Archive of Our Own ^beta

Chapter Text

“What’re you doing out of Gotham, Boy Wonder?”

The sudden voice was recognizable, but not exactly welcome. Surely his position, their position, was now recognizable to any others in the vicinity thanks to Superboy's not-quite-whispered greeting. Robin didn’t roll his eyes, if only because he was scanning the room for-

-There-

Robin lunged to the right, striking out with his staff to block the incoming drone from its path towards where Superboy was now floating next to him.

“Right now?” Robin forced the annoyance in his voice to sound louder than the strain of physical exertion that presented as he pivoted to strike down the second security drone which was locked in on Superboy. With both immediate threats handled he leveled Superboy with a flat look and finished his comment, “Saving your ass.”

Superboy didn’t bother holding back his eyeroll. He just reached a hand out and grabbed a third incoming drone, halting it just before it reached Robin. As Superboy crushed it, leading Robin to flinch backwards from a wire that sprung out and nearly slapped him across the cheek, he gave a cocky grin and informed Robin, “You missed one.”

“Watch it,” Robin stepped backwards with a glare, pushing away Superboy’s outstretched arm holding the drone that got too-close-for-comfort in the process. He pushed down his annoyance at the other young hero as much as he could while he continued speaking in the most serious tone he could muster, “When was the security system updated?”

“Huh?” Superboy only blinked with confusion.

Robin pointed to the shattered drone Superboy was still holding and asked again, this time with more words because apparently Superboy needed extra support, “There should only be two security drones in this building. When did they get an update?”

“Probably around the same time the warehouse shipments doubled in size,” Superboy said as if it was obvious. Then, in a tone of annoyed disbelief he continued, “I thought the bats were supposed to be geniuses or something, why is your info bad?”

Robin ignored the question to retort, “The shipments increased two weeks ago, I would have realized-“

“You mean two days ago,” Superboy pointed out. 

“No, I mean- Wait, how long have you been watching this warehouse?” Robin’s frustrations were momentarily giving way to curiosity. 

“Dude, like, two weeks. After…” A realization passed over Superboy’s face, “Oh. I guess shipments did boom two weeks ago but two days ago they doubled it again.”

That was… certainly useful information. Robin cast a questioning glance at Superboy as he asked, “Why are you watching the warehouse?”

Superboy crossed his arms over his chest and threw the question back at Robin, “Why are you watching the warehouse?”

Robin mirrored Superboy’s defensive stance and very maturely pointed out, “I asked you first.”

“Yeah, well-“ Whatever dignified, intelligent, thoughtful comeback was about to be spoken by Superboy was interrupted by the crunch of a fourth drone being struck down by Robin’s bow staff. 

“Whoa, nice shot!” Superboy complimented with a grin, “But check this out.”

His expression gave way to a smirk as he rose a foot or two higher in the air. He snatched another drone out of its flight path and threw it across the room to where two more drones were incoming. Robin wouldn’t admit it out loud, but the guy had surprisingly good aim. The drone-turned-projectile ricocheted off one incoming drone and into the other, rendering all three disabled. Superboy raised his eyebrows at Robin and flexed his hands outwards as if to welcome in feedback, praise specifically. 

Robin rolled his eyes and secured a line to grapple off the catwalk and onto the warehouse floor.

“Come on,” Robin instructed, “We don’t know how many more of those are coming.”

“Who put you in charge?” Superboy asked with an expression of distaste, but still followed after Robin.

“Can you hear any heartbeats or are there only drones here?” Robin asked. If superboy was here anyway there was no point in not using his enhanced skillset. The two young heroes have run into each other before, on occasion. They worked well enough together, Robin supposed. He’d consider the other hero a colleague, an acquaintance even. Welcome to collaborate with, but only while their interactions were kept to small doses. The pseudo-clone of Superman certainly had a knack for getting on Robin’s nerves.

“Whaddaya mean?” The boy asked.

“Are we alone or are there people here?” Robin reiterated.

“Well, as far as I can tell we’re alone,” Superboy shrugged nonchalantly.

“As far as you can tell?” Robin could feel his eye beginning to twitch.

“As far as I can tell,” Superboy repeated a bit more sternly. He nodded his chin towards the shipping containers that filled the warehouse and explained, “Those all seem to be lead lined though.”

“Why would someone lead line crates of drops?” Robin asked.

“Drops?”

“The drug,” Robin explained, “It’s a big deal in Gotham, but we had intel that some big players were looking to start marketing beyond Gotham. Tracked a smugglers operation here, I was looking for confirmation of contraband tonight.”

“Yikes,” Superboy said, “I thought these dudes were smuggling alien shit.”

That had Robin pausing for a moment. He cast a glance back at Superboy and questioned “What do you mean ‘alien shit?’”

“Uh…” Superboy shrugged. He furrowed his eyebrows together to think up an answer, “Like space tech. Artifacts. Hopefully not kryptonite.”

Robin stared pointedly, “Hopefully?”

“Well, I mean… Lead,” Superboy gestured back at the shipping containers as if it were obvious, “I can’t be sure.”

“Are you supposed to be in a warehouse packed full of ‘hopefully-not-kryptonite’ right now?” Robin asked incredulously.

Superboy flashed an easy grin, “Oh, no. I was supposed to stay outside and observe. See if any big moves were made or if there were hints of kryptonite anywhere.”

Robin could feel a headache coming on. He asked once more, but with a newfound urgency, “Why are you here?”

Superboy shrugged again, “Honestly, watching this place just feels like busywork from Big Blue so he can say I have experience with stakeouts or whatever. Low risk enough he doesn’t even need to supervise or-”

“Why are you inside?” Robin clarified.

“Well, I saw you go inside. Figured I’d check in.” Superboy spoke as if he was slightly bored.

“And blow my cover,” Robin spoke sharply, “And risk exposure to kryptonite. Do you even know how you’d react to-”

“Hey,” Superboy cut in, “Maybe if you were stealthier sneaking into the building in the first place I wouldn’t have caught you and followed you in.”

Annoyance flared once again as Robin began to move his way around the shipping bin closest to the two of them. He kept his eyes focused forward, listening for more drones, but he couldn’t bite back the remark of, “Oh, so this is my fault?”

“You wanted to be in charge,” Superboy said. Robin couldn’t see him from behind but he could certainly hear the shrug in his voice. Maybe that’s an exercise for him, trying to see how many times he can shrug “nonchalantly” in a day. Maybe he was hoping his shoulders would fill out more from the movement and he would be able to match up to Superman's one day.

The thought made Robin snicker to himself as he retorted with an eyeroll, “I’m not the ‘one-in-charge’ I’m the ‘one-who’s-supposed-to-be-here.’”

“Do you roll your eyes so much to make them stronger?” Superboy asked, “So you can find clues as easy as the big bat one day?”

Robin glared, turning around to face the boy as he insisted, “I am a good detective.”

A cautious smirk spread across Superboy’s face, “Then why didn’t you know about the security updates? Or the alien shit, for that matter.”

“Potential alien shit,” Robin reminds Superboy. Judging by the snort the other hero let out Superboy was under the impression he was winning the argument. Which, honestly, Robin was begrudgingly able to admit that maybe he was. This is a far larger operation than anticipated, with seemingly unknown smuggling elements occurring as well. He let out a sigh and began walking towards where the “office” area of the warehouse should be, assuming his map wasn’t outdated too.

“Where to now?” Superboy hovered right behind.

“Hopefully to find an inventory list,” Robin responded, reaching the small office area and beginning to use his lock pick to get them inside.

“You ever done that with a hair pin?” Superboy asked, almost distracting Robin from hearing the final click signaling the door unlocking.

With a flat glare he answered with another question, “Do I look like I pin my hair back?”

“I mean…” Superboy reached out, seemingly on instinct, to touch Robin’s shaggy hair and almost absentmindedly begin playing with it, “I think it’s almost long enough that you could-”

“Would you cut it out,” Robin swatted Superboy’s hand away. He could hear a whirring of fans growing closer now, no doubt a randomly unlocked door signaling their location. He spoke seriously to Superboy, “I’ll get the info, you handle the drones.”

“Why do you get to make the plan?” Superboy scoffed.

Robin was all but gritting his teeth. They didn’t have time to argue. He hissed out the question, “You wanna poke around the office or do you wanna smash the flying robots?”

Just then Robin could see at least four drones incoming towards them, flying out from behind various shipping containers, locking into their location.

“Fine,” Superboy conceded, “At least I get the fun job.”

Robin rolled his eyes and pried the office door further open. He clung to the shadows casting over the dark room. A camera in the corner, disconnected after only a minute. A camera on the computer, shorted out before clear evidence of his presence could be recorded. Robin -no matter what Superboy said- was extremely good at stealth. He was also a pretty good hacker, fairly well versed with technology. The academics, investigation skills, coding, those all came more naturally to Tim than the athletic skills from the time he first began working as Robin.

It wasn’t that he wasn’t a skilled combatant. He has had a few years under his belt by now, and his combat experience under Batman’s leadership was only further refined by sparring with Dick whenever opportunities presented.. He could hold his own in battle, he could fight and he could win, but his true edge that left him two steps ahead of any adversaries was inarguably his mind.

While downloading whatever files he could manage onto an external drive he scanned the room, looking for anything else that might be useful evidence. The drive was almost finished with it’s download when he heard the clashing sounds of metal and fighting outside the room grow a little louder. Through the door he could hear Superboy call out, “Hey, Rob! You almost done?”

Robin kissed his teeth in annoyance. He almost had all the information.

A loud clatter rang out and Superboy could be heard calling, “Seriously!”

The drive lit green, signaling the download complete. Robin began to eject the device and scrub any trace of his and Superboy’s presence tonight from the system. If they were lucky, the only evidence they were ever there in the first place would be the broken drones they leave behind.

A loud chorus of beeping suddenly rang out through the building. Over the high-pitched, irritating sound Robin could clearly make out Superboy exclaiming “Oh shit!”

The door was slammed open and Superboy was very suddenly at Robin’s side speaking in a rushed voice that could rival a speedster, “WeGottaGo!”

Robin tried to brush off the grip on his shoulders and insisted, “One minute.”

He continued his typing and Superboy gripped onto his shoulders once more. He whispered harshly, “You got like 20 seconds.”

“Hang on,” Robin insisted. Finishing the last few steps in leaving no digital trace. He could feel Superboy’s hands tensing on his shoulders and began to feel concern about what had the guy so worried. Not to mention the distinct lack of drones that followed him into the room. Robin turned to give him the all clear but he only managed to get out, “Okay, let’s-”

Superboy’s grip tightened on Robin as the Boy Wonder was picked up off the ground and flown out of the room. He couldn’t help the yelp of surprise that sounded as Superboy carried him, rushing up towards the catwalk and the skylight Robin had used as an entry point. They were moving fast, so fast that Robin was barely able to catch a glimpse of the sight that filled the warehouse. Drones, easily a hundred and probably more, clinging to the walls, floors, ceilings, all blinking red and beeping loudly. A mass self-destruct sequence. Shit.

Superboy carried them higher and out of the building. In a few seconds they were on top of a hill overlooking the factory, but in the next moment there was no factory to overlook, only a smoking pile of flaming rubble.

“Shit,” Superboy hissed out, watching the flames. 

“We are so dead,” Robin matched his tone.

Suddenly a voice was crackling to life in Robin’s ear, “Robin! Come in! Report!”

“Oh, uh,” Robin cleared his voice as he moved to respond, “We’re not dead. We’re fine. We just-”

“We?” The low grumble of Batman was clearly confused and unimpressed.

“Well, you see-”

“Superboy!” A whoosh and an exclamation announced Superman’s arrival to the scene.

“Hey…” Superboy said slowly, with a smile that didn’t quite reach his eyes.

“Robin?” Superman questioned, “Does Batman know-?”

The whir of an engine announced the arrival of the bat-plane landing behind them.

“Here we go,” Tim grumbled.

“Robin,” Batman called, exiting the plane. He redirected his focus on the supers next to him almost immediately then asked directly, “Superman, what is going on?”

Superman crossed his arms, casting a glance over to the smoldering remains of the warehouse before looking back to Robin and Superboy while answering, “I was just about to ask the same thing.”

“There were no people inside,” Superboy is quick to insist.

“What?” Superman asks.

Superboy is still insistent, “Honest. Only heartbeats inside were mine and Rob’s! No one got hurt.”

“And what were you doing inside?” Superman questioned Superboy with a glare that could rival Batman’s. Maybe that’s why Robin found himself speaking up, all too familiar with the discomfort of a mentor wearing that particular expression.

Robin was smart. Robin, Tim,  was able to figure out the identities of Nightwing and Batman and Robin when he was only a kid. He was smart and he knew it, only sometimes the instinct of a teenage boy took over and he would find himself doing something as stupid as lying to Superman, which is what happened in that moment when Robin said, “I called him in.”

“You called him in?” The man of steel cast a disbelieving look towards Robin. Batman was suddenly wearing the same unapproving glare Superman was just seconds ago, it was obvious even behind the cowl.

“Robin,” Batman Grumbled, “Report.”

Robin let out a sigh, casting a look towards Superboy who seemed to be staring at him in surprise. Robin turned back to Batman and began to spin an explanation, sticking as close to the truth as he could for both his and Superboy's sake.

“The mission was going according to plan, only once I got inside it became clear that our knowledge of the security measures were outdated. Superboy has been surveilling this building, so I called out for him for backup while I obtained evidence of the shipments.”

“You called for him?” Batman cut in.

“Superhearing!” Superboy cheerily cut in, pointing to his own ears.

“I see,” Batman grumbled, clearly unimpressed, “And how did you know Superboy was actively surveilling tonight?”

“Uh,” Robin paused. Hesitation was not good.

Thankfully Superboy seemed eager to jump in and corroborate the story, probably realizing it was his best chance at minimizing the scolding from Superman he was in for.

“He’s a really good detective,” Superboy said with a smile. For a second, Robin was pleasantly surprised at the compliment. Then Superboy continued, “Seriously, you should see his eye exercises.”

“Knock it out,” Robin nudged his elbow into Superboy, who was now rolling his eyes in circles as if displaying an example. Superboy didn’t move as Robin’s elbow hit him, but did stop rolling his eyes as he cast a teasing grin in Robin’s direction.

“How was the explosion caused?” Batman’s question brought both boys back to focus.

“Oh, like a trillion security drones went into self-destruct mode all at once,” Superboy answered.

Batman shifted his gaze towards Robin, clearly needing a better answer than that. Robin sighed, “A bit over a hundred. Plus more in the shipping containers, probably chain-reacted.”

He held out his wrist to show Batman a small screen where he was pulling up the inventory he gathered from the warehouse while he kept explaining, “Barely any drugs are moving through here, most of what’s being dispersed are high grade security systems and weaponry. And any drugs are moving in to Gotham, not out of.”

“Hmm,” Batman began reading into the new information Tim was presenting.

“So that’s what happened?” Superman said skeptically, “You both decided to work together, adapted to the situation as needed?”

Decided to work together was the word that was tripping Robin up, still, he nodded.

“Your heartrate’s pretty fast,” Superman pointed out. Shit. He did not want to be caught stretching the truth in front of Batman. 

So Robin shrugged and pointed a thumb over his shoulder towards Superboy, “I’ve never flown away from an impending explosion. Definitely gets the adrenaline flowing.”

Superboy, the bastard, gave a cocky grin as he threw an arm over Robin’s shoulders and teased, “Thank you for choosing Superboy Airlines. As your pilot today, I gotta say-”

“Dude,” Robin interrupted as he shoved his way out from Superboy’s arm.

Superman, still with his arms crossed, turned to Batman and asked, “Do you believe them?”

Both young heroes froze, attention snapping sharply towards Batman as if his verdict held all the answers.

“I think,” Batman spoke carefully as he passed the information Robin recovered over to Superman for inspection, “That the boys did good work here today. While the outcome is a little more destructive than should occur for a recon mission, they had to -as you said- adapt to the situation as needed. I am trusting them to learn from their mistakes and never get caught up in such a foolishly reckless and destructive situation again.”

“I think that’s the biggest compliment I’ve ever received,” Superboy whispered to Robin.

Superman snapped his attention to the kid, then finally dropped his arms to his side and nodded. He took one more glance to scan over the information in front of him then conceded a nod and agreed, “He’s right. You boys did good work.”

He took a step forward, placing a gentle hand on Superboy’s shoulder, “Next time just give me a heads up of a plan changing.”

“What,” Superboy asked, “Am I supposed to just assume you were listening and-?”

“Of course I was listening,” Superman insisted, “How do you think I knew the place blew up?”

“Oh,” Superboy seemed a little at a loss for words after that.

“I just didn’t realize I should’ve been listening for the both of you, or for you talking to anyone for that matter. It was risky going inside,” Superman reiterated before casting his gaze towards Robin, “We didn’t know for certain if this was a smuggling route for kryptonite.”

“Superboy told me there was risk of that but by then we were both already inside and already fighting off security measures,” Robin hoped that letting superman know that Superboy informed his spontaneous partner of potential field hazards would get the guy a few brownie points at least, “Besides. Inventory confirmed no alien shhh-tuff.”

Superboy snorted, “Nice one.”

“These drones,” Batman’s voice cut through, “What can you tell us about them?”

Robin grinned towards Superboy and said, “Superboy was able to get real up close and personal with ‘em. I’m sure he could write a more comprehensive report than I could.”

“Dude,” Superboy scoffed, “Are you trying to pass on your superhero homework to me?”

“Might not be a bad idea,” Superman cut in with a grin, “Splitting up the work, I mean.”

“Splitting up?” Superboy questioned.

“Well you write the report on the drones,” Superman explained, still smiling wide despite Superboy’s groan, “While Robin writes the report on the mission itself and the intel you collected.”

“I mean, I’m more than happy to just give you a copy of the intel,” Robin tried.

“I’m sure a proper debrief and summary of findings would be greatly beneficial,” Batman said, flicking the corner of his mouth in the closest he gets to grinning behind the mask. 

“Fine,” Robin huffs out. It seems even if they did “good work” he and Superboy would both be receiving the punishment of paperwork for going off script tonight. He pointedly did not roll his eyes as he relented, “We better get back to the cave then.”

“I’ll see you around, Boy Wonder!” Superboy declared it as fact with a cheery grin.

“See you around, Superboy,” Robin echoed. Despite himself he felt the corner of his mouth flick into the ghost of a grin. Small doses. He can handle the annoying, arrogant, overexcited kid in small doses. Tonight was even… kind of fun. All things considered.

Chapter Text

Tim wasn’t antisocial by any means. Sure, he wasn’t attending parties or making many weekend plans with his peers, but that was because his nights and weekends were pretty booked with patrols and missions. He got along well with others when he was in school, fell into easy conversation when he did find himself with enough time off to kill an hour or so at a skatepark, and even found himself working well with other young heroes when missions happened to align.

It was infrequent, teaming up with others, but that was probably for the best. He’s been doing this, the masked vigilante thing, for a long time. Most of the other young heroes he came across didn’t exactly love the way his experience and training led to him calling most of the shots. Superboy in particular came to mind. But the way other heroes his age pushed Tim, took his sarcastic remarks in stride and threw back their own, it was good for him and helped drive him to be a better Robin. 

Still, he preferred his team-ups to be discussed in advance. He was always at his best when he had prep time for any situation. And more, he really was only used to dealing with one younger hero at a time. Basically, if Robin were to choose, a team-up would happen with at least a week of prep time in advance and consist of at most one other younger hero.

Robin rarely was able to choose, though.

“Whoaaaaaaaa,” A young voice exclaimed excitedly, “What is that thing?’

“I dunno,” Was the response, “But I’m calling dibs.”

“Hold up!” Robin called out, causing both people to turn around, “No one is calling dibs.”

“Robin!” Impulse, a young speedster Robin had crossed paths with once or twice before, wrapped Robin in an embrace faster than the boy genius could blink. Caught a little off guard he felt himself tense in the speedster’s arms while he threw a questioning glance at Superboy. Robin and impulse have worked together before, sure, but Tim hadn’t realized they were at the hugging  stage of camaraderie just yet.

Superboy just smiled and floated over, taking in the sight of the hug as if nothing were out of the norm and greeting, “Whatcha doin’ here, Robbie?”

Robbie? That was new, too.

Grabbing the speedster’s shoulders to push Impulse backwards, Robin stepped out of the embrace and answered Superboy’s question, “Batman asked me to investigate the anomaly. What are you two doing here?”

Superboy shrugged, “We were hanging out. I heard a bang. We thought we’d see what’s up.”

“You were hanging out?” Robin questioned.

“Yup,” Superboy answered with his usual smirk.

“In your field outfits?” Robin pressed on, nodding his chin at where the two other heroes stood fully suited up.

“Not like it takes long to change,” Superboy said with that same cocky grin.

Impulse, on the other hand, wore a much more genuine grin as he chirped up, “Hey, next time you should hang, too, Robin!”

The pity invite would’ve been a little offensive if it weren’t for the undeniable excitement shining in Impulse's eyes. Robin decided to take a somewhat neutral stance and respond, “Yeah, maybe,” He shifted then, refocusing on the crater the three stood behind and instructed, “You  guys should head back to your hang out, I got this from here.”

“Whoa,” Superboy cut in, pointing at the metallic sphere glowing in the middle of the crater, “No way I called dibs.”

“I was sent here by Batman,” Robin reminded him.

“And here is outside of Gotham,” Superboy retorted, “Plus it’s obviously some kinda alien shit, pretty sure that makes it my kind of situation.”

“First to touch it wins it!” Impulse yells, already having ran down the crater and jumped up onto the sphere, “Whoa. Guys this thing is warm.”

“You can’t just run up and touch an unknown alien shit!” Superboy exclaims. Robin is almost surprised at the chastisement. His surprise grows into a pleased amusement when Superboy turns to him and with a sigh complains, “I love Imp, but do you ever feel like working with him is kinda like a parenting gig.”

Superboy has always had a special gift of knowing how to push Robin’s buttons without trying, so when Robin sees him nearly twitching his eye in annoyance at Impulse’s impulsivity he feels a satisfying gratification and finds himself holding back a snort. Should Impulse have just run up and thrown himself on the sphere? No. But what’s done is done and thankfully it didn’t cause anything weird to happen yet. 

“Well, I know who’s who,” Robin lets a bit of teasing slip into his voice. He can’t help but add a wink towards the floundering hero as he begins to climb down the crater himself instructing, “Come on, momma bird. We better keep him from hurting himself.”

“What?” Superboy sputters as he flies down the crater too, “I am not the mom, I’m totally the dad!”

He’s still is insisting, despite Robin’s soft snickering to himself, when the two of them reach Impulse and the sphere, “If anything momma bird makes way more sense to be you. You’re already a bird, Robin.”

“What are you guys talking about?” Impulse blinks up innocently at the two. He’s sitting crisscross on top of the large metal sphere that’s emitting a soft hum.

“Don’t worry about it,” Robin answers, still grinning.

“Would you get off of that thing?” Superboy fusses, very maternally if Robin were to judge it. 

Superboy reaches to grab Impulse and tug him off, but Impulse had already moved to be standing besides Robin. The absence of the speedster led Kon to lose his balance and fall directly onto the sphere with a loud clang.

“Wha- Oof!” Superboy let out before he planted both his palms on it and began to push himself up and remarked, “Hey, she is really warm.”

“She?” Impulse asked, rushing forward to peer at the sphere, “How do you know it’s a she?”

“I was just-” Superboy starts.

Robin cuts him off, “Be careful, both of you.”

Robin reaches his hand out, approaching gently and softly feeling the metal sphere for himself. It certainly was warm, almost unnaturally. Robin went to move his hand away, but then the sphere made a sound which almost came across as a chirp and began to morph around his palm.

“Whoa, hey! Cool!” Impulse called.

Superboy had a more appropriate response, laced with a little concern he asked, “Hey, what did you do?”

The sphere enveloped Robin, so much for it not responding to touch. He felt the warm machinery -was it machinery?- surround him until he was pushed upwards and found himself sitting on… a bike seat? Holding handlebars? Now much different than his own motorcycle, though the body of the bike was much larger and seemed to have room for multiple passengers. It almost looked like a primitive design for one of Batman’s vehicles with how advanced the design and gadgetry of the thing was.

“How did you do that?” Impulse exclaimed, running up to join Robin on top of the bike. He turned to nod energetically at Superboy, declaring, “Yes. Definitely a she.”

“Damn,” Superboy flew up and let out an appreciative whistle, “We should call her the supercycle!”

“No way!” Impulse immediately stuck his tongue out with a disgusted face, “I made it here first, I should name her. How about the speedcycle?”

The bike let out two low beeps, and Robin found himself feeling the rejection of the name coming from the bike. He spoke up cautiously, “I, uh, I don’t think she likes that name.”

“Oh no,” Superboy cut in, “You already have a bike, up on top that hill, even. You do not get this one too.”

The cycle below them buzzed to life at Superboy’s words, levitating a little bit off the ground.

“Whoa,” Impulse grabbed onto a seat, “How are you doing that?”

“I’m not,” Robin insisted, “I think it’s- Whoa!”

The cycle lunged upwards and rushed towards where Robin’s own motorcycle was indeed sitting just outside of the crater. All three boys were exclaiming various outcries while the cycle herself seemed to be beeping …angrily? No, not anger.

“I think she’s jealous!” Robin exclaimed. The cycle was currently circling Robin’s own motorcycle, beeping loudly.

“What, she’s jealous of your motorcycle?” Superboy cried out in disbelief. Almost laughing he continued, “That junk’s got nothing on the supercycle, baby!”

The cycle -the supercycle- chirped again. Robin could tell it was pleased, it’s spinning slowing considerably.

Maybe the others could feel it too, because Impulse chimed in while petting the seat in an almost comforting gesture, “Yeah, you’re so much cooler!”

“Definitely cooler,” Robin agreed, more out of fear and lack of control than anything else.

It seemed to be working, until Impulse added on, “You’re so cool, Speedcycle!”

The bike slammed down, beeping almost angrily again. Robin was quick to remind, “Not that name!”

“You don’t even need a bike,” Superboy pointed out, “You just run everywhere.”

“But I can’t fly,” Impulse argued.

“Hey, Wonder Boy,” Superboy pokes Robin’s shoulder, “How are you flying this thing?”

“I don’t know I-”

“Can I try?” Impulse interrupts Robin, trying to elbow his way into the seat. 

“She won’t exactly let me go,” Robin groans out, not budging against Bart’s poking, prodding, and shoving.

“Why does she like you so much?” Superboy asks with a grimace, notes of jealousy lacing his voice. His eyes were raking up and down Robin, almost as if he were inspecting the boy wonder.

“Maybe,” Robin rolls his eyes, “Cuz I’m the only one who didn’t immediately slam down on top of her.”

“Hey that was an accident-" Superboy started while at the same time Impulse was calling out, “I didn’t know she was alive!”

Suddenly the cycle chirps to life again, hovering above ground while all three boys exclaim their own variations of “Whoa!” and “Hey!”

“Supercycle, what are you doing?” Robin tries to ask the bike directly.

“Supercycle?” Superboy echoes with a bit of amusement returning to his features.

“Supercycle?” Impulse echoes as well, though he seems to be asking with flat disbelief.

Robin turns to Superboy, offering a slight smile despite the situation’s chaos and explains with a half shrug, “She likes the name.”

Superboy’s smirking grin fixes itself more surely on his face and for once Robin isn’t dreadfully annoyed by the expression. His own smile grows a little more relaxed in response until suddenly the supercycle is jolting forward, upwards, then somehow even under the Earth.

The following adventure was certainly not the way Robin had anticipated his evening going. Firstly, he didn’t anticipate Superboy and Impulse being there with him while he investigated the anomaly. Then, he didn’t anticipate the anomaly being a sentient motorcycle which seemed to instantly pack-bond to Robin. Further, he didn’t expect a quest to free the motorcycle from her former master, requiring the three boys to work together to take down …a seven foot tall Apokoliptain whose downfall seemed to be his inability to process rejection.

The evening took them traveling and running themselves ragged trying to figure out a cohesive dynamic between the three boys. Superboy was, of course, resistant to Robin’s natural leadership for much of the start. Impulse seemed to act quicker than he could think. Robin himself would snap or grow short with his companions, frustrated and annoyed by at least half of their antics. The other half of their antics, though? Robin found himself smiling, almost laughing, as they seemed to play out.

Bonding with the supercycle seemed to be what the boys themselves bonded over quickly. Superboy, ever the charmer, seemed to get on the supercycle’s good side fairly quickly. Robin and Impulse took the opportunity to tease Superboy about the way he was practically flirting with the bike. The bastard took the teasing in stride, though, clearly having had his ego fed by the supercycle having let him name her.

Impulse was having a harder time winning her over, clearly struggling to slow himself down long enough to get intune and connect with the supercycle’s feelings. Feelings was a strong word, but there were definitely impulses, sentient desires that sure felt emotionally charged. Regardless, Impulse moved quickly and struggled to connect. His pouting and frustration with this led to a few more teasing remarks between Robin and Superboy that they were acting as parents to the kid.

Of course, Robin couldn’t escape himself being teased by the others either. Superboy commented that the soccer mom would drive the minivan, therefore Robin was so more the mom since he was the one driving. Impulse had thrown out his Batman impersonation a few times, chastising Robin for “reckless driving” in the moments the supercycle seemed to have a mind of its own.

All three of them laughed together, smiling the brightest after they realized if Robin whistled for the supercycle it would respond much like a dog. They took to praising it like an adorable and obedient pet and the supercycle seemed to revel in all the joy from those moments.

Overall, the night was amusing. Robin could admit that despite all the teasing and occasionally snarky comments, the three of them were having fun. He was even getting the hang of being in control of the supercycle more than letting the bike fly them, phase them, and drive them wherever it pleased.

He was a bit lost in his own enjoyment of the night when the static of his comms cut to life and he could hear Batman’s voice coming through, “Robin? Robin, where are you?”

“Oh, uh,” He cleared his throat and answered into his comms, “Hey, B. We ended up, uh…”

“We?”

Oh boy, Robin wasn’t quite sure how to explain the evening’s adventures and spontaneous team-up.

“Uh,” Robin answered very eloquently, “We’re kinda close to Happy Harbor, actually. How soon can you meet us there to explain?”

A grunt, which was pretty much Batman’s equivalent to an exasperated sigh, could be heard before the question, “And ‘we’ is?”

“Oh,” Robin grinned, seeing both heroes next to him who were each wearing their own expression of confusion and apprehension, “Superboy and Impulse.”

“Dude!” Superboy slapped his arm.

“Did you just rat our joyride out to Batman?” Impulse asked, looking almost like he'd seen a ghost.

“It wasn’t a joyride,” Robin pointed out, “It was a spontaneous mission rescuing the supercycle from Mr. Whiney Muscle Man. A spontaneous mission that I’m gonna need to write up a report on anyway.”

Impulse threw his arms back and groaned something that sounded like, “Max is gonna kill me,” while Superboy’s frustration seemed to shift into satisfaction the second the words “spontaneous mission” left Robin’s mouth.

Explaining the events of their day to Batman, Superman, and Max Mercury ended up going surprisingly well. The three mentors seemed almost proud of the way the boys told of their teamwork and showed off the features of the supercycle and explained their efforts to free the living machine. 

It was when Batman approached the supercycle and reached out to touch it that the vehicle collapsed back into a sphere and rolled sharply towards Robin, nearly knocking the boy over when she landed at his side with a chirping beep. Superman, clearly far more amused with the three boys than the other two mentors, let out a loud laugh at Batman stumbling backwards and throwing a questioning glance at Robin from behind his mask.

Superboy let out a laugh too, although Impulse still seemed too intimidated by Batman to risk the chuckle he clearly wanted to let out. Superboy threw his arm around Robin’s shoulders with an easy grin and told the mentors, “Yeah, she bonded pretty quickly to momma bird right here.”

Robin scoffed and shrugged free of Superboy’s arm while Impulse turned to Max and complained, “They keep making jokes like that, I don’t know what they mean.”

“Will it be coming with us to Gotham, then?” Batman asked.

The supercycle let out a chirp. It rolled a lap around the three boys then seemed to jump, landing in front of Superboy with a thud.

“You wanna come with me?” Superboy asked.

Again the chirp rang out. This time it was followed by two laps and two jumping thuds. It landed next to Impulse this time, leading both Robin and Superboy to share a skeptical glance.

“You want to,” Impulse paused, genuinely stopping to pause and think. It was startling to see. Robin peeled his eyes from Impulse back to Superboy and, yeah, Superboy was just as confused at the sight as Robin felt. After a moment Impulse’s eyes suddenly lit up and he exclaimed, “You wanna stay here!”

The supercycle beeped in what the boys have figured out is its way of communicating an affirmative.

“Hey, you got in touch with her afterall,” Superboy cheered, giving a proud high five to Impulse. He turned to Robin and sported the same wide grin, “What do ya say, split visitation?”

Robin turned to Batman. He asked the question with his eyes, though not without just a little bit of pleading slipping through. Batman, in response, turned to glance at Superman and Max Mercury who nodded and shrugged respectively. 

After a beat he turned back to Robin and conceded, “Alright. The …supercycle… can stay at the old HQ. Do you need a ride back to Gotham?”

“Oh, uh,” Robin blinked a bit in surprise at how easily that seemed to go, “I still need to get my bike by the crater, actually.”

Hopefully it was still there after all its time.

“I can fly ya, Wonder Boy,” Superboy offered easily.

“I can run you there faster,” Impulse explained, rushing up to Robin’s side before quickly reconsidering, “Or we could take the supercycle!”

“And let her get all jealous again?” Superboy asked.

Robin was about to cut in about how Batman could easily just stop over the crater in the batplane before heading into Gotham, but when he caught Batman’s eye his mentor was visibly fighting against an amused grin. The others probably couldn’t tell, maybe except for Superman, but Robin sure knew that expression.

“You and your friends did good work today, Robin,” Batman declared before turning to enter the batplane, “I’ll meet you back in Gotham.”

“Oh, uh…” Robin blinked in disbelief.

“Hey! Next time we hang out we should ditch the masks,” Impulse exclaimed.

“I don’t wear a mask,” Superboy pointed out.

“You know what I mean,” Impulse groaned, “Like we hang out but I would be Bart and not Impulse.”

“You are Bart and Impulse,” Superboy huffs with a laugh.

“I am not telling you my civilian ID,” Robin answered coolly, “Besides, Superboy doesn’t have one.”

“Sure I do,” Superboy laughed, “Did I not tell you?”

“You- What?” Robin blinked. He has seen Superboy’s file, the clone boy had never been given an identity beyond being Superboy and as far as Robin knew it was a bit of a sore subject. Now, however, Superboy sat there with a grin that was much gentler than the usual smirk he sported. The soft smile suited him.

“Superman decided it was about time I got a name of my own,” Superboy said, offering his hand out to shake, “Kon-El. Kon. At your service.”

Robin took his hand and shook it, almost amused at the action. He introduced himself back despite them having already met a few times now, “Robin.”

“Oh come on!” Impulse -Bart, though Robin already knew his civilian name before this it was still kind of the speedster to offer it up- groaned.

“You really won’t tell us?” Superboy -Kon- asked as he took his hand back.

“It’s not just my secret,” Robin nodded his chin towards where the Batplane was flying off. He ignored the eye rolls from the other two boys and instead tried to save the mood of the situation by leaning into their mutual competitive natures.

“Come on, Kon,” Robin linked their arms together, “Think we can beat Imp to my bike at the crater?”

“No way!” Impulse yelled, barely letting the words get out before speeding off in what was probably the right direction.

Robin let out a laugh and Superboy -Kon, the guy finally had a name so Robin should probably get used to using it, even in his head- shot Robin a wicked grin and teased, “You are a terrible influence on our son.”

Robin laughed louder, letting his weight shift into Kon as the two rose  into the air. He did, however, remember to call back, “Bye supercycle!”

“Oh, bye!” Kon called back, too. Maybe it was silly to talk to a machine, but it definitely seemed to blink positively at being acknowledged. Kon then added on, “By Kal, by Max!”

Oh, right. The other two mentors were still here, watching the boys interact. Robin blushed a bit as he managed to get out, “Bye guys!” before Kon was rushing off after the direction Impulse ran.

Bart beat them to the bike, of course, but it was a fun chase anyway. Without the stress and confusion of an impending explosion, Robin found the experience of being carried through the sky by Kon’s TTK to be much more enjoyable than he remembered.

Chapter Text

Tim was one of the most clever people on the planet Earth. He was under no delusions that he was the most intelligent person to ever exist, nor did he think he was undoubtedly the smartest person in any room he walked in. Just… most rooms. He may not be the smartest person of all time, but he was clever and was probably within the top 50 most clever people. 

Top 20. 

Top 10, 5 when he was feeling cocky. 

He connected the dots between Nightwing and Dick Grayson as a child. He has been trained by Batman, the World’s Greatest Detective himself, on how to fine tune his cleverness and harness it into sleuthing and critical thinking skills. He was a strategist, a tactician, a detective and a businessman. He was clever in a way that was nothing short of instinctual at this point. 

Sure, he was still young. At times he will begrudgingly admit he’s found himself to be overconfident or underprepared, but in those situations he tends to prove himself adaptable and flexible. He’d never admit those moments might stem from “youthful naivety,” as Alfred and Bruce so often suggest, and would instead chock them up to reminders that Tim is human and therefore can’t be completely infallible. 

He’s clever and he understands this and he’s proud of it. 

He’s clever, so despite the fact Kon has never mentioned having a civilian secret identity Tim is sure that he does. 

Tim just needed to figure it out. 

He’s heard the “stalker” jokes before, but it’s not like Dick or Bruce or any of the bats really have any stones to throw from their own glass houses. Sure, Tim might have had the instincts to figure out and to follow and to learn embedded within him from before he even reached double digits, but they all were a bit paranoid and have all had their shining moments of hyper fixating on a mystery. 

Most times it would be a case. 

Sometimes it was one of them trying to deduce their way out of an interpersonal conflict with a teammate. 

Right now, for Tim, it was figuring out who Kon-El is when he isn’t wearing that S shield. 

Bruce probably had the answer already. It was probably updated into Kon’s file, which if Tim didn’t still have unrestricted access to he could easily hack his way into it. But something about that just felt too easy. 

He was Tim Drake. He clocked Dick from a fancy backflip he recognized from a traumatizing circus performance he repressed most memories of (except for when the memory of the first deaths he ever witnessed came to him vividly in an occasional nightmare). He could figure out who Kon was without cheating. 

He wasn’t exactly sure why he decided checking Kon’s file would be cheating. Most days he was grateful for the batcomputer being such a resource for him. For this, though, it felt like a fun exercise and a matter of his own pride to prove he didn’t need it. 

It hardly took any time at all, just two visits where he and Kon both showed up at Mount Justice to check in on the supercycle. Bart was normally there, too. They didn’t even end up doing anything besides hanging out and bonding with the supercycle, teasing and annoying each other in a way that made Robin often question if they really were friends after all. But each hang out ended with smirky grins and a “See you next time” instead of a “Bye.”

Those first two visits Tim paid attention to where Kon was coming from, if any of his personal items ever had any identifying features, things like that. He debated planting a tracker on him to figure out where he was living, but then decided once again that was too close to cheating. Tim wanted to deduce this with as little technological assistance as possible. Plus, that probably wouldn’t help with the “stalker” jokes.

It turned out not to be too hard to figure out after all. Clark Kent of the Daily Planet had a cousin Conner pop up out of the blue. Tim had figured out Superman’s secret identity when he was still fresh into the Robin role -seriously, it wasn’t hard with how often he was ‘interviewing’ himself before publishing the story- and drew the connection between the two.

Kon-El went by Conner Kent when he wasn’t in his costume. Tim scowled when he realized it took him two weeks to figure out what was essentially just an additional syllable and a pair of glasses, but he figured he could cut himself some slack seeing as he’d never met Conner Kent, only ever Kon.

He and Kon -and Bart, too- have been hanging out more recently. Tim never told Kon that he figured out his civilian identity since he was fairly confident that that would launch them both into another argument about how Tim wouldn’t reveal his own, but he felt satisfied with himself that he was able to figure it out anyway.

The three boys even found themselves on an occasional adventure. Often it was the supercycle who took over control and transported them into trouble. Their cooperation was still rough around the edges, they still would bicker and annoy each other throughout any quest, but Robin found himself trusting the others more and more as each impromptu mission succeeded.

Bart had begun trying to convince the others to have a sleepover in Mount Justice at some point, spending more than a few hours hanging out. Kon seemed right on board. Tim wasn’t… opposed, per say. He just had to reiterate to Batman that they were not a team or some rebrand of the Titans, they were just young heroes who got along well. They enjoyed each other’s company and could handle missions as the supercycle brought them up, but that was all. They had independent responsibilities and argued enough that pretending they really were a team would have been impractical.

They’ve been using she/her pronouns for the supercycle, the same way most people would for any car or boat or impressively gorgeous vehicle. She had a level of sentience, obviously, and was rather attuned to struggles that would directly affect the boys. Maybe, just maybe, she was also over mount justice being such a boys’ club. It’s not like she really had a gender herself, but that was one of the only reasons Robin could think of for the supercycle to drag the three boys over to one of Wonder Girl’s problems.

Okay, maybe it had more to do with the artifact Wonder Girl found herself coming across, some sort of alien tech that was going a bit haywire. It wasn’t Apokalyptian, as far as Robin could tell, but it was leading the three boys plus Wonder Girl on a cross country chase while the device which appeared to zoom about in whichever direction it pleased with little regard to any civilians in its way nor the damage it may leave behind.

“Where did you find this thing again?” Robin gritted the question out as the Supercycle took a sharp turn upwards, chasing after the device.

“I swear it was a normal yard sale!” Wonder Girl is insisting, “I thought it was a paperweight until the circle fell out of this.”

“Whoa!” Impulse snatched the box out of Wonder Girl’s hand and was at Robin’s side with it in an instant. Robin could barely take his eyes from the view in front of him, wrestling with who is really in control of the chase between himself and the supercycle.

“What are the markings?” Robin is asking, leaning into another sharp turn. He could barely make out abstract shapes carved into the wooden boards. 

“It says,” Impulse pauses, twisting the thing in his hands while dragging out the sound, “Uhhhhhh…”

“It doesn’t say anything,” Wonder Girl climbs over a seat in the supercycle to snatch the box back, “as far as I can tell these are runes which probably kept the damn thing asleep.”

A sharp turn to the left had all four heroes exclaiming and grabbing for balance. Robin tightened his grasp on the handlebars. Impulse grabbed onto the seat behind him. Wonder Girl and Superboy each grabbed onto each other with one hand, the other reaching out to brace against the supercycle’s walls. 

Robin really couldn’t afford to be looking away from the path in front of them but for some reason the sight of them clinging to each other caught his attention for longer than expected. 

Wonder Girl called out, “Careful with this thing!”

Robin leveled a glare and informed her tensely, “She kinda has a mind of her own half the time.”

“She?” Wonder Girl questioned. Based off the tone in her voice she was likely casting a disbelieving eye at the supercycle. 

“Careful,” Superboy warned with a slightly teasing voice, “You’ll hurt her feelings.”

“Are you boys that desperate for girls to be around that you pretend your pet spaceship is one?” Wonder Girl snarked. 

The supercycle beeped loudly, taking another harsh turn in its chase. The angry sound seemed to catch Wonder Girl off guard as her eyes widened.

Impulse threw himself onto the wall of the supercycle, rubbing calming motions while defending, “The supercycle is not a pet.”

“You’re petting it right now!” Wonder Girl snapped back, though she was eyeing the bike warily now. 

“We need to get that thing back in its box,” Robin cut off the bickering, “We can cut it off by-”

“Hey!” Superboy yelled, “Why are you in charge again?”

“I don’t hear you coming up with a plan,” Wonder Girl says in Robin’s defense. It’s a little surprising, though not unwelcome. Robin hadn’t crossed paths with Wonder Girl too many times in the past. He knew of her, of course, but these days working with any one who wasn’t a bat, Superboy, or Impulse was a rare occurrence. He had nothing against her, and she’s certainly being more proactive of a problem solver than Impulse has ever been when he gets their group into trouble, and yet there was still the feeling of annoyance gripping his chest he found himself resisting every now and again. Probably due to the way Superboy is keeping his eyes on her. Even as she's coming to Robin's defense, Superboy's jaw is beginning to clench and Robin can't discern what she did to warrant that look. Maybe he just wished he were the one on the receiving end of her leadership endorsement. 

Wonder Girl continued while holding the box out to Robin, “You were saying?”

Robin felt himself grow pleased and took the opportunity to call out the order while he reached out with one hand to retrieve, “Impulse, since it’s at ground level I need you to run in front of it to block its path. Then-”

“Got it!” Impulse jumped out of the supercycle and ran ahead to cut off the device’s path. 

“Shit,” Robin exhaled. Of course the kid didn’t wait for the rest of the plan.

“Now what?” Impulse yelled the question, though he was so far away the voice was faint.

“You two fly up to cut it off when it tries to go up to avoid Impulse, I’ll follow underneath you on the supercycle to catch it, just be sure to send it straight down,” Robin rushes out the rest of the orders.

“Alright, Wondie,” Superboy says in a tone that leads Robin to believe he’s wearing that dumb smirk of his. Robin’s about to chastise him for wasting time since Bart’s already in position, but when he glances back Superboy is looking at Wonder Girl and launching into the sky with a call of, “Let’s do this!”

Wonder Girl smiles and flies up after him.

Right. Wondie. Wonder Girl. Not the boy wonder.

That frustrating annoyance was back for some reason, but Robin shook it away and focused on accelerating the supercycle. There was no time to waste on petty annoyance over a stupid nickname anyway. The weird space orb reached Impulse and for a terrible second Robin thought it might cut to the side instead of launching straight up. Wonder Girl seemed to have anticipated this too, though. While Superboy flew up above them she flew closer to ground level, boxing the orb in between Impulse and herself so it would have no choice but to launch straight upwards. 

When it did launch straight up, Robin sped up again while tightening his grip on the strangely marked box. The orb was quick, speeding towards Superboy who was spread out like he was preparing to belly flop, minimizing the space the orb would be able to whizz around him and maximizing the chance it instead tries to go straight down. And it does try to launch itself straight downwards, but Robin is hovering just underneath on the supercycle and it manages to fly directly into its box. The force of its momentum knocks Robin out of his seat on the supercycle but he’s quick to cover the open end of the box to prevent the orb from rolling out as he falls to the floor.

“Rob!” Superboy calls out, rushing down to meet him in the supercycle. He catches himself in a hover just above where Robin is lying on the floor.

“I’m fine,” Robin huffs out, holding the box out for Superboy to take, “We got it.”

“Nice,” Superboy’s worry is immediately replaced with that same cocky smirk he always wears. He takes the box in one hand but uses his other to reach out and lift Robin to his feet.

“I could’ve gotten up myself,” Robin rolls his eyes as he feels a light blush begin to dust his cheeks. It was always a little embarrassing when he was lifted up by Kon after taking a tumble.

“Thank you, Superboy,” the hero himself mocked in a sarcastic tone, “You’re so cool and helpful with your tactile tele-”

“Please,” Robin cut him off while climbing into the seat and beginning the supercycle’s descent to where Impulse and Wonder Girl were waiting below, “Do not get started again.”

“All I’m saying,” Superboy starts saying as they’re coming to land next to the two other heroes, “Is that if I can get my TTK to be a little stronger-”

“No,” Impulse groans out, flopping dramatically onto the grass as soon as the supercycle touches down, “Not the TTK talk again.”

“TTK?” Wonder Girl questions, glancing skeptically between the boys.

Superboy’s eyes lit up as he jumped out of the supercycle. Robin tried to reel in his glaring at Kon while the other boy cheerily began to explain, “Tactile telekinesis. It’s a super cool power I have where-”

“That was a good call boxing it in on the ground to ensure it went up,” Robin said to Wonder Girl. He ignored Superboy’s protest at being interrupted while he climbed out of the supercycle for himself. Superboy could have plenty of time to brag about himself to Wonder Girl later.

“Yeah, well,” Wonder Girl shrugged but she wore a self satisfied grin nonetheless. She let the words hang in the air for a second, clearly not wanting neither to brag nor dismiss the compliment before she turned to look at the box Superboy was still holding and asking, “So, do any of you guys know what this thing is?”

“Yeah, what is it?” Impulse asks. He zips up to Superboy and snatches the box to hold himself. He looks at it for only a moment before he abruptly sneezes and nearly drops the box. Robin sees Superboy and Wonder Girl tense as much as he does, all three of them reaching out towards the falling box. Thankfully, Impulse’s speed allows him enough time to recover and grab the box before it crashes to the ground or the orb can roll free again.

They all stand there for a second, frozen, watching to confirm that the orb is still trapped before letting out a collective exhale of relief.

“Some team you got here,” Wonder Girl comments, taking the box out of Impulse’s hands.

“We’re not a team,” Robin corrects, taking the box for himself. He begins to look over the etchings on the wood, seeing they do indeed match with some he can now make out on the orb.

“Yeah, we just share custody over the supercycle,” Superboy confirms, moving over besides Robin to grab the box himself. Then, a little quieter but while wearing a teasing grin he adds on, “And Impulse.”

“I mean, we’re kinda like a team,” Impulse shrugs. He goes to peer over at the box but Superboy holds it far out to his other side.

“Oh, no,” Superboy starts, “This is clearly alien shit. Alien shit means I get dibs.”

“Actually,” Robin grabs the box back much to Superboy’s obvious displeasure, “engraved runes on a wooden box able to trap a flying sphere seems more like magic artifact shit than alien shit.”

“So?” Superboy huffs.

“So,” Robin turns politely to Wonder Girl and holds out the box, “I think you’re our best bet at figuring this out.”

“She’s not even on the team!” Superboy exclaims. He shifts to position himself between Robin and Wonder Girl, taking on a strangely defensive tone.

“We’re not a team,” Robin reminds him.

“You should totally join our team,” Impulse cheers loudly, speaking to Wonder Girl.

“We’re not-” Robin tries again.

Wonder Girl is quick to cut off his protest with the question, “Why not?”

“I-” Robin starts, then pauses. They kind of are like a team by now. They meet almost every weekend, they improve on their teamwork constantly. Honestly, the biggest thing separating them from other superhero teams is that their missions seem to be more spontaneous -being whatever the supercycle finds for them that day- and they don’t do any preparations or training together. Maybe they should start. Maybe leaning into the whole “team” thing would help them smooth out where their cooperation was still rough around the edges.

Robin sees the other three blinking at him, waiting for a response. He lets out a little sigh and meets Wonder Girl’s eyes to say, “We normally meet up at Mount Justice on Saturdays.”

He’s aware he just deflected the question instead of giving his reasonings for keeping their little group from being considered an official team: the Justice League would be more involved in supervising them, they would be compared to the Titans, he would be compared to when Nightwing was starting out with the Teen Titans, etc. Luckily, the distraction seemed to take.

Impulse let out a loud “Whoop!” and Superboy turned to give Wonder Girl a high five with a cheer of his own. He was a bit tense in the shoulders, but still grinned widely at her. He seemed almost nervous. It was seeming more and more likely that he had developed a bit of a crush on Wonder Girl -Wondie- in this brief interaction they shared. That would... complicate... team dynamics. Robin swallowed down discomfort at the thought, things would be fine. They're still not a team -not officially- anyway.

“I’m Bart, by the way,” Impulse informs Wonder Girl.

“Cassie,” She responds, matching his grin.

“I’m Kon,” Superboy chimes in.

He’s also Conner, Robin can’t help but think. There’s a strange sense of pride that he knows Kon’s civilian identity when Cassie doesn’t, but it’s diluted by the slight guilt that Kon didn’t tell Tim what his civilian identity is. He probably would have, if anyone asked. He almost definitely would right now if Cassie asked. Whatever. Asking would’ve been cheating. He figured out Kon’s identity all on his own. It doesn’t make sense to feel frustrated about this. 

Robin realized Wonder Girl was looking at him expectantly, so he rolled his eyes and introduced himself, “Robin. And all of you should take the whole secret identity thing a little more seriously.”

“Don’t mind Rob,” Superboy said while nudging Wonder Girl, “He’s allergic to friendship.”

“I am not-” Robin tries to defend himself.

Bart moves quicker though, rushing up to Cassie’s other side and beginning to say in a stage whisper, “I heard if you learn his real name then Batman swoops out from the shadows and kills you.”

“Batman doesn’t kill,” Robin argues while rolling his eyes.

Superboy ignored him and leaned into the teasing, nodding along and stage whispering, “If he even told you his initials it would already be too late.”

Wonder Girl is laughing while the other two boys are trying to reign in their snorting.

“Whatever,” Robin says, ignoring his own soft smile. He makes his way back over to the supercycle and comments, “We should be getting back.”

With a woosh Impulse is at his side and a moment later Superboy is floating into a seat behind them. The three boys turn to glance at Wonder Girl standing off to the side.

“You coming?” Robin offers, pointing to the still empty seat next to Superboy.

He sees Cassie grin a blinding smile before she’s climbing into the supercycle after them. He tells himself it's good she's coming, that his lingering annoyance when she slides next to Superboy's side is surely some kind of fluke.

Chapter Text

Occasionally, Tim would have the opportunity to patrol alongside Dick. It was nice to share these nights, racing through the rooftops alongside his brother. Sure, they had some bonding time with Tim stopping by Dick’s apartment to share a movie night with cheap take out, but he preferred feeling the breezy chill of the air as he jumped and grappled from roof to roof, racing Nightwing as they both kept an eye and ear out for trouble.

“So,” Nightwing broke the relative quiet between them when Tim came to a pause on one rooftop, “B mentioned you started your own team. You think you’re too good to join the Titans or something?”

Robin could hear the tease in the question but chose to ignore it. Instead, he scoffed and insisted yet again, “We’re not a team.”

“I dunno,” Nightwing flashed him an easy grin, “Sounds like you guys meet up pretty regularly, get yourselves up to a good bit of trouble.”

Tim shrugged. He was running out of excuses to not declare them an official team.

Nightwing didn’t let Robin’s silence last for more than a few beats before he was asking, “Do you guys have a name yet?”

Robin snorted, “What? Like the ‘Teen Titans?’”

“I stand by that name,” Nightwing crossed his arms defensively.

Tim shook his head, “No. We don’t have a name. We aren’t a team.”

“Then what are you?” Nightwing asks as he tips his head in confusion.

“We’re just… us,” Robin shrugs, “Not much more to it than that.”

“Justice, huh?” Nightwing asks.

“No-” Robin sharply turns to him before this can spiral into a terrible name.

“You guys need, like, a qualifier too though,” Nightwing nodded to himself, “What about Junior Justice?”

Robin hits him in the shoulder, scowling at the jazz hands Dick is making when he says the name. He shakes his head and complains, “We’re young but we’re not some junior level-”

“Young Justice, then,” Nightwing nods with a smile, “That has an alright ring to it, too, don’t ya think?”

“Absolutely not,” Robin is saying.

Nightwing is ignoring him, though, plowing on with, “Of course, now that you have a team name you’ll need to schedule more time to train together instead of just jumping onto your magic motorcycle and finding missions willy-nilly.”

Robin lets out a groan.

Nightwing smiles brighter, “Plus, the Justice League should be supervising you guys more carefully. I hear Red Tornado might be free to play den mother at the mount.”

“This,” Tim hisses out, “Is what I was trying to avoid.”

“I knew it,” Nightwing says while giving Tim a playful smack to his shoulder, “All this ‘we’re not a team’ crap was you being allergic to adult supervision.”

“We’ve been doing fine on our own!” Tim protests.

Dick is shaking his head, fond but worried, as he says, “Yes but you could be doing better with a little guidance.”

“And how much guidance did you have when the Titans first started?” Tim found himself snapping.

“Not as much as I should’ve,” Nightwing says solemnly. He’s doing his whole ‘I’ve been where you are, learn from my mistakes, there are things I wish I knew, blah blah blah’ older brother act and Tim is holding back from trying to throw him off the roof.

“It’s not like we’re a bunch of thirteen-year-olds who are new to the game,” Tim points out, “We’ve been in the hero scene for a while.”

“But it’s different when you’re with a mentor or a single partner. Navigating team dynamics with peers is a whole new skillset,” Nightwing explains in his I-know-better-than-you voice. Then, he continues with a smirk, “Maybe some shifting dynamics with Wonder Girl tagging along?”

“She’s not ‘tagging along,’” Robin points out flatly, “She’s able to hold her own.”

“Oh, is she?” Nightwing is wearing a domino mask but Tim can see its movements signaling the way he’s wriggling his eyebrow, “Tell me more.”

“Stop that,” Tim warned.

Dick just shot back a disbelieving look and asked, “You really expect me to believe nothing changed for any of you guys after a girl joins the team?”

“I’m half convinced Impulse is oblivious to girls and romance or anything like that,” Robin offered with a shrug.

“What about you?” Nightwing prompted.

Robin leveled a glare, “I think she’s a capable ally and an asset to the team.”

“So you admit it’s a team!” Nightwing smirked as he pointed at Robin, a “gotcha!” expression on his face.

Robin just rolled his eyes and gave up resisting it once and for all, “I thought we settled that already.”

“Yeah, yeah,” Nightwing dismissed the notion with a wave of his hand, “Okay so we’ve established you are a team,” He began counting on his fingers, “Impulse is girl-blind,” Another finger flicks up, “You’re too much of a mini batman to flirt with Wonder Girl, or at least you won’t talk to me about it,” he raises a third finger, “But what about Superboy?”

“What about Superboy?” Robin asked back.

Something in Tim’s voice must have piqued Dick’s interest because a new rush of excitement clearly washes over him as he asks, “Are there some shifting team dynamics going on between Superboy and Wondergirl?”

“Why do you care so much about my friends’ love lives?” Robin tried to shift the focus of conversation back to Dick. 

“Oh, there so is!” Nightwing reveled in glee at his own conclusion.

“You don’t know that,” Tim argued.

“Do you know it?”

Robin shifted uncomfortably, frowning when he admitted, “No.”

“No?” Nightwing questioned, “You’re not sure?”

“No,” Tim reaffirmed through gritted teeth.

Nightwing whistled lowly before asking, “What’s that about?” At Robin’s questioning glare, he elaborated, “The whole pissed-off vibe you got going on now.”

“It’s just frustrating, I guess,” Robin shrugged his shoulders in a calculated movement. He used to to feign indifference while forcing a bit of the tension and “pissed-off vibe” out of his shoulders.

“Frustrating that they like each other?” Nightwing asked.

“Frustrating that I can’t tell if they’re more than just friends,” Robin elaborated, “I mean, I’m a detective. It shouldn’t be so hard to figure out. Plus if they are something more than friends then it doesn’t make sense for them to not tell Impulse and I. Like, one moment Superboy is giving her his jacket after she fell in some water, but then she’s giving it back as soon as we're back at Mount Justice. And then he’s jumping into every conversation I’d have with her, but if she walks away he won’t follow after her. Or she’ll be laughing at his jokes but then she's saying she’s glad to be friends with all three of us guys. Or-”

Nightwing chokes on the sound of a muffed laugh, causing Robin to snap out of his spiraling ramble and glare at him once more. Tim pushes as much venom into his voice as he can manage when he hisses the question of, “What?”

“You’re jealous,” Nightwing points out, a smile on his face. He says it without question, as if there’s no possibility that Tim could not be jealous which leaves Tim taken aback.

“What?” The question is no longer a hiss, but now a shocked exclamation. Tim was not jealous of Kon and Cassie. He didn’t even have interest in Cassie, besides platonically and as teammates. Kon and Cassie could date. That would be fine. Sure, the thought of it made discomfort swell in Tim’s chest then sink deep in his gut, but that was only because romantic entanglements would surely complicate existing team dynamics, which would definitely be stressful. It’s already complicating existing team dynamics because Robin’s so frustrated over being confused about their relationship status. 

“I bet Superboy sees you as a threat, that’s why he’s putting himself between you two,” Nightwing nudged Tim with his elbow and adds with a smirk, “I bet you got a chance with her.”

“I’m not looking for a chance with her,” Tim said while he crossed his arms defensively.

“Hey, come on, man,” Nightwing complained with a slight whine to his voice, “You gotta give me something here. We haven’t talked about girls in so long. Talk to me Baby Bird.”

“I cannot stand you,” Robin stated with a flat expression.

“Liar,” Dick said as he shoved Tim’s shoulders lightly.

Tim stood his ground and stated, "You're so annoying."

"You love me," Dick said in a sing-song voice while he attempted to shake Tim's shoulders again.

This time when Nightwing pushed him, Robin let his body sway with the force. Clearly showing increasingly unimpressed glares was not going to get Dick off his back, so Tim decided to lean into his dramatic side and lamented with a sigh, “I used to be an only child.” 

“Not this crap again,” Dick immediately grumbles.

Tim cuts him off with more overdramatic complaining, “I used to be a rich only child.”

“You’re still rich,” Nightwing said with an unamused flatness in his voice.

Tim dramatically gestured to the city lights as he spoke, “I was running around unsupervised. Me and my camera against the world.”

“Having a family who cares about you is not a bad thing,” Nightwing says with a huff.

It worked to break Tim out of his theatrics. Robin crossed his arms defensively while raising an unimpressed brow and stating, “Two of our brothers try to kill me on sight,”

“They don’t-!” Dick seemed to pause before he changed directions and said, “Well, Damien isn’t sharpening his knives for you anymore. What did you do that’s got Jason so pissed off again?”

Tim snorted to himself and put a bit of pride in his voice as he explained, “Last time he called me ‘replacement’ I told him he should’ve tried not being so replaceable.”

“That’s… not so bad,” Nightwing stated with a skeptic raise to his eyebrow. 

Tim sat under his gaze for a moment before he let his smirk grow fractionally and with a casual shrug continued, “I also told him that Robin’s greatest magic trick was making him disappear.”

Nightwing blinked for a moment before exclaiming rather loudly, “He died, Robin!”

Tim shrugged and waved a dismissive hand, “He got better. I think he’s more pissed that I reminded him that he used to enjoy being Robin than anything else.”

“Oh my-” Nightwing started to sigh.

Tim rolled his eyes and pointed out, “Didn’t you once tell him to dress up like a crowbar if he wanted to channel his fears?”

“How do you even know about that?” Nightwing asked in exasperation.

“I know things,” Tim shrugged, “I’m smarter than you, backflip boy.”

“I miss when I was an only child,” Nightwing grumbles. Robin finds himself laughing at the sight.

“Yeah, yeah,” Robin rolls his eyes and points to where a group of men wearing face paint were walking the street below. One only had a face half-painted. Potentially, this was a gang initiation. When Nightwing peered over to look, Robin asked, “You know where they’re going?”

“I thought you were the smart one,” Nightwing huffed.

“Twenty bucks they try to rob the ATM two blocks down,” Robin smirked.

By the end of patrol that night Robin returned to his room twenty dollars richer. He also found a missed text in the groupchat he, Kon, Cassie, and Bart had formed.

Cassie:

Who tf named our team Young Justice

With a sigh he typed back a quick message:

Robin:

Technically, Nightwing.

Kon:

And you let him choose that????

Robin:

It was that or Justice Juniors guys I really did my best

Bart:

Does this mean we’re officially a team??????

Kon:
If you admitted we were a team months ago we totally could’ve chosen a better name

Cassie:

It’s too late, Wonder Woman says the Justice League has Young Justice as the name on file

Bart:

On file for what?

Bart:

Are we getting official missions?

Bart:

This is so cool

Robin:

I’ll see you all this weekend. I believe Red Tornado will have more information for all of us.

Kon:
That’s it?

Cassie:
For real?

Bart: 

Hell yeah!

Tim placed his phone to the side as he made his way to the shower. He could deal with all of this after a few hours of sleep and touching base with Bruce. If they already had a file set up in the league database, Bruce and Dick have probably been planning on cornering Tim into officially declaring the team for a while.

He picked up his phone again while he was toweling his hair dry and found a private message, outside of the groupchat.

Kon:
This is why im in charge of naming things

Tim snorted as he send back a text.

Robin:
You're right. It takes an artist to come up with a name like "the supercycle"

Kon only took a minute to respond.

Kon:

its amazing how i can hear your eyes rolling through your texts

Robin:

What's amazing is your terrible sleep schedule for someone who's solar-powered

Kon:

how many rem cycles do you get in a given night asshole

Robin:

Tell me what REM stands for without looking it up

Kon:
Rob Enjoys Murder

Kon:
booooooo does batman know u enjoy murder rob???? 

Kon:

smh i expected better from u

Robin:

That's the best you could come up with?

Kon:

shut up im tired

Robin:

Goodnight Superboy

Kon:

see ya this weekend wonderful

Tim sighed as he dropped his phone onto his pillow. Laying down in bed, he found he couldn't help the small smile tugging at his lips. It was just so easy to talk to Kon, to laugh and joke and tease back and forth. It was in the softness of his joy that Tim allowed himself to shake away all of his apprehensions of officially declaring himself and his friends as a team. How bad could it be? 

It turns out, not so bad after all.

Being officially part of a team really wasn’t the worst thing in the world. While Red Tornado was reporting back to their mentors and the rest of the league about how Young Justice was doing now, overall not much has changed. Now weekend meetups were typically overnight stays. The four young heroes would train together, polish up roles and dynamics, and of course still find themselves in impromptu adventures sorting out whatever chaos the supercycle has found that week.

It’s been nice to have Cassie around. Robin finds her to be less annoying than Kon and Bart manage to be. Really, she only manages to dig that tight and annoyed feeling out of him when she’s around Kon. She’s funny and clever and can take a joke as well as she can tell one. She fits in well. Hell, they all fit in well together.

It only took a few weeks for Robin to realize the other three were probably the best friends he’s ever had, the headaches they cause him do nothing to belittle the way he’s begun to value each of them. Even though he sometimes wants to scream with frustration while dealing with Impulse’s inability to slow down, or from watching Kon and Cassie’s confusing will-they-won’t-they dance, he’s grateful that recognizing Young Justice as a team has allowed Tim the opportunity to stop holding back around his friends.

He found himself missing their companionship throughout the weekdays. Which, perhaps, is why he stopped Superboy one week as the team was all saying their goodbyes and see-you-laters.

“Hey, Kon, wait up a second,” Robin said with what he hoped was a light tone.

“Everything okay?” Kon pauses on his way out the mount to throw a confused look at Robin. Damn, maybe Robin should be hanging around the team at more of their “social down times” if Kon thinks he’d only stop to chat if something was wrong. It really wasn’t his fault though, he was just usually the one writing reports for the league -and, more importantly, for Batman- about the team’s missions and any progress through their training. He was busy, but doing the paperwork was the best way to keep Kon off his ass about who should be considered team leader.

“Yeah, fine,” Robin clarifies, “I’m just wondering if you remember that security drone shipment we busted up a few months back.”

“When we blew up a warehouse full of a million dollars worth of smuggled killer robots?” Kon asked with a smile and a raised eyebrow, “Yeah, dude, I remember.”

“It was only a million?” Tim can’t help the question. He could have sworn it would’ve been more. Two or three million at the least.

“Only?” Kon balked, “Man, I swear sometimes you have no concept of money.”

“Whatever,” Robin dismisses that thought with a wave of his hand before Kon could linger on that particular thought for too long, “Have you done any follow up on the crew since then?”

Kon shrugged and admitted, “Not really. Why?”

“Batman and have been tracking their movements. They’ve been rebuilding, from what we can tell. Pretty sure they're looking to be settled by this weekend in another warehouse of about the same size,” Robin explains. He’s been using his standard ‘debriefing voice’ as Dick calls it, but takes half a second to pause and force himself to sound more casual as he asks, “Wanna scope it out with me on Friday?”

Kon seems a bit surprised by the question, his eyebrows shooting up while he blinks owlishly. “You mean, like,” As he speaks, his eyebrows furrow like this could be a trick question, “Like, call the team in a day early?”

“Oh, uh,” Robin paused. He was prepared for a simple ‘yes’ or ‘no,’ not whatever was currently going on in Kon’s mind. He felt confusion form on his own expression as he conceded, “I guess we could do that.”

“Wait,” Kon suddenly looked excited, “Did you mean just you and me?”

Robin shrugged, embarrassed for seemingly no reason. He felt the need to explain himself, “I just figured… I mean this time it should actually be in-and-out, stealth and recon. We shouldn’t really need the full team. But maybe it would be a good exercise for-”

“No way,” Kon cut him off, grinning wildly. It seems genuine, hardly teasing, when he throws an arm around Robin’s shoulders and declares, “Just you and me, Rob. Been too long since we’ve hung out just us two.”

“I already regret inviting you,” Robin said as he stepped away from Kon’s grasp, but he’s smiling when he says it and the shake of his head is coming across a little more fond than annoyed.

Chapter Text

“Hey, Boy Wonder,” Kon greeted as Tim climbed off his motorcycle at their meeting point. He seemed to be letting his gaze linger on the act of dismounting until he realized Tim was throwing him a quizzical look. He nodded his head at the bike and pointed out, “You didn’t take the Supercycle.”

Robin shrugged, supposing it had been quite some time since Kon has seen him drive anything besides the supercycle, and dismissed it as irrelevant when he said, “Felt weird to, without the whole team.”

“She’s gonna be so jealous,” Kon teased in a singsong voice.

“Shut up, she is not,” Robin said with an eyeroll, though he could feel the smile tugging on the corners of his mouth in response to his friend’s teasing.

“Who do you think will be worse,” Kon started to ask, “The supercycle when she learns you were taking joyrides on somebody else, or Bart when he finds out you and me are hanging out without him?”

“We’re not ‘hanging out,’ we’re following up a joint mission,” Robin pointed out. He almost ended it at that, but decided to continue with saying, “And the supercycle is a vehicle for Young Justice, obviously I don’t take her out without the team.”

“Does she know that?” Kon is asking with a smirk.

Robin thought back to the first time he, Kon, and Bart found the supercycle. He remembered the strange mechanical jealousy radiating off the supercycle when she grew near Robin’s personal bike. For a moment, he was actually entertaining the idea that the supercycle would be offended, then he shook his head and insisted the idea was ridiculous by responding, “She is a machine.”

Kon let out a low whistle and placed a hand over his chest, imitating an emotionally painful blow. He gave Robin a playfully wounded expression and said, “Damn, Rob. If that’s all you view her as, I might be inclined to rethink our joint custody agreement.”

“Maybe we should have invited the whole team along,” Robin voiced with exasperation, “You and Impulse could keep each other entertained while Wonder Girl and I actually got the info we needed.”

Kon crossed his arms suddenly, “Hey, I can be a way better help on this mission than Cassie.”

“Names,” Robin chastised, gesturing between them to emphasize the fact they were both suited up.

Kon, however, paid him no bother and continued with his point, “I’m the one who’s gone after these guys before, remember?”

The defensiveness caught Robin off guard. Maybe Kon had recently gotten into another disagreement with Superman over what he was capable of in the field. Robin was no stranger to those, having had plenty of his own with Batman, but if Kon was going into this mission even more cocky than usual it could pose its own set of dangers. He decided to try and keep Kon humble when he flatly responded, “You mean when we got a building blown up?”

“You invited me here,” Kon said while taking a step closer to Robin. He had an intensity behind his eyes. The pinched expression and tension in his shoulders should have been intimidating, he looked like he was itching for a fight, but more than anything else it just left Tim confused.

“Did…” Tim decided to speak slowly, carefully choosing his words. Kon’s attitude changed after the others were mentioned. No, after Cassie was mentioned. Kon was the one to bring up Bart and it wasn’t a problem, but when Tim brought up Cassie… He fixed his gaze, locking onto Superboy’s eyes, and asked the question, “Did something happen between you and Wonder Girl?”

Kon’s jaw clenched, just momentarily, before he asked, “What do you mean?”

Robin sighed, “Look, normally I’d say whatever’s going on between you two is none of my business, but if it’s going to be affecting team dynamics then I need to be kept in the loop.”

Explaining it brought a bitter feeling to Robin’s core. He knew he should be happy for two of his closest friends, but whenever he saw Kon or Cassie making the other laugh, leaning into each other’s space, even just high-fiving after a mission done well, then Tim would feel an uneasy wave of annoyance welling up inside him. It must be anxiety, concern over how their impending romantic relationship would affect the team dynamics. Clearly he had a right to be worried. Cassie and Kon’s little flirtationship was now affecting Tim and Kon’s dynamic when Cassie wasn’t even present, which was the worst possible outcome. Now Kon wouldn’t have his head on straight and the whole time he would be on mission with Tim he would be distracted by whatever drama was brewing between him and Cassie and-

“Wait, what’s going on between me and Cassie?” Kon cut off Tim’s spiral with seemingly genuine confusion.

Great, Kon wasn’t even aware of his crush on Wonder Girl and here Tim was, pushing them together. Part of his thoughts were insisting you’re supposed to be happy and supportive of your friends though all he could manage was throwing a disbelieving glare at Kon and grumbling out the reminder, “Names.”

Kon blinked, dropping some of the tension from his shoulders as he insisted, “No, really I…” He paused and deflected his gaze away from Robin’s eyes and gave a soft sigh before continuing, “I wouldn’t do anything to come between the two of you. I thought you knew that.”

“Between…” It was Robin’s turn to blink in confusion, “Between me and Wonder Girl?”

“Come on, Rob,” Superboy was still avoiding his gaze as he spoke, “You give her way less shit than me or Impulse on missions, you helped her with that extra training the other week, it’s pretty obvious that you like her.”

“As a friend, sure. As a teammate, absolutely. You’re the one who likes her romantically,” Robin crosses his arms as he speaks.

Finally, Superboy meets his gaze again, eyes shooting up to lock onto Tim’s and immediately defend, “I don’t like Wonder Girl. Romantically, I mean. Of course, as a friend-”

“Oh, please,” Robin cut him off a little bitterly, “What else could possibly be why you’re acting so wound up right now?”

“There’s nothing going on between you and Cassie?” Kon asked, apparently ignoring their previous conversation which clearly outlined that fact.

“Names,” Robin chastised, again. By now he was feeling far more annoyed.

“Fine, whatever, but there’s nothing going on between you and Wonder Girl?” Kon insisted on the question one more time, though this time he was pouting as he used Cassie’s alias.

Robin couldn’t help the frustrated glare he gave Kon as he gritted the answer through his teeth, “No. I have no interest in Wonder Girl beyond a purely platonic and professional relationship. If you were worried about ‘stealing her’ from me you wouldn’t be. Even if I was interested, she can make her own decisions. The two of you are my friends and I want to support you, but if this kind of drama is going to keep wasting my time-”

“Whoa, whoa,” Kon cut off Robin’s rant by grabbing onto his shoulders and squaring them both to be looking into each other’s eyes, “I’m not gonna ask out Wonder Girl.”

“Then what-?”

“Rob,” Kon moved his hands from Robin’s shoulders to slide down onto his arms before giving a slight squeeze and continuing, “I’m not interested in Wonder Girl.”

His voice sounded as genuine as he looked, pleading into Tim’s eyes as if this was a very important fact. It was reassuring, if nothing else, to hear that Kon wasn’t actively pursuing Cassie. Tim accredited the relief of hearing this to the light feeling rising from his chest. There was no chance for messy team dynamics stemming from Kon and Cassie beginning to date.

“I believe you,” Tim said, meeting Kon’s gaze. This felt important. Why was Kon treating it like it was important?

“You asked me to partner up with you tonight,” Kon pointed out. Tim felt a slight headache forming from the abrupt change in conversation.

“We’ve worked together dealing with this crew before,” Robin pointed out the same reason for being there Kon himself had brought up before.

“Is that it, though? I mean, you haven’t teamed up with anyone outside of group Young Justice settings since months before our team even had a name,” Kon stated.

Robin’s inability to follow this conversation was leaving him confused and frustrated. Is what “it?” Kon was making less sense than normal and it was keying Robin up in a more frustrating way than the team usually does. Hell, Robin was more frustrated than the last time he and Kon were doing recon on this gang of smugglers. 

They had work to do tonight. Then they had a full report to write up and then a full day of training in Mount Justice tomorrow, assuming the Supercycle didn’t find them any trouble to get into which would mean another report. Tim was tired and frustrated, which must be why he slipped up. When he spoke he said, “Kon, what-”

“Names,” Superboy cut off with a smirk.

“Your kryptonian name is different from a secret identity,” Robin defended, though Superboy had a point. Robin shouldn’t be calling him Kon in the field. 

“Who says I have a secret identity besides my kryptonian name,” Superboy gives a slightly teasing grin. Still sitting in frustration, Robin hardens an unimpressed look at Superboy. Kon must see something in Tim’s eyes, however, because he takes a step back -Tim tries to ignore the sudden cold he feels where Kon’s hands drop away- and questions, “Wait do you know my secret identity?”

Tim stayed absolutely still, willing not a twitch of muscle movement to pass through any part of his expression or body language. He was nothing but a living poker face.

“Oh my god!” Kon exclaimed, “You so do. Did Batman tell you?”

“I figured out Batman’s identity when I was a little kid, I didn’t need him to tell me Superboy ended up being Superman’s little cousin,” Tim said after letting out a defensive huff. He crossed his arms to try and bring some warmth back to them.

“You know Superman’s identity?” Kon blanched.

Tim grimaced. There wasn’t a trace of his poker face left, not that it was working in the first place. Kon had a gift for reading Tim. Tim, however, felt his frustration turn away from Kon being difficult and instead direct inwards at his own letting information slip. He tried for the honesty approach, hoping Kon would be receptive, and admitted, “I’m pretty sure I’m not supposed to, actually. So don’t tell him. Or Batman.”

“Can I know yours?” Kon asks with a raised eyebrow.

“Superboy…” Robin begins with a sigh.

“Hey, you know mine! And Superman’s apparently!” Kon lists off his apparent reasoning to try once again to have Tim reveal his name.

“Superboy I can’t,” Robin dropped his arms and shifted to look at the building they were supposed to be already inside of by now. He tried to let his regret leak into his voice when he continued, “Batman and-”

“Batman shouldn’t-”

“Superboy, we are here on a mission,” Robin slipped easily back to the role of stoic leader, a firmness hardening his voice as he spoke and asked, “Can I trust you to have your head on straight?”

“I’m not the one with trust issues here,” Superboy mumbled.

“You just used Wonder Girl’s first name multiple times and-”

“Oh, please, no one is around!” Superboy exclaimed, “Do you actually think you can’t trust me? Even if Batman gave you permission you still wouldn’t trust me, do you?”

“Superboy,” Robin snapped. He was very quickly feeling very, very angry. Having his trust called into question after months of working together, of showing up for each other. Kon still doubted the trust Robin extended to him? Maybe Dick was right, maybe Tim was in over his head trying to navigate team dynamics with peers. Robin wanted to yell and escalate the fight further but instead he paused to let out a sigh and suggested, “Maybe it would be better to wait to come back with the others tomorrow.”

There was real weight in the suggestion for the first time. A heaviness that seemed to settle onto Kon as he asked, “Because you don’t trust me?”

“I invited you here,” Robin said with a glare, speaking a fact Kon had brought up before but was seemingly disregarding the weight of now.

Reminding Kon of it, of the fact that Robin wanted Kon to join him tonight, therefore he clearly trusted his friend to be here, seemed to sober Kon from his bitchy attitude, just slightly. He looked at Robin, waited for the other to meet his eye, before speaking with an obvious lingering tension he was doing his best to ignore and saying, “I’m good. You good?”

Robin was not good. He was pissed and confused and sick of feeling like he was always missing some key piece of information during every interaction he’s been having with Kon recently. There was still a taught lingering tension in the air, but Kon seemed perfectly content to ignore it. In effort not to be shown up on his bat-hardened compartmentalization skills by a super of all people, Robin squared his shoulders and lied, “I’m good.”

Kon nodded and began to move towards the warehouse but only got a step before Robin called, “Hey.”

Kon turned around, raising an eyebrow in question.

“Are we good?” Robin asked. 

Kon’s eyes softened, just for a moment. He gave a soft smile that still didn’t reach his eyes when he answered, “Yeah. We’re good.”

Robin nodded sharply, moving to enter the building when he pretended he believed Kon. The tension was lingering between them still, but they had a job to do.

Superboy wasn’t exactly the stealthiest hero. He was the kind of guy who welcomed flashing cameras and fawning women with a cocky grin. Robin had worked with him enough now that he knew a lot of that was for show. Sure, the guy was overconfident and egoistical and a flirt and all kinds of things that drove Robin insane, but he was also a competent and capable hero. He was, occasionally, very good at stealth when the situation called for it. Right now -despite the fact the situation did certainly call for it- he was being a little bit too good at stealth.

He was quiet, more than normal. It felt almost unsettling to Robin as the two of them crept their way over to the warehouse, avoiding cameras or any other potential surveillance measures. Tension from their argument still lingered and yet somehow the boys moved seamlessly together. Part of it could be credited to experience working together, of course, but there had to be a lot of credit given to the act of formalizing the team. Significant time training together allowed them the skillset of operating fluidly and with focus in almost any environment, even an environment of stubbornly suppressed mutual frustration towards the other. 

Robin hasn’t felt this annoyed with Kon since… since before Young Justice had its name. Maybe that was the problem, maybe Robin couldn’t stand Kon without the others around. Maybe Robin wasn’t fit for working in partnerships besides missions with other bats. He worked well with Batman, patrolling with Nightwing, but Robin had been trained to work with them specifically. Robin was able to be a strong teammate, when many people were around to bounce dynamics off of. 

When it was all four of them, they’d be moving with several different parts. Everyone had different powers and abilities and skillsets. Everyone balanced the others. Maybe Robin had gotten too used to that, too comfortable. Maybe he had been taking it for granted, the way that a team dynamic kept everyone else too busy to realize how frustratingly secretive and strange and obsessive Robin really was at his core. 

Kon was being so uncharacteristically quiet that Robin didn’t realize how the building itself was uncharacteristically quiet too. He was too caught up in the practiced movement of Kon wrapping an arm around his shoulders and flying them up to the roof, next to a skylight. Any other day there would be a teasing comment. A smirk as Kon asked, “Going up?” or a joke of, “You should be called Kiwi or some other flightless bird.” Today there was no joke, no tease, not even a soft smile. There was one moment of Robin being next to the building, and then the next he was placed down on top with nothing more than a head nod in acknowledgement. 

Robin returned the nod and began to carefully, silently remove a window pane in the skylight as Superboy watched over his shoulder. On another night, Robin would’ve asked Superboy to see if he could see or hear anything inside the dark building, but tonight he fell into muscle memory of moving in silence and trying to ignore the thick atmosphere weighted between them. He turned to Superboy when he was finished and finally broke the silence between them asking, “Ready?”

Superboy nodded, still quiet. Robin tried not to let the nonverbal response refuel his frustrations all over again. Instead he allowed Superboy to once more hold an arm around his shoulders and fly them, landing softly in the surprisingly open floor of the warehouse.

The vastness of the empty building was Robin’s first hint that something was wrong. Kon didn’t seem to realize, immediately taking a step away from Robin as they landed. He glanced around the dark, same as Robin, but looked almost disinterested.

Robin, however, was focused. Too focused to linger on how Kon moving to the side seemed to take all of Tim’s warmth with him. Instead he noticed the lack of shipment containers, the lack of anything besides dark shapes turning slowly from the door. A soft mechanical sound accompanied a few red lights shining on the two of them.

“Shit,” Robin mumbled.

Kon looked genuinely confused and began to ask, “What-?”

Robin didn’t have time to explain, he was moving on instinct and jumped behind Kon to grab onto the back of Superboy’s leather jacket and hiss out the instruction, “Fly.”

“What?” Kon asked again, more insistent this time. He was trying to glance over his shoulder to where Robin was clinging to his back when the first shots started to ring out.

The gunfire clearly startled Kon, the bullets beginning to fire rapidly from the mounted security guns along the walls. Robin used his grip on Kon’s back to push upwards to signal to the skylight they had entered from as if he could push Kon into flying them out of there while he yelled over the gunfire, “Up, up and away! Let’s go!”

Finally, Kon got with the program. It was just in time for the aim of the mechanical guns to finally lock onto the two of them in the dark. Robin could feel Kon’s shoulders tense as the impact of the bullets pushed against him slightly. He could count the times he felt signs of Kon being impacted: one… two… three… four shots hit as he flew the two of them back out of the skylight. Robin wanted to be sick.

It was a trap, of course it was. Why wouldn’t it be a trap? Somehow the smugglers of this tech must’ve realized they were being surveilled -again- and this time they decided to fight back intentionally, rather than losing product. Robin didn’t see the trap coming and then he just… he let Superboy take on gunfire for both of them. 

This was sloppy work. It was nothing short of pathetic. Maybe Robin needed to take a leave of absence from the team. Clearly, he was growing too reliant on others around him. Tonight, Superboy was flying them out safely, but what about the next time? He felt furious with himself and was practically shaking with a gross cocktail of guilt and self hatred and disgust coiling in his gut while Superboy flew them quickly, all the way back to where Robin had left his bike earlier in the night.

They landed, Superboy facing the bike, and Robin took a sharp step backwards. He let his hands fall from clinging to Kon’s jacket to being curled as tense fists at his sides. Stupid, he was so stupid. He-

Robin’s thoughts were cut off when Superboy turned around with an almost unreadable expression on his face. He was eyeing Robin with worry, an expression that looked cautious and bewildered. Fuck, if he was hurt after all Robin would never forgive himself.

Tim felt nauseous again but swallowed it down to carefully ask, “Are you hurt?”

Kon just blinked at him in response.

“Superboy, are you-”

“Did you just use me as cover from gunfire?” Kon cut off Robin, suddenly seeming downright offended. He had every right to be pissed, of course, but Robin spent so much of the night arguing with Kon that the sound of his yelling made Robin’s own defenses flare up again.

He knew it was a stupid, reckless action to jump behind Kon, but he didn’t need to be called out on it. Batman was sure to chew his ear off about this entire night as it is, Robin really didn’t need to hear it from Superboy, too. So, Tim responded by crossing his arms and stating the fact, “You’re invulnerable to gunfire.”

It was the truth. It was why Robin’s instinct was to jump behind and not in front of. He knew Kon’s capabilities and obviously he shouldn’t make a habit of letting Kon take a hit for him -tonight alone was distressing enough- it would have been stupid for Robin to jump in front and start bleeding out instead of trusting Kon to get them out of there. Really, if you thought about it, the only reason any bullets hit Kon at all was because he was too slow to follow Robin’s orders to get them the hell out of there. So, in essence, it was kinda Kon’s fault he got shot, and it was definitely  his fault that Robin was too pissed and confused and wound up emotionally to focus and think of a better plan than having Kon lift them both out.

Kon matched his stance, crossing his own arms and arguing, “Batman would rather bleed out three different ways than let Superman take a hit for him.”

Tim felt furious for a few reasons. Firstly, because Tim wasn’t Batman and he wasn’t Nightwing and Kon sure as shit wasn’t Superman so comparing either of them to anyone else was completely irrelevant. Tim fucking hated when other people compared him to someone else, he did enough of that himself. 

Secondly, Tim was furious at Kon’s argument because Superman would let himself be hit by several bullets to keep any nonpowered member of the Justice League safe, especially Batman. And even if Batman didn’t like it at the end of the day the logical decision would always be to let the bulletproof individual block the likely fatal projectile, so Tim started to argue back, “Don’t be ridiculous, if the situation required it-”

“What if they had been kryptonite bullets?” Kon cut Tim off with another question.

“They weren’t,” Tim gritted his teeth as he answered. He began to dig his fingernails into his arms to fight back another surging sick feeling.

“And you knew that before you jumped behind me?” Kon’s tone of exasperation was still ringing loud and true in his voice.

“Yes.” Tim all but hissed as he dug his nails harder, using their pinch in his arms to try and ground himself. Kon was right, of course. Tim didn’t know for certain the guns were charged with regular ammo. Sure, he had seen the types of weapons these smugglers had been working with, and sure, he recognized the design of the weaponry, but these guys have gotten the jump on him twice now. He was confident, but not positive. If anything, he was overconfident in Kon’s ability to get them both to safety no matter the unknown variables that could have presented.

Superboy was still standing between Robin and the motorcycle, still looking at Robin with an expression of confused disbelief, as he said, “This just doesn’t seem like the type of thing you’d normally try to get away with.”

He was right again. This was too reckless. Robin knew this and he knew it was a terrible course of action but he had acted on instinct and already felt like shit about it and nothing could be done to change that so he still attempted to defend, “Well we got out.”

“But what if-”

“Are you serious, Kon?” Robin cut off with a louder voice. 

“Names,” Kon sneered.

Robin saw nothing but red. He was too pissed at himself, at the smugglers, at the tension between him and his friend. He couldn’t listen to Kon keep talking, keep voicing back to Robin all of his own self criticisms spiraling in his head. Kon, who any other day would be oozing confidence, would be bragging about being able to keep Robin safe, would be insisting they could go back inside right now and take out those guns and any other traps set up. Robin wanted that Kon, so he didn’t hold himself back as he let the words fall out of his mouth, “We were dead open with no other cover. We’ve seen their weaponry before and know they don’t have access to kryptonite. I had assumed you were tough enough to handle five fucking seconds of gunfire -which you’re invulnerable to- while you got us the hell out of there! So I’m sorry but it wasn’t like you were coming up with any better plans!”

Robin looked at Superboy, waiting for another argument to be spat back at him, but Kon stayed quiet. He was being so quiet tonight. He was looking at Robin with an expression that was a little close to shock, but had evidence of confusion clinging to it. Kon’s arms were loosening visibly, almost dropping to his sides, but he stayed quiet and just looked at Robin.

Robin felt another swell of nausea, guilt and insecurity, churning in his gut. 

“Listen,” Robin began, speaking softly and easing the pinching grip he had on his crossed arms. It was time to deescalate, “I should’ve thought of another plan, something smarter. These D-List smugglers just somehow keep getting the jump on me and things spun out so fast and-”

“You trust me,” Kon cut off Tim’s explanation. Robin froze with his mouth hanging open, whatever words he planned to say abandoned when he stared at Kon with wide eyes. Kon took the silence as a cue to further explain, “You only did that because you trust me.”

Tim stayed quiet another moment. He felt his eyebrows pinch together in confusion, were they really circling back to the trust argument again? When the silence grew uncomfortable to sit in, Robin spoke plainly, “Obviously.”

“You, like,” Kon had a hint of a smile growing on his lips and Tim tried to ignore how much relief the sight of it brought him, “You really trust me though.”

“Of course I trust you,” Robin said. He continued, words falling out of his mouth before he could think twice about them, “You’re, like, my best friend, dude.”

Superboy’s smile brightened immediately. His eyes widened with excitement as he spoke, “I’m your best friend?”

Robin glared, but he could tell it wasn’t carrying much heat at the moment. Kon was clearly taking the label of ‘best friend’ as the highest praise of honor possible. Tim could practically see Kon’s ego growing, confidence healing his previous sour mood the same way that Kon could be caught ‘recharging’ in the sunlight sometimes. Still, after all the arguing and emotional discomfort he had to deal with today, Tim couldn’t find it within himself to take it back. Instead, he doubled down on repeating a fact they’ve both brought up earlier in the night, “I invited you here tonight, didn’t I?”

“Of course you did,” Kon was practically glowing as he spoke, “Who doesn’t love a good late night mission with their best friend?”

Robin rolled his eyes, but once more didn’t deny it.

“You trust me so much,” Kon said. The tone was teasing but the light behind his eyes shined as though he was a little in awe.

“Can I trust you to shut up?” Robin asked, shifting uncomfortably where he stood. He was glad he had spent so much of the night in anger. Hopefully the high blood pressure worked in his favor to hide the embarrassed flush settling onto his cheeks.

“Robbie,” Kon grinned as he stepped forward to sling an arm over Robin’s shoulders. He didn’t firmly hold Robin or wrap him in TTK like he had when he flew them somewhere. Instead it was like a relaxed and casual point of contact, though somehow it left Tim feeling warmer than any other point of contact between them that night. Kon spoke with a cocky smile, “You can trust me to take a bullet for you.”

Tim let his head fall backwards in a groan, but didn’t try to step out of Kon’s touch. Instead he let the contact remain as he lamented, “Writing this report is gonna suck.”

“Be sure to include plenty of details on how heroic your best friend was, saving your life and all,” Kon said with a smile.

This was the confident, cocky Kon that Robin had been missing only a few minutes ago. Part of Tim was glad to have his friend acting normally, but another part was too stubborn to feed Superboy’s ego any more. Tim stepped out of Kon’s hold, moving towards his bike as he asked, “Are we in agreement that we really should bring the team in on this? Go over our possible next steps with the others tomorrow?”

“Oh, for sure,” Kon nodded, “Don't worry, I’ll keep the ‘us being best friends’ thing lowkey around the supercycle. She’s feisty when she’s jealous.”

Robin rolled his eyes while he put on his helmet.

Kon kept talking, “Do you think we should make bracelets? Do we need a secret best friends’ handshake?”

Tim was shaking his head, grateful that his helmet was masking the fond smile Kon’s ridiculous antics were causing Tim to form. He climbed onto his bike and called over his shoulder, “I’ll see you tomorrow, Clone Boy.”

“Bye, Bestie!” Tim could hear Kon yell after him as he began to speed away.

He ignored him and started to head back to the cave, thinking about how he could phrase the events of the night in a way that would minimize the lecture he got from Batman after the old man read the report.