After setting the giant, seemingly omniscient, computer on 'standby' for the night, the legendary Dark Knight of Gotham took a seat in his throne…the Bat Throne is what Dick had always called when he was little. Later Dick would use that same name as one of derision. Kids can be that way to parents. Bruce mused on this as he began to do the one thing most thought him absolutely incapable of – exhaling deeply, he (cowl-less, but otherwise dressed for battle should it come) took a large streaming mug of hot chocolate in his hands, leaned back a bit, and relaxed.
He could usually afford to do this one night a year. The SPECIFIC night wasn't set at all, it just depended on things. Now was the holiday season and some nights were just veritably crimeless; either being too savagely cold for either predator or prey –or- more surprisingly, he had noticed that even the hardest criminal seem to get a nostalgic desire for home and friends and do their best to make some kinds of meaningful connections with other human beings – at least for a short time. So, with these factors in play, Bruce could always isolate one night over the holidays where he could guard his city from 'standby mode' while enjoying some solitude and cocoa.
As the bright wisps of steam from his mug faded into the dark miasma of the surrounding cave, Bruce, always very controlled and controlling, allowed his own thoughts to rise freely, to mingle freely before his consciousness, and fade peacefully when they had had their say. His first thoughts were of himself. Bruce, a man known for rarely missing a meaningful clue, knew EXACTLY what people (even his 'friends') thought of him – that we was brooding, arrogant, and difficult…that it was possible he did not respect them. Nothing could be further from the truth. How could they – especially his 'friends' in the League – not clearly understand that he could never willingly walk into battle (let alone repeatedly) with those he did not respect…even trust? But it seems that his 'friends' in passing some kind of judgment on HIM revealed their own sad flaw – they frequently only saw things from THEIR OWN perspectives. They had NO IDEA what it was like to be HIM, and they didn't even really try. Couldn't THAT be a kind of supreme arrogance (the same charge they leveled at him)? It's not that he didn't want to be known or understood, he just wasn't going to make it easy for anyone. After all, he was the "world's greatest detective" and understood the sheer JOY of making profound discoveries after meticulous investigation and contemplation. If something (or someone) was truly worth understanding, time and study and the making of logical inferences based on clues and evidence was worth it – even required. His 'friends' simply didn't seem to want it bad enough…or they simply stopped when they THOUGHT they understood him as well as they wanted. Unfortunate that they apparently didn't cherish the joy of discovery as he did – they would truly know him much better (and certainly more as equals).
And THERE was the true 'elephant in the room' with regard to Bruce's apparent arrogance: yes, he WAS in fact the smartest man in ANY room he happened to be in (including the JLA council chambers). He took a careful sip of the near scalding cocoa. Heat? Yeah, he took a lot of heat for his incredible wealth of knowledge and seemingly limitless capacity for insight and understanding, but he wasn't this way because he won some kind of genetic lottery. He wasn't 'smarter' than everyone else 'naturally'. It took decades of focused discipline and sacrificial training to develop his mind and body to near physiological perfection. Even if he did have a photographic memory (some people accused him of this as if his vast intellect and abilities to perceive were a mere 'mutant' trait) – and he was pretty sure he didn't have one – one would have to be able to comprehend the depth and meaning of the 'photograph'. What good is having pages of photographed text if one doesn't have ability to understand it all? No, he was 'smarter' than everyone else because he had worked MUCH HARDER to BE 'smarter'. He respected hard work. He respected discipline. He respected people who understood what it took to be overcomers (as he had to overcome the murder of his parents)….what it took to achieve goals (like his personal all-too-lofty goal of protecting all the vulnerable that Gotham preyed upon). This was one of the big disconnects with his 'friends' in the League: most of them were GIVEN something that made them special – a power ring, godly powers and a golden lasso, accidental physical enhancements into metas, cybernetic implants, Kryptonian DNA under a yellow sun, etc. He wasn't GIVEN anything. What he cherished (family) was taken FROM him, and he had to personally and physically DEVELOP everything he was out of that. He certainly didn't see himself as particularly arrogant. He just had a low tolerance for self-indulgent wasted potential.