Experience Tumblr like never before
"Hush, be patient, Master Wayne."
"But that's my son, not yours!?"
"Careful, darling, you might break his poor little angel ears."
Bruce could hear his parents talking. He knew his head wasn't on the right way when he saw the vision of his mother and father. Even Alfred is there. Exactly how Bruce remember him when he was younger.
He quietly grasp for nothing in the air. Thomas squealed. He carries Bruce, lift him up in the air like some sort of toy. And Bruce doesn't understand it even a little bit.
Where was he? Why is his parents still alive? How did this happen?
As it turns out, he time traveled. Sort of? Perhaps.
He had been died in his first timeline. That's all he could remember. Being under Superman's embrace, his head badly wounded, and Dick was desperately trying to keep him alive. But it was all worthless.
Bruce is dead.
And now he somehow get transported into where he had been started. In his lively manor, with his parents and Alfred. Like a family supposed to be. But Bruce know better.
Somehow, he could still lose his parents. He doesn't want to. But it's the event that would impacted so much to his life.
And what Bruce did is to pretend that it doesn't impacted him that much. To pretend that he's alright and had been moving on. Never becomes Batman. Just a regular kind, caring, and cheerful Bruce Wayne.
Somehow he still got Dick Grayson who sneak out every night, followed by Jason Todd (he didn't die in this timeline, thank god), Cassandra Cain... basically all of his previous children.
He knew that they were up to something. Something like "vigilantism".
And what's wrong with the Justice League trying to protecting Bruce all cost? It's not like he's a damsel in distress! (He is an attention seeking whore instead).
The way this idea is so good that I can literally feel this idea slowly taking over my body, possessing me to write about it.
You could also add the fact that Arthur knows that Pendragons all eventually grow mad over time, so Arthur thinks that Merlin, as a figment of his own imagination, is just the first sign of the downfall of his mental state.
But that's his emotional support hallucination, his friendly sleep paralysis demon, so he can't bring himself to hate Merlin, even though, to Arthur, he's a sign that Arthur is going mad and losing touch with reality.
To throw in some more angst, Arthur could believe that Merlin is a hallucination so deeply that he still sees and hears Merlin even when Merlin's isn't actually there. He can't differentiate between the real Merlin and the Merlin that his mind makes up, since he believes that he's hallucinating both of them.
It's also why Arthur is so hesitant to touch Merlin most of the time: either his hand will go straight through Merlin, confirming that Arthur is, indeed, going mad, or Merlin will be solid under his hand, meaning that Arthur's cannot tell reality from illusion, even by touch, and what would that mean for the world around him? Had he made all of it up? Had he ever seen beyond the fog of his own insanity?
This idea so SO FASCINATING!! I love it so much!!
EDIT: I can't believe I didn't think of this before, but when the knights and Gwen eventually catch on to the whole "Arthur believes that Merlin is a hallucination" situation, they try to point out that yes, they can see Merlin too, they can describe to Arthur exactly what Merlin looks like and what he's doing, so he therefore can't be a figment of Arthur's imagination. And Arthur just turns to them sadly and apologize and say that he didn't know that his condition was contagious. The knights and Gwen try very, very hard not to call Arthur an idiot.
The greatest mystery in bbc merlin to this day is just what was Arthur thinking every time he dragged Merlin into danger with him like some kind of emotional support plushie without any protection.
Sometimes I get the feeling Arthur thought he just made up Merlin in his mind and he isn't real. Like, he's just an imaginary friend who keeps him entertained, makes up silly words, understands him to the core and always has the right answers, often times answers he doesn't like, but the subconscious do be like that.
He doesn't need armour or any protection cause he isn't real. Plus it's easy to keep being mean to your best friend for no reason when you think he's actually you - and you're always mad at you