Souvenir

"KF quit it!" Robin swatted his arms at Kid Flash's direction in order to get the red head boy away from his personal bubble. It seemed that his fellow teammate had gotten it into his head that finding out Robin's secret identity would be 'fun'. He was running circles around Robin at super speed trying, and failing, to pry the Boy Wonder's sunglasses off.

"Oh come on Rob! Just lemme see your eyes!" Kid Flash whined and pouted, which did nothing.

"You know that doesn't work on me, right?" Robin said "Trained by Batman? Remember?" Kid Flash stuck his tongue out at the younger boy and sat down on the couch with a thud. He hated losing.

There were no missions on today schedule and the young heroes were spending some 'Team Building' time together in Mount Justice. Megan was in the kitchen making only she knew what, Kaldur and Superboy were sparing in the workout room and Artemis was, well who cares where Artemis was. All Wally knew is that he was bored to tears and he wanted to mess with his best friend.

"You're such a dick, you know that." Wally said with a frown. Robin laughed an airy laugh and looked at his friend.

"You have no idea." He said with a grin. This made Wally fume.

He thought of Robin as his best friend in the world and he had revealed his secret ID ages ago. It really annoyed him, and kind of hurt, to know that Robin didn't trust the same way Wally trusted him, so today was going to be the day when Wally found out who the boy behind the glasses was. The speedster sat on the couch staring daggers at Robin who was mindlessly staring at his laptop, no longer indulging his best friend with his attention. Wally thought again of how to snatch those shades but came up with nothing. Robin wasn't called Boy Wonder for nothing and no simple half-witted attempt was going to get this done. Wally was going to really think outside of the box to make this happen.

"Dinner is ready!" Megan's voice could be heard throughout Mount Justice and it made the rest of the team groan. They were filled with dread at whatever it was Miss Martian had prepared for them but begrudgingly made their way to the kitchen.

"I hope you guys like it. I got the recipe from that pretty woman on the Food Network!" Megan said happily. The others offered her a fake smile and sat down to eat with a sigh. As they began to eat they noticed that it didn't taste half bad this time, and everybody kept eating with a genuine smile on their face, everybody except for Wally.

"Kid Flash," Kaldur finally said, "is everything ok?" The rest of the team looked at Wally and noticed that he wasn't being his usual self.

"Did you run out of stupid?" Artemis asked in a teasing tone that showed off her disdain for the flirtatious speedster.

"No…" Wally answered in a sad tone. This made his teammates look at him with concern. "I'm just not that hungry."

Kaldur and Artemis' eyes widened in horror and Megan gasped. Superboy didn't notice anything wrong, why would he, and Robin simply stared at his best friend with a smile on his face. Kid Flash not hungry? Yeah right. If this was another one of those silly plans of his to get Robin to reveal his identity, and Robin was 98.7 percent sure it was, it wasn't going to work.

"Are you feeling sick?" Megan asked the redhead and this one just nodded his head and mumbled something about going to bed and left the kitchen, slowly. Everyone stared after him with frowns on their faces, even Artemis showed concern.

It was Kaldur who spoke up first, and he directed himself at Robin. "Perhaps you should go see what is bothering him."

Robin looked incredulously at his friends. "Are you guys for real?" he said to all of them. "He's fine! He's clearly still peeved that I didn't tell him who I am. It's nothing." He figured his explanation was sufficient enough and continued to eat as if nothing had happened.

"I don't know, Robin," Megan said sounding unsure, "he didn't touch any of his food." She pointed down at Wally's plate and sure enough it was still full. Robin sighed. He was sure Wally had a stash of snacks in his room for such an occasion and he still couldn't believe the guys were buying it. "I think you should go check on him, just in case." Megan continued.

"You are his best friend after all." Kaldur said. Artemis nodded and Superboy, finally showing a leak of interest in the conversation, said "I agree."

Robin felt ambushed. He didn't feel like arguing with all four of these guys so he got up with a grumble and headed in the direction of Kid Flash's room. 'I'll show those guys' Robin thought, 'Wally is ok, I just know it.'

As he reached Kid Flash's room, he could hear faint sobbing emitting from inside. 'What the hell…' Robin skipped the knocking and burst inside to find Wally crumpled up in a corner, crying into his hands.

"Dude, what the hell! Don't you knock?" Wally yelled at Robin and the raven haired boy was taken aback. 'Something really was wrong?' Robin felt like a total butt face now and walked over to his best friend and sat down on the floor next to him.

"Go away." Wally said. "Leave me alone." Robin had never seen his best friend cry before and was really at a loss as to what to do to comfort him. Batman had never thought him what to do in situations like these, so Robin had to improvise.

"Uh… you ok buddy?" he asked lamely.

"Do I look ok?" Wally looked at Robin with tears streaming down his cheek and it made him extremely uncomfortable. Robin felt actual pain at seeing his best friend cry like this and it pissed him off to not be able to do anything about it.

"What's wrong?" Robin asked, he was going to get to the bottom of this, and then hurt whatever it was that made Wally cry.

"I'll tell you what's wrong!" Wally screamed out. He seemed furious and his words were filled with pain. "I'm a failure! I don't even know why I'm in this team! I mean, I can't even vibrate through solid objects like The Flash can, what good am I?"

Robin couldn't believe this. Kid Flash was crying because he felt inadequate? That was way more up Superboy's ally.

"Look, Wally, you aren't-" Robin started to console his friend, but Wally cut him off mid-sentence.

"And to top it all off, I can't even get the person I like to like me back! I'm a total loser…" he seemed to whisper these last few words and it broke Robin's heart.

"Wally…" Robin placed a consoling hand on Wally's shoulder and it quickly turned into a one arm man hug. "You're not a loser. And you'll learn to do all the stuff The Flash does too, it just takes time. And as far as Miss Martian goes-"

"Miss Martian?" Wally broke in, "What are you talking about?"

"What are you talking about?"

"You!"

"What?"

Robin was hopelessly confused. How had this turned into a conversation about him? Wally looked down at the floor with a sigh. He ran his fingers through his hair and breathed in slowly as in getting ready to say something very important. Robin placed his full attention on his friend.

"The person is… is you, Robin." Wally finally said and he looked timidly at Robin as if expecting the boy to smack him in the face. Robin stared, mouth open, at Wally. He must've heard wrong, right? 'Did he just say he likes me?'

"Rob?" Kid Flash was waiving a hand in front of the raven haired boy in order to get his attention for he was clearly lost in thought. Robin shook his head and redirected his gaze back at his teammate.

"You like me?" he asked.

"Well… yeah. I always have Robin." Wally was blushing now, tears forgotten. Clearly he was too focused on having declared his feelings he no longer cared he wasn't as good as The Flash.

"But, why?" The Boy Wonder was really out of his element now. Batman had definitely not thought him how to deal with spontaneous declarations.

"You're my best friend. Nobody knows me like you do…" Wally trailed off and looked directly at Robin's shades. For a split second, Robin wished his sunglasses were off and he could look at Wally's green eyes with his own. Just for a split second.

"Well say something." Wally said to Robin, who had no idea he had been silent for a few seconds. A few seconds too long for The Dark Knight's apprentice.

"I—I don't know what to say" he answered truthfully.

"Then say you like me too." Wally said with a cocky grin.

"What?" Robin leaned back and flailed his hands in the air.

"Over-reacting there don't you think buddy?" Kid Flash smiled, "That is why you came here isn't? To make me feel better? Well I'm telling you that if you say you like me, I'll feel loads better."

Kid Flash was back. He was now shamelessly flirting again like his life depended on it, only problem is that Robin never thought it would be directed at him. Something was off, but Robin was too distraught to put his skilled detective finger on it. He considered what was being asked of him. Kid Flash wanted Robin to tell him he liked him. Robin gladly would if it meant making his friend feel better, but he didn't know if he did. KF was great and all, and he was right, Robin did know him better than anyone but then there was the ever-present problem of how annoying he was, and how he was always trying to find out his secret identity.

. . .

Robin's metaphorical light bulb turned on.

'This bastard! He's still trying to find my ID! He's just distracting me with this whole "I like you" bull!' Robin was pissed, but being an ace at hiding his facial expressions, he concealed it well. He decided to play along with Wally. 'Let's see how you like it.'

"Well, if it makes you feel better." Robin said slyly. He was never good at flirting, but he mustered the sexiest face he could and went on in what he thought was an enticing tone. "I like you too KF." Wally's eyes opened wide and a stupefied look appeared on his face. This wasn't part of the plan.

'Ha. Just as I thought.' It was Robin's time to have some fun. If he was going to do this, he was going to do it right.

"I think I love you Wally." He said. "I want to be with you, no matter what anybody thinks. I was so relieved to hear you say you like me too! You're the only one for me." He leaned in towards his friend and was just about to kiss him on the lips when the other jumped backwards and sped away to the other side of the room. 'Too easy.'

"Whoa, whoa, what the hell dude!" Kid Flash broke character and looked completely mortified. Robin busted out laughing, tears in his eyes and a sharp pain on his side from too much enjoyment.

"You—you should see your face!" he said in between laughing fits. He was now rolling around on the floor in ecstasy.

"No fair!" Kid Flash said, he hated losing, but nothing was worse than to lose at his own game. "How the hell did you know?"

"Oh come on dude, you underestimated me, again." Robin stopped laughing enough to get off the floor and sit on Wally's bed. He looked at his dumbfounded friend and smiled his cocky Robin smile. "Batman's protégé? Remember?" he was laughing again, and this made Wally pissed, really pissed.

"Although I must admit," Robin continued, "you went above and beyond what with skipping dinner and all, and you almost had me with the 'I like you' bit."

"Ok fine, whatever." Kid Flash sounded completely defeated, "I give up." He threw his hands in the air to accent the point he was making and walked in the direction of his bedroom door. He wanted to get away from the memory of his humiliating defeat as fast as he could, but Robin stopped him by blocking the door.

"Dude, relax." He said to Wally. He actually felt bad for the speedster, he had tried really hard. "Sit down will ya, we need to talk."

"Talk? To you? Don't think so." Robin felt a little hurt at the harshness of those words but remained in place.

"Come on, just for a sec." he said and pulled Wally to his bed. The redhead let himself be taken and he plopped down on the bed with a scowl. "Just why do you want to know my secret identity so badly?" Robin asked and received an 'are-you-serious' look from Kid Flash.

"Seriously?" the older boy said. "I told you my ID ages ago and you still won't trust me with yours. You say I'm your best friend and you won't even tell me who you are! Heck, you won't even let me see your eyes! I don't even know what color they are. I get Batman told you not to tell, I get that, but it just hurts. It really hurts that you don't take our friendship seriously enough to trust me." As he finished his rant, Wally could see the look on Robin's face had changed to one of remorse.

The raven haired boy couldn't really decide if this was yet another one of the speedster's tricks, but the expression on his friend's face was so sincere he felt like this time he could believe what he said. "I didn't know you felt that way…" Robin told him, and meant it. He really didn't know that keeping his identity a secret was hurting his best friend like this, and he suddenly resented himself for doing it.

"Yeah, of course you didn't." Wally was looking away from his friend now, not daring to let him see the expression of hurt on his face. Robin felt like he should make it up to him, but was really at a loss of how to do it. He racked his brain and came up with only one solution, one he knew his mentor would kill him for, but he'd take on The Batman himself for his friendship with Wally.

Robin sighed, but he knew what he had to do. "Remember earlier," he broke the silence and Wally turned to look at him, "when you called me a dick? Yeah, you were a lot closer than you thought." And with that he reached for his sunglasses, and in one fast motion took them off, revealing a pair of clear blue eyes. Wally couldn't believe what was happening. He stared, wide eyed and breathless at Robin without his shades. His eyes were beautiful, just like Wally thought they'd be.

"Hi," Robin said and extended a hand towards Wally who shook it in silence. "My name's Richard, Dick, Grayson,"

Wally smiled a genuine, happy smile. He had never, to his recollection, been this happy. "Dude…" he said, "Your eyes are so…"

"I know, I know, they're blue, like Superboy's" Dick said and he looked down at the floor.

"No man, they're nothing like Supey's, his are cold and steely. Yours are… just lovely." Wally couldn't stop himself from saying the gayest thing he had ever said in his life, but there was just no other way to describe those eyes that now stared at him with gratitude in them.

"Thanks man, but that was pretty gay." Dick laughed his airy laugh and ran his fingers through his hair. Wally joined him and they shared a laugh together, one that only friends with complete trust in each other can share.

Wally was the first to stop as he realized something. "Dude, were you really going to kiss me?" He asked and Dick turned a slight shade of pink.

"Hey, I was just playing your game." He said matter-of-factly. Wally just laughed again and patted his friend on the head.

"Sure you were. You know you don't have to lie to me. I know I'm irresistible." He winked at Dick and the boy blushed even more.

"You're stupid." Dick said, and with that he reached for his shades and put them back on, becoming Robin once more. Wally frowned. He liked Dick's eyes, but now they were covered again and it kind of sucked.

"Hey, do you have more than one pair of those?" Kid Flash asked Robin.

"Duh, but these are my favorite pair." Robin said. He noticed that as he said that, Wally's face fell, and he wanted to know why, so he asked, "Why?"

"Oh, no reason." Wally lied. Robin could tell he was lying, he knew him better than anyone after all.

"Just say it." Robin said sternly and Wally decided he might as well ask.

"I wanted to see if I could keep them, since you have others, but since they're you're favorite pair…" he trailed off and looked at Robin with puppy dog eyes. For the first time ever, the look seemed to work for the Boy Wonder was now pulling his shades off again and without argument, he handed them to his best friend.

"Alright!" Wally shouted and he looked at the sunglasses like they were a priceless piece of art.

"Why'd you want them?" Dick asked as he pulled another pair form the inside of his jacket to become Robin again. Wally was too excited to question why he carried the other pairs in his person, he just smiled at Robin and said with a wink,

"Souvenir."