title: Wallace
rating: g. unless you're scared of wally west. then it's like ... NC-17, maybe.
summary: Wally West is going through some changes. Hopefully they will be over soon.
a.n: i was getting irritated with my lack of ANYTHING, so i forced this out. it's ... a coming of age story? :P as always, i am not patient enough for a beta read. ^^;;;;;





Wally West is a scrawny boy.

He's easy going, with an inviting smile and can make friends with almost anyone. The football players at school wave him by and the chess club saves him a spot at lunch. The cheerleaders are at ease with his slapstick humor and the brains roll their eyes with tolerance and hidden amusement.

So he's got it pretty good.

But he's still so scrawny. Long arms pinch in at thin wrists, then branch off into wide palms and a skinny waist leads to stringy legs. Clown feet.

Wally West thinks the name fits him. It's stiff and unassuming. Nice on the tongue, but nothing of real interest. He wants to go by Wallace, but not yet. Not until he's ready, because Wallace West is just waiting, waiting for him to finish whatever it is he's growing into, because surely he can't be trapped in this mess of a body forever?

You see, his mother swears up and down he'll grow into this gangly thing that had replaced his compacted, proportioned body. But it feels like years have passed since he's last been able to walk down a flight of stairs with stumbling just a bit, or handled a glass plate without it ending up shattered, or not walk into a room without bumping into the doorframe.

He'll wait though, because his mother is almost always right.

But before he's finished waiting, something wonderful, something unbelievable, something fantastic happens.

And that's just what Wally West needs.

To crash into walls a little bit faster.

And it's not so cool that the FLASH is plain old Uncle Barry who's allergic to his cat, Professor Fluffers, so he has to vacuum extra long whenever he comes by. And it's not so cool that Uncle Barry was always the FLASH and Wally West hadn't even noticed.

It's almost as not cool as being scrawny.

And it isn't really fair, because Uncle Barry is so calm and in control and everything that isn't scrawny. Wally thinks that he will never be able to sit still ever again and Uncle Barry can do push ups with one finger.

He thinks now would be a good time for Wallace to make his appearance.

Uncle Barry keeps telling him to not waste his gifts. To use them, to hone them.

But what use can Wally West possible be? Wally West flies into windows and trips over his own feet and sometimes squeaks when he talks. Wally West cannot tame this never-ending surge of wild power.

So he'll start training as soon as Wallace shows up. Wallace will be able to handle all of this.

He just has to wait.

. . .

Only he waits.

And he's still Wally West.

And those cheerleaders are still giggling when he slams a finger in a locker. And his mother is starting to buy more plastic dishes. And he set a piece of paper on fire and he doesn't even write that fast, and that was bad.

And so maybe he'll give Wallace a little while longer and joins Uncle Barry in some exercises.

But Uncle Barry is mean and those exercises are not fun and they only last an hour or so but it takes so long for him to be able to lift just one weight and he looks so stupid and pale and redheaded next to Uncle Barry. And he kind of hates him and wishes he had never heard of the FLASH.

Wally West decides that he will never, ever go to a gym ever again ever and Uncle Barry can talk to his mom all he wants and ever he can accidentally run over a few students or ever make the entire paper display that the sophomores worked so hard putting up rip off the walls because he is never going back.

But time moves so slow for him sometimes and all he's doing is staring at the ceiling and maybe it can't hurt?

And maybe it'll make this constant burn, this constant need to jump and run and never stop ease just a bit on his chest.

So maybe he'll do it one more time.

Wally West's a lot hungrier these days.

And it's not so hard to lift that weight, and what was he so embarrassed about?

And if he concentrates a little more, it's easy to not set the paper on fire when writing.

Wally West doesn't have as many bruises as he used to.

His legs, his arms, they're growing. He still has clown feet and sometimes his voice still does that horrible seesaw adventure of death, but still.

Uncle Barry isn't so bad, and Wally West can almost see the Flash's profile on Uncle Barry's face, and why isn't it the FLASH so much anymore as Uncle Barry?

And any day now, any day now he knows he'll find Wallace. He can sit still for hours on end practically, and he can beat Stan Givings in an arm wrestling match and Stan Givings took down the entire team in the football game last Saturday.

And the cheerleaders giggle a lot more when he's around them, but he's not hurting himself.

And the chess club looks awed when he comes to sit at their table during lunch.

And where is Wallace, darn it?

Wally West is kind of disappointed in Wallace.

And then one day he wakes up and looks in the mirror and he still sees Wally West.

But it's a Wally West who realizes he doesn't need Wallace.