"If you ask nicely, Alfred will make you a shield out of a garbage can lid," Bruce smirked at Clark.
To Tony, he said, "Don't bring your portable harem into my sanctuary, thank you. It's bad enough I let you in here." Bruce tried to hide a grin, but couldn't quite managed it, turning it away instead.
"Bingley did have fun. And Darcy didn't; but Bingley always tried to make him, didn't he?" Bruce didn't hide his grin this time, though it was characteristically faint. "And they were protective of one another - you should really listen to me about that alcohol," he nodded toward Clark in agreement, knowing it wouldn't do any good. "Alcohol doesn't usually effect him."
Collapsing onto one end of the couch, Bruce picked up his slice of pie again to finish it off before trying the cake Tony brought. "It's very nice of you to share," he said with mock solemnity, knowing Tony was waiting for the acknowledgement of his largess. He really didn't share often, but to be honest, Bruce didn't know that he'd ever encountered that problem with Tony, himself. "Homemade?" he asked, an amused eyebrow lifting.
Bruce didn't look up at the computers again, but his face was serious now as he nodded in agreement. "He has his mother's coloring, but his eyes, the shape of his face... Tony, hit enter, you can see Talia. She was here the night I found him." Bruce had saved some images of her so that he could compare them to Damian beside his own.
"Damian's... adjusting." That was the best word for it. "He's been living under very different circumstances than ours, and he doesn't understand... emotion. Anger, disdain, things like that are second hand, but love, compassion, and so on, are foreign. Maybe not completely - I think he very much loves his mother and - and I - he just doesn't understand what that is. We've had what can only be described as power struggles, mostly between he and Alfred, where I've had to step in and assert my authority to remind him that I'm... Master, for lack of a better word.
"He's willing to do what he's told, whether he agrees or not, if only because he wants so badly to please me." Bruce shook his head." It's terrifying. I think he's afraid of being rejected by me if he somehow lets me down."