The Birds Who Smile, a Batman fanfic by Raberba girl
Chapter 3.4 (rough draft 2)
It was a busy yet noneventful day. Tim, dressed in a business suit, accompanied the Titans into town so that he could work at Wayne Tower in person. Dick, Duke, and Titus kept the Robins occupied in the woods behind the gardens, out of the way of the work going on in the house; all six of them seemed delighted at the chance to play in fresh air and sunlight. Bruce, Alfred, and Damian oversaw the repairs (rather tyrannically in all three cases), and by the end of the day, the most urgent work was completed: the kitchen was back in all its spotless glory, and most of the family's personal bedrooms were functional again.
"I'm afraid you'll have to use Cassandra's room until they can get to the rest of the house," Bruce apologized to his butler.
"You will hear no complaints from me, Master Bruce," Alfred said, taking obvious pleasure in arranging his favorite tea set on his favorite serving tray, turning off the heat on his full-sized, proper gas range, and carrying the tray over to the kitchen table where Bruce and Damian were sitting. The dining room was low on the priority list of repairs, so the family would be eating in the kitchen for the time being. "What would you like for supper?"
"Tabbouleh," Damian spoke up before Bruce could even sort through meal possibilities in his head. "And spinach quiche."
"Certainly, Master Damian. Master Bruce, I presume you'd like to add a heartier dish to the menu?"
Bruce was too tired to decide. "Just steak and potatoes is fine. Or whatever meat you have available. Or whatever the other boys want, I'll ask them. Dick will probably say pizza. Just make steak and potato pizza." He rested his face in his hands. "I'm tired."
"Father?"
Bruce sighed deeply and took out his phone to call Dick.
After dinner, everyone hung out together in the living room for a while. It was still damaged and the electrical outlets didn't work, but Duke and Damian rigged up a phone and wireless projector until they were able to play a movie on a blank wall. No one except the little Robins were really interested in the movie, so they replaced it with a smartphone game Damian had hacked to work as a multi-player.
Eventually, Tim came home and nearly fell asleep eating the dinner Alfred had saved for him. Bruce decided it was time to call it a night. "Pause that for a minute, we need to figure out sleeping arrangements."
"Why? We have our own rooms again."
"The Robins don't, and we can't let them sleep unattended yet."
"I WILL NOT HAVE ANY OF THOSE THINGS IN MY BED."
"I know, Damian. I'm not going to force anyone who's not comfortable with it." Bruce paused, not quite wanting to voice aloud that he didn't think he'd be able to handle all three of the children by himself.
"I am not comfortable with it," Duke put in, his tone cautious but his expression firm.
"I concur," Raven said.
"Pass," Tim mumbled from where he was curled up in a corner of the couch.
"I can take one," Dick offered. "Not all three, but I can take one."
"I shall take this little one as my bedmate," Kori cooed at Jack, who kept running his hands through the fiery tips of her hair with a confused look, as if he couldn't understand why it was not burning him.
"She means that in a totally platonic way," Dick assured Bruce, who had assumed as much but appreciated the confirmation.
"Starfire," Raven said in dismay, "we are sharing a room." With the mansion down to minimum essentials, the only spare room was Jason's.
"Kori can sleep with me~" Dick chirped. "Like, sleep-sleep, not sex-sleep."
"We know what you meant, Dick."
"Did we?" someone snarked.
"If someone's willing to sleep in the living room," Bruce suggested, "one of our guests can take their room."
"Drake's already sleeping in here," Damian snorted, "problem solved."
"Nnnnnnnn," Tim moaned into a couch pillow.
"Nnnnnnnn," the Robins imitated.
"Wan' m'own r'm, wan' m'own bed," Tim mumbled.
Duke sighed a little. "I can sleep on the couch."
"You don't have to-"
"Seriously, Bruce Wayne's couch is more comfortable than some of the actual beds I've slept on."
It didn't feel right to Bruce to deny his foster child a real bed. He was loath to give up his own room when he was in his own house, but Batman could handle sleeping on a couch for a few nights. "I can take the living room. Someone else can use my room."
Duke grimaced. "I'd rather sleep on the couch than your room. It'd be weird."
"I wouldn't mind sleeping in Bruce's room," Dick offered.
"Dick 'Always Versatile' Grayson."
"Seriously, I can sleep wherever, with whoever! I just want some help if I'm going to have more than one baby bird, but I'm down with anything else."
"I wouldn't mind using Father's room, either. It's going to be mine someday, anyway."
"Geez, Damian."
"It's true! I don't want it to be mine SOON, but it will be someday!"
"Man, we're in a freaking mansion, why is it so hard to figure out where everyone's going to sleep?"
"Rich people," Duke muttered.
Bruce held up a hand. "Dick, if you take the living room, Starfire can have your room. Raven will use Jason's, and everyone else can keep their own room. Does anyone have a problem with that?"
No one did.
"Good."
o.o.o.o.o
John, as usual, fell asleep to the sensation of muscle relaxant being massaged into his face, so it was easy to tuck him into bed. The trouble started when Bruce woke up in the middle of the night to find the boy crouching over him, watching him in an intense way that made Bruce's back creep. "What is it, John?"
"crow"
"Go back to sleep." He took hold of the boy's shoulders and tried to ease him down.
John panicked, wrapping all four limbs around Bruce hard. Bruce could feel both their hearts beating much too quickly.
"John. John." The boy continued to cling, keeping his face tucked into the curve between Bruce's neck and shoulder. 'When he holds me this close to his body, I can't move to touch him. To hurt him.' Bruce felt sick. 'What did I doto him in that other world...?!' "John, I'm not going to hurt you. I promise. I promise I will never hurt you. You're safe here, John..."
After a very long time, John's body relaxed. He fell away and landed limply back on the bed, gazing up at Bruce in resignation. "Ha ha."
Bruce covered him with blankets like they were a shield and made a point not to loom over him. The confusion in the child's face was heartbreaking. "Go to sleep. No one will hurt you. You're safe. You are safe, John."
"crow"
Bruce retreated, and did not sleep again until after the boy finally drifted off. When Bruce did sleep, it was on a pile of spare bedding on the floor.
o.o.o.o.o
Damian bolted upright in bed, startling Titus awake. The nightmare had been bad, but he refused to go crawling into someone else's bed for comfort like a common toddler. As long as he kept the dog in his arms and his back pressed against the headboard, he would be fine...he might not ever get back to sleep again tonight, but...he would be fine... He swore silently, wishing he could force himself to at least turn on a light, but curse these huge beds, his lamp was out of reach, and going for the light switch by the door was out of the question.
When said door swung open, Damian nearly jumped out of his skin, but then was intensely relieved to find that the intruder was one of the two people he most wanted to see at the moment. He was much less happy that Dick was accompanied by one of those damn monster birds, but it couldn't be helped.
"Dami." Dick's tone was deliberately pathetic. "I had a nightmare. Having no one but one of these guys around kind of...made it worse."
"Just get in," Damian snapped, flipping back the comforter. "And keep that thing away from me, and from Titus."
"Peter," Dick cooed at the boy whose hand he was holding, "you're going to be good, right?"
Peter, who was sizing up the room, didn't respond. Dick led him over to the bed and laid him down, crawled over him, and tucked them both in. Peter immediately set his back against Dick. Though he continued to gaze watchfully into the darkness, he didn't make a fuss.
The brothers leaned against each other, the tension slowly draining from their bodies. "...I had a nightmare, too," Damian finally admitted.
"This is why I liked living in the cave with everyone," Dick said softly. "Didn't have to wake up alone in this vast...silent..." He sighed. "It was the same when I first came to live here. I got used to it, but now...after Barbatos..."
Damian curled closer into him.
o.o.o.o.o
Bruce woke up from a nightmare filled with Joker's laughter, only to realize that the laughter continued even in the waking world.
John stood naked by the window, laughing ceaselessly. "Ha ha ha ha ha ha ha! Ha ha ha ha ha ha ha! Ha ha ha...!"
Bruce fought his way out of the blankets and hurried to him. "John...John, John, stop..."
John showed no sign that he heard, but the instant Bruce touched his shoulder, he whirled and backed away, cringing as he wrapped his arms around himself. "Nnnnoo...! Nnnnoo...!"
"Please. Please." Bruce was too drained to wrestle the child back into his clothes, so he grabbed a blanket and wrapped it around the boy. "John, no one is going to hurt you. Sit down, I'm not going to hurt you, I promise. Please."
John, sitting on the edge of the bed, trembled and gazed up at Bruce with frightened eyes. "Ha ha ha ha."
"No, John. Ssshhh. Just rest."
"crow"
"You're safe, John. You're safe."
Finally giving in to the light pressure of Bruce's hands on his shoulders, John lay back, still staring. Bruce covered him with more blankets and then went to sit at his desk, first just hiding his face in his hands for a while, then tugging his laptop close to work.
Footsteps padded nearly soundlessly across the room. Bruce turned just as John climbed into his lap. "Nnnnn."
"John."
"Nnnnn. Nnnnno." John touched Bruce's face, his mouth, his hair, his expression now distant. "Nnnnoo hhhh. Dddd. Nnnnohhhdd."
"No hurt."
"Nnnn."
"No hurt. I won't hurt you. I won't ever hurt you, John."
"Nnnn. Nnnn. Nnnn. Nnnn."
Bruce couldn't stand it anymore. He gently nudged John to the floor, picked up the pajamas that had been discarded earlier, and dressed the boy, who was as unresponsive as a doll. Then he wrapped John in a blanket again and picked him up and carried him to the living room.
It was empty. Bruce paused for a moment. Then he started to head for Dick's room where Starfire was, paused again before reaching it, and changed course for Damian's room.
He had guessed right. The boys were sitting together, talking quietly, but fell silent when the door opened. Titus raised his head; Peter continued to sleep soundly.
"No," Damian said immediately.
"Please," Bruce begged. "Dick, please. I can't."
Dick held out his arms. Bruce crossed the room and set John into them. Damian slipped out of bed and marched to the door, Titus on his heels. Bruce watched in the hallway until the two of them disappeared into Cassandra's room where Alfred was sleeping, then went to sit on the bed, opposite from Peter. "I think it would be better if John slept with someone else from now on. Peter is still too frightened of me, but I can take Jack starting tomorrow night."
"...I don't think I want to know."
"I know I don't want to know."
They both looked at John, who was staring at the ceiling as he lay bundled beside Dick. "That Master makes me cold and hurts me," he remarked in Robin language. "This Master covers me with feathers."
Bruce gritted his teeth. "He needs to learn how to talk to us." He sat the boy upright. John did not resist, looking at him with an unreadable expression. "John, look. Sad." Bruce signed the word at the same time he spoke it. "Sad. Sad. Can you do that?"
"Sad," Dick added, also both verbally and in ASL.
"...Sad," John imitated cautiously.
"Good."
Dick reached out a hand, then paused. "Dang it, I don't have any treats."
"It's all right, let's see how much he'll do without them. John, scared. Scared."
"Scared."
"Good. Angry."
"Angry."
"Good. Very good."
After he'd made the boy practice for a bit, he asked, "John, can you answer my question with your hands? What did you feel, when you woke up in my room? Did you feel sad, or scared, or angry?"
"Sad scared angry."
Dick facepalmed.
Bruce huffed out a breath. 'My fault - stupid to ask it like that, no telling whether he's answering or simply mimicking.' "All right, let's try this. John, happy. This means happy."
"Happy."
"Good. Brave."
"Brave."
"Good. Peaceful."
"Peaceful."
"Good." Then, after some practice, "Now, tell me: when you woke up, did you feel happy, or sad?"
"Sad."
"Did you feel brave, or scared?"
"Scared."
Switching it this time to see if John was simply always signing the second of the choices, "Did you feel angry, or peaceful?"
"Angry."
"Clever boy," Bruce murmured, his heart aching for the child, but also impressed at how quickly he had started picking up ASL.
"How about now, Johnny?" Dick asked softly, slipping his fingers through the boy's hair. "How do you feel now?"
"...Happy scared angry sad."
Dick rested his chin on the boy's head, and John closed his eyes.
"Dick, from now on, whenever John is around - whenever any of them are around - sign while you talk. I'll tell the others in the morning."
"'Kay." Then, when he realized he hadn't accompanied the word with a sign, Dick grinned said, this time with both his voice and his hand, "I will."
"Might as well start teaching Duke while we're at it."
"Sure."
Bruce sighed a little. "John."
The boy's eyes fluttered open again.
"I know that the person who hurt you looked a lot like me. But I am not him. I want to help you and keep you safe, and hopefully make you happy. Do you understand?"
[chirp-chirp] did not have the words to answer what This Master was asking. After a moment of hesitation, he crept forward and lay down on his back, hands pulled away, all his most vulnerable parts within easy reach.
Bruce stared. If this was an answer, he hoped it meant "I trust you." Yet when he rested his palm on John's chest, he felt the boy's heart racing with fear. "I'll let you do what you want to me."
"I can't do this." Bruce rushed out of the room.
Dick gathered the boy into his arms and hugged him tight, but now that This Master was gone, [chirp-chirp] had no need to be comforted. He wriggled his arms free and said to [big chirp-chirp] in these new new NEW words, "Happy! Brave! Happy!"
"Yeah," Dick said, sounding depressed. Then he shook himself and said/signed, "You can trust Bruce, he's a good person. He'll take care of you the right way."
John chirped in excitement, his fingers getting jumbled as he tried to repeat the signs.
"Oh - you want me to teach you more?"
"Happy happy happy."
"All right, well, this is yes. This is no."
"Yes no yes no yes no."
"Do you want me to teach you more signs?"
"Yes yes yes yes yes!"
TBC
A/N: I went to bed last night imagination-writing this chapter, then woke up in the morning and sat down at my computer to type it... Only for the characters to spend three hours arguing about who was going to sleep where before they finally let me get to the part I'd intended to write. X'''D I had to draw a big chart on my chalkboard to figure out the sleeping arrangements.