them; the few times they were able to smell it, it smelled like an amalgamation of things: chocolate, flowers, coffee, books, tea, jasmine, sunshine, roses, smoke with a little hint of caramel or even incense
It was confusing and overstimulating to have so many smells together. Clark thought it must be the scent of his pack, but Hal scoffed and said it was unthinkable that a guy like Spooky would have a pack. Diana gently corrected him, saying that it was impossible, as far as she knew, for a beta, omega, or alpha not to have a pack they would die of loneliness, Barry confirmed this with multiple scientific studies
So the question remained: what was exactly Batman an omega or an alpha? What did he smell like for real? Did he have a pack? And if so, were those smells theirs?
Oliver and Dinah knew it, they always knew it, from the first moment Olvier smelled himself as he approached Batman, but he swore they wouldn't say a word
The first to discover the truth was, to everyone's surprise, Barry
Barry had a nephew; the nephew got along well with other young heroes and often hung out with them. His nephew was now a fully grown adult, paired/married and with a bright future ahead of him. During one of his quarterly visits to check on his beloved nephew, he smelled it. His house was also an amalgamation of smells: his own, his nephew's, and also the smell of his nephew's partner, Dick Grayson-Wayne
Barry never really paid attention to how his nephew's partner smelled. He knew he was famous for his floral scent, but he never smelled it himself. But once he did, he recognized it: that floral scent like spring, the same one he had smelled on Batman, and with that, it clicked
The next one was Arthur, he didn't know many heroes outside of his friends and the few he socialized with in the league, but Garth socialized everything, even as a child
One day, listening to Garth talk about his last mission where he helped young justice, he had caught a passing, almost accidental, whiff of Red Robin. Arthur, already immersed in the story, asked him what Red Robin, Batman's mysterious sidekick, smelled like. Garth told him that R.R. smelled like coffee beans and a chemical, but also like leather. That smell was obviously Kon's. Arthur thought about it for a while, the smell of coffee? Where did that specific smell sound familiar? In the end, he forgot about it
Then it was Hal's turn. Hal became obsessed with finding out what was happening to Spooky, since he had nothing else to do anyway
In fact, he realized Spooky-Man's secret when he had a small run-in with Signal, the little ruffian who beat him up. That kid smelled like the sun itself; he exuded the scent every time he used his powers. Lantern didn't detect the smell at all; he was in too much pain, but his suit still smelled of it. It was Kyle who asked him why he smelled like the sun just like Batman sometimes smells. That just creates more questions why Signal, a vigilante by day, would smell the same as Batman, a vigilante by night?
He had it on the tip of his tongue
Then came J'onn. He didn't really understand all that stuff about secondary genders, He knew that Batman sometimes smelled relaxing, like family
Sometimes he smelled like sandalwood incense and dark chocolate in Batman, sometimes it reminded him of home and Oreos. He rarely interacted with the other heroes; he liked the calm minds of some, like Robin and Black Bat, calculating but closed minds, peaceful from his perspective
They both also used to hide their scent, rarely leaving traces of it, but J'onn was curious, so he investigated, as much as his own curiosity and morals allow, mostly opting to be close to people who had already been close to his suspects
He knew that Robin and Black Bat had a tendency to always be near Batman. J'onn believed it was to protect him, because the three of them shared the same vibe, so he wasn't surprised that they sometimes smelled the same. He already knew everyone's secret identities, even some of the "Bats," since Meghan had let them out at some point, so the smell only confirmed it
Only Clark and Diana remained to discover the exact secondary gender of their proclaimed "best friend"
They discovered it when they helped Batman during a mission that went very wrong. Batman was badly injured and barely conscious, so they opted to call his emergency contact while he rested at the Watchtower
When they called, an old voice answered, sounding angry when he asked them to explain what had happened to Master Batman, they explained the situation to him and heard a sigh; he sounded tired. He told them he would send someone to pick up the little brat
While they waited, they tried to guess who would come—the old man's voice, some Robin, or someone completely unexpected!—until the metallic voice of the watchtower sounded: "Entering B-03." It immediately threw them off. B-03 was the code for the little curly-haired Robin, the one who had disappeared and left his friend in a deep depression
But the one who entered was a six-foot-tall man, wearing a bright red helmet, with weapons on his thighs, and exuding a sour smell of rotten old books and something like acid from worry and anger. And that awakened something in them, the smell of books? The same smell they sometimes smelled in Batman? The same smell as Little Robin? It couldn't be
They saw the man take off his helmet and leave it on the bed. They saw him look Batman over. They saw him remove the patches, and they smelled how the room filled with multiple scents, but above all, the scent of cologne predominated—a spicy cologne with a slight Arabic touch. Clark knew that smell; he recognized it from the interviews
Diana had only smelled it once in her life, briefly at a gala, but she recognized it immediately
Shocked by all these truths, they watched in amazement as the newcomer, Jason Todd-Wayne, enveloped his father in his scent. They saw him pick him up and carry him in his arms until they assumed it was the Z tubes. And they heard them leave in the same way they had arrived, leaving the room filled with the scent of worry and familial love
Now everyone somehow knew who Batman was. Barry, in good faith, explained to Arthur and Hal what had happened and that no one had actually won any of the bets because no one had ever predicted that Batman was Omega
But at least now they know something more about their friend, even if they would never tell him and would wait for him to trust them
And far away from there, in a massive bed inside an even larger manor, a nest the size of a movie theater held a pile of pups draped over their precious momma/father
Bruce was simply happy they were all together again.