The Birds Who Smile, a Batman fanfic by Raberba girl
Chapter 13 - Sleepover
[rough draft 2]
They won, because the good guys always won (in this universe, anyway), and no one was killed or maimed, but the entire team was battered and exhausted by the end. Martian Manhunter had politely vanished as soon as he was no longer needed, but transportation had become an issue for most of the others, so Bruce ended up cracking open his nearest emergency Bat equipment storage and retrieving a Bat Plane to fly his friends home in.
'Home' being Gotham. Bruce, although steeling himself for the journey, was exhausted, too, probably even more than all the whiny metas in the back seat were. (Just the battle itself had been bad enough, and it did nothing to help his morale when all the civilians he'd worked to get to safety reacted to Batman with hostility and/or terror.) If anyone wanted to spend the night somewhere other than Gotham, they could arrange their own transportation.
"Lois! Are you and Jon all right? The apartment's still standing? ... That's good. Yes, the invasion's over, the government's handling the rest. ... No, I don't think I'll be able to make it home tonight, I'd probably drop out of the sky if I tried to fly right now, but we're all fine. ... Yes, yes, just wanted to check on you and let you know that we're all right, and that I'll probably be staying at Bruce's. I'll see you and Jon tomorrow. ... Yes, of course! ... Hey there, kiddo. I heard you did your mom and me proud...!"
Nearly everyone was dozing or flat-out asleep by the time Bruce landed the plane. The platform finished lowering with a jolt, startling everyone but Barry back into wakefulness.
"We're here," Bruce announced, unfastening his safety harness. It took two tries for him to lever himself up out of the pilot's seat.
"Oh- Lois, honey, I have to go. ... I love you, too. Bye!" Clark hung up with a fond smile lingering on his face.
"Where is 'here'?" Jessica asked, squinting out the windshield in confusion.
"It's dark," Arthur complained.
"We're in the cave. Feel free to spend the night here, if you want. I'm not flying any farther tonight."
Simon shook Barry awake, and all eight League members stumbled down the gangway. The cave's security system lit up. "Justice League 1 through 7 clear," Bruce called to disarm it.
"Wait, you gave us numbers?" Victor realized.
"Which number am I?" Arthur wanted to know, clearly seeing it as a ranking system.
"It's the order in which you all agreed to join the League," Bruce snapped. Suddenly remembering that his youngest children might still be in the cave, he whipped off his cowl and seized the nearest thing suitable enough to hide his suit, which happened to be Superman's cape.
Clark halted in mild confusion at the tug on his back. "Bruce...?"
"The Robins," Bruce hissed, "the ones I took from Laughs, are they down here?"
"Oh." Clark looked around. "Sleeping."
John, Peter, and Jack were curled up together in a nest of blankets on a practice mat. None of them were keeping watch, for once. Perhaps they'd felt safer with Bruce gone, and Alfred and Duke nearby.
Speaking of Alfred and Duke, the two were patching up Bruce's older birds, who all looked just as battered and exhausted as the League.
"Ah! Welcome home, Master Bruce," Alfred said warmly.
"More patients for you, Alfred," Bruce apologized, dragging Clark after him so he could grasp his butler's hand in greeting. He hid a smile at the way Duke was staring at the Justice League in awe. "Dick? Is everyone all right?"
"Ish," Dick murmured, wearily waving a hand. "Hi, Clark."
"Good to see you, Dick."
"Someone get these creatures away from me," Arthur demanded, unsuccessfully trying to back away from Titus and Alfred. The animals' noses were practically stuck to him and his exceedingly enticing fishy smell. Dick went over to rescue him.
"I have to get out of this suit," Bruce said urgently. "Kent, move." He pulled on the red cape again and marched toward the conjoined changing and shower rooms.
Clark stumbled after him, trying to pretend he didn't hear Tim saying to Damian, "Now I see where you learned how to treat Jon."
"I can detach the cape-"
"No time."
Meanwhile, Jessica had suddenly gasped. "Babies!"
Diana's head came up like a wolf scenting something delicious. "Babies?!"
"Oh yeah, Bruce's new babies!" Barry remembered, and led the way over to the nest on the practice mat.
Bruce, who had nearly reached the changing room, swerved back and headed to where almost the entire Justice League was crouched around his little ones. (Clark fumbled at where his cape was clasped to the collar of his uniform.) The last thing Bruce wanted was for his small Robins to wake up and find a bunch of powerful metas looming over them. "Stop that, you'll frighten them! Back away; two at a time. Diana and Jessica can look at them first." Clark finally managed to unfasten half the cape, but Bruce jerked him another few steps before he could finish.
"Why them?!" Barry protested.
"You already saw them earlier."
Clark had had enough; he planted his feet, forcing Bruce still until he'd finished detaching the cape. "There, all yours," Clark said, draping the far corner of his cape over Bruce's shoulder and backing away with his hands raised.
"I still need you to guard the entry in case they wake up while I'm still changing."
"But...I wanted to look at the babies, too..."
It was amazing how threatening Batman could still look even barefaced and with a piece of bright red fabric clutched around his body.
"Fine, I'll come guard the entry."
In the changing room, Bruce finally let go of Superman's cape and started stripping off the Batsuit, chucking it piece by piece against the wall by some cabinets.
"How have things been with the little ones?" Clark asked, retrieving his cape.
"Fine."
"...Bruce, please give me more than just 'Fine.' This is called 'making conversation so I feel slightly less awkward watching you get naked.'"
"You might as well shower, too, since you're in here."
"Oh." That was actually a good idea. Clark started peeling off his suit. "I'm still curious about the kids. There's no reason to be secretive about them with me."
"Hn." Bruce sighed. "They're improving. Every day. ...I'm proud of them."
"That's wonderful, Bruce," Clark said sincerely.
They stopped talking for a few minutes to focus on showering, but it was a companionable silence. Clark caught the towel Bruce tossed to him afterward. "There are more towels and clean pajamas in this cabinet, all sizes," Bruce added, taking out a set for himself.
"Thanks." He suddenly picked up on the sound of approaching tiny feet. "Bruce-" he warned, and used a bit of super speed to get dressed.
"Ddaaaaddy?" a quavering little voice called.
Bruce, now wearing a pair of pajama pants, dropped the matching shirt and reached instead to thrust his arms deep into the cabinet shelf containing stacks of folded towels. He managed to sweep all the towels into a pile covering the Batsuit just before Jack peered into the room.
"Ddaddy!"
Bruce hurried to meet him, trying to put some distance between the Bat symbol and his youngest son. He swept the child up into his arms. "Hello, Jack."
"Hhi, Ddaddy," Jack said, relaxing a little as he leaned his head against Bruce's shoulder.
"Do you remember Clark?"
Jack studied him a minute, then waved. Clark waved back.
"Did my other friends scare you?"
"Big people. Smile...smile..."
"They smiled because they were happy to see you. None of them would ever hurt you, Jack."
The boy giggled uncertainly. Bruce carried him out to where John was hiding behind Dick and Peter behind Alfred, both boys looking like they were trying to decide whether they should let Diana and Barry (the League members crouching closest and being the most coaxing) win them over or not.
"It might be easier to back off and pretend you don't notice them," Dick suggested. "Sometimes it works better to let them come to you."
So everyone retreated and gave the children some space, shifting their attention to getting cleaned up and treated for injuries. Bruce put down Jack, who was eventually persuaded by Jessica to let her cuddle him. "Ooohh, tiny baaaaby," she cooed.
"I nno bbaby," he told her. He huffed when Barry carefully petted his hair, but didn't resist.
Duke took the opportunity to rather shyly approach Victor. "Hi, um, Mr. St- Cy- Umm, Mr. Stone."
Victor smiled. "What's up, man? You can call me Vic."
"I'm Duke." He shook Victor's hand.
"You work with Batman?"
"Yeah, I- Well, I was... I mean, I was training, but then the Batpocalypse happened, and..."
Victor's eyebrow furrowed. "He stopped training you?"
"Not really, just- Not as much- I mean... He's busier now, you know?" Duke murmured, glancing at the Robins. "He even kind of quit being Batman himself. He's only been on one patrol since the apocalypse, and now this, but that's it. He still trains me sometimes, it's just that he's...busy."
Victor clapped his shoulder. "I'll see about getting you a Watchtower pass. Feel free to come see me anytime, all right? I've got some stuff I can show you that even the Bat doesn't know."
Duke's smile grew. "Thanks, I really appreciate that. ...You know, I've always wanted to meet you. Been hoping I'd get the chance ever since I fell in with Batman. I've been following you since you first started making the news."
"My head wasn't in the best place in the beginning," Victor admitted, "but I'm doing better now, and I always like meeting kids like you. Don't ever let anything hold you back, all right? You've already got the greatness in you, you just need to keep that flame burning."
It wasn't the first time Duke had been told something of the sort, but it was wonderful to hear encouragement from someone he had such respect and admiration for. "Are you gonna spend the night here?"
"Looks like that's the plan."
"Cool. I'll show you all the guest rooms on the third floor, there's one that has an awesome view in the mornings. If you want. I mean, I know you probably don't need a guest room because you don't sleep, but you can chill and use the Wi-Fi and stuff-" Duke broke off, mortified that he'd just offered Wi-Fi to a guy who connected to the Internet the way ordinary humans breathed.
"Hey, you live here, I'll take your recommendation," Victor said with a smile, not even mentioning the slip-up.
Now that the children weren't being stared at anymore, they had started to venture out amongst the visitors. "Sssooo'ppa mmmaann," John murmured, touching Clark's chest even though he was now wearing pajamas rather than the S.
"That's right, kiddo," Clark said fondly.
John trotted onward to the next interesting person. "Hhelllo?"
"Hi, kid. My name's Simon."
"Sssiiimm... Mmm."
"Heh, close enough."
John touched a scratch on the man's cheek. "Ooww?"
"Oh, it doesn't really hurt. My shoulder hurts more, I think I wrenched it..."
John went to steal a box of adhesive bandages from Alfred's med kit. He came back, fished out a bandage, tore off the wrapping with his teeth, and struggled to apply the now slightly mangled bandage to the red mark on Simon's face. He mostly missed, and the section that did make it over the injury was a sticky part rather than the padded part, but John still looked satisfied. "Nno ooww."
"You are really hecking cute, kid..."
Peter was playing with Diana's hair. "Pppeh'tty," he remarked. "Sssff-tuh."
"Hello, little one. I am very glad to meet you."
"Red, blue, yellow," he signed, looking at her outfit. Then he turned his head and twittered demandingly of his younger brother, his body language shifting from warily curious to bossy, "[warble]! Give me hair pretties!"
"No! My hair pretties!" Jack shout-twittered back.
There was some collective squee from the Justice League at the children literally calling to each other like birds.
"Pretty small things for pretty woman!"
"Okay," Jack gave in. He squirmed away from Jessica so he could dig the hair clips out of his pockets and hand them over to Peter for the sake of decorating Diana.
John was still making his rounds, putting bandages on the League members' cuts and bruises. Bruce considered stopping him, but then decided that since no one seemed to mind, it was good dexterity practice. He did, however, warn the boy, "John, we need to clean all this up." He made the annoyed bird start picking up the bits of packaging before he was allowed to move on to the next injured person.
John reached Victor and studied him for a moment, then he touched a dent in the man's forearm. "Ooww." He took another bandage, messily relieved it of its packaging, and worked to stick it over the dent. He touched another dent. "Ooww."
Victor looked utterly charmed. Barry was recording the scene on his phone. Diana was sitting cross-legged on the floor like a queen, looking honored as Peter clipped up locks of her hair.
"Peter, can I have some hair clips, too?" Jessica asked.
The boy looked at her. "Pretty woman," he decided, and went to style her hair with the last of the clips.
"I approve of your younglings," Arthur announced to Bruce, who replied dryly, "Thanks."
Just when everyone was wrapping up in the cave, Alfred disinfecting supplies and Tim and Damian turning away from the Batcomputer and Barry asking about food again and Dick and Jessica falling asleep on each other's shoulders, Bruce's phone pinged with a notification. He found two people in view of the front door's security camera - they'd apparently bypassed the one at the front gates.
Clark picked up the sound of the newcomers calling for him, and he rushed upstairs. By the time everyone else caught up, they found him in the front hall, carrying an exhausted-looking Jon piggyback as he kissed a windswept Lois.
"Kent, you fool, you carried your mother all the way here?" Damian scoffed.
Jon cracked open one eye, his arms tightening around his father's neck. "Wanted to see Dad," he mumbled. "An' now I'm really hungry..."
"I'm really hungry, too," Barry begged for about the fifth time.
"If anyone who cares for refreshments would be so good as to wait where you'll be more comfortable," Alfred called, starting to usher people out of the hall, "I will prepare something momentarily."
"I think I just want to go to bed," Simon murmured to Bruce, who called for anyone else who wanted to retire for the night to follow him so he could show them to the guest rooms.
Half of the ones who stayed up to eat were drooping by the time they finished; Damian and Jon were already asleep, one on a sofa and the other on the floor. While Victor and Diana helped Alfred clean up, Clark picked up Jon to take him to Damian's room, and Bruce started physically assisting his other friends and his son to their rooms like they were sleepy children themselves. The last ones in the hall, after Alfred finally retired for the night, were Bruce, Tim, and the three birds.
"Go straight to bed, Tim," Bruce said.
Tim paused at the door of his room. "...Soon," he promised.
"Don't pave the way for another breakdown like you had this morning. Whatever you're wanting to work on can wait."
Tim sighed. "Good night, Bruce." His bedroom door shut.
Bruce looked down at the children, who looked back up at him. "Seatbelts?"
'Oh, for the love of...' "No. I know it's close to dawn, but we're going to sleep."
He was so, so tired. He lay down beside the Robins' nest and managed to make it through a picture book, but fell asleep mid-paragraph as he was reading Peter Pan.
The children stared at him for a moment, then at each other. There was no way they were going to willingly sleep so close to This Master, so they shed their blankets and went to climb onto the big nest instead. Daddy's scent in the sheets was much different than That Master's, so [warble] fell asleep quickly. [caw] was troubled, but eventually managed to drift off with his back pressed hard against his brother. [chirp-chirp] was the one who kept watch, listening to his flockmates' breathing in the quiet darkness.
TBC
A/N: My primary interest in the DC universe is Batman, with Superman being secondary. Although I've read and watched a bit of the others, I'm not as familiar with their personalities, superpowers, etc. Diana's characterization in the DCEU Wonder Woman movie was so perfect that I use it as my default for writing her. Most of what I know about the Flash is from the CW show, which I've only seen the first two or three seasons of. I've read a few Green Lantern books, including some of the Rebirth series with Simon & Jessica, but I find the Lantern side of the DCU distasteful and don't keep up with it. I barely knew anything about Aquaman when I first posted this chapter, and he's OOC here because, at the time, all I had to go on for his characterization was the DCEU Justice League trailer. When I actually watched the movie later, I realized that I'd made some wrong assumptions about Arthur (namely, I hadn't realized that he was raised in the surface world). X'D