The Birds Who Smile: Christmas 2018 - Christmas Cookies (theme 5) [rough draft]
A Batman fanfic by Raberba girl
Inspired by breezy-cheezy (Medli45)
o.o.o
[*censored because FFN is stupid*] Jason sang at full volume to The Drifters as he worked, Alfred beside him quietly vocalizing in harmony. The two men were making Christmas cookies, Jason rolling out the dough for a new batch and Alfred decorating the batch that had finished cooling from the overn. On the butler's other side, a small, scarred hand reached out, grasped a tree-shaped cookie, and drew it toward an eager little mouth.
[*censored because FFN is stupid*]
The child's hand reached again. Jason, without any break in his singing, raised his eyebrows at Alfred, who somehow managed to shrug with only his face.
[*censored because FFN is stupid*]
The hand reached out a third time. Before yet another cookie could be stolen, Jason let go of the rolling pin and pounced, scooping up his young counterpart. Peter crowed and squirmed nervously, then saw the mischievous twinkle in his older self's eye and stilled. "Ggood boy," he said, with a fetching smile he had to have learned from his brothers (Jason had certainly never known how to make things like Puppy Eyes before he'd seen Dick and then John and Jack in action).
"Hey. No sugar until after dinner, okay?"
Peter gazed at him for a moment. Then he turned in Jason's arms and openly reached for the cookies again, this time with both hands.
"You little brat!" Jason hoisted the child across his shoulders in a fireman's carry, prompting a giggle-shriek from Peter. "We are going to find something fun to do that doesn't involve bothering Alfred or spoiling your appetite." Jason, replaying what he'd just said as he carried his boy out of the kitchen, absently wondered how he'd become such a dad.
o.o.o
A/N: I was a bit depressed yesterday, so I wanted to write some TBWS baby birds to cheer myself up. Breezy helped a lot with her emails and her latest batch of lovely sketches. She's working on a Christmas prompt list, and I thought the one she did for "Christmas Cookies" was so cute and so suited to my current frame of mind that I wrote it out. ^^ I've also written the "Snow Globe" prompt (also for TBWS), and will probably post that in the next day or two.
Sorry if you were expecting the next TBWS chapter. I started editing the fic (not fully editing, but getting it about 90% edited). I've done eleven installments so far, but I realized that if I do about ten chapters a week, that still means it'll take me at least five more weeks just for the editing, not even taking into account the prep work for the next story arc that I still haven't touched yet. o.O So I might try to write other stuff like TBWS vignettes in the meantime. (I have not yet been successful in writing anything longer than a vignette on weekdays; I'm still not used to my new schedule.) Some of the TBWS vignettes, definitely this one, might be integrated into the main story once I make it that far.
See AO3 for Breezy's sketch!