Growing Up

Young Justice fic

Rated: T

I don't own anything but my computer and tons of school loans

AN: srry if people are OOC.

All mistakes are mine.

Wally was six the first time he thought that maybe his family wasn't 'normal'

"Wally get down here!" Mary called from the kitchen. Wally was up in his bathroom scrubbing his hand furiously. The water was scalding; he mistook the redness from his burning hands as red paint from his paint set. His mom's voice made him jump a little. He ran down stairs as fast as his chubby little legs would let him. Once he got to the kitchen he cautiously peeked around the corner.

"Useless little brat" his mom talked to herself a lot. She didn't think anyone ever heard. Mary turned around and saw a red head and two big green eyes from the entrance way.

"Wally, what have I said about using your paint set?"

Wally bit his lip. "Not to make a mess." The voice was soft and timid.

Mary sighed and pointed to the kitchen table. It was covered in papers painted with the Flash's lightning bolt symbol. Paint brushes lay on the table, a cup of water was knocked over, red and yellow paint was drying on the hard wood surface.

"Exactly. Look at this mess Wally. You know you are going to have to tell your father about this. He won't be happy."

Wally scuffed the toe of his shoe on the ground. "I could clean it up, we don't have to tell him."

His mom grabbed his arm roughly and the room was filled with a loud crack. It took Wally a moment to realize why his cheek burned. His mom had slapped him.

"Wallace Rudolph West, we do not keep things from your father. You know better than that." Her hand was still wrapped tightly around the boy's arm. "But you do need to clean up this mess."

Wally nodded in quiet acceptance and began cleaning to table off. A trickle of blood slipped down his cheek and mixed with tears. Mary stepped out of the room muttering. "Good for nothing little bastard."

Wally had spent the rest of the afternoon sitting on the couch waiting for his father to return home from work at the factory.

The lock on the door turned, 6:30 on the dot. Dinner was ready and on the table waiting like always; Wally bit his lip as the door opened. Rudy West was a big imposing man. He stalked through the house taking off his coat, he saw his son sitting on the couch.

He sighed, "What the hell did you do wrong today?"

"I spilled paint on the table and made a mess." It was short, Wally knew better then to drag it out and tell his dad he didn't mean to. That it was an accident.

Rudolph's eyes flashed with something, Wally wasn't sure. Maybe they always looked like that? He didn't look Rudy in the eyes much. Next thing Wally knew he was picked up off the couch and thrown into the coat closet. He heard his dad yell through the door.

"You made a mess at the table Wally, means you don't get to eat at it. This is for your own good boy."

Wally pressed his ear against the door. He heard his mother great his father. They sounded so happy, like nothing in the world was wrong. And that's how things were in the West house hold. Wally slowly began to realize, his parents weren't bad parents. He was a bad kid, he was the problem.

A couple of days later the cut was healed and the fingertip bruises on his arms had faded. He had acquired a new set of hand-shaped bruises around his ankle, and a lump on the back of his head from being dragged down the stairs, but those were well deserved and easily hidden.

Wally sat quietly in the back seat; he tried not to talk much when he was around his parents. It never ended well when he did, he always said something wrong.

They were headed to Aunt Iris and Uncle Barry's house. He'd never met either of them, but Iris was Rudy's older sister which meant they were family.

They pulled up to a house in Central City. It looked nice. Wally really hoped he wouldn't mess this up. A pretty red headed woman stepped out of the house, she was waving and had a huge smile on her face.

"Rudy! Mary! How have you been? It's been, what? Six years?" Iris greeted them each with a hug. She turned to Wally, "And this must be Wally. Hi, I'm your Aunt Iris."

Wally's eyes were huge, she was so, open and happy. Rudy put a strong hand on his shoulder and squeezed tightly. Wally wanted to flinch, but didn't.

"Hi." It was soft and Aunt Iris smile died some. I made her mad already. Wally was worried he had already screwed this up.

"Sorry Iris, kid has terrible manners." Rudy offered apologetically. She waved it off.

"No, it's fine." She looked at Wally again and melted into the kid's big green eyes. "Your Uncle Barry is inside making cookies, I bet he could use some help."

Mary pushed Wally towards the house, "Go help him."

The three adults waited until the boy was inside. Iris turned to the couple, "Are you sure you want to leave him here? This is his first time meeting us, I'm sure he would be more comfortable if you two where here."

"No, he's a big boy, he'll be fine. Just call us if he misbehaves." Rudy answers. "Now, we have to get going or we'll never make the reunion in time." He hugged his sister again and opened the car door for his wife.

"Do you want to tell Wally bye?" Iris asked looking back towards the house.

"No, he'll understand." Mary answered.

Rudy handed his sister a bag of what she presumed to be full of Wally's clothes and toys. "We'll all have dinner when we get back, catch up." He smiled and started the car.

Iris watched them drive down the street before heading inside.

Wally stepped inside. He was a little weary; never having met these people before he wasn't sure what to do. He heard a voice coming from the kitchen, "No, nononononono! Man, Iris is gonna kill me."

A man stood in front of the oven holding a tray of burnt cookies. Setting them on top of the stove, the man turned around and saw a short red headed kid standing in the front entry way.

"Oh, hey. You must be Wally, I'm Barry."

"Hi."

Barry was a little shocked by how quiet and somber the kid seemed. Shouldn't kids his age be loud and messy? Asking questions and getting into everything. Barry shrugged maybe he's just shy.

"Well" Barry started off the conversation since clearly the kid wasn't, "I was making cookies but I accidently burned them. Took them out of the oven too late." He chuckled and scratched the back of his head at the kid's raised eyebrow.

"But, on the plus side, there is a bowl and spoon covered in cookie dough I could use some help cleaning off. You're the guest, so you get first dibs."

Wally's eyes widened and he followed the blond man to the kitchen. Was he really getting to eat cookie dough? Why had he never been over here before?

Iris walked into the kitchen and was greeted to the sight of Wally licking the spoon clean while Barry was doing the same to the bowl.

"You took them out too late again?" she asked, looking over to the pan that held what looked to be holding charcoal.

Barry blushed, "Maybe."

The two shared a laugh while Wally sat there quietly observing. His aunt and uncle confused him, they laughed a lot and smiled.

"So, Wally, tell us about yourself." Iris wanted her nephew to stop acting so awkwardly polite. It seemed weird for a child so young to be content sitting so still and quiet.

"I, um…. I'm six. I start school this year, but mom doesn't think I'll be ready cause I can't read. But I know my ABCs already, I like numbers more though." Wally smiled brightly. He could already count and tell time. "My favorite color is red cause that's what the Flash wears. He's the coolest. Rudy doesn't think he's a good role model though. Says its imp… imprac…"

"Impractical?" Barry offered.

"Yeah that. Impractical for me to want to be like him."

Iris and Barry shared a look, when the kid opened up he really opened up.

"Well being a hero is dangerous, I'm sure your dad just doesn't want you to get hurt."

"Maybe." Wally stood up and put his spoon in the sink.

There was a brief moment of silence before Iris spoke up again. "So do you want to see where you'll be sleeping? I'm sure you packed a few toys you want to get out."

Wally nodded his head. And followed his aunt down the hallway to the guest room.

When he had first arrived, Iris had been worried about how reserved Wally was. His bed was made every morning and his room stayed clean, dishes were out away after every meal, teeth brushed and hair combed every morning and night. He was quiet and well mannered. But soon the boy let her and Barry in, allowing them to see that he was as thoughtful as his green eyes and bright as his red hair. Wally was kind and bubbly and open and honest by the end of the week.

It was the best week of his life. Wally loved meeting his aunt and uncle. The week was filled with fieldtrips to the science lab and news network. They had baked and painted and played outside. They had even gotten him a Flash comforter and pillow case "Only to be used when you're here. No one else gets to use it, it's all yours" they said.

He almost wished his parents wouldn't come back. But they did.

Rudolph pulled the car up to the front of the house. It was late and Wally was already in bed when Iris opened the door to her brother.

"Rudy, I thought you were gonna try and make it to dinner tonight?" she asked sleepily.

"Sorry, traffic. Just here to grab Wally. We're going to pull an all-nighter and hopefully be home by late tomorrow. Kid should sleep most of the way." He walked past her and went to pick up his son from the guest room. He frowned at the bedding.

"Did you get him those?"

Rudy seemed upset over the Flash blanket her nephew was wrapped in. "No." she answered, which is technically true since Barry bought it.

Her brother sighed and rubbed a hand through his hair. He muttered something that she didn't quiet catch. Rudy picked up Wally and soon had him in the back seat.

"Thanks for watching him, I hope he wasn't too much trouble. He's been rather bratty lately."

"He was fine, we had fun. You should visit more Rudy, I miss my brother. I'm pretty sure Barry is gonna miss that kid of yours too." Iris answered looking to the car.

"I'll see what I can do. The drive from Nebraska to Kansas isn't a walk in the park you know. Speaking of which, we should get going."

They said their goodbyes and Iris once again watched her brother leave. She went back to bed with her husband. "Wally's gone." She whispered.

"He's a good kid, should visit more." Barry mumbled sleepily while wrapping Iris in his arms.

"Yeah, I hope he does"

First week of school was amazing. Wally loved his classroom, it was so colorful. His teacher was nice and the kids played games and laughed and joked. Kindergarten was almost as much fun as Aunt Iris and Uncle Barry's.

Wally walked home from the bus stop and went to his room to do his homework. He learned that it was just easier to stay out of sight when he was home. As long as he was quiet and didn't make messes it was pretty easy to stay out of trouble.

He pulled a picture out of his backpack, it was him and Flash standing side by side. He'd drawn it in art class and wanted to put it up on his bedroom wall.

Big. Mistake.

Rudy had caught a glance of the picture and ripped it to pieces.

"How stupid are you? The Flash doesn't care about bratty kids like you. Give up on this stupid idea that you'll ever make a difference you shit." Rudolph's slap knocked him to the ground. A swift kick to the boy's stomach caused tears to spring to Wally's eyes.

Wally stayed on the ground, he didn't want to get back up. Just stay there. And that's what he did, all night. He didn't go down stairs for dinner, didn't climb into bed a cry. He just stayed on the ground and thought for the first time that maybe it wasn't his fault. Maybe this wasn't what family was. Maybe family was supposed to smile, and laugh, and feel safe and happy. Kinda like he did with Aunt Iris and Uncle Barry.

AN: hope that wasn't too awful to read. Not my best work, but there will be more chapters so hopefully it'll be better. I would have loved to go into more detail about Wally's home life and his visit to Iris and Barry's, I may rewrite this chap to be more detailed later. Anyway, couple of things.

Wally really does love Flash at a young age, but his parents discourage it.

Barry is known for always being late, hence the cookies.

If you hated it, no need to review. But if on the off chance you think it has potential, please review. I need the encouragement. Thanks.