"Be my Boyfriend?"

~x~

2. Five Years Later…

"Hey, um, Rob?" came Wally's distinct voice from the other side of Robin's door one winter evening. "Can we talk?"

The Boy Wonder looked up from his sheet of calculus homework, eyebrows furrowing as he focused on the sound of his best friend's voice. He let out a noncommittal grunt, turning his attention back to his paper. Though he was, age-wise, only in eighth grade, he was already doing high-school level math work. That didn't mean it was easy, though. It still required his full attention. Besides, when Wally 'needed to talk', it was usually either to complain about the empty state of the fridge, to whine about something nasty Artemis had called him, or to bemoan his existence in another, exaggerated way.

Apparently, Wally took Dick's grunt as a 'yes' because the door to his Mount Justice room slid open with a little hiss, and the redhead stepped in. Wally, of course, knew the code to Robin's room by heart. And he had never failed to point out on several occasions how sappy it was that the six-numbered combination just so happened to be the date the two had first met, five long years ago. Dick would always blush angrily and grumble, and yet… he never changed the code. Wally loved that.

Today, though, the redhead seemed to have something else on his mind. First, he hovered uncertainly behind Dick's shoulder, arms crossed, his fingers tapping out a rhythm at superspeed against his freckled arm. He practically radiated jumpiness. When his best friend didn't acknowledge his presence, Wally turned and collapsed with a heavy sigh on the bed, sprawling spread-eagled on the covers. Dick took no notice; only scribbled down a few numbers, then chewed the end of his pencil in thought.

However, once Wally sat up and began pacing from wall to wall, his body humming with nervous vibrations, Dick couldn't even pretend to ignore him anymore. He groaned, running his fingers through the fringe of dark hair which fell over his forehead, and swiveled his chair around to face the speedster.

Cocking an eyebrow, he stated: "Starting a conversation out with 'can we talk'," he used air-quotes around the phrase to emphasize his point, "usually involves, you know, talking."

Wally sighed exaggeratedly, flopping down limply on the bed again. His eyes flickered up to meet Dick's gaze briefly with an expression too conflicted for even Robin to read, then fixed on the ground. Yet still, he said nothing. The brunet frowned, concern seeping into him at Wally's strange behavior. It wasn't like him to… to not say anything. 'Wally' and 'quiet' just didn't fit into the same sentence.

"Walls?" he asked, trying hard not to sound as worried as he felt.

Wally bit his lip, his fingers finding a loose thread on the edge of his jacket and tugging at it jerkily until Dick reached over the gap that separated them and touched the back of Wally's hand. He stilled immediately.

The speedster berated himself mentally. He was being an idiot, as usual, and completely overreacting. All he had to do was say a few simple words, and that would be that. He'd practically gone over every possible scenario in his head already, and he was pretty sure he could cope with… however Dick would react. Even if it turned out to be painful. But this was Dick, Wally reminded himself. His stupid, immature, talented, gorgeous, best friend, who'd trusted him with the world's best-kept secret, and who would never intentionally hurt Wally if he could help it. He'd been in denial for much too long about this – hey, he was good with denial—but that was over now. Man up, West.

The redhead stared down at his own hand blankly. "Remember—" he broke off and cleared his throat before continuing. "Remember how last month I, um, I told you I was bi?" he eventually managed to say. Proud that his voice didn't even wobble.

Dick rolled his eyes, a 'not this again' expression adorning his features. Wally had acted in much the same way a month ago – the restless hovering and stuttered sentences included— when he'd finally come (partially) out of the closet to his best friend. Honestly, Dick didn't know what all the fuss was about. Well okay, he knew; this was a big controversial secret for Wally to admit and trust him with, but Dick couldn't help feeling like the speedster was making too big of a deal about it all.

"Yeah, I do. And remember how I told you that it was fine with me, that it wouldn't change anything between us, that you're still my very best friend, and you therefore have nothing to worry about?" retorted the brunet, contemplating whether he could surreptitiously finish his math problem without Wally seeing him.

"Uhh… right. Well, I might have not— I mean, I… fuck…" Wally groaned and then smiled sheepishly at Dick, but it didn't really reach his eyes. Dick's gaze flickered away from his, and he fiddled absentmindedly with his pen.

"Spit it out, KF."

"I-think-I-may-just-possibly-kinda-most-definitively-like-you…" Wally blurted out his confession, feeling the hot blood rush to his face and thud in his ears. Eyes closed tightly, he refused to look at Dick. "A l-lot, actually. I think I like you a lot," he added. Might as well say it all, now that he was at it. He waited with bated breath for Dick's reply.

"…Mhm. So I figured." Dick sounded so distinctly unimpressed, that Wally's eyes snapped open against his will.

"You fig—well, obviously you did," he muttered under his breath. This was Batman's protégé he was dealing with; of course it was obvious to him. Wally kept his eyes resolutely looking everywhere but at Dick's face, since he knew he wasn't quite ready to see whatever expression Dick was currently wearing. Though his tone of voice and facial expression might be schooled into perfect blankness from all the training he'd undergone in the last five years, Wally could almost always tell the truth in Dick's candid, blue eyes.

But Wally waited, the seconds dragging by like minutes, like hours, like days, each heartbeat a drum sounding in his chest. Yet Dick said nothing more, and Wally didn't understand. Once he heard the telltale sound of pen scratching over paper, the redhead couldn't stop himself from looking back up carefully.

Dick had half-turned back to his desk, head bent studiously over his math homework once again. Wally stared at him for a long minute, gathering up his scattered, confused thoughts.

"Well?" he managed to choke out after another moment of silence.

Dick didn't look up, and Wally's heart was stuck in his throat. "Well what?"

"Well, aren't you going to say anything? I kind of just confessed that I have a freakin' crush on you, Dick, the least you could do is, I don't know…At least give me something more than just 'I figured'!" Wally burst out, sitting on his hands to stop them from shaking.

Dick tilted his head slightly in Wally's direction, but he still didn't look at him straight on. Wally could see his lips and eyebrows shift, but he wasn't sure if it was into a frown or into a smile. Maybe a bit of both. "What; would you rather it be like a Disney fairytale in which I declare my undying love to you, faint, and fall into your arms? Showered with sparks and glitter?"

Wally half-smirked despite himself. "Well, that would be kinda nice…" he answered, unable to ignore the flutter of hope that stirred in his chest.

"Sorry, not happening."

And the flutter in his heart turned into a feeble flicker, retreating somewhere deep in his stomach. He spluttered something in response to Dick's blunt statement, before snapping his mouth shut, embarrassed, and stared at the floor with the intensity that Superboy had when he was trying to call up his non-existent heat vision. Dick turned abruptly in his chair to face Wally squarely, the pen slipping from his fingers to fall on the carpeted floor with a soft thud. Neither of them moved to pick it up.

"Why are you telling me this now?" the brunet asked quietly. Wally chanced a super-speeded glance up at Dick's face, taking in the deep blue eyes and the finely drawn eyebrow, raised, as if in a challenge. Dick was waiting for him to say something. And Wally had the frightening feeling that he was standing on the edge of something new and dangerous and wonderful; but all it would take to shatter everything would be one misplaced step…

Wally hoped to God he'd say the right thing.

"Will-you-go-out-with-me?" he blurted.

And shit, that was really not what he'd meant to say. He could feel himself blushing the way only a redhead can blush; from the tips of his ears all the way into the collar of his shirt. He held Dick's eyes almost desperately with his own, willing himself not to look away.

Dick looked momentarily shocked – and Wally felt a brief spark of triumph to know that, for once, he'd caught Robin off guard – but then the acrobat's expression turned pained. It was Dick that looked away first.

"I—" He swallowed, shaking his head slowly. "No, Wally. I—I can't…"

And with those few words, the previous flicker of hope in Wally's chest turned into a lump of lead, plummeting straight through his core to land painfully on the floor between his feet. No. Nonono. Dick doesn't really mean that. Something was slipping right through his fingertips, without him even knowing quite what it was.

"Why not? You're gay, aren't you?" Wally jumped off the bed where he'd been sitting, his voice too loud, with a touch of hysteria in it. Somewhere deep down he knew this was a pointless battle to fight, one he'd already lost before it had started, but he wasn't going to believe that. Not yet. He was good with denial; he'd said so before. He just hadn't imagined the rejection would sting as sharply as it did, despite having played it all out before in his mind. Things rarely ever go the way one expects them too, after all.

Dick, once again, looked startled for a moment, before his eyes hardened. "I don't know where you heard that. But even if it's true, it doesn't mean I'd just go out with every random guy who happens to have an interest… like mine."

"Do I look like just a 'random guy' to you?" the speedster retorted, waving a hand towards his chest.

"Wally, stop it. You don't—"

"Why?! Give me a valid reason, and then maybe I will," he interrupted, stepping closer to Dick, who had by now also risen from his chair. "How 'bout you start by answering this: do you like me back? Even just a little bit? If you don't think you ever could like me, then fine, I'll leave you alone. But just, you know…"

"That's irrelevan—"

"No, it sure as hell is not irrelevant!" he snapped back, feeling a kind of desperate anger flood through him. He was falling, the world was spinning, and he was fighting with his best-friend-in-the-whole-world over something as stupid as… as…

"Wally!" Dick spoke sharply, cutting through the haze clouding his mind. "You want to know why I won't go out with you? Well here's the thing. You're sixteen; I'm fourteen. You're my best friend, the best friend I've ever had, and the best one I ever will have. I trust you with everything, even with my life, Walls, and I know you do the same for me. Why would you want to ruin what we have already, with something as shallow as a teenage romance? Which we both know won't last. Don't give me that look; how often does a high-school relationship ever last more than a few months? Just don't, Wally. The answer is no, and I hope you're not too blind to realize that's for our own good."

Wally glared down at him; they were nose-to-nose now, and the redhead was taking full advantage of his taller build to tower over his shorter friend. Yet somehow, Dick didn't look intimidated in the slightest.

Wally didn't want to let this argument go, wanted to press his point. He just knew Dick was as into guys as he himself was – as his best bro he kind of picked up on that sort of thing – and despite Dick's reasoning he thought… he thought he deserved at least a chance. So what if it didn't work out? They were the bestest of best friends; he was sure nothing could come between them. Not even a failed relationship. Right?

Something in Dick's expression made him keep his mouth shut about that, however. "Alright then. Fine. Just… fine," he resigned rather lamely, not knowing what else to say, but feeling the need to fill the stillness with something. Suddenly uncomfortably aware of how close they were standing, Wally stepped back quickly to put some distance between their faces. The ensuing silence was permeated by an awkward tension so thick he could almost see it, building up a wall between them.

"…I—I think I should just go now…," said Wally eventually, as quietly as he could, though it still sounded loud in the silence. He picked up Dick's fallen pen from where it lay by his feet and set it on the desk. Dick said nothing; his blue eyes lowered and shadowed by his fringe of black hair, thus hiding them from Wally's searching gaze.

The speedster hesitated a fraction of a second longer, before making his way soundlessly back to the door. It swished open with a soft hiss, and he stepped into the dimly lit hallway of Mount Justice.

"Sorry…" The softly-spoken whisper seemed to brush lightly against his ear as Robin's door closed behind him, so quiet he almost imagined it. But no amount of 'sorry's, no matter how heartfelt, would heal the hurt in his chest anytime soon. He'd just have to prove Dick wrong then, that's all, no matter how long it would take.

As he trekked across the bleak expanse of hallway to his own door, feeling rather defeated, he realized that Dick had never actually answered Wally's 'irrelevant' question. Maybe he had a chance after all, if only a tiny one at that.

~x~

Author's Note: Thanks for all the lovely reviews on this so far, it was really encouraging! I hope you liked this one as well. Please don't hesitate to tell me what you thought, whether it be compliment or criticism.

PS, check out the poll on my profile too if you haven't already ^^