Chapter Two

In my friend, I find a second self. -Isabelle Norton

Mount Justice, 1:35 EDT

Wally poked his head into the study and smiled when he saw Robin sitting at one of the desks. The desk lamp was the only light in the room and the only sound was that of Robin's pen scribbling in his notebook furiously. There was a large textbook to his left, a smaller one in front of him and a notebook on his right.

Wally leaned against the door frame and frowned when he saw Robin sigh, leaning his head on his hand in frustration.

"I take it you're stuck?"

Robin looked up immediately, grinning when he saw Wally.

"Hey Wally. Not stuck, just tired of working on homework. What's up?"

Wally shrugged and walked into the room, taking a chair in front of the desk. "Not much. Kaldur and Megan went to some farmer's market. Superboy disappeared early this morning and the blonde-haired devil woman went shopping."

Robin dropped his pen and flexed his cramped fingers, then raised his arms over his head to stretch. "Blonde-haired devil woman? Really?"

"I figured it was easier to say than 'that chick who thinks she's a part of this team but lets bad guys get away'. OH! And then there's the whole 'no one has ever heard of her' thing." He crossed his arms over his chest and rolled his eyes.

"Other than to interrupt the writing of a twelve-page research paper that's worth a third of my English grade this semester, what did you want?" Robin leaned the chair back and rested his shoes on the desktop, putting his hands behind his head. "It's due in a week, in case you cared."

"I'm BORED." Wally whined, clasping his hands together and begging. "There's nothing to do around here!"

"You could try training with Black Canary. Or are you trying to avoid having your ass handed to you again?"

"Weak, Rob. Weak. And she's not here anyway. Already checked." He stood up and began pacing in front of the desk.

"I could train with you or we could just hit the gym. I think a workout would clear my head."

Wally spun and faced Robin, pure shock registering on his face. "Are you always this responsible?" Robin looked up at him, clearly not understanding. "Robin it's a Saturday afternoon. This isn't a time for homework or training or anything like that. Saturdays are for fun!"

"Oh-kay. What do you suggest we do, then? I'm obviously not going to get any more of my paper written today." Robin started putting his books away, carefully marking his pages with scraps of paper before closing them.

"I don't know. What do you normally do for fun?" Wally watched Robin finish packing his backpack and hoist it over his shoulder.

"Somehow I think my version of fun is waaaay different than yours," he muttered, brushing past Wally. "I'm going to go put this in my room. I'll meet you out in the living room."

Wally frowned at Robin's remark, but went down the hall to the living room to wait.

Robin arrived a few minutes later and Wally noticed he had changed clothes. Instead of his normal hoodie, jacket and dark jeans combination, he was wearing a pair of grey sweatpants and a blue long-sleeved Henley. His trademark sunglasses were still his only accessory. He looked a little more like the teenager he was instead of a miniature adult.

Robin plopped down on the couch a few feet from Wally and looked at him expectantly.

"What?" Wally asked, quirking his eyebrow. "Quit staring at me."

"You're the one who interrupted me because you're bored. Give me one reason I shouldn't be working on my paper."

"You didn't answer my question earlier, when I asked what you do for fun," Wally countered. "Answer my question first."

Robin shrugged and turned to face him, resting an arm on the back of the couch. "Well, when I was younger I loved going to the aquarium or to the zoo. I like playing video games. If all else fails, I read or I do stuff on my laptop to make sure I'm always at the top of my game."

Wally felt his jaw drop slightly. "That's it? Video games or your laptop? What did you do for fun before you were old enough for that stuff?"

"I don't really remember," Robin replied. "I've been doing this," he gestured to the room around them, "this superhero thing for a few years now. Guess I never had much time for a lot of fun stuff since I also had school and homework."

Wally scrambled from his position on the couch, moving to kneel instead. He was absolutely beaming.

"So does that mean you've never made blanket forts?" He was standing now, jumping up and down on the couch.

It was Robin's turn to be confused; Wally could see his face scrunch into a frown behind his glasses.

"Blanket forts? Why would I make blanket forts?"

"OH MY GOD!" Wally stopped jumping and stumbled, falling right over the back of the couch. He hit the carpet with a heavy thud.

"Ow."

He stood and straightened his shirt but he was still grinning.

"Blanket forts are all kinds of WIN," he replied. "C'mon. We have to go find the building materials."

Wally hurried from the room and Robin followed, shaking his head slightly and laughing.

"This is going to be interesting."

Robin jogged down the hall to catch up with Wally. He almost passed the room where Wally had stopped until he heard him talking to himself. Backing up a few steps, he noticed Wally standing in the middle of the laundry room.

"Why are you in here?" Robin looked around curiously as Wally started rummaging through the cupboards.

"Clothespins. You have to have something that holds the blankets together." He rolled his eyes. "Duh!"

"Riiight, of course." Wally shot him a glare. He found the ice cream pail under the sink that Black Canary used to store the clothespins and held it up triumphantly. "Good, it's full!"

Robin stumbled back a step into the hallway as Wally rushed past him in a blur. He came back without the pail of clothespins, a mischievous gleam in his eye.

"Now all we need are the blankets. I'll get the blankets from the bedrooms, you raid the linen closet."

"Wait.. what? Bedrooms?"

"Uh, yeah? The living room is huge. We'll need all the blankets we can find."

Wally disappeared in the direction of the bedrooms, leaving Robin to gather all the blankets and quilts he could carry from the linen closet.

When Robin dumped his armful of blankets on the living room floor, Wally was already moving furniture around. He looked more closely at the blankets Wally swiped from the bedrooms, noticing Superboy's grey and navy blue duvet and Megan's yellow plaid blanket.

"How mad is everyone going to be when they realize you stole their bedding?"

Wally stopped sliding the recliner into the corner and grinned.

"Team effort, Rob. How pissed are they going to be when they realize we stole their blankets?"

Half an hour later they had both couches, the recliner and the stools from the kitchen arranged in the middle of the living room. The backs of the couches were about six feet apart and formed two walls, while the stools made the other two. Robin was busy draping Kaldur's quilt over the couches and Wally was working on covering the stools.

"I can't believe this is the first time you've ever made a blanket fort."

Robin clipped the edges of Kaldur's duvet and Wally's comforter together with clothespins. "That's like, the fourth time you've said that. What's the big deal?"

Wally paused for a minute, watching his friend work. "I don't know, I just thought every kid's made a fort at least once. It's part of being a kid." He resumed clipping another one of the bed sheets to the legs of a stool, making another wall.

Robin smiled to himself as he thought about his childhood. It hadn't been all bad. Sure, it had its royally crappy moments but all in all, he was lucky. As if being in a circus wasn't cool enough, he was Batman's partner on top of it. And he lived with Bruce Wayne. Bruce had taken him all over the world when he traveled on Wayne Enterprise business. Anything he wanted to do, Bruce made sure he got the chance to do it. Wally acted as if Robin didn't know what he was missing, having never made a fort like this. Robin was pretty certain Wally had no idea what he was missing. He shook his head and chuckled at the thought of Alfred helping him make a fort like this, though. He'd have a COW to see clean blankets piled on the floor.

Once the walls and roof were done, Wally dragged the couch cushions into the fort and laid them down as a makeshift floor. Robin spread his comforter over the cushions and collapsed in a heap and lay on his back.

"So what do we do now?"

Wally sat down, leaning against the back of one of the couches.

"Whatever we want."

"We should have included the entertainment center as a wall of the fort." Robin rolled onto his side and propped his head on his hand.

"Why?"

"Two words: 'Hard Rain'."

"Awesome idea! But I get to be Ellis. You can be Nick."

"Dude, no way! I'm Ellis and you can be Nick. Or Coach."

"Nope, age before beauty. I'm older, I get to pick first."

Two Hours Later

"DUDE! What do you think you're doing? You had the chance to smoke Rochelle and pull her into my puddle of Spitter goo!" Wally elbowed Robin, never taking his eyes off the TV.

"If you had better aim, I wouldn't have to pull her into it, numbnuts."

Robin paused the game and looked at Wally as the computer announced the return of Artemis.

"What are we gonna..."

Wally shook his head and held a finger to his lips, Robin taking the hint to be quiet. He held up his hand, counting backwards from five, four, three, two...

"Where are my BLANKETS?"

Robin whipped his head around, cringing at the tone of her voice. A slight breeze ruffled his hair and he turned around.

Wally was gone.

"WALLY!"