Inspired by a Kaito/Shuno comic, I own nothing. OOC warning.
"Recognized: Robin, B-," the computer began to identify the ebony's appearance, but he wasn't in the mood it hear it out.
"I get it, I'm here! Big deal! Do you really have to announce it every time I come in?! Can't the migraine inducing lights be enough every time I step through one of these ZETAs? Yeah, I get it, we're defying the laws of gravity and time traveling. Whoo. It was cool for the first few years. How about a change for once?!"
He was already griping before the brilliant flash of light came and went to transition his molecules from Gotham City to the mountain's floor, also transferring how hard his eyes were narrowed and how tight his jaw was clenched. Dick growled idly under his breath, stalking across the floor in an obviously irritated fashion. Every connection of the concrete to the soles of his Converse seemed to worsen the frustrated blush to his face, earning a faint mutter before he found something else to yell at.
"Why is the floor in a training room no less made of concrete?! If we fall or land too hard, we could break something! Yeah, come on to the original baddie with my arm in a cast… 'Hey there, yeah, you notice the cast? I was trying to fight a replication of you, but I lost and you defeated me when I had both arms. I'm sure I can still beat you even though I only have one now'!"
He slipped through another doorway, eying the training room with just another reason to be unhappy.
"Exercise equipment? Are we really this self-centered and sanctioned off that we need our own gym? Why can't we just train in our civvie time? What if some bad guy snuck in here, took the weights and started beating us with them while we were practicing other exercises obliviously?! I could be on the bars, working on my triplesault when I find the pole taken from the bench press straight through my chest. Then what am I going to do? I can't exactly be a hero if I'm dead!"
Now his shoes trod along the light of the wood, but the change in sound didn't ease the strength of his scowl or the extreme levels of crime to his eyes. His shade-covered blue gaze drifted along to the rooms that could serve as their bedrooms, already rolling his eyes at it.
"Right, like we need a house in the mountains. We have to uphold a secret identity! We can't exactly bring friends up here! 'Oh yeah, Jacob, I forgot to mention I live with the heroes in Mount Justice. Hope you don't mind calling me Robin while they're here of course'! If we don't have friends, we'll just become that much more fake and then there will be nothing stopping them from putting the obvious two-and-two together!"
The smoke poured coarsely from his protruding ears, trailing behind him similar to a train warning all those who dare think to come near him of the faulty brakes in work in the front of the train. The conductor led the train along without a hitch for a long while—or at least until he got to the kitchen. He wasn't sure why he had gone there in the first place, but the second he laid eyes on the ginger peering into the open refrigerator, his whistle blew yet again.
"God, you never stop eating! I know you need the energy, but you're not Shaggy and Scooby Doo! You're going to gain weight and eventually, the baddies will be running circles around you because they're trapped in your orbit! I can tell that you already killed the pizza M'Gann made! You don't need any more food, KF!" his hands were in fists, his own starving stomach willing to kill for such a metabolism.
Wally didn't reply, his emerald eyes continuing their scan before he pulled the orange juice non-chalantly from the top shelf and poured himself a glass. He put it away, lid screwed back on tight and took a long, meaningful sip from the cup, breathing in the taste it seemed from how slow he seemed to savor the taste. When he seemed satisfied, a half of the glass emptied, he touched it down to the counter and leaned on his forearms to look at Dick with a raised eyebrow.
"Let me guess, you got in another fight with Bats?" the ginger calmly asked, not a single emotion showing in expression as he took another sip, although this one was much smaller than the first.
The ebony tensed at the question, eyes widening as he found himself caught from his guard, but he managed to regain composure and glare accusingly at his best friend, as if the teen had done something. He walked forward, leaning on the counter in front of the freckled face, glaring hard.
"What do you know?" he gruffly tossed, his teeth grinding hard enough to cause a small throb.
Wally casually blinked, still keeping his face emotionless without even having to try. He eyed his orange juice again, just a slight second of consideration, deciding against lifting himself up enough to take a small swig. He figured helping his best buddy out was a lot more important now anyway. He turned his eyes specifically to where he knew the blue glare had to be hidden, watching the eyes he couldn't see with a still gaze.
"I know enough," he shrugged, neither smiling nor frowning, "like how you act when you two aren't the Dynamic Duo for the moment. You get really angry and you just start yelling to yell because you bottle everything up and refuse to tell anyone anything."
Two palms beat down in argument against the counter, the sharp crack of anger cutting the air about as loud as his voice had not too long ago. Now though, the only one who needed to hear him was the teen with the heavy freckles, so he allowed his slap to be his maximum and lowering the rest of his volume to a quieter tone.
"I'm not in a fight with Batman," he swallowed hard, obviously lying straight through his teeth from the small tremble he gave off at even the thought.
Wally shrugged calmly at the angry words, finding just enough strength to take another slow sip of his orange juice, setting it down and licking his lips free from the orange glaze when he was done. The glass was empty now, nothing but a few faint remnants of pulp resting along the bottom, being all the inspiration he needed to leave the kitchen.
"Fine. You're not in a fight with Batman," the ginger shrugged, sounding as if he really couldn't care less.
He put the cup in the dishwasher, standing up straight and walking into the living room, quickly scoping out the remote from the magazine mess on the coffee table. He planted himself down on the couch, loving how the cushions conformed into his body, switching the flat screen on and completely diverting his attention to it as color took over the black of the glass.
Dick stood open mouthed, sputtering like a fish out of water, a little upset that his best friend didn't care about his problems. He couldn't just stand in the kitchen and take that. He stormed into the living room after the ginger, sitting beside him on the couch with a huff and his arms crossed over his chest. There was obviously something wrong, but now he made no attempt to deny it.
"You don't even care enough to ask what's wrong? What kind of a best friend are you?! I thought you were supposed to support me, in sickness and health and stuff like that! You promised to always be there for me!" he growled, turning his knees up beside him to glare at the ginger.
Wally raised the remote for show, flipping the channel to Spongebob before resting it down beside him and turning to look at the little ebony.
"What? Are you expecting a kiss?" he casually shrugged, lifting the remote again and continuing the idle surf where the wave had left him.
Dick's face contorted in anger and he swung his arm, sending the device in hand quickly to the floor with a sharp clatter. On instinct, Wally pulled his hand back and shook off the sting, but he made no other reaction to it besides looking over at the black mirrored shades.
"If it'll make you feel better, I can just do it now. No one's watching," he shrugged, seeming more serious than he ever had before.
It was almost as if Wally had backhanded the ex-sidekick though from the way the angry brush dusted over the bridge of his nose.
"Would it kill you to knock off the gay jokes? One day, someone's going to hear and they're actually going to think we're something! We're not and we never will be! I'm going to die in my mansion with my six kids all around me in costume! There will never be a lover in there! Nothing besides justice!" he seemed as if he had thought this out long before, a piercing scarlet glow practically protruding from the sides of his shades at how furious he began to sound.
"And the circus," Wally lowered his voice to a breath, reaching his hands up to slowly pull the sunglasses down from the stunning blue eyes.
Dick winced, screwing his eyes up tight once he had been exposed, blinding scrambling his hand through dead air in a hope to find the shades and recover his pride. The angry blush had his face a pale scarlet, lips twitching.
"Leave the past where it is, KF! That wasn't needed! And give me back my shades! No one can see!" he whined, grabbing the jean-covered leg and sightlessly moving his hands up until he had his fingers around the ginger's bicep.
Wally easily sped from the tan grip, folding his arms over his chest and sliding the shades up over his head kind of like a headband. He smirked easily, happy to know that he couldn't be seen by the little acrobat.
"Tell me what's wrong and I'll do all that," he shrugged casually, tapping his feet so the ebony would go for his direction, easily speeding away again.
A faltering growl slipped between the tightly closed lips, Dick's hands in fists and his head slowly spinning as he darted his attention to-and-fro at every little noise. His breath came out in a hurried rush, his eyebrows nearly overlapping his eyes at how tightly they were knitted.
"I don't have to talk to you! Give me my shades back!" he cried out, gritting his teeth to a painful point.
Wally bit his lips softly, watching his best friend suffer just a moment before caving in and bolting around the couch, dashing up behind the little ebony and wrapping his arms tight around the muscled figure. Dick gasped, tensing under the touch before he puffed his chest out and managed to wriggle his arms up into the hug, pressing out with his forearms.
"Let me go! This is assault!" he groaned, squirming impatiently, "You can't do this to me! Give me back my shades and put me down! I'll kill you! I'll tell Batman! Wally! PUT ME DOWN!"
Wally simply held tight to his little birdy, locking his arms in place and cuddling him into his chest.
"Just talk to me, Robbie… What's wrong? It's nowhere near their anniversary…" he rested his head beside the thirteen year old's, not even slightly straining under the fight that the bird gave.
Dick growled, putting all of his weight in his arms and lifting himself up in a hope to topple the speedster, only to not avail.
"It has nothing to do with them! That… that day won't be here… for three more months…" the anger softened for just a millisecond before it returned with a vengeance that left the ginger's arms numb at the beating they took, "You shouldn't even know about them! You're not my best friend! You don't care what's wrong! You just like making me seem gay so the girls will go for you! You don't know what it's like!"
Wally nodded, still cradling the acrobat on his arm as he began to walk out for the ZETA transport, trudging past the sharp kicks to his knees.
"You have family! Your mom and dad are still there! And your aunt and uncle love you like a son! You've never lost a family member! You couldn't possibly know what it's like to be alone! That's not even the problem! That's just a daily footnote in my happiness [1]! I have to suffer with that thought every morning once I wake up from the dreams that I actually have someone waiting for me at home in! Do you know what it's like to dread waking up?!"
The ginger clenched his jaw, letting out a sigh of relief as the ZETA announced their departure and stumbled them out of the blue phone box into the dark Gotham alley.
"The worst part of it all? On the drive home… the drive here… I pass the graveyard! I pass them! I can't live life without thinking about them! They're always going to be there, haunting every breath I take! Bruce tries, but he can't be my parents! No one can, but them, and they're buried six feet under! It's not fair!" the voice gently cracked and Dick tried to cough it off, but Wally heard.
He spun the teen around so the face was towards his heart, arms still bound tight around the jacketed back, looking down at him with a comforting look.
"Just cry," he whispered slowly.
The tightened eyes flashed open, the surprise harder than the ghostly brimming of tears beneath the blue iris, his forearms keeping him from Wally's chest.
"W-wha… no! Crying is a sign of weakness!"
"Who told you that?" Wally's frown slanted off, eyebrows furrowing.
His emerald eyes desperately searched to gain the pained gaze of the boy in his arms, but Dick simply stared holes in his shirt collar.
"No one had to tell me! It's simple fact that anyone crying just looks weak! I'm a hero! I can't look weak! I have to be a role model for the younger generation! If they see me crying, then they're all going to grow up as weak pansies who desperately depend on us people in spandex to save them! I can't be weak! I-I can't!" he shook his head frantic, calming a bit when pale fingers raked once through his hair.
Wally smiled softly when the blue eyes gently gazed up to meet his stare.
"I don't think it's weak. I definitely don't have the strength to cry in front of anyone. It takes courage and power, definitely a compliment."
Dick scoffed in response, rolling his eyes painfully.
"You don't need strength to cry. It's easy as accepting how… how you'll never be able to meet the expectations that the rest of the world has set for you… KF…" Dick suddenly set his hands hard to the pale chest and shoved back, hoping that he had lowered his friend's guard enough to escape.
All it did was crush him back into the flannel of the ginger's chest, his breath flooding from his chest at a speed that had him gasping it back in with a bit of surprise.
"You're my best friend, birdy. I don't want you to do anything more than you ever want to. I have no expectations set for you to aim for. Just by being you, you have me hard," was whispered hard in his ear, "Just cry."
Dick bit his lip, still struggling against the hug.
"I'm not trying to impress you!" he cried into Wally's shirt, still struggling but a lot weaker now, "I have to impress Bruce! He won't even have dinner with me! I've been eating alone for the past month! He won't even look at me with a smile unless there's a camera on us! It's all just glares!"
Wally closed his eyes, rubbing the teen's tense back, "Just cry."
"What am I doing wrong?! I'm just trying to be a good son for him! I want a family again! He's all I have and even he doesn't want me! What does that mean about me?! Am I really that bad? I want to be more than him than that orphan boy he adopted! I want to be more than just his ward! More than a sidekick! I want him to own up to me! I want him to put an arm around me and tell the world with a smile, 'This one's mine!'" Dick's voice trembled hard now, his forehead resting to Wally's shirt, his hands fisting the jacket roughly.
"Just cry," Wally murmured again, watching the acrobat with sad eyes.
"That's not even the worst part! He promised! He said that he got off early today! He wanted t-to take us out! Dinner! A movie! Something families do! I waited… I waited six hours! He left me there on the porch alone in the rain! He never called, texted, phoned in or anything! And when he came home, he just nodded at me, like he forgot I was even there!"
"Just cry."
"Why can't I be as important to him as his work? Something has to be wrong with me! He took me in out of pity! He doesn't want me! It's just good on his reputation! I bet he never even wanted a sidekick! He's just training me to kick me off the branch and hope I can fly on my own! I… I can't fly, Wally. My parents couldn't… I… I… oh god…"
Dick lunged forward, tears catching up with the hard sobs that spilled hard, wrapping his arms tight around the ginger with enough force to stumble them back, thankful that Wally managed to catch himself with his back to the brick of the wall. He smiled thankfully before clutching the acrobat tight, holding him comfortingly.
"I'm here… don't worry… just cry… get it all out… we can go talk to him when you feel better…"
[1] Reference to Headfirst Slide into Cooperstown on a Bad Bet by Fall out Boy. "I just want to be a footnote in someone else's happiness."
-F.J. III