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It started, as so many things did, with the first Robin.
Neither of them could remember who had made the first move, if a sleepy little bird had crawled into shelter under the thick cape on his own or if Batman had ushered him in as another gruff way of showing his care. Either way it soon became part of their routine, as natural as post-patrol snacks or injury checks. Whenever a stakeout stretched too long or the Gotham weather got too cold and wet for a child whose taste in uniforms was far from sensible (“it’s for the flexibility, Batman!”) Robin would disappear into the shadow of the cape, only to re-emerge some time later as full of cheer and energy as ever.
By the time Jason joined, Robin hiding in Batman’s cape was as much a part of the hero mythos as Batman’s distaste for guns. As such, he needed no prompting to slip away when he needed a break, knowing he was perfectly safe in the shadow of the cape.
Bruce wouldn’t admit it for years to come, but the first time Jason sought shelter from him had been the moment he decided he might be able to handle things after all.
Like in so many things regarding Robin, Tim’s experience was very much the opposite. He hadn’t dared to presume anything, certainly wasn’t about to claim a space he still felt uncertain of. Bruce didn’t help the matters, too caught up in his own grief to realize Tim wasn’t shunning the cape out of preference or lack of need.
Things didn’t come to a head until a particularly vicious autumn storm had Batman scrambling to get a nearly hypothermic child to the medbay, cursing himself with every wheezing breath that passed the blue-tinged lips. He hardly needed Alfred’s scolding to make it clear to Tim that he was not only allowed but encouraged to seek shelter from the cape whenever he felt any need to do so.
It still took a while for Tim to gather his courage to actually do so. Of course, he chose to make his first capescapade (as Dick gleefully dubbed it) a pain on Commissioner Gordon’s nerves. He stepped out in the middle of a conversation the man was having with Batman, acting for all the world as though he’d been there the whole time.
“You really are a little slip of a thing, aren’t you,” Gordon murmured after he’d swallowed his initial burst of very child-unfriendly swears. “Couldn’t tell you were even there. At least with the big bird I can see when he’s skulking about.”
Batman gave a non-committal grunt and decided not to inform the already stressed man that not two weeks prior Gordon had been blissfully unaware of Nightwing curled up for a nap under Batman’s cape while he spoke with the commissioner. It was easier for everyone that way, particularly since he didn’t quite know how Nightwing had managed to stay hidden and secure even while Batman grappled across the city.
He had a nagging feeling the answer involved magic somehow. Just because he avoided the mystical whenever necessary didn’t mean he was ignorant, after all, and he was all too aware of both the power of belief and the more than slightly eldritch nature of his city. If the people of Gotham believed the cape to be a safe shelter for the Robins, then safe it would be, laws of physics or observable reality be damned.
If it was the one safety he could offer them, he wasn’t about to question it.
Steph was very fond of pointing out that she was the reason they first noticed the limits of the cape expanding.
Tim found this extremely annoying, because she was technically right. By the time Tim joined the flock, Dick spent most of his time in Blüdhaven, and when he did join them on patrol in Gotham he had a habit of stealing his little brother away from Batman. As such, there was never any reason to wonder if a second bird might fit there. Back when Dick and Barbara had both been on the field it had proved to be too cumbersome, the cape barely managing to shield both of them from the ever merciless Gotham weather, and there had never been any reason to think it might have changed.
Except, as it turned out, it had. Bruce was already quite accustomed to having a little bird all but vanish beside him, had ceased to question the fact his cape seemed to fall just as neatly about his shoulders as it did without any additional guests. Therefore it took him a moment to notice anything amiss when Robin popped out from under his cape during a talk with Detective Montoya, only to be followed by Spoiler doing the same.
Montoya, it seemed, was not quite as nonchalant. She blinked slowly, then pinched the bridge of her nose. “How did — no, actually, don’t answer that. I don’t want to know how you’re materializing them into being.”
“Hey, we were here the whole time!” Spoiler chirped. “This cape can fit sooo many birds!” Seeing the glint in Robin’s eyes, Batman knew they would be testing exactly how many.
Most magic tended to resist any sort of scientific inquiry, one of the reasons he tried to avoid meddling with such things. However, perhaps because this was Gotham magic or just because they were directly involved, Robin did manage to figure out quite a few guidelines to the limits of the cape. The cape could shelter at least three younger heroes — Nightwing, Robin, and Spoiler — at once, with no outward sign that anyone was hiding there. While under the cape they stayed warm and dry in even the most terrible weather Gotham could throw at them. They could easily follow along if Batman decided to move, and somehow did so without even trying if they had fallen asleep. Sound would not pass out from under the cape unless they were directly using their comms, but they could hear what was going on just fine.
Batman wasn’t about to entirely trust in the protection of the cape, knowing all too well it couldn’t shield them from everything, but gathering all this data did ease his worries a bit. If nothing else, he knew now that he could protect his children from frostbite.
It didn’t ever occur to him to try it with anyone but his own birds, not intentionally at least. It was purely by chance that he was on the field with several of the younger Titans when they are caught waiting for extraction outdoors, their camping gear lost down a river because Robin could only save either the bag or a teammate and Batman had raised him to make the right call. It was instinct that had him lifting his cape at the first sign of a shivering teen, thought it took some gentle encouragement from Robin before any of the rest dared take him up on the offer.
As it turned out, the protection of the cape wasn’t exclusive to young heroes from Gotham. Also, having five of them under his cape at once did not make things even slightly cramped according to the children themselves.
Then somehow, against all odds, Jason returned to them. He had grown so big, and bore such terrible scars, but underneath it all he was still Batman’s little lad. Changed, sure, rougher and colder and with a burning fire in his eyes, but still always his little boy. Batman couldn’t give him the justice he craved, not in the way he believed he needed, but he could make sure he always had a place to come back to, whenever he was ready.
The cape was not bulletproof, had never been designed to be. Its thick weave could resist most bladed weapons, but any actual armor was left for his suit, where it was more likely to be actually useful and not just weigh him down needlessly. Even so, when Batman found himself in the middle of a firefight with his grown but painfully young son, he threw his cape out in a desperate attempt to shield him.
As it turned out, not even gunfire could harm one of his own when they were shielded by the cape. The numerous scoldings he received from each of his children and Alfred in turn for the injuries he sustained himself were well worth the look of quiet awe in Jason’s eyes when he realized that not only was he still very much worthy of the protection of the cape, but it was happily extended to him all over again.
Cassandra did not try the limits of the cape, happily accepting the safety as a given. She did make a habit of using it to sneak onto the Watchtower, unknown to anyone but Bruce. He probably should have worried that the cape carried her so easily even through the Zeta system and its numerous checks, but he was more relieved to know there was always a way to evacuate his family to safety in moments. Whatever protection his cape offered, it was useless if he had to leave them behind to fight.
It was not by choice, but he ended up leaving them anyway.
He wasn’t there for the next round of tests, but Batman was, Dick stepping up to a role he never wanted with the kind of bravery and sense of duty that left Bruce breathless at the idea he’d had any part in raising this man. Dick made his own mistakes, of course, he was only human after all, but Gotham was still there and all his children could come home. Everything else they could work through.
Dick spoke to him later of his fears, his doubts when he donned the cape. About how he hadn’t been sure he could be Batman, could be a shield for others. How Damian had scoffed at the stories of the shelter of Batman’s cape, too cynical and too deeply hurt to trust the protection of anything but his own strength, and how that doubt had almost taken root in Dick’s mind as well.
Dick also told him of cold nights on rooftops, of a little child who was thawing day by day, and how Dick had lost his doubts about whether he could truly be Batman the day Damian finally curled up under his cape and was instantly shielded from Gotham’s icy wind. Of the first time he had found not only a wayward Robin but a litter of stray kittens underneath his cape, how hands that had been raised for nothing but violence had been endlessly tender when dealing with something so very small and vulnerable.
While it was Dick and Damian who proved it did not matter who wore the cape, Duke was the one who revealed just how far the protection of the cape could reach. It wasn’t that they hadn’t ever thought to use the cape to shield anyone but the young heroes they were responsible for. As much as it was the goal of Batman to get civilians out of danger at once, that was not always possible, and they definitely couldn’t change Gotham’s ever capricious weather. Bruce clearly recalled extending his cape over many a shivering child over the years, and while it protected them from the wind and rain as well as it did Batman, it did not have the outright magical properties that it did with the Robins.
Duke, however, had not been around for any of those times, had not known the cape to do anything but shield and hide. Therefore Duke took one look at the shivering trafficking victims they were trying to sneak out from under the threat of an impending firefight and started ushering them one by one under Batman’s cape. The children were confused at first, Bruce noticed, but followed the instructions anyway because it was what Signal told them to do. Bruce himself knew what he was trying to do, of course, and almost told him not to bother. However, he held his tongue. They would see soon enough that this didn’t work, but he had to let Duke try. The boy was already feeling guilty because his control of his powers did not yet allow him to hide all the children.
Maybe the magical properties of Batman’s cape had continued expanding; maybe it was simply now possible because one of his children believed it to be so. Either way, he noticed very quickly that even as more and more children sneaked under his cape, he barely even noticed them. In fact, the cape fell around his shoulders just as freely as before, showing no sing that there was anyone underneath it at all.
Batman slipped out of a window with none of the criminals any wiser to their presence just as Red Hood threw open the front doors. By the time any of them decided to check on their would-be merchandise, Duke had already coaxed the children out of the cape, herding them to safety while Batman returned inside to assist Hood in the fight.
At least adults were still immune to the magic. This was helpfully demonstrated by Green Lantern (Gardner variety) trying to chase after Black Bat after she stole his ring, only to find nothing when he lifted Batman’s cape. No, the fact that more and more of his flock were starting to reach adulthood was in no way contradictory. They might be adults, but they would always be his children.
Said children were not only well aware of their special status, but also in no way above using it for mischief. Case in point, they had actually convinced Bruce to hold a costume party. In Gotham. In October. Not on Halloween itself, thank goodness, not even they were quite that eager for trouble, but it was close enough to make Bruce’s skin crawl. And yet, seeing Damian fighting against a smile as he showed off his extremely well made Batman costume — was that one of his old utility belts? That could not be good — he thought it might actually be worth the risk.
At least when the attack did come it was just simple robbers, not any of the supervillains. He didn’t want to even imagine dealing with Scarecrow in a crowd with a high percentage of children.
Bruce had been caught in the middle of the crowd when the attack happened, with no way to slip away unseen. As such he had no choice but to trust in his children to come to rescue. Most of them had been at the party, but hopefully enough of them could sneak away.
Damian seemed to have made it out, he thought with some relief as the thugs gathered the guests in the middle of the ballroom. Though come to think of it, he wasn’t seeing very many children at all, despite them being all around just moments before the attack. Were the criminals holding them hostage in another room? They didn’t seem coordinated enough to do that quite so stealthily.
“Nightwing and Spoiler here, we got out,” a familiar voice murmured in his hidden earpiece. “Now in position to get in. Hood’s on his way; we’re going to wait for him unless the situation calls for immediate action.”
“Red Robin also in position,” another voice added. “I’ve got eyes on Robin; he’s outside but tied up with civilians.”
Bruce did his best not to show his relief. He also had questions, but thankfully he wasn’t the only one. “What do you mean?” Hood’s modulated voice came on the line. “Like, literally tied up, or…”
Red Robin actually chuckled. “He not only got out, he also brought out what looks like most of the younger children at the party. I don’t think they’ll let him go before they’re collected by their parents.”
“What do you mean he brought them out? He couldn’t have —” Nightwing cut himself off with a delighted gasp. “No!”
“Oh, yes. I’m literally watching a crowd of children pouring out from under his cape.” Red Robin sounded amused. “I mean, we already knew it’s not about the specific piece of fabric since Batman has a ton of spares and such, but this is going a bit far.”
“To be fair, it’s still a bat wearing the cape. I think we would’ve heard about it by now if any random costume came with the magic.” Spoiler chuckled. “He’s never going to shut up about how this means he’s destined to be the next Batman, now.”
Bruce wished he could have responded, could point out that he fully believed any of them would make a brilliant Batman. Then again, he knew none of them wanted it as much as Damian.
“It could also be the magic spreading to Robin,” Red Robin pointed out. “Or helped by the fact that there’s no actual Batman present. Or —”
“You can do your testing and theorizing later, RR,” Nightwing cut him off. “We still have a whole party of adult hostages left inside, and Hood’s about to pull up.”
From there the children all snapped to perfect professionalism, quickly dispatching the criminals once they got inside. Bruce played his own part of worried father to the max, not calming down until every one of his children who had been seen at the party had returned from their “hiding places”. By the time he was reunited with Damian outside the building, in a flood of other relieved parents and children, it didn’t take much acting for his eyes to fill with tears.
“I’m proud of you, son,” he murmured as he pulled the little Batman to his chest. “Just don’t be in too much of a rush to wear the big cape just yet.”
As proud as he was of Damian’s heroics, he did kind of hope Red Robin was wrong about the magic spreading to the others. Knowing his youngest, he would find a way to use a magic cape to smuggle even more animals in the house.
After all the years he had spent shielding his children, surely Gotham owed him that little bit of mercy.