It was nearing four by the time Wally and Arlynn got back to the apartment.
"Batman could beat Flash in any fight!" Arlynn argued as the two walked inside, the door closing behind them with a loud slam.
Wally looked personally offended by the statement (which he actually kinda was, even if he and Barry weren't on the best of terms at the moment, he was still his uncle. Besides, it was pretty much just common sense.) "Are you joking right now?! Flash can dodge anything Bats has to throw at him! Which, trust me, is a lot. Plus, Flash can literally run circles around Batman before he could even throw a punch!"
"Not if he goes for the legs." Arlynn defended.
"Okay. One: That's morbid. And two: Um, hello, accelerated healing?"
"There's no way it's that fast." Arlynn said skeptically.
It wasn't, but Wally wasn't about to give her the satisfaction.
"Oh, so you're the expert now?"
Arlynn raised an eyebrow, "No. Are you?"
"My point is that Batman kicks ass, but Flash does it faster." Wally said, not-so-subtely changing the subject.
"My mommy says that slow and steady wins the race." Arlynn refuted.
"Yeah, unless it's an actual race." Wally countered.
Arlynn rolled her eyes as Wally disappeared into the bathroom, emerging with two dry towels. Arlynn barely managed to catch a towel as he tossed one to her, using the other to dry his hair.
"If you get sick, whoever your mom is will kill me." Wally offered as an explanation.
Arlynn shrugged but complied as she began to dry her own hair and face.
As she did so, Wally picked up the Walgreens shopping bag which he had nonchalantly dropped to the floor as they had walked in. Reaching in, he pulled out the sole item inside.
'DNA Paternity Test' , it read and Wally couldn't have felt even more stupid. Great, now I wasted $30 plus whatever stupid laboratory fee I'll have to pay all for something that I know is gonna be negative anyway.
Hopefully, that stupid, stupid pessimistic voice at the back of his mind supplied unhelpfully.
Shut up.
"You never did tell me what that is." Arlynn said, suddenly appearing in front of Wally.
"Yeah I did." Wally replied.
"No you didn't," Arlynn insisted, "You only told me that it wasn't important."
"It's not."
"That's not my question." Arlynn replied.
Gee, was she sure pushy...
"It's a paternity test." Wally answered.
Arlynn gave him an unimpressed look, "Really? Did the words on the box give it away? I meant what's a putter-nity test, Wally."
"Paternity." Wally corrected once again.
"Will you just tell me please?" Arlynn said, annoyed.
"Fine. It's...a test." Wally said evasively.
Arlynn glared at the man, "I will bite you." she threatened. For the briefest moment, Wally was suddenly reminded of a certain fiery blonde archer. Then the moment passed, and a blonde haired, green eyed four year old was left in it's wake. Stop that, West. They're nothing alike.
"Why do you wanna know?" Wally asked.
"Because you don't want me to know." Arlynn replied as if it were the most obvious thing in the world.
Wally shrugged, "Tough luck, kid."
Arlynn huffed and walked over to the couch, where a now only partially damp Fluffy sat. She climbed onto the piece of furniture to sit next to the toy before running her fingers through her hair as a makeshift comb.
Wally opened the box, taking out and reading the instructions.
"Huh? That's it?" he muttered to himself. With a shrug, he filled out the required paperwork, and took out the swabs, swabbing the inside of his cheek three times and placing it into a labeled envelope.
"Come here real quick, Arlynn." he said.
Arlynn who was watching him intently, raised an eyebrow, "Why?"
"Just do it."
Arlynn complied and to Wally's surprise didn't protest too much as he repeated the same actions with her.
"This is so stupid." Wally grumbled for the nth time as he placed the swabs inside of Arlynn's labelled envelope.
"Then why are you doing it?" Arlynn inquired.
That took Wally for a pause. Why was he doing this? To disprove some random claim from some probably random woman about a random kid? To make it easier on himself that the kid held no blood relation to him when he inevitably had to send her away? Wally mentally shook himself. It would do him no good to dwell on any of that right now.
Wally did his best to relieve the tension that had built up in his frame as he shrugged-a cheapskate way of getting out of answering the child's question.
Arlynn thankfully didn't push. As Wally reread the information sheet, skimming for where to send the data and when he would get the results, Arlynn piped up once more.
"So are you going to tell what a patnernee test is now?" she asked.
Wally didn't bother to correct her this time as he continued reading, "You know, kid, there's a line between persistent and annoying and you're thinning it very quickly."
"Well maybe if you told me then I'd leave the line alone." Arlynn replied.
"Well maybe if you'd shut up we wouldn't have to worry about it at all." Wally retorted.
Arlynn huffed-a irritated tick that Wally was just noticing she had-and hugged Fluffy tightly to her chest.
"Hmph. Grouchy old man..." she muttered just loud enough for Wally to hear.
Wally's eye twitched but he gave no otherwise outward reaction to the jab. He read silently for a few more moments until-"THREE TO FIVE DAYS?!"
Arlynn jumped at his sudden outburst, "Why are you yelling?"
"It says that the results could take a minimum of three friggin' days to come in!"
"Um...okay. And that's...bad?"
"Yes, it's bad I-!" Wally pinched the bridge of his nose, "The hell am I supposed to do with you until the results get in?"
Arlynn suddenly got the distinct feeling that Wally was ranting more to himself than her, but nonetheless gave him an answer.
"Um...I dunno." Okay, maybe it was more of an unhelpful comment than it was an answer.
"Exactly! And you know what? I don't either, Arlynn! And I have school and a girlfriend and-" Wally seemed to deflate in an instant, "My life is a shi- crap load of crap right now."
If there was one thing that Arlynn hated, it was confusion. The feeling of being clueless as to what was going on, or why it was happening. However, she was quickly coming to learn to get acquainted with the feeling so long as she knew Wally. She stared at the clearly upset man, unsure of what to say or what even ticked him off in the first place. Briefly, she contemplated sitting quietly, letting the man stew in his own emotions that Arlynn had no hope of understanding. But that would be mean, her conscience stubbornly insisted. Sometimes when Arlynn threw a tantrum and Mommy got really mad, she would just ignore her and that to Arlynn was the very worst feeling in the world.
...And probably why she hadn't thrown a tantrum since she was three.
Going back to the topic, Arlynn knew she had to say something. So she said the first comforting thing that came to her mind, something that Mommy would say whenever Arlynn got real sad, like that time she dropped her ice cream or when she lost one of her most favorite toys earlier in the year.
"Sorry..." Arlynn did her best to make her apology sound as genuine and sincere as possible, even if she really wasn't because Wally looked like he really, really needed it right then. Plus, something gave Arlynn the sneaking suspicion that she was the root of whatever Wally's problems were and that alone made her feel bad, if only slightly.
Wally looked at the girl, his gaze filled with an emotion Arlynn couldn't identify and...guilt? Once again Arlynn found herself frustrated with her own confusion and wondered briefly if that was normal.
"It's not your fault, kid," he said with a sigh, "I was just really hoping I could deal with this on my own."
Deal with what? Arlynn wanted to ask, but she wisely remained silent. See? She could be tactful when she wanted to be.
"On your own?" she asked instead because that was a harmless enough question, right?
"Well, yeah. I can't afford to ditch classes and it's not like you can just stay here alone until I get back."
And there it was again, school, classes. Wally had mentioned it a couple of times now and Arlynn was growing more and more curious. So she asked the question that had been on her mind for a while.
"Aren't you too old to go to school?"
The question wasn't intended to be a jab at Wally's age but rather a curious one. Arlynn had been to school before-well, Kindergarten anyway- and everyone there was pretty young. Even the bigger kids, like the fourth and fifth graders didn't look nearly as old as Wally was.
Wally's lips twitched into a small, amused smile at the question, "School never ends, kid."
Arlynn looked absolutely horrified at that, "Like never ever?"
Wally had to fight to hold back a short laugh, "Well, I guess you could drop out after high school and work at a gas station or something like that. Or you could become Amish, they stop going to school after like, the eight grade to "live off the land" or whatever it is they do."
"What's a Amish?"
"People who insist on living in the 19th century. You know, no TV, no phones or other electronics, stuff like that. I think it's for religion or something, I don't know."
"That sounds terrible."
"Well it isn't the lifestyle I'd choose, that's for sure."
Arlynn nodded silently in agreement and belatedly, Wally realized that they had gotten completely off topic. How this girl had managed to effortlessly distract him from his current crap ton of problems he had no idea how to deal with, Wally didn't know. Though strangely enough, he didn't seem to mind it too much.
"Hey, Wally?"
He blinked out of his stupor before replying, "What?"
Arlynn hesitated briefly before speaking, "Are you okay?" she asked.
Wally blinked again. He had not been expecting that. Arlynn had asked the question before but never like this, never with as much sincerity and concern dripping from her tone. Concern for a 21 year old man that should've been able to deal with his own messes without getting a child not even half his age involved.To know that he was the one eliciting such emotions from the girl made him feel even crappier than he already felt.
Pushing his own inner turmoil to the side, Wally feigned confusion at Arlynn's question.
"Why wouldn't I be?" he deflected.
"I dunno..." Arlynn trailed off, feeling silly for even asking the question.
Sensing her embarrassment, Wally reached out a hand to ruffle her already messy hair, "Don't worry about me."
Arlynn pushed his hand away, "I wasn't!" she protested, "Anyway, I'm hungry."
And chapter five is a wrap! I really need to come up with some better chapter names.