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

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Chapter 6: Money || Dick & Conner.

Robin walked through one of the hallways of Mount Justice, eyes fixed on the cell phone between his hands. He was on his way to the lounge room when he noticed movement out of the corner of his eye. He glanced up, an easy smile immediately lighting up his face when he noticed who it was.

"Hey, Supey. You okay?"

Superboy flickered his eyes to the side briefly before looking back at Robin with a severe look. "I want to ask you something."

"Sure. What's up?"

"You know Batman."

Dick lifted an eyebrow behind his dark sunglasses. That was unexpected. "Yup. I do."

"The others say you have worked with him for a long time." The clone paused, waiting until the smaller boy nodded before continuing. "They say you know him really well."

Head tilted to the side and eyes narrowed slightly, Dick studied the other boy's face for a moment.

"Ah, I guess."

They fell silent, then, both standing in the middle of the rocky hallway. Superboy's brow was furrowed as he glared at the floor, hands clenched into fists at his sides. Dick bit his lip to stop himself from speaking, hands fidgeting with the phone he was holding. Being patient wasn't something he was very good at.

The small chiming noise coming from his phone seemed to pull Superboy out of his thoughts. Dick ignored it. It was from Babs, he knew. They had been texting.

"Kid Flash told me Batman sent the money to buy my clothes."

"Oh." Robin nodded slowly. "That should be right."

He remembered the days Superboy had spent at Wally's house while they all waited for Batman's verdict on whether or not they were allowed to work together as a team. Of course, Bruce wasn't just going to leave the Wests the sole responsibility of Superboy, even if he only helped monetarily.

The clone's brow furrowed deeper as he looked down at Robin. "You didn't know."

Dick shrugged nonchalantly, a smirk on his face. "He didn't tell me, but it makes sense. Batman always thinks of everything."

And that was true. Between the punishment for his disobedience and other misdeeds, (after a very long and eloquent scolding/lecture from both Bruce and Batman, and with a few proper remarks from Alfred) as well as all the worry and nervous energy coursing through his body while Batman pretty much locked himself up in the cave for 72 hours, he really hadn't thought a lot about Superboy, much less what he may need.

Trust Batman to think of the smallest details even when he was keeping an eye in Gotham and the rest of the world, investigating CADMUS and the Project Kr, keeping up with Wayne Enterprises and deliberating about the future of 4 young protégés of members of the Justice League.

Yep. That was the goddamn Batman.

"Why?"

"Why is he always thinking of everything? 'Cause he's Batman." Dick's trademark smirk widened.

Superboy shook his head, face starting to twist in anger. "No. Why did he send the money?"

"Uh, because you need money to buy stuff?" Dick sighed softly, taking pity on Superboy's super confused expression. "You only had that white bodysuit you were wearing when we found you, and it was already ripped so you couldn't keep using it. You're also a lot bigger than Wally so he couldn't just lend you some of his own clothes and you really needed clothes."

"But why?" The clone demanded, an almost desperate note in his voice. He was getting nowhere but there wasn't anyone else he could ask. Other than Batman, that is. But he didn't want to ask him. Batman was very intimidating, even if everyone said he was human.

"You mean besides knowing you were going to need it?" Superboy nodded energetically, relief flashing across his face at finally being understood. "Well. Batman is ... he's not very good with words. And he can be kinda scary most of the time. And seem like he's always mad. But he really, really likes to help people. So he helps them in any way he can.

"Send you money was a way he could help you then, so he did it."

The clone stood silent, looking at Robin.

"I guess it was kind of an apology too. For calling you 'it' when he first saw you."

That was a bit of a white lie. Dick was like 80% sure Batman still thought of Superboy that way, but what Bruce didn't know wouldn't hurt him, and Supes Junior looked like he really could use some positive reinforcement right now.

"It's a hum- it's a people thing." Dick paused to gather his thoughts and think of the simplest, easiest way to explain it. "It's very common for people -at least most people- to try to do nice things for other people, even if they don't really know them."

Superboy wasn't dumb. He understood the words Robin was saying and what they mean, but he couldn't wrap his head around the idea of people doing things for someone without expecting a benefit in exchange. Why would they do that? But most importantly, why had Batman helped him when he was just a weapon to use against Superman? He wasn't even a person. He was a clone.

Robin opened his mouth to say something else but just closed it again. Superboy's puzzled and lost expression would have been hilarious if the reasons behind it weren't so sad.

"Dude! What are you guys doing here?" Wally appeared at their sides in the blink of an eye, oblivious to the tense silence between them. "Come on! M'gann made cookies and she isn't letting me eat any of them if you guys aren't there too."

"Hurry up!" Wally called without turning back, already at the other end of the hallway. He was gone in a flash.

Dick smiled tentatively before sneaking a look at Superboy. The frown was gone from his face as he glanced in the direction Wally had disappeared.

"Should we go?"

"I guess."

"Come then, Supey. KF is going to come back to drag us if we don't hurry."

Rather than dash after KF like he normally would have, Robin walked at Superboy's side. They didn't speak again, and for once, Robin thought that may be a good thing.

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a/n: Thank you so much to everyone who's keeping up with this fic, even in spite of the long wait between chapters. I'm so glad you guys are enjoying this little fic so far! And thank you too for the prompts you've left me. I will try to come up with something good.

Also, this chapter was inspired by the Young Justice comic issue #0 "Stopover", so you could say this chapter could be canon, or at least canon compliant.

If everything goes according to plan the next chapter should have the prompt I mentioned before: Robin trying to convince Batman to let Superboy into the Batcave, so stay tuned.