Chapter Text
He’s just wrapped up debriefing to Gordon when the tiny shape slams into him, probably causing more harm to itself than him-since he’s mostly kevlar and titanium right now. He grabs his arms before he can fall and hurt himself more- the small thing lets out a startled sqeak.
It’s a child-frenzied and pupils blown wide-covered with filth from head to toe. It’s one of the trafficking victims.
The EMT follows not a moment later, “I’m so sorry, Batman-”, chest heaving. She looks utterly disheveled. She visibly relaxes at seeing the kid in Batman’s arms, so he knows the kid’s in good hands right now, “We’re short-staffed right now-I’ve got three more cases- I’m so sorry-“.
The kid tries to make a break for it again-but he grabs the kid from under his armpits and holds him up before he can run away and tire himself more. The kid startles- staring at him with wide blue eyes- as if surprised at being picked up.
One of his sclera is red from infection.
He’s mostly skin and bones- too light-
(Almost breakable.)
“We couldn’t sedate him without bloodwork- we don’t want the sedatives to interact with whatever the kid has in his system-“, Bruce hums in acknowledgment.
“Hello”, he says softly, the kid’s baby blue eyes widen even further, and he scrambles-making no move to escape- but only to climb up to peer into the lens of the cowl. He whispers, so quietly that he wouldn’t have been able to hear it if he wasn’t inches from his face,
“Kitty?”
It takes everything in him to tamp down the sudden laughter that wants to erupt out of his chest. Does the kid think he’s a large, overgrown cat? The cowl’s ears do look a little like cat ears-
Suddenly he’s grateful that Dick decided to stay at home today- he would never let him live this down.
The EMT looks mortified, “I’ll get him off your hands-“
She reaches for the kid-who hisses at her, high-pitched and so, so afraid.
The EMT hesitates, her hand hovering in mid-air, unsure. Not wanting to cause the kid more distress. She can see it too-beneath the aggression, there’s pure fear-the baby’s terrified.
“I’ll look after him for a bit- you can deal with the rest of the cases in the meantime-“
The EMT looks like she's about to argue- but then a shriek emanates from the direction of the ambulances- and she rushes towards them- but not before shooting him a grateful look.
The kid visibly relaxes against him-still peering into his very soul.
Batman blinks at him, reaching for some candy that he keeps in his utility belt-only for the kid to lean so very close to the cowl’s ear and murmur, “Meow?”
He settles for grinning instead of bursting into laughter that’s rolling in his gut. Not wanting to spook the kid. His cheeks hurt from it. “Do you think I’m a cat?”
The kid taps his chest with a tiny fist-insisting, “Meow”
He brings over a finger, a bit of blueberry candy hidden in his fist. The kid goes almost cross-eyed following it, and then just taps his cute little button nose, “You’ll love Catwoman-Catwoman would love you more.”
The kid startles, and growls at the offending finger.
He unclenches his fist then- revealing the purple treat.
“All yours”
The kid peers at it curiously-but makes no move to take it. Bruce frowns-How long had the kid been in captivity for the kid to be unfamiliar with gifts?
Suddenly, he wants to be there when Cullen pops out of the hospital with the seven healed bones- solely so he can break them again.
He puts the candy back- feeling around for something else instead.
The kid’s chewing on his cape by the time he finds it. It’s one of the many tiny windmill paper fans Dick makes and leaves around the house.
“Hey, Sweetheart?” the kid turns to state at him-and then the brightly colored object- the black cape still clutched in a tiny fist-he blows lightly at it- it spins.
The kid squeals-directly into his ear- making him nearly drop him. Utterly mesmerized watching it rotate in a spiral of glitter.
The fan gradually stops, and he holds it out towards the kid, “Your turn”
The kid frowns.
He blows at the fan again, “Like this”
The kid’s eyes widen and he puffs at it stutteringly-the tiny fan whirls- making the kid shriek with glee. And Bruce’s heart melts into a gooey puddle.
He holds it out to him. “All yours, Chum”
The kid frowns as if trying to put together a puzzle. It would’ve been adorable if it wasn’t so utterly devastating. The idea of being given gifts being a foreign concept. Having one’s small world filled with pain and mistrust. Being hurt by your own to the point that your brain associates humans solely with hurt. The list goes on.
He slowly brings over the fan and gently pushes it into the kid’s tiny fist-who reflexively abandons the cape in favor of holding it- looking so utterly bewildered at being handed such a pretty thing.
The wide blue eyes gaze into his again, there’s an aching fondness swelling in his chest. He smiles at him gently.
At the prolonged lack of negative stimuli, the kid looks over at the fan clutched in his hand, and then at his face. Bruce smiles patiently. “It’s for you, Chum.”
The kid’s expression breaks into pure joy-and adoration, looking up at Bruce as if he had hung the stars, moons, and sun in the sky, and not handed him a flimsy little thing made of glitter and paper.
The glee makes a dimple crinkle on the kid’s hollow cheek.
The ache in his chest is overwhelming-of the sheer innocence of it all. Despite.
But it's over soon. Too soon. (Forever wouldn't be enough)
The EMT’s back, looking as if she’s aged another four years in the timespan of dealing with three child victims.
And Bruce drops the shutters, over the overwhelming emotion, the sheer heartache. And starts gently disengaging the cape, wrapping the kid in it.
The kid’s too caught up in watching the fan spin to notice until he’s completely bundled in the soft-warm fabric- Nice and safe- his brain supplies distantly.
The kid doesn’t notice what’s happening until he’s in the EMT’s arms. Even then he looks surprised. Bruce doesn’t think it dawns on him until the EMT turns away.
But then his expression shatters- looking as if the world is crashing down on his fragile shoulders. “N-no, Kitty. No-“, tears cut trails down his filthy cheeks, “Kitty-no-“
If he had chuckled earlier, now he bites his tongue to keep himself from stopping the EMT.
To carry the kid home. To bathe him and feed him something warm. To buy him sweets and toys and spoil him rotten.
(To never let the kid look so utterly grief-stricken-anguished-ever again.)
"K-kitty", the kid wails. There's copper in his mouth.
The kid’s cries are audible all the way to the van, diluting everything else around him, until it’s just his heart beating painfully in his ears, and the crying kid calling for the few sources of comfort he had found in his short life.
His ears don’t stop ringing even after the van’s gone.
He steps away, only for his foot to land on the tiny, fragile paper fan.
He stoops to pick it up. It’s broken under his weight- right from the middle- He distantly realizes that he’s cradling it. That there’s moisture gathering underneath the lenses. That it burns more than it has the many times before. It’s just glitter and paper-
(Just a tiny bit of joy.)
He carefully puts it in his belt.
It’s just paper.