Sorry this chapter took so long. Life is crazy.

Anyway, since last chapter Wally hung out with Iron Man and Hulk, this time, you get to see what happens when Kid Flash and Captain America go out for lunch.


Chapter 8: Superhuman

New York City

July 11th, 2012

12:30 P.M.

"Hey Wally," Steve whispered to the young speedster as the waitress made her way through the throngs of restaurant patrons carrying the duo's lunch. "Try not to eat at super speed, will you? We don't want to blow your cover before you've even started at S.H.I.E.L.D."

"Don't worry Steve," Wally replied with a chuckle, "I'll be careful with when I use my power."

As soon as the words left his lips, the two superheroes saw a random patron bump into the waitress, a friend of Steve's he'd met before the Chitauri invasion named Beth, knocking her and their food towards the floor. Time slowed to a crawl as Wally got up and grabbed the food and brought the waitress towards their table with super speed. After taking a moment to overcome her surprise at an averted accident, she put their food on the table.

"Here's your food, boys," she said. "Let me know if you need anything else." Once she was out of earshot, the two superheroes turned to their (considerably large in Wally's case) meals. As they ate their lunches, Steve gave the younger hero a glare that would have made Batman jealous.

"What did I say about not using your powers?" he asked as they continued their meal.

"Hey," Wally retorted jokingly. "First, it was an emergency and I prevented an accident. Second, you told me not to use my speed to eat."

While Steve finished his meal (he'd only gotten a steak with fries) Wally thought about his time in this universe so far as he made his way through his multiple plates of food. Black Widow and Hawkeye were off on various assignments for S.H.I.E.L.D. most of the time, so he hadn't really interacted with them enough to form an opinion of them. He had fun doing various science projects with Tony and Bruce, but they were several years older than him and although his pitied what had happened to Bruce, he found it difficult to bond with them despite their shared interest in science. He'd have to wait and meet Thor before making his judgment on him, though, but once he learned the backstory of Captain America, he and Steve bonded almost instantly. As a fellow fish out of water, Steve understood what he was going through and the two helped each other cope with their new environment. Wally had even convinced Steve to come up with a list of new things to try.

"You know what I meant," the super soldier shot back with a smirk. "So how's the path to heading home going?"

"Pretty well," the speedster answered as he continued his gargantuan meal. "Director Fury's trying to contact Asgard and open negotiations to borrow the Tesseract to get me home. Tony and Bruce are already working on modifying one of his newest models of armor to absorb the cube's energy." Despite the progress they were making, Wally couldn't help thinking back to the possibility of Artemis being with someone else by the time he got back. Steve noticed the concern on his friend's face and commented on it.

"You don't sound too happy," Steve commented. Wally hesitated a moment before deciding to tell the Captain what was on his mind. So far he trusted Steve and Bruce more than he trusted Tony, Clint, or Natasha.

"I'm looking forward to getting home and everything," he began. "But I;m afraid that the longer it takes, the sooner my friends and family will move on. And then my girlfriend, Artemis,"

"Will be with someone else," Steve finished as Wally finally swallowed the last of his food. "I know how you feel," he continued. "When I was finally thawed out, my girlfriend had married one of my old war buddies and already was up to grandkids. But even though she was physically older than me and living in a nursing home, we're still close friends and we still care about each other."

"I'm still a little nervous about Artemis moving on," Wally replied once Beth returned with their check. "But I get the point: even if she's recovered romantically, that doesn't mean we can't still be friends."

"Exactly," Steve answered as he put enough twenty dollar bills in with the check.

"Thanks for the advice, Steve," Wally added as the two superheroes got up and exited the restaurant, continuing to chat about their love lives and heroics.


So yes, Steve and Wally talk about what happened when they came back from the dead (from the point of view of others) and their loved ones had moved on. And yes, Beth is the woman who saw Steve without his mask on and thanked him and the Avengers on TV (If you want to re-watch the movie to check, her first line was "What? That this was somehow their fault?"