*Sings ominously* I'm back!
Hello lovelies, so so sorry about the extended absence. Medical school started, and I needed a few months to adjust before I figured out how to add in some writing time. I did not actually intend to make you all wait until Thanksgiving for the Thanksgiving chapter lol. The updates will be slow until I have Winter break in December, but I am planning to finish the story within the next few months. I missed you all, and I hope you have had wonderful days and meals with your loved ones. Enjoy the chapter!
Location: Mount Justice
Date: Nov 25th
Time: 18:15
Emmy bit her lip, frowned at the mirror, and scrutinized the sweater Megan bought for her 'belated Sweet 16'. It was V-neck, slightly off-the-shoulder, and very, very blue. Megan insisted that it would look amazing on her because it 'matched the icier tendrils in Emmy's eyes'. Megan bounced and squealed a little on the last syllable of 'tendrils', and even with Emmy's vocabulary she had never stopped to describe her own eyes before, so really all the lantern could do was force a smile and thank her friend for the gift.
Emmy frowned deeper; she wasn't sure if she could actually make herself wear it. Megan was right. The sweater perfectly matched one of the more prominent shades in her eyes, highlighting and drawing attention to them. The thoughtful yet infuriating shirt made her feel like a mini-me of her father and decimated any residual confidence left by the red dress she wore to the gala. What she wouldn't give to have gotten their mother's grey eyes. Emmy sighed and pinched the bridge of her nose with her right hand. The offending item swung to the left as it lost its bilateral support, and Wally's equally unexpected gift stared back at her in the mirror. His anxious word vomit after giving her the necklace played in her mind.
"I thought that was a good one since, uh, you like green, and you know, you look good in blue."
She bit the inside of her cheek. That was four days ago, and while they hadn't seen each other in person, the frequent texting had returned. Wally even called her once in the middle of a transcontinental jog when he saw a bunny eating a fallen pretzel and felt the need to relay its actions in real time. Emmy tried not to let her mind race every time she wore the necklace, but Wally had gone out of his way to find a crystal that included both her favorite color and his favorite color on her. She was uneasy wearing it now, knowing that Wally was going to see her in it, but she wasn't sure why she felt that way and she didn't want to find out. Not to mention that donning a blue sweater the first time he saw her after saying she looked good in blue seemed like some pathetic move out of the Hallmark movies Megan has been insisting they watch lately. It felt like she would be confessing something to him if she did or didn't wear it, and Emmy didn't care for the flip in her stomach when weighing the options. Emmy met her own gaze in the mirror and snorted in vexed embarrassment. She used to worry about housing and feeding her kids and now she was worried about a necklace and sweater. Suck it up, East. Damn.
She tossed the upsetting item on the bed.
"I'm doing my makeup and then it's me and you, Pendejo," Emmy threatened the innocent sweater.
She had already helped Hunter get dressed, and he was napping until they needed to leave. Sage was next door halfway through curling her long hair, so the lantern had some time to herself. Emmy shot her hair with the blow dryer and scrunched in anti-frizz gel until the waves looked mostly presentable. She pulled out gold eyeliner, mascara, and a light red lip stain while singing along to her playlist. Wally wouldn't be there for at least another half-hour, so she had time to kill. The clothes could wait.
Location: Keystone
Date: Nov 25th
Time: 18:10
"Mom, please, I am begging you," Wally dropped to his knees in the middle of the kitchen and tugged at the end of Mary's shirt. "Please for the love of Isaac Newton and everything operating within the bounds-"
"Wally," His mother admonished, slapping his hands away, before ultimately acquiescing with a roll of her eyes. "Alright. Go see if the Easts are ready because if they get here before 7, I suppose we can start eating a little early."
The speedster sprang to his feet, peppered her face with kisses, and sprinted out the door chanting his thanks.
A few minutes later, Wally skidded to a halt outside Emmy's room and knocked on the door. He bounced on the balls of his feet as the nanoseconds ticked by.
"Ugh," Wally glared at the ceiling, whining, "Emmy, c'mon."
He was about to knock again when he registered the fluid thump of bass and Emmy's voice singing behind the barrier.
Wally rolled his eyes and entered the room, "You know, Em, blasting Rihanna this loud will-"
He halted mid-sentence. His brain emptied and focused all its remaining energy on shouting one disjointed word: 'Thong!'. Emmy was leaning toward the mirror with her back to him. His eyes scanned her without authorization. Toned legs. Dark green lace barely covering her ass. Splash of ink. White, jagged scar on her lower vertebrae. Fluorite crystal he chose nestled in the cleavage her matching bra. Raised arms holding a forgotten tube of lipstick. Ruby lips parted. His wide eyes finally met her equally startled ones.
They stared at each other through the reflection. An eternity in the second before the silence shattered.
Emmy wheeled on him, "What the hell, Wally!? Don't you knock?"
"I did knock!" He shot his gaze to the ceiling but failed to keep the jaunty smirk off his face. Maybe I was wrong before…green's looking pretty damn good right now.
"Seriously?" Emmy ducked her body behind her closet door, angry head popping out. "The one time in your entire life you decide to be early?"
He grinned wolfishly, "Hey, you're the one always teasing me about being late. Gotta say, if this is what I can expect as an early bird, I kinda see the appeal."
Emmy scowled at him, "In your dreams, Kid Fawning."
Wally fell onto her bed, hands behind his head atop her pillow, smiling lazily at her down his nose, "Don't be ridiculous. In my dreams, you're wearing red and yellow, Haven."
Emmy's glare intensified, "If I'm wearing anything in your dreams then you're doing it wrong, Kid Florid."
She glared when his smirk remained, "If you knew what florid meant you wouldn't be making that stupid face."
"It means someone's face is red to an unhealthy degree," Wally replied coolly, savoring Emmy's suspicious frown. He wasn't kidding about the f-section of his dictionary being bookmarked. "And you can't blame a guy's subconscious for wanting to unwrap his present."
It was possible that Wally enjoyed playing with fire a little too much for a flammable guy.
Emmy gave a flirty tilt of her head, "I say green, and you say red, huh? Trying to hint at what you want for Christmas?"
Wally narrowed his eyes an iota. She had abruptly shifted to playing along, and he wasn't sure how that would end for him.
He plastered a chirpy grin on his face and scoffed, "Nah, that's a hint at what I want for my birthday. It's a couple weeks before Christmas, and I'm not all that patient."
"That can't possibly be true if your subconscious leaves the wrapping paper on," Emmy taunted. She gave him a blistering once over, "Mine always just makes you naked."
"Wha-?" Wally's voice cracked and Emmy smirked. Shit. They alternated who had the upper hand almost too quickly for even him to keep track. "I thought you were joking when you said you had a sex dream about me."
"You thought I made a joke about a sex dream in the middle of an alleged panic attack?" Emmy sounded predatory.
Shit. Shit. Shit. Abort. She was looking right at him, still in nothing but skimpy lingerie, so there was no way to subtly adjust himself.
"Uh, I-" Wally swallowed as she shut the door to the closet and advanced toward him.
"You look good on my bed, Wally," Emmy leered at his poorly concealed panic. He did look good. Tight grey turtleneck. Black slacks. Black dress shoes she was sure had somehow been modified to withstand breaking the sound barrier. "You know where you'd look better?"
She reached the foot of her bed and started crawling toward him. His cocky façade slipped. She lined herself against the left side of his body.
"Where?" His voice was huskier than she anticipated. It almost tempted her to abandon her plan, but she was already invested.
"On my..." she leaned in closer, grabbed his side, and shoved him with all her strength, "bedroom floor!"
Wally hit the ground with a yelp. Emmy cackled above him.
"Ugh," he'd gotten the air knocked out of him a little bit. "Fuck you."
Emmy threw on the sweater Megan gave her and leaned over the edge of the bed to smirk at him. "Oh, you'd like that wouldn't you. Is that what you were hoping would happen if you didn't knock?"
"Excuse you, I did knock." Wally quipped from his spot on the hard, cold floor. "You're the one blasting your music at a level that conveniently covers a knocking noise. Are you sure you didn't want to be seen?"
They looked at each other challengingly for a few moments before Emmy chuckled, "I'm not that subtle and neither are you. Why are you here early anyway?"
"Mom said the sooner you three got to the house the sooner I could eat," Wally admitted.
"You're unbelievable," Emmy rolled her eyes.
"Are you intimidated?"
"By what?"
"By my insatiability." He let his eyes get half lidded, once again stoking the flames the second he stopped feeling their warmth. "It's a good thing you know. Means I can eat a feast and still want dessert."
Emmy's eyebrows and lips simultaneously twitched upward the way they did whenever he said something unexpected that she liked. "Am I supposed to be won over by the implication that I'm dessert and not the feast?"
He didn't know what to say to that and supplemented with the most prominent thought bouncing around his skull, "You know, your second tattoo isn't what Douche-y Prison Boy said it was."
Emmy blinked in surprise. When did Akio mention my tattoo to Wally? She gave the speedster a suspicious glance but ultimately shrugged, "I had it redone. He hasn't seen it."
Wally's eyes skittered across her body before returning to her face and sending some heat to Emmy's cheeks, "Good."
Sage chose that moment to walk in the door. Emmy stood up while Wally shot to a sitting position.
"This isn't what it looks like," Emmy coughed slightly.
Sage got a mischievous smirk, looking remarkably related to Emmy for once, and leaned against the doorway, "Really? Because it looks like Wally got here early and your first thought was to get him on the floor at eye-level with your new thong."
Emmy pursed her lips and narrowed her eyes at her sister before promptly hopping into her dark black jeans. He caught his last glimpse of her toned ass and leaf tattoo and almost pouted. But then Wally realized Sage was watching him and immediately averted his eyes in a panic. Emmy disappeared to rouse Hunter.
Wally hopped to his feet and rubbed the back of his neck, "I wasn't staring at…you should only talk to boys who respect you. And, uh, any, um, yeah how is…school's good?"
The small girl sent him an unimpressed stare straight out of Emmy's daily rotation, "Your spastic charm only works on one of the Easts, Wally."
Wally frowned, "Hey, my charm is not spastic!"
Sage vanished down the hallway.
The last part of her sentence registered in his mind, and he jogged after her.
"Wait, Sage! Which East?"
Silence.
"Sage, which East?"
Location: Keystone
Date: Nov 25th
Time: 18:25
Emmy glared at Wally while she plucked the strands of her windblown hair out of her mouth. She didn't consider this lip stain to be sticky, but evidently passing Mach 1 is rough on more than her intestinal system.
Wally chuckled gleefully as he set her down by the door, "I don't get it. You fly all the time, and I bet you go almost as fast as I run."
"Probably much, much faster," Emmy groused as she disconnected the last hair from her bottom lip. "And I know when I'm about to speed off so it's not disorienting."
The speedster rolled his eyes, muttered 'control freak' under his breath, and flashed away to grab the kids from their spot in the Zeta Tube.
Emmy glared at the air where he had just been, "I'll show you control freak." I'll fly him somewhere without warning and see how he likes it. The lantern smirked evilly to herself and dug at some of the knots that appeared via Wally's preferred mode of transportation.
Emmy bit the inside of her lip as she perused the outside of Wally's house. It was brick with a yellow door (because of course the door was yellow), and even with the winter season in full swing Emmy could see that the yard was lovingly tended and probably held a rainbow of flowers in the warmer months.
The grass was the greener on this street than the rest of the neighborhood. The windowsills were painted a dark brown to complement the bright door, and a warm light shone through the windows. Emmy huffed under her breath. Wally's house looked like it was a set on one of those Hallmark Christmas movies that play 24/7 each winter. Emmy furrowed her brow at the second reference to the channel of the day. I've got to stop letting Megan pick all the movies.
"I bet they sing carols too," Emmy snorted derisively, forcing down any jealousy and ignoring the warning sirens in her head screaming 'You do not belong here' as she prepared to enter this unfamiliar environment.
She yanked the last knot a little too hard and whined right as her companions made their appearance.
"Did you just moan on my front porch?" Wally raised an eyebrow while he set the kids down and plucked his goggles off his head. "This is a family neighborhood how dare you."
"I was getting the knots out of my hair that you put there, Wallace," Emmy flicked his right arm.
He wiggled his brows up and down before leaning toward her as if scandalized, "Please, Darling, not in front of the neighbors."
Emmy pinched the bridge of her nose, "How about not in front of my children?"
"They're not even listening to us," Wally nodded forward just in time for Emmy to realize that Sage had already hit the doorbell and the Wests' home was officially open to the Easts. The gust of hospitality and soft illumination cut through the frigid greyness of the winter air.
The lantern's stomach twisted as she followed her kids and the speedster inside. I am not going to fit in here.
She had scarcely finished her thought when a burst of energy appeared at her side.
"Hello, Emmy and mini-Emmy's," Barry grinned widely at the intruders. "You here to see the coolest member of the Justice League?"
Emmy looked around the room quickly, "I'm not seeing future me anywhere."
Barry pouted and turned to Hunter and Sage, "You two look nicer. Want to go get some hot cocoa?"
"Absolutely, we do," Sage nodded, dragging Hunter along after the speedster.
"You want to join the Justice League?" Wally raised a vaguely jealous eyebrow. It hadn't occurred to him that she could probably get in whenever she wanted given the ring on her finger. Would she leave the Team for the League?
"Nah," Emmy shrugged. "A corps and a team are enough for me. A girl needs her beauty sleep."
"You more than most," Wally nodded sympathetically.
"Right, right," Emmy bobbed her head. "You stare at me all the time because you're thinking about how much rest I need. Makes sense."
Wally bristled. "I do not stare at you all the time."
"That's not the best way to win over a woman, there, Son," Rudolph West appeared from around the corner to shake Emmy's hand. "I apologize for him. He gets his conversational skills from his mother."
"I heard that!" A playfully indignant voice called from a different room. "He gets his English skills from you!"
Emmy snorted while Wally zipped to the kitchen, "I don't like this game."
Rudolph clasped a welcoming hand around Emmy's shoulder and guided her into the center of the house. A football game was playing on a large TV. Iris and Barry were in the kitchen with Sage and Hunter, and there was an older couple on the couch yelling at the players on the screen. Rudolph had shifted to steal a bite of something Mary had on the stove under the guise of helping. There was music playing, football referees shouting, and the occupants of the house were arguing and laughing to round out the cacophony of the holiday season.
Mary abruptly appeared to Emmy's left and the lantern smirked and held back a joke about the entire family being speedy.
"Emerald," Mary smiled widely and kindly, "It is so nice to finally meet you."
"Oh," Emmy's eyebrows raised but she tried to match the woman's energy. "It's nice to meet you too."
Mary gave the teenager a quick once-over, and a look of sympathy twinkled across her face. She leaned forward and murmured, "Your first West event is always a little daunting. I remember mine. Lots of screaming and wrestling and fireworks."
Emmy nodded slightly. She would have been more comfortable with those options than a family function. Was she supposed to bring some food with her? Emmy internally jolted as she surveyed all the food in the kitchen, "Was I supposed to bring a dish? I don't think I realized how much food was involved with Thanksgiving."
Mary's face went impassive for a moment before she smiled again and shook her head, "No, not at all, Dear." She turned over her shoulder, "Wally?"
The speedster turned from his spot next to Hunter, "Yeah?"
"Dinner won't be ready for a few minutes. Why don't you go show the Easts your favorite part of the house?" Mary hinted.
"Ah, right, right," Wally nodded so quickly that his head blurred for a moment. He glanced at Emmy out of the corner of his eye before turning to Sage and Hunter and signing, "Do you guys want to go upstairs or finish making the hot cocoa?"
Emmy did not consider herself to be an easily astonished person. A few months ago, a purple alien had died in front of her and sent its magic ring onto her finger, and she likes to think that she had handled that moment and its fallout well. But now, standing in a picturesque family kitchen, watching Wallace Rudolph West speak with his hands her jaw dropped like a Saturday morning cartoon character.
Hunter smiled excitedly, signing, "That was pretty good!" Before he and Sage unanimously agreed that making a warm beverage with the Flash won out over whatever awaited them upstairs.
Emmy didn't realize that she was gaping until Mary leaned over and whispered, "He's been practicing."
Emmy clicked her mouth shut and cleared her throat, embarrassed to have been caught ogling someone's son in front of them. "I…did not know that," Emmy replied with a nod.
Wally flashed next to the lantern and willed himself not to look bashful, "That just leaves us. Ready to go see the stars?"
Emmy snorted and signed, "Is that how you invite every girl into your room?"
Wally's squinted at her hands for a moment before begrudgingly asking, "Could you do that again?"
She blinked but repeated her sentence. He seemed to get it that time because he rolled his eyes and quietly said, "Don't flirt with me in front of my mother, Emmy," as he walked past her.
Emmy's jaw opened again in slight indignation but then her brain caught up to the fact that Wally was clearly in the process of learning to sign, and she went back to staring at him like she'd never seen him before.
"Would you hurry up?" Wally whined from half-way up the stairs and Emmy shot after him.
"Not all of us rush through life, Wally."
"That's just what you normies say to make yourselves feel better about living in the past."
"Normie?" Emmy snorted but quirked an eyebrow as they passed what appeared to be Wally's room if the posters and collection of half-filled beakers were any indication. "Isn't that your room?"
"Yup," Wally grinned at her over his shoulder. "I don't take girl's there on the first date, so you need to be patient."
Emmy laughed and sputtered at the same time and ended up releasing a horrible wheezing noise.
"Rude," Wally pouted.
They turned down a small hallway and the speedster yanked a thin cord. A flimsy ladder dropped down along with part of the ceiling.
Emmy tilted her head to the left, "I thought you went to basements to kill people."
"I'm unique," Wally motioned for her to ascend the ladder.
The attic was pitch black past the border of the light from the hallway beneath and Emmy crawled into something metallic and cold.
"Ow," she muttered.
Wally chuckled behind her, "Watch out for the lantern, Lantern."
Emmy glowered in the general direction of the disembodied voice, "Now who's living in the past."
Her eyes started to adjust to the darkness, and she frowned slightly when she saw that she really had bumped into an old, bright red lantern. The betrayal.
A whooshing noise sounded behind her and the small bit of light from the house vanished as the hatch shut behind them.
"You know that mood lighting requires there to actually be lighting, right, Wall-man?"
"We need it to be dark for the next part, Smartass."
Emmy chuckled, "If I'm going to swipe your V-card I'd prefer to see the action."
Wally grumbled, "Why do you make everything so hard?"
Emmy laughed while Wally sighed at his own faux pas. A click followed by a slight whirring noise called through the darkness.
"Why do you make everything so-"
The whirring stopped and light exploded around the attic. There were rings of blue and purple next to swirls of orange and red against a black background punctured with shining white stars. The center of the attic held a globular projector that illuminated the space in into the galaxy. Emmy brushed her hand into a nebula and the light curled around her fingers.
"Wow," she breathed out.
"Why do I make everyone so speechless?" Wally grinned. "I dunno just special I guess."
Emmy rolled her eyes fondly, "What is this?"
"This," he spread his arms out and the universe wrapped around him, "Is a to-scale projection of every star, nebula, galaxy, and celestial body that NASA currently has logged."
He fell backwards into a gargantuan bean bag, the tip of his nose a few inches beneath the cut-off of the artificial sky. He nodded at the far end of the bag and Emmy rolled herself in next to him. Her lips twitched upwards as the scope of Wally's love for the stars once again widened.
"Are you going to work at NASA when you're older?" She turned toward him slightly.
Wally looked at her out of the corner of his eye. He had a phase, before he shifted into the hero business, where he had insisted that he was going to work for NASA, and no one except his parents had taken him seriously. Yet here Emmy was, asking him if he was going to work at his old dream company like he had already been offered a job; like she thought it was completely his choice. And it was, by the way. He might have his 'foot-in-mouth' moments as Rob likes to call them, but Wally West was absolutely the kind of person who could get a job in the majority of NASA departments. But then again, dreams and goals change, and he wasn't some dopey kid who stared through his telescope all night anymore. He had powers and responsibilities to more than the furtherment of science, may Copernicus forgive him.
He looked at an orbiting planet of a system he would never reach and shrugged, "Maybe."
"Maybe," Emmy repeated. "That's the word people use when they think they have a ton of options or no options."
"What about you?" Wally ignored her comment. "Going to get your PhD and teach some bratty Ivy League kids differential equations?"
Emmy blinked at a little ball she thought might be Earth. It looked much smaller than she had ever imagined it. "I don't know. Maybe."
The silence made Wally uncomfortable, and he broke the subdued demeanor with a vibrant challenge, "So, which constellations do you recognize?"
Emmy snorted, "Where even is our solar system?"
Wally clapped out a series of dots and dashes Emmy believed to be some kind of speedster form of Morse Code. The projected sky warped into a more recognizable portion with less bodies crowding around.
"There," Wally grinned, "Now it's the sky above the mountain right now."
Emmy gave him the side-eye, "If you want to look at a stripper doing the middle splits that badly you could just sneak into a strip club, you know."
Wally ran a heavy hand down his face, "That is not what that constellation is called."
"Yeah, yeah, it's 'Gus the crane', don't get your latex in a twist," Emmy waved him off.
"It's Grus!" Wally yelled.
Emmy failed to repress her smirk at his outrage. He noticed her movement, realized she misnamed it just to piss him off, and nudged her off the bean bag. Emmy rolled onto the floor with an amused yelp. She twisted to yank the bean bag out from underneath him in retaliation and Wally hit the floor with a loud thump.
"Ow," he pouted at her. Emmy snorted and elbowed him.
"You started it. So, anyway, here's King Nephron, the magic frog," she pointed at Cepheus and Wally threw his inner elbows over his face.
"Please, stop."
"And here's Pythagoras, the magic horse with wings," Emmy pointed at a random collection and smirked when Wally started griping about how she wasn't even pointing to Pegasus correctly.
Warm hands caught both of hers and tugged them toward her torso.
"You've lost the right to point, you sky mocker," he chastised dramatically.
Emmy snorted and tugged her hands out of his grasp. They watched the stars orbit in silence for a few moments before Wally word-vomited again.
"You seem to be in a pretty good mood."
"Why wouldn't I be?" Emmy raised an eyebrow and turned her head to him from their new position. "The floor is oddly more comfortable than the bean bag."
"No, I meant since, you know, Prison Boy got hurt. I thought you'd be a little worried about him or something," Wally admitted swiftly. "Which would be fine. A bad history with someone doesn't mean that you want them to be hurt or anything."
"Akio got beat up?" Emmy quirked an eyebrow.
Wally repressed the urge to superspeed kick himself when it became clear that Emmy had no idea what he was talking about. "Uh, yeah. Rob told me. Evidently there was a riot at his facility a couple days ago and Akio was stabbed a few times. He's still in the hospital recovering. I'm…I'm sorry I thought you knew."
Emmy hummed once, "Robin hadn't filled me in on that. Bats must not think it was related to Sparks or anything."
Wally winced, "Still. Sorry your ex got stabbed, I guess? I'll see if I can find a card that says that at the dollar store."
Emmy chuckled lowly, unsure of whether or not she felt anything at the news about Akio, "I don't know. It was probably his turn to be on the receiving end of a knife, honestly."
"What do you mean?" Wally cocked his head.
The lantern squinted at what she believed to be Venus and sighed deeply. She had already shared a few secrets with Wally. What was one more? She kept her eyes on the planet but pointed to the thin white scar marring its crooked, 5-inch path along the left side of her neck. She didn't see the exact moment Wally comprehended her admission, but she felt the air shift and become charged with a hint of grim electricity.
"When?" His normally cheery voice was as dark as she had ever heard it.
"The night I packed up our stuff and left for good," Emmy shrugged. "He wasn't too happy about that. And evidently, he was too high to even remember doing it. That's why he complained about me leaving in the 'middle of the night without saying anything'."
The lantern snorted humorlessly, "I definitely said something."
Wally didn't share her morbid amusement, "He hurt you, and we're just letting him sit in a cushy hospital?"
The speedster sat up and Emmy raised to her elbows.
"Which hospital is he at?"
She put a hand on Wally's arm, attempting to cut through the dangerous aura around him, "Why? To kill him? That doesn't exactly seem like something you'd do."
Wally's green eyes flickered with an inner war before he frowned and conceded, "Of course, it isn't. But punching a domestic abuser in his stab wounds is something I'd be happy to do."
Emmy chuckled, "That's kind of sweet, I guess? But you already gave him a bloody nose so he's not really worth any more of your time."
Wally frowned and his hand moved to her neck, thumb brushing against the scar, "Emmy. This isn't okay. I know that you're strong and happy to fight back, but you shouldn't have to. You have to protect yourself the way you protect others."
Emmy blinked at him. He looked a little desperate and incredibly concerned. A callous on the side of his thumb gently grazed one of the thicker portions of the faded scar and Emmy swallowed as an unexpected wave of emotion hit her.
She didn't like to focus on it, but she had been hurt. Frequently. By parents. By random fighters. By herself. So, when Akio did it, she didn't stop to think that it was abnormal. It wasn't until his behavior endangered Sage and Hunter that Emmy left him. She probably would have just stayed forever if he had continued to only hurt her. That's what happened with her parents. She stayed until she got shot and realized that if her father was willing to hurt her in such a manner, then there was no telling what he would do to her younger, weaker siblings. Emmy wasn't sure how she had made it this long in life without a self-preservation mechanism. Wally was right. She needed to protect herself too.
"Yeah." She swallowed thickly, their eyes scanning each other in the dim purple light, "Yeah, okay."
Wally frowned at her until he decided she was being truthful, and he let out a sigh of relief. His hand shifted to curl around her neck more, fingers twirling into her hair before immediately retreating and throwing his hands behind his neck in a cavalier fashion.
"What was the deal with him anyway? You into face tattoos and horrible personalities or something?" Wally asked, tone shifting to an offhanded admonishment.
Emmy chuckled, "It was a little simpler than that."
He looked at her expectantly and Emmy shrugged, "He made a move then told me what he wanted."
"And that was it," Wally frowned.
"That was it," Emmy looked at a different portion of the sky. "The tattoos certainly didn't hurt though. How did What's-Her-Face win you over?"
"She invited me to a museum because she wanted to kiss me for the first time in front of her favorite Monet painting."
Emmy frowned at him, "That is so pretentious."
"Oh, yeah?" He challenged. "How did AssWipe kiss you the first time?"
Emmy pursed her lips and grumbled, "I asked for help trash-talking a guy in Japanese and Akio laid one on me when I mispronounced a word twice in a row."
"Yeah, see, mine is more romantic," Wally elbowed her lightly.
"I don't know, sounds like they were both just focused on what they wanted," Emmy shrugged.
Wally nodded, "Right up until they didn't want us the right way anymore."
"Amen. I'd do a keg stand to that," Emmy smirked at Wally's obligatory groan.
"I can't tell you anything."
"And yet you tell me everything," the lantern taunted.
The air shifted again as Wally leaned on one elbow and slowly scanned her face, "Not everything."
Emmy wasn't entirely sure why those two words were making it harder for her to breathe. "Not-"
A burst of light interrupted them, and Barry's head popped above the barrier of the attic floor while the teens moved away from each other. "Hey, dinner's ready. I hope you two have been leaving room for Jesus up here."
"And all twelve disciples," Wally scoffed and threw a dusty pillow at his uncle's face.
Emmy's corresponding snort turned into a coughing fit as the dust attacked all the members in the attic. The trio headed toward the smell of food.
"So, the 'not everything' was secretly learning ASL, right?" Emmy raised an eyebrow when they were almost to the kitchen.
"Yep," Wally winked in a way that was impossible to read.
"Emmy!" Sage called from the kitchen. "Sage sprigs taste horrible in hot chocolate, and I'm devastated."
The adults chuckled while Emmy rolled her eyes, her planned interrogation of Wally's newfound skill interrupted.
The group congregated toward the table as plates, napkins, and various dishes appeared in a flurry of whooshes and twirls. The slight scrape of wood on tile drew Emmy's attention to her right.
"For you, My Lady," Wally presented a chair with a flourish.
Emmy's eyebrows went up and she sat with a chuckle, "I can't tell if I'm more surprised by the sudden language skills or manners."
Wally narrowed his eyes at her as he sat to her right, "If you weren't already sitting, I'd yank the chair out from under you."
"Yeah, see, that's more what I expect from you," Emmy smirked.
Wally rolled his eyes, muttering, "Damned if you do, damned if you don't."
A painfully onerous screech sounded as Hunter struggled to pull out Iris's chair for her before running to do the same for Mary and Joan.
"Why aren't you the little gentleman?" Iris beamed at the boy.
Hunter gave the older woman his most dazzling smolder and pointed at Emmy, "Mom always told me that I should pull out the chair for beautiful women."
The women automatically swooned over the first grader while their husbands playfully grumbled about losing their wives to a little boy with a lisp. However, Wally and Emmy found themselves very interested in their napkins, his polite act from earlier suddenly having a new implication. Mary winked at her husband with the eye the kids couldn't see. He grinned back approvingly.
"I love the name Iris," Emmy smiled at the speedster's aunt, nodding at her younger sister. "It's Sage's middle name."
Sage flew away with the discussion, monopolizing it with her latest hobby, explaining the root words of names. She went through everyone at the table to the amusement and mostly genuine interest of the adults.
"I forgot to ask at the arcade," Wally mentioned quietly. "EVE. What's the V for?"
Emmy showed her fingers under the table and slowly spelled out 'Violet' for him. He smiled at her, and she matched it. A throat cleared. They jumped slightly.
Sage was looking at Wally expectantly.
"Huh?" Was all he could offer.
The young girl rolled her eyes dramatically. "Wally is short for Wallace, yes?"
The whole table nodded.
"You see, Wallace is classically a Scottish name, popularized in the last century in honor of a medieval hero of the Scottish War of Independence." Sage smiled puckishly and continued. "It means 'foreigner' or 'stranger' or 'my future brother-in-law'."
The table erupted into laughter as the two eldest teens leaned away from each other and slouched a bit. Pink cheeks betraying them to everyone but each other. Emmy kicked Sage under the table and the grey-eyed girl glared at her.
"So, did you choose Wally so that anytime someone said 'Hey, Stranger?' They would just be saying his name?" Emmy was glancing between his parents, practically begging them to intercede. Mary smiled and came to the girl's rescue.
"Unfortunately, no. We just chose it as a boring family name." She replied.
"But from now on I'm telling everyone that I did it as the world's most thorough Dad joke," Rudolph chuckled.
Hunter waved a hand at Emmy, and she immediately turned to him. "I need help with a 'number 2' in the bathroom," he signed.
He hadn't quite mastered how to wipe when wearing formal clothes. He had only worn them twice in his life, so she couldn't exactly blame him.
"The bathroom is down the hall to the left," Wally pointed.
The look she sent him was so impressed that Wally vowed to himself to never admit that the only words he caught were 'help' and 'bathroom'. She and Hunter disappeared down the hallway.
"So, Sage," Iris, ever the reporter, started a question while still silently noting the way her nephew's eyes followed Emmy all the way around the corner. "How is being raised by your parents different from being raised by your sister?"
Sage lit up like she had been waiting for someone to ask her that her entire life.
"Well," her confident first word sent the table into a fit of knowing glances and suppressed smiles. "I don't technically remember my parents at all, I had a brain injury from a beam that hit my head during the fire, but I know that they were definitely less strict than Emmy is."
"How can you tell?" Mary asked.
"Things that Emmy says occasionally," Sage clasped her hands on the table, adoring the attention on her. "For instance, Emmy makes us go to bed by 9pm on weekdays, won't let us go anywhere without supervision, and makes us eat vegetables at twice a day. I'm practically thirteen. I don't need that much supervision."
Another round of smiles from the adults.
"And anytime we complain about it she'll mention that our parents weren't around much so sometimes she would be out all night looking for food, and she wants us to have a "better childhood" than she did," Sage took a big bite of mashed potatoes and kept talking. She was oblivious to the novel tension in the room, "I think she's exaggerating, but I just get the feeling that our parents were more relaxed than she is."
Emmy chose that moment to round the corner with a giggling Hunter sitting on her shoulders. He had thankfully not required her help, so she conceded to carrying him back to the table as a 'big boy' award. Her chuckle turned to a confused grin when every head except Sage's snapped toward her. Half looked sad or pitying and the other half had tears in their eyes. Sage looked fine though. Maybe she had a joke that didn't land? She set Hunter on his feet, and he scrambled back to his honey glazed ham while Emmy took her seat. She tried to get Wally to meet her gaze so she could ask him what happened, but he was intently staring at a plate of green beans.
Wally didn't know what to do about the new information. It had never occurred to him that Sage had an entirely different outlook on life than Emmy did. Emmy was a veritable vault of secrets who didn't talk about her past unless it bumped into them in the middle of a mission. But Sage was an open book that would occasionally read itself out loud just for the sake of being heard. He felt like it was a betrayal to Emmy to learn about something in her past from her sister instead of her. But suddenly her comment from months back about hunger being scary, well, it made sense. Before he thought through his actions, he scooped a big helping of green beans onto Emmy's plate. She looked even more puzzled.
"Uhm," she raised an eyebrow at him. "Thank you?"
"Extra green beans for the Green Lantern," Wally's joke was weak but it was enough to bring the table back to life.
"Way to set up a 'don't expect to be flashed in return' joke, Kid," Barry chuckled and dodged Iris's swipe at his head while his sister chastised him. Emmy smirked at Wally in a way that let him know that line was similar to what she was thinking.
"Emmy, I must say," Iris started. "I don't mean to embarrass you, but I am a big fan."
Emmy chuckled, "Thank you. Green lanterns are definitely more popular than I thought they were."
"Oh, no, not the hero thing," Iris waved her empty fork playfully. "I'm a fan of the way you shot down Damian Diamond on live TV."
Barry immediately whooped and turned to the teen. "No kidding! She was giddy for three days afterwards and got all his assignments when he went on 'mental health leave'". Barry winked an Iris saucily. "Best week of my life."
Iris smiled suggestively, and Sage's quiet gag brought a chorus of giggles.
"Wally texted all of us to watch the interview while it was happening," Joan added with a glint in her eye.
"Oh, really?" Emmy smirked at him.
Wally rolled his eyes. "Nothing to do with you, of course, I just wanted our family to bask in the fall of the Diamond."
"I don't know," Rudolph piped up. "He's been talking about you nonstop since July."
Wally choked on his water, "Dad!"
"I can't imagine any of it's been good," Emmy laughed carefully. "We got off on the wrong super-fast foot."
"True," Mary joined in on teasing her son. "It started off as, 'I can't believe she is trying to force herself into a leadership position when she's brand new'."
"And went to 'She's at my school! I have nowhere to go for a reprieve'," Jay piped up.
"But then pretty soon it was, 'I think she's a math genius, Dad. She totally schooled me on a definite triple integral'," Rudolph added.
"And next thing we knew it was 'Hey, can I invite Emmy over for Thanksgiving?'" Mary quipped again.
Wally was groaning with his head in his hands. "My own family." He looked up, woefully and excessively betrayed. "Is there no humanity left?"
Barry chuckled. "Hey, you know the rules."
Mary continued. "Any time you bring a girl home, you will be embarrassed by your loving family…"
Her husband finished off the West golden rule, "…Regardless of whether she is a girl friend or a friend who is a girl."
"Sheesh, West," Emmy elbowed him lightly. "Who would've thought you brought home enough girls to justify a set rule?"
"Phew, you want some aloe vera for that burn?" Barry chortled.
"Oh, ha ha ha," Wally smirked at her. "What? Jealous?"
"I am terribly jealous," Emmy's voice held no malice despite the content. "Of the fact that they already got to leave your presence."
Rudolph winked at Mary again.
Wally whispered something lowly to Emmy and she frowned and subtly elbowed him again. It was something along the lines of, "Maybe I should have invited Jinx over instead. I'd still have a colorfully haired dinner guest."
Sage's voice cut into the conversation pie again, trying to get a bigger piece for herself. "I like your house a lot, Mrs. and Mr. West! There's even a playground in the backyard."
Mary laughed. "Thank you, Dear. Wally has been too big to use it for years now, but whenever we try to take it down, he gets mopey and protests."
"It could be a historical landmark one day," Wally's face flushed a bit at the mention of his affinity for the playground. "And it's a good thing I made you keep it because now Hunter and Sage can play on it after dinner."
Sage was still young enough to be interested in playgrounds (as long as her friends weren't around), so she and Hunter nodded at each other in satisfaction.
The dinner puttered a long amicably with Hunter being the favorite yet again when he tried to help clear plates at the end. All three women were fawning over him, and he was loving every second of it.
"You can have as much dessert as you want, Cutie Pie," Mary cooed while Iris held him in her arms and Joan tickled his cheeks. Emmy shook her head at the sight.
"I think you were worried about the wrong sibling being a babe-magnet," Wally laughed at the young boy.
"No kidding," Emmy agreed.
"Hey!" Sage stomped. "I attract plenty of babes."
Barry high-fived Sage as everyone giggled again. It occurred to Emmy that she had never seen so much laughter and love in a home before. Wally made more sense now. Of course, he believed in sharp lines between good and evil. He grew up in a home where evil was drowned out by laughter and suffocated with hugs. She wanted to resent him, but instead she found herself amazed that he became a hero in the first place. She was chosen to become one, and she had done so grudgingly and from a place of necessity. It was either be a hero or die a criminal. But Wally, loved and cherished Wally, had seen some latex-wearers make a difference on the news a few times and made the decision to become a person like that too. He chose to be a hero every time he put on the suit. Wally noticed Emmy looking at him with something akin to admiration.
"What?" He wiped his chin. "Do I have gravy on my face again?"
"Nothing," Emmy shook her head and turned to Sage and Hunter.
"Can we go to the swings before dessert?" They signed.
"Yeah, of course. As long as the West's say it's okay."
The two kids approached the parents. "Pardon me," Sage put on her best posh voice. "Would it be possible for my brother and I to peruse your playground before dessert is taken?"
Hunter smoldered again and added his still largely unused and deep voice to the plea, staring at Mary, "I believe you said we could have a half-hour break before dinner, Beautiful?"
Emmy's eyes went wide. Wally guffawed next to her, leaning on her shoulder for support. Mary blushed and told the kids to come back inside whenever they got cold for games and apple cider.
"You did this to him," she pointed accusingly at the redhead still leaning on her shoulder. He backed off and held his hands up with fake innocence.
"Moi?" His disbelief over-exaggerated.
"Oui, tu. Parce que tu est le seulement person il sais qui dit toutes filles sont jolie!"
Wally blinked at the fast French. "Woah. I'm only learning one of the other languages you know, calm down."
"I said, yes, you because you're the only person he knows who calls every girl he meets Beautiful," she dared him to argue with a raised eyebrow.
"Oh," Barry winced with fake sympathy. "She's got you there."
"Uncle Barry!" The night was just full of betrayal.
They decided to play a trivia game while waiting for the kids to come back inside. The game had two sheets (one easy, one hard) each with 50 questions on 30 different topics. A person was called forward from their team, a "hard" or "easy" die was thrown, a topic was chosen by the other team, and they had 90 seconds to answer as many questions as they could before the timer ran out. Each correct guess was one point. If they somehow managed to get all 50 questions right, then their team automatically won the game. A person from the opposing team got to try to answer any of the leftover questions in 30 seconds, but the team whose turn it initially was got to pick the player. They decided they'd do five rounds since each team would have four players and they'd have the final bonus round. That would give Hunter and Sage about 25 minutes to get tired on the playground.
It was girls against boys. Girls went first. Emmy was farthest left on the couch, so she was supposed to start.
"Oh, do you want me to go first, Honey, so you can see how the game works?"
"Uhm," She looked at Iris in surprise. "Sure. That'd be great."
Iris switched her spots and sat on the coffee table. Girls on the couch to her right and the boys to her left. The die rolled "hard", and the boys drew a topic card. She got "What country are you in?". It was a category that described landmarks and you had to name the country where they were found. The boys groaned.
"We're all doomed," Barry whined despite looking proud that everyone knew his wife would kill them during the next 90 seconds.
Joan picked up the pack of cards, and her husband flipped the timer.
"The national history museum in Ulaanbaatar," Joan read quickly.
"Mongolia!" Iris replied with no hesitation.
The boys were right. Iris got through 27 questions, and they were all correct. The girls whooped and hollered for her as she returned to their couch. Thank God that wasn't me. I didn't know any of those. Emmy bit her lip.
"Alright who gets the grace period?" Jay asked.
Iris smiled with fake sweetness, "Barry."
The blonde speedster immediately hung his head and sat on the coffee table. Joan started asking him the questions rapid fire and the poor guy got one of the 8 asked.
Emmy laughed, "That's about how it would've gone for me if it were my turn."
"Oh, yeah," Wally grinned at the forgotten information. "You haven't had a history or geography class since you were ten. I'll have to keep that in mind."
Emmy groaned good naturedly and watched Wally's dad head to the coffee table. He rolled "easy" and got types of food. Wally grumbled with envy. He had been hoping to get that one. The cards described a food and you had to guess the correct name. The first one Wally read out was, "A thin French pancake". His dad aggressively screamed "Crepe!" And the game was on as the room laughed. His dad got 28 questions right and picked Joan to try the rest. Joan got 5 correct in her bonus round.
"In the lead by 3!" Mary hollered.
Emmy took her turn on the coffee table and tried not to be nervous as her stomach clenched. She didn't have much experience with games. I hope I don't look like a total moron. The die rolled "hard", and Wally laughed at her imperceptible pout. Wally drew a topic card for her but quickly shoved it back in, "Not that one."
"Wait!" Her team protested.
"Wally Rudolph West you get that topic card back out right now," his mom demanded.
He sighed deeply and pulled it out. Flipping it to the rest of the room, Emmy smirked with relief at the single word: Math.
She rolled her shoulders and turned to Mary holding the list of math questions. The boys flipped the timer, and the round began.
"Does a convex shape curve inward or outward?"
"Outward."
"What number does a giga stand for?"
"Billion."
"How many sides does a nonagon have?"
"9."
"The first positive number, aside from one, that is both a square and a cube number?"
A two second pause.
"64."
Mary and Emmy were in the zone asking and answering as quickly as possible, for those not in the speedster category. Wally was watching Emmy with a hint of pride and a touch of jealousy because there were a few questions where she was getting the answers a hair before he did. Rudolph nudged Barry and nodded at his son who was dopily staring at the teen girl blasting through questions.
Barry smirked and whispered, "Smart likes smart."
"How many equal sides do Icosahedrons have?"
"20."
"How many seconds are in one day?"
"86,400."
Everyone looked impressed at that. Emmy made a mental note not to let them know she had seen that written somewhere before and act like she did it in her head in a millisecond.
"What is an angle over 90 degrees called?"
Emmy answered the question at Wally with a smirk, "Obtuse."
He stuck his tongue out at her.
"What number is twice the sum of its digits?"
Emmy looked to the ground at her left for a second. Pfft, no way she gets that one with four seconds left, Wally mentally scoffed.
"18!" She yelled right before the last grain of sand fell. The girls cheered for her and pulled her back onto the couch.
"That's 31 correct answers for our young friend," Mary tallied. Their team cheered again, and Emmy's smile turned a bit bashful.
Wally snapped out of his reverie, "So, who finishes?"
Emmy thought for a second. Wally was pretty good at math and there were only 14 left on the list. "Jay?"
It was soon Wally's turn in the last round before sudden death. The girls were ahead by 29, but now was his moment to shine. Emmy rolled the die. It landed on 'easy'.
"Figures," she rolled her eyes as the redhead fist pumped. She pulled out a topic card and muttered, "Shit."
She quickly turned to the adults with wide eyes at having cursed in front of them.
"Sorry!" She squeaked.
"What's the topic?" Wally asked.
"...Physics."
The boys applauded and the girls had their turn to groan.
"Shit, indeed," Mary nodded at Emmy with bemoaned understanding.
That threw Wally off for a second. He had only heard his mom curse a few times in his life. She must really like Emmy if she'd do it just to make the teen feel comfortable.
His dad sat across from him with the list and patted his knee seriously, "It's go-time, Son."
"No super speed talking!" Iris yelled.
"I won't need to," Wally smugly winked at his aunt.
Wally blew through the basic level physics questions. He'd learned most of them a few years ago. He ended with 33. The boys were now 4 points ahead.
He smirked at Emmy, "In your face!"
She tilted her head. "How is it in my face? Because from where I'm sitting, it looks like you had the easy list and still only got 3 more than I did," her fake confusion sent his family into hysterics.
"Excuse you, physics is far more complicated I couldn't just say monosyllabic numbers like you did," he smirked at her, about to take his revenge, "Why don't you see what I mean and finish these up?"
The lantern winced and moved to the coffee table slowly.
"Are you also a physics whiz-kid?" Joan asked hopefully.
Emmy shook her head. "Unfortunately, no."
Wally snorted. "Yeah, I've had to help her with physics homework more than once."
"Mhmm, yeah, and how many times have I helped you with calculus?" Emmy quipped.
"Whatever, Green Glowstick," he shook the 30 second timer teasingly. "Eat my dust."
Emmy rolled her shoulders again and prepared for Wally's dad to ask her more questions. She only had to get four right to tie.
"What is it called when light bends as it enters a different medium?"
"Refraction." Emmy was surprised she knew that.
"Electrical resistance is measured in what units?"
"Ohms."
"Electrical power is typically measured in what units?"
She bit her lip. "Watts?"
Rudolph nodded and went to the next card.
"Infrared light has a wavelength that is too long or too short to be visible for humans?"
"Too long." Emmy knew a lot about the science of light and color from her geology studies.
"Conductors have a high or low resistance?"
"Uh," she trailed off, "pass!"
"Electrical current is typically measured in what units?"
"Why are all these questions electrical?" Emmy huffed, unsure. Resistance was ohms and power was watts, but what was current? Wally chose that moment to yell that the timer was up.
"We're tied now!" Iris high fived Emmy. "Nice job!"
"Thwarted by the genius of my own mind," Wally threw a hand to his forehead. "I never should have tutored the distressed maiden."
Emmy snorted, "I'll remember that next time you want someone to double-check your Maclaurin series results."
"I mean there's no need to be hasty," Wally held up his hands. That assignment was due after Thanksgiving break, and he still wasn't sure about number 12.
Wally's mom and dad faced each other for the last round. They got easy 80's movie quotes and they both looked like they thought they were going to crush the other. Emmy and Wally huddled around the list, taking turns yelling the quotes out and seeing who could say the correct movie first. The 90 second war was bitter, but Mary managed to get two more movies yelled out before her husband and the girls won.
The fairer team cheered and began the merciless teasing of the boys. Rudolph just rolled his eyes and dipped his wife into a dramatic kiss that sent the other two married couples into a similar stance. Wally and Emmy scooted away from each other, regretting their decision to move to the same couch when reading off the final questions. Sage and Hunter walked in with cold-reddened cheeks and runny noses just in time to yell "Ew" at all the kissing.
Within minutes the group was back at the kitchen table sipping apple cider and eating their way through 11 different types of pies, 5 flavors of cookies, peppermint brownies, and cinnamon rolls.
"Gotta say, Em," Barry pouted around a bite of pie big enough to terrify a lesser man, "I'm disappointed you didn't bring anything. I've snagged some of the stuff you've made around the mountain, and you really have a gift."
Emmy blushed half a shade darker, both from the compliment and the fact that she didn't realize bringing food was something she should have done.
Iris lightly slapped the back of Barry's head before winking at Emmy, "Leave the poor girl alone, Babe. She's got enough homework and world-saving to do without feeding you too."
"Yeah, what gives, Em?" Wally smirked at Emmy around his second cinnamon roll. "You bake all year except the holidays?"
Emmy sent him a glare, but Mary responded for her, "Oh, it's fine, Dear." Mary shared a mischievous look with her husband before continuing, "You can just bring something next year."
Emmy smiled at the unexpected return invitation but raised an eyebrow at the wordless argument Wally and his dad were having to her side. Wally grinned casually when he saw her looking and returned to his dessert.
The conversation moved along nicely until the normal-metabolized people were sitting back in their chairs and the speedsters were cleaning up the dishes. Wally returned to the kitchen and grabbed Hunter's attention.
Hunter had beamed when Wally pointed to the living room and hesitantly signed. "Help me find a game?"
Emmy was only slightly mortified when Mary caught her softly smiling at the two boys in the reflection of a mirror. He chose the Sorry! boardgame and the group split into duos who tag-teamed the game. Hunter chose Wally and unceremoniously plopped himself into the unsuspecting teen's lap. The married couples paired off with each other and Sage and Emmy shared a smirk.
"Time to annihilate the weak," Sage signed quickly.
Emmy snorted and fist bumped her sister before signing back, "You know it."
The game went faster with ten people playing it, and before long they had finished three rounds full of laughter and competitive quips. The clock showed 10:30 at night. Hunter had already fallen asleep in Wally's lap and Sage's yawns had gotten more frequent as she leaned against the speedster's shoulder. Emmy blinked back the asinine urge to cry as she took in how comfortable her siblings looked. But it was late, and, begrudgingly, time to go back to the mountain. The Easts had felt bad about leaving Megan and Connor alone at first, but Megan had perked up and started planning a romantic Thanksgiving picnic with the clone.
The family and friends all slowly said their goodbyes, (Emmy had never been hugged by so many people in her life), and promises were made between the adults to do something similar for Christmas.
Mary hugged Emmy a second time before whispering, "Your first West event went really well."
Emmy chuckled nervously and rubbed the back of her neck. She didn't know what to think of the implications that there would be more, but she didn't hate it. By 10:45, Emmy was carrying Hunter and Wally was holding Sage as they walked back to the Zeta Tube. They whispered jokes and quips back and forth trying not to wake the kids up with their laughter. They had just settled into a comfortable silence when they reached the disguised Tube.
"That was really nice, Wally, thank you for inviting us," he couldn't see her face very well in the dark, but Emmy's voice was sincere and quiet as she continued. "I didn't know holidays were supposed to be like that."
He smiled at Emmy and shifted Sage in his arms. "Well, you heard my parents, you're all definitely invited back for whatever holidays you'd like. I think my mom wants to trade me out for you. I always suspected that she wanted a girl."
Emmy laughed quietly, "That's ridiculous. I've never seen people love their kids like your parents do with you."
Wally grinned widely while the beam transported them back to the mountain. Emmy tucked Hunter in while Wally put Sage under her covers. They met outside the doors and Emmy walked him back to the exit Tube. It was the first time they'd been alone since the beginning of the night, and the comfortable mood shifted slightly.
"So-"
"Do you-"
They laughed at their mutual speaking and Wally motioned for her to go first.
"You have a really great family," Emmy's lips twitched. "I'm sure it must be hard for them to deal with being related to you."
"Yeah, I show them up too easily," Wally wiggled his eyebrows, easily switching her insult into his praise.
"Of course, who else could accidentally break a guys nose with a dodgeball?" Emmy grinned sweetly.
Wally shook his head. "I'm never going to live that down."
"Only because you made a big deal about how moral you were four seconds beforehand."
Wally smiled down softly at the blonde. He wasn't sure who moved first, probably him, but soon her head was tucked into his chest and their arms were wrapped around each other. He buried his face in her hair and enveloped her smaller body. She smelled like oranges and spice. He lightly kissed the top of her head. They pulled away slowly, arms still on each other. One of the green strands by her face had fallen over one eye. His hand moved to brush it behind her ear without thinking. His fingers carefully avoiding the tiny silver hoops in her earlobes. His hand slid to the side of her neck, thumb ghosting over the scar whose story he had learned tonight before dropping to his side.
"I see you like the necklace," he tried to sound casual, but he wasn't sure if it worked.
"Nah," Emmy smirked. "I just wore it because I was going to see you and it would be rude not to."
"Aw you care about my feelings?" Wally cooed. "That's so cute."
Emmy scoffed, "Pfft, you're cute."
Wally's eyebrows went up as he grinned, "Really? I always thought you thought I was more 'ruggedly handsome' or 'painfully hot' or-"
"Completely self-obsessed?" Emmy supplied with an eye-roll.
"Hey, I can be obsessed with more than one person."
"You do know Black Canary is never going to happen for you, right?"
"A guy can dream."
Emmy snorted, "Oh, I'm sure you have a lot of dreams. Has your mom managed to find your crusty sock collection yet?"
Wally's ears went red, "For fucks sake, Emmy, we were having such a cordial evening."
Emmy cackled, "So, that's a 'not yet' then?"
"You're horrible," Wally muttered as he ran a hand down his face.
"You like it," Emmy smirked.
He shrugged, putting on a big show of thinking, "You certainly keep things interesting. I don't know if like is the right word for it though."
"And what word would you use, Wall-man?" Emmy challenged with a grin that housed some genuine curiosity.
He looked at her for a long enough moment that she got distracted by a particularly large fleck of yellow in his left eye. He opened his mouth and took a step forward when the Zeta Tube announced Robin's arrival to the cave. The teens took a half-step away from each other, and Wally found himself wondering when it had become so normal for them to stand too close.
"Wally," Robin nodded as his friend as they fist bumped. "Emmy," the younger boy's frown held a weight to it that made him feel much older and taller than he really was, "I need to talk to you."
Emmy frowned slightly but nodded, "No problem."
Robin glanced at Wally before specifying, "Alone."
The speedster hid his disappointment and yanked a thumb toward the Tube, "I was heading out anyway. Happy Thanksgiving, you two."
Robin was already marching out of the room, but Emmy murmured, "Happy Thanksgiving, Wally," as she turned to follow the bird.
Location: Keystone
Date: Nov 25th
Time: 23:19
Wally West normally loved to go fast, but tonight he walked back to his house slowly, hands in pockets and deep in thought. He had a great time tonight, so he wasn't exactly sure why he felt like the evening was unfinished. Why was he voluntarily going slow just to give himself more time to ruminate over the feeling? He hadn't felt like this until Robin had shown up and cut his conversation with Emmy off early.
Wally halted on the sidewalk. The final piece clicked into the puzzle he had been putting together since meeting Emmy, and that last little addition was what finally allowed him to see the full picture for the first time.
"Holy shit."
He liked her. He liked Emmy.
His visceral reaction to Akio's entrance returned to his mind. A lot. No wonder he broke Chad's nose and gave Akio a black eye. He had been jealous! Overwhelmingly and blindly jealous.
His mind raced to review the equation of his relationship with Emmy from the beginning. It was like he had been working on line and line of confusing integrals and boundaries trying to get the answer to the equation, and now that he had it, he could look back and clearly see it in each of the numbers and letters above.
The way his heart skipped when she told off Stacy or got a little jealous at the mention of Jinx. The way he enjoyed that she obviously preferred to talk to him over most other people at school. The time she saw him suffering with hunger and made him food instead of calling him a pig. The time she took him to her favorite crystal cage when he had been nothing but rude to her just because she saw that he was sad. The fact that he dove back into the cursed icy waters to enter that cave just because he thought having a crystal with her would make her smile. The excitement he felt when his mom suggested she invite Emmy over for dinner and how he had shifted that to her meeting his immediate family on a major holiday. He was learning a new language because he wanted her brother to be more comfortable around him, and he hated it on the few instances when Sage had been less than thrilled to see him.
Hell! The first thing he said when he saw her face in Cadmus was that she was cute. Man, I am denser than a black hole sometimes. He had a crush on Emmy, and he had it bad. Now that he had the answer to the problem, it was pathetically easy to see the evidence. He was always trying to be close to her. At the mountain, at school, outside of school…wherever she was, was where he was trying to be. How had he not noticed that?
He was a veritable genius, and he hadn't even recognized that he had a crush. When exactly had his side of their frequent quipping and flirting gone from a confrontational ploy to genuine? The world shook a bit under his feet as he made it through his front door. He knew that nothing had shifted except his perception, but he couldn't help but feel a little unsteady. This wasn't a teenage boy happy to get a couple of kisses from a pretty girl. This was a boy who cared deeply for a complicated, secretive, and combative girl. What was he supposed to do about this? He didn't even know how Emmy felt. Yeah, she had kissed him during laser tag, but it was to keep his team from winning and how was he supposed to know if it meant anything to her? How was he supposed to know if he meant anything to her? She was his teammate, classmate, and friend. It wasn't exactly like he could just go up to her and ask. Could he?
His parents noticed his dazed return from their spot on the couch and watched him go upstairs and into bed on muscle memory alone. Sleep came to Wally gradually. He fell slowly, until he was too far gone to recognize the transition.
Thank you so much for reading, and (hopefully) I'll be back with the next update soon. Or soon-ish, at the latest.
-TheDarkAbyss
P.S. Also, like how dense is Wally? The answer: Bad but still less than Emmy.