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

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Chapter 9: Utility Belt - Part 1 || Dick & Conner & Bruce.

Superboy and Robin were sitting on one of the couches in the lounge, the TV showing a movie Conner wasn't paying much attention to. Dick asked if he wanted to see something and he had just shrugged, so it had been up to him to pick something to see to pass the time.

It was just the two of them since Artemis had stayed back with Canary for one-on-one training, and M'gann was in the kitchen trying on a new recipe of something she had seen on one of the shows she liked to watch. Kaldur wasn't in the mountain today and Kid Flash had left some time ago with the promise to return.

Eyes on the screen, Dick groped for a particular compartment in his utility belt. Sure, he had seen the movie before, but it was really good. Besides, he didn't need to look down to know where was exactly what he was looking for anyway. Batman had made sure he could recite by memory alone the exact content of each compartment. After all, he had had to reach for a batarang or gas pellet without taking his eyes off of his opponent one more than one occasion.

Arms crossed across his chest, Superboy glared at the TV. A small robot of some sort was collecting garbage in a desert city filled with it. There was silence. Too much silence. Weren't stuff on TV supposed to have dialogue of some sort? Every time someone turned the TV on there was always so much noise.

There it was. A man's voice. He was listening to it when, out of the corner of his eye, he saw Robin take something small and round out of his belt and lift it to his mouth.

"What's that?"

Robin blinked at him. "This is a cookie."

"A cookie?"

"Yep. You know, a really tasty and sweet baked treat. They are made with flour, eggs, sugar and a lot of other stuff. These I have here are peanut butter cookies."

"I know what a cookie is." Superboy snapped. He hated it when others treated him as if he was dumb. He wasn't.

Robin shrugged, the smirk not leaving his face. He was too used to Superboy's outburst to react to them. And he was also Batman's partner, so, yeah. Show no reaction was their specialty. "Okay. Wanna try one?"

"I've eaten cookies before." And not just M'gann's. Kid Flash always had food around, and he liked cookies a lot. Thanks to him, he now knew not all cookies tasted like M'gann's (her cookies were good, but sometimes burned or not fully baked in the center) and that different kinds of cookies existed. He had even shared them with him a few times.

"No, no, no! You may have eaten other random, store-bought cookies of inferior quality -and Miss M's great cookies too- but you haven't tasted these delicious homemade cookies. These are simply the best cookies ever made in the whole world. The king of all cookies." Dick held the cookie in his hand up, almost reverently. "Here. You can eat this one."

Conner looked down at the cookie in his hand. It looked good, and smelled even better. He took a small bite first, before popping the rest into his mouth, chewing slowly. His powers extended to his taste buds, so he could agree with Robin these were by far the best cookies he had ever tasted.

"Well?" Dick asked, an eyebrow arched behind the mask covering his eyes.

"These are really good."

"I know, right? Of course, they taste even better freshly baked, but they're perfect even like this. Oh, wait," Dick reached for the other cookie he kept in his belt. "You can have this other too. It's cool, I can get more from Agent A later. Besides, you can't say no to these cookies."

Superboy accepted the cookie and swallowed it down in just one second. He couldn't imagine how these cookies could taste any better, but he said nothing. He looked back at Robin curiously.

"You keep cookies in your belt?"

"Yep," He said with a grin. "You never know when you may need a little snack. Especially with the super long and boring stakeouts Batman and I had to do a lot of the time."

"I thought it was just to keep weapons and things like that."

"Oh, I have plenty of cool stuff to fight baddies, but there's always space for something sweet. Especially Agent A's cookies."

Superboy eyed the thin yellow belt around Robin's waist. "What do you keep in there?"

The question gave Dick pause. He very deliberately kept his eyes away from the especial compartment that held the kryptonite.

There wasn't a direct rule about not telling anyone what was in his utility belt exactly, but he knew it wasn't a smart idea. Wally always joked about how B and him carried all kinds of crazy things around in their belts, but had never asked point black about it, not like Superboy. No one had.

Well, he didn't have to show him everything, right? Just a couple of things to satisfy his curiosity.

"I guess I can show you some of it. If you want?"

Superboy nodded, eyes alight with interest.

"Okay, let's see. First, I have batarangs. Lots of them and of different kinds too; I have plain ones," Dick said, taking a bat-shaped shuriken out of his belt and showing it to Superboy. "But there's also explosive and electric batarangs and a bunch others. Also, my grappling gun, smoke and gas pellets, lockpick and a taser. Zip ties, and a couple of handcuffs too, my cell phone and money."

"Why do you need money?" Conner couldn't imagine Robin going to buy something while in costume.

He shrugged. "You never know. I could need something I don't have, and I can't just steal it. Or, what if there was an emergency and I needed to use a payphone? I'll need coins for that."

"But you have a phone and your comm link."

"Well, yeah. But, what if my phone ran out of battery or something and my comm link was damaged during a fight? I'll need another way to contact someone."

"Oh." Conner blinked. He had heard Kid Flash joke many times about the Bats' paranoia and now he was starting to think maybe he was right.

"Hmm, I also carry a periscope, rebreather, binoculars, a spare mask and some glue-"

"Glue?"

Dick smirked. That was the reaction he had been expecting. "Yup. And tape too. I know they don't sound like anything particularly important to carry around, but you wouldn't believe how often I use them. They are very handy."

"How do you keep so many things in there?" That belt was too small for all that. As was Batman's too, and he must carry even more stuff than Robin did.

"Magic."

"Magic?"

"Yep. You know there are many magic users in the JL, right?" Dick went on without waiting for a reply. "Well, a few of them are Batman's friends, so they helped."

Superboy looked down at the utility belt, eyebrows furrowed. He knew he wasn't as good as Superman -and never would be- so he needed to find ways to make up for it somehow. Maybe this could help.

Kryptonite robbed him of his powers, just as Superman's, but it still didn't have the same effect. As long the kryptonite wasn't only a few inches away from his body, it didn't cause him the excruciating pain it seemed to cause Superman. He felt pain, sure, and it grew stronger the closer the kryptonite got, but he could handle it. Still, it left him helpless. But maybe, if he had some kind of weapons like Robin's to throw at bad guys, and at least keep them away from him, the others wouldn't have to worry about covering him.

He may still be out of the fight, but he would be able to hold his own while the others kept fighting and worried about themselves.

"Hey, B. I just convinced Supey of the advantages of having a utility belt. Can he have one?"

Startled, he snapped his head up, turning to look where Batman was standing a couple of feet away behind the couch. Even with his super hearing, he hadn't heard him approach. "What? That's not-"

"Come on now, Supey. You were considering it; don't lie to Batman and Robin. That's totally not asterous."

Superboy scowled, but didn't say anything. He didn't want to lie.

"See!?" Dick cried out, turning back to his mentor. "He totally wants one! Can we give him one?"

Batman looked down at his protégé before turning to Superboy, his expression blank behind the white lenses of his cowl. "If Superboy wishes to, we can discuss the issue later. You have a new mission."

"But Kal and KF aren't here," Robin pointed out.

"Kaldur arrived moments ago, and Kid Flash has been notified and should be here soon."

"Alright. Guess we'll have to finish watching Wall-E another time, then," Robin said with a cheeky grin.

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a/n: Wow! I still cannot believe how far this fic has come. Seriously, thank you so much everyone for all the favoriting and following, but especially the reviews and the guests, with whom I have no way to talk back. It makes my day hearing from each of you with every chapter.

Yes, more Robin-Superboy interaction. I had so much fun writing them the last time that I decided to try again. And of course I had to mention Alfred's cookies again. They are legendary. Also, this chapter is dedicated to blue-hart, who a while ago told me she/he would like to see Superboy with a utility belt. I know it's not exactly Superboy with a utility belt here, but I hope you liked it anyway.