Work Text:
It started as a joke, of course
The League giving Batman Mother’s Day gifts
Hal had joked that Jason looked so much like his father that Bruce had probably given birth to him himself — or that he had separated by mitosis. Barry, naturally, thought that made perfect sense; all of Batman’s children were terrifyingly similar to him
Barry conveniently forgot that they were all adopted
After that, John pointed out that if Bruce had given birth to his children, then technically, he was a mother
Diana, continuing the joke with a perfectly straight face, mentioned that Mother’s Day had actually been quite recent
Hal was indignant. How had they missed the opportunity to celebrate Spooky’s special day?
Just then, Clark appeared, having overheard everything, and casually mentioned that Batman’s kids did give him presents
And that was how it started
If his children did it, why shouldn’t they?
What began as teasing turned into a tradition. Every Mother’s Day, Bruce would receive gifts from the League members
Did it make him feel special and loved — even if, sometimes, a little strange — that so many people considered him a mother?
Sure. Sometimes they called him “mother hen,” but according to him, it was just a joke
And after all, how could he be a mother? He was a man. He had lost his own mother at such a young age. How could he possibly give that maternal love to his children when he himself had lost it?
The question lingered longer than he liked to admit
Eventually, he decided to talk to Lois — a mother close to him. Lois told him plainly that he was a mother to his children. Not because of biology, but because of the way he loved them. Unconditionally, fiercely and without hesitation
She told him that motherhood wasn’t about giving birth. It was about protection, care, and showing up
And that every time he saw a child alone in an alley, every time his instincts sharpened and his chest tightened, that was maternal
That resonated within him more deeply than he expected
So he accepted being the “mom.”
The League and his children noticed it immediately. He no longer tensed when they called him “Mom,” and sometimes — traitorously — he even smiled
The teasing escalated, of course, they all had different ways of calling him like Mom, Mama, Mommy, Bat-Mom, Spooky Mom — that one was vetoed after Diana threatened Hal,
But eventually, it stopped sounding like ammunition
It became more than just teasing. It became a tradition
And tradition, in the League, always came with gifts
Which brings us back to what started all of this in the first place — the presents
Sometimes they were cheesy, cliché Mother’s Day presents. Once, he even received a frying pan. The children laughed about it for an entire week
Other times, the gifts were surprisingly thoughtful
There was always that one person — usually one of his children or one of the League’s founders — who gave him something chosen with quiet sincerity, something that wasn’t meant to tease
Every year, he also received letters from his kids
Damian had refused to participate at first; he already had a mother. But with Dick, he had learned that one could have more than one father figure. And eventually, he understood that he could have more than one mother figure as well
Because the way Baba took care of him felt achingly similar to the warmth he felt near his Ummi
There was even one year when all five of the children collaborated on a single gift. It had been chaotic, loud, and full of arguments — and Bruce had pretended not to notice. He accepted it with his chest tight with emotion, especially after seeing that Jason had cooperated — Jason, who had once refused to be near him
In the following years, Jason would come and give him something he had made himself, muttering that Bruce might as well take the job seriously and be the mother he had lost. After that, Bruce had cried so much that he needed makeup to hide it
But at the end of the day, when the Manor was quiet and the cave lights dimmed, Bruce would sit alone and go through every gift he had been given
He would unfold each letter carefully, he would allow himself, just for a moment, to feel it
He had never expected to become a mother
But somewhere along the way, without realizing it, he had become the safest place in the room for all of his children
Bruce kept those gifts in his heart, because they reminded him why he kept fighting.