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Bruce’s skin is bare all his childhood, but that’s not so unusual. Not everyone has a romantic bond, and some people don’t have words at all. Bruce’s words appear long after his parents have died, when he’s in college, one set after another over the years as each new soulmate is born.
He stares at them sometimes, wondering who he’s bound to, what kind of people his soulmates will be, when he’ll meet them. Based on when they’re born he assumes he’ll meet them many years in the future, once they’re grown. He’s looking forward to being some kind of big brother or odd uncle figure to six young people.
Although he is quite concerned by one set of words.
Regardless, he hopes his soulmates will like him; hopes they won’t be turned away by his vapid and wild Brucie persona and his quietly broken soul. He doesn’t dare hope for their love, not really, not after he’s lost his parents and has no hope for a soulmate his own age to share a real romantic love with.
He’s content to know that he’ll be some distant mentor to six bright souls. And that’s enough for him.
He’s been expecting to be alone for quite some time yet, he figures he can be Batman until his soulmates all grow up, at the very least, so it takes him completely by surprise when nine-year-old Dick Grayson speaks his words.
“Wha… Who?…”
Bruce hadn’t been expecting that. He’s been ready for those words to be spoken all his life, knew he had familial soulmates by the color of their words on his skin, but somehow he never expected his words to be spoken by a child , and certainly not one who just lost his parents to a criminal, just like Bruce did.
He makes a decision right then, to take Dick in, to raise him as his own son, if the boy agrees. And Dick does. He’s a delight of a child, Bruce couldn’t ask for a better son.
It takes a long few years and many parenting mistakes before Bruce hears his second set of words. Or, well, his second word.
“Whoops.”
And just like that, Bruce knows he’ll be raising a second child. When the kid runs for it, bruised rib or no, there is no way Bruce is going to let him out of his sight. He tails the kid to his ‘home’, but Jason is so independent, Bruce knows he’ll never come with him the way Dick did.
So, Ma Gunn’s school for boys it is. And what a mistake that is.
By the time Jason knocks out the last of Ma Gunn’s boys, Bruce has already decided to take him in himself this time. Thankfully, Jason doesn’t put up too much of a fight.
And then, Jason…
Jason…
…
It’s much later that Bruce meets his third son, and he’s so far gone in his grief over Jason’s death that he doesn’t even realize it.
“...Can you hear me?”
Bruce calls out, pinned by the beams, and has his first terrible interaction with Tim. It takes a long time for him to come to terms with the fact that Tim is going to be Robin whether he likes it or not. It takes a much longer time and a nightmare of a flashback before he realizes that Tim too is one of his soulmates, one of his children. He can’t apologize to Tim enough for how he treated him, but Tim is forgiving. Bruce spends a lot of time and effort making it up to him.
Their relationship gets better after that.
Then Bruce almost loses Tim to the Clench. It’s horrifying. He searches and searches for a cure, knowing he’s about to lose another son. He doesn’t find the cure. His heart is broken.
Then Azrael pulls off a miracle, and Tim’s life is saved.
Bruce doesn’t know how many more hits his heart can take.
And he still has three soulmates to meet.
Then the Earthquake hits.
No Man’s Land isn’t the worst time of Bruce’s life, not by far, but it is one of the most grueling, difficult, and painful times he’s ever been through. Seeing his people struggling so fiercely – the people he was supposed to protect, the people he failed – is brutal. Pulling Dick and Tim in only helps so much. There’s no way to get Barbara out, and Gordon won’t leave, and all the Gothamites who are left are in so much danger every single day.
And in the middle of it all, Bruce finds another soulmate.
“Stop.”
The word is quiet, but Cassandra says it with such conviction that Bruce stops right where he is, fist mid-swing. Cassandra eels around him and picks the gang member up by their jacket and sets them on their feet.
“Stop,” she tells her, quiet enough that Bruce has to strain to hear. “Stop.”
The woman bursts into tears, and after Cassandra and Bruce guide her to a nearby shelter, Bruce knows that this soulmate – his first daughter – is going to be unlike any other. He can’t wait to introduce her to Dick and Tim.
And then Jason…
Jason comes back…
And everything changes yet again.
It takes a long time for Tim to heal. It takes Bruce much more time to forgive, more time than it takes Tim. But Jason is eventually brought back into the fold, and the first morning Bruce wakes up with all his soulmates sleeping under his roof, he weeps.
The next soulmate he meets breaks his heart from his first word.
“Father. I imagined you taller.”
How could Talia have betrayed him in such a way? Why did she never tell him?
He knows Damian’s birthday, knows his birth minute, even, because he watched his words form on his skin, and wrote the information down so he would never forget it. And now his youngest son – his own flesh and blood – is fighting him. He seems to want nothing more than to kill him, to kill them all, and Bruce despairs at first.
Then he realizes just how much Damian wants to belong, just how much he craves recognition and attention. He wants a place in Bruce’s family and he’s willing to kill to get it. It’s up to Bruce to show him that he already has one.
It takes quite a while, and a couple near misses with Tim, but eventually Damian understands that his place is in his father’s arms, right beside all his siblings.
Bruce loves them all, each in their own way, and he would never want any of them to hurt another.
And then, Bruce waits.
He has one soulmate left to find, one child left to gather beneath his cape, to protect and nurture and cherish, and this one’s words are the most concerning of all.
He’s on a mission when he finds his last soulmate.
There’s a child strapped to a table in a lab, cut open and bleeding green blood, and when Bruce reaches out to release him, the child’s delirious eyes snap to meet his.
“I’m alive! I swear I’m alive!”
Bruce feels his heart stutter in his chest.
His blood runs cold.
His last lost child, his final soulmate, his son. Cut open and bleeding and absolutely terrified.
There’s so much Bruce will have to do to fix this. And he needs to start right away.
“You’re alive,” Bruce tells him, and the boy sobs out a relieved breath. “You’re alive.”
He releases his son, gathers him in his arms, and carries him to safety.
This son is just as unique as all his children, and he’s just as shy and scared when he’s introduced to his new family, but he’s just as brave too. He smiles shyly as he introduces himself to his new siblings, and Bruce’s heart grows warm at the love that his children all show their newest family member.
Bruce has a full house of wonderful children to spend his days and nights with.
He loves them all, supports them all, and guides them all as best he’s able.
When he first saw his soulmarks, he could never have imagined his life filled with so much love.
And now he can’t imagine his life without it. Without them.
And he’ll never have to.