The Birds Who Smile: Convenient Kiss
(rough draft)
A Batman fanfic by Raberba girl
A/N: Warning for mild spoilers because this is set far in the future.
o.o.o
Mar'i Grayson was three years old when she kissed one of her bird uncles for the first time.
"All right, Mar'i, say bye-bye," her father cooed in the foyer of Wayne Manor the morning after Thanksgiving, picking her up so she could better reach their relatives. Before he finished the gesture, she had floated out of his hold and settled into her grandfather's waiting arms. "Bye-bye, Grandpa Bruce," she said, squeezing her arms around his neck. She pronounced it like 'Gampa Boose.'
"Goodbye, Mar'i. I was very happy to have you here for Thanksgiving."
"Halloween and then Thanksgiving and then CHRISTMAS!" she cheered, then scrambled onto his shoulder and jumped off toward the next one.
"Oof," Tim half-grunted, half-laughed as he caught her. "Bye, Mar'i."
"Bye-bye, Uncle Timmy!" She hugged him and looked around for the next relative to say goodbye to, then paused. Uncle Jack was cooing goodbye to the baby in Mommy's tummy, and at the same time, Mommy was arched back, holding Uncle Jason's neck still with one arm so she could put a big loud kiss on his cheek.
"Cut it out, Kori!" Uncle Jason yelled, struggling, but Daddy was laughing. Teasing, then.
Mar'i looked for someone to tease, too, and Uncle John was closest. He wasn't as fun to tease because he was like Daddy and thought it was all funny, but he would probably still be good to kiss. "Bye-bye, Uncle John!" Mar'i called, and dove to smack her lips against his cheek like Mommy was doing to Uncle Jason.
Mar'i went very still and dropped to the ground; John's hands darted out to steady her.
"Mar'i? What's wrong, sweetie?" Dick asked, as everyone else looked at the little girl in concern.
Looking a little dazed, she finally raised her hands and signed, "My head feels weird."
Everyone stared. Mar'i knew a bit of ASL from her parents trying to get in the habit of teaching her, but she had only just started learning, which didn't match her sudden easy signing.
"Oh no," John twittered to himself without thinking, moving to check her over, "Little Star is sick maybe/maybe-not? Was good but now-"
"Okay okay okay!" Mar'i twittered impatiently, pushing him away. "Feel better now." She shook her head to finish clearing it, tossing her drifting dark hair.
"Wait, WHAT?!"
"Did she just-?!"
Peter pushed closer and demanded in full bird language, "Little Star say bird words now, yes no yes?!"
The child's face lit up as she realized she could understand him perfectly. She twittered back, lisping with her baby mouth but fluent despite the accent, "Bird-me like bird-you bird-him bird-him!" she said triumphantly, pointing to each of her uncles in turn.
"No waaaaaayyyyyy!" The adults were all laughing in amazement.
As Jack crouched down and started signing to Mar'i, who signed back with childish fluency, Dick and Kori looked at each other. "But I thought your family already knew of this Tamaranean ability, yes?"
"I didn't even think- Gosh, this really is the first time she's kissed any of the birds, huh!"
"Sounds like baby new-bird [warble]," John teased.
"Whistling is hard when you're young," Jack grumbled. He suddenly realized that Bruce was filming, as the man always did in pursuit of his goal to decipher his youngest sons' private language. (Bruce had figured out about 20% of it, but it was slow going when they all refused to help except to laugh at his mangled attempts to speak it. He was pretty sure they didn't realize that their unwitting acknowledgment of his mistakes was itself helpful.) "Little Star," Jack twittered, "bird language is secret, secret! Just us only."
"Only?"
Jack's eyes flicked to his father, shoulders slightly hunched in a mildly protective way. Any other child would have missed it, but Mar'i now recognized it for the non-verbal communication it was: "It is secret/protected from Bruce-him."
"Why can't we tell Grandpa?" Mar'i asked with her hands, proving that she'd understood.
"Body language, too!" Peter burst out, laughing.
"No wonder your head felt funny - three new languages at once," Dick said fondly, ruffling his daughter's hair.
"I would suggest that she not kiss me or Father until she's older," Damian remarked. The sheer number of languages he and Bruce were fluent in would likely overwhelm anyone 'learning' them all at once, particularly if that person was only a few years old.
"Bird language for birds only," John said smugly. "Big people not allowed."
"You are big person," Mar'i pointed out.
"Wasn't when I learned to sing."
"All right, all right, we really do need to go," Dick said, scooping up Mar'i again. "We'll play more with Uncle Birds next time, okay? Byyyye, everyone!"
Everyone called out goodbyes to the little family and followed them out the door. At the last moment, Kori tugged Jack close and kissed his temple. She paused for a moment to assimilate (she hadn't realized how sad bird language could be sometimes...'goodbye,' for example, had connotations of 'I'll never see you again because you're dead,'), so she twittered instead, "See you all soon, love you love you love you!"
The family burst into laughter.