The Birds Who Smile: Christmas 2018 - Snow Globe (theme 2) [rough draft]
A Batman fanfic by Raberba girl
Bruce only had his back turned for a minute. He was in a small shop that specialized in artisanal handicrafts, looking at an exquisite piece the shopowner had just revealed, seriously considering buying it for Leslie, when there was a crash behind him. He whirled around and was horrified to find a hand-crafted snow globe shattered on the floor at his son's feet.
It hadn't been an accident, either. Even as he watched and the shopowner sucked in a pained gasp, John crouched down, picked the base of the snow globe out of the puddle of water and broken glass shards, and started trying to wrench it apart, heedless of the cuts on his fingers.
"John!"
The boy snarled at him with a savagery Bruce hadn't seen from him in a long time. The man tried to soften his voice, approaching slowly with palms out. "Look, chum, you're hurting yourself. Let's just-"
John refused to let go of the interior figures, which turned out to be a winter-bare tree with a trio of singing birds. John carelessly let some of the snapped branches fall, but he kept a death grip on the two birds that had broken off and the third bird that had remained on the tree. He only let go at last when Bruce made a nest for the ceramic animals out of his handkerchief. "All right, come over here, Johnny, let's patch up your hands."
When the child was bandaged up and protectively cradling the nest in the crook of one arm, Bruce asked, "John, look at me. Why did you break that snow globe? It didn't belong to you, I would have bought it if you'd asked-"
"Do not put birds in cage," John signed, glaring.
Bruce looked at him, then at the wastebasket into which a store employee was emptying the remains of the painted birds' transparent prison. "...All right. But next time, tell me before you break it."
Bruce paid for the broken snow globe, bought the statuette he'd been looking at for Leslie, and then a third piece just because he felt bad. At home, he carefully trimmed the excess ceramic from the birds and touched up the raw places with paint. John watched the whole process, then happily accepted his birds back and went to make another nest for them on top of his dresser, where they lived for the next several years.
o.o.o
A/N: I know this is not the best weekend to post stuff, since everyone's probably marathoning Voltron and/or busy backing up and rescuing stuff from Tumblr, but reviews would still be appreciated...!