Disclaimer: I don't own Young Justice or any of its characters. Really, I don't.

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Chapter 2: Super Hearing || Bruce & Conner.

Batman stood in the doorway, blue eyes narrowed behind his lenses and cowl tilted ever so slightly to the side as he took in the sight before him.

Superboy was sitting on the couch in the entertainment room, elbows resting on his knees and head cradled between his hands. The TV was turned on, but the clone didn't seem to be paying attention to it. Just as he wasn't paying attention to his surroundings since he hadn't noticed Batman's presence.

"Superboy." Batman made his usual growl softer as to not startle him. He needn't have bothered. The sudden noise still made Superboy jump, turning to look at him with wary eyes. "What are you doing here?"

The clone fidgeted in his seat, fighting the urge to get up and stand straight to face Batman. He was allowed to go anywhere in the mountain. Red Tornado and Black Canary had told him that, so he shouldn't be in trouble for being here. He reached for the remote, turning the TV off. "I, uh. I couldn't sleep."

He waited, his gaze never leaving the clone, making it clear he was expecting a better answer than that.

Superboy lowered his eyes, brow furrowed deeply as he glared at the floor. He should have stayed in his room, just like he did every night. But with M'gann away from Mount Justice tonight, he thought he could stay here without being bothered. He hadn't expected Batman to be here so late and he had other things on his mind and hadn't checked if the place was really empty aside from Red Tornado.

"It's my super hearing," Superboy admitted grudgingly after a long time, knowing Batman wasn't going to leave. "It's- I can't control it fully sometimes."

Bruce's eyes narrowed further and pressed his lips into a thin line, barely stopping himself from striding toward the clone and demand to know why he had withheld that information from them.

"What is that supposed to mean?" He growled after a moment, taking slow, measured steps to close the distance.

"It's not- I'm not putting anyone at risk! I'm not! It's never happened while we're fighting or training." Superboy looked at Batman pleadingly, knowing the man could pull him out of the team without hesitation. He added in a lower tone, "it only happens when I go to sleep. I can control it as long as I'm awake. I can do it!"

It made sense, Bruce thought as he watched him. While he was awake, even subconsciously, there was a part of his brain that kept control of his hearing; that filtered the sounds. But when he fell into a deep sleep, even that part of his brain relaxed, tampering with the mechanism. It was ... fascinating. But also a problem.

"How long has this been happening?" Batman asked after a moment of silence, looking at him straight in the eye.

Superboy considered lying for a moment before discarding it. He probably would know if Superboy was lying. "Almost since I came here. But it doesn't happen every day," he added as an afterthought.

Bruce's eyebrows furrowed behind the cowl as he watched Superboy. This was exactly why having a mentor working closely with the kids was important. It was necessary. Even if Superboy hadn't spoken about this, the clone's mentor would have noticed something was wrong. If the clone even had a real mentor. He knew he would have noticed before if it had been Dick. He scowled quietly. Stupid hard-headed Kryptonians.

He racked his brain, trying to remember if Clark had ever mentioned something similar to this but came up blank. He would need to call him as soon as he got back to the cave and get him to come over if he wasn't too busy. And if Clark didn't have an answer perhaps they could install some low-intensity red sun lamps on Superboy's room.

Depriving him of his powers while he slept wasn't the best idea, but it would help while he thought of something better.

"It's not a big deal." Superboy blurted out to fill the silence, shifting uncomfortably under Batman's deep gaze. "I don't need much sleep anyway."

"It is a big deal, and we'll find a way to fix it." Bruce saw a fleeting look of relief cross the clone's face at his words, yet there was a soft glimpse of sorrow in his blue eyes. It wasn't hard to know what- who had caused that reaction.

"Follow me," Batman instructed, turning to leave the room without waiting to see if Superboy would follow him. He knew he would.

Superboy walked after the dark figure in bewilderment, dread filling him with every step he took. Batman said he would help him, right? So he wouldn't pull him out of the team or dispose of him. Would he?

He guided Superboy to the training room, turning around to watch the clone hover hesitantly just by the entryway, without making any move to step inside.

"Exhausting yourself both mentally and physically might help you get a few more hours of sleep at least." Or so Bruce hoped. It was worth a try either way. And it could also help pull the clone's thoughts away from the hearing issue. And the Superman one too. At least for a short while.

Superboy stepped slowly inside, looking warily at Batman as he came to stand before him.

Batman gave a curt nod, motioning for Superboy to follow his lead. "Alright. Let's start with a warm-up routine."

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a/n: I was a bit unsure on whether or not I should have Bruce thinking of Superboy as 'the clone', but considering this wasn't too long after they found him I think it was in character. And I would like to know what you think about this!

I'm not an expert on Superman/Superboy powers so I pretty much went along with what made sense to me here (about Superboy losing control of his hearing while sleeping and Batman's idea about exhaustion helping him sleep), so I hope it does to you too. I also don't have a specific reason for Bruce to be alone at Mount Justice so late, except because I needed him there. So for the purpose of this story, he was fixing, upgrading or just doing something Bat-like in there ;)

And of course, thank you all for the wonderful reviews! And for favoriting and following this fic too. I'm so happy to get such a nice welcome here.