Hi.
So...I'm not dead. I'm very much alive, wouldn't exactly say thriving but I'm here. Do I have a legitimately good excuse for not updating anything for almost a year? Nope. High school is rough, and extracurriculars take up a lot of time is all I can say. So, sorry to everyone who has been following this and waiting almost a year for an update, and welcome to everyone who has favorited/followed this in the last year, who I have not met due to my sudden and unintentional hiatus. I'm going to start updating this weekly again (I'm expecting you to keep me to that, Fantasy.) And I have a lot of other story ideas and such that I want to crank out, along with getting back to updating my other long-abandoned stories. The other ones might be a little slow going to get back to updating but I really wanted to start doing this one again. I'm going back and revising all of the one-shots in this collection, (I've already done most of them this past week or so,) mostly just to fix any grammar mistakes and to change any wording to make it flow better. I even changed/added some scenes to some of them to improve them. So I guess all I want to say is...Thank you to everyone who is still here and...I'm back. :)
A/N: And quick thing to mention about this one-shot is that this was originally supposed to be a one-shot with a bunch of snippet scenes inspired by the lyrics of "You've Got A Friend in Me" from Toy Story...the first snippet ended up being 1k+ words and it wouldn't have flowed well into the other snippets so I'm doing this as a stand-alone one-shot and doing a pt. 2 with the rest of the "You've Got A Friend in Me" lyrics and will be done how I originally planned it.
Rating: K+
Time-Line: July 2016. (Right after season 2)
Genre: Friendship, Angst
Summary: Wally is dead. His best friend is dead. Dick's not okay. But...maybe he will be.
You've Got a Friend in Me
When the road looks rough ahead, and you're miles and miles from your nice warm bed. Just remember what your old pal said. You've got a friend in me.
"I'm so sorry Wally." 19-year-old Dick Grayson sobbed into his pillow. Wally was dead. His best friend was dead, because of him. Wally had sacrificed himself to save everyone he loved, to save the world. Wally had managed to save everyone, except himself. It broke Artemis, but she was slowly starting to heal. Barry and Iris had been heartbroken but were trying to stay strong for the sake of everyone else. But it wasn't fooling him. Dick had seen when Barry broke down sobbing in front of nonother than Batman, blaming himself for the loss of his nephew. Everyone on the team was upset, of course. Everyone loved Wally. Even though he wasn't officially part of the team anymore, the team was still impacted by it.
And then there was Dick. Dick frickin' Grayson. Who was left alone again. First his parents, then Jason and now his best friend. The one who was there every anniversary since they had met. The one who had sat with him through the nightmares, through all the fights with Bruce, through the feelings of loneliness and the feeling of being replaced when Jason came along and then the feelings of grief when Jason was gone. Wally had been through everything with him, they'd grown up together, there were no secrets between them. Wally, his best friend...was dead. How can you get over that? How could you not feel guilty? How could you not go through every possible "What if" scenario in your head for how it could have been different? For how he could have lived. How he should have lived. How he deserved to live.
Through his tears, Dick looked around his crappy apartment bedroom. This wasn't his bed, this wasn't his room. This wasn't his home. His home was the manor. His home was the circus. His home was the third bedroom on the second floor of the manor, where he still had some of Wally's spare clothes and a spare costume from when they used to have sleepovers. Where they spent countless hours confiding in each other, countless hours planning pranks for their own "Wacky Pranks Day" that Wally had made up just so he could be with him on April first and them still be able to have a day dedicated to pulling pranks. They had spent hours doing homework together in that room, they had had countless all-nighters because they stayed up playing video games that weren't even released yet and Dick had already figured out how to hack for cheat codes. There was so much time they had spent together that he'd never get back. That he could only remember.
...
"Dude! You hung up on me!" Wally's voice came through the communicator in his ear.
"I know," Dick growled.
"Why?"
"Because it's 3 a.m."
Wally snorted. "Well someone's cranky."
...
Wally looked up at Dick. "Are you thinking what I'm thinking?"
Dick's head snapped up to look at him. "That we should attach my wheelchair to yours and have you use your super speed to joy-ride around Mount Justice? Of course." Robin said smirking.
"Yes!" Wally said pumping his fist in the air. "Let's go get the superglue!"
...
"Um...IKindaForgotToOrderYourCoffeeWithNoCaffieine."
"DUDE?! I Am NEVER letting you order Starbucks for me AGAIN!"
...
"Mulțumiri" (Thanks)
"Hakuna Matata"
...
He managed a lopsided grin. "Your name is Dick?" Dick just rolled his eyes.
"Yes, Wallace."
...
"What is it?"
"Alfred's cookies."
"What?! No way dude! That is the best birthday gift ever!" Wally exclaimed, grabbing the bag, immediately digging into its contents.
"Hey! Save some for me!"
...
"You kidnapped someone."
"Yup."
"You kidnapped someone important."
"Yup."
"You kidnapped someone important who could do major damage to your dad's business if he finds out we kidnapped him."
"Sounds about right."
"And I have to put him back?"
"Yup."
"...You so owe me."
"I'll give you the cheat codes to Zombie War 4."
"...Deal."
...
"Thank you, Wally. You have no idea how much it means to me that you learned my language."
"No problem dude!"
...
"Hey, Dick?"
"Yeah?"
"...Thanks for saving my life." Wally said, before launching forward hugging his best friend. Dick just hugged him back.
"That's what best pals are for,"
...
"Did you slap me?" Wally asked, putting a hand to his cheek.
"Hey! You didn't wake up when I was calling you or shaking you!"
"So you resorted to violence?"
"Yup."
...
"Ooo," Dick's voice took on a teasing tone. "Wally are o pasiune."
Wally's face turned a brilliant red. "Is that the closest translation?!" He cried, embarrassed.
...
"No problem dude. That's what best pals are for."
...
"Dude!" Wally shouted to Rob, who was also sitting in the den. "Connor finished the milk!"
Dick grinned back at him. "No way."
"Yes, way."
"Oh my gosh. This is amazing." Dick cackled.
...
"He said yes and he said you can come over here for the sleepover!" Dick shouted into the phone.
"Wait really?!" Wally said excitedly before he faltered. "Wait how did he know I knew your identity?! We were so careful!"
"Well...He's Batman."
...
"Thanks, Dick," Wally choked out, tears springing to his eyes, "for being my best friend."
"Thank you, for being my brother," Dick choked.
...
"You just have to move on eventually. It will always still hurt, but we just have to try and make sure that doesn't happen."
Wally sighed too. "Yeah, I guess so...I'm just...glad that you're not dead."
"Why? You wouldn't have missed me right?" Dick smirked. Wally grabbed one of the pillows on the bed, hitting him with it.
"Of course not dork. But who else would I be able to text all my random thoughts to?"
...
Dick almost smiled at the memories. Even if Wally was gone, he'd always remember him, and he'd always have the memories. A lifetime worth of memories, that he'd treasure until he died. It still hurt. It hurt more than anything else in his entire life. But maybe with the memories he still had of Wally, he'd be okay eventually. Because that's what Wally would have wanted.
Hope you guys enjoyed that one-shot.
All of the memory scenes are snippets from other one-shots in this collection so if you haven't, feel free to check them out.
Feel free to review or PM me.
Love you guys, and thanks so much for reading and sticking with me in my unexplained absence!
~SunshineGirl14