the good die young
This is what it means to be a hero. [Wally West]
Disclaimer: I do not own Young Justice.
When he was little, he used imagine being a superhero.
He would tuck a sheet into the back of his shirt and parade around the house, jumping on the couch, and the bed—and knock over lamps, but they were ugly, anyway—and his mother would put her hands on her hips, and say, "Wallace Rudolph West, you stop that right now."
And he would grin, because, "Momma, I'm gonna be a s'perhero!"
His parents really don't know what to do with him.
He goes around, all the time, and he says, "I'm gonna be a superhero," and it's cute, yeah, but Mary says, "He needs to focus on the real world, Rudy."
Iris and Barry and Rudy and Joan and Jay laugh it off, because, "It's just a phase, Mary—he'll grow out of it."
(And he will—maybe.)
"Ohmygod!"
"Wally—Wally, calm down!"
"But—But—ohmygod!"
"Wally, not so loud!"
"But—But Aunt Iris, thisissocool! I—I mean—"
"—Wally, quiet—"
"—Uncle Barry's the Flash!"
"Please—"
"No."
"But—"
"No."
"Come on—"
"No, Wally."
"Uncle Barry—"
"For the last time, Wally, no."
Wally's always been impatient. And stubborn. (If Uncle Barry won't do it, I'll do it.)
And, so, yeah, he kind of blows himself up, a little. (And the garage, but when he tells his mother that, she yells at him and cries and says, "I can get a new garage—I can't get a new son!" and hugs him until he feels like he's gonna break.)
And Barry sighs and Rudy points out, "Well, you have to give him points for being creative."
Mary glares.
(And Barry caves, eventually.)
Being a hero is awesome.
("And dangerous," Mary and Rudy remind him.)
But, awesome.
("And hard," Jay and Barry remind him.)
But, awesome.
("And terrifying," Iris and Joan remind him.)
But, awesome. (And he totally rocks the spandex. Yeah.)
"Wait a minute. You're Robin." Wally stares.
Dick blinks, "Uh, yeah," because, duh.
"—As in, Batman's partner." Wally gawks.
"…Yeah…" Dick says.
"Awesome!" Wally grins, and then, "but, just one question."
Dick blinks, again. "…Uh, alright…?"
"What's with the tights?"
Kaldur is a stiff and Roy is a grouch.
(At least, that's what Wally tells Dick, but they still all get together at the Hall and complain about how the Leaguers don't give them enough missions.)
"Like, seriously," Wally says, "we're better than this."
"Definitely." Roy grouses.
"Totally." Dick chirps.
"Most certainly." Kaldur agrees.
"Then, we're in agreement!" Wally says, around a mouthful of chips—and, wow, what flavor is this, because it's really good—and then, "Now, who wants to tell Batman?"
(…Okay, so, it's a work in progress.)
Miss Martian is fine.
(But, Arty is finer. And SB's already got his eye on Miss M, so.)
But, Artemis is kind of mean and scary and secretive and, okay, really scary, so that doesn't mean he can't try.
"Hey, beautiful—did it hurt?"
"…Um, what?"
"Did it hurt. When you fell."
Miss M blinks, "…Fell from what?"
Wally grins, because, oh yeah, he's smooth, "When you fell from heaven."
(Yeah, smooth.)
("…But, Wally, I fell from space.")
Alright, so, yeah, Artemis is a spitfire, but she's kind of hot, and she gives him this smile with these eyes, and he thinks that maybe—maybe—he might just really kind of like her, sort of. In a way.
"See you later, Bay Watch," and she saunters out of the training room, like she's just that hot.
And he breathes, because hot damn, she is just that hot.
And Dick laughs.
Wally turns, because, "What?"
Dick does a flip off the balance beam—because he's just that cool, (most of the time)—and grins, before saying, "dude. You couldn't be more transparent if you were made of glass," and then he cackles himself out the door.
And, it takes Wally a minute, but "that is so not funny."
Zatanna Zatara is smooth. (Smoother than Dick, and Wally. Maybe.)
She laughs and smiles and wraps the Boy Blunder around her finger, and she gives him this look as she sashays out of the Cave, and says, "bye, Boy Wonder."
Dick laughs, and waves, and just generally looks like a moron. (Head over heels. Totally.)
And Wally is so damn satisfied as he crows, "You couldn't be more transparent if you were made of glass," and then, he adds, just because, "or, should I say, made of sslag?"
Oh, yeah. Smooth.
Tula's dead.
(It should mean something more to him, and he tries so hard to feel, but all he can do is stare and stare and stare because Tula's dead and Artemis almost died and they all came close and, God, what is Garth going to say and how is he going to tell Kaldur?)
Artemis sobs, and tries to hold herself, because, "oh—oh God."
And Wally wraps an arm around her, and tries to pretend, because, "I know."
"I can't do this anymore," is what he tells Dick, after Kaldur goes rogue and Garth just leaves without another word. "Artemis and I are done."
And what can Dick say, besides, "I know," and, "I'll tell the others,"?
And Wally just feels tired when he says, "thanks, bro," and turns, because it's over.
(Even when it'll never be, but, hey, he can pretend.)
Jason dies two months later.
He doesn't go to the memorial, because he's had enough of those—and he tries not to feel bad, (and fails)—and, instead, he goes to the Cave, in the room, where the holographs are of the heroes that never come back.
Dick sits there, at the foot of his biggest mistake, and all Wally can say is, "hey, bro."
Dick doesn't turn, but he knows. "Hey."
Wally sits down beside him and he feels so damn old and so damn tired and so damn sick of losing kids who were never kids.
And it's just them—because Kaldur's just gone and he doesn't know where the hell Roy is, and this is all that's left, this is all they have left—and Wally can't help but say, "I'm tired of doing this, Dick."
And there are more shadows than light on Dick's face when he says, "so am I."
College is nice. Real life is nice. Not worrying about dying—and/or being maimed—is nice.
School in the morning. Family in the afternoon. Artemis at night.
It's nice. (Especially that last part.)
"I can't believe you." He hisses, at the girl who's supposed to be his partner in life, who he's supposed to understand, because: "how could you do this? How could you go back to this?
Artemis is silent and solemn, and suddenly they're kids again and Wally just doesn't understand (it. Her. The world.), and she replies, "it's my choice."
"—But it was our deal! No more playing hero! No more saving the world! No more losing and hurting and dying!"
And Artemis is quiet, unyielding, and he doesn't know what to say anymore, when she tells him, again: "it's my choice."
(It was always a choice. But, no one said it would be this hard.)
"Everything's going according to plan." Dick tells him, even though Wally's girlfriend is partying it up with villain's somewhere in the Pacific, and the Cave was blown up, and La'gaan was taken.
"Trust me." Dick says, again.
"It's getting hard to." Wally admits, and he feels so tired and old and helpless.
He feels a lot of things, actually. (But he mostly feels helpless.)
The world's ending.
(At least, that's what the news says.)
The world is ending, thanks to a big cockroach, and Wally's kind of annoyed, because, "Jesus, couldn't you have just sprayed some pesticide?" (Oh yeah, smooth.)
Artemis rolls her eyes.
Conner snorts.
M'gann smiles.
Zatanna laughs.
Dick smirks.
Raquel raises an eyebrow.
Kaldur sighs.
Roy shakes his head.
Wally grins.
Yeah, the world's ending. (But it's all good.)
Arty looks damn good when she's taking out Reach drones.
Wally tells her this, and he's maybe–kind–of–okay grinning.
She rolls her eyes—but she's smiling, because, oh yeah, he's smooth—and says, "eyes on the prize, Bay Watch."
And he's looking right at her when he says, "they are."
Dying kind of sucks. (But, then again, so does the world ending, so, you know.)
(And it's okay. Sort of.)
"Bart, we have to slow down more—try to siphon off some of the energy attacking Wally!"
(And Wally knows what's coming. He always does.)
"It's no good, Barry. Oh, man, Artemis is so gonna kill me for this. And don't even get me started on Mom and Dad."
He'd be grounded, because, his Mom would say, "I can't get a new son," and Arty would kick his ass and say, "you idiot," and then she'd kiss him, and it would be pretty damn nice.
"…Kid?"
But, it's okay, because Mom's got Dad, and Artemis is a fighter. (And Dick'll handle it—he always does.)
"Just tell them, okay?"
(And Barry will.)
Wally knows that, too.
(And it's all good.)
A/N / Spoilers:
Guys. Guys. They killed our Wall-man.
No regets about this fic.—I'm glad I got it done.
Mourn with me, fellow Yjers? (Review?)