"M'gann is going on a weekend trip with her socials class to this museum fair in Plymouth..."
"Is that why you called us here?"
"No. Superboy and her are in the same class, he... held out because he didn't think anyone would sign his permission slip, so he can't go on the trip." Dinah explained with a sigh. Even if she could have signed the slip, she wasn't sure if Conner was ready to go on an overnight field trip. "I don't think he should be left alone at the mountain for the weekend..."
"You aren't saying what I think you are..." Tim asked.
"Black Canary can't take him this time." Bruce reasoned. "We have more than enough people to keep an eye on him."
Damian scoffed, crossing his arms. "I thought you didn't trust Superboy."
"He's proven himself trustworthy."
"You just like him because Clark doesn't." Tim guessed.
Bruce narrowed his eyes. "He's a child. A child with Emotional Dysregulation, and abandonment issues. We can't leave him unattended for an entire weekend, It's not safe for him."
"Just don't expect me to trust him." Damian snapped, he knew his father would regret this.
Tim was more open to the idea than his brother. "Well if you trust him, and Dick trusts him, he can't be too bad, right?"
—————————————————————————————————
"Dude, this is awesome! You get to stay with us."
"I don't know if I want to. I've only lived with M'gann."
"Trust me, it'll be fun!" Dick said, leading the way to the zeta beam. "I have three brothers who'll be around this weekend: Damian, Tim, and Jason. Damian is kind of a jerk, but he won't beat you up if you don't irritate him. Tim is kind of a nerd, but he's probably gonna be the nicest. Jay sucks, try not to let him get to you, He's friends with Roy, so if he's insufferable, that's why."
"Stop." Conner said. "That's too much."
Dick sighed. "Sorry, was I overwhelming you? My bad." He grabbed the Super's wrist and guided him through the zetabeam into a cold, dark cave. "Let me introduce you to Alfred."
"Is this the batcave?" Conner asked, looking around.
"Yeah, but you're not really supposed to be down here, we're just using the zetabeam." Dick, still holding his friend's wrist, lead him up to an elevator. "Trust me, you'll like Alfred. And if you don't, he'll like you for sure. He's cool, nice, and very socialist. Kind of like Black Canary."
Conner didn't think Alfred was anything like Black Canary: he was old, identified as male, and wasn't very athletic-looking at all.
"Alfie, this is Conner." Dick waved between the clone and the old man wiping down the counters. "Conner, this is Alfred."
"Hello." Conner said, gripping his backpack strap with the free hand that wasn't holding his friend's for support.
"The young master Kent who's staying over the weekend." The old man regarded him sternly. "I have prepared a room for your friend."
"Awesome, come on, Conner." Dick and Alfred lead Conner into a foyer and up a wide staircase. Conner started to realize that Dick's house was a bit bigger that Wally's.
In Wally's house there were two bedrooms. Conner wondered if Dick's house had two bedrooms too. Maybe Dick's house had even more than two...
"I'll leave you boys to get settled." Alfred said, leading the two to a large bedroom; clean and Simple, with fresh sheets, a wardrobe, and a fair-sized window facing East to let the sun in. It was almost as if the elderly butler specifically chose the room for a solar-powered kryptonian boy.
"Great choice, Alfie!" Dick called after him, looking over the room. "I think you'll like it, Con." He slipped his hand out of Conner's, even though the Clone didn't look ready to let go of him. "My room is just down the hall— I'll put a sign on my door so you can find it. There's also an on-suite bathroom in the empty room next door, and a general one opposite the stairway landing."
Conner stared back. "Next door which way?"
"Don't worry, I can help if you get lost." The bird promised. "Unpack your stuff, I'll come back to check on you."
"Okay..."Conner looked around the now empty room. He slid the bag off his back and removed the articles he'd packed: a shirt, boxers, his school binder, a mechanical pencil, his toothbrush, and a half-worn phone charger.
He'd have to ask Batman for his medication, he knew why; His donor had recently tried to force him into a crippling addiction, but that didn't mean Conner liked having to run it up the entire league every time that he wanted a headache pill (not that those would work on him).
"Ooh, SuperBaby is here already."
Conner turned to see a person leaning in the door way. The person presented in a masculine way, and was about a head shorter than Conner. The person was in his late teens-early twenties; had scruffy black-ish hair with a a few inches of white at the front, and irises that matched a #4890A8 hex code. He didn't know what that colour was called.
"Who are you?"
"Bold words since you're in MY house."
Conner still didn't know who this was, so he repeated his question. "Who are you?"
"Guess."
That didn't answer his question either! "Who Are You!" He growled, eyes locked on this figure who seemed to think he was playing with Conner.
"Wow, Dick really wasn't kidding about your lil temper, huh?"
"You know Robin?"
"Oh, if you even knew..." He laughed. "I WAS Robin. And now I'm his brother— for all my sins..."
That made Conner angry. It made no sense! Robin had #008ECC irises, and Batman— his father— had #0E4D92 irises, and now #4890A8!?! Not to mention that they all had different skin colours.
"You Can't be related." Conner said.
"Oh really? Why don't you think he's my brother?"
"Both of you, and your father, display the same recessive trait. For that to be so common in a small family it requires much inbreeding, but you all have different skin colours and different variations on the same trait, which can't be passed down in that way if inbreeding is so heavily involved—"
"Where do you get off calling me inbred, cloneboy? You're the result of interspecies breeding. You're basically the result of bestiality..."
"Jay! Jesus!" The offender was cut off by his alleged 'brother'. "Conner, I'm— guah! JASON!" He growled, shoving his big brother as hard as he could.
"Jason?" Conner asked. "You said Jason was your brother?"
"He is!"
"See, beast boy?! I told you!" Jason scoffed, resisting his brothers attempts to banish him.
"But he's NOT your brother!" Conner growled, gripping his hands into fists. "Its not genetically possible!"
"We aren't related." Dick replied, cocking an eyebrow. That confused Conner even more! He thought siblings were two or more children or offspring having one or both parents in common; a brother or sister. So how could they be brothers without being related?!
He voiced his concerns: "How could you be brothers without being related?!"
"Wow, He's a bit younger than you told us." Jason turned to him, leaning forwards and speaking clearly as if addressing a small child. "We were adopted."
Conner tried to wrap his head around the verb. "Like how I adopted Wolf?"
"Yeah, conner." Dick replied.
"You can do that with people too?"
"Pretty much." Jason replied, he turned, lowering his voice to a stage whisper. "Dick, I thought you said he was in highschool."
"Get lost, Rodrick." Dick replied, shoving him off down the hall. Great, now Jason had already confused Conner, after he'd only been in the manor for four minutes.
—————————————————————————————————
At Dinner, Conner got a good look at the other two Robins, who had #78C0F0 and #489090 eyes respectively, which confused him a lot, since the one biological sone of Batman had the most different iris colour.
"Hi, you must be Conner. Dick talks about you a lot." The smaller one held out his hand. "I'm Tim."
"Hello."
Tim lowered his hand, unshaken. "That's Damian."
"Hello."
Damian just shot a look at him and sat down.
Conner was also confused as to why Alfred didn't sit with them to eat.
The he inspected the food and tried a little. He didn't Know what food should taste like, but it didn't taste like anything he and M'gann had scraped together. It tasted good. He ate slowly, watching the others eat as he did. No one was really talking.
Everyone always talked over food at the mountain. Most of the time they ate while watching TV , or doing homework, or anything else. They rarely even ate at the table.
Finally, Conner broke the silence: "Are you going to adopt me too?"
Batman nearly spat up his drink.
Tim choked on his dinner, coughing violently. Damian glowered at the clone and Jason, in shock, started laughing.
Dick felt his face turning red. Seeing his friends helpless confusion as he looked for an answer, he forced himself to butt in. "He doesn't understand what that means! He didn't mean it like that!"
"I know what it means." Conner replied in the same way he did when Black Canary began spontaneously apologizing to the league for him.
"He just learnt you— or, people— can adopt other people, He's just—"
"I adopted Wolf by taking him home. You adopted Dick and all his brothers by taking them home. And now you've taken me home too." Conner explained. "And Robin and Kaldur and wally took me home from Cadmus, does that mean they adopted me?"
"No, kid." Tim said on instinct. "There... is intent to adopt, not just taking people home. There's usually a lot of paperwork and effort to go through if you're going to adopt a child."
"But Robin's not a child. We argue about not being children a lot."
"Legally, if you're under eighteen, you are a child." The eldest offspring said, not even looking up.
Conner frowned. "Why does it have a negative connotation if its just a fact?"
"I dunno." Jason said, leaning over the table. "Maybe because the wittle children can't take care of themselves and need the grownups to help them?"
"Jay, shut up." Tim shoved him back into his seat. "Basically, you can only legally adopt children under eighteen."
"But all children are under eighteen..." Conner was confused by everything these people said. "How hard is it for me to get adopted."
"Well, you aren't a legal citizen, so logistically, someone could just take you home." Dick explained.
That left Conner with less understanding than he had at the start of the meal.
—————————————————————————————————
Dick was exhausted after patrol, Friday nights have a LOT of activity... he crawled into Pyjamas and lay in bed, staring at the ceiling.
He had to get up in the mourning... he wasn't ready for tomorrow yet.
His eyes shut, and he started drifting to sleep. He heard the faint creak of the door opening. Bruce, probably; he liked to check in on him at night.
The floor boards groaned; huh, Bruce didn't usually walk into his room... he probably thought Dick was asleep and was coming to sit on the edge of his bed. Dick was a bit too old for that, but he'd just pretend to be asleep.
The closet door opened: closet? What the hell dod bruce want in his—
Oh.
He pretended not to notice Conner shut himself in the closet. If Conner needed it, he could manage.