"Yeah," Dick nodded, still smiling. "I guess if you don't know me yet, the Titans haven't formed yet, but that was always just an excuse for me to hang out with my friends. When it was just me and Batgirl there was always this low-key struggle to figure out who was the leader. That's the problem in pairs. Someone's got to take the lead more often than not. In the Titans it was all about collaboration and filling in gaps in each others' abilities. I got to prop my friends up, show them what they were capable of doing. I guess the Justice League is kind of like that too, but there's a lot more punching each other happening there. Egos, y'know?"
Not that egos didn't get in the way sometimes with the Titans, or that they never fought amongst themselves. They did. And they did it a lot. But they were still there because they genuinely loved each other and all the bullshit stopped once they were in a fight. Maybe it wasn't meant to be easy, though. If it was easy, it wouldn't mean as much. The struggle, the lines each one of them added to the story, that was what made it worth it.
"Oh yeah, I know," he chuckled, brushing his hair back away from his face. "There are people who are never going to like superheroes, that's just the way things are. But the name Superman carries this respect with it. People know that when you show up they're going to be safe. At least that's how it is in my world, and I really hope that it goes the same way in yours. People deserve that. You deserve that. As far as I've ever seen, you've always surpassed that goal." But it may be those rose-colored glasses he wore when it came to Clark. The weird thing was that he'd never felt comfortable having this conversation with him. And maybe it was because Kal was so much closer to his age and looked like someone he would have been friends with regardless. But it was easy to talk to him.