The Next Step (Superbat, Fly With Me sequel)

1 - Meeting Damian's Girlfriend

    Bruce and Clark peek into Damian's room when they hear a girls laugh. They were just trying to get from the living room to the bedroom, but are both far too curious to not pry into the overly secretive teenagers life. A girl sits opposite Damian on the floor. She has purple hair and is wearing a lot of black.

    Damien sighs in annoyance as soon as they peek in. Waving them in, he introduces them, "Beloved, this is my father and step-father. Fathers, this is Raven." Clark holds out a hand and she stands, obliging him with a handshake. "Hello." Bruce nods to her with a smile. "It's so nice to meet you. Are you his girlfriend?" Damian huffs, irritated with either of his father's prying into his business. "Yes, she is. Which you no doubt knew. Now go away." 

    Raven rolls her eyes at Damian and smiles slightly, "It's not like they interrupted much, just titan business. I was about to leave anyway. My night to patrol." She kisses Damian's cheek and they whisper presumably loving things to each other before she  raises her voice and turns to the wall, "Azarath Metreon Zinthos!" A portal of swirling black and purple emerges from the white paint of Damian's bedroom wall. With a wave, she vanishes into it. And the portal disappears with her. 

    Clark eyes the now normal wall again, and then looks to Damian, who's staring with a blush lightly dusting his olive skin, at the same bit of wall. Bruce walks over and ruffles Damian's hair, "Use protection, be nice to her, and sleep good." He says, earning a glare from Damian. "Leave." he demands,. Earning a chuckle from them as they leave the room. 

    Bruce looks down at his engagement ring thoughtfully. "He's growing up so fast." Clark takes his hand, kissing it gently. "Still as bratty as ever though." Bruce grins at that. Finally they reach their room. Clark shuffles in place. "I had Perry recommend me to the Gotham paper, and I broke my lease. You still want me to move in, right?" Bruce chuckles at his silly alien, and locks the bedroom door behind them. "I did agree to marry you. Pretty sure that requires living together." Clark chews his lip, nodding, as Bruce begins backing him up to the bed. 

    Bruce lays him down, tenderly kissing him. Slowly unbuttoning his shirt and kissing every inch of skin as it's exposed. And then they hear a *BANG* as something explode.

  They race downstairs and find Tim and Alfred facedown on the floor. The bang apparently created by the microwave in pieces on the floor. Alfred is kneeling beside Tim, a handkerchief on his temple. Tim is blinking slowly and staying flat on the ground. Alfred seems to be suffering some temporary hearing loss, because he's very loud when he addresses Bruce and Clark. "Master Tim put his birdarang in the microwave instead of the hot pocket in his other hand." Seeming to register his volume, "Oh dear. Am I being loud?" By now Tim is able to sit up, head in his hands. "I'm so so sorry. I was tinkering with it because I wanted to alter the range of the explosion. And I got hungry, but I was too tired and mixed up my hands. I did this yesterday and tried to throw my phone in the trash instead of a piece of trash." 

    Jason and Dick had run in with Clark and Bruce, which no one noticed until Jason started laughing. Dick swats at him, and Jason attempts to smother his giggles. Clark drops to one knee to inspect Tim for injuries, "I'm okay. Alfred saw what I did, he couldn't stop me in time but he did knock me down out of the way of the shrapnel." This alarms Bruce and he turns to Alfred, looking him over. "Are you injured?" He checks Alfred's eyes making sure he hadn't sustained a head injury, while Alfred pulls the handkerchief from his head. It's soaked with blood. Bruce leads Alfred out to the first aid station in the Batcave. Calling out as he leaves, "Alfred has a minor head wound. It's just a cut. Get Tim some rest."

     Clark picks Tim up and starts trying to carry him to bed. "No! I'm fine! I still need to work on the birda-" Dick cuts him off. "Tim. You've been exhausted lately. You're a danger at home and on patrol. You need to put down the Red Robin stuff when you're being Tim and rest. If you're constantly trying to do both you're going to keep hurting people. You're lucky Alfred was only cut instead of killed." Tim glares and jumps out of Clark's arms. "But Bruce-" 

    "You're not Bruce!" Dick shouts and everyone freezes. Before he can apologize for raising his voice, Tim runs out. "This is gonna be great." He mutters sarcastically. "Well, chasing Tim is going to end with a fight and make him even less inclined to listen. So let's clean up this mess instead." Jason and Clark agree, not wanting to make Alfred clean it up with a fresh head wound. 

     Grabbing the broom Jason chooses the easiest chore, Dick looks through the cleaning supplies for something that'll work on scorch marks, and Clark flies the smoldering remains of the microwave to the dumpster. He drops it in, closes the lid and stops when he sees Tim driving off on his motorcycle. He hopes that Conner can talk some sense into him, and pulls out his phone. He shoots Conner a quick awkward text, "Tim is having some issues. He blew up a microwave. Talk some sense into him, please. Be safe you two." 

    Satisfied, he walks up to the manor slowly, enjoying the beautiful gothic architecture of the manor.