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"Superman will come to the Manor more often."
Manor, not cave. That already said a lot about what Bruce, still in his Batman suit, was trying to say to Nightwing and Robin at that moment. Nightwing, however, didn't pay attention to it.
He had grown up with Uncle Clark who often came to them. It was nothing new.
Robin, however, wasn’t of that opinion.
"Father, we don't need him," the boy spat out, all the indignation of his ten-year-old, which made him look like a mix between Talia and Bruce. It was always fortunate to see that there was more in him than his father. "We can fend for ourselves for whatever is coming."
"No, it's not... it's not for that," seeing Bruce embarrassed was rare, almost like the sun in Gotham. "He... there was a development, in our relationship."
"A development? What kind of development?"
"We... are a couple. Not just partners, but more... uhm...we are together."
A part of Nightwing, the Robin who had never really grown up, squeaked with emotion. Finally, it had finally happened! It had taken fifteen years, various adopted and biological kids, a marriage, a near-marriage, a divorce, and finally those two had solved their shit.
It was natural for Nightwing to be happy.
But since it was him, and reacting in a normal way to good news was not something he was used to, he joked, "Gee, Bruce, how did you pull someone so out of your league?"
Now, a joke, to be funny, should make other people laugh too, not just those who said it.
Robin next to him frowned, looking at him with disappointment. Bruce, on the other hand, only pursed his lips, but didn't comment.
The man put his cowl back on, "I just wanted to tell you this."
Then, he left, maybe to tell Alfred the good news. Wait, had Clark asked Alfred's permission before? Otherwise, there will be problems.
“… unacceptable."
Nightwing turned to his younger brother, who still had an expression of extreme disappointment.
"What did you say?"
"Now you don't even listen to me? TT, of course not."
"Robin..."
"If there is anyone who is not good enough, it is the alien," the boy said, with fervor, "Father has chosen someone below him, and mother, which is beyond my comprehension."
At least, he wasn't upset that Bruce was now with a man. But Robin had met Ghostmaker, and had seen him with Batman. There was no heterosexual explanation for whatever those two had gone on.
"Damian, we've talked about this before. It's not nice to say that a person isn't worthy just because of their circumstances."
Robin gave him a dirty look, "Then you should learn to follow what you say, Grayson."
"What?"
Robin said no more: he left, cloak fluttering behind him, clearly imitating his father. It would have been very sweet if he hadn't left Nightwing extremely confused.
What did he mean?
"A little bird told me there's an annoying pest around."
Nightwing sighed, "And by little bird, I guess you're talking about Oracle, Hood."
"Well, the old man is still looking for the balls to tell me," the other said dismissively, sitting down next to him, stealing one of his donuts, the chocolate glazed one, knowing full well that it was Dick's favourite, "Of course I had to know about it from her."
"Don't blame him. For once, his reluctance to talk is reasonable: you don't like Uncle Super."
Hood, with the doughnut still in his hand, without even giving it a bite, snorted, "He had years, literally, to be a man. He got married to another person, he had a son. He certainly didn't wait."
"Life isn't like in those fancy novels of yours, Hood," Nightwing commented with his mouth full.
His brother pointed the doughnut at him, "That's a comment that only a heretic like you would make. If Superman had the balls, he would have waited. But now he falls back on Batman? Just because he's always been there? And before?"
"It's not like Batman lived like a monk."
"Why would he? Superman was having a good time."
Nightwing rolled his eyes. Sometimes, under the tough skin and I don't give a damn, he forgot how Jason was such a daddy boy. Despite everything. And even though at least he, unlike Hood, had never tried to kill his father.
But well, they were all playing pretend it never happened, so who was he to come up with a barely old story... oh yes, five years ago?
"They were both idiots," Nightwing agreed, though he personally knew which of them had been more stupid, "But now they've worked it all out, and B is happier already. So please don't kill his new boyfriend, he's worked hard to get him."
"As if there was no queue for him! Harvey Dent would run if he asked."
Nightwing wrinkled his nose, "Two-Face? Would you rather Two-Face than Superman?"
"We work together and he keeps asking me how my dad is doing... he is a yearner, okay?"
"He'd lose both faces if he just tried to get closer," this time he was serious as he said it, "B may not be as good as Superman, but sure as hell he deserves better than..."
"What did you say?" Hood's tone had lost any pretense of cheerfulness. Now his voice was as deadly as a hidden blade.
"Mhm? Sure as hell deserves better than Two-Face..."
"No no, Goldie. Before. The all-bullshit B isn't as good as Superman."
Nightwing blinked. "Why, is he?"
The punch he received next was Hood's way of responding without using words. And it was very clear.
"He punched you pretty hard," Tim commented, as Cassandra pressed the cold bag on Dick's eye.
Batman and Robin had not yet returned to the cave, but Dick had taken care to warn Batman to stay away from Hood's territory tonight, because the vigilante was in a mood.
"Brotherly love, or something like that," Dick replied, hissing in pain.
Cassandra frowned. "Don't move."
"A bit difficult for me."
"Should we worry about new assassination attempts?" Tim asked, still straight to the point. And well, he had every reason to worry about it, since he had already been among Jason's targets, "I think there are contingency plans for Hood somewhere."
"No, it won't be necessary," he grumbled, damn, this family is extra paranoid. "This time, he's only mad at me."
"There are definitely plans for that," Tim said again, "Do you think Bruce will let us kill each other? Be serious."
"He doesn't want to kill me," at least, Dick was pretty sure of that, "He was just pissed off."
Tim looked at him: a black eye, a dislocated shoulder, several bruised ribs and other bruises, spoke of another story. Hood wasn't just pissed off.
"If you're in danger, we need to know," he insisted.
Dick tried to smile, "This is all very sweet, but I'm not a damsel in distress. You're all such hens."
"Said by you, it's a compliment."
"Look, we were talking, he got angry, that's all. These things happen."
To them, above all, and perhaps it was better not to stay around when Garth and Arthur argued, but Dick had no illusions about the peculiarities of his family.
"And what were you talking about? Batman's rules? Why kill criminals don’t solve Gotham's problems?"
Dick sighed, "Nothing so serious. We talked about Bruce's new relationship."
"And you defended Clark,” Cassandra said, unfazed because, come on, of course Dick did it.
"I just said that even if Clark is above Bruce's chances, I certainly wasn't going to let B be wooed by the damn Harvey Dent... ouch!"
Cassandra had dropped the bottle of cold bag on Dick's leg. Her gaze was cooler than Bruce when he was disappointed, and their expressions were all too similar for Dick's comfort.
Tim was unfazed, "So, that's it. This is why Hood got mad."
"Yes, I was telling you. "
"Then there will be no need for any contingency plan..."
They finally understood! "Well, now that we agree..."
“… Jason was reasonable."
"Excuse me?"
Tim just shrugged, "Jason didn't go crazy again. He went easy on you."
That was easy for Tim? Dick could still walk and breathe, but he wouldn’t say Jason went easy.
"Well, I wouldn't have said he was crazy or anything like that, but..."
Tim didn’t let him finish, "You seem to be fine. Cass, there's one thing I'm working on and I need your help."
The two left without even sparing a second glance, and Dick wondered what the hell was going on with everyone.
Usually, Dick didn't patrol during the day. In theory, he worked as a physical education teacher.
In practice, if someone in his family was in trouble, he would leave everything and go to them. Then he would think about how to justify his absence so as not to lose his job.
Usually, saying family emergency helped, and technically, it wasn't even a lie. There was an emergency, but no one in the hospital (for the time being). More than anything reckless teenagers who forgot they were just human and ended up in situations.
This could also apply to him, he knew, but in his case it was Batman who intervened. Even if he didn't want to.
He arrived just as Signal was fixing the robbers, tying them together like salami. Most seemed to be fine, except for the guy with a rainbow-colored bruise on his face.
"Well, when I heard that Black Mask had sent men to rob a bank, I thought the worst," Nightwing admitted, lightly kicking the leg of one of the robbers.
The guy in question didn't look like the kind of person someone like Black Mask would hire, and the whole operation was a little too blatant for the boss' tastes. There was definitely something else underneath. They'll have to check what they really came there for.
Signal turned to him, unfazed, "What, did you think they were out of my league?"
"What?"
"Because I don't know if you noticed, but I did great!" he said, pointing to the robbers.
"Signal, I never questioned it."
It was happening again. It had been a week since everybody, except Bruce, had been giving him a cold shoulder. What, was they all too old to have their big brother around?
Signal stared at him, "No, but it seems like you've been an ace lately commenting on things that don't concern you."
"What do you mean..."
At the time, Oracle spoke through their communicators, "Black Mask has taken Bruce hostage at WE. He's seized an entire floor and wants Bruce to give him the company and all of his other property. Nightwing, you're going to have to fill in as Batman, because Black Mask is intent on showing the world that Bruce Wayne is Batman…"
Dick was already on his motorcycle at Black Mask took Bruce hostage, the conversation with Signal immediately forgotten. He will have to go to the cave first, Bruce's identity was in danger, but there were more urgent things to worry about than moody teenagers.
"You saved Bruce's life. If you hadn't arrived in time..." Dick couldn't even finish the sentence. Just thinking about it sounded like heresy.
Dick had tried his best, but he didn't have Wally's speed nor he could fly; Black Mask wasn't a patient man, and when he realized that Bruce wouldn't give in, even after punching him, threatening him with a gun, using knives on him, he decided that undressing him in live was a good incentive to make him give it all up. Even his own identity.
It was obvious that there were scars that Bruce Wayne didn't want to talk about, and Black Mask wanted to expose it. He wanted WE even more.
Superman had arrived when Black Mask had his hands full in Bruce's shirt. Needless to say, Superman hadn't taken anything well, and the ensuing fight had been very one-sided – a fight that you could see on YouTube since someone had decided to upload it, adding Superman beat Black Mask's ass for 3 seconds straight as a title.
Dick and Signal had already finished things, Superman a little too intimate with Bruce, especially with a camera still on, and when he saw him, he had acted perfectly. No one after this will still think that Bruce was Batman, at least not for a while.
Apart from Vicky Vale, but that was another matter.
Clark smiled at him, softly. Dick didn't doubt that he would rather be in the hospital with Bruce than in the cave, but it would be suspicious that Superman would have so much attention for a civilian. For his part, he understood it, but someone had to write the report on what had happened, and Signal was taking Black Mask to Arkahm. "I'm just glad I did it."
"If not Superman, who else?"
"You have too much faith in me, Dick. I don't always arrive on time either," he said with a distant look, thinking back to who knows what, to who knows what person he hadn't saved.
It was an expression that suited Bruce more (and personally, Dick would have preferred that no one had it.)
"You arrived on time now," he reminded him, because that was important for him to remember, the report put aside, "You saved him. You are the best thing that ever happened to him."
"Bruce is the best thing that has ever happened to me."
"Really? Bruce?” Dick asked, a bit amused. “I would never thought so.”
But the temperature dropped suddenly, Clark's gaze became less gentle, his posture more rigid, "Why? Because I’m out of his league? Do you want to say this, Dick? Again?"
"When you heard me say..."
"I heard it from Kon," the Kryptonian replied, his gaze fixed on him, "He went back to the Farm for the weekend. He was pretty upset, and when I asked him why, he told me that Tim heard you say I'm out of Bruce's league. He wasn't happy about it."
"What? Why?”
"Dick, you have eyes. Tim and Kon are what Bruce and I would have been like if we had met at their age. It makes sense that they both were upset. Especially Tim. They thought that for you, they shouldn't work either because Tim wasn't good enough for Kon."
It wasn't what he had meant. It wasn't what Dick had meant at all. Only an idiot could say that Tim wasn’t good for Kon. Damn, Dick still thought Tim should think carefully about his relationship, but he would never dare to say anything. The only time he did it, Tim hacked all Dick’s technology and he had to listen to Despacito for a month.
"I didn’t mean that. It was just a joke," he protested, and Clark narrowed his eyes, "You joke that I'm too good for Bruce?"
"You’re Superman. Hope, justice and rainbow all wrapped together. You're good and Bruce is..."
"Bruce is the best man I've ever known," Clark didn't let him finish, "He has his flaws, who doesn't, but he works to improve Gotham every day, until he breaks every bone in his body. He's tenacious, he's good, and it's incredible. He's incredible because even though he's only human, he does things that I wouldn't do in his place at all. So how can you believe I'm out of the league of a man like that? Just because, as you say, I'm too good?"
"Clark, you're practically an alien god and he's just a human being..."
"We should ask Starfire what she thinks. "
At her name, Dick hardened, "What does she have to do with it now?"
"Bruce isn't the only one who is in a relationship with a powerful alien with divine powers who has stooped to be with just a human being," Clark reminded him, adding, "The difference is after so many years our relationship has grown stronger. How long has it been since you spoke to Starfire?"
Too long. Dick wasn't even sure if they could be considered friends.
"Clark, I..."
"You should apologize to your father, for your joke. It didn't make anyone laugh. They're all extremely angry."
"Are they mad about this?" he asked, and a whole week of passively aggressive comments and sideways glances had finally made sense.
"If it surprises you, then I'm afraid you can't understand. It wasn't a funny joke."
"But it was a joke. Come on, you can see how you two look from..." but his voice died out, because he had a good image of how Superman and Batman looked from an outside look. Once, he and Starfire were like that too.
If someone had said years ago that Kory was outside his league, he would have been furious, and a lot. So Bruce was also angry with him?
"I see you're starting to understand," Clark commented, sensing the meaning of Dick's silence. "Apologise to Bruce when he comes back. Your siblings may stop tormenting you, but I can't vouch for that."
"Jason has done so much worse. Why are they picking on me?"
"Yes, he did. But that doesn't rule out what you did. You all are multitasking, Dick. You can hold more than one grudge at the same time,” he hated how true it was, damn them all. And thank you for talking to me about it. Kon would have been a lot less kind."