Pondering Paths (A Batman Alternate Universe story, volume 13)

Chap1: Present Day

Chapter 1: Present Day

"Who wants to lick off the beater?" Alfred asked with a smile as she used her spatula to scrape the majority of frosting off it.

"I do! I do!" Dick cried.

"Me! Me!" Baby Waylon managed, flailing his chubby arms around from his perch in the booster seat at the end of the island.

"I believe this one must go to Young Master Dick, as he has been very good today." Alfred dictated, handing the beater to Dick, who instantly ran away, licking happily.

Bruce pooched her lips. "Alfred, we have too many kids around here. We need to evict a few."

"How could you say such a thing?" Alfred scoffed.

Bruce sighed unhappily. "I remember a day when I got to lick the beater. I miss that."

Alfred's expression softened and she began taking the leftover dishes and piling them up in the sink. "We all have to grow up someday. This is good training for you for when you have kids of your own."

Bruce made a gagging sound in the back of her throat. "Bleck. No way. Ever. Way too much responsibility. I let you raise Waylon, I'm just the fun person that comes by and plays with him."

"Sir, you cannot spend the rest of your life fighting crime, dressing like Steve Jobs, and eating bacon." Alfred said with judging eyes.

"Why nog Alfed?" Bruce said through a mouthful of bacon. "Whaz gonna happen to me?"

"SIR!" Alfred cried out in shock and abhorrence. "What are you doing?! Stop! That isn't even cooked! You'll get salmonella!"

"It's your fault!" Bruce cried, mouth full of raw and limp bacon. "You started making me feel uncomfortable!"

Batmite began laughing, his face lighting up with glee. "Oh, Bruce!" He giggled as he watched Alfred panic and force Bruce to spit back out the bacon. Days were never boring with them to watch. He was sitting in his little house in the fifth dimension on his favorite seat, watching the proceedings that were taking place within the glowing circle that he had created that gave him a window into the happenings of the lives of Bruce and Alfred.

As his chuckles died away however, he became thoughtful. Would Bruce ever have kids? What would things be like in the future for them? Would Bruce always be the Bat? With Oswald around now, would there ever be a day when Alfred and him moved away to live their lives and left Bruce alone?

"How pesky, uncertainties." He mumbled, clasping his chubby little gloved hands together. Yes, he was wearing his Bat costume, he almost never took it off. He'd made it himself out of pure adoration and diligence.

"But they don't have to be uncertain..." He said even more quietly. There was a way, he knew, to look ahead into the future. It was generally frowned upon by everyone, but it wasn't outlawed. It was just deemed unwise to see where you would be, as it would affect how you felt about where you were. And futures were always changing...

"But I wouldn't be looking into my future." He said to himself as he sprung from his seat and floated there in the air. "I'd be looking into my hero's future! I mean, wouldn't it be wondrous to see what they'll be up to in the years ahead?" Nodding to himself, he quickly summoned up his magic to his fingertips. "But how far ahead?" He wondered as he watched Bruce, at Alfred's command, rinse and spit in the sink five times.

"How about...10 years?" He thought for a moment, then seemed decided. "Ten years ought to be enough." He thrust forward his hands and a liquidy looking wormhole opened up in front of him. "Away we go!" He cried before diving in.