In the months that follow, Bruce and Tony became almost inseparable. They (Tony) couldn't stand to last a half a day without contact from the other, be it texting, calling, some form of media, or any other possible ways.

The adults of the Wayne mansion were ecstatic that their boy finally came out of his lonely cave of a life and actually become friends with someone. They even accepted Tony into their own little family and always welcomed the boy in their home anytime, much to the boy's shock.

However in the Stark mansion, it was a different story. His mother was always too drunk to remember her son's name nevertheless that he has a friend, and Howard was only to remind him that Bruce wasn't really his friend, not when he was always such a disappointment. The only one, whom was positive about the brown-haired boy's friend, or any part about his life, was his faithful butler, Jarvis.

While Jarvis was relieved that Tony finally had found a trustworthy friend, who would (hopefully) not betray his trust. The old Brit knew that he was one of the only people that his young master could count on and trust. Trust that was so very rarely ever given away with all of the memories of past attempts burning in his young mind, always reminding him of how fragile it is.

As the year flew past by both of the families, December reared the corner without anyone noticing and no one could even imagine the events that would change everything for the Wayne and Starks.

TIME w SKIP

*Buzz*

*Buzz*

*Buzz*

A pale white hand shot out from the bed sheets like a piss-off recoiled snake.

Sliding the phone to the bed from the dresser. Bruce let out a tired and miserable groan. Bringing the infuriating object to his face, in his idiocy, clicked the power button.

Hissing at the offending light that momentarily blinding him, the poor boy retreat back into the sheets to sooth the white flashes in his vision. After the blinding light dulled to a few spots in the air he popped his head out, squinting and blinking at the light.

Once his eyes were adjusted, he drowned his face into the fluffy pillows and groaned out 'why' once he found out the time was 2:15 A.M.

'If this isn't an emergency, I'm going to kill him' the tired Wayne thought as he unlock his phone to reveal dozens of texts.

Tones- Hey, guess what

Tones- No sorry, that game is stupid, I'll just tell you.

Tones- No, it'll be more fun if you guess

Tones- Bruuuuuuuucie, answer meee

Tones- ;n;

Tones- You're probably asleep…

Tones- I'll tell you in the morning

Tones-Jarvis made so many cookies

Tones- and pies

Tones- Maybe I stole a couple of sodas…

Tones- Anyway, I'm coming to Gotham tomorrow. Surprise! ...So I was wondering if you had any plans.

And the messages go on like that for about another hour and was still going. Once Bruce was at least mildly awake he decided to answer his friend.

Brucie-bear (Tony hacked into his phone)- That's great Tony! It'll be great to see you especially after the opera I have to go to tonight.

Tones- Good, you're FINALLY awake. And really? You have to to go to an opera. I went to one once with Jarvis. He thought I needed to 'relax' and 'appreciated the arts' but seriously, it was the most boring thing to ever happen in the excitement that is my life.

Brucie-bear- yeah, I hope it's good, my parents are really excited about going. I just hope it's not boring.

Tones- Yeah, that would suck. Btw, I think I found a way to get rid of your bat phobia. It might be dangerous, but I found a certain group in the middle of nowhere that might help.

Brucie-bear- Tony, I don't think going to some place in the middle of nowhere would help. And I most definitely think that my parents and Alfred would NOT let me go.

Tones- Ugh. Why do you have to be so difficult. No matter, I'll just keep studying up on this. I'll help you Bruce, even if I have to take out every single bat in the world.

Brucie-bear- Thanks for your help, Tony. It'll be great to see you tomorrow. But incase you may have forgotten, it is only 2:20 right now. So you better let me sleep and suffer through your sugar-rush by yourself, or so help me God- I will kill you the moment you step foot on Gotham land.

Tones- Ughhh, fine, leave me in my lonely, dark, ominous, huge, quiet, boring room.

Brucie-bear- Good, hope you have fun. Goodnight.

Tones- night ,m ,

Bruce let a smile slide upon his lips as he set his phone down and snuggled back into his warm sheets. A content sigh escaped his lips as he drifted back to wonderful unconsciousness that was stolen from him.

TIME w SKIP

"Come along Bruce. We are going to be late!" The boy's father laughed as his wife just rolled her eyes.

"Darling, the play won't start for 30 minutes from now, we are fine. Let the boy message his friend." She sent a fond and beautiful smile over to her little boy as he finally became aware of the distance between them.

A traitorous hint of a blush heated his face as he jogged to catch up to his laughing parents. Mumbling an apology; they moved past it and stayed in a quick pace for the rest of the way.

Once they arrive at the opera and had taken their seats, they waited patiently as the lights dimmed.

As the performance started it was entertaining but as it went on, poor Bruce kept having flashbacks of the bat swarming around him as the singers twirled around.

In the middle of a panic attack, he tugged onto his father's suit.

"Can we leave now?" he whispered with a small, shaky voice.

"Are you sure? It just started." His father asked in a worried tone to his son.

Bruce frantically nodded, trying to keep his breathing steady.

Thomas poked his wife with his elbow and pointedly nodded to their panicked son. she gave a nod in reply and grabbed her purse as they walked out.

Once they were outside, the terrified boy took a deep breath of fresh air calming himself. When he felt a hand grip his shoulder, looking up he found his father familiar and loving smile.

"Can- can we go home now?" The Wayne boy asked, blinking away the water glistening in his eyes.

"Yeah son, let's take a long walk to the train station. it'll help clear our minds."

Bruce felt weight appear on his other shoulder and looked up to find his mother smiling at him.

"Come on sweetie, you look like you need the exercise." She lightly teased as both of the adults pushed their son gently as they walked.

After about 10 minutes of walking, and as Bruce's mind cleared, regret started to flood him. He thought about how much his parents been talking about the performance and how much they were excited to see it.

"I'm sorry for making you guys leave. I know how much you wanted to see it. I should have just dealt with it and stayed there for you." He looked down guiltily as they turned the corner and traveled down another long, dark alley.

The eldest Wayne knelt down to his son's level with a determination in his eyes.

"Now listen here, this is not your fault. We would do anything for you. And yes, your mother and I were delighted to have a chance to come see the performance, but it does not come before you. You come before everything and we would do anything for you." Thomas watched as the smile on his son's face morphed into fear, he heard his wife's small scream as a gun cocked behind his slick, black hair.

"Get up, slowly. Try anything, and I will shoot." Very stiffly he stood up and turned to face the man with the deep, muffled voice. Holding his hands up in a surrender, the father tried to talk as calm as possible.

"There is no need to hurt any of us. We have money, I can give you my watch or jewels. Just please sir, please leave my family alone."

The mugger wore all all black, even the mask covering his face. The thing that stood out, was his deep brown eyes that showed his coldness and calculated gaze. The gun in his hand kept flickering from Bruce's father to mother and back many times, ignoring the boy for the moment.

"Then why don't you hurry the fuck up." the mugger growled out.

Martha stood calm except for the hint of her shaky breath leaving her lips as she stepped in front of her son with angry and frightened tears filling her eyes.

The two parents took everything of objective value they had and gave it to the dangerous man.

"You have what you want. Now let us go." The father spoke calmly as the man shoved the valuable items in a tattered bag.

He slowly lowered the black and dangerous weapon and watched in amusement as the Waynes relaxed slightly. His brown cold eyes seemed to finally take notice on the beautiful, crystal blue eyes on the tear-streaked boy.

Bruce watched in horror as time seemed to slow, taunting him as he couldn't do anything as the deranged man winked and two loud shots ran through the air. There was a moment of deafening silence as both of his parents crumbled to the floor.

Staring in shock at the blood staining through their clothes and pooling around them, he could only watch as the smirking mur- mugger 'He didn't kill them. They'll be fine. They'll be fine' ran out of the alley.

The eight year-old collapsed onto his knees and started shaking his father with tears trailing down his face. Thomas grunted and tried to focus his blurry vision on his son.

"Bruce, 'ruce, lis'n 'o me. 'Snot y'ur fau't. S'n I-" He went into a coughing fit, choking on some of his blood as it trickled down his chin. Atear started to form as he glanced at his dead wife then back to his soon-to-be orphaned son. "we 'uv 'u"

Bruce watched as all that kindness, love, compassion, determination, safety, encouragement, and many more wonderful things faded out of existence along with his soul. More tears filled the young boy's eyes and dripping on his father's face. His still developing mind not fully comprehending what was happening. He started to shake the lifeless body gently.

'Dad. Daddy?" he started to shake harder and then shook the vessel that used to hold his mother. "MOMMY!? DADDY!? PLEASE!? WAKE UP! MOMMY, WAKE UP!" He screamed as loud as his little eight year-old prepubescent voice could go, as if he could call back to his parents lost souls.

When his voice failed him, the young boy wrapped his arms around both of his parents and stuffed his face into their bloody and colding neck.

"I'm sorry, I love you, I'm sorry. Please don't leave, I'm sorry. Daddy, Please, I love you. Mommy, I don't want you to leave. Oh God, I'm so,so,so,-" And he went on mumbling whatever came to his frantic and frightened mind.

He stayed in that position, mumbling those words as minutes passed by slowly. Not noticing the police officers stalking down the alley.

"son?" Bruce yelped and hugged the corpses of his parents tighter, not wanting to leave them.

When the officer heard the yelp and saw the tensing of the boy's poster, he stepped back and let out a sigh.

Glancing at his partner, the man went back to their car to get a shock blanket as well call in the murder scene.

Crouching down to the broken child in front of him, he placed a hand on the boy's small shoulders, ignoring the furthering tensing it caused.

Taking pity on the boy, the young man let him cry into his parents bloody shoulders a little longer. when he started to push the boy away from the two bloody corpses, he had to use all his strength to fight against the famous, bloodied Wayne.

As his partner came back with the thin fabric, he quickly took it and swaddled it around the bloodied black-haired boy tightly, waiting for him to calm and stop struggling.

As he felt the boy grow tired, the fight to reunite with his parents lifeless bodies became weaker and weaker until there was no move, no sound, nothing except a slow heartbeat and shaky breath.

"Son? Are you alright?" He asked, slowly letting go of his tight grip and faced the traumatized child.

He let out a small sigh Once he saw Bruce's emotionless face with tired, dull, done eyes. It was the type of face that did not belong on a child.

"Hey, I'm going to move you over to the warm car, and we're going to take a little trip, alright?" The young boy let the man lead him to the car as all his fight has been sucked out of him.

Bruce's head lulled on the young man's chest as he listen to the rhythm of his heartbeat and footsteps.

Once they made it to the car, the officer placed him gently in the warm car and shut the door

The boy just ignored everything that was happening around him as the scene of what happen played through his mind.

Awkward silence filled the car as the young police officer started the engine and drove down the dark road as it began to rain, leaving his partner to watch the scene.

Looking up at the rear-view mirror, he worried about the boy's emotionless state.

"I'm officer Gordon by-the-way. You must be Bruce, right? I recognize you from all of the magazines and shows." The boy made no acknowledgement that he had heard him or that the young adult was even there.

Awkwardly clearing his throat the young man looked back at the road, trying to think up a way to break the boy out of his trance.

The ride went on silently with only a couple more conversation starters, but every attempted ended with ear blaring silence.

Once they finally made it to the station, he let out a small sigh as he helped the broken boy out and directed him to Gordon's office.

As they waited in the office, officers walked in asking questions about the Wayne boy himself or about what happened. They were all answered with an emotionless face and dead eyes that just looked through them as if they didn't exist.

Most of them gave up except for a couple stubborn ones that were only getting angry and trying harder and harder to not just scream at the traumatized boy.

In the middle of what seemed like the thousandth question, Alfred rushed in.

Shuffling up to his young charge, he laid his old hand upon the boy's shoulder. The butlers touch seemed to take some of the tension from his posture and made him vaguely more aware of what was happening.

"Come along young master, let's get you home," He spoke in the kindest voice the police had heard from a guardian to their ward.

Bruce gave a minuscule nod as Alfred lead the once innocent child to the black maybach exelero.

While on- yet another- muted road trip since his parents were murdered, he surprised both himself and his guardian when began muttering the most broken words the old Brit had ever heard.

"...They're dead. They died. I left. I was so selfish and wanted to leave. Now they're gone. And never, ever, ever,...coming back…"

Alfred let out a sad sigh, glancing up to the reflection of the boy staring blankly at his slightly trembling hands.

He didn't say anything in response, of course. The Aged man knew that anything he would say would just get lost and disappear in the boys fog of denial and self-loathing.

The rest of the trip was filled with low murmuring here and there as the Brit listen with a heavy heart.

He internally sighed in relief as he parked the car close by the front door of the Wayne manor.

The old caretaker almost had a heart attack because as soon as the car stopped his young master threw open the metal door and ran to the mansion, slamming the oak door open and disappearing into the darkness.

Alfred Slowly turned the key of the engine and took it out as he stared at the spot Bruce disappeared to. Walking up to the entrance and stepping into the quiet mansion he turned and gently shut the door.

The aging man knew that a lot of change was coming to Gotham and more importantly, the Wayne heir.

Meanwhile, Bruce ran through the halls, ignore all of the family portraits that seemed to mock him.

He came to a stop at a familiar door that was supposed to lead to a sanctuary from the nightmares and monsters of the world.

He slowly walked in, taking a whiff of his father's cologne and mother's perfume. The orphaned and still bloody boy fell on the middle of the bed and let unwanted memories fill him.

oOo Flashback oOo

A little, innocent three year-old Bruce ran through the halls, trying to control his sniffing and breathing. Monsters can sense your fear.

A whimper expected him as he heated the monster scratch on the window.

Picking up his pace, he ignored the tears pricking the corners of his eyes.

There was a loud BOOM as the light from the sky to show the monster's shadow following close. Too close.

His heart was beating too fast as he sped down the hall in full speed to his parents and basically trampled them in the bed.

The two adults shot out of there sleep when they heard Bruce scream and run at them. They instantly held him close and protectively, not knowing the problem.

"Twhe mon-mostwer's 'ere." The toddler warned his parents as both of their long arms still wrapped securely around their baby boy.

His father snuggled closer to his son's ear "Well… Wanna hear a secret?" He whispered as his wife smirked at her husband's antics.

Moving his head so it was stuffed into his father's safe chest, gave a curt nod.

"Monsters are terrified of your daddy. Anytime those mean ol' monsters try to scare you, then just tell them that you are going to tell them that your daddy is going to kick their-"

"Darling" Martha half exasperated, half warned.

"-booty. And you know why?" Bruce shook his head, fluffy black hair excitedly bouncing around. "Because, your parents love you and would protect you from anything or anyone that hides in the dark. We would create the light that they are terrified of, to them know not to scare you or even come near. So don't worry about those meanies, they're just cowards that wouldn't dare go against daddy." He puffed out his chest at the look of awe in his son's eyes

"So we aren't going to let the monsters take your nose" he kissed Bruce's nose, making the boy giggle "your eyes" kissed both of his eyelids, causing more giggles to erupt.

"Oh dear, what else do monsters love to take?" The middle-aged father sucked in an exaggerated gasp and took Bruce's hands in his own and gently lifted them to their faces.

"We don't want you to become fingerless now, do we?" He smirked as his toddler playfully fought against him.

"N-no, daddy" he giggled

"Boys" Came the amused voice of his mother that froze both of them.

They both sheepishly smiled up at her as she just rolled her eyes.

"I think that you two should be more afraid of what I could do if I don't get enough sleep." She warned them as she, fell back to blissful sleep.

Thomas looked down at his little boy "I think your mother's right son, night." He suddenly fell on top of his son, crushing him between the bed. Loud fake snores rang in the boy's ears.

Bruce shifted under his father's chest, causing them to snuggle closer.

"My son, my beautiful baby boy, my everything. I love you." He whispered.

"I wove 'oo too, daddy." He slurred as he fell asleep by his father's warmth, safety, love, and everything else that was great. His parents would always protect him, they would always be there…

oOo End of Flashback oOo

As the memory faded, the warmth and safety turned to cold and bitterness as he took in the sent of his parents smell. Knowing that that familiarity would fade into nothing but a memory.

Tears ran down his emotionless face as he thought about what happened. Would this happen again? Was he the first? Does anyone actually do anything to stop it?

He wasn't stupid. He's been noticing the build up of recent crimes and how it seems like less and less people investigate or even care.

All of his freezing sadness suddenly started to burn. To boil. All of his depression and loneliness steam into fury.

NO. He wouldn't it's sit here and cry in his parents bed while the world got worst and have this happen again. He would do something, he would avenge his parents. Maybe Tony will even help.

The broken boy let out the most bitter and angry smile cross his face.

He always liked playing detective.

AN-

I am also sorry about how much time it took to do this chapter. It took so long but I am really horrible at managing my time and I will try to get the next chapter by the end of the month.

Thank you to Ellabee15 and Nancyarev for following and Yessica400 following/favoriting

I hoped u all liked this chapter leave a review to tell how you think and whatnot. Love you and until next time