It's All That You Can Do

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Chapter Uno

Visions Clash

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Two Months Prior

Wally stumbled into the break room and, after finding the person he'd been looking for, all but collapsed into the chair next to John. The older man spared him an almost distracted glance then returned his attention back to the hand of cards he was holding. If Wally were forced to guess he'd say that John, Shayera, and Oliver were in the middle of a game of poker and, if those three kings were any sign, John was about to win.

"Hangover?" Shayera asked, lips curving into a teasing smile. "You're such a light weight kid. I've told you to stop drinking with John."

"No it isn't a hangover." Wally snapped, annoyed. His head kind of felt like Shayera had decided to take her mace to it from the inside and the idea that it was his fault was kind of irritating. Shayera stared at him for a moment longer before arching an eyebrow. He sighed and rubbed at the bridge of his nose. "Sorry I…my head really hurts."

"It shows." Ollie smirked at him and Wally could sense a smart remark coming on. "Maybe John is keeping you up too far past your bedtime."

Yeah, there it was.

"I'd retort but I'm not sure if you're saying I'm really young or John's really old." He glared sideways at John who shrugged without looking up. Some help he was. "Either way I refuse to be insulted by a politician."

"And yet you keep letting it happen. Now be nice to your elders before John has to punish you for back talking."

"He'd probably like it." John laid his hand downand, as Wally had suspected, the other two groaned and tossed their hands in. John cracked a small smile and picked up the small pile of money on the table. "You'd be surprised by what really goes on in his head."

Ollie made a face that seemed to say he wouldn't really be surprised, but didn't want to know anyway. Shayera chuckled before pushing her chair back some.

"That's more information than I personally needed for any reason about your sex life."

Wally snorted then winced at the stab of pain behind his eyes. The headache was already starting to become less painful, but laughing was apparently a bad idea. Still he couldn't let such an open just skip past him.

"I understand if you're still upset that John choose me and not you-"

"Right." Shayera broke in but Wally chose to ignore her.

"But that is no reason to be jealous. We both still love you."

There was a long moment of silence. It was the kind of silence that came when John was silently wondering what he'd done to deserve Wally's presence in his life. Then John held out a twenty, which Shayera plucked from his fingers with a grin. She nodded in Ollie's general direction before standing up and leaving the break room. Wally assumed she was going to track down Bruce and try to bribe him into making him do something stupid and pointless.

Why exactly Bruce was open to bribery was beyond Wally, but he was.

Ollie blinked slowly. "Do I get money?"

"I pay Shayera to not kill Wally when he has the occasional burst of stupidity." John's voice maintained it's usual casual deadpan but Wally caught the undertone of amusement to it. Years of practice had helped him to decipher the many tone inflections of John, J'onn, and Bruce. "Where as if you touch Wally I'd just kill you in the painfully slow manner I could think up and draw it out over weeks, if not months depending on my boredom level."

Ollie was silent for a moment while Wally made a valiant effort to not laugh. Finally he stood up and cleared his throat. "That's…I'll see you two later on."

Wally remained silent until he was sure the other man had left the break room then smiled at John. He decided to studiously ignore everyone else in the room, which he found was the best option when it came to the fact that everyone and their mother was fond of watching to see what the 'Gay Couple' was up to.

"I think you scared him."

"That was the general idea behind it." John said as he turned to look at him. "You feeling all right? You look terrible."

"I was feeling like Clark had punched me in the head repeatedly. Not so much now." He said, tilting his head off to the side. "Maybe I should lie down for a while."

"Oh?"

Wally nodded, trying his best to maintain a straight face. "In your room. Cause mine is such a mess and I don't want to have to clean anything up."

"I see." The look John was wearing made it clear that he didn't believe a single word that Wally was saying. Which was fine, really, because he wasn't supposed to believe any of it. Wally was being very deliberately transparent.

"And you should come with me, to make sure I'm okay."

"I can see the logic in that."

Before Wally could actually go anywhere with his undeniable brilliant plan Superman, forever a dark spot on Wally's sex life (not that he'd had much of one until a few months ago, but that was hardly the point) appeared in the doorway. John sighed and rolled his eyes, looking just slightly annoyed. Wally slumped low in his seat, resolutely not pouting.

"We have some trouble in Brazil's capital. A group of mercenaries has taken over and are threatening to burn the entire city to the ground is they aren't paid within the hour."

Wally looked over at him, frowning. "And? I bet they're bluffing, I say we wait the hour out and see."

John's foot connected with his shin and successfully made Wally forget about the now dull thud that was his headache. He glared up at John while reaching down to rub at his ankle and was meet with cool green eyes. If not for the small quirk of John's lips he might have thought he was actually upset.

"Was I interrupting something?" Superman, ever the observant boy scout, asked. His eyes darted from John ten him and back to John curiously.

"No. We're on our way."

"Uh hu." Superman looked skeptical but was gone down the hall a moment later none the less. Wally glared after him while pushing himself up so he was sitting straight. Stupid alien and his unnaturally bad timing.

Wally would still beat him in a fair foot race. Anyway…

"You're going to be all right aren't you?"

"Just a headache, it's fine now. Don't worry about me." Wally raked his fingers through his hair before smiling again. "Your concern is dully noted through."

"I'm sure." John smirked before standing up. He grabbed Wally by the wrist and pulled him up as well. "You up for dinner? I'm buying."

He nodded while shoving his hands into his pockets. "Sounds good to me. Do you think any Thai places deliver on station?"

John laughed as one of his hands touched Wally's hip and slightly calloused fingers found their way under the hem of his t-shirt. He blinked and looked down. John always chose the strangest moments for this kind of thing. Not that Wally would dare complain because…honestly, did he even need to explain it? John leaned in and Wally could feel his breath on his ear.

"I doubt it. How about I met you in my room with the food?" Fingers rubber his skin almost teasingly before changing direction and dipping below the waistband of his jeans. Wally probably would have agreed to sell his Aunt Iris and Bart at that particular moment. John kind of abused his ability to make him a babbling horny moron.

Again, not complaining.

"Uh."

"Good."

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Flash was becoming increasingly annoyed with the guys he was trying to track down and drag back into the city. It wasn't that chasing them was hard, obviously, it was the finding them in order to chase them down that proved to be a pain in his ass. The fact that there were a lot of them, all packing some lovely weapons that seemed to incinerate things on contact didn't help him out either.

Damn interplanetary trading…

If Flash had learned nothing over the years it was that being nearly untouchable didn't translate into completely untouchable and he knew better than to tempt fate when it came to being turned into a pile of ash. Oddly enough it wasn't high on his to-do list.

Why exactly that was he wasn't sure but...yeah.

He hadn't seen any movement for a few seconds and was more than ready to just call it quits. The pain behind his eyes had started up again not too long ago and was getting worse by the second and he just wanted to be done before it got as bad as it had been before. That would effectively rain on the preverbal parade.

Flash came to a halt and sighed. He was sweating and he wasn't sure it was just the rather impressive heat, which seemed to cling to the air like some kind of wool blanket and made it really hard to breath, or just the running. Well, to be honest, he didn't really sweat much or get out of breath. He'd never really thought about it before but now that he had a few moments…

The complete and utter randomness of his thoughts was disturbing to even him at times.

He turned to head back down the path he'd just run down when the world decided to suddenly go diagonal on him. The world tilted before a bright white light obscured his vision. He groaned at a sharp pain in his temple and closed his eyes tightly. When he opened them again he was on his hands and knees, gasping for air he hadn't even realized he needed. Someone was calling his name and insisting on making itself known.

He started to answer J'onn, who seemed to be screaming through the com system in some sinister effort to make his headache that much worse and turn his brain to mush, when his throat clenched up. Something began to burn at the back of it and he reflected almost absently for a moment on the fact he hadn't thrown up since the first time he'd traveled using his own super speed, before he did just that.

His throat burned and his body felt as if it was trying to turn itself inside out, pushing everything that had ever been inside of him out including a few vital organs. His insides twisted painfully and tears stung his eyes. His head felt like someone was slamming a hot poker into his brain over and over again.

It was very much not a nice feeling and he could have lived without it.

As bad as it hurt, and it hurt quite a bit, it faded eventually, leaving him rubbing at teary eyes and trying to block out the really foul taste now covering his tongue. Something rustled near his head and he really hoped it wasn't one of those mercenary guys because he so wasn't in the mood. Black boots fell into his line of sight before large hands grasped him by the shoulders and helped him stand up. He stared up at Lantern who was regarding him carefully.

"You aren't going to be sick again are you?"

"Uh…" He didn't feel sick anymore, just kind of empty and tired. Then again, to be completely fair, he hadn't felt sick before. "No?"

Lantern smiled wryly. "You don't sound sure."

"…" Flash shrugged. Lantern's smile turned a smirk.

"Try not to be. J'onn, I've got him."

"Oh good." Wally muttered. He leaned against Lantern, content to let the other man support his weight. Colors burst on the back of his eyelids for a moment before everything settled into the typical black. His stomach lurched but other than that nothing.

A cool hand pushed his mask back and he cracked an eye open. Lantern put a hand on his forehead and looked almost curious before pushing a few locks of hair back.

"I don't think you're hot-"

"Wow. Self-esteem, crushed."

Lantern ignored him. It was for the best. Thepointless Wally-babble was sure to begin any moment now."You should probably go to the infirmary just to be sure."

"Gah. No. That place smells like bleach." Wally closed his eye again. "Sleep. Be fine later. No worries."

He could almost feel John rolling his eyes. "Right. It's not you who'll be yelled at by Clark and Bruce if something happens to you."

Wally knew, by the way John was muttering half under his breath that he didn't plan to make Wally go to the infirmary so he didn't bother responding. John was silent for a moment then sighed. An arm wrapped around his waist and pulled him closer.

"All right J'onn, bring us up."

Wally heard J'onn's faint 'okay' but found he was drifting into something that resembled sleep. He stayed fully awake long enough for John to direct him towards one of their quarters (he assumed John's since he didn't trip over anything) and crawl into bed.

It was kind of disappointing. He'd really wanted that Thai food.

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Moon: I'm glad

TP96: I'm actually not funny in real life, so I'd have to go with the story. My wit if greatly exaggerated, I assure you.

Me: Rots. The. Brain. You should hear my inner comic fan argue with my inner Smallville fan about how Lex is an evil psycho and Clex is just sick and wrong… Highly amusing.

Cherre: Oh yes, Smallville Rot is of the good, but it's still rot. And please, lets keep the violence to a minimum.

Miyosha: Thanks. Part of why I like writing Wally is the 'random observations' I get to write in, to create more of a scene. Not so much in this chapter, because Wally has a headache and isn't much into scenery, but usually… And we always torment the ones we love, ne?

Mechante: John and Wally already together is fun to do. The sarcastic sweetness of it is just soo…well, fun. And yes, I know that theory. I was helping my boyfriend study for biology and chanced over it and this story was spawned. Proof that school is bad. Not that I needed proof…