I'm honestly not too sure how I feel about this one...but I hope you enjoy!
Wally felt like people didn't understand him. He knew that everyone felt this way, at one point or another, but for him it was a constant cloud hanging over him. It was as if all of the people he was around made instant judgments about his behavior, no matter if they knew who he was or not.
Teachers would look at his bouncing foot with annoyance as he sat in class, his hands begging to thrum against the desk no matter how Wally tried to stop it. His classmates would stare as he ate three helpings of the cafeteria lunch, giggling behind his back. He knew that he heard the words "pig" or "glutton" at least five times a day, and he knew that it looked bad. His constant snacking didn't help either.
In gym class, he was the slowest runner. Always. Although he knew that he could outrun anyone else in seconds, he couldn't dare use his powers. So, he let himself be slow, watching as everyone passed him with a smug impression on their faces. Anger burned in his stomach whenever he saw them, the urge to speed up building inside of him, but he let it pass. Showing off wasn't what heroes did.
He wished that he could go to the same school as Dick, but there were so many problems with that. One; it was in Gotham, and two; Wally wasn't rich or smart enough to go. So, he was stuck in the school that thought he was weak, slow, pathetic, with the classmates that never ceased to call him names.
His parents could try and understand what he was going through, but they never felt the feeling of the speedforce pulsing through their veins, the fight between sitting and running, or the joy of going faster than the speed of light. They never could know what it feels like to need to move, to eat more than average, or prove that they were more than just a joke. But Wally knew.
Hanging out with Uncle Barry helped, if only a bit. The more experienced speedster knew the constant pangs of hunger, the need to run, and hate from others. Despite all of this, Wally knew that Barry wasn't teased constantly by his peers, called a weirdo, or being watched by every teacher that knew his name. Barry was an adult, Wally was just a kid. A kid with highschool struggles. And superpowers.
It was getting tiring. Wally didn't know what to do. And, slowly but surely, he began to believe everything that everyone called him.
Dick glanced up as Wally trudged into the Mount Justice kitchen, the redhead dropping his backpack and opening the fridge.
"You're not going home, Wally?" He asked, and Wally looked up.
"Huh? Oh, no, my parents are away. I figured I would come here and grab some food."
Dick nodded, and Wally gave a small smile. Other than Barry, Wally knew that Dick understood his situation more than anyone else.
"I think Megan made some soup, I'm not sure how good it is but it's in there."
Wally nodded and took it out, putting a huge amount of it into a bowl.
Glutton...Pig...
Wally flinched as the words entered his mind and he looked at the amount he grabbed, guilt flooding his stomach. He needed the food, but everyone was telling the truth. He did eat too much sometimes. Grabbing a spoon and putting some of the soup back into the container, he was filled with shame and embarrassment. He wasn't the only one who was going to eat this. He had to stop being such a pig.
Dick adjusted his position on the couch so that Wally could sit beside him after he warmed up his food. He could tell something was up with Wally, the speedster was very quiet. Too quiet.
"Are you okay, Kid?"
Wally shrugged as he lowered himself down carefully. "Rough day."
Dick looked at the bowl with interest. "Wow, I thought you would eat a lot more."
"I figured that I would leave some for everyone else."
Dick stayed silent at the words, frowning as Wally finished the bowl off in seconds. He needed to eat more, it was crucial to the speedster diet. But, he tried to forget about it. Wally probably had a late snack.
"Hey, guys!" M'gann said as she walked into the room, Conner behind her. Wally smiled and gestured to the empty bowl.
"Great soup, M'gann. It was really good."
"Thanks! I thought I messed it up a bit, I'm not very good with cooking."
"You're getting better, but, I mean, you weren't bad at the start."
M'gann sat down on the couch and watched Wally' bouncing foot. "Could you maybe slow it down a bit? You're sort of shaking the whole couch."
Wally's eyes widened. "Oh, right, so sorry! I'll try."
"It's fine, I get it."
No, no one got it, they all thought he was a weirdo, a distraction...
He shifted uncomfortably in his seat, face going beet red, and his foot giggled nervously against the couch. Stupid...distraction...stop moving, Wally!
With a clumsy speed only Wally seemed to possess, he managed to get off of the couch and set his bowl in the sink, running off in a blur.
"I'msosorryI'mbotheringyouIneedtogoyouguyshavefunandbye!"
Dick flinched as Wally accidentally slammed into a door, crying out in pain.
"You okay, Kid?"
"I'm fine! I'll be in my room!"
Conner watched Wally go with a concerned glance. "Was it something I did...?"
"I don't think so, something's up." Dick said, getting to his feet. "I'll go talk to him."
M'gann nodded. "Okay. Let us know if we can help. And maybe bring some ice, he hit that door hard."
Dick nodded. "Good idea."
"Do you want me to read his mind?"
Conner sighed. "No. No reading minds of teammates, remember?"
She knocked her head gently with her hand. "Hello, Megan! Of course I won't! Sorry for bringing it up."
"It's fine, I'll figure out what happened." Dick replied, grabbing an icepack and making his way towards Wally's room.
The door that was covered in lightning bolts was closed when he got there, the yellow and red paint being bright and inviting even though Dick knew that Wally probably wanted to be alone. Yet, as his best friend, Dick knew that he had to do something. If he couldn't, they would have to call Barry, and the man was busy enough.
He knocked on the door softly. "Hey, Wally? Can I come in?"
"Sure."
He opened the door and closed it behind him, taking off his sunglasses. Wally was sitting on his bed, clutching his phone, thumbs drumming against the phone case rapidly.
"Hey. Sorry about that, I didn't mean to be a disturbance."
Dick sat down on a chair and frowned.
"Wally, what do you mean? You were not bothering us."
Wally crossed his legs and uncrossed them, running his hand through his hair.
"What's really going on, Kid?"
Wally frowned and set down his phone, tears brimming in his eyes.
"I...I can't stop."
"Stop what?"
"Moving." Wally's voice cracked as he turned away, his emerald green eyes filled with so much pain, pain that Dick never saw in the speedster's eyes. "I can't stop moving."
"That's okay, Wally, you're a speedster, you're expected to move."
"You don't understand! I can't stop and everyone hates me for it!"
"Wally..."
"No!" Wally got to his feet and began pacing the small room, hands enunciating every word he said. "No, Dick, everyone thinks I'm so weird and stupid! My teachers always say that I'm trying to be a disturbance, that my...my一 fidgeting一 is me trying to be funny and they just don't understand! I've gotten detention three times this week because of it!"
Wally was sobbing, and Dick tried to wrap him in a hug, but the speedster was too frantic to let it happen.
"But I just need to move, you know? I can't stop, I need to run and vibrate and sitting down is absolute torture for me! I distract everyone but I can't stop! When I can run, during gym, I can't actually run because it would reveal who I am. Yet I have to watch everyone run a mile in 12 minutes when I could do it in seconds!"
"Wally...I..."
"And I know that as a speedster I need to eat more, but everyone at school calls me a pig, and I know I am! I eat way too much food, my poor parents could probably barely afford it, even here I eat more than I should. I don't want to be the weirdo. But I am the weirdo! I don't know what to do..."
Wally slowed down and took some short breaths, drying his cheeks with his sleeves. Dick frowned and caught him in a hug, letting Wally clutch him like a lifeline. It was lucky that Dick had begun growing taller, if he was as short as he was when they first met, Dick would've been crushed.
"I'm so sorry, Dick, for everything." Wally muttered. "I can't...I'm not.."
"Kid...this isn't something you need to apologize for. You're my friend, and what's going on isn't your fault. None of it is. I'm sorry I didn't see how bad it was."
Wally nodded, trying to compose himself, and Dick pulled away, meeting his eyes.
"Wally. It's okay. We don't get bothered by you, got it? We all care for you. And you're school, your peers, your teachers, they're all jerks for being rude to you. If they knew who you were, deep down, they would regret every word."
"You mean Kid Flash." His voice was small and hesitant, and Dick shook his head.
"No. I mean Wally West. The epic kid that loves science, would run into danger without a second thought, who stays confident and happy when everyone else doesn't. That is Wally West, not Kid Flash. And if Wally West fidgets, eats a lot, has to move, we get that. I get that. It's who you are, and if people can't accept that with respect they don't deserve to know your name."
Wally nodded, sniffing.
"Got it, Wally?"
"Yeah. Yeah, I...thanks, Dick. I needed that."
Dick wrapped him into another hug, patting him on the back reassuringly.
"You're always going to be one of us, Wally, no matter what you do or how you act."
Wally opened his mouth to say more, but at that moment his stomach made its displeasure making itself known. Wally chuckled and Dick laughed.
"How about this. We both go to the mansion and I'll get Alfred to make us the biggest supper ever, and you can eat as much as you want. And then I can watch you run laps and time you. Maybe you can beat your high score this time."
Wally laughed weakly. "Sure. I'm starving. Could I run you there?"
Dick put on his sunglasses and froze. "Umm...no. I'll take the bike."
"Suit yourself!" His smile was back, a bit strained but there, and with a blur of light Wally ran out of his room and out of the mountain, his bubbly personality making Dick smile.
As he walked back to the living room where M'gann and Conner waited, he gestured to the exit.
"I'm assuming you saw that?"
Megan smiled. "Yeah. What happened? He seems a lot better."
"He just needed to get some things off of his chest, and needed a friend. He'll be fine."
Conner watched him with confusion as he grabbed his motorcycle helmet from the table. "Where are you going?"
"Wally and I are getting supper, he needs some calories. We'll be back later."
"Have fun!"
Dick rushed over to his bike and started it up, flipping the visor over his eyes. He was glad that he could help Wally, the speedster clearly needed to share what was going on. Dick knew that he had to tell The Flash and Wally's parents about it, as he was sure that they didn't know, and then they would have to figure out how to make Wally's experience at school even better.
Dick knew that he was lucky. Even though he lost his parents at a young age, at least he could blend in. He didn't have these physical battles waging inside of him all of the time, and he didn't know what it felt like to have to move. He never knew how much Wally struggled with it, but now that he knew...it was so obvious. So often Wally would need to rush out of meetings, do a couple of laps, and come back, his legs still bouncing with pent-up energy in a pattern no one could keep up with.
Dick promised himself that he would make sure that the whole team wouldn't accuse him about his constant need to move, though he was sure that they wouldn't be being rude anyways, or try to be rude. He was family. This family respected their own.
He also told himself that he would make sure that there was enough food in Mount Justice for Wally every single day, and if he had to convince Bruce to help the West's pay for more food he would do so. Wally shouldn't feel guilty for eating so much. He needed to eat, or else even worse things could happen to him.
As for Wally's classmates...Dick wasn't sure what he would do, but he would come up with something. Wally deserved respect, and if Robin had to pay that school a visit...he would do so. He would do anything to help Wally, he deserved so much more than what he dealt with now.
But first, a meal. The biggest meal that Wally had ever seen. The rest could wait.
Thank you so much for reading!