zeegoeshere

Brain: Oooh, Ephram would make an interesting Robin.
Me: Naw, too old.
Brain: ....Delia?



Ephram knows that, theoretically, he lost two parents, but it doesn't really feel that way; it feels like he lost his mother, and also that suddenly there's not a big brown-haired man occasionally wandering around their apartment.

The policemen explain to him carefully and calmly the circumstances of the crash, and it's one last reason to hate his father: the one time he decides to spend time with his wife, he gets Ephram's mother killed. And himself, but all Ephram can focus on is she's gone she's gone she's gone.

He doesn't let himself cry, or break down. He has to take care of Delia now, because there's no one else.

Except that there is. A few days after the funeral, a tall, black-haired man trailed by a grim-looking boy a couple years older than Ephram walk into the police station. The man fills out paperwork while the boy stands beside him, hands clasped behind his back, staring straight ahead. Dealia stares at them with wide eyes, and when the boy catches her staring he smiles at her, though it doesn't reach his eyes.

There's something really creepy about the two guys, and Ephram finds himself dreading it when they walk over with two policemen. The guy--Wayne, Ephram thinks, he's seen that name in the society pages--is apparently Dr. Brown's oldest (read: only) friend, and also his dad's second cousin or something like that. He is also, apparently, who Dr. Brown specified he wanted his children to go with in the event of his death.

Ephram finds it amazing how his dad can manage to fuck up his life even from beyond the grave. "You know, saying that you were a friend of my dad's doesn't really endear me to you," he mutters. Bruce Wayne just raises an eyebrow at him.

"I know what it's like to lose my parents," he says, his voice flat. "If you'll let me, I'd like to help you."

Delia is uncharacteristically quiet. She's been holding on to Ephram's hand constantly ever since the accident, and now she squeezes his hand. "I heard you live in a castle."

Bruce Wayne smiles, and the expression looks... odd on him. "It's more of a manor, really."

Delia looks up at him with big, pleading brown eyes, and Ephram knows that he doesn't really have a choice--Nonnie and Grandpa don't have the time nor the space to take them in, and he *can't* let Delia go into foster care.

Bruce Wayne's car is a sleek black expensive-looking thing, and his white-haired chauffeur slides a piece of candy back to Delia and winks at her. Her eyes go wide when they reach a landing pad at the city limits, and the chauffeur--Alfred, Ephram reminds himself, his name is Alfred--smiles conspiratorily down at her. "You didn't think we *drove* here, did you Ms. Brown?"

It's a short plane trip from New York to Gotham, and Ephram doesn't realize until they've almost touched down that the boy his age--he thinks that someone mentioned that his name was Tim--hasn't spoken once.

Great. His only company in Wayne Manor (which definitely resembles a castle more than it does anything else) aside from Delia is apparently catatonic. Or mute, or deaf or something. Bruce Wayne seems like the type of guy to take in deaf or mute kids.

Gotham is just like it always is the few times Ephram has driven through it with his mom: dark, grimy, gloomy and unexciting. Ephram already misses New York, but Delia is enthralled, immediately demanding that Alfred show her all the best parts of the castle.

"We've never had a little girl here before," a voice behind him says, and it's that... guy. Tim.

Ephram turns around to look at him. Tim looks a little taken aback and wary, like Delia is something much more dangerous than a ten-year-old girl. Then again--this is Delia they're talking about.

Ephram smirks back at him. "Oh? But you adopt teenaged boy orphans all the time?"

Tim just raises an eyebrow at him, and Ephram has the feeling that there's a very weird answer to that question.

He looks away from Tim, eyeing his surroundings. "Have you got a piano around here?"

***

...I think I have a new crossover OTP.