The mission had been long, but fairly uneventful. A seven-hour stakeout of a drug trafficking circle resulted in the capture of a shipment of hallucinogens similar to Scarecrow's fear gas. Robin had a paper due at school the next day, Kaldur was joining Aquaman for a separate assignment, and the girls had taken Kid Flash to the movies with them. So it was left to Superboy to deliver the video footage and packet of notes they had put together. He didn't mind, the sudden influx of free time in his life was something he still hadn't gotten used to.

He had been hoping that Superman would be the one to come and pick up the intel, giving him another chance to talk. yet he felt his hopes crumble when he found himself standing in front of a man in black instead of red and blue. It had been over a week since he had so much as seen Superman, who had been avoiding the base as much as possible.

"He's not coming," said Superboy, disappointed. There was no need to specify the "he" in question, and the name caught in his throat every time. It had been like this for weeks, the hope, and then the disappointment.

"No, he's not." Bruce fought to keep his own features carefully neutral as Superboy's face fell, his shoulders drooping and his lower lip jutting out in a childish pout. It was almost... Cute.

There was something about the boy that intrigued him. He was so easy to read, raw in a way none of the other heroes were. He never hid his emotions, every thought was written clearly on his face. He didn't even have a secret identity. What you saw was what you got and for a man who guarded his own identity from even other heroes, it was somehow amazing.

"You should stop dwelling on him. You might be his clone, but you're not him. There's no reason for your whole life to focus on him." The boy's obsession with the Man of Steel was something that never ceased to bother him for some reason. Seeing yet another person worship Superman blindly—or maybe it was Superboy's hopeless devotion to someone who didn't care about him at all.

Superboy simply nodded and held out the manila envelope in his hand. "Here. Robin organized all the info we got off the drug circle. He's off doing some homework."

Batman nodded and took the packet. "Good. I don't know how many times I had to tell him to spend more time focusing on his school work. he needs a good education, fighting crime comes second to that." He paused, a small frown crossing his face. "I should probably evaluate you as well. We still don't know how well Cadmus taught you. We interrupted the G-gnomes before they could finish educating you. Tutoring might be needed."

Superboy shrugged. He knew he wasn't as smart as Wally but he wasn't stupid, just less informed. But he wasn't about to say no to the Batman. So far he had been the only member of the league to really take an interest in him, and try and help him get along without a real mentor. The older hero was also his best bet of somehow making contact with Superman.

"Be ready by seven tomorrow morning. I'll come by and do some preliminary evaluations, see what we need to work on. I don't want you falling behind. Maybe I could get Kid Flash to tutor you…"

Superboy looked up at the Dark Knight. He didn't want to be passed off onto Kid Flash. He knew Wally was smart, but this was his chance to get closer to Batman, and he wasn't about to let it go, even if it was a second choice to his real hero. "Couldn't you just teach me? Wally is smart, but he can be a little... Scattered. He might move to quick for me."

Bruce nodded, secretly pleased even though he wasn't sure why. "Fine. I ll be the one who works with you."