"There's one thing I don't understand."
Sitting cross-legged in a window seat, Red Robin Tim awkwardly adjusted the tightness of his bow tie while directing a question at Shane, who was holding his phone diagonally ahead of him.
"We're going to a superhero party. Shouldn't we be wearing our own superhero suits?"
Shane lowered his phone and glanced at Rachel beside him, who was wearing a dark evening gown and maintaining a nearly adult physique.
Strictly speaking, Rachel had suggested the idea to him. Shane had also wanted to see her embrace something new, so he had exercised a little of his authority as their instructor and outfitted every member of the Teen Titans except Donna Troy in fairly formal attire.
So he began dismissing Tim's objections.
"Enough. To make sure you could all attend this party looking respectable, I, your instructor, not only dipped into my private funds and spent an entire day getting expensive formalwear rushed for you, but also chartered an intercity bus."
Shane turned back and pointed at Tim.
"You should be feeling more gratitude, not asking more questions."
Tim immediately rolled his eyes.
"By your private funds, do you mean that enormous sum Batman transferred to your account before he disappeared? Or do you actually mean a little nest egg you saved up through your own hard work after arriving on Earth?"
"Hey! Hey! The source of the money isn't important, okay? What I want you to see is that I've genuinely made some changes, and that I care about all of you." Shane turned back and picked up his phone again. Lately, Rachel had been enthusiastically getting him to sign up for all sorts of social media apps, setting their matching couple profile pictures to the photo they had hastily taken together in their