What you See and What You Don't
Dick lay sprawled out on the concrete floor, the cold stone pressing into his cape covered back.
The ceiling hadn't changed for the last 97 hours, and, neither had he.
Well, that's not entirely true; he had grown hungry in his resting. But he wasn't ready to feed quite yet.
His ears detected the sound of boots resonating off the floor, from somewhere deep within the manor. If he focused, he could tell just where those footsteps where and where they were headed. Probably.
He already knew whom they belonged to; Wally was the only one who lived with him now.
Not long after, Dick realised they were heading to his bedroom.
The door swung open, oddly silent on its hinges, and Wally swept into the room, the scent of bison following him around like a bee to nectar.
It was sweet like nectar, too, and had Dick been there for another 29 hours, he might have jumped the lad right there and then, just to suckle at his clothing.
But, he hadn't, and so he could control himself. Even if his hunger was increasing.
"Dude," Wally whined, thumping ungraciously next to Dick, "You haven't moved in days.What are you even doing?"
"I don't know any more." Dick mumbled, throwing an arm callously over his face.
Wally frowned, lying on his side and leaning his face on an arm, facing Dick. "This isn't like you, man, c'mon - what's biting you?"
Dick cast Wally a glare through his fingers, his eyes sharp. "Not. Funny." He growled, before wiping his arm off and mirroring Wally's position.
Wally chuckled, "It was a little funny." He frowned once more and tensed a little when he noticed Dick had started to worry his bottom lip. "What? What is it? Has Bruce made contact with you again? 'Cos, I swear, if he's said anything-"
"It wasn't Bruce," Dick cut him off abruptly, eager to defend his changer. Wally's posture relaxed.
"Oh. Right, good. Phew." Dick noticed that Wally seemed mighty relieved about his mood having nothing to do with Bruce- in fact…
"You're afraid of Bruce." Dick's tone was playful, and there was a mischievous light in his eyes.
"What?! Hah, no way of course I'm not, okay maybe I am a little bit. But just a bit!" Dick's laugh was like a bark, but he couldn't belittle Wally for his fear. It was completely rational.
Wally gave him a playful shove, shaking his head.
Dick's smile faded slowly, until there was nothing left but a small line and saddened eyes.
"Don't…" He started, struggling for the right words. His brow crinkled, and Wally, impulsively, reached a hand over to Dick's face and smoothed the porcelain like skin over.
Dick's eyes travelled up to look at Wally's thumb, which was still pressed against his forehead. It was just as cold as the floor, if not colder. He'd stopped trying to differentiate temperatures long ago.
As long as they weren't hot; he didn't care. Didn't have a reason to care.
Wally smiled a dainty little smile that showed a tiny gap of white teeth, "You'll get frown lines if you keep doing that," He joked, and his thumb lingered for a moment longer before he pulled it back.
Dick rolled his eyes at the cheap shot, but he swore the place where Wally's thumb had just been was on fire.
Maybe he should go eat something, before his senses got completely muddled up. Because Wally burning him was completely impossible - if he'd rubbed garlic or holy water onto him, that would have meant Wally would have had it on his skin, too, and would also be burning.
But he wasn't.
So Dick nailed the feeling down to just his hunger.
Dick bit his lip, hesitating.
In the end, he just blurted it right on out:
"Don't you ever wonder what you look like? I mean, do you even remember?" Dick shot up suddenly, kneeling, his hands placed over his caps as he stared at Wally.
His eyes were shining, and Wally couldn't discern whether it was excitement or fear or both.
Wally thought about it for a moment, before shrugging. "I don't remember anything before Barry found me, actually. It was always so dark. I have no idea what I look like; I've never asked anybody."
"Really?" Dick was honestly surprised - Wally had no idea what he looked like? Dick knewhe, personally, had dark hair - he had seen photos, and despite their being in black and white, he could tell his hair was dark.
And he remembered that his parents had, too. But that was all he could remember.
"Really." At a much slower pace than what Dick had, Wally sat upright, legs crossed "Why?" He asked, curiosity evident more than anything else.
"It- just, you're almost two hundred years old, and you have no idea what you look like?!" Wally was, to say the least, uncomfortable with the sudden attentive gaze Dick was giving him.
It looked as though his eyes were about to pop out, and he had, somehow, gotten even closer to Wally. His personal space was almost being invaded.
"N-no." Wally fidgeted slightly, and if his face could have flushed, he knew it definitely would have. "Is that bad?" Turning back to Dick - Dick-too-close-Dick, it was his turn to bite his lip in worry. Dick quickly shook his head,
"What? No! It's not bad, I didn't mean for it to come out that way. I was just surprised. Aren't you in the least bit curious, though?" Dick's tone was earnest, and he had retracted away from Wally a little bit.
Awkwardly, Wally rubbed the back of his neck. "Not before, I wasn't. But now that you've mentioned- I guess I am?"
Dick's eyes narrowed at the way Wally's statement sounded like a question, before he soundly blurted out:
"Well you're really handsome." Wally blinked, once, twice, thrice, in a pause that he found undeniably awkward because he had just been called handsome. But Dick didn't seem to notice, completely nonplussed by what he had just declared and instead was continuing to blurt things out as though talking off a list.
"Freckles cover at least half of your face. But there's not too many. It's just the right balance. They really enhance your eyes, which are green, by the way. Really green, like the grass - only greener.
"And your hair helps, too, which is ginger. You're actually the only ginger vampire I know. At least, ginger vampire I know that's alive- you remember Roy, right? Well, your hair's not quite as dark as his. Give it time, I guess.
"Or perhaps you'll go white-ish grey, like Dinah has-" Wally cut Dick off there, eyes slightly wide.
"Woah, woah, woah." He cautioned, "Kind of a bit of information over load there, pal. Feeling a little more than whelmed." Dick smiled at the lame shot at humour, but otherwise said nothing.
Gingerly, Wally raised a hand to his head and began filtering through the strands. They weren't long enough to pull down and over his eyes, so really, he couldn't tell the colour. And mirrors were out of the question.
"My hair's really ginger?" He asked, letting his hair go and turning to stare at Dick, watching as he nodded. "Neat." He breathed, grinning, before declaring: "Your turn!"
Dick's eyebrows shot up, "My turn for what?"
"Your turn to be described!" Wally clarified, that seemingly contagious grin still adorning his cheeks- contagious because Dick too couldn't help but grin as he hastily agreed.
Wally pursed his lips slightly, wondering where to begin. "Okay," He finally started, "Well," and damn, this was harder than it looked. He coughed to clear a bit of the tension- because had Dick always been this beautiful?
Wally guessed he had, and that he'd never before appreciated it enough. "You're kind of beautiful." He blurted out, before blinking and beginning to retract his statement.
"No, wait, that was wrong. There's no 'kind of' about it; you really are beautiful." Wally insisted, though it sounded like he was urging. "Like, holy bat-cow, I don't think I've ever seen someone as beautiful as you. Seriously-"
"Wally," Dick murmured, and his voice sounded so low and hollow that it automatically pulled Wally to a halt. "Stop. You don't have to joke about it." Wally froze, before quickly assuring:
"What? Holy- no, no Dick, I wasn't joking! I'm serious," To emphasise his point, Wally placed his hands on Dick's shoulder, waiting until the boy lifted his head to look him in the eye. "One hundred percent serious, okay?"
Dick blinked, and Wally felt the tension in Dick's shoulders recede a bit, but he didn't let the boy go.
His words picked up pace as he prattled on,
"Your hair's black, like, without any brown tinges at all. Completely black. Are you dying it regularly? I bet you are. And your skin is really pale? I know we're pale in general, but yeah, it's like a ghostly pale for you. But it looks good! Totally looks good on you.
"Your nose is good too, yeah, doesn't stick out and isn't too sharp and it's just- nice. In the middle of your face. Best place a nose could be. And your eyebrows, they, uh, they match your hair. Really black. Not too thick, either, or too thin, a good medium.
"And then there's your eyes! Two of them, the best number of eyes- and they're blue. That's a little generic though- they're a nice blue? Yeah, a nice hue of blue, like sapphires. Polished sapphires, like the ones Bruce kept in the-"
"Wally," Dick cut him off with another murmur, though this one was breathless and a little husky, "Shut up." Wally blinked, mouth still a little open as the syllables about to be spoken rolled off silently into the air,
"Huh-mmf!" Dick had pressed his lips to Wally's, smiling a little as the redhead grew comfortable in the situation, enough to kiss him back and wrap his arms around his waist.
I haven't wrote birdflash in ages, so here, have a vampire fluff one-shot for Hallowe'en!
