TerryBruce

The pairing of Terry McGinnis and Bruce Wayne from the animated series Batman Beyond.

Terry is a high school ex-delinquent at the start of the series, and ends up a grown ass man with a wife (Dana!) by the Justice League epilogue. His dad was killed by an evil billionaire, and he seeks vengeance. That vengeance is tempered into just seeking punitive justice on the criminals of Gotham. Since everyone is wearing shiny black latex costumes, at this point they're all having a big BDSM ball of cat n mouse. He's a chad Peter Parker, balancing work and school with superheroing. But he's also implied to have spent time in juvenile jail, so he has a bit of edge to him compared to other “boy wonders”.

Bruce is an 80+ year old man who used to be a superhero called Batman moonlighting as a billionaire playboy, but he got too old and feeble to keep doing it. He walks with a cane and needs to regularly take heart medication. Now he just spends his time as a Howard Hughes-esque recluse in his gothic mansion cuz not only are his parent dead, everyone he knows is dead. He is a perfect example of an old man uke I like to rotate in my head.

No personality reversal ;)

• Younger seme x Older uke
• Smaller top x Larger bottom
• Chad x Grumpy
• Student x Mentor
• Caretaker x Patient

Terry meets Bruce during a Joker gang attack. Bruce is reluctant to let Terry in his house or heart at first. But eventually Terry's determination and devotion softens up Bruce, and Bruce allows Terry to be his personal assistant and the next Batman.

Bruce remains grumpy, tsundere, and depressed, but he has a reason to care again! He can make soup for Terry and see his protege carry on his work.

Terry isn't quite a ray of sunshine in Bruce's dank bat lair. His dad IS dead, and he deals with feeling vengeful, regret over his criminal past, and general emo feelings. But he still has a lot of energy and playfulness that makes Bruce smile sometimes! He genuinely enjoys living his civilian life with his girlfriend, mother, and little brother. And he calls Bruce out for having no life outside of Batman. He tries to treat Bruce to normal human entertainment like musical theatre, to no avail.

• Terry is happily in an actual relationship with Dana, but Dana knows Bruce is always in Terry's heart too. She's jealous at first, but kinda just giggles it off when Terry spends more time with Bruce than her. Wait is this a headcanon or just canon…
• Terry has Japanese and Irish ancestry. I share this headcanon with the Batman Beyond comic artist, Sean Gordon Murphy. So. It is another headcanon that is kinda canon.
• Dana is of unspecified Asian heritage. Her last name is Tan. She might be Chinese like her voice actress.
• Terry is more involved with Bruce's health. He sleeps over at the bat mansion if Bruce is having a health scare :) and helps Bruce organize his medications and doctor visits!

I know that Terry/Bruce has the potential to be a ~controversial~ pairing if anyone cared about them.

There's the age gap (with Terry starting at the age of 16 and growing into a 32 year old man through his career as Batman, while Bruce just keeps getting older from 80+).

There's the uneven power dynamic of employer/employee and mentor/student.

And there's the whole DAD 🤮 thing from the 5 years later “Epilogue” episode of Justice League. Which I emotionally reject cuz pinning the importance of genetics on “being Batman”, just feels uncomfortably eugenics-y for me, and also undermines Terry and all the Robin's actions as their own people with actual dads that raised them instead of using them as child-soldiers.

But as always, I'm really a wimpy romantic at the end…despite my constant reputation as some evil kinklord, I don't want Bruce to take advantage of Terry, I want Terry to be in complete control of his actions (acting as Batman, or his feelings towards Bruce!). I want them to have cute domestic moments like in the cartoon, when Terry's driving Bruce to his chiropractor and doctor, or helping Bruce walk his dog, or helping Bruce to his house and opening his heart pill bottles for him, or saying he misses Bruce after he's been sick for a bit. Them possibly sometimes maybe never having consensual missionary buttsex for the purpose of procreation is secondary to the main mission of HAND HOLDING!!! AND LOVE!!!

Bruce has the reputation as the creepy old man who collects orphan boys to abuse and gaslight (we've all heard the batman/robin jokes…even Barbara Gordon in the cartoon lampshades him (“again? another one?”), but dangit Terry knows better and he's the one who popped into Bruce's batcave first to steal his clothes! Bruce didn't even want Terry to be Batman at first, but after Terry pushed and insisted he gave in from age and softness… that's exactly how I want their relationship to be, whether it's friendship, mentorship, or romance. Terry knows what he wants, and it's old man uke!!! I like the cut of his jib!

Anyways, I hope I can help others see the light of the most attractive version of Batman being 85 year old man Bruce with big boobies and a thick grandpa bod. I like other Batman-type ships, like I can see Nightwing/Batman and I TOTALLY want Batman/Alfred (in that order 😏). Right now I'm really feeling Terry/Bruce, it's very warm n' fuzzy and I'm glad I can share it with Shane :)