Work Text:
And it happened again.
Bruce realized moments after saying goodbye to his daughter.
You are not a person who shows how you really feel about something or someone, but with him, it is all different. You learned to keep everything to yourself when just a kid because you didn’t want to make your parents have more problems and worry about you.
Even though you loved them, you knew you were never a priority.
“Bye, Father.” You hug him tight, like always. He sees that you got in the tip of your toes, trying to get taller. “Love you.” You smile.
“Goodbye, Y/N.” You don’t smile often, but when you do it Bruce can’t stay serious at that. You smile is contagious, so bright and shows so much happiness. “Love you too, kid. Have a nice day.” After you leave the manor, He prepares to go to the Wayne Enterprises.
Every time you leave you doesn’t hesitate to say goodbye properly, not even once you forgot to say you love your father. It doesn’t matter what he is doing or where he is, you just need to say goodbye.
You are the only one who does that. The other kids don’t even care about warning Bruce if they are leaving. Most of the times, He doesn’t even know where the boys are, having to call them or ask Alfred if he knows something.
_____
“Mr. Wayne?” Bruce’s secretary quietly knocks and opens the door of his office.
“Yes, Amanda?” He sighs and looks at her, hoping that he didn’t forget about a meeting. He just had one which was really intense and just gave him a headache.
“Your daughter, Y/N, is here. May I let her enter?”
“Yes, of course. Don’t even bother to ask me that next time. Every one of the family can enter here with no need of a permission by me.” He must have forgotten to warn her about it since she is new on the job.
She nods and leaves the room. Soon after you show up with two cups of coffee on your hands.
“I was going to the library and decided to grab a coffee for us in the middle of my way since the during of the patrol was bigger than we expected.” You hand your father one of the cups, he takes a sip of it and realizes it’s his favorite. ”Oh, and also I just wanted to tell you where I’m going and that’s what I just did.” You chuckle to yourself.
“Thank you, Y/N.” Bruce smiled at you. “Maybe we can have lunch today. I don’t have any meetings scheduled anymore.”
You sit in the leather chair in front of his desk and say you think it is a good idea.
“Wait. Dick just got home after you went to work, so I was thinking if he could join the two of us.” You picked up her cell phone to call your brother.
“I have a better idea.” Bruce got up and went to the other side of the desk, where you were. ”I’m taking the afternoon off and going home to have lunch with you and your brothers. It’s been so long that the whole family doesn’t do something together, right?” He waited for your reaction, hoping you weren’t thinking that your father was doing something really out of habit right now.
“It is a very good idea, Father.” You get up from the chair and grabs her coffee, flashing a smile at him. “It is indeed very rare to have all the family together.” You get closer to hug him.
“Bye, see you at lunch then.” You stop at the door and turn around to closes the door, but before doing it, you say, “Love you, Dad.”
“I will be waiting for you in front of the library at noon for us to go home. Bye, Y/N.” He smiles at you.
Bruce calls his secretary minutes after.
“Yes, Mr. Wayne?” Amanda enters the office again.
“Reschedule all the meetings I have today for the rest of this week, I’m going to be busy this afternoon.”
_____
You had an amazing day with your family.
Sure that at the beginning everyone was a little bit confused because Bruce was at the manor to spend some time with all of you. But it was nice to have all your family in the same room, finally.
It was late in the night and you couldn’t sleep, because none of the family went on patrol, Bruce demanded it earlier. You decided to go to the kitchen to make some coffee.
“Oh, hi, Jason. Didn’t think anyone was awake.” You sit on the chair beside him on the table. “Can’t sleep too?”
“Hi.” He takes a sip of his coffee and offers the jar with if for you. “I am sleeping, actually.”
You grab a mug and pour the hot coffee into it.
“That was a stupid question, I know. I was just trying to talk with you.” You rest your head on your hand and faces the coffee mug, hoping it would get colder soon.
“You did it, we are talking.” He looks at you and you think you can see a smile on his face, but maybe it is just the 24 hours of no sleep making effects on you. “So, Bruce today, huh? Very unexpected.”
“Yes, but I really liked what he did. Dad just wanted to spend some time with us.”
You two stay in silence for some time and that makes you now put your arms crossed on the table and lean your head on them.
“Go to sleep, Y/N, tomorrow we talk about Bruce. And there’s a lot to say about him.” He puts his hand on your shoulder and you open your eyes to look at your brother. Jason winks at you and you don’t get why.
“Speaking of the devil.” He gets up to put his mug in the sink and you see Bruce entering the kitchen.
“What are you two doing up now?” He puts your untouched coffee mug on the sink and tells you to go to bed.
Jason tries to leave the place without being noticed but he failed.
“Good night, Jason.” He turns to see his son.
“Night, Bruce.” The second oldest son of Batman goes out of sight.
You get out of the chair and goes to the fridge to get some water. While you are drinking it, Bruce turns around to goes to his bedroom but stops and get back to the kitchen.
He seems like he needs to talk to you. Like he is confused or something else. You father gestures for you to sit on the chair in front of you.
“Not that I’m complaining - I’m not - but I just need to ask something to you. Something which I have had realized and I have been wondering for a few time.” Bruce seemed curious and you wondered what he wanted to know.
“What is it?” You look at your father, waiting for the question and hoping you haven’t done something wrong.
“It’s just… Every single time you go somewhere you say you love me and that’s something I wasn’t used to since you came into my life. You know how your brothers are, so…” The two of you chuckled and you sigh soon after.
You remember the reason why you never hesitate to show how much you love your father. Even though you not a very affectionate person, you always do tell how you feel about Bruce, the man who saved you from having a really bad life.
It is because of your parents, your biological parents who died the night before Bruce adopted you. You don’t remember if you said goodbye to them before going to school if you said how much you loved them.
And that haunts you until today. You will never know what you really said to them that day if it was enough the few times you told your parents how you really felt about being their daughter. They weren’t perfect, of course, they had a lot of flaws but still, you loved them with all your heart. You still do.
“…That’s why I am very affectionate with you, Father.” You stopped a tear from falling down your face. “I just… need you to know that I love you and I am so grateful for being welcome, cared and loved by you since that day.”
“I know that, Y/N.” He got up and knelt down beside you to give his daughter a hug. “And I love you too.”