04 [ Black | cave, gloom, paranoid ]

"Where were you on Tuesday?" Batman doesn't look around but Flash knows his question didn't go unnoticed. "Like, at three in the morning?"

Flash knows he can't force an answer out of the Bat, so he waits while looking at their surroundings. The Batcave has changed a bit since he was last there, but it still is a dark, humid place. Bread would mold in less than a night if left here, Flash is ready to bet.

"You were not on League business," he continues, leaning on the console and crossing his arms and then generally not moving, and all but yelling look at me, this is serious with his posture. "And I know you weren't on Bats-y business at Gotham, either."

Batman finally reacts at the last quip, rising up and turning around in one fluid movement, and Flash gets the impression that the man's cape is made of gloom, the way it moves and pools and almost completely conceals its owner in darkness. It doesn't reflect the light as the body armor does, but rather seems to absorb it.

Flash shivers. Batman notices. Flash knows this because the anger is now coated with a dim streak of curiosity, and how cool is it that Flash came here prepared to put all this mess in the open, because otherwise he would have had it painfully spooned out anyway.

"Wayne Enterprise's annual party," the Dark Knight says, and Flash feels stupid. He messed up with Mr. Terrific's computer files and spent three hours carefully retrieving information from Barbara without making her suspicious, yet he forgot to look at Gotham's social news?

He's made an idiot of himself in front of one of his childhood heroes, but at least now he's certain. There have to be pictures of playboy Bruce Wayne with some supermodel or the other hanging from his arm until early in the morning. Yet although he's glad Bats isn't his stalker, now the options are way too scary to consider. Or, well, there's him being paranoid, whichever works better.

"Flash."

But of course, he's not the only one with monsters lurking in shadows, imaginary or otherwise.

"I think somebody's been following me, civil persona me, around," he says, not bothering to downplay it because, well. This is Batman. "And before you ask, no, I have no proof. Which is why I thought it might be you."

There's something like anger in the other man's stoically grim face, or at least what the cowl allows to be seen. Flash thinks it might be what passes for concern when the Dark Knight is involved, but that might be just his own deluded mind.

Then the moment passes and Batman returns to his seat and to his computer with nothing more than a sharp nod in his direction. Flash knows that, although he's being dismissed, his problem is not. Many hours, many nights will be used while Batman researches and taps into his sources, trying to bring some light into this one last mystery. He'll definitely visit Central before the week is gone, a notion that should make Flash feel better.

It does not.


05 [ Blue | mountain, snow, ice ]

"- it beats the Everest any day, I'd say."

Wally smiles, paying to Dick's inebriated ramblings only enough attention to be amused by them. The guy seriously is a lightweight, not that Wally is any better. But at least he has his metabolism working for him, and although he already acted stupid earlier, at least now his mind is clean and sharp again. Mostly, he thinks, snorting into his apple cider and internally giggling at the idea of getting drunk on warm beverages while perching in the top of a snow-dusted mountain.

He has to agree with Dick on one thing, through: the K2 looks impressive this close. They are in no way as high as it highest peak, and there's enough distance between them and her –and Dick insists on calling the mountain a she– that it looks smoky blue even if the morning is cold and cloudless. But even a city boy like him has to accept nature beats in the awesomesauce department.

Maybe he isn't as sober as he first believed.

He doesn't care, thought. He's warm and fuzzy in his borrowed winter garment, and who would have believed a member of the Bat clan owned something in red? But then, Wally gets that bright colors make sense when security is concerned. He certainly stands out against the snow more than his cerulean dressed partner.

He snorts a little.

"You're not paying attention to anything I say," Dick declares in a surprisingly sober, if whinny, voice.

"Nope," Wally is happy to admit, and when a giggles follows he frowns into the thermos he's been clutching. "… the hell's in this shit."

Dick, of course, doesn't answer, and Wally lets him ramble about how climbing is like making love to a mountain or something like that.

God. Bats' gonna have his head for this.


06 [ Black | villain, stalker, obsession ]

"It's not Luthor."

Flash waits, his eyes never leaving their third companion. Batman says nothing, does nothing that could give away what he's thinking, but Flash knows. Batman agrees, this particular sociopath is ruled out. That doesn't mean he's happy with it.

It's only later, after Question has left, that he lets himself crumble, if only a little. It's been fourteen months since he first noticed. Well, actually … he looks at the clocks, the one with Central's time zone ticking its way past three a.m.

Make that fifteen months sharp.

"A year and a half, minimum," Batman says when Flash points the date, and yeah, he can see where the estimation comes from. There are two scenarios that could explain why he noticed his stalker when he did: either He wants Wally to know … or He is getting sloppy, which is an even more horrible, terrible thought.

"We have to tell the others," Flash says, knowing he doesn't have to explain his reasons - Batman understands obsession quite too well for anybody's comfort. As more time passes, the probability of something bad taking place increases exponentially.

And Flash doesn't even have the luxury of being selfish and thinking only of himself.