The Birds Who Smile, a Batman fanfic by Raberba girl
Deleted sequence: General Foster Care - Part 11 (rough draft)
A/N: Sorry for the short chapter again - these perspective shifts are awkward lengths.
o.o.o
He went up to the top of a high building to fly off it, but then he was surprised because there was already someone else there. A big person, sort of, bigger than him but not much. She was standing at the edge, looking down, and he knew she wanted to fly down there, too, and he was afraid. Not for himself, but for her. Other people shouldn't fly down, only him.
He went and held her hand. She stared at him. He didn't know what to say, with human words or with bird words. "Come be safe," he said with his body. He tugged, and she followed like she was asleep. She had marks on her arms like pictures, and little shiny things in her face. He touched the one on her nose, and her mouth, and chirped, "Pretty."
She started to cry, so he hugged her, and she hugged him back so tight it almost hurt, but that was okay. If she was hugging him, she wasn't flying down. He chirred and petted her.
Then a door burst open and a woman ran out, and the not-so-big person stood up and they shouted at each other, and [chirp-chirp] covered his ears. But then they were both crying and hugging each other, and he knew they were okay now. The bigger one wouldn't let the smaller one fly down, so he went away.
It was dark between the buildings, and five big children were trying to take treasures away from two smaller children. [chirp-chirp] LAUGHED as he ran to them, and the big ones ran.
The little ones were scared scared scared of him, so he stopped Laughing and Smiling. The girl who was bigger was covering the boy who was smaller, like [chirp-chirp] did for his own little ones when they were alive. "I protect him from you!" her body screamed at him.
"Safe gentle peace calm," [chirp-chirp] crooned at her. He looked at them, and they were hungry and scared and confused. He went to look for food for them, and when he brought it back, they weren't there anymore, but they were close, hiding. The boy was falling asleep in the girl's arms. "For you," [chirp-chirp] offered.
The girl's nose wrinkled up, but the boy stared at the food in his hand. Then he grabbed it. The girl tried to tell him not to eat it, [chirp-chirp] didn't know why. "You, him, very hungry." The boy finally ate it anyway, and the girl made a not-happy sigh and ate a little, too, even though she didn't like it. "Good," [chirp-chirp] crooned.
He stayed and he guarded the little ones and found food for them and let them sleep, until big people came. Not bad big people, tired ones with blue feathers. The girl said "No no no stay away (desperate please)!" but the boy cried and clung. The big people picked him up and coaxed the girl to them. [chirp-chirp] was hiding, he didn't want big people who weren't Master to have him anymore, but they would be gentle to the little ones. They had already given the boy water, and he was drinking, gulping. 'Not my little ones, not my flock,' [chirp-chirp] thought sadly, and went away.
He couldn't climb up and fly down, because there were SO MANY hurting people, big ones and little ones. When he wasn't sleeping or looking for food for his own stomach, he was finding hurting or scared people. There was one lying in a dark corner with blood on him and metal sticking out of his chest, and [chirp-chirp] thought he was dead, but there was breath coming out of his mouth. Just a little bit, but that meant he wasn't dead yet.
[chirp-chirp] went and found a big person with those particular blue feathers, one whose body said "concern" instead of "gleeful hungry," and he threw rocks at him until the man chased him. [chirp-chirp] ran to the dark corner and ran past it, and when he looked back, the blue man had stopped to bend over the bleeding one and was saying "Dismay worry urgent!" The bleeding one was safe now, so [chirp-chirp] looked for the next one.
Night and day and night and day. He ate food out of the smelly things, or stole food when big people weren't guarding it. Sometimes he gave the food to children who were smaller than him and dirty and looked hungrier than he was. He slept in dark, high places. He told himself stories that he remembered were [caw] and [warble]'s favorites. He bit and clawed people who hurt other people. When people tried to hurt him, he Laughed and Laughed, and they always got scared and ran away. "Joker," a lot of them would say. Maybe that meant "Laugh" in human words.
But then one night, when he Laughed, the bad people didn't run away. "That's him." They grabbed him, and they weren't trying to hurt him, even though they did hurt him by holding him so tight and tying him. They were trying to take him. They were taking him to give to someone, and he was so afraid.
"No! No!" he cried, and then remembered to say it in human words. "Nnnoo! Nnnoo!" They only hit him and put him in a 'car.' He was so scared and he couldn't escape, so he looked for the Spot.
"[chirp-chirp], when will you come be with us?" [warble] asked. They were curled together in the air, their whole flock, and [big chirp-chirp] and Grandpa and Dance and Busy and Calm and Titus and everyone petting them and guarding them, and Mama and Daddy and Zitka and Becca and everyone waiting, waiting for [chirp-chirp] because he was the last one.
"Soon, I think. I hope soon."
"Miss you, [chirp-chirp]," [caw] said.
"Miss you so much so much so much."
"Hurt them when they kill you," [trill] said.
"I will."
o.o.o.o.o
He wasn't in the car anymore. He opened his eyes and he was on the ground, not even tied, and there were big people all around him, talking, talking. There were shiny purple feet-coverings in front of him. He looked up the purple legs and to the white face-
He pressed his face to the ground again and covered his head and quivered. He didn't want to look. He didn't want to know who that person was or where he was, he just wanted to die and be with his flock.
Hands grabbed him, forced him up, fingers under his chin and squeezing his cheeks so he couldn't look away. He wanted to cry, but the tears wouldn't come.
White face, red lips, that SMILE. And the eyes. He knew those eyes. "Hello, Master," he tried to chirp, but it came out as a whimper.
Master was pleased. Master scrubbed rough fingers through his head-feathers and touched his neck and turned him this way and that to look at him, all the while talking words that [chirp-chirp] didn't even want to try to hear. All he knew was that Master was happy to see him again, and maybe, maybe, maybe he would not hurt him. Or maybe later, but not now.
o.o.o.o.o
[chirp-chirp] sat in a cage. There was no top on it, but the bars were on all his sides. He could maybe try to get out, but he didn't want to. He knew better. If he climbed out, Master would tie him and hurt him.
Master hadn't hit him yet. Master hadn't tied him yet, he'd even taken the collar off.
Well, not Master; someone else, two other big people who didn't like [chirp-chirp], but they were Master's flock and did what he told them. They took all the feathers off of [chirp-chirp]'s body, but instead of leaving him bare and cold, they put new feathers on him, purple ones that looked like Master's. Master was so happy, in that way of his that was hungry and cruel at the same time. He'd patted [chirp-chirp]'s head without hurting him, and now he kept calling him 'Junior' instead of 'Sweet Bird' or 'John.' A new name. New feathers.
A new game.
[chirp-chirp] was so tired. He didn't want to play another game, he just wanted to die.
He sat in the cage and there were toys in here with him, but he didn't want to play with them. He sat there and thought of his dead flockmates, and he watched Master.
He had been wrong. He had been so, so wrong; [caw] had been right. This Master was...not Master. This Master was Batman, but his eyes and his face and his hands and his body had always, always, always been kind. Even when he was angry, he hadn't hurt [chirp-chirp] or his little ones. [chirp-chirp] did not understand how Batman was not Master anymore, but that was what had happened. Master was two people now, and Batman...'Bruce'...was the good one, and this evil Smiling white purple man was the bad one. The real Master.
'Daddy,' [chirp-chirp] thought, and this time he meant Bruce. [warble] had been right, too. 'I want Daddy.' He wanted to be held and sung to, he wanted gentle hands to put good food on his 'plate' and tuck warm feathers over him and tell him stories even if he didn't understand them. [caw] and [warble] always explained the stories to him later. 'Save me.'
Stupid [chirp-chirp]. No one would save him. Master always made sure no one ever could. Master never let him die, either, so this was forever.
[chirp-chirp] lay down on his back, arms open, chin lifted. "Helpless. Vulnerable. Do whatever you want to me, because I can never, ever stop you or escape." He drifted away. He didn't feel like talking, so he let his flock silently preen him. 'I want to go home.' Drifting here with his dead loved ones was as close to home as he was ever going to get.
To be continued...
See AO3 for Medli's sketches of Jay & Peter and Tim & Jack.