Chapter Text
Bruce Wayne lived a horror scenario.
He thought gently as he straightened his tie. Impeccable as always, easier to hide all his nervousness behind his mask. He applied a heavy dose of cologne on his wrists so the interviewer wouldn’t be able to smell it on him.
The polite thing to do. It was just a bonus if the cologne masked his feelings.
The last thing he needed was for Viki Vale to smell his nervousness.
He wasn’t nervous about the interview, he had done them a thousand times, and Viki had been the reporter dozens of times.
As much as she liked to manufacture scandals, he was not nervous about her.
No, he was nervous for a lot of other reasons.
This one was mainly named Tim.
People had criticized him all those years ago when he decided to take in an orphaned pup.
Mainly people had criticized that he may be an unfit parent, that he couldn’t do it as an alpha without a pack.
He had waved off those concerns.
Others criticized his adoption of Dick for different reasons, suspicious of his motivation of taking in an unpresented pup.
Viki had been among the Accusers that he had ill intentions.
People had grown more suspicious when he took in his second pup, from the streets no less.
Truth was, in Richard, Bruce had seen a kindred spirit. Someone torn away from his nurturers at a young age just as he had been.
With Jason it had been a bit different, he had seen something dark in the young pup, but also great potential for good. He decided that he wanted to nurture that spark he saw and not let him become some sort of monster.
By his third child people had stopped questioning his ability to nurture pups without a pack, clearly, he had what it took.
Some people instead questioned his status as an Alpha.
Believing he might have had a switch into a Beta with a dominant subtype. Others that he had never been an Alpha to begin with. A few very public incidents later, that question had been sorted out, and there was no doubt of his status.
He had only taken in Tim two years ago after the tragic death of his parents. Though he had thought of the boy as one of his own for far longer.
A small vindictive part of him was glad his parents were out of the way; they had never given the pup the full care and attention he had needed. Yet Bruce is the one who gets accused of being an unfit parent.
He fiddled slightly with his cufflinks. Cute little chess pieces that Cass had gotten him for his 32 nd birthday. Everything looked perfect. He took a deep grounding breath.
“Mr. Wayne, we are ready for you now.”
A young intern poked her head into his dressing room after knocking. He spun around to face her, just catching in the corner of his eye her wrinkling her nose. Likely at his cologne, but perhaps she could smell the turbulent emotions he emitted.
His cologne should mask it, but sometimes the scents were just too powerful.
“Wonderful, I’ll follow your lead.”
She nodded.
They were down the long beige hallways of the studio, he could probably have found the way on his own, but he felt that he did not want to concentrate on that today. His thoughts were occupied with his family’s well-being.
They lived a dangerous double life. After all they secretly operated as Gotham’s protectors, Batman, and his Robins. So, some worry about his family’s well-being was to be expected. They had found themselves in multiple life-threatening scenarios, usually on a bi-weekly basis. They had nearly lost Jason a few years ago.
Sometimes Bruce quietly thanked every god he knew that his son had woken up from that coma the Joker left him in.
His main worry about his family’s well-being was about Tim.
Tim was sixteen now, and he had just presented.
As an omega.
That unfortunately meant a few things for Bruce and his makeshift family. It meant that they would have to be extra careful when it came to patrols, to school, to hanging out with peers.
Omegas had a lot of social expectations. Social perceptions that were largely negative. Theme there was the whole concern about continuing their nightlife.
Omegas are not allowed to become vigilantes.
A rule heavily enforced in the community. After all, an omega placed themselves at greater risk than any other presentation.
The one exception to this rule had only been in the man of steel himself and his family, but that was also in large part because Kryptonian biology was weird and clearly followed different rules to that of humans… the whole invulnerability thing also helped.
So if Tim wanted to continue being Robin, something that Bruce knew he would never willingly give up, he had to keep that hidden.
That was no big deal.
After all, all his children were omegas.
That was the other headache that bloomed behind his brow.
Oldest Richard, Jason, Tim, his daughters Cass, Steph and the most recent addition of Duke.
All his children had presented as Omegas. Every single one of them was some brand of vigilante.
If His adoption of his children had been a scandal, the truth that every one of them was an omega… That would be the scandal of the century. His reputation had bounced back from a lot of things, but he doubted that even the Prince of Gotham could survive that one.
Not to mention if it became public knowledge that his children were all omegas…
He could not risk putting their safety at risk like that. They were already big targets for kidnappings as the Wayne’s children, but Omegas were rare. Plenty of people wanted their hands on one. He took a grounding breath as he listened to the sepal winding down from the previous segment of the show. Slight scents of the audience and crew drifted past the curtains, though much of it was dealt with the studio's top of the line air filtration system.
The previous guest brushed past him with a smile as she exited the stage, and Vickie Vale’s sharp voice began her interdiction for his entrance. The nice beta lady with the clipboard and headphones looked up at him ready to give him his cue to enter.
She held up her hand and counted down on her fingers. 3. 2. 1.
Showtime.
He strode through the curtains with an easy buoyant gate that was a staple of his Brucie Wayne persona. A wide smile plastered across his face. His fangs flashing at the cameras. The audience applauded and someone even hollered. It had been a while since he had made a public appearance like this.
“Bruce Wayne everybody.” Viki introduced him with enthusiasm.
He gave a few polite waves and settled onto the sofa that the guests used for the interview. He crossed his legs in a casual looking but entirely choreographed manner.
“Happy to have you here.” Viki said. He deepened his smile and leaned forward slightly.
“Nowhere else I would rather be.”
He lied with a smile, like a liar. He would much rather be home.
So, he could help his family. So, he could help comfort his feverish son through his presentation.
The first presentation was often the worst. He had sent his kids out on errands to prepare. All except Tim.
New Nest materials, snack foods, medical supplies, pack gifts and anything else they could think to get.
They couldn’t just get it all in one place that would make it suspicious as the materials they were getting clearly tended to advertise themselves as something omegas needed. At least when all gotten together.
He would grin and bear this and coast his way through the interview.
How's the family? Developments from Wayne enterprise. Why are your children such public menaces? Socialite gossip .
Regular talkshow interview questions. A few jokes jabing at his old ways and him settling down into pack life. Nothing new, but somehow always interesting to a ravenous public.
Finally Vicky asked something that he knew she’d been wanting to since the beginning, the real meat of the show.
“How do you feel about these new laws?”
“I feel as if it is setting back equal rights by three decades,” Bruce sighed “it really is a shame don’t you think?”
“That’s an interesting take Brucie, after all this law’s meant to protect omegas from kidnappings.”
This new law masquerade as a way for Omegas to gain a foothold in society, but in reality they were just a new way for the world to have more control over the vulnerable.
Bruce Wayne was not a fan of most laws to ‘protect’ Omegas, many of them were simply traps to keep alphas in control of them instead of real protections.
These were especially egregious, and were almost like a modern twist on the ancient laws that stated that unmated omegas became the property of the eldest heir or oldest alpha when a pack alpha passed away.
“We in the Wayne family always strive for those down trodden and vulnerable communities we can aid.”
“Of course, your family has a long and well documented history in working with women’s suffrage, Civil rights and the many funds for the disenfranchised.”
Vickie regaled slightly as if she were singing his praise.
She was likely referring back to his mother’s work advocating for women’s rights. Back in her youth, beta women weren’t even allowed to get credit cards without their husband’s approval. By the time she married his father they could.
Omegas of all sexes had it worse. Many of the earlier laws that granted women rights outright ignored or refused to do the same for omegas.
They didn't get their own suffrage until the 1970s, when the voter age was lowered.
“But, i dont think I'm mistaken in that we all took you for a family man.”
“I am.”
“You just gained a new addition recently andI say it's a fair assumption you don't plan on stopping anytime soon.”
“No comment on that last part.”
Viki just smiled like she did whenever she was going for the throat.
“All I’m saying is that if you do decide to continue with your adoption habits and one of your children turns out to be an omega. Would you not want to guarantee their staying within the safety of your pack? If god forbid anything happened to you as the head of the family.”
Alphas were considered the heads of families while omegas were considered the hearts. At least that’s how it worked in theory.
In practice it was a lot more complicated and depended on the make-up of an entire pack.
How many alphas were in the pack, how many and what kinds of betas and of course if a pack even had a pack omega.
Often they didn't.
“If so, I would want them to make their own decision on who to go with. If they wanted to stay with my pack or join a new one of their own.”
He phrased it in the most socially acceptable way he could think of. As this was not his true feelings. Just a vizard of stronger feelings.
“But at the moment that is not something I need to concern myself with. My pack has no omegas.”
Lies.
“Of course. I know this is an old and tired topic, but ever considered adding one? I know there's many out there who would happily submit to Brucie Wayne.”
Bruce just laughs, a bit awkwardly.
“Has not been too much of a consideration Viki, though i don't doubt you are right. Though I doubt my children would easily approve. They can be quite…Picky.”
“Yes, yes, I remember when you dated that one model, your Oldest practically threw a bowl of punch on her!”
“He was eleven, but yes. Richard has always been a bit moody and wild.”
“Expected of a submissive beta, shame he isn't just an omega, he’s such a beautiful boy you would no doubt have marriage proposals from around the world! But some wild charm to the man suits him well.”
Wild.
That's how the world saw them.
Omegas were wild compared to Alphas. They were territorial in a different way and grew aggressive if something threatened their Alphas and their pups.
Omegas had been known to tear each other to literal shreds because they thought that they fancied the same alpha.
It was why the practice of keeping a harem was particularly dangerous.
The only way to normally keep omegas together was to keep them in different rooms.
At least when it came to non-related omegas, families tended to at least tolerate each other, in part because families tend to have similar scents.
Tricking the body into thinking that they were smelling their own pheromones or those of a beta.
It's why packs only tended to have one omega.
But on rare occasions a pride would form.
Packs were common, An Omega, and their Alpha along with any Betas that they were willing to keep in their circle. Sometimes Packs could be formed from an Alpha with many Betas, perhaps another Alpha or two or rarely an all-alpha pack would form. Other times packs formed a sort of social hierarchy where a dominant pack helped provide for other smaller or weaker packs and they in turn would care for the rest of the community. That is what had once formed the ancient basis of many feudal systems.
Prides were not that.
Prides were the things of legend. Things of horror stories, and things of peoples twisted fantasies.
Prides were seen as an affront to the natural order or god by many people.
Where many Omegas lived together and formed their own pack with each other. Sometimes with bata members or even with an alpha or two in a non-dominant role.
Prides were said to disrupt the order of society, as the many omegas could use all their charms and persuasions to control or tear apart other packs or even bring Roaming packless alphas to do their bidding.
Taking all the quiet passive power of an omega and multiplying it.
Lovesick.
There were stories that had turned into legend: of Arthurian alphine kings lulled to service in the hypnotic words of an Omega who sat whispering sweet nothings into their ears.
Of the omega Circie from Greek myth and the ways she tricked the men before she and her pride turned Odysseus’s men to pigs.
Of entire armies and civilizations brought to their knees by conniving prides out for their own interest. Then legends of the power that could be wielded by anyone who controlled a pride. Those were just stories, but stories hold power in the mind of people. Much like how fear can inspire action so can stories. Stories color perspective, establish taboos and values, and what stories said about omegas often boiled down to one thing.
Omegan Temptation
Bruce sort of thought a lot of it was pure fabrication.
In theory a pride was a very similar structure to a pack. A family through blood or through bond. Yet a pride was something different. Omegas who formed their own relationships with each other. And woe be anyone who stood in their way.
If they had any alphas and betas mingled in it was their business, not the world. From all of his research he had found no significant difference between packs and prides. Only the willingness to share bonds and not being territorial with each other.
He had even found some accounts that prides used to be more common in the past. Though not the case nowadays. They were rare.
There was a high chance that his kids had formed the only pride in the whole of New Jersey.
Prides were considered dangerous.
They had not lost that innate danger that omegas had once had with their nature.
Most stories had softened the omega to be what society wanted them to be. Soft, Delicate, Docile, Nurturing, Beautiful, Desirable, Obedient, Emotional, Passive and Pleasant.
Making them non threatening and frivolous.
Not worth listening to. Not worth considering outside of their role in a pack.
Alphas and betas all laughed and diminished omegas on their own.
As far as popular society was concerned an omegas place was still, in the home, either in the kitchen or the bedroom.
After all, the world was built for Betas and ruled over by Alphas.
Yet somehow this modern view never transferred over to the perception of prides.
People underestimated Omegas, they were rare and ill understood.
Batman knew better than to underestimate the power of an omega, after all Joker was one, and he did horrify things with that influence. Pushing his will onto those around him, enthralling his alpha goons to do his bidding. In turn those alphas pushed around their betas.
Another one of his most notorious rouges was also an omega, Poison Ivy, known for her chemical manipulation of males and Alphas.
To some extent he misinformation around omegas made sense. There were simply less of them around and even less research.
Omegas were about 5% of the population, a bit less in reality but averages. Compare that to the 35% of Alphas and the rest being made up of the complicated Betas.
Who were divided up by the spectrum of dominance and submissiveness. It was simple yet complex genetics that interacted with environmental factors. Nothing about it was really as simple as people seemed to think, but what the relatively simple society said you were, really mattered more than what the complex interplay of genetics and brain chemistry displayed in reality. If a beta said she was a woman, and society saw her as a woman she was a woman.
This grace wasn’t always extended to omegas in the same way it was to the other secondary sexes.
Then there was the whole ordeal with the superhero community.
Most capes were against omegas acting as vigilantes, after all most of them were alphas or betas.
Though there were some exceptions, mostly in the form of the actual aliens.
Superman for example was considered an omega, but he always confused Bruce’s senses; it was like a chameleon constantly changing skin. J’ohhn J’ones and his niece had no scent, as apparently the Martians didn’t have gender in the same way. Dick’s friend Starfire was an Alpha, and her planet did have this distinction, but the distribution was entirely different. –Betas were a rarity and both Alphas and Omegas were roughly equal parts of the population. A very emotional species–
Their newest member Captain Marvel had no discernable presentation scent, when he didn’t smell of electricity Bruce swore the man had the scent of a pup. Though the Captain never let anyone get close enough to really find out.
But Most of his teammates were some flavor of human. Who all had their own flavor of ideas of what an omega ought to and ought not to do.
One of the many reasons he could never tell them about his children’s natures.
It didn't matter if scent blockers removed distractions and dangers, it didn't matter that his son’s designation had been what saved his life.
All that mattered is that omegas were seen as weak and delicate and too valuable for packs to be vigilantes.
Perhaps he was being a bit over critical of his team mates.
He was quite certain that Diana would be accepting of the truth. Despite being an Alpha herself, she was from Themoscara, And though the island was entirely female in primary sex, they had a much more egalitarian society when it came to second sex. As long as you could prove your own might as a warrior, poet or queen themascarians did not care.
He knew that in her eyes, all his children could prove themselves worthy of her respect.
He also knew it would crush Jason’s feelings if his idol couldn’t respect him just because of his biology. His second son was already so insecure about his presentation. He didn’t need anything else to shake that confidence.
Some of his other teammates he couldn’t be so certain about. Some didn’t believe that they should act as vigilantes in any regard, others thought that they could act as sidekicks or in Guy-In-The-Chair positions.
This was just another reason he didn’t allow the other capes in Gotham. It was one thing for his rogues to occasionally speculate that the other vigilantes were omegas. It had been publicly acknowledged that the second Robin had been an omega. That was a secret exposed upon his supposed “death.”
There had been such an uproar in the watchtower when that news was revealed. It only strengthened some capes resolve that omegas should not be capes. Bruce had lost some faith in his peers that day. He had kept careful watch over Jason’s comatose body that evening.
There had even been a proposed ban on omegas even interacting with the capes community for a while. At least outside of the form of a victim.
Diana, Supes and Batman himself had managed to shut those ridiculous motions down.
He didn't see anyone complaining when one of their rouges was an omega. Poison Ivy for example showed how easy it was for an omega to be a rouge. It was about sending a message about control for her.
Poison Ivy of course had lines she would never cross. Unless of course she decided to play jury judge and executioner for her eco-terrorism.
Poison Ivy had many valid points about her view of the world, even if she went about it in one of the most destructive ways possible.
It wasn't just her meta powers that made her a danger. Instead her use of her drugs and pollons.
Her pheromones and pollons were all based around the things she could already do as an omega.
Many of them were more of an irritation or distraction, such as her itch pollens and cuddle pollens.
She knew how to make drugs and pollen that could do worse, she had in the past, but nowadays she was avidly against any type of drugging or influencing heats or ruts. She hadn’t been back when Jason was living on the streets.
She didn't use them on undeserving omegas and children. She stopped working with those strains of her pollen when it was pointed out that it affected those groups as well.
Nowadays she uses something different. Lower potency, and only in close range.
Even then these only lowered their inhibitions, making people highly susceptible to coercion.
Still not a joy to work with.
Yet some of his coworkers or other superheroes had the gall to still say they were glad that she wasn't their rogue and still turn around and deny that omegas could work as vigilantes.
“Richard has moved to Bludhaven, correct?” Viki snapped his attention back to the interview.
The bright blinding lights overhead, the faux room, with its couches and little coffee table,its plastic plants and cream colored carpets, making it a facsimile of a cozy living space.
It took Bruce just three seconds to long for his brain to catch up to the question as he stuttered out his answer.
“Ah yes, yes…Dick’s just graduated from Gotham University and is working in Bludhaven. He just moved up there last year.”
He regained his composure.
“But Blud’s nearby so he can come home as often as he wants to. In fact he is coming home today for a family dinner and game night.”
Family values, the Wayne brand had become one of family values as well as the old luxury it had always had.
“Oh Game night, how cute!”
Vicki Vale smiled.
“Speaking of games, I hear Wayne tech-industries is trying to expand into the gaming industry, but we’ll talk more about that and other topics including our viewer Q and A after the break!”
With her cue, music started up from the band and the cameras were cut.
Bruce stood up and stretched. He gave a pleasant smile and small talk to the people who offered him refreshments and touched up his stage makeup. He really wanted to be at home. His children were waiting for him. At least they were in one of the safest places in Gotham. Tim would be surrounded by his loving family and not in the cold mausoleum that had been his former home of drake manor. He would be safe in the nest.
The stage director cued down that they were about to go on air again.
And the last thing he thought of before going back to his persona was he hoped everything had gone well at the store