Title: Flippy things
Rating: K+ for mild language
Summary: Wally is impressed by Dick's fine acrobatic displays and shirtlessness; Robin demonstrates. One-shot. Hints of Birdflash.
Author's Note: Inspired by the scene of Dick training at the Manor… and there just happens to be a training room like that at Mt. Justice too… Also inspired by my fangirling over Robin's 'flippy things', as I too like to call them XD
Disclaimer: Don't own a thing, much to my chagrin.
Wally vibrated impatiently as the zeta-tube in Central City took its sweet time to beam him over to the Young Justice headquarters. Seriously, these teleports could take such a long time to a speedster in a hurry. Actually, he wasn't even in that much of a hurry. He was just bored as heck, and was eagerly awaiting his superhero friends. Robin, Artemis, Superboy, M'gann… even Kaldur were better company than the brainless jocks he had to hang out with at school.
He heard his name being announced by the zeta-tube's female voice but he was already in the kitchen in a blur of color. He looked around at superspeed, but it was empty. Huh, people usually convened around the kitchen when they had nothing better to do.
"Hullo?" he called, but there was no reply. He grabbed a couple of granola bars from the cupboard and then made his way to his room to dump his school bag on the bed. He'd deal with that later. Well, if there was no one to keep him company, he'd just have to amuse his lonely self by playing video games solo. Oh how he wished there were a certain black-haired, blue-eyed boy here with him now.
"Wally, are you in there?" he heard M'gann's voice on the other side of the door as he pulled out his laptop.
"Yeah!" he called, almost dropping it as he rushed to open the door.
"Oh okay, I knew I'd heard the zeta-beam, but I was in Artemis's room." She smiled brightly at him. "Robin was looking for you earlier; he said to tell him when you came in, but seeing as you're here now you can just as well go to him." Wally pricked his ears. Robin was here too? This day just got ten times better.
"Awesome! Where is he?"
"Not sure. He was in his room last I heard but—" she broke off as a passing breeze announced the speedster's departure down the hall.
Wally knocked five times on Robin's door, except they blurred together into what sounded like only one. There was no answer, however.
"Rob? Robbie? Open the door if you're in there!" Wally listened carefully but the room seemed to be genuinely empty. He knew there was usually only one other place Robin would be if he wasn't in his room or in the kitchen, and that was the training room. The red-head dashed over to the double doors at the end of the corridor that opened onto the gym. He slipped inside with surprising stealth, with a vague idea of trying to sneak up on his ninja friend, but… whoa.
Robin was high up in the air swinging from the rings. His body curved in an arc as he let go, flipped twice in the air, and caught them again, all in one smooth movement. The boy was shirtless; his discarded green hoodie was lying across the weights next to Wally and his t-shirt was draped over one of the exercise machines. He didn't appear to have noticed Wally, and the latter was all too happy for that. Watching Robin train was a sight he didn't want to miss.
Robin gained momentum and flipped again, this time turning three times in the air before catching the rings. Wally watched, fascinated. Every movement looked effortless and controlled. It was impossible for him to imagine the acrobat ever missing a hold or making a stumble. Wally thought, with a rather wry smile, that if it had ever been Dick who got superspeed, he would have made a much less clumsy speedster than Wally himself was. Maybe he should learn some tips from Robin about hand-foot coordination.
Robin paused in his swings, and then turned so he was making a handstand while still gripping the rings. Wally could see his toned muscles tighten and his chest heave from the strenuous effort of holding his body weight up for so long, but he didn't even look drained yet. And who knew how long he had been already working out here. Judging by the sweat dripping off his brow, it had been quite a while. The ebony shook the hair out of his eyes, twisted in the air, and let himself drop to the ground. He softened his fall with bent knees and a hand to the ground to keep his balance. Robin spun around on the balls of his feet as he straightened up and grinned at Wally, who was still gaping at him from the door.
"Are you done staring?" he smirked, grabbing his water bottle from the bench and unscrewing the cap. Wally wondered in amazement how on earth he had managed to keep his sunglasses on all this time. He didn't think it was possible to flip twenty feet up in the air without your shades flying off… Well, Wally hadn't actually seen his face. Perhaps he had just slipped them on right after he jumped down, so fast even Wally hadn't seen.
Then he registered what Robin had actually said. He flushed and looked away.
"I wasn't staring," he denied, even though he knew that was very much untrue. He wondered when Robin had realized he was there… he knew he must have been watching for a good five minutes.
"Yeah, sure," Robin said, drawing out the word. He took a long gulp from his bottle, and Wally used the time to rake his eyes over the boy's sweaty, shirtless torso. Robin had a lithe build; the muscles always supple to allow for minute twists and spins in mid-air, and flexible enough to allow him to flip gracefully four times between trapezes, as Wally knew the youngest Grayson was capable of.
"How do you do that?" murmured Wally, looking back up at the rings so high in the air.
"How do I do what?"
"All those…" Wally gestured frantically, searching for the right words, but… they escaped him. "All those… flippy things…" Robin's twin raised eyebrows were all too visible, even despite his shades. Wally decided to elaborate before Robin could say anything.
"Those flips and somersaults and spins and stuff. You do it all the time during our missions and all, it's just… it's cool, and, I dunno how you do it…" the red-head continued. He could have face-palmed; that had got to be one of the most ridiculous things ever to have come out of his mouth. Well, he couldn't be blamed. There was still a sweaty, shirtless Robin standing before him whose fine acrobatic display had left Wally's brain rather melted.
"Um… I don't know? That's just how I work. It comes naturally now, with all the practice I've had." He chuckled then, a dangerous glint appearing in the depths of his dark glasses. "You mean, these kinds of 'flippy things'?"
He flipped backwards suddenly over his hands, then spun around three-hundred-sixty degrees to send a pair of birdarangs flying from his fingers. They simultaneously pinned the sleeves of Wally's hoodie to the wall of the gym.
"Hey!" Wally struggled against the little sharp-edged disks that immobilized him. "That was a new hoodie," he pouted, feeling very ridiculous as he tried to free himself without ripping his sweater. Robin just cackled in front of him. How the hell did he manage to suddenly produce two birdarangs out of thin air, Wally marveled. He was shirtless, for goodness sakes! Did he keep them in his boxers or something? Wally glared at him as it became clear he could not free himself without help. "Yes, those kinds of flippy things," he hissed through gritted teeth.
That seemed to be the reply the ebony was looking for because he stepped forward and plucked the two offending items from the red-head's shirt. Wally tried not to think about how their chests almost touched when Robin leaned forward to speak to him.
"Seriously, Wally. 'Flippy-things'? Could we be any less descriptive?" he teased, still smirking.
"Hey, you know, you're not any better. You always go around messing up words and stuff too." Robin snorted at that.
"Dude, that's so not the same thing. My apparently 'messed up' words have logical reasoning behind them. Besides, they're never as ridiculous as 'flippy things'." He leaned forward further as he said that, so close Wally could feel his breath on his skin. He gulped.
"Oh well, I really don't see the difference," he replied hastily. Robin just rolled his eyes, not deigning that with an answer.
Wally took an inaudible breath of relief when Robin stepped away and grabbed a towel from the rack. Having a sweaty, shirtless Robin who had just pinned him effortlessly to the wall that close to him was making the blood rush to his ears again. Not that he really minded having a sweaty, shirtless Robin that close to him, but Robin didn't need to know that. Chances were, he already knew, and that's exactly why he did it.
"Walls? Stop spacing out or I'll try another one of my 'flippy things' on you," came Robin's amused voice from right behind him.
"Dude, shut up!" Wally fake-growled. He turned to take a swing at the other boy, but he just wasn't there anymore. The red-head glanced around the now empty gym, and sighed when he heard the typical cackle fading into the distance. Next time, he should ask him how he did those 'ninja things'.
Author's Note: Eh, not my best, but thanks for reading anyways ^^ Sorry it's short… Review please?
And, as always, I'm still open to requests :)