Re: Books! - Maria/Bruce
For all Dick had reassured her that her gift was appropriate and acceptable, Maria still found herself on tenterhooks when someone actually looked at it: a heavyweight of a book next to the colorful picture books or elegant classics. It was better that then worrying about if this was going to be how she visited Wayne Manor in the future, as part of a crowd of loved ones celebrating the kid's birthday.
Granted, Dick had pretty well talked her down off that ledge, too, but it probably said something about her essential nature that she kept trying to scramble up onto the same damn ledge every time she thought of something else potentially involving the kid. (Sam. She should probably start teaching herself to refer to him as Sam instead of kid. Fuck.)
Then Bruce's hand paused on the atlas, and Maria's shoulders tightened in spite of herself. She nodded acknowledgement at his comment, trying to figure out if it was the polite way of saying it was inappropriate for a baby - well, it probably was, but he wasn't going to be a baby forever, so why shouldn't it be accepted? Even though they probably had very nice gilt atlases in the library. Fuck. "Figured it would save any copy in the library from being doodled on," she said, very casually.