#here it is ralu but can we elope anyway /lh

[eliemo]

@brucyknight posted about their hcs for Bruce’s exes and asked me to do the same so !!!

We all know that I will take every opportunity to give Bruce the most angst and trauma that I possibly could so just a quick warning for mention of grooming/assault/abuse under the cut

So for a lot of my writing I headcanon Bruce as Harvey as sort of kind of exes. They were best friends growing up (Harvey was Bruce's only friend actually but that's beside the point) Harvey was a little older and a lot more sociable, and Bruce quickly developed a crush. They kissed once, when they were both still in school, but their relationship never went further than that, and they remained friends when Bruce came back to Gotham. Harvey meant a lot to Bruce, he really looked up to him, but their relationship started to decline after Harvey's accident. Harvey became dangerous, unpredictable and angry, lashing out at both Bruce and Dick, eventually becoming violent before he was taken to Arkham. Bruce knows its not his fault and he wants Two-Face to get help, but he still hasn't fully recovered from it.

Tw for abuse! Bruce was in a relationship with a reporter, they started dating the week of his 18th birthday when she was 24, and already an established writer. She’d been waiting for him to turn legal, her goal was to boost her career and reputation by dating the prince of Gotham. It worked in her favor, but she was absolutely horrible to him. She put him down constantly, berated him at events, dismissed his trauma, refused to adapt to any of his needs, brushed off his mental illness and refused to offer him any help he asked for when it came to his symptoms. It got violent later on, she started hitting him for every little thing. That, coupled with all the violence he started seeing at Batman, is the reason he has such a hard time with intimacy and finds it almost impossible to believe there’s anyone who wouldn’t want to hurt him. Bruce hid it from Alfred as best he could, but eventually Harvey helped him leave the relationship when it got to be too much. I have a lot written out for this relationship and a lot of details for the headcanon but I should probably save it for a separate post

I don’t see Selina as a toxic ex, or even really an ex at all. I think they were off and on, still are sometimes, but I don’t think they were ever anything concrete. They both struggle with attachment and commitment issues in different ways, and although Bruce really does love her, he knows they could never be something permanent. He was too scared to ever ask, still scarred from his last relationships by the time he met her.

I have so many mixed feelings about Talia. On one hand I think she’s an amazing character and Damian deserves a mom and Bruce deserves love but the comic where she drugs Bruce against his will because the League demanded an heir has always hit me hard and it really stuck with me, and it opened up so many opportunities for angst for both Bruce and Damian. I think Talia really scarred him, even if there was a possibility for something real and substantial between them before she betrayed him and took advantage of him. Bruce will never ever tell Damian any details, he doesn’t want his son to question Bruce’s love for him.

Bruce eventually gets together with Clark, and it’s the first time he’s ever really felt safe and secure with anyone like this, and it’s the first time a partner has ever been patient and understanding with his needs and his past. I also love the idea of Diana coming into the picture eventually, helping both of them feel secure, and understanding how hard it is for Bruce to open up to anyone and learn to trust and being just as patient and careful with him.

tldr I could talk about this for hours, Bruce deserves to be loved unconditionally and it took him longer than it ever should have to find that

#here it is ralu but can we elope anyway /lh #ily and ur blog sm thank you for prompting me to talk abt this #angst #bruce wayne #batman #dc comics #batfamily #abuse tw #clark kent #superman #harvey dent #diana prince #wonder woman #selina kyle #catwoman #writing #headcanons