Like I said- drabbles about civilian life! Only one more chapter after this of civilian life, beforethey meet Wally!
"Dad, can we get a dog?" Dick asked one day after patrol.
Bruce thought quietly of all the maintenance needed to keep a dog and Alfred who already had to take care of his children while he was away...
"Sorry Dick, but no. We wouldn't have the time to give it a good home."
Dick nodded, looking a bit disappointed, as did Scarlet, before she perked up.
"What about fleas? At the circus Harry had fleas. He taught them to do tricks..."
"Until they got into the clown's wigs..." Dick said, wrinkling his nose at the memory. Bruce smiled slightly despite himself.
"No, we are not getting fleas, either."
"What about a turtle, Bruce? Those are real easy. The can't even run away..." Dick said.
"We aren't getting any pets, Dick." Bruce said firmly.
"Awww..." Scarlet was giving him puppy eyes now, and he knew he'd never be able to resist unless he turned away now, which he did.
"I'm going to work now. I want you two to have a good day at school." Bruce said to the wall.
"Why's he talking to the wall, Dickey?" Sparrow asked.
"Because we're bothering him..." Dick said.
"Time to get ready for school, Master Dick and Mistress Sparrow." Alfred called. Sparrow wrinkled her nose. "Don't call me mistress, Alfred. It's too girly." she said, before ducking out to get ready. Bruce looked warily over his shoulder to be sure the puppy eyes were gone before going about his day.
Later that day, Bruce entered the house smiling. He'd had an idea at work, and he set the two boxes on the table...
"Dick! Sparrow! Come down here please..." He called. There was no clattering, but Bruce smiled as he heard the familiar sound of socks squeaking on the banister as both the acrobats slid down, each leaping off and running to him.
"Daddy!" they grinned and both hugged him.
"Hello, you two. Look what I got." Bruce pointed to the boxes with holes in them and Sparrow squealed. "It's a bunny!" she said, jumping up and down.
"Not quite, you two. Aren't you going to open it?"
"Can we?" Dick asked, ever polite.
Bruce nodded. "Go ahead and open them."
Both children opened the boxes, incredibly excited...
"It's a rock." Dick said, looking thoroughly disappointed.
"I thought you liked us, Bruce." Sparrow looked up at him, looking all sad...
"What kinda person gives a kid rocks?" Dick asked, looking even more disappointed.
"They aren't just rocks. They're pet rocks, see..." Bruce said, trying to rectify the situation.
"Well how do they see? They don't have eyes." Sparrow said, looking slightly confused. "Or ears- or brains- geeez! They hardly got anything!"
"They don't need to see." Bruce said, handing one to each of them.
"And you can feed them, and bathe them, and treat them just like a person..."
Dick stared. "But it's just a rock!"
"Don't say that! He didn't mean it Rocky, he didn't mean it!" Sparrow yelled, grabbing her rock off the ground and running away.
"I see someone's bonded already." Bruce said, smiling happily. At least one of his children liked the rocks...
"Hi..." Dick picked up his own rock, looking at it carefully. "I... I guess I own you now..." Dick was eager to bond more with his own rock...
That night at bedtime, Bruce slipped carefully into Scarlet's room to tuck her in, smiling slightly when he saw what she clutched into her hands- a pet rock.
Dick's pet rock sat on his nightstand, with a small name tag. Bruce leaned forward to read it. In Dick's neat handwriting, it read; Oscar. Bruce had to chuckle slightly- he hoped his children didn't start getting too caught up in their rocks... _
"Rocky is better than Oscar." Sparrow declared proudly, holding up Rocky. She'd glued google eyes onto the rock, and Dick was doing the same with his. "Is not. Oscar is better than Rocky any day..."
"His eye is crooked..." Sparrow reached over to straighten it and accidentally knocked it off. "Hey!" Dick grabbed the nearest thing he had, which was Oscar, and threw it at her to ward her off. Oscar slammed into her face and she fell back, gasping and clutching her nose, looking scared...
Dick realized what he'd done with horror. "Scarlet! Scarlet, I'm sorry! Let me see, let me see, I'll help..." Dick saw the blood cascading down her nose and onto her lips and knew it was far too much for him to handle.
"Dad! Dad, help! Scarlet's hurt!" Dick yelled, and Bruce raced in, heart pounding at the urgency in his son's voice and the mention of his youngest being injured...
Scarlet had curled into a ball on the floor, eyes wide with fear. Blood trickled from her nose onto her lips and chin, and Bruce recoiled slightly with horror at the sight of his youngest hurt...
"It's alright, Scarlet, it'll be alright..." Bruce gathered her into his arms, and the frightened six year old buried her head in his chest, clinging to him desperately. Bruce carried her to the kitchen, sitting her on the counter.
"Lean forward- that's it..." he held a tissue to her nose, using a damp cloth to dab off the blood...
"Tati?" she asked quietly.
"You'll be alright baby, I promise..." Scarlet nodded. Her mouth was filling with blood, and Bruce, like any dutiful parent would, held a tissue under her chin for her to spit into. Finally, the blood stopped.
"Scarlet, I'm really sorry. I didn't mean to..." Dick said, as Bruce picked Scarlet up again. She leaned her head on her foster father's shoulder, eyes closing.
"It's alright, Dickey. It was an accident." she said quietly. Dick was crying slightly, he was so upset about what he'd done, and Bruce turned to him.
"Dick, I want you to go in up to your room and I'll be there to talk with you in a minute." Bruce said firmly.
Dick nodded, darting one last glare at Scarlet before heading upstairs.
"Mmmm..." Sparrow muttered into Bruce's shoulder, and Bruce had to smile slightly. All the excitement had tired his six year old out, and he gently laid her down in bed, placing the covers over her and rubbing her back until she fell asleep. Bruce smiled at her slightly before standing to go to Dick's room. He knew the boy felt horrible- he'd kept apologizing, and Bruce had a feeling Dick had somehow caused the injury...
He found Dick sniffling on his bed. "Care to explain what happened to me?" he asked, and Dick sat up, nodding.
"I... I was putting googly eyes on Oscar... and Sparrow went to try and straighten them... I thought she was going to mess him up and I guess I just threw Oscar... I expected to grab a couch pillow or something soft Dad, honest! I didn't mean to hurt her..." Dick started crying again, and Bruce placed a hand on his son's shoulder and allowed to boy to cry himself dry.
"It's alright Dick. Accidents happen. But you need to remember to be careful, Scarlet is a lot smaller than you..."
Dick sniffed and nodded. "Is she... is she alright?" he asked.
"She's fine. She's taking a nap now, everything tired her out. I understand it was an accident, and I won't punish you since you really are sorry... Why don't you stay up here to calm down a little. Scarlet doesn't blame you either, she knows accidents happen. Alright, Dick?"
"Alright. If... if she wakes up... tell her I'm sorry again, will ya?" Dick asked, wiping his eyes.
Bruce smiled. "I will, Dick. Come down when you feel like it." Bruce said, before leaving and sighing, He checked in on Scarlet to find the girl sleeping soundly and smiled. Being Batman was nothing compared with the duties of being a father. _
Sparrow dodged a thug's punch that same night as they were on patrol. Despite her earlier bloody nose, she'd pleaded enough and Bruce had allowed her to go on patrol. Only Batman was paying far more attention to Sparrow than he should've been- a thug grabbed him and pushed him down, getting on top of the dark knight, knife blade held at his throat...
Dick moved to take out the guard harassing Sparrow, who dodged forward hurriedly. Batman had a firm grip on his attacker's wrist and was struggling to keep the knife from slitting his throat...
Sparrow grabbed the first thing she could and threw it, and it collided with he thug's head. He fell to the ground, unconscious...
"Daddy!" Sparrow ran to her father, who got to his feet.
"I'm alright, Sparrow." Batman said. Sparrow nodded, dropping to her knees and searching the ground. "Rocky did it! He saved your life, Dad!" she said, holding up the rock proudly. "I chucked him at that guy's head and he whacked him good!"
"See Oscar, you should be more like Rocky!" Robin had come over now and was chastising his own pet rock, and Batman smiled sightly as he shook his head, wondering what he'd started.
Rocky was an alright pet, but Bats were way better, Sparrow figured. There was a reason she went outside every night that spring to catch moths and worms, and there was a reason why she slipped into the bat cave late at night as well.
One day Bruce followed her, curious as to what she did. She ignored all the high tech crime fighting instruments and the bat mobile, instead choosing to walk up to the section of the cave where the bats roosted, her bug catcher filled with moths in tow.
"Hi guys." she smiled up at the bats, who squeaked in reply. One fluttered down and landed on her shoulder, squeaking insistently as he pressed his wet nose against her face...
"Oh Luke..." She held up a moth and the bat seized it, eating it quickly and looking expectant. "Hang on, Luke. I have to feed the others..." She opened her bug catcher and the moths and butterflies flew out into the air. Instantly the bats screeched, sonar detecting all kinds of tasty bugs in the cave...
Bruce watched as the bats swooped, knowing his childhood fear of them was gone. They chased down every single moth, and a few alighted on Sparrow, sitting on her shoulders like parrots. She held out worms, which they quickly devoured, before simply allowing her to stroke them. Finally, they alighted to go and hunt more moths in the dusk, and Sparrow was left to stare after them, smiling slightly.
"Bats..." she mumbled.
"Alfred, I want every single one of those bats vaccinated against rabies. We have children around here now, I don't want there to be any accidents to happen..." Bruce said firmly as he watched his baby girl from a distance.
"Of course, master Bruce." Alfred said, slightly proud Bruce was this protective.
"Bats..." Bruce muttered, shaking his head. "I should've known the kid would find some way to domesticate them..." but secretly, he was proud.
Yes, I know, fluffy... Next chapter involves Christmas!