Chapter Text
Bruce steeled himself, and took one last look into the mirror. He’d told his kids to surprise him with their costumes, and he’d gone with the classic vampire. It was a pretty good costume, if he did say so himself. The fangs were special-made, and stayed on his teeth rather well, though they were still removable, and his cape was long and flowing.
He opened his door, and walked down the stairs, wondering what his children had picked for costumes. Bruce got to the bottom of the stairs, and made his way to the batcave, humming.
“Hello everyone! How are you- What the?!” He stared at his children, and internally face palmed at his past self for asking to be surprised. He was certainly surprised, that much is true.
Dick grinned at him from under the domino mask of a convincingly accurate fifth robin costume. “Hello, father.” His voice was low pitched, as if forcibly, and whiny, clearly made to sound childish. Bruce watched as Damian, dressed in a full Red Robin costume, complete with specialized weaponry, walked closer to Dick, and stomped down on his foot.
As Dick hopped around on one foot, Damian watched with a scowl. “You should not have imitated me in that way, Grayson.” He walked back over to the snack table, and squinted at Dick as he took a bite of a lettuce leaf.
Tim laughed behind his hand, and once Bruce looked his way, his eyebrows flew to the top of his face. His son, one of the ones most adamant at the fact that Dick’s previous costume was ugly, was decked out in the full Discowing outfit, complete with the deep v-neck that looked almost scandalously low on Tim.
Tim’s eyes caught Bruce, and he sighed. “ Lost a bet, ” He signed while frowning, and Bruce nodded. That at least made more sense than him picking that costume voluntarily.
Walking over to Tim, Cass made complete eye contact with Bruce, and he felt his jaw drop. She was decked out in a hero costume, just like all the others, but hers was different. Cass was wearing the original Batman outfit, in all its blue and gray glory.
She waved her fingers at Bruce, smirking and he felt his eye twitch. This is going to be a long night.
Just then, Alfred walked down with more food, while Jason and Stephanie tailed behind him, carrying a billiard table for some reason.
A note- Bruce does have a billiard table in his house, because why wouldn’t he? It’s an interesting game to play, and the table itself is the epitome of rich decoration.
A second, more worried note- That is not his table.
But that’s not important right now, and he’ll tackle it later. He sighed, and watched as they walked the table over to the middle of the room, setting it down and sitting on it.
Alfred nodded at him, and he felt his neck crack at how fast he turned. Alfred was wearing his costume! Well, not his, it looked like it was from a dollar store, but it was the current Batman design, and he was just walking around in it!
Bruce stared at his hands, going over what he’d done in his life to deserve this. He just wanted his family to have a nice Halloween party, not to dress up as each other’s superhero identities! That’s dangerous to the civilian selves! Though, he supposed no one would see them, so it was fine, but it was still confusing to him.
At least Steph and Jason- Nope, nevermind. He looked again at his children that he thought were dressed in their own hero forms, and sighed. Red Hood and Spoiler were the costumes they’d picked, but this Red Hood was much shorter, and built far thinner, and Spoiler looked much more like Jason Todd than they did Stephanie Brown.
With a sigh, Bruce sat in a chair at the table, and laid his head in his hands.
“Are you alright, Bruce?” He didn’t have to look up to tell that it was Barbara Gordon comforting him, with a hand on his shoulder and soft words.
“Yeah, I don’t know. It’s so damn confusing! I already had a hard time telling you all apart, at least the Robins, now this? It’s all in light fun, I know, but some small part of me is a bit unsure about this.” Bruce looked up to see Barbara’s reaction, and he stared at her, face blank and unphased. “I was expecting this, you know. Don’t think you’ve shocked me.”
Barbara laughed, and held her hands up in mock defense. “Sorry Bats, I thought it’d be fun to dress like one of the others for a day, and everyone else agreed!” Bruce had to admit, her Signal costume was good, and matched the original almost perfectly.
He sighed again, and rolled his eyes, accepting his fate. “Are there any other surprising costumes that I should know about?”
She tapped her chin. “Oh, Duke is running a little late, but he’s dressed as Orphan, as long as he didn’t change his mind at the last minute.”
“Okay, thanks.” Bruce turned to look out at his kids, and smiled. “I think this’ll be fine. I’ll manage with a bit of confusion, at least for the party. But none of you better stay swapped!” Barbara laughed, and Bruce sighed happily.
“And, real quick, could you make me a list of who’s who?” She burst into laughter, and Bruce blinked with a deadpan expression on his face. “Seriously. Before anyone else notices I can’t tell the ones of the same height apart.”