Chapter Text
Bruce made many interesting design choices during his early years as Batman, some worse than others. Most were small changes to the design of his suit that just...felt right.
His cowl had slightly changed in size many times, his white eyes had been different colours to test which one was scarier (White, he decided, was uncanny enough to throw criminals off their senses for a second, but left him some room to comfort children, which was impossible with red or black eyes). His utility belt had only grown bigger with more pockets over time, and so had his body armour, going from a deep blue and grey to the purest black he could manage, overall most changes stayed.
Except for one, the wings.
The idea came to him after he accidentally glided with his cape. He didn't notice when it happened, too caught up chasing some goons to notice he hadn't fallen to the ground as quickly as other times. But he noticed when he was back at Wayne Manor, revising the footage of the chase to see if he could spot any mistakes to improve.
To his defence, Bruce hadn't slept for the last two days. The penguin's latest drug trafficking stunt was proving to be a problem, and being early into his career, Batman thought one more improvement to his suit could do the trick.
"Master Bruce, are you quite sure?" Alfred had told him, as he was already helping with the design anyway, bless him.
Bruce stared at the designs, papers of different brainstormed ideas displayed on top of each other on the table, Bruce was speaking between coffee sips "He is a flightless bird, I'm going to fly into his hideout, that will break his spirit for sure" another sip.
"I believe the Riddler is getting to you sir, I do not recall the penguin leaning into his name theme that much...I have not read him believing he's an actual penguin in his file either" Alfred explains, hoping Bruce will get the hint to not fly around Gotham, Bruce does not get the hint at all. He sips on his coffee as if he were unable to afford another one.
Batman had been researching all types of wings for this, every flight-capable animal and not just bats, so he could make sure they adapted to his human shape perfectly. The amount of bird footage he had watched would probably classify as a world record, he even ran out of YouTube videos and switched to official zoo pages at one point, by the end, he was a wing-themed second coming of Steve Irwin and he knew more about wings than about himself, or at least that's how he felt.
"It makes so much sense now, this is my magnum opus" Alfred takes his coffee away with a sigh, and leaves him to work, knowing there's nothing he can say now to convince him otherwise.
And to Bruce's credit, the wings worked wonders at first.
He had around 9 feet worth of wing span, they could cover his entire body when closed around him, and his silhouette was terrifying in the night, much more bat-like. Gordon hadn't mentioned them when he first saw the winged Batman on the roof of the GCPD, he just sighed and lit up a cigarette, as if to say 'I cannot emotionally afford to ask why you have wings now'.
He flew down on the penguin's goons like a force of nature, taking down easily the ones that hadn't already frozen in fear, the strong iron wings covered with textile and leather were able to sweep many of them off their feet, as Batman had designed them to move with his elbows like a puppet.
This specific beatdown reinforced the mythos that was Batman in Gotham. People claimed he was part bat even more, and the vampire rumours were being beaten by a now more popular theory: Batman was a metahuman, a part bat metahuman. This added to the fear and respect Batman induced in the criminals of Gotham, which was a good extra. It also helped with his anonymity, since people were searching for a man with wings, overall, it seemed like a success.
And...He liked flying.
The wind on his face was refreshing and kept him awake, and there was something about the peace of being surrounded only by air that brought a sense of freedom to the bat, that he couldn't compare to anything else. Bruce kept the wings for two full weeks, and he was already working on a newer version of them, when he ran into trouble.
It was after an encounter with the Joker, well, mostly with his goons, since he ran away quite early on. The fight was done, and the criminals apprehended and tied up for Gordon, but he was injured, and needed to get some stitches ASAP, however, the wings were broken in the struggle, so Batman had to use the Batmobile instead of flying back.
His built-in emergency system failed, and the bullets in his wings prevented him from getting them off swiftly, which meant he couldn't fit into the car.
Bruce was bleeding, and limping, and he struggled to manually get the wings off. He was vulnerable and trapped in a dark alleyway for fifteen minutes.
So much could have gone wrong, there could still be extra goons waiting for him, or his injuries could have been a lot worse, and fifteen minutes in his line of work are unacceptable to lose. He was too dizzy when he got to the cave to think of an excuse, so he went straight to truthfully explain what had happened to Alfred, while the man stitched him up with a frown on his face.
He was unable to talk about the improvements he was planning to put into the new wings, as Alfred looked him straight in the eyes and prohibited him from using the wings ever again.
He turned to Alfred, and saw how worried the other was, an emotion that Alfred had tried not to show for a long time during Bruce's vigilante escapades, and he agreed with the prohibition, for once. He then made sure his new cape glided perfectly, to imitate the feeling of flying just a bit, as a treat.
Sometimes, though, he wants to fly again.
Years later, he catches himself thinking about taking flight.
Thanks to the formation of the Justice League, he was now surrounded by people who were able to get off the ground. He wasn't jealous of his fellow heroes's powers, more focused on making contingency plans for them, and after getting familiar with them, he could only see the bothersome parts of having said powers anyway. But when it came to being able to fly, it got to him a bit.
He wasn't envious of Superman, he could fly, admittedly, but he lacked the coolest part, the wings.
The few times the super had saved and carried Batman, he couldn't help but compare it more to flying on a plane and being able to roll down the windows, rather than to his own experience with flying, probably only due to the speed in which he was being carried, and the blood loss necessary for him to accept the help in the first place.
Green Lantern just floated, or hovered, but it was also more jet-like at the same time. The Flash compared it to throwing a water balloon with a fish inside like a baseball and claiming the fish was flying, Green lantern had complained about the lame description, but Batman had silently agreed.
Now Hawkgirl, that's flying, and those are wings. Ever since he first saw her being introduced to the league, he's had to fight for his life to not admire them too much, he has a brooding antisocial reputation to uphold after all.
But they look so elegant on her, and Bruce is fascinated at how coordinated she is with them while flying, how she changes directions as easily as breathing, and how quickly she can take flight without running to get some impulse, it makes no sense to compare it to his own artificial experience, sure, but it's still so impressive-
He's staring at her wings again.
Probably has for too long, because while Wonder Woman is explaining the latest biochemical threat she found on the East Coast, Hawkgirl tilts her head towards him in curiosity, Batman looks away, suddenly interested in the debrief. After some more exposition, the meeting ends, and the heroes begin walking around the watchtower, either chatting away or organizing files, Hawkgirl taps Batman on the shoulder to get his attention.
It's important to note a small detail: Bruce Wayne has not slept in more than 48 hours yet again, the energy drinks from three hours ago are long gone, and the shot of adrenaline he needed for a fight he won five minutes before the meeting was running out of effect, too. Be it about not embarrassing himself or rather due to professionalism, he knows he doesn't want to pass out in front of his colleagues.
Now, back to the present.
He turns around slightly in his chair, showing that he's paying attention to her while still catching on and looking over Wonder Woman's presentation from today.
Hawkgirl is used to this type of attention, her wings are not a common occurrence in this world, and plenty of people have called her angelical due to them (or a harpy, which is apparently negative?), but she's definitely not used to attention from the stoic Batman, founding member of the league, who until that point only seemed to fraternize with Superman and Wonder Woman.
She begins the conversation, confident as she sits beside him "I see you've taken an interest in my wings, I can show you how flying feels like if you want, it's an incredible-"
"-feeling of freedom, I know" he interrupts, Hawkgirl laughs.
"You already got the lecture from Superman, I assume?" She rolls her shoulders, fluffing up her wings, she bites down a prideful smile when the bat's eyes immediately go to admire them.
Bruce would normally think his answers through twice before speaking, but he's more focused on looking awake as he feels the adrenaline that's currently keeping him from passing out disappear from his bloodstream, so he doesn't think before answering. Thankfully, he still has enough restraint to not reach out and touch her feathers, more of a Wayne politeness thing of not touching anything without permission than Batman's usual control over himself.
"No, I just know"
She tilts her head "But you can't fly on your own"
"Not anymore, good observation" he deadpans, standing up abruptly.
The room falls silent, everyone turns to look at Batman with different expressions, mostly confusion, but also worry, not "anymore" implied that he had indeed flown without assistance before, but that could mean-
He's gone, while everyone was distracted, Batman left the room and used a teleporter to go back to the Batcave. He did it so he wouldn't pass out in front of them, it would look embarrassing and unprofessional after all, yet he's completely unaware of the conversation that he just had in pilot mode, now focused on the earful he was about to get from Alfred for pushing himself to his limits again.
But the league doesn't know that.
What the league knows is that Batman knows what flying feels like, without help, and only said so to the woman with wings, who is currently looking at the spot the Bat was just in like he had vanished into thin air, contrary to him having walked away.
The Flash is the first to snap out of it, and he runs around the tower, using different computers and phones and typing like a maniac, the slow loading of whatever he is searching for driving him up the wall, then, he finds something worth noting.
"Oh, well would you look at that" Everyone gathers around him, Barry has found an old video, simply typing 'Batman vigillante Gothma flying' on the Google search bar, apparently not caring about grammar. The video shows Batman flying above the streets of Gotham, and even though it's unfocused, the very visible giant bat wings on his back folding in on themselves occasionally are hard to ignore, the video is clear enough to see it isn't just Batman gliding with his cape like the League has seen before, or an optic illusion either.
Those. Are. Wings.
And yet, Batman doesn't have wings, every member of the league met him without them. The video's date is from before all of them had met the vigilante, so there is only one conclusion to make from that, or many.
Barry breaks the ice: "So, can bats just lose their wings? You know, like lizards losing their tails to trick predators, is that a thing? " His stupid comment snaps everyone out of their trance, multiple gasps are heard, and then chaos.
"Wings!? he was flying-"
"Has there been another Batman? that flew? and the current one is Batman Senior's apprentice?"
"BATWINGS"
"No, he's the first Batman ever, right?"
"I'm surprised somebody got him on camera, to be honest"
"BAT-WINGS"
"Is it a fake video? it could be"
"...Doesn't seem like it, he had wings!"
"Oh my God, I've bragged about showing him the view from up high before, he definitely hates my guts now"
"He already did that, Lantern"
Finally, amid the chaos, the calm voice of Martian Manhunter gets their attention, a contrast against the variety of voices and emotions of the rest. He walks over and puts his hand on Hawkgirl's shoulders, asking, "Are you alright, Hawkgirl?"
They all turn to her, as the usually relaxed woman has her wings wrapped around herself, close to tears as she grooms some feathers. She nods sharply, glancing at the rest of the room after, "I'm alright, It's just...upsetting, to think about losing one's wings. It's not just about flying, you know? though I do love to do it, most of you understand, but..." She pets some of her primary feathers with care as she continues "Wings... are a very special part of you, they're the ones that take you off the ground when you can't stand it anymore, they warm you up on cold nights, they comfort you, they save your life- I would rather lose any other limb than my wings"
She unwraps herself with a sigh, letting them fall behind her, sadness replaced by concern "I can't even begin to think about how he must have felt like, when whatever, happened, and that resulted in him being stuck on the ground...He's strong, not many airborne creatures would stand it." silence follows her statement, and so do the nods and huffs of acknowledgement.
After a bit, Green Lantern sits down and taps his fingers on the central table "So...what do you guys think happened?"
Flash mimics his actions, sitting down and tapping much quicker "I mean...He patrols Gotham, I wouldn't be surprised if some psycho cut-" Hawgirl makes a high-pitched sound at that, stopping Flash's sentence and covering her mouth afterwards, Martian Manhunter being the one to console her again, as he stares disapprovingly at his choice of words. Flash puts his hands up in surrender, mouthing 'sorry' at her.
Superman has been silent since the revelation, arms crossed and staring at Batman's usual seat at the table, next to his. Clark has been colleagues, dare he say friends, with Batman for longer than anybody in the room.
They've shared battles, and fights where Clark has seen Batman's courage and sheer fiery determination first-hand, contrasted later when the big scary Bat took his time to comfort any scared kid left on the field. They've each had close-to-death moments, where the other was always the one they asked for help from. They've saved each other many times, sometimes from themselves, when they got too angry, too close to breaking their own rules, and one of them was the one who pulled the other together, they were equals in all sense of the word.
Superman understands how high up Batman's walls are, how difficult it is to get a glimpse into his personal life, and how crucial it is for him to not show any weakness, to be steady and reliable, a symbol of hope that can't afford to be humanized, he gets it.
Losing something as crucial as a limb, then adapting to that loss without future complaint, seems in character for the Bat. However, Clark feels uneasy about having no previous clue or hint that his friend has suffered such a loss.
He had noticed something else in the past that came to mind with the topic; Batman's heartbeat was different than the rest, ridiculosity steady and consistent even in moments of stress, Clark had heard the Bat's heartbeat stay the same when he ran as when he was stabbed, it had made him wonder in the past if Batman was human or not.
He caught himself picking up on it amongst the chaos many times, not only to locate the Bat, but also for reassurance, maybe sometimes he listened to the steady beat while in the office, just because he could, but that's only for him to know.
However, on the few occasions he was allowed to fly Batman somewhere, he picked up on his heartbeat accelerating.
He ignored it, until now, if Batman had a hidden fear of heights, or of falling from them, it was none of his business. But right now, Clark believes he has been reminding his friend of an ability he had lost, something Hawkgirl had described as crucial to somebody with wings. Assuming her attachment to her wings was similar to what Batman had had, then each time would have been a traumatic reminder, no wonder he was so reluctant to fly.
Maybe he was exaggerating, Clark thinks, maybe Batman had a very healthy process of accepting his loss-
Scratch that, he needs to check up on his crush-FRIEND. He needs to check up on his friend.
So Superman ignores the current awkwardness in the tower, and books it to the Batcave, knowing the other will say he wants to be alone, but also knowing he could use a friend to vent right now, especially if any or all memories of his wings had come to the surface due to the conversation with Hawkgirl. After all, Batman ignoring his personal issues until they were too big to ignore was his modus operandi.
When Batman got to Wayne Manor, he jumped in the shower quickly, rinsing off below the cold water with a delighted hum. Afterwards, he allowed Alfred to tend to his injuries, which were way less severe than he thought, meaning he was mostly just tired, which in his head translated into 'I can get one or two more hours of work done'.
So, he put on some comfy clothes and went down to the Batcave, checking on the file of his last Riddler case, he put on the cowl to check some of the footage he had filmed with it, skipping his usual step of downloading the videos onto the computer, he was in a rush, not wanting Alfred to catch him putting in extra work before sleeping. Nothing scared Batman like the promise of a disappointed Alfred.
That's when Superman gets there, just when Batman is about to take off his cowl, stopping in his tracks when he sees the Kryptonian arrive. Bruce sighs, and sits down on the nearby chair, they both speak at the same time.
"Something wrong-"
"What happened to your wings?"
Superman breaches the topic immediately, unable to make polite small talk at the moment, worry oozing out of him, Batman stares at him for a few moments, thinking of a new contingency plan called 'get the fuck out of here, will you get the fuck out of here If I tell you about my wing phase? great now get the hell out of here before I pass out', and then executes it.
"First of all, How-"
"Video, back at the watchtower, everyone knows now, I'm sorry"
Batman metaphorically rolls his eyes, great, more people knowing about it, just great "Alright, whatever...I had them, now I don't, end of the story, you know your way out" Batman gets up, hoping to get some peace and quiet, and starts walking away. Superman looks away, frowning as he looks at the rest of the Batcave, hyper-aware of the vast empty space that is surely perfect for flying around.
"Do you...miss them?"
Batman stops in his tracks, dizzy, and almost missing a step. It reminds him of the first time he put on the wings, and how he needed a couple of hours to get used to the change of centre of gravity. Batman sighs once again and turns around, shoulders dropping, and stares at the rest of the cave alongside Superman, a space he hasn't been able to explore himself in a long time.
"Of course I do" Clark jumps in place, having expected deflection, the sudden open vulnerability gets to him, and he gets closer to Batman, daring to put a hand on his shoulder as the other continues. "It's not like losing one of my gadgets, to me they weren't that...They were my wings, I can't quite explain it in any other way"
Clark caresses his shoulder, a spark passing through him as he becomes very conscious that Batman is wearing warm clothes and not the suit he's used to, just a black compression T-shirt and sweatpants, Clark wants to laugh at the fact that apparently the mask is the last thing to go from the Batsuit, but can't, he can't laugh when his friend is finally opening up to him, though with a bit of pressure.
Also, this being the first time he gets a glance (without a medical emergency, and on those occasions he couldn't really admire him) at Batman's form, he can't help but gawk a bit at how well-built he is, as Batman stares at him and crosses his arm, Clark stares at his muscled forearms like they're the first he's ever seen. Finally, Bruce coughs to get his attention, and Superman comes back to reality.
He looks away, hiding his small blush at being caught, then comes back to the subject.
"Who took them from you?"
Batman is a bit confused at the wording, but responds accordingly "If it comes down to who, then that would be the Joker's-"
Superman sees red, he doesn't hear the rest of the sentence, pays no attention to Bruce explaining how the Joker's goons pilled up on him unexpectedly, doesn't hear Bruce explain that the mechanisms in his very much metal wings failed, and he also doesn't hear Batman when he sighs and ends the explanation with 'they were a liability, so I took them off'.
He's too busy fuming, because of course, of course, the clown that has hurt his Batman so many times already, of course that psychopath is the one that took something so precious away from him. He also took something from Superman in a way, the opportunity to fly side by side with Batman, maybe replace their spare slow evenings where they could afford to just talk on rooftops with them chatting up in the clouds, away from everything.
Superman clenches his hand into a fist, Batman looks so vulnerable right now, not only in his current openness but also in his frame, it makes Superman's senses scream at him to protect him, even though he knows how capable the other man is.
"I'm so sorry that happened, Batman, It never should have happened, maybe If we had met before..." I could have saved you goes unsaid, even though Batman assumes he would have made the same decision anyway the next time the wings failed him, Superman pats his shoulder reassuringly and smiles at him.
"You should rest, I can tell it's been a long day for you...I'll be right back" and with that, Superman leaves, leaving a both relieved and confused bat behind.
After thinking about it for a second, knowing either Green Lanter or Flash (if not both) will definitely tease him and call it an emo phase, (just like Catwoman had done the first few weeks he had hung up the wings) the next time he steps foot in that watchtower, he simply sighs.
Little did he know, while Superman and him had their little chat, much more emotional for one of them, the rest of the Justice League had arrived at a lot of conclusions (from which villain cut the Bat's wings off, to how, they all need a drink) and had a lot of questions, and also a newfound protectiveness over their unofficial leader that he would have to address sooner than later. But for now, he has a camomille tea to drink, and a bed to sleep in calling for him.