"Jarvis?"
"Yes, sir?"
"Why do you suppose my seventeen year old son has a cape and mask in the bottom of his closet?"
"I don't know Sir; I'm sure if you were to ask him, Master Blaine would be equally as interested to know why you were searching through the bottom of his closet in the first place."
"Shut up, I'm his father, I have a right to."
"I think your son may view such an act as an invasion of privacy."
"I'm sorry, Jarvis, do you have children? No, you're an AI. Don't play the high and mighty card with me."
"Yes, sir."
"What am I supposed to do, Bruce? He's running around superhero-ing behind my back; what if he gets hurt? What is he gets killed? I have to say something, right? I have to make him stop. I'll tell him to stop. I'll just ground him forever."
"Well, you don't actually have proof that he is superhero-ing, for a start-"
"Why else would he have a costume lying around?"
"Don't get me wrong, Blaine is quite possibly the sweetest kid in existence, he's polite and clever and he has your sense of humour and all that, but he's a bit… eccentric."
"You mean he's weird, right?"
"Not bad weird. I'm merely suggesting that a superhero costume might not be that outlandish."
"And if he is going all vigilante?"
"What can you do? Tell him 'it's too dangerous' and then carry on being Iron Man and putting yourself in danger?"
"That's different; I'm not a kid."
"Peter is. You haven't made him stop being spider-man."
"Peter isn't my kid, I couldn't make him stop."
"I'm sure you could."
"Yeah, well, Peter can hold his own in a fight. Peter isn't shorter than most guys his age or more likely to be targeted to get to me and Peter wasn't hospitalised because some thugs decided to beat him up in a parking lot because they didn't like that he was gay and-"
"Tony," Bruce interrupted gently, "It's okay."
"I don't want him to get hurt, Bruce," Tony sighed, sinking into a chair, "I can't let anything happen to him because I wouldn't speak up."
"So talk to him. You Starks are stubborn but you aren't stupid. He knows you just want to keep him safe."
"Okay. Okay, I will. See, you do have the temperament for this therapy crap, you liar."
"Dad, you're kind of frightening me," Blaine said nervously, chewing his bottom lip.
"Right, yeah," Tony ran a hand through his hair, "Uh, I'm not really sure how I'm supposed to… uh-"
"Please tell me you aren't trying to give me the sex talk."
"What?" Tony's eyes widened, "No, God no. Uh, do I… do I need to? Is that something I should be doing?"
"No, please, God, never."
"Right. Yeah, no, that's not it."
"Then what-"
"I was going through your stuff. I know, invasion of privacy and all that shit, I'd say I'm sorry but I'm not."
"And?" Blaine prompted with a frown.
"And I found the cape and the mask and-"
"Oh!" Blaine's eyes lit up, "You mean my Nightbird stuff?"
"Nightbird?" Tony repeated, "What sort of a name is Nightbird?"
"It's my superhero identity for Dynamic Duets week."
"Your superhero- run that by me again?"
"Dynamic Duets. It's the theme in Glee Club this week. Sam and I did Heroes, you know, by David Bowie? What… what's funny? I don't get it."
"Oh, Blainers," Tony shook his head and grinned, "Bruce was right; you are weird."
"What? Why does Bruce think I'm weird?"
"Never change, kid," Tony laughed, ruffling Blaine's hair and walking away. "God, Nightbird."
"I don't- Dad? Dad, come back, I- Dad?"
