Robin one shot part 3!

Mess with him and you mess with me

Then on Friday, his boss gave him the worst assignment. Gala duty. Everyone hated gala duty because it meant talking to the most stuck up of stuck up. Then it was revealed the gala was in Gotham which made the assignment even worse because there was an increased likelihood of being kidnapped or something else horrible. He wasn't as apprehensive as his peers about it, seeing it more like an inconvenience rather than life-threatening. Lois was still mad at him and refused to accompany him to the gala. His boss refused to pay for his transport thereafter a meme was sent to his inbox, reportedly passed on from a coworker who received it from Clark. Someone was poisoning his relationships with people and he had no idea who it was. 

Clark flew to Gotham but tried to keep his presence undercover. His wallet was still missing so that meant he couldn't pay for transport nor could he get a new suit which he assumed would be talked about by every guest he interviewed. He attended the gala fight minutes later than planned thanks to having to change out of his suit in a dingy alley with at least five rats scuttling about. When he entered the hall, all the good guests had been snapped up by other reporters and for a moment he thought this night would be a wash as they told their good gossip to rival papers but then he heard a voice. "Clark, what a surprise! What're you doing here?" Dick asked with a smile. Thank God for the little acrobat. He let out a relieved sigh that he'd have someone to make some meaningful conversation with. He'd have some juicy stories he could use to get back in his boss's good favour. 

"I got put on gala duty," he explained. 

"Trouble in paradise?" the teen asked, taking a sip of his white grape juice. It'd been put in a champagne glass to give it some semblance of class. His drink of choice didn't have Clark's attention though. What had his attention was the knowing gaze he was getting. It wouldn't have been enough to make him suspicious had Dick just teased him but it wasn't in a teasing tone. Dick sent him a smirk that made his skin crawl and finished the last of his drink. He placed it on the table and glanced over to where his mentor stood with a group of billionaires. Bruce gave him a nod. "I think you and I need to have a little conversation. Let's go outside, shall we?" He was already walking by the time Clark caught the tone he used and swiftly followed after. There was humiliation in being pulled aside by someone so small and young but this wasn't Dick he was dealing with. No, he was now dealing with Robin without his mask. He was well and truly screwed.

They walked over to a large water fountain where Dick made himself comfortable whilst Clark was quite the opposite. He couldn't sit down and stood above the teen to maintain some sort of dominance in their interaction. It didn't intimidate the acrobat one bit though. "What's going on?" he asked. A dark look overtook Dick's features that made him look considerably older than he actually was. He'd only seen that look a handful of times and each time was followed by a beat down either verbally or physically. Given that there was no glowing green rock in his back pocket and he was being confronted at a gala, the latter wasn't on the table. That didn't mean he'd leave unscathed though because the verbal assault was still on the table. 

"What's going on is a taster session. You've experienced but a fraction of what I'm capable of when given the right push and this time, I wasn't even trying. Half of the things I did before I went to bed or alongside homework."

"I don't understand."

"You wouldn't, would you?" Dick stated. He glanced at his nails, picking the dirt from beneath his nails. "I'm a very practical person, Clark. When I see injustice, however small or big it is, I have to do something about it. Even when I see it come from someone I once looked up to. It's rather painful to say that in the past tense because you were quite the uncle figure to me." The super narrowed his gaze but didn't question the statement. "Now, I'll be decent by giving you a solution here because you're clearly dimwitted enough to get yourself in this situation in the first place. You need to apologise to Connor for everything you've said." Clark let out a laugh but that was decidedly the wrong thing to do because it just pissed the young teen off. "I can make Lois leave you, I can get you fired, erase your social security number and put you on every type of offender registry there is in as long as it takes to eat a croissant. You'd rather I do that than apologize?"