THE WOES OF A SINGLE FATHER ; BATFAMILY && SUPERBAT

Chapter 06

You've carried on so long
You couldn't stop if you tried it.
You've built your wall so high
That no one could climb it,
But I'm gonna try

Would you let me see beneath your beautiful?
Would you let me see beneath your perfect?
Take it off now, boy, take it off now, boy
I wanna see inside

by Labrinth ft. Emeli Sande (SamTsui &&. Alex G)

  ★  

Clark stood before the Wayne manor, his eyes scanned through his three piece suit for the last time to make sure there were no traces of dirt. Satisfied with his efforts, he knocked on the double mahogany door twice and waited in anticipation for the door to open.

When minutes passed by with no signs of the butler arriving to open the door for him, Clark rang the doorbell. A brief moment passed before the double doors were pulled open.

The journalist blinked his eyes in surprise by the sight of a child who stood before him on his tiptoes. With a warm smile, Clark crouched down to the boy's level.

"Hello." He greeted. "I'm Clark Kent, a reporter from the Daily Planet. I have an interview with your father today."

"He had told us." Tim Drake ignored the reporter's extended hand as he pushed the door open wider. "But Bruce is busy today. Your interview might be canceled, Mister Kent. "

"Bruce....?" It was odd to see the child addressing his father by his first name. But when one think thoughtfully, they would realize that the Wayne family had always been a unique family.

"Bruce said we could address him by the first name. I -- we don't feel comfortable to call him as 'dad'." Tim mumbled under his breath. When Clark walked in, the boy pushed the doors close and tiptoed up to lock it. Alfred's daily reminder; safety is first in the Wayne manor.

"I called him by his name, and so did my brothers. It doesn't mean we didn't love him any less." The thin layer of his lips curled down to a frown. People misjudge their family when they knew the boys didn't address their foster father by the rightful call.

'Those people were clueless.'

It was the same words Bruce would tell them when they show their annoyance to the doubts of the society for their family.

But Bruce is right. The people who misjudged them didn't know the traumatic experiences they had gone through before they met Bruce.

'Dad' was the reminder of Dick's failure to save his parents from dying in the accident he could have warned them about. It is the remembrance for Jason of a father who neglected and never cared for him. It was Tim's struggle of living with the image of his father's corpse engraved in his mind.

"... I-is that so....?" Clark noticed the change of emotions on the boy's facial expression. The reported cursed silently under his breath for the strained atmosphere he caused.

"Did Mister Wayne -- I mean , Bruce tell you why he can't participate the interview today?" Clark squatted down to Tim's level as he attempted to change the topic of their conversation.

"Oh, about that..." The child tilted his head from his gaze on the marbled flood as he coughed. "Our butler, Alfred falls down from the stairs in the morning today."

Clark's eyes widened in surprise by the shocking news. Before he could question the butler's current condition, Tim interrupted.

"No, there are no serious injuries -- only a few light bruises on the arms from the fall. His blood pressure is low, so the doctor kept him bedridden at the hospital for a day."