Chapter Text
Sitting in his office at Wayne Enterprises, Bruce has been staring at the same report for almost three hours now. He needs to read through it, finalise a few statements, double check the numbers and stats and finally sign it off. It’s a report that he could have whipped through within an hour. For whatever reason, he’s been staring at it for over three as his mind wonders and he distantly wishes to be elsewhere.
He has a lot to do, as he always does. It’s the start of December so all the Christmas are happening, as if they didn’t start back in November. What are the Christmas hours? How is the business doing this winter? What does the new year look like going forward? What holiday is staff taking? Who’s working when? What day are people getting paid?
All valid questions and all of which Bruce needs to sit down with his management teams and figure out. But not today. He’s too distracted.
Sighing in defeat he moves the report to the side of his desk to be looked at another day when he can give it his full attention. He logs onto his computer which had gone to sleep in the time his mind had been wondering and shifts through his emails, looking and praying for something easy to do which doesn’t require much brain power.
He finds one or two and trudges through the tasks, responding to the recipient easily enough, and it’s as he’s about to reply to a third when commotion outside his office gets his attention.
At first it was a bang, followed by swearing, followed by another voice that developed into arguing.
Be careful what you wish for, lest it come true, as they say.
Bruce groans and rubs a hand across his face. He had wanted a distraction but he did not mean in the form of his sons crashing his work day. And all of them by the sounds of it. The girls may be here too but they tend to be much quieter than the boys. There’s another bout of cursing happening, another bang and then a round of laughter.
Getting to his feet Bruce moves to go and investigate what his sons are up to. Nothing good by the sounds of it. He swings his office door open and stops. There in the middle of the hallway is a large tree being dragged by Dick, Jason and Duke. Jason’s currently on top of the thing seeming to be caught in between the branches and was cursing as he tugged his sleeve free. Behind them, Tim, Damian and Cass are carrying large boxes while watching Jason with amusement. Steph is beside them carrying a large drink holder filled with take-away cups.
“What are you doing?” Bruce asks. At this point he could very much make an educated guess but it doesn’t hurt to get the exact answer.
All their heads spin to look over at him. Predictably Dick beams at him, the eldest taking charge like usual. “Bruce! Lucius said you refused to decorate your office. We’re here to rectify that.”
“I see…” Bruce drawls. Really, he should have seen this coming. They’ve already taken over the Manor with decorations – with Alfred’s supervision – and then the bottom floor of Wanye Enterprises, so really his office wasn't a far stretch.
“How on earth did you get a tree up here?” They were near the top floor, and it certainly wouldn’t have fit in the elevator.
“The stairs,” Jason grunts, finally freeing himself. He glares at the tree before fixing his jacket and looking at Bruce, “we carried the damn thing all the way up here so you better appreciate our efforts, old man.”
Steph steps forward holding out carrier in her hand. “Don’t worry, we brough refreshments too! Drinks and treats while we work to get this place looking festive!”
Bruce pinches the bridge of his nose. He sighs before straightening and holds open his office door wider. “Fine. Have at it. I can’t be bothered to fight you all on this.”
As a team the lot of them drag the tree in, set down the boxes of what Bruce now knows are decorations and lights for both the tree and his office, and immediately get started on decorating his office.
Settling back down at his desk and taking the drink Stephanie holds out to him, Bruce watches with both interest and amusement as his kids bicker about who gets to do what, and then as they had further arguments about what order to do things in. And then even more arguments about where the placements of things are going.
“Tt, this is tedious and a waste of the day. I did not agree to this father.”
At the sound of his youngest, Bruce looks to his side and spots Damian next to him, nursing his own drink and he watches his siblings embellish the Christmas tree and his office ceiling with ornaments and decorations.
“Yet, you’re here. You could have stayed home with Alfred,” he comments to the boy. He’s grown a lot in the years since he’s been with Bruce but there’s still an element to him where he doesn’t let himself be young and enjoy what he deems as ‘childish’. Christmas and the excitement of the holiday is one of those things. Bruce hopes this eases within the next few years.
Damian scowls. “Richard insisted we all be here.”
Of course Dick did. This time of year always hits Dick hard, as it does for most of his kids in fact, and his eldest tries his hardest to get the family all together to celebrate or even to do all the little things together that come with the winter holiday.
Instead of responding Bruce observes how the tree is almost completed and decides to get Damian involved since he seemed to have excluded himself. The others had noticed his actions but allowed it for now, probably because Damian had been talking to him. Getting up from the desk Bruce goes over to where the star for the top of the tree had been put aside and grabs it. He wanders back over to the desk and holds it out to his son. Damian stares at it with a scowl.
“Why don’t you put the star on top of the tree?” Bruce suggests. No matter what age anyone is, everyone always wants to be the one to put the star on top of the tree.
Damian tuts and crosses his arms over his chest. “I am not a child father. I do not wish to take part in such childish acts.”
Bruce doesn’t point out how everyone single person in this room is older than him and has taken part in ‘childish acts’. He gently forces Damian to unwind him arms and puts the star into one of his hands.
“Do it for me then.” Perhaps if he has a reason – other than because he wants to – to put the star on the tree Damian may do it. “I want you to put the star on top of the tree.”
Jason surprisingly lumbers over and crouches down in front of Damian, giving the youngest his back. “Climb on, baby bat.”
Before Damian could protest Bruce nudges him forward until he’s practically on top of Jason. Having no other choice, and certainly making his displeasure known, Damian climbs onto his brother’s back. Bruce smiles when he sees Damian clinging onto Jason as his second oldest stands up, easily giving Damian twice amount of height than he’s familiar with.
The others move out of the way as Jason approaches the tree and Jason hikes Damian further up his back, holding his legs tightly so he wouldn’t fall. “Now all you gotta do is grab the top branch and slide the star onto it.”
“Quiet Todd,” Damian hisses at his brother, he then whacks the top of Jason’s head with the ornament, “I do not need your input, otherwise I’ll show you where else this ridiculous ornament can go.”
Tim barks out a laugh. “Talk about where the sun don’t shine!”
Stephanie pulls a face. “But it’s a star. Not the sun.”
Tim’s laughter quickly dies and he frowns at Stephanie. “The sun is a star you dumbass,” he then rolls his eyes, “I’m wasted potential here.”
“That’s not possible. You would need potential to begin with.”
Stephanie’s comeback causes a round of laughter, and even Bruce uses a hand to cover his mouth to stop Tim from seeing him laughing. Tim huffs and glares at everyone as he sips his coffee.
“I hate you all.”
“Oh Timmy! Don’t be like that.” Dick immediately encompasses Tim in a hug and reassures him quietly. On the other side of the room Damian is now smarting at Duke who has his hands up and is stepping away from Jason.
“Damian. Just put the star on the tree. How fucking hard is it?”
Damian mutters something under his breath but finally puts the ornament in it’s place at the top of the tree where it shines brightly. Jason steps back before lowering him to the ground. “Finally. Are we all done?”
Duke, Jason and Dick quickly get sucked into a debate about using the rest of the ornaments around Bruce’s office. The girls are taking photos on their phones while Tim sulks next to them, Damian however wonders back to Bruce’s side and presses in close. He doesn’t hug him, but Bruce knows this is Damian’s equivalent.
“I think it looks great. Do you agree?” He asks his son. Damian’s gaze moves from the tree to Bruce and back again. His arms crossed over his chest once again and his eyes narrowed. “It’s adequate I suppose.”
Despite his apparent lack of interest there’s a quirk to his lips and he’s eyeing the tree with vigour. Damian can pretend all he wants but Bruce knows he’s happy to have been part of this shenanigan and to have put the star on top. He pulls his son in and quickly presses a kiss to the top of his head before letting him go again. To give Damian any form of intimacy he needs to be quick and sneaky about it.
Knowing he’s done for the day, after all this there’s no way he’s going to be able to get back to work. He stands up and grabs the room’s attention.
“Why don’t we go home and see if Alfred would be willing to mix up a batch of his eggnog for us?”
Everyone voices their pleasure with the idea. The reports can wait, quality time with his family cannot.