Shaken

Chapter One

Wally rummaged through the kitchen halfheartedly. He really wasn't hungry at all but he had to keep his hands occupied somehow. As he opened the refrigerator to gaze inside, he saw Robin walk in and sit at the island. Out of the corner of his eye he could make out the Boy Wonder taking off his domino mask and rubbing his eyes slowly.

"Quite an exercise, huh?" Robin spoke up, putting his mask back on and looking at the red head, a tired smile on his face.

"Yeah." Wally answered. Closing the refrigerator door, he walked over to the island, slowly, and plopped down next to Robin with a sigh. "It sucked, man." The tense air in the kitchen began to delude at the encouraging words of the speedster to start up a conversation over the day's failure.

"So much." Robin halfway laughed as he admitted failure. Wally looked at him and then smiled fully knowing that it had taken a lot for his best friend to admit that. Robin caught the smile for what it really was and smiled as well. Their smiles grew slowly until soon the two teens were laughing, letting go of the intensity of the situation in which they had been a few hours earlier.

"Dude, we died, we like seriously died, man! I mean I felt it!" Wally had a hard time getting his words out over the fits of laughter that plagued him. He heard Robin crack up at this and saw the boy vehemently nodding his head in agreement.

"We were so dead!" the Boy Wonder said with laugher and clapped the speedster's shoulders which caused him to laugh even harder.

This went on for a few more minutes until the two were left breathless and holding aching sides.

"It was awful, wasn't it?" Wally asked, wiping tears from his eyes. He looked over at Robin who was also rearranging himself and saw that his friend was now grinning. In Wally's previous experiences he had learned that that grin was never good.

"Sure, it was awful for all of us." Robin began, his tone taking on a teasing turn as he went. Wally braced himself for the punch line. "You sure seemed to take it harder though." There it was.

"What does that mean?" Wally asked. He arched an eyebrow and looked at Robin who was now sporting the grin at full blast.

"You know." Wally cocked his head to the side almost sarcastically. "When Artemis died you nearly lost it."

"Excuse me?" Wally was indignant at the insinuation. "I did not lose it."

"Oh yes you did." Robin interjected. "Big time."

Wally glared. "Yeah well so did everyone else! We were all affected!"

"You sure didn't seem quite as 'affected' by the others dying." Robin accompanied his sentence with fitting air-quotes.

This seemed to fluster the red head and his face nearly matched his hair in color. "You heard J'onn J'onzz! The exercise went awry! You weren't as affected either!" Wally sputtered out and it made Robin laugh.

"Oh get off it, man." Robin said. "You freaked out because she makes you feel the aster, it's so obvious."

"I do not love her!" Wally regretted the words as soon as he said them. he could see how Robin was about to take that and run with it so he put a hand to Robin's mouth and smothered him, not wanting to hear what was surely to be a witty remark.

"Do NOT say a thing!" Wally put extra emphasis on the 'not'. He could tell his threat fell on deaf ears when Robin's body wouldn't stop trembling from stifled chuckles. "I mean it Rob, you say anything stupid and you'll regret it!". At this, Robin nodded and Wally slowly let him go, only to realize it was a big mistake.

As soon as he was released, Robin began to laugh loudly and annoyingly at Wally, getting off of his stool to simply fall to the floor and laugh some more. He was literally rolling on the floor laughing. Wally rolled his eyes and grunted. "You suck you know that!" he yelled at his friend before he walked away and into the mountain's living room.

"Oh I'm only joking KF!" Robin followed his friend to join him in the living room. "My bad." He said at the sight of Wally sprawled out on the couch frowning. "I'm done, promise."

Wally looked up and saw that Robin was serious. He sat up slowly and looked up at his friend. "Dick." He said and Robin smiled and sat down next to him.

"That's my name, don't wear it out!" he joked and clapped Wally on the back making the red head smile. "So, love huh?"

Wally turned to glare at him. "Dude, don't push it."

"I'm just saying," Robin stretched and rested his arm on Wally's shoulder putting him at an awkward angle. "If you lov—" Glare "Like her, why don't you do anything about it?"

"I'm just… I don't know." Was Wally's only answer. Robin wouldn't have it.

He tried again. "Dude come on! If it floats your boat…What's the worst that could happen?" He shoved Wally playfully and the red head turned to him with a slight frown.

"I'm more afraid that she'll sink my boat if you know what I mean." Wally said.

"Dude, gross." Robin got up from the couch and headed to the front of the cave. It was late and Bruce would want to talk, or as Dick called it, psycho-analyze him about the afternoon's events. He motioned Wally to follow him so he wouldn't think he was just bailing on him and this conversation that had turned to the dark side.

"No, not like that." Wally followed behind the shorter boy. "It's just that I… and her… I mean she's so…"

"Wait up." Robin drove straight through Wally's thoughts and gained a very flustered looking boy looking at him. "Kid Cupid afraid to get hurt? Inform the 'Daily Planet' this is big news!" Robin cracked a smile but saw his joke had no audience. A sad and somewhat pathetic looking Wally stood before him and Robin chided himself at having been so insensitive.

"Dick, be serious for once, please?" Wally all but pleaded and it made Robin overlook the use of his name for a second time in the cave. He sighed and looked Wally up and down before speaking.

"Look, you know who trained me right?" Wally nodded looking confused. "So you more than anyone know what I'm capable of." Still Wally just looked lost and Robin sighed again. "I'm at expert at reading people." He began to work on the teleporter to take him to Gotham. "Go for it. She's digging on you too, trust me." He could feel Wally begin to lighten up behind him and it made him crack a small smile.

"Dude you sure?" Wally said excited.

"Yup." Robin said matter-of-factly. "And if I'm wrong," Wally's mood faltered a little, "I know a couple of places where we could make her disappear to." He put an emphatic twist on the word 'disappear' and wiggled his fingers for effect. Wally smiled and his mood lightened up again, his smile contagious.

"Thanks, man." Wally said as the teleporter lit up and Robin began to make his way to it.

"No prob. Oh and if you ever use my name in headquarters again," his foot was almost on the other side, "I'll make sure to disappear you too."

Robin gave one last look behind him and Wally was sure he could see what resembled a wink behind that blasted mask of his.

-Note- I'm not an Artemis fan at all but all the dang hints being dropped lately begged to be dealt with. But fret not this is an eventual Kid/Rob I promise, just bear with me. And comment? That would help a lot and totally rock.