The cave was silent. It was uncomfortable and left an uneasy feeling in Bruce's gut. The cave should never be this quite. He casually scanned his surroundings, eyes never lingering too long. He was alone. It had been quite some time since the cave had been so empty, he didn't like it. Thankfully, before he could lose his mind, a familiar sound of laughter and talking filled his ears. He could finally allow himself to relax a bit at the sound.
"Excuse you! I could totally beat Spider-Man in an acrobatics contest" Dick protested loudly. Bruce huffs at the reminder of his current dilemma. The first superheroes of New York. They popped up only a month ago and were already making a splash.
The first to hit the scene was "Ironman," he was completely human. He was extremely good in combat, too good almost. Only a few days later came "Spider-man," he was a meta. While Ironman was a better fighter, Spider-man was a natural when it came to ground level superheroing. Then only two days later came "Vision" and "Ms. Peale," both dropped in at the same time. Vision was most certainly an android, though more human-like than most. Ms. Peale, on the other hand, gave him the most red flags. She moved like an assassin. This was troubling for many reasons, most of all that no one else in their group seemed to do so as well.
Bruce knew they were a group, the timeline in their debut proved it but their closeness and casual banter cemented it.
Bruce had spent hours studying them and trying to see if they were a threat, trying to see if they would fall at the first sign of darkness. Unfortunately, he was unsure. Ms. Peale had no doubt already been through hardship but it was unclear whether it made her stronger or closer to breaking. Vision was a machine, so unless his programming was on the unlawful side they were safe. Ironman was a textbook case narcissistic but something told him that there was more to this.
So far only Spider-man seemed to be genuinely good, though that could be his fondness for brightly colored children speaking. Nonetheless, he already had contingency plans for all of them should they prove that they were a danger.
"I don't know, his superpower literally makes him boneless. How are you gonna beat that?" Tim tries to reason. Dick was having none of that though.
"Still better," Dick says unreasonably. Tim just sighs, his thoughts already turning to a different aspect of Spider-man.
"He does have a better ass though," Tim says absentmindedly. Both Bruce and Dick choke slightly, their wheezing quickly turning into coughing. Bruce recovers quicker but is unable to say anything to his adopted son. Thankfully Dick is there to pick up the slack.
"Wow Timmy, what a way to come out," Dick says breathlessly. Tim looks up in confusion before his cheeks start to match the red of his uniform. He had been unaware that he had said that out loud.
"I can be straight and still admire the artwork that is Spider-man's ass" Tim tries to defend, cheeks growing hotter at the words that come out of his traitorous mouth.
"He's too old for you," Bruce finally says. Tim's squawk of betrayal is ignored as Bruce gets up and leaves the cave, determined to leave the conversation with it.
The "You know it's okay if you aren't straight" is just a distant backdrop that Bruce is happy to entrust to his eldest son.
