Bruce had a meeting to get to. He knew that. He also knew if he was late for this meeting Damian would give him a whole lecture about how Bruce was "being negligent to the company that would rightfully belong to him one day". He had heard this lecture more than once after being late. Bruce had gotten to the point where he decided if he was running late he might as well make it worth the lecture. He once walked into a meeting thirty minutes late with Starbucks just to mess with his youngest son, who did not appreciate the joke (though Jason seemed very happy that Bruce seemed to be gaining a sense of humor).
Bruce checked his watch. The meeting started in ten minutes. Even with no traffic it would still take thirteen minutes to get to Wayne Enterprises and then fifteen more to actually get through the building to the conference room, and a superfluous meeting talking about paycheck raises. He could spare a few minutes, he knew nothing would actually get done for the first thirty minutes. Giving him seven minutes to talk to a teenage boy sitting on the steps outside of an apartment building.
"Alfred pull the car over."
"I'm sorry sir?"
"Please pull the car over, I have something I need to do."
The black limousine slowed to the side of the city street and sat idling at the curb as billionaire Bruce Wayne stepped out. He made his way back down the sidewalk to the building. The boy on the steps leading to the front door of the apartment complex didn't even lift his head as Bruce's expensive shoes came into his line of vision. Bruce looked at the mop of blond hair on the boy's bowed head before speaking up.
"How's it going there Sebastian?"
At the sound of his name, the boy's head jerked up. His pale face finally came into view, thin for a boy of sixteen, almost looking gaunt. His sharp brown eyes quickly looked Bruce over, taking in the expensive suit and casual stance, unusual for a rough neighborhood (though it would be difficult to find a neighborhood that wasn't rough in Gotham).
"How do you know my name?" Sebastian asked, suspicious of the man in the nice suit approaching a teenage boy.
"Oh sorry, I didn't mean to startle you. I'm Bruce Wayne, I believe you are in the same class as my son Damian." At the name Bruce Wayne, Sebastian's eyes widened ever so slightly and a single dark blond eyebrow rose on his forehead. He examined Bruce's outfit once more before settling his eyes once more on Bruce's face. He obviously didn't understand why such a famous man would have stopped to talk to him of all people. "Do you mind if I sit with you for a few minutes?" Bruce asked, checking his watch to see he had five minutes left to talk.
Sebastian scooted over on his step, making room for the billionaire. Bruce sat, and looked at the teenage boy out of the corner of his eye.
"So, what's up?" Bruce asked, still facing forward.
"Nothing" the boy replied, going to put his head back on his arms to resume his hard stare at the concrete sidewalk.
"Well either nothing's up and you just felt like spending some time out in forty-degree weather with no coat on for the heck of it, or something's going on at home that you don't want to be a part of."
"What are you, Batman?" Sebastian sarcastically asked.
Bruce laughed at this comment, which earned him another raised eyebrow from the moody teen. "I don't need to be some caped detective to see that something's wrong" he replied, hoping the child would open up to him.
Sebastian's look at Bruce had turned to an outright glare. "No offense Mr. Wayne, but what do you care? I'm just some scholarship kid in your son's class, nothing special" he spat.
Bruce looked astonished. "Of course you're special! Not many people manage to get a scholarship to Gotham Academy, so you must a very intelligent young man."
"There are plenty of smart people in Gotham, I don't think you give a shit about many of them" the boy dejectedly muttered.
"I employ the most brilliant people in the city, many amazing minds all consolidated at Wayne Enterprises. And I care about every single one of them. Hopefully you'll be one of them someday soon."
"I highly doubt that Mr. Wayne" Sebastian evenly cut into the end of Bruce's sentence. "Wayne Enterprises doesn't employ people with no college degree and the only way I'll get that is to get a full ride somewhere. My grades aren't that good and I can't afford it otherwise."
"Well, maybe I can help-" Bruce started only to be cut off.
"That wouldn't work, my parents have control of my bank account since I'm underage and they'll take any money you give and use it for their own things." Sebastian ended the sentence with a resigned sigh. "I can't even call social services on them to get away since they're not actually doing anything to me and I can take care of myself. The few times someone has actually come, they clean everything up so there's nothing to incriminate them, just the words of a stupid teenager against two 'rational' adults."
Bruce just looked at the boy, not knowing what he could say to comfort him. Sebastian's situation was so much like Jason's had been before Bruce found him, though hopefully he would end up differently than Bruce's undead wayward son. In his mind, he decided that Sebastian's family would be getting a surprise visit from the Batman later in the effort to find something that would help this kid escape his situation successfully.
"Hey, Mr. Wayne," Sebastian suddenly sputtered around a humorless laugh. "You've adopted like, six kids, right? Please adopt me?"
Bruce gazed over at him dejectedly, seeing this teenager for what he was—a sad, wrung-out boy who desperately wanted a way out, but knew he likely would never find one. He was about to reply when a shrill voice rang out from an open window above them.
"Seb! Seb where are you?! Get up here right now!"
Bruce could tell he hated the nickname as his brows furrowed more and more each time it was used. He and Sebastian both stood from the steps to go their separate ways. Bruce checked his watch again. He had to leave now anyway to get to that meeting at his planned (late) time.
"I'll see you around Sebastian," Bruce said as he started to walk away. "I'll try to find a way to help you though."
"Thanks" the boy replied. Bruce missed the thoughtful look that came over the blond's face, having already turned his back.
Batman flew from building to building on his grappling hook, patrolling Gotham. He was alone this night as Damian had an exam the next day and despite his insistence that he learned the subject as a child, he still kept himself at the Manor for some last-minute studying.
Batman perched on the roof of one of the many Gotham skyscrapers, observing the crowds on the ground from the shadows where he wouldn't be seen. He cracked a small smile at the thought of his youngest son, and the face he made when Bruce entered the earlier meeting exactly when he intended to—thirty minutes late. Damian's eyebrows had drawn together menacingly and his face turned a lovely shade of scarlet, obviously trying not to blow up at his father in front of the entire board (again). He managed to wait until the meeting was over and he and his father were the only ones in the building before launching into his tirade.
At the thought of Damian, another boys face came to mind as well. Sebastian had been at the back of Batman's mind the entire afternoon, still trying to find a way to help him. The Dark Knight looked around the building he was on, figuring out how close he was to Sebastian's apartment. He realized he was six blocks away, and shot off a grappling hook to start his way there. As he swung to a gargoyle on an old stone building, he realized he didn't even know which apartment the boy's family lived in. He decided to land on the building opposite to search for open windows on the front face of the building. Sebastian's mother's voice was too clear to have been heard through the closed glass of a window or around a corner. It was safe to assume their window was open still, to allow the smell of cigarettes or drugs to escape and not tip off the other tenants to their problems.
Batman was trying to decide how to start looking through windows to find the family he was looking for when a blood curdling scream pierced the air. Batman was only a block from the apartment, but knew he had to find the source of this scream first and help the person who was obviously in dire trouble. The screaming continued as Batman raced toward the noise. Toward the building he was already going to. The screams cut off as he approached the front of the building, looking for a viable source. Most windows were closed, and he knew the glass would have muffled the sound, making it much less shrill. Batman looked through window after window, growing more frantic in his search as each window he looked through not being what he was searching for. As the terrible silent seconds passed, the silence almost worse than the awful screams had been, Batman grew more frantic until he landed on one more sill.
He squinted at the dark inside, about to jump to the next apartment when he noticed something on the wall.
Blood.
There was blood everywhere. Splashed across the walls, splatter patterns on the ceiling, covering the floor in horrifically red puddles. Batman lowered his feet from the windowsill to the carpet of the room, wincing at the squish of blood under his feet. He finally noticed the bodies. Two of them in separate corners of the room, their faces appallingly mangled, having been beaten in with some sort of blunt object. Their entire torsos were indented, showing where ribs broke with the force of the blows rained down on the unwilling victims. Their hands were also torn up with defensive wounds, hoping to avoid the fate that played out. Judging by the clothes, Batman guessed that it was a man and a woman, though it would be difficult to tell otherwise. Distantly, Bruce felt bad for the coroner who would have to positively identify their bodies, as their entire hands were torn up ruining any fingerprints, and there was no way they would be able to get dental records for these bodies with how broken their faces were.
There was sudden movement in front of him. The Dark Night immediately got into a defensive stance, worried about an attack from the murderer. As the person stepped into the light pouring in from the street, Batman's eyes widened in recognition. He knew that blond hair, now with streaks of red blood running through it, as well as the intelligent brown eyes that peered at him from a pale gaunt face splashed with red.
He also knew that was a baseball bat Sebastian was holding.
As Batman's hands lowered, only one word could escape his mouth.
"Why?" He appealed. He knew Sebastian didn't have the best life but that wasn't worth the long prison time that would be endured for this gruesome brutal murder of his parents.
Batman wasn't expecting any sort of answer from the bloodied boy, preparing to call the commissioner to bring some units over. He wasn't needed any more, the perpetrator of the crime already in custody. So he was surprised when Sebastian suddenly spoke up.
"Bruce Wayne adopts orphans, right?"