Author's Note: Hey guys, so, here's Chapter 7. Sorry this one took so long... truth be told, I kind of got distracted and then I forgot that I hadn't posted it. So, uh, my bad. Anyway, here it is... so make sure to click the 'review' button at the end and let me know what you think of it.


Wally operated on something resembling full radio silence for about a week after first meeting M'gann. He skipped out on a training session with Barry and only replied to Dick's texts in the form of excuses, claiming that he was struggling with his Japanese and he needed to be hard at work if he wanted to keep his grades from suffering.

While not far from the truth (he was having Yuujirou read his homework questions aloud and double-check his answers to guarantee he wasn't mistranslating them), Wally's time was far more preoccupied by his new extracurricular activities.

He, Yuujirou and Mikoto had been meeting with Natashou every other afternoon so that their designer and his assistants could check progressing works against his favored models. President Arisada had them on their off days to go over their schedule for the next month.

This first week was light for them, with no official appearances to make and their only strict duty being to show up for class and deal with their growing fans. Once the next week began, however, clubs and sports teams would start to meet for the year, and the Princesses were expected to make appearances and offer encouragements... in full uniform.

The boys, as could be imagined, were not looking forward to this. And, surprisingly enough, Arisada's calm demeanor as he cheerfully went over which clubs and teams would be the first to receive their attentions, combined with his 'helpful hints and tips' for how best to encourage the best performances, wasn't actually doing all that much to help with that.

And then there was the physical maintenance expected of them. To look the part of 'Princesses', Arisada had begun sending them various skin and haircare products, with directions to use them in specific regimes that varied from bottle to bottle. Additionally, they found that shaving their legs was something to be done with great frequency, if only to cure themselves of the horrible discomfort that grew when stubble began to sprout (Wally swore that he'd had broken bones that weren't as irritating).

Throughout it all, the only people Wally had to talk to were Yuujirou and Mikoto. Their fellow students, though all desperate to be with a Princess, were not exactly interested in conversation. They merely wanted a few minutes to take in their appearance, maybe a few comforting words and then some of the bolder ones occasionally tried their luck at getting something a little different (with rather painful results, in most cases).

But Yuujirou and Mikoto, at least, were good company. Yuujirou's intolerance of his friends' whining often made them the targets of his biting sarcasm, but once he directed it towards others he was absolutely hilarious. Even when it was aimed in their direction, Wally had to admit it was pretty funny. And Mikoto, so long as nobody brought up their duties, was a fantastic study partner, whose knowledge of biology exceeded Wally's own and had a great interest in many other subjects. The three of them, lacking any better options, spent most of their evenings in Wally and Yuujirou's dorm room, idly chatting as they went over the lessons of the day.

So, though busy, that week ended with Wally in a somewhat okay mood. Despite the frustrations piling up on him in regards to his duties, the week of modeling for Natashou alongside Yuujirou and Mikoto and discussing scheduling practices with Arisada had served as a fantastic acclimatization period. He had, as Yuujirou had, finally accepted that there was nothing to be gained from whining about his situation and was nearing a point where he would actually be able to pick up a pair of panties without sobbing mournfully.

After a relatively quiet weekend at his parents' apartment, he was even feeling as though he should probably make an appearance at the Cave as well, only for that decision to be taken away from him on Sunday afternoon when he received the alert for a mission.

Resigning himself to a night without sleep, he simultaneously felt a combination of anticipation and anxiety as he saw both a chance to prove himself and a chance to be proven unnecessary.

He resolved to prove himself.


By all accounts it was a relatively simple mission. All they were meant to do was scout out Santa Prisca and determine the source of some unusual activity in the area. Do not be seen. Do not engage.

The trip in the Bio-Ship (which, to Wally's surprise, was actually an airship of extraterrestrial origins rather than a boat) was awkward. Robin, knowing his friend far better than just about anyone, had managed to pick up on Wally's discomfort towards their Martian teammate and saw it as his duty to try and reconcile them.

Since Miss Martian was surprisingly shy and Wally had no desire to talk to her, his attempts fell flat, and only served to draw attention to the problem.

Kaldur elected to leave it alone for the time being. His teammates were not being actively antagonistic and seemed to at least get along, so he would give them the chance to resolve it themselves so long as it did not interfere with their mission performance. Superboy either failed to notice or failed to care.

So the ride there was a disaster, but the mission itself... well, that was kind of a disaster too. But this time in a good way.

They'd been seen. Naturally. And they'd found that, unless they struck immediately, terrible consequences would ensue. Naturally. So they'd had to fight. Again... naturally.

And it was through that that Wally discovered something important.

Wally didn't know how to work with the team. He'd expected that. Aside from Robin, he'd only fought alongside Aqualad and Superboy just the once, and he knew that they'd fought with M'gann before and supposedly they'd been meeting with Black Canary over the past week or so.

But they didn't know how to work together either.

Oh, sure, they had an idea. But it was more or less the same idea Wally had, pretty much boiling down to 'make sure you hit the other guys rather than your friends'.

They didn't share that innate trust that the League did. They couldn't charge in wordlessly with the surefire knowledge that their teammate would be watching their back or preparing for a maneuver.

It was humbling for everyone really, making everyone feel awkward and out of place. But at the same time, it made Wally feel that he belonged. He didn't mess up any worse than anyone else, after all.

But, in the ensuing battle... he also didn't really make himself essential.

Aqualad, despite a brief conflict with Robin, assumed command gracefully. Robin making himself invaluable with his hacking skills, enabling the team to discover the presence of Kobra Cult in what had once been Bane's Venom production complex, as well as the fact that Kobra himself would be picking up the first shipment of a new Venom/Blockbuster combination within the hour.

Superboy and Miss Martian both distinguished themselves greatly in the battle that sprung from the team's attempt to prevent that powerful and permanent formula from being spread across the globe. Superboy taking on the first to take the serum, a youth by the apt name of 'Mammoth', whilst Miss Martian took on his sister, the only marginally less dangerous 'Shimmer'.

As for Kid Flash? Well, as far as he was concerned, all he did was beat up a few mooks and reveal the team to the enemy in the first place. And get shot at, of course, but that was par for the course.

Sure, some might consider his identification of the Venom/Blockbuster combo to be an integral part of the mission. After all, if they hadn't known what was being transported, there was the potential that the team might not have broken cover in order to stop the shipment, likely resulting in the birth of dozens, if not hundreds, of 'Mammoths' across the world. Unfortunately, it is here where Wally's genius worked against him.

After all, sometimes he was too smart. It was rare, but sometimes Wally forgot that just because something seemed simple to him, then that in no way meant that others perceived it in the same way. So, though it had been simple for him to recognize both the Venom and Blockbuster formulas, having studied them both individually out of personal curiosity and, with his grounding in chemical science, it hadn't been all that tricky to determine what a combination of these formulas would be capable of, it didn't actually occur to him that his teammates likely could not have reached the same conclusion without him.

So, as far as he was concerned, all he did was beat up a few mooks and reveal the team to the enemy in the first place.

Still though, regardless of the fact that he had failed to make himself truly indispensable to the team (oh, how he wished he lived in the states... if he did, he totally could've been team leader! But you couldn't be leader if you were only a part-time teammate), the way that everyone had felt out of synch with one another made him feel a bit better. It reminded him... they were a new team, all of them. They were still working the kinks out. Still finding their feet and trying to figure out how they fit.

So, it made him feel better. Just a little.

But if Miss Martian ever said 'Hello Megan' again, Wally was going to hurl. He got enough catchphrases from Barry 'Back in a Flash' Allen, and he so didn't want to deal with that any more than he had to.


Wally made his way through Monday morning in something of a tired daze. He handed in homework that had just the faintest scent of lingering smoke (a byproduct of completing it at the literal last minute) and then promptly slumped over in his seat and prayed not to be called upon. He gave up on actively translating his teachers' words by midmorning, having made it that far purely on willpower and a caffeine high that ended way too soon (the downside of the speedster metabolism) and it was only thanks to Mikoto kicking him that he didn't slip into sleep during their shared history period.

"Are you alright?" The strawberry blonde asked uncertainly, when the class let out for lunch and Wally began moving sluggishly towards the cafeteria.

"M'fine," he mumbled in response, before doing his best to shake off his daze. "Just didn't sleep well last night."

And, for the most part, he was fine. Mikoto reluctantly agreed that Wally perked right up once he'd refueled his tanks, so to speak. Some food, some sugar, and some caffeine all combined together in a perfect blend to transform any shambling teen into a fit and productive student for the remainder of his afternoon classes, until that final bell rang true and students across the campus stirred into a flurry of activity.

Bustling through the halls, the boys of the school hurried with renewed vitality towards their first club meetings of the year, prepped for extracurricular activities that would shake off the dreariness of a days' lessons and distract them from their homework for a few hours at a time.

Wally, Mikoto and Yuujirou were perhaps the sole exceptions in all the commotion. Rather than the excitation that practically drowned the rest of the school, the trio turned glum and morose.

The clubs were meeting today, which meant that it was time for them to actually earn all those nice little bonuses Arisada had been handing out.

Meeting at the Home Ec classroom that had been cordoned off for Natashou's use, the Princesses of Fujimori Academy entered with their usual and noticeable lack of aplomb. Of course, this lack of aplomb meant little to the designer, whose own enthusiasm was enough to more than fill the void.

"Princesses!" Natashou greeted cheerfully, his assistants at the read as they closed the door behind the entering trio. "Since it's your first day, I've decided we'll be going with-"

One by one, Yuujirou, Wally and Mikoto walked solidly past their enthused senior. They had learned in the past week that Natashou would continue to talk regardless of whether or not they were actually listening (which rarely helped anyway, given his preference for using overly technical terms that flew over their heads), and had found it far easier to simply ignore him and find out what they would be wearing by entering their cordoned off 'dressing room' and seeing what had been laid out for them.

As they brushed through the curtain, they found their outfits hanging carefully in wait and stifled groans. Done up in the black and white Gothic Lolita style that Natashou was so fond of, the design was relatively simple with petticoated skirts that brushed the knees and a loose fit to help disguise whatever masculine lines their bodies possessed. Lightly heeled boots that came up to mid-calf accentuated hairless legs whilst the loose fit of the dress was belted tightly around the waist, giving the illusion of a more feminine physique without requiring further enhancements.

When combined with Natashou's artful touch with a makeup kit and (in Wally and Mikoto's case at least) a longer haired wig, it was an extraordinarily effective costume and the boys would look the part expected of them.

The boys knew this, having modeled this particular dress the previous week, and were merely grateful that at least this outfit wouldn't require a corset.

Mikoto closed the curtain behind him carefully, for both his own sense of propriety and for the designers' sakes, whilst Yuujirou and Wally got to work disrobing. As was often the case when changing in a group, a carefully respected silence enveloped them as the boys actively avoided allowing their gazes to settle anywhere that might be considered 'inappropriate'.

It was as Wally shrugged out of his shirt that this silence was broken, when Mikoto noted a discrepancy in the normally rather pale skin of the redhead's upper back.

"What happened to you?!" He blurted out unthinkingly, before the question could filter through his brain.

Wally froze in the process of putting his shirt to the side, honestly not knowing what Mikoto was talking about.

"What?" He responded uncertainly, after a moment's silence. Enough time for Yuujirou too to see what had caught Mikoto's eye.

"Wally," he said cautiously. "What happened to your back?"

"Did someone..." Mikoto asked apprehensively. "Hurt you?"

All across the top of Wally's shoulder-blades were a series of ugly yellow and green discolorations, each the size of a small apple. Bruises that seemed to be at least a few days old if Mikoto were any judge. Bruises that would form from blows being rained down upon someone.

Wally blinked dumbly before realization set in. The bruises on his back were from Santa Prisca, from the blasters used by the Kobra Cultists that fired off rounds of condensed energy. Potentially deadly if it made contact with the skull, but otherwise little more than overly expensive substitutes for rubber bullets.

Wally had caught a trio of blasts mid-dash from a Cultist who was either the greatest marksman in the world or an incredibly lucky shot. His adrenaline high at the time had made them bearable, and thanks to his accelerated metabolism they were already partially healed, giving them the aged appearance that was likely leading to some interesting conclusions.

Wally panicked. Just a little.

"These?" He asked, his voice a touch too jovial for Yuujirou to take seriously. "These are nothing. I tripped down the stairs a few days ago. They're almost healed, anyway."

"Wally," Yuujirou stated sternly. "Those are not 'nothing'. And you don't trip. I don't even think I've seen you stumble once since I've met you."

Breathing deeply, Yuujirou asked again. "What happened?"

Wally deflated, his lie most definitely not being bought. His mind working a mile a minute, he sighed.

"I was mugged on my way home Friday night," he improvised awkwardly. "They hit me from behind and took my wallet. Then they hit me again for good measure. I didn't want to say anything because..."

The way that he trailed off told his audience all they needed to hear. Mikoto nodded his understanding. With all that was happening to them, any suggestion that he wasn't tough enough or manly enough was like a crippling blow to him. Yuujirou, on the other hand, scoffed.

Shaking his head in disbelief, he muttered, "You really are an idiot if you think anyone'd think less of you. Accept it, deal with it and move on. But never hide from it."

Wally blinked at Yuujirou. The blonde was rarely so vocal about his own thought processes.

Realizing that they were watching him expectantly, Wally nodded, giving his promise, "I won't."

Yuujirou nodded in return, satisfied, before turning back to the costume laid out for him, starting unflinchingly with the bra and working his way from there.

Wally gave one last mournful look at his own outfit before Yuujirou's words resounded in his skull.

'Accept it. Deal with it. Move on... but never hide from it.'

It was good advice, he decided, before he tiredly followed suit.


As the Princesses walked the halls of the school, Natashou already having approved their outfits were being worn 'correctly' and his assistants having applied their makeup, Wally had to admit that their designer, for all his eccentricities, was a pretty decent guy.

Having heard his complaints about their initial costume, Natashou had made some modifications to Wally's current dress, ensuring that the lace involved was not in a position to easily brush against his skin. Simultaneously, silk undergarments had been traded for far more comfortable cotton replacements.

As Natashou himself put it, the comfort of a design was paramount. Granted, there was nothing Natashou was willing to do about the breeze but, still, Wally was grateful.

"Who's first on the list?" Wally asked, figuring he'd best be prepared.

Yuujirou, who was holding their schedule, double checked it as they walked.

"Drama Club," he stated calmly. "We'll be there for fifteen minutes, and Arisada said we should just act flattered and giggle when they start reciting classical poetry."

Yuujirou paused here, fixing Wally with a look. "That means you're not allowed to hit them. At least not while we're on duty."

"Fine, fine," he mumbled with a sigh. "Drama Club... at least we won't be the only ones in lace."

"It could be worse," Yuujirou commented idly. "We're meeting with the Baseball Team after that. Arisada wants us to let them show us how to swing the bat..."

Mikoto winced pitifully, while Wally rolled his eyes, "Man, I've used that one. This is so wrong."

"Who's next?" Mikoto asked hesitantly.

"Chess Club," Yuujirou scanned the page. "Arisada's notes recommend that we wait until they offer us a game, play pathetically, and then gush about how smart they are while we let them teach us."

Mikoto frowned beyond his initial pout, "But I like chess."

Yuujirou nodded, "So do I."

"Yeah?" Wally grinned. Back when his speed was first developing Barry had made him play agonizingly slow games of chess against Iris and his parents as a way to help teach him patience in a way that would also help his ability to think strategically. "We'll have to see if we can't borrow a board from them. We can have a real game back in the dorm."

Yuujirou smiled, "We may be able to make that work. We'll suggest that we need to practice if we're ever to provide a decent game."

Mikoto eyed them warily, "What if they offer to tutor us?"

Wally and Yuujirou blinked simultaneously, before sharing a look.

"Maybe we could get a chess set somewhere else?"

Yuujirou nodded seriously. "Perhaps President Arisada has one we could borrow."

"He does seem the type to be a secret grandmaster, doesn't he?" Wally mused aloud.

Mikoto scoffed. "What do you mean 'secret'? He isn't exactly subtle about the fact that the whole school's made up of his pawns."

Yuujirou nodded, "And yet so few people actually seem to realize it."

"Nah, I think they do," Wally said thoughtfully. "But as long as he does stuff like give them their 'Princesses' and keeps them happy, they just don't particularly care."

Yuujirou tilted his head curiously. "That certainly puts a different spin on our position."


As far as Wally was concerned, it could have gone worse.

Upon their arrival, the Drama Club had, on cue, spoken in little else but lines from classical Japanese poetry. Between the archaic use of the language and the idioms and metaphors besides, Wally was able to understand not a single word, not that he was particularly choked up about it.

Still, aside from having to suffer through flirtations that he couldn't understand, the Drama Club had been perfect gentlemen and Yuujirou led Wally and Mikoto out on time and without trouble.

The Baseball Team was a little bit trickier. Letting the boys lead them in how to swing a bat was more awkward than they'd imagined but they were also amazed, astounded, and grateful beyond all belief that hands didn't go wandering anywhere inappropriate.

Wally figured that it was probably because they didn't want their illusions shattered when they found distinctly unwomanly curves, while Yuujirou attributed their restraint to his 'Smile from Heaven'. Mikoto honestly didn't care, so long as they stopped touchinghim out of uniform as well.

The Chess Club was actually probably the easiest to deal with. The club members were easily good enough that, even if they'd been trying, the Princesses wouldn't've put up the best of a fight anyway. Except for Mikoto, who maintained that he could and would thrash any of them in a real game.

It was frustrating, but at the same time, having the students correct their chess moves was a lot less stressful than having them correct their batting stance.

As humiliating as it all was, Wally was beginning to see that it all boiled down to one simple construct. Annoying, but survivable. He just hoped that none of the other clubs tried to get handsy.