Damian's Education

Chapter 3: Bruce and Tim

Bruce and Clark conferred privately for a few moments; even though Conner could hear them, if he cared to listen and Tim could’ve read their lips if he wanted to, neither of them really had any desire to be in on the discussion. Occasionally one or the other of them would look toward the teens, Clark with a look of amused disbelief, and Bruce with his tradmark disapproving scowl. Of course, Batman always has that look on his face.  After what seemed like an eternity Bruce and Clark approached the two teens. “Conner, let’s take a walk,” Superman said, placing a hand on his shoulder. Conner went with him, throwing a nearly panicked look over his shoulder at Tim where he stood beside Bruce. Judging by the look on his face he was at least as nervous as Conner felt. 

As Bruce began to speak Tim cut him off, “I know what you’re going to say, you don’t approve of my choice of 'boyfriends', and you want me and Kon-El to break-up; but I can tell you right now that isn’t going to happen, Bruce."

There, he’s said it, making official; he and Conner were ‘boyfriends.’

“Tim I’m not trying to break you two up, that’s not what this is about; I just want you to be safe.”

“Why do you think I was so tough on you boys in training, it wasn’t because I was trying to be some kind of hard-assed drill instructor; It was because you were going to follow me into a dangerous life, whether I wanted you to or not. I did the best I could to prepare you for it.”

“You did, more than anyone could ask, Bruce; but give me some credit I’m not just going to walk blindly into something, I’m not Damian or Jason.”

At the mention of Jason, Bruce’s posture visibly stiffened and Tim knew he had made an error; “I’m sorry, Dad,” Tim said once again using the familial term, “I went too far, that was a low blow.”

“It’s alright Tim,” Bruce said in a monotone voice, but Tim could see the pain behind his carefully controlled expression. “No, it isn’t alright, I know how much it hurt you when you thought he was gone forever, and when you saw how he had changed after Ra’s resurrected him.”

“But my point is I’m not reckless or impulsive like they are, I know what I’m doing and I always look before I leap.”

“Tim, I shouldn’t say this but I’ve always thought that of all of you boys, you were the most like me; don’t get me wrong I see something of myself in each of you but you were clearly the one who’s personality is the most like mine. Dick is the acrobat and athlete, Jason has become a vigilante but he’s too focused on revenge, and before he came to us Damien was brought up to be an assassin. But you’ve always been the intellectual one, as much a thinker as a fighter. And you’re as much of a detective as me, perhaps even more.

“That’s why I got so angry before, I’ve taught you how to survive the worst this city has to offer; and more. For you to deliberately invite danger like this is disconcerting.”

‘Conner has a great deal of potential, after all look at who his progenitors were; but it’s just that, potential. He’s unpredictable and he may look like an exceptionally fit seventeen-year-old , but the reality is that he’s younger than Damien; with the strength of more than a dozen men.”

Tim replied in a very ‘Batman-like’ no-nonsense tone, “I know all of that, but I also know how much he cares about me and I care about him. He wouldn’t hurt me and I can’t hurt him by saying it has to be over between us.”

Bruce Wayne looked down with an almost unseen smile at his third oldest and put an arm around him in a rare show of paternal affection, “Alright, Tim you’ve convinced me, for now. Let’s go see how Superman and Conner are doing.”

Under his breath, almost as an afterthought; Bruce added, “Jeez Lois and Clark as in-laws I feel my headache coming back”

Tim quietly chuckled at his adoptive dad’s back as they walked up the long staircase to the mansion in silent thought instead of taking the high-speed lifts. They each need the extra time to think about what had been said.