Chapter Text
Throughout his life, Bruce has encountered many unpleasant situations. As Gotham's Knight, Bruce has seen the worst of humankind multiple times. However none have quite reached last night’s events. Of all the things he might have imagined, it never crossed his mind that a pair of humans would enslave a young Fae.
It’s hard to believe what he has just learned. Bruce knows it sounds straight up insane, but he was there when Timmy revealed the truth.
Somehow the Drakes managed to summon a fae, and then they bound him to an oath. The idea of a child forced to grant them their wishes makes Bruce sick.
Now Bruce has to fix things without breaking the frail peace between the Fae Court and the rest of humankind. This is why Bruce is currently seated in the comfort of his garden, supervising the kids at play, while he’s trying to come up with a solution to this problem.
Over the sound of crickets, Bruce can hear the children playing. Based on all the yips and growls and squeals it seems they are having quite a lot of fun. A quick glance tells him it’s apparently Jason’s turn to play tag.
“Gotcha!” Jason exclaims as he catches one of his brothers, Damian, in his arms. The dhampir lets out an offended yelp at being picked up so easily. Despite that, he doesn’t bare his fangs at Jason. Instead he lets himself be scented by his brother.
“Help me,” Damian mouths silently, begging for his dad's help, but Bruce only chuckles and shakes his head. He can’t interfere in his children’s games. That would spoil all the fun, wouldn’t it? And Damian is exaggerating—hugs have never hurt anybody.
He continues to observe them. It seems Jason is stalking Timmy’s tracks. Good luck with that, Bruce thinks to himself. Tim is quite an evasive child. This morning it only took them forty five minutes to find him for breakfast, beating yesterday’s record of an hour and a half. Bruce is confident that as the days pass by, Tim will become easier to find.
As the kids continue to play, Bruce’s mind starts to wander, as always.
Thanks to Alfred's gracious magic, they don’t have to worry about hiding their true forms. To the ordinary human eye, they look like nothing other than human children playing tag. It’s one of the many powers Alfred has. Powers that make him the main spirit of the Wayne Hold.
Alfred’s power is immense. Without Alfred’s help, most of the manor likely wouldn’t have any power.
Then out of nowhere, he hears a piercing shriek of battle. In an instant Bruce raises his head, and there are Jason and Damian, tumbling down the hill. It seems like they decided to settle their differences with rough play.
A snort leaves his mouth, as both of his kids fall in a heap of leaves. Not far from them is a laughing Tim who is dutifully trailing behind them.
The corner of his lips curl up in a smile.
Trust Jason to lighten up the situation. That’s exactly what they need. Or, at least what Tim needs at the moment: to stop focusing on the giant elephant in the room and instead just doing what he’s meant to be.
Be a kid.
It took a lot of convincing and praise to make Tim uncover his ears. It had been near impossible to persuade Tim that there was, indeed, nothing wrong with his ears and that yes, they are unique and beautiful just as they are.
Bruce doesn’t know why the couple that held Tim against his will—Drakes, his mind supplies, they were called Drake—focused so much on his ears. Figuratively speaking, there’s nothing wrong with them. Yes, they are a bit pointy, but that’s exactly how a Fae’s ears are supposed to look.
Initially, Bruce thought Tim’s mind had been broken, and that they would have to take him to Dinah.
But in the end, that turns out not to be their main concern.
It was the other things: the way Tim kept flinching every time someone got near him; the lack of self confidence; the withdrawn behavior; and all the myriad little things that kept reaffirming Bruce’s decision to keep Tim out of his parents’, no, his keepers’, hands is the best, the only option.
His eyes fall to the newspaper in his hands.
$100,000 for anyone who has information about Drakes’ Missing Son.
The urge to crumple and toss it out to the trash is strong. Bruce has met a long list of horrible humans, but the Drakes are right at the top. The sheer audacity, he can’t help but think. The nerve!
Bruce doesn’t have an ounce of remorse for taking Tim with him. Not even if that has made his life complicated these last couple of days. It’s something he doesn’t particularly mind. Life is more fun if you add a little bit of danger. Even if the situation is… quite dire to say the least.
It's the kind of situation that could likely spark the fury of an entire species and the annihilation of the human race… again.
(This is what? The third or fourth time that humans have gotten into a mess and Bruce is the one who has to save them. Not that Bruce is keeping count. Nope! Not at all.)
Now, for the record, Bruce is trying to salvage the situation as best as he can. He’s already sent a message to the Fae Court—who will most likely request a grand audience to ask for the Drakes’ immediate execution—and he already has Alfred and Dick investigating in the Wayne Hold how to break unbreakable oaths.
Because that is what happened. Not only did a human couple manage to kidnap a fae, but they also ensnared him in an unbreakable oath. Serve usque ad mortem. The Latin equivalent to serve until death.
It is a cruel vow the type of vow that Bruce wants to dispel at any cost. It doesn’t matter what the price is to free the fae from the humans’ clutches, if that will mean Timothy Jackson Drake will finally be free of them.
So now Bruce has to undo the oath that binds the Drakes and the child together, and return Tim to the Fae Court.
That, of course, does not take into account how the Fae will react to the news. Because if the Fae Court decides that the best course of action is to kill all humans, then, well… That complicates things. By a lot.
And that’s if they ignore Tim’s adapting process. At first he’d been desperate to go back to his parents, unaware that they had bound him to them, for eternity. The first night, Tim had been near unconsolable, citing that his parents would be so angry with him they would most likely never want him back.
In the end, with lots of effort, Tim had managed to calm down. He still asked every now and then for his “parents”, but it had lessened over the days.
“Something on your mind, Master Bruce?” a familiar voice speaks out of nowhere.
“I don’t know what I’m doing, Alfred,” Bruce admits, with a sigh. It’s the truth. Unless they find a way to break the oath that binds Tim and his “parents” together, Bruce has no idea how to proceed from here.“ I feel like my hands are tied.”
Metaphorically and literally speaking, because how are you supposed to break an unbreakable oath to begin with? It is simply not possible, and yet here they were. Sitting in one of their gardens, waiting for something to happen. All because they were unable to fix what a pair of foolish humans did a decade ago.
“That’s the overachiever in you, Master Bruce. You’re doing your best,” the spirit says with a soft and demure smile. It’s the same tone Alfred uses whenever one of Bruce’s pack needs to be calmed, he realizes. Strangely, it helps.
“I don’t recall you ever admitting defeat before,” Alfred continues. His transparent eyes look at Bruce, curious, “What’s changed now?”
Lots of things. For example, there are four children instead of three. Bruce never imagined he’d be taking in another child. With three, he had more than enough. Four? Unimaginable, and yet… Tim had settled in with them. Despite the small hitch, Tim had settled in well. Now it felt as if Tim had always been part of the pack.
“I’m not giving up yet. It’s just…” he trails off, cursing the Drakes once again for putting him in this complicated position. “The Fae Court has yet to reply to any of my messages and I fear… I fear I am not looking forward to their answer.”
Silence settles in between them.
“Trust your instincts. Those have never failed you before.”
That makes him snort. “That’s one way to put it.”
“I’m sure everything will fall into place,” Alfred says, averting his gaze to the kids playing. The corners of his eyes wrinkle as he smiles, watching them play with abandon. The warmth in his eyes holds a pang of nostalgia. “I see the kids are having fun.”
Bruce clears his throat, “You didn’t come here to chit chat, didn’t you?”
“I didn’t,” Alfred doesn’t sound remorseful. “I come bearing news.”
“Did Dick receive my message?”
“Yes,” There’s a slight pause. The world tilts on its axis as Alfred replies, “He’s found a way to break the Drakes' oath.”