The Birds Who Smile, a Batman fanfic by Raberba girl
Chapter 8 (rough draft 2)
As soon as lunch was over, Bruce got the Robins set up with some games and books, then sat down nearby and called Jim Gordon.
"Bruce?"
"Jim! How've you been, my friend?"
"Still pretty busy, as you can imagine."
"I can certainly imagine that! So, I'm calling because I heard that Batman's been spotted around town. I haven't heard from him myself in a while, so I thought I'd ask to see what you know."
Jim muttered something that sounded like 'I knew it,' then raised his voice back to a normal level. "The Batman Iknow is still lying low, but we've been getting deliveries from aBatman - or rather, Batboy. He dresses like the Dark Knight, but the kid can't be more than twelve or thirteen years old."
Bruce shut his eyes and tried not to sigh audibly.
"I bet it's the same kid who was running around impersonating Batman a few years ago," Jim said pointedly, as if Bruce hadn't already gotten the message. "Gets the job done, but he's arrogant as heck; my men are constantly complaining about him. I don't like the fact that a kid's fighting criminals by himself, either."
"Hmmm, I'll see if I can get a message to Batman about it. Thanks, Jim."
"Anytime, Bruce."
Bruce hung up, called in Alfred to keep an eye on the boys, then went to have a talk with his son.
Damian and the other Alfred were both still fast asleep. Bruce shoved aside the curtains, prompting boy and cat to stir and grumble irritably as midday sunshine came spilling across the bed.
"Damian, get up. You've got schoolwork, and I need to talk to you."
"I'm tired, Father," Damian mumbled, hiding his face in Alfred's fur.
"I'm sure you are, after running around all night in the cowl, but you have other responsibilities, Damian Wayne."
The boy peered up at him warily. "...Are you angry?"
"I'm not happy. Sit up, now."
Damian obeyed hurriedly. Alfred, apparently deciding it was time to make himself scarce, dropped off the bed with a light thump and trotted out of the room.
"Damian, I know you're probably bored now that you can't go out with me as Robin anymore, but taking on Gotham all by yourself is not an option."
"I've been doing it for a week now! I can handle it, Father!"
"I don't care how capable you are, you're thirteen, Damian."
"Drake was barely fourteen when he took on the Joker all by himself and won. You don't supervise me when I'm fighting with the Titans."
"That was an emergency situation, and the Teen Titans are a team, with multiple people watching each other's back. The point is, being a vigilante in Gotham is incredibly dangerous, and it doesn't matter how skilled you are, your age is a factor. I've already let far too many children die or get seriously injured on my watch. If you're going to fight, you need to do it with an experienced adult partner or with your teammates, and the fact is that I am unable to be that partner for you right now." He exhaled unhappily. "If you're not ready to return to the Teen Titans yet, maybe I can send you to Blüdhaven to work with Dick."
"No!"
"...You love Dick."
"I am rather fond of Richard," Damian said stiffly, "but my place is here."
'Still afraid to stray too far from my side, that he'll lose me again.' Bruce felt the same - he hated that so many of his children seemed scattered to the winds, but he wanted what was best for them.
Damian's frown deepened and turned bitter. "At least, I thought it was. But I'm beginning to feel like there is no place for me in this house anymore."
"Oh, Damian, no-" Bruce put his arms around him without even thinking. Then he felt awkward, but Damian was clinging to him now, so he relaxed and squeezed a little tighter. "I'm so sorry, Damian. I know the little ones have been taking up a lot of my time and attention, but I don't love you or Duke any less than I did before. I'm sorry for neglecting you."
"This isn't the first time. I'm used to it."
Bruce felt even more like a terrible father. Though he hadn't wanted to get flung back through time or have Batman erased from his memory, that didn't make any difference to his son's suffering. At least in the early days, Dick had still been around to look after his little brother, but when Bruce lost his memories, Damian had been left to fend for himself. The boy was perfectly capable of procuring food and shelter, but he must have felt incredibly lonely and abandoned.
"Damian - listen, from now on, you and Duke each get one night a week to have me all to yourself. I'll try to spend more time with you than that, but your assigned night will be guaranteed. Whether it's vigilantism or going out to eat or watch a movie or visit an arcade or the Watchtower, whatever you want - within reason, - we can do it together on your night. How does that sound?"
"It sounds...adequate. If you keep your word, that is."
"I will."
"And I still want to be Batman. Gotham needs a Batman, someone needs to fill your shoes!"
"...You can keep Batman for now. For now. I reserve the right to take back the cowl at any time in the future if I feel so inclined."
"That is fair." Damian lifted his chin. "But I must tell you, Father, I cannot accept being grounded from the rooftops for six nights of the week. Get Richard to return to Gotham, and I will serve as his partner."
"I can't do that, unless Dick wants to come back himself... Let me check with Cassandra, though. She's probably sleeping right now, but I'll call her tonight and see what she says. Will you accept her as a partner if she agrees?"
"I suppose I'll have to," Damian said loftily, though his expression lit up at the suggestion of getting to work with one of his idols.
"Good. Now get up, get something to eat, and then go study. You've been falling behind."
"I'd earned the equivalent of five college degrees by the time I was-"
"Go study, Damian."
The rest of the day passed quietly until late afternoon, when the children were playing outside. A notification caused Bruce's phone to briefly vibrate and purr. He glanced at the screen for confirmation, smiled, then resumed watching the boys. A few minutes later, he heard a murmured "Thank you, Alfred" and a light smack when the visitor kissed Alfred's cheek, but Bruce didn't hear so much as a whisper of her approach before she was perching on the edge of his chair, laying an arm across his shoulders, and nuzzling his ear. "Hello, Selina," he said.
"I wanted to see your new kittens."
Jack came trotting up with a fistful of wildflowers. He tucked most of them into Bruce's hair and the rest into Selina's.
"Jack, this is Selina. Se-li-na. Say hello."
"Hhello, Ssse-lli-nna." He trotted away again.
"Agh," Bruce realized too late, "I keep forgetting to teach them to address adults politely..."
"I think your other one is about to throw lemonade at me."
Bruce whirled. "Peter."
The boy froze, crouched on the table with the pitcher still uplifted.
"DO NOT THROW THAT. And get off the table."
Peter looked calculating. "Bbeee," he finally claimed, now holding out the pitcher in offering. "Hhhunnngg... ... Bbeee wwwann-tuh sssweee-tuh." He pointed to the bee that had started circling, attracted by the sugary liquid the boy had spilled.
"The lemonade is for us, not the bees." Bruce walked over, took the pitcher away, taught Peter how to pronounce 'hungry' correctly, then got him off the table and out of the way so Alfred could wipe up the spilled lemonade. When he looked up, Selina was perched on the low patio wall, cooing at what must have been John hiding in the bushes below. He hoped she hadn't purposely posed like that with the kids around - the sight of her unnecessarily raised rump made him uncomfortable when he was standing next to an eight-year-old child.
"Butt," Peter signed, pointing.
"Selina," Bruce said in a pained tone.
Selina, subconsciously aware of her favorite male behind her and with a body that was schooled in posing provocatively, hadn't even realized what she was doing. She snapped upright as an embarrassed blush seeped across her cheeks. "Oh! I'm not...used to being around kids, I forgot-"
John chose that moment to pop up, almost right in her face, and yell, "OO!"
"Meow!" She jerked back exactly like a startled cat, then straightened up and smoothed her hair.
"Did you just...meow?"
"No, I did not!"
"You meowed when he startled you."
"I did n-!" She gave up and pounced around to grab John, simultaneously hugging him and dragging him over the wall to join her on the patio. "Oh, you naughty little boy, you think it's funny to scare respectable ladies, do you? Bruce never taught you any manners?"
Since she hadn't pinned his arms when she'd wrapped her own around his chest, he seemed delighted by the cuddling, and giggled madly as she playfully covered him with snarly, gobbly kisses. Peter ran over to her. "Ooohh, you want some of this, too~?" she purred. She spared an arm to drag Peter up against her and made more beast-devouring-prey noises as she kissed him.
"She eat us, she not eat us, cat woman!"
"They've got you pegged, Selina."
Jack trotted back to the terrace, pulled on Bruce until he bent down, then tucked flowers into the little gaps between his shirt buttons. "Pprrrre-tty. Bboos pprrre-tty." He brought the rest over to Alfred. "Down, please. Gggam'ppa pprrre-tty, tttoo." The birds had, of their own volition, started addressing the butler as their grandfather in both speech and sign language. Alfred never objected.
"Why, thank you, Master Jack."
Selina stayed for dinner, taking a turn feeding the children so that Bruce could have a few unbroken minutes to feed himself. Right afterward, as Selina was accompanying the rest of the family into the living room, Bruce snagged Damian and kept an arm around his shoulders while he called his daughter. She had returned to Gotham soon after the rest of the family and stayed in touch with Bruce, but she had preferred to spend her time, both day and night, out in the thick of the disaster zones. "Cass?"
She made a friendly grunt in greeting.
"Is there any chance you've come across 'Batman' while you were on patrol the past few nights?"
"Damian."
"Yes, well. He needs a partner, and I...need to stay home for the time being. Do you think you could team up with Damian while I'm not available?"
"Yes."
"Good. Thank you." He felt Damian relax.
"Bruce?"
"Yes?"
"Children?"
"You're welcome to come meet them anytime you like, Cassandra."
"Busy. Someday. Video, picture, more."
"I'll send you some new ones when I get a chance."
"Yes."
"How far away are you from the cave?"
"Come soon."
"All right. We'll be waiting." Damian, accompanied by his father, went down to the Batcave to suit up and wait for Cassandra's arrival.
Upstairs, John carefully picked up Alfred with both arms in an awkward but secure hold, then carried the animal over to Selina and placed him in her lap. Alfred immediately went to work grooming his ruffled fur back into place. "Cat. Pet gentle," John directed.
"Oh~ what a beautiful creature." Selina kissed John in thanks and then caressed Alfred, who melted under her touch. The cat was soon sprawled on his side with his fluffy underbelly exposed. "No, kitten," Selina murmured, gently intercepting John's reaching hands. "He's not a dog, he won't like that. You can keep petting his head and back where he feels safe."
"Ssssff."
Meanwhile, Duke was trying to teach the other boys how to play Sevens. "Okay, so I'm going to split the cards between the three of us...one for Jack, one for Peter, one for me. One for Jack, one for Peter... Jack, Peter, me, Jack, Peter, me... Hold on, buddy, almost done... Okay. Whoa, hold on, okay, so let's see, Peter, you've got a seven, so put it here like this. No, leave it there. Now, Jack, do you have a six or an eight of diamonds, or any other seven...?"
The boys seemed frustrated at first, but after a while, something in Jack's mind seemed to click. He rapidly started slapping down cards, twittering as he went, grabbing cards out of both Peter's and Duke's hands until he'd created a full set (except for the face cards, which he tossed away). Both he and Peter crowed triumphantly.
"Want to try again?" Duke gathered up the pip cards and shuffled them as the children watched avidly. Then he handed them back, and now both boys worked to create four orderly and correct rows of cards. Duke wasn't sure that Jack had a solid grasp of numerals yet, and he knew for sure that Peter didn't, but they must have been going by the number of pips on each card. "Wow. You guys are smart," he remarked. "Look, the people are part of the set, too." He added the Jacks, Queens, and Kings.
"crow~!" Peter clapped his hands in approval.
"Photograph," Jack demanded. When he saw that the older boy didn't know the sign, he imitated the noise of a camera shutter clicking and tried to dig Duke's phone out of his pocket.
"Whoa there, little buddy, let's keep our hands to ourselves. You want me to take a picture? I'll do it. My phone, not yours."
"Photograph!"
Duke gamely snapped a picture. "There. I'll print it out for you later."
"Ggoo-duh jjobb, Jja'ckk," Jack said in satisfaction.
Later that evening, Selina volunteered to help Bruce get the children ready for bed, which would free up Alfred to get some other work done. John and Peter didn't seem to mind being naked in a woman's presence, but Jack refused to take off his pants in front of Selina. "How about you take a shower instead," Bruce suggested, showing him the shower stall. Its door was transparent, but he could clip some towels over it to give the boy privacy. "Selina," he called over his shoulder, "John and Peter can pretty much bathe themselves now, so your job is to keep them on task. Don't let them play too much until they've finished washing."
"You hear that, kiddos? Daddy Bruce has spoken."
Bruce rolled his eyes as he started setting up towels.
The boys got an extra story that night, and they actually let Selina lounge across their bed as she read a version of "Puss in Boots" to them. When she kissed them good night, John meowed at her.
"Ooooohhh, kitten, don't do that, I might steal you away and take you home with me..."
Bruce and Selina turned out the lights and left the room. Then they just stood out in the hall for a while, watching the Bat Baby Monitor together.
"...They're precious," Selina finally said.
"You're good with them."
"I miss my baby...I miss her so much..."
They watched a little longer. After a while, Bruce rested an arm around her waist. She turned toward him and kissed him hard. They made out for a few minutes and then just stood there with their arms around each other. "Mmmnn," Selina whined after a while. Between caring for the children, missing Helena more strongly than usual as a result, watching Bruce care for the children, and feeling his perfect body now pressed against hers, her ovaries were getting the wrong idea. The urge to make this man impregnate her was getting increasingly harder to resist. "I need to get away from you and all your baby birds, Bat," she murmured regretfully.
"Come back any time you like," he murmured back.
She pressed one last kiss against the skin just below his ear, then stepped back and vanished down the hall as silently as a cat.
TBC