Life's Game
Soft milk chocolate skin, softer curly red hair and dark green eyes; forty prefect little hands and toes between them. They were prefect.
They were his sons.
He was a father.
"You look scared"
Kaldur jumped and looked away from his now sleeping son, clean, healthy and now bundled up in a blanket. To Barry, who had one of his own children in his arms, he's never seen the older Speedster happier.
"I—" Kaldur started, paused, then cleared his throat and spoke again, voice soft so as not to disturb their partners and the sleeping babies, "I am…unsure….about being a father, especially after meeting my own"
To Kaldur's surprise, Barry smiled before sitting down next to the younger male, gently rocking his daughter when she whimpered.
"You'll be fine" said the older Speedster, "just because he helped give you life, doesn't mean Black Manta is your father, and it certainly doesn't mean that you'll be like him"
Flattered, and a bit embarrassed, Kaldur looked back down his son.
"That's very kind of you to say" Kaldur said after a long pause.
Rolling his eyes, and letting out a huff of laughter, Barry gently bumped his shoulder against Kaldur's, "I'm not being kind, I'm being truthful, you are a good man Kaldur'ahm, and I know you love Wally as much as he loves you, I also know you'll love, protect that little one and his brother just as much"
~.~
When they were finally able to go home three days later, Kaldur and Wally found their living room filled with baby items and their bedroom had a crib up and waiting; along with two Nightwing-shaped baby monitors set up on the night stand that had been moved near the crib.
"Looks like someone is taking their unofficial godfather duties seriously" Wally commented as he read the note left by Dick.
"So it seems" said Kaldur with a small smile, "I'll put the boys in the crib, and then we must talk"
Wally nodded, they hadn't had a chance at his Uncle and Aunt's house, everyone busy with the new arrivals. Kaldur then picked up both carriers that were given to them by Artemis, who had gone out earlier the following day after the birth with Joan, when he came back. Wally was trying to figure out how to open a stroller, Kaldur stood there watching with an fond expression as the Speedster curse and struggled, after placing the monitor on the coffee table; he gently took Wally's hand and lead him to the sofa and onto his lap.
They talked.
Talked about what happened while Kaldur undercover, what both had been feeling while apart, about the Reach who had escaped, why Wally didn't tell him about the pregnancy; and what to do now. Wally briefly considered telling his lover about what had happened between him and Conner, but decided to talk to the Clone first and kept quiet.
"We will need a bigger apartment" Kaldur pointed out, the Atlantean now sprawled out on the couch, from where he was cuddled up on Kaldur's chest, Wally chuckled, seconds later, the sound of one of their son crying came from the baby monitor.
"Duty calls"
Wally got off the other and went into the room, some moments later the Speedster's voice came through the monitor
"Kaldur, I'm going to need diapers and wipes"
Kaldur rolled onto his feet and began his search for the requested items, lips curling up as he listened to Wally talk and coo over their children.
Three Days Later
Batman, Superman, Wonder Woman, Hawkwoman, John Stewart, J'onzz, and the other Leaguers who attended the outer world trail landed on wreckage that was once Mt. Justice, after what felt like days since they've had been found innocent by the tribune on Rimbor.
The silence around them was eerie.
"Are we too late?" Superman asked at last, god he hoped not.
However they are not, as one by one the Young Justice team appeared in the sky, and landing before them.
"What happened?" Batman asked, taking notice at how pale Kaldur looked, how lost and dim the former Undercover Agent's eyes were.
"The Crisis has passed" Kaldur said after a long pause, "but—" the Atlantean paused and to the surprise of the Justice League members his eyes became wet with unshed tears and his hands trembled.
Gently, Conner and Ma'gann took Kaldur to the side and Nightwing stepped forward.
"We lost Wally"
There is a long stunned silence, Batman's eyes are wide and for a moment he couldn't process what he had just been informed, finally after pushing away the grief and forcing his mind to go blank, the Dark Knight spoke.
"Explain"
So Nightwing did, how they learned that the Reach had implemented their plan to destroy the Earth in order to erase all evidence of the Reach tampering there, how the devices; Magnetic Field Disruptors, caused ongoing chains of not –so- natural disasters. How, when the devices would go into a "chrysalis" mode it would completely destroy the Earth. A solution had come in the form of one Lex Luthor, and anti-Reach software. So after pairing off, the Team and Leaguers went about disabling all twenty devices.
Everything seem to be going well, until it was reviled that there was a twenty-first Magnetic Field Disruptor, hidden in the Arctic. The Flash and Impulse arrive and find out that the device was already in chrysalis mode, creating a vortex. Then on the advice of Lex, the two Speedsters run in the opposite direction of the vortex, in hopes of siphoning off the energy with the Meta humans' speed. However it wasn't enough with just the two of them, then Wally (Stupid, brave Wally, who was supposed to be with Kaldur up in the tower; to be with his lover and their children), appeared.
The three Speedsters were able to stop the vortex, but because Wally wasn't fast enough, he took the blunt of the chrysalis energy discharge and ceased to be.
"Wally's sacrifice will not be forgotten" Superman said after, placing his hand on Nightwing's shoulder.
"I know, but" the former Boy Wonder looked over his shoulder at Kaldur, Conner and Ma'gann had bundled the Atlantean in Sphere next to La'gaan who was talking quietly to the other. "We lost a teammate, a brother, but Kaldur lost a lover and the other parent to their children"
Superman and Batman, and the other Leaguers who had moved closer to listen, blinked and stared, and for once, since losing his best friend, and brother in all but blood; Dick smiled and told another story. This one with a better ending.
"I didn't even know that—" Superman trailed off, making hand gestures to indicate what Nightwing figured meant pregnant Speedster.
"Neither did any of us" Nightwing said with a bit of amusement.
"…..Were the children given names?" Hawkwoman asked.
Her answer came from the back of Sphere.
"Ansgar, and Anwyl" Kaldur said, voice soft and yet it carried over the suddenly silent group, "Warrior and beloved" the Atlantean continued on, "….Wally named them"