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1.
Batman was a mystery to most of the Justice League. He didn’t tell anyone his secret identity. It was hard to even imagine he had a life outside of them.
So imagine Barry’s surprise when he catches a glimpse of Batman’s phone background. He wasn’t trying to look. Well, maybe he was curious but he wasn’t dumb enough to snoop on the Dark Knight. It took everything in him to stay quiet when he caught a flash of a child’s face. Big round eyes, brown hair, and a gap in his teeth. Probably in kindergarten, posing for what looked like a school picture. His t-shirt was a faded red, and was that Lightning McQueen on it?
Before he could look any further, Batman was closing his phone and readying himself for the meeting.
Barry was intrigued but chose not to speak on it. He understood the need to keep family safe. He could let Batman have this bit of privacy.
2.
It wasn’t until Oliver said something a month later that Barry thought about it again. Batman had just performed a rescue for Green Arrow, using the Batplane to bring him to a safehouse. Oliver was in his hospital bed when Barry came to get his mission report. As they wrapped up, Oliver spoke softly. “Hey, I think Batman has a kid.”
Barry tensed for a moment before deciding to be honest. “I think so too.”
“I saw a picture on the dash of the Batplane,” Oliver smiled, “It was a blurry photo of a girl. Looked 7 or so.”
Barry tilted his head, “Huh? I saw a school photo of a boy.”
“Are you sure?”
“Yeah, short brown hair, red t-shirt.”
“Nope, she was Asian. Short black hair. Black turtleneck.”
“That’s weird,” Barry paused for a moment thinking over the possibility, “He must have two kids, then?”
And both still quite young, he must have had them while in the Justice League. It shouldn’t be this surprising that he never mentioned it. Barry tried to think back to any memory of Batman taking time off in the last decade and came up empty. The man barely took sick days.
“That can’t be true. I mean, I can’t imagine Batman even hugging a child. Much less two of them.”
“Yeah, it’s weird. But what other possible explanation is there for Batman keeping a kid’s picture on his dashboard?” Barry raised an eyebrow.
Oliver sighed. “Yeah, yeah. It’s just hard to process.”
Barry and Oliver both filed away this information, agreeing that it was a bad idea to question Batman about any of this.
3.
The third time it happened, Captain Marvel was the only one to witness it. While Batman was nothing but kind to him, Billy was always intimidated by him. He always made sure there was someone sitting between him and Batman during meetings or on plane rides. It was more than just Billy being new to the League and not comfortable around the veteran members. There was something about specifically Batman’s presence that made Billy want to bow his head. He felt like he was about to be reprimanded every time Batman spoke. Like he was being coddled.
He didn’t think too hard about it. But it stung when he had to watch the whole League pack up for missions without him. Sure, this was a dangerous mission but nothing Billy couldn’t handle. However, the Dark Knight had put his foot down about Captain Marvel not being there. It had upset him, but he was far too scared of the older man to say anything about it. Instead, Billy was just avoiding him as best he could. At least their mission was leaving soon and he was Batman-free for the week.
So when Billy walked into the meeting room to see them all off, he was shocked to see Batman staring down at a photo on his phone. It took Billy a few moments to process what was happening.
He barely saw it before it was being put away but it was clear: A toddler in a sweater vest with piercing blue eyes. The eyes stuck with him even once the photo was gone. He didn’t think a child could look like he was interrogating you until he saw that photo.
“You have a son?” Billy asked before he could think to stop himself. He immediately regretted it, holding his breath waiting for the man to respond.
Batman looked up at him for a moment before speaking, “Yes.”
Billy nodded. Batman was always much nicer to him than he was to the others. Like he knew he needed to be more gentle. Now that was starting to make more sense, he’s acting like a dad.
Billy suddenly froze. If Batman was treating Billy like a kid, it was because he knew… He looked up to say something to the man. He wasn’t sure what but he needed to respond somehow. He glanced around the room and realized Batman had disappeared without a sound.
Batman knows he’s a kid. Batman has a kid, for gosh sakes’. This was terrifying.
Billy didn’t dare to mention it to anyone around the Watchtower.
4.
Hal slowed to a stop when he heard Batman’s normally gravelly voice much softer than normal. “Send them over.”
A voice crackled through a voice modulator, “You owe me.”
“Hnh.”
Who was Batman talking to? What did he need so badly that he was willing to owe someone a favour?
Hal lingered by the doorway for a moment until he leaned into the doorway. On the laptop in front of Batman, there was a photo of… a child?
The baby had chubby cheeks and short black hair. They were wrapped in a white cloth embroidered with gold. Batman flipped to the next page in the slideshow and it showed the baby awake now, still in the same blanket. This time the arms of someone were visible. The hands holding the bundle were darker skinned, with gold bangles on each wrist.
“If you have enough time to spy, you have enough time to look through the new security plans I sent out this morning.”
Hal jumped away from the door at the sound of Batman speaking to him. He rolled his eyes before speaking. “I’ll get on that.”
Batman didn’t deign to respond, instead looking through more pictures.
Hal skulked away. Did Batman have a kid?
5.
J’onn sat next to Batman as they waited for the meeting to start. The two of them were always the first to arrive, with Superman being close behind.
Something must have been keeping him back because he would panic if he was less than five minutes early.
The vibration of a phone call began but the phone on the table didn’t light up. Instead, Batman reached into his belt to retrieve a second phone.
A name and photo flashed across the screen while Batman seemed to deliberate on whether or not to pick it up. The photo showed a small boy in a colourful outfit, standing on a rope of some sort. He was posed and smiling for the camera.
The name was only two letters: “DG” with a small heart emoji beside it.
Batman not hiding the photo seemed to indicate that he was alright with J’onn knowing that he was getting a phone call. Due to the nature of J’onn’s powers he already knew that Batman had children in his life, even if he did not push for more information.
“That photo is quite charming. Is that your son?”
“Yes.”
While Batman didn’t elaborate, a smile came to his face and his demeanour lightened. In the end, he didn’t answer the call, instead messaging back.
The interaction put J’onn in a pleasant mood as the meeting began.
+1
Barry was talking to the police when he noticed all the heroes grouping up again. Everyone had made it out relatively unharmed, minus some scratches and a twisted ankle. There were also way more heroes than he thought lingering nearby.
When they had arrived to take down Luthor’s massive robots, it was just him, Clark, and Batman. Now there was a small crowd of masked heroes crowded around the group. He recognized one of them as Nightwing, who was currently talking to Superman. Barry looked around and noticed each of them. There were three that Barry couldn’t identify. A woman with a full face mask and bat ears. A teenage boy with a red and yellow outfit. And a child with a sword. That cannot be ethical.
Batman was next to the woman. Barry peered around and saw that he was holding her hand and using his other hand to prod at her wrist. Maybe she’d been injured.
He couldn’t help but notice the gentleness that he was using. Looking closer, she had the exact same bat insignia on her chest too. Barry wrote it off as just his care for the other vigilantes in his city. It made sense, Batman was always quick to help out the injured JLA members so of course he would be tending to someone he had even more of a close relationship with.
Barry finished up with the police officers before speeding over to the group of them.
No one seemed shocked when he appeared beside them out of nowhere. Instead, they all just looked his way. He smiled down at the group, realizing just how short the kid and teenager were. “You guys did a great job today! Thanks for coming all the way out to Metropolis.”
The small kid wasn’t reactive to the praise but the teenager nodded his head and thanked him. The woman also muttered out her thanks despite the mask covering her whole face. Suddenly, Nightwing’s voice rang out from behind him. “C’mon guys, be nice.”
The child finally spoke to Barry. “It was not difficult, we are here to help.”
“Did you guys do introductions yet?”
At that, Batman looked up at Nightwing from where he was wrapping a bandage around the woman’s wrist. His face looked as impassive as normal but it was clear that some silent conversation was happening. Finally after a moment, Batman spoke. “These are some vigilantes from Gotham. I brought them with me because we were nearby.”
Nightwing let out a small laugh. Barry noticed the way the corner of the teenager’s mouth tipped up as he spoke. “Yeah. We were just in the neighbourhood hanging out with The Batman.”
Again, it seemed like some private joke happening between them all. They were looking between each other while Batman continued to check for injuries. He moved on from the girl to the smallest child. It seemed so caring, the way they teased him while he moved between the kids taking care of them. In moments like this, Barry wasn’t surprised that Batman had children.
Barry stopped himself at that thought.
He looked through the group once more, counting off the kids. He’d heard from Hal and Ollie about the photos they saw, and even Captain Marvel had confided in him about it. One girl, a tan baby, a pale boy, and curly brown hair. Oh.
“Oh my god.”
Everyone looked up at him at that. “You’re the kids.”
Almost in exact unison, they all looked towards Batman. When he didn’t look back. they nodded at Barry. Using their secret code of glances again. As every moment went by, it became more and more obvious. The synchronized movements and smooth fighting. The symbols on their chests weren’t the same with the exception of the girl and Batman, who both had yellow bats in slightly different shapes, but on each of their waists was an almost identical utility belt to the one Batman wore, matched to their individual colour schemes.
“Was I the last one to figure this out?”
Batman finally looked up at him. “No, the only others who know are J’onn, Superman, and Wonder Woman.”
“Oh.”
That made Barry feel a bit better about himself. Especially seeing as one of those people could read minds. “I guess it makes sense that you’re all vigilantes…”
No one was really answering, just nodding along and letting him process it. The smallest one wasn’t even looking at him, just speaking softly to Batman. After a few moments, he spoke again. “Jesus, I thought you guys were like… little?”
Nightwing laughed out loud. “You should see Hood. He’s bigger than B by now.”
Barry looked over at the towering man who was still crouching down by the youngest. Barry was used to being around people with superhuman bodies. He was tall and muscular too. But the idea of someone larger than the 200+ pound, 6’3 man was still a bit shocking. Then the rest of the comment hit him. “There are more of you?”
Nightwing smiled. “Yep!”