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A little blonde girl wearing a baby-blue shirt with a picture of a dinosaur, rainbow stripped leggings and missing one of her light up runners sat in the middle of the floor on the watchtower.
She was bawling, inconsolable, terrified beyond words.
During a battle she had been separated from her parents, grabbed by the Villain-of-the-Hour and held as a hostage. Unfortunately, as the villain had been dressed similarly to most of the Justice League - aka in brightly coloured spandex- she was absolutely terrified of the heroes who were desperately trying to calm her down enough to get her name.
Unfortunately, nothing they had done worked and they had decided to back off and hope she cried herself out eventually.
The door to the room opened with a hydraulic woosh and Batman scurried through, keeping low to the ground near the edges of the room.
“Batman, did you have any success?” Superman asked, floating closer.
Batman made a head motion that resembled an over exaggerated eye-roll and gestured behind himself, wordlessly sassing superman- “Does it look like I found anything?”
Batman then seemed to notice the child. Her crying had trailed off into gasping hiccups when the door had opened and she was staring at Batman in obvious fascination.
His eyes went wide and his ears flicked forward- startling the other heroes- had his ears always been able to do that?
He dropped down low, belly almost touching the ground, and started slowly crawling toward the girl. Arrow, Aquaman and Flash shared a nervous look- was it really a good idea to trust Batman with a child? A child that was alive and probably had frantic parents looking for her?
She startled, curling up into a ball, hiding her face behind her hands, a single eye visible though the gaps in her fingers.
Batman pulled back, frightened by her sudden movement, ears flicking back, wide eyes blinking in a mixture of curiosity and fear.
The little girl carefully pulled her hands away from her face, staring at Batman. He looked just as scared of her as she was of him. He looked nothing like the bad person from earlier.
She sat up, and Batman took that as a signal to creep closer, like a cat encountering something unfamiliar. She tilted her head and Batman copied the motion. She sneezed, and Batman copied her, with a tiny squeaky-kitten sneeze.
The little one cautiously extended a hand toward Batman, like she was letting a dog sniff her hand before tried to pet them.
Batman took this as an invitation, ears flicking forward, as he moved into a more comfortable (for him!) posture and quickly closed the gap. He gently headbutted the girl’s hand, making her giggle at the strange feeling. He curled around her, but not defensively- flopped on his side, the same way he would cuddle his kids when he was somewhere safe. The little girl leaned into him, finally relaxing, drawing a loud rumbling purr from batman.
Superman could her heart finally slow from the frantic tattoo it had been beating, to a calm, musical rhythm. He sighed in relief- he didn’t think it was possible for a small child to die of stress, but he didn’t want to push their luck any further.
Batman reached into his cape, pulled out a wet-wipe and wiped the tears from the girl’s face. He threw the used wet-wipe at superman, who caught out of mid-air, dumped it in the trash, then quickly flew off to wash his hands.
A Tupperware of cookies-bat shaped, of course- was pulled from his cape next. Followed by a juice box, both of which the little girl tucked into ravenously, but messily, getting almost as much food on herself and Batman as she got in her mouth.
Once her stomach was full and she was calm, the adrenaline crash hit and she started to fall asleep sitting up, her head drooping with exhaustion.
Batman nuzzled at her chin, keeping her awake for just a moment longer.
“Name?” he rasped, so quietly it almost sounded like a human whisper, rather than the growling voice of a dammed soul. The little girl didn’t answer, tilting her head to one side in confusion.
“Hatchling,” he gently poked her in the chest with a knuckle, rather than a clawed finger-tip “name?”
“R-Rosie…” she whispered in a small voice, so quietly that only batman and superman could hear her.
“Sleep well, Rosie…”
Batman let Rosie curl up against him, using one of his arms as a pillow, which couldn’t be all that comfortable, but it was better than the floor. He purred, enjoying the feeling of a tiny chest rising and falling against his own. Rosie smiled in her sleep. The wing that was not trapped under the girl flexed, then spread to completely cover both of them, a living cocoon- safe as a nuclear bunker.
“Are we just-just gonna let them sleep there? In the middle of the floor?” Flash whispered, rubbing the back of his neck awkwardly as he stared at them.
“Do you wanna wake them?” Aquaman asked and Arrow and Flash booth put their hands up in surrender and took a step back “that’s what I thought.”
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“Rosie? Rosie!” a frazzled woman in a pink sweater broke away from Superman’s escort “Rosie, baby are you there?”
Following close behind, and doubling over to catch his breath was Rosie’s dad, a rather skinny black guy in a purple shirt.
Batman’s wing twitched and his head popped out of the wing cocoon enough to quietly growl at her.
“Ah. She is asleep.” Superman translated. “Would you mind waking her, so that she can say goodbye?”
Batman curled more tightly around the girl, whistling and chirping interspersed with words in languages that only Superman and Wonder Woman understood.
Superman shook his head, fond exasperation on his face “Batman… She’s not your child! Her parents are right here-“ he gestured at Rosie’s Mom and Dad. Mom, who looked like was currently mentally debating if she could take Batman to get her daughter back, and Dad, who was hiding behind Mom and looking vaguely sick from fear.-“ and anyways, she is still alive!”
Batman grumbled, wing flexing slightly.
Superman crossed his arms over his broad chest, fond exasperation grading into frustration “Batman… her parents could not have done anything about what happened. You saw the crush of people trying to evacuate, it would be easy for a child to get separated from their parents.”
Batman reluctantly agreed and pulled his wing back.
Rosie was fast asleep, head still pillowed on Batman’s arm, curled against his chest, one of his wings keeping her off the floor. The sudden light was enough to wake her, rubbing at her eyes and sitting up. She yawned and opened her eyes, spotting her Mama immediately.
“Mama! Mama!” Rosie quickly climbed over Batman’s arm, running to her Mama, who knelt and opened her arms, catching the young girl and scooping her up, burying her nose in Rosie’s hair and inhaling deeply.
“Mama! I got lost, then a bad man grabbed me! Then a scary lady took me here and I met Batman! He’s like a big kitty and he gave me cookies!” Rosie’s eyes were wide, excited, too young to realize why her Mama was so glad to see her again.
The Dad reached out towards superman, like he was going to put his hand on Superman’s shoulder, only to be startled when Superman pulled away.
“Sorry. Thank you, so much, for finding Rosie. We owe you, forever. If you ever need help with anything, just call.”
Superman smiled, bowing slightly, “You do not owe me anything. Take good care of your daughter. Rao willing, our paths should never have to cross again.”
“Ok, Rosie! Wave bye-bye to the nice Superhero’s!” Rosie’s mama wanted to waste no-time in getting out of here.
“But mama! I wanna get batman’s phone number, so that we can talk later!” Rosie sounded elated; her father looked terrified.
Superman rubbed the back of his neck awkwardly, as uncomfortable in social situations as he was confident on the battlefield “Batman is… shy. He does not like talking on the phone. I could give you his Post Office box? I am certain that he would enjoy having another pen-pal.”
“Ok!” Rosie looked delighted and Superman reached a hand behind himself, Batman pressing something into it.
Superman handed Rosie the printed and embossed bat-shaped business card- no name, only a post office box address listed.
“Thank you Superman! Bye Superman! Bye-bye Batman! I’ll get mama to help me with a letter as soon as I get home!” Rosie waved at Batman over her Mama’s shoulder.
Batman gave the girl an eerie smile and raised a hand in a wave. “Bye-Bye. Rosie.”