Friday 19th February 2010
"Another electrical disturbance near the main CCPD building" Wally mutters as he jots the sentence down. He flips through his secret case journal to reread the notes he wrote last week. Something was definitely up. The data he's collected was the furthest thing from normal, and if the frequency of the radiation near Leawood increases, it could potentially become carcinogenic. The random electrical disturbances he's been discovering around the city have also spread across the river to Keystone.
He hasn't seen anything to be extremely concerned about, otherwise he would have told Barry or someone else to get involved. But with how things are going, he really wants to solve this himself. It was already a huge step for him to inform Dick of what he was doing, and even invite him to help. Mostly because of his reasons for wanting to solve this case secretly in the first place. At least this time it will be Dick helping him with one of his cases, not the other way around.
He's pulled from his thoughts when his phone begins vibrating on the desk. Giving it a brief glance, he sees it's a text from Aunt Iris.
Come downstairs
Wally pushes away from this desk and starts speeding out of his room. Once he reaches the top of the stairs, a familiar heat starts burning its way through his chest. Wally slams a hand on the wall next to him to keep himself from tumbling down a flight of stairs. The burning intensifies as his heartbeat accelerates in panic.
He puts all his focus on slowing his breathing. After a few steady breaths, the burning pain starts to eb away and he's left with a dull, almost unnoticeable ache in his chest.
Slowly removing his hand from the wall, Wally notices how it was slightly trembling. Once he's sure he's not going to topple over, he makes his way down the stairs at an uncharacteristically slow pace.
Well. That one was a little worse than the last he thinks facetiously to himself.
An interesting scene was waiting for him downstairs; Aunt Iris was furiously scrubbing a saucepan in the kitchen whilst his uncle was staring at the television with an irritated look in his eyes.
"What are you guys doing?"
Aunt Iris's annoyed expression smooths out into a smile once her eyes met his. "Just give me a moment to finish up here" she says briskly before refocusing on the dishes. Wally walks over to where his Uncle is to flop on the sofa beside him.
"Since when are you into Football?" Wally asks once he realizes what Barry was watching.
"Since the Central City Cougars were playing the Coast City Sharks" was the blunt reply.
Oh, Wally thinks in realization.
"You can mope about whatever stupid bet you lost with Hal later," Aunt Iris says as she unties her apron. "We're going to Petersburg"
Wally's head snaps up to look at her with wide eyes. He loves Petersburg.
"There's a market there tonight, and since both Wally and I had our usual Friday night plans cancelled, I figured it would be nice for all three of us to go have a look" Iris says.
Childishly, Wally snatches the remote out of Barry's hand, turns the TV off and starts tugging at his arm to try and get him off the couch. "Let's go! Everyone's going to eat everything!" he says fervently.
"Alright alright, I'm coming. Just let me change out of my work clothes" Barry says, watching Wally become frustrated in amusement.
Why does he always have to make us late for everything? Wally thinks.
Thankfully the drive from Danville to Petersburg wasn't long at all, and soon enough Wally and two of his most favourite people in the world are walking around trying food samples from every stand they come across.
Petersburg is definitely one of Wally's favourite venues in Central City to visit - It always holds up to its reputation of being home to the City's most excellent dining and cuisine. Most of the food stands in the market here belonged to the fancy restaurants up the street.
Still, he knows he has to be careful. He can get away with eating a lot in public with the excuse of being a young growing boy, but he still can't eat as much as he really wants to, which is fine because there's still plenty of food at home if he's still hungry.
Spotting a Mexican stand with a picture of tacos and burritos a few feet away has Wally darting towards it like no tomorrow. He orders three Tacos, already knowing the likes and dislikes of his aunt and uncle and goes to a free bench to wait for them.
"There you are!" Iris sounds exasperated and happy at the same time. It must be strange for her, to constantly switch from being Wally's fun older sister to his responsible, worried mother whenever she needed to.
She looks a little happier when Wally passes her the taco he got especially for her. "Where's Uncle Barry?" he asks with a mouthful of bread, mince, lettuce, and cheese.
"oh, we bumped into his boss just after you wandered off," she says. "He'll be here soon".
Swallowing what was in his mouth, Wally happily makes conversation. "Why were your Friday night plans cancelled tonight?" he asks curiously. Not that he wasn't happy Iris was with them, because he definitely was, but he knew Iris was planning on spending tonight and the rest of the weekend in Metropolis.
Iris delicately covers her mouth with her small hand as she replies. "Something came up with Lois and she asked if she could take a Raincheck. Of course, in our little language, it means 'my husband had something interesting come up with his work and I have to be there to journalize'. I don't think anyone else would understand her situation better than me" she laughs before taking another bite of her Taco.
After a few minutes of light chatting between mouthfuls, Barry walks over with Darryl Frye. Wally gives them both a polite smile but doesn't say anything to interrupt the conversation.
Not that there was any need, because once the man caught Wally's eye, he trailed off mid-sentence.
"Wow. Is this really your boy Barry? He looks just like your wife" he said in some form of amazement.
"It's Wally, isn't it son?" he asks, continuing at Wally's little nod. "Well, you've certainly grown since the last time I saw you. I still remember the day your Uncle brought you down to visit the station. You were about up to here" he lifts his hand just above his hip. "Do you remember?"
Wally looks at Barry before smiling warmly. "I remember"
Of course he remembers. It was the best day of his life.
After greeting Iris and concluding his conversation with Barry, Mr Frye wishes them all a good evening and heads off. Barry takes a seat on the other side of Wally and slides his awaiting taco out of his nephew's lap. "Thanks kid" he winks before taking a bite.
After all three of them had finished, they continue their previous wandering around. A particular store catches Wally's eye and he nudges Barry's arm and points to it with a grin. It was a superhero merchandise stand.
Barry sighs and shakes his head with a soft smile. Wally knew he found the hero worship that Flash got a little weird, especially when the City decided to build a Museum just for him. Wally on the other hand never had a problem with it.
He wasn't really intending on buying anything. Most of the items for sale were pretty basic - Batman underwear, Wonder woman socks, a Superman watch, an Aquaman drink bottle. There was also a poster of Green Lantern and Flash, arms slung around each other with the dopiest smiles on their faces. Barry walks over next to Wally to have a better look, smiling softly as he traces his fingers over it to smooth it out.
The gesture makes something clench uncomfortably in Wally's stomach, and he's suddenly overcome with an overwhelming urge to see his own best friend. If Dick hadn't been grounded, then he probably would have pestered him into forgetting whatever plans he already had for the night and drag him out here. Wally has only taken Dick to Petersburg twice, which is nowhere near enough.
"Wally, look at these" Iris says, breaking him out of his thoughts. He goes over to where his aunt is and inhales sharply when he sees what she'd been looking at.
They were pens. They were awesome pens.
"Do you want to get them?" Iris asks, noticing how interested he seemed to be by them.
"Can I?"
"Of course. Maybe you could give one of them to him to cheer him up next time you see each other" she says quietly.
The idea makes Wally smile. Dick was probably feeling pretty lonely after being trapped in the manor for so long. Maybe a mini present would cheer him up a bit.
He gets the pens and they walk over to the cashier. The girl there smiles at them as she packages the two small items and hands Wally the bag. "Will that be all for today?"
Iris turns back to Barry, "Do you want to get that?"
Barry looks up and chuckles. "Nah, we've got more than enough merchandise with these guys' faces on them" he says.
Iris rolls her eyes in amusement and hands the girl a ten-dollar note. After giving them their change, the girl smiles at Iris warmly. "You and your son have a lovely night"
Warmth blossoms in Wally's chest when she says that, and it gets even warmer when Iris doesn't correct her.
Once it starts to get dark, they decide to head home. Wally holds the white paper bag with Dick's present in his lap as he stares out of the car window. The stars look especially bright tonight. He manages to spot a few constellations and even pinpoint the location of the Orion nebula.
"You know, it's not that late yet" Iris speaks up. "You boys feel like watching a family movie tonight?"
"That sounds great" he says happily.
After a rather stressful week at school, he can't think of a better way to spend the night without Dick. But as soon as the Boy Wonder is allowed out again, he's going to make sure they have one of the best bro nights in history.
26th February 2010
"I must say, the class average for this formative assessment was much higher than I expected. I'm really proud of you all" Miss Rutherford says fondly as she hands back everyone's marked pracs.
When she reaches Dick, she smiles warmly as she places his paper on the desk in front of him. "The detail and accuracy of yours was just astounding Dick," she says to him in a quieter voice. "This topic wasn't an easy one, so I can tell you've really been studying for it. Keep this up and you'll pass my class with flying colours" She adds before turning to resume returning papers to his classmates.
Dick forces himself not to smile as he stares at the big '100%' written in red in the top corner of the page. Who knew how much joy a number had the capability of bringing a person?
He glances up to where Barbara was sitting near the front with her friends, trying to read her for any signs of what her mark was. From what he could see from the odd angle, her brows were slightly drawn and her teeth had a hold of her beautiful soft bottom lip. She probably didn't do as well as she would have liked. The thought gives him an idea, maybe he could help her with physics as well as algebra after school?
He quickly shuts it down though. He wasn't actually a science wiz; he only understood this topic because he got Wally to explain almost everything when he was writing it up. It would be extremely embarrassing for Babs to ask him something about another topic only for him to not have a clue.
"Like I said, I'm very impressed with your level of understanding of this topic." Miss Rutherford starts again, "however, many of you lost marks because of careless mistakes. There was only one person who managed to attain full marks" clearly making eye contact with Dick as she says the last sentence.
A few of the kids start to murmur and turn to look at Dick with a mixture of expressions. Some was in surprise, but most was in annoyance. "The most common mistake I noticed was that most of you used an incorrect formula. It is crucial for you to remember that 'K' is the stiffness of the spring and 'X' is how far the spring was pushed or pulled, not the other way around"
When she turns her back to the class to scribble on the whiteboard, most kids start chattering quietly with their friends. Mathew tether, the class's goody-good, leaned over to get a better view of Dick's mark. When he met Dick's eyes, he smiled and gave him an impressed nod. "Nice going Grayson"
Responding with a small thanks, Dick tuned his ears to where Barbara was talking with her friends. One of them had her computer out and was showing the rest of them something on her screen. He managed to catch Babs say "ensemble stars" and something about loving "Hokuto Hidaka"
Interesting. He discreetly jots both names in grey lead in his school diary and reminds himself to look into it later.
Class went by rather quickly and soon enough Dick finds himself packing up his things and heading towards the door. He tries not to blush when he notices Babs waiting at the door for him. She gave him a smile and fell into his pace as they walk down the hall.
"Are you free tonight? Do you think maybe you could help me with some stuff in the library after school?" she asks sweetly.
And God does Dick want to say yes. He really really does, but he was still officially grounded until tomorrow and Alfred was most likely already waiting for him at the school gate. He gives her a remorseful look and shakes his head. "Sorry Barb, but I'm still grounded. It's my last day though, so I can definitely help you next week"
He can see a sliver of disappointment flash across her eyes before another emotion sets in. This one was different. The only way he could think of describing the way she was eyeing him was . . . Suspicious? In all honestly, he couldn't really find it in himself to blame her. He has always been really secretive. It was an eventuality for someone to sense something strange about his home life.
"Wow, Bruce must've been really mad to ground you for so long"
He sighs. "Yeah. He was"
They part ways with a quick goodbye to head to their respective lockers. Once Dick has finished packing his bag, he grabs his phone, locks his locker and heads out of the building. On his way to the school gate, he sees Barbara's familiar mane of red hair heading towards the library, with Dylan by her side.
Lovely. Just lovely.
Once he reaches the gate, he recognizes another familiar shade of red hair peeking out from under a yellow hoodie.
You've got to be kidding me
Trying not to panic, Dick takes slightly longer strides to try and reach Wally faster. Knowing his best friend, he should be grateful the idiot didn't turn up with a red lightning bolt covering the middle of his chest. Or just his kid flash suit and a sign saying "Hey Rob!".
Once their eyes lock, he narrows his own in a "follow my lead" way and strides right past him. He stops once they're behind a few trees in one of the many gardens surrounding Gotham Academy.
He scans the area one more time to confirm they were alone before giving Wally an exasperated look. "What the hell are you doing here?! You know if Bruce finds out, which he will, all hell will break loose! I'm grounded, and you know just as well as I do about how he feels about uninvited metas in his city!"
Wally just pulls down his hood and gives him a lazy smile. "Dude. Chill. I'm not here for you, I came to get Artemis. We're gonna go back to the cave to meet Megs. We're going shopping"
Dick makes a face. "Shopping?"
Wally's smiles falls into something more embarrassed. "yeah . . I lost a bet, and now Artemis making me go shopping. Probably to hold all their bags or whatever"
"You don't look very bummed out about it" Dick responds lamely.
"Well duh! I get to spend the rest of the night with the hottest member of the team. What's to be bummed out about?"
If Dick weren't so dejected about finding out almost all his friends were going to be spending the night out while he'll be stuck in his room, he would have said asked if Wally was so sure he was talking about M'gann.
The dynamic between the speedster and the archer of the team had become very interesting as of late, and once he gets more proof of it, he'll throw it in Wally's face next time he teases him about Barbara.
As if sensing the drop in Dick's mood, Wally reaches down to retrieve a small paper bag from his hoodie's middle pocket. "I got this when from the local market last week," he says, handing the white crumpled material to Dick.
Dick takes another look around to make sure no one's spotted them emptying the bag into his hand. It was two pens. One with a lightning bolt charm and the other with an R charm. "Robin and Kid flash pens" he says quietly.
Wally smiles at them fondly. "Cute, aren't they? I thought it'd be nice to have one each. I want this one" he slips the red and black one out of Dick's fingers.
"Why do you want that one?" Dick asks curiously.
"I already have heaps of my own merch. I want this to remind me of your existence next time you get grounded. Why? Do you want it?"
"No. I like this one" he says as he tucks it in his blazer pocket. "Anyways, I better go. Alfred's probably wondering where I am. You should go find Artemis before she gets mad and uses you as target practice or something" he gives Wally one last smile and reluctantly walks away from his best friend.
He spots Artemis leaning against a pillar, glaring at her phone. Not great news for Wally.
When he reaches the limo, he ignores some of the other kids' lingering stares as he dumps his bag in the back and sits in the passenger seat.
"Good day at school Master Dick?"
Dick almost didn't hear Alfred's question. "uh yeah, it was okay" he replies, trying not to sound as unhappy as he feels.
It's just one more night he tells himself sharply.
One more night.
Notes:
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Next chapter will be up soon 3 3