So this is what it felt like. To know death was looming over your head. Because there was no way for Bruce to let him live through this. And if he did, Wally would die from sheer embarrassment anyway.
He had practically confessed. Sure. In a very...convoluted way but Bruce was a detective. Was the goddamn Batman.
There was no way he wouldn't catch on to that.
Starring ahead, Wally wondered why his life turned out like this.
"You're not even trying to beat me," Dick complained while smashing the buttons of his controller.
Wally however, was just randomly pushing some of them, his mind obviously not on the game.
Dick had shown up an hour after Wally had tried to just ignore the problem at hand and had dragged him downstairs to play a game. He had promised to show up for the weekend after all.
Wally blinked as the screen declared Dick the winner.
"Look," Dick started. "If this is about me texting you to test you, I'm sorry. Okay? But Bruce is right. You can't say yes to everything."
Slowly, Wally narrowed his eyes and turned to look at Dick, the game forgotten. "You knew I wouldn't say no to you."
"True, but Bruce obviously didn't know that," Dick grinned mischievously at him.
Wally just frowned and promised himself to tell Bruce what they had graced with a new paint job. If the offer was still available.
If Bruce didn't kill him first.
He groaned and hid his face in his hands, rubbing it slightly.
"It's not about that is it?" Dick asked and scooted closer, eyes trying to see what the speedster got so worked up.
Until a long and telling "o" followed.
Wally slowly lowered his hands and glanced at Dick. Damn him and being good at deducing too. Though there was a slight chance that he had gotten the wrong idea.
"It's about what you guys talked after that, right? Of course I'm right. So let's see…," Dick murmured. He put his hand on his chin to mimic a thinking pose while he tried to imagine what his Dad and best friend could've talked about.
"You guys didn't fight too much because of that did you? I know how Bruce can be but surely it wasn't that bad."
Was Dick serious? If he and Bruce would've had a fight then Dick would probably be the first person he would have gone ranting about it to. If it wasn't too personal. Of course this was personal, but it wasn't about a fight. Though if Wally played his cards right, then he could use that as a cover up and keep Dick away from the truth.
"Hah yeah. You know. It was a bad fight."
Dick stared at Wally's face, a grin slowly forming. "Did you confess?"
If Wally was good at something, then it was getting as red as his hair. Though he might've even outdone himself this time. "What?! No! We had...had a fight. A real one. A bad one!"
"Oh Wally... Wally, Wally, Wally," Dick repeated his name and shook his head while doing so. "We both know you're a bad liar. I can smell that bluff a city away."
So what? Maybe Dick could do that. Maybe he was that bad at lying. But didn't Dick see that he was desperate? That Wally was already on the ground and deserved some ignorance? Surely they could ignore the issue at hand.
Suddenly there was an arm around his shoulders. "Look. You want Bruce's attention, maybe even want to get into his pants - something I hope you never make me say again - and that's alright."
Wally hadn't made Dick say that out loud and he certainly would've preferred if Dick had refrained from doing so. Because now he was pretty sure the skin on his face was melting off. There was only so much heat a human could take. Right?
"Are you listening to me? Trust me when I tell you that Bruce wants you too. Another thing I don't want to say out loud again." While Dick used a mocking tone, Wally could clearly hear the honesty underneath it all.
He could hear Dick was being sincere with what he said.
"You're way too optimistic about this," Wally murmured and drew circles on the controller with his thumbs.
"Am not. Just show me what you guys wrote. Then I can back up my theory with facts."
"Absolutely not." Sure it was pretty harmless. More like some kids asking each other if they liked liked each other. In hindsight it was pretty silly.
Dick held out his free hand. "Hand it over."
"Too bad I forgot it upstairs when you dragged me down."
"Too bad that you put it into your pockets when I came to drag you down."
They stared at each other. One stubborn and the other with a knowing grin.
Only for Dick to take his arm away from Wally's shoulders and turn away to look at his own phone and-
Was that his phone?
"Is that mine? You stole it!"
"Yep," Dick said while he expertly unlocked Wally's phone.
"Stop!" Wally lunged at Dick which made the other fall back and caused them to roll around. Wally tried to reach for his phone but Dick held it away from him, effectively rolling them around every time Wally managed to get too close to it.
They rolled around some more, an "Ouch!" or "Stop that!" coming from them now and then. Until someone cleared his throat somewhere.
Both froze and looked to the door. Alfred stood there, one eyebrow judgingly raised.
Wally was currently sitting on Dick's back, pushing him onto the ground and trying to reach for his phone while Dick had stretched himself as far as he could.
"Master Dick, Master Bruce requires your aid." Alfred sounded as dry as he always did. If he found their position funny, then he didn't let it show.
"Did he say that?! Get off Wally," Dick all but threw Wally off of him and suddenly stood up, straightening his clothes.
"My phone," Wally immediately held out his hand while he grabbed Dick's shoulder. There was no way he would let the other run off with it. And Dick, surprisingly, just handed it over.
"You do know that you could've gotten it with speed, right?" A wink followed Dick's statement before he turned to Alfred and left Wally to pout on his own. "So, about Bruce needing my help."
"Master Bruce did not require your help. There has been an ambush and has been placed under police protection. He cannot pursue the attacker," Alfred explained while Dick walked towards him. "It is quite unfortunate."
Alfred turned and meant to follow Dick to the Batcave when Wally cleared his throat and suddenly stood in front of him.
"Uh...did he call you from his phone?" Which probably was a weird question in this situation but Wally needed to know if Bruce was already deducing his message or if he had still some time left.
"He called from the police station. Apparently the attack also featured an EMP."
"Grea- I mean...that's..truly horrible and all. Why would they do that? Criminals these days huh?"
Wally could feel Alfred's confusion, maybe even curiosity. Probably because Wally wasn't known for being happy about destruction.
"Indeed…," followed the short reply and a nod. Alfred followed Dick after that.
Releasing the air from his lungs, Wally was grateful for the small moment of calm and quiet.
When Bruce came back Wally needed to test the waters and check out if he had managed to read his messages already.
Yes. That was what he was going to do.
As it was, it wasn't what Wally had done.
He had busied himself with this and that, had even secretly cleaned a few of the rooms to keep himself occupied for the time.
Until he heard approaching steps. Too heavy to be Alfred's and too...powerful to be Dick's. Sure, Bruce and Dick could both sneak like it was no one else's business but this person wasn't trying to sneak around.
Bracing himself, Wally had stood there and gone over mentally what he was going to say. For what clues he was going to search. To be cool headed and reasonable.
Naturally, Wally panicked when the person had been only a few more steps away from the open door.
He ran. Naturally.
Three rooms down, Wally ran face first into a wall, too preoccupied with trying to see if he was being followed.
Groaning and stumbling back, Wally placed his hands over his face and breathed through the pain.
"Ugh...stop," he whined to no one in particular.
The pain slowly ebbed away so he placed one hand on the wall to hold himself for a moment. He really hadn't been pursued. Odd. He thought that wouldn't be possible in this household.
Letting his shoulders drop, Wally turned back to the way he had been going and stopped dead in his tracks at seeing the small droplets of blood on the wall. He immediately took his hand away from the wall and saw that he had left a bloody handprint as well.
His hands were bloody. Damn.
Wally wiped his sleeve under his nose and not yet dried blood clung to it. Great. That's why his face had hurt so much.
Just great.
He needed to clean this up before someone else found this.
Without any more seconds to waste, Wally zipped through the mansion and gathered the things that he needed. Luckily for him he was fast enough so the blood wouldn't have dried too much. Though he should watch out for accidently rubbing it into the wall instead of removing it.
Wally set down his bucket with some water in it and gently tapped the wall with a wet cloth. First he needed to get the major stuff away, after that he could start with damage control.
He was almost done. Just a few more wipes here and there and no one would know.
"What are you doing?"
Wally almost rammed his face into the wall, again. Almost.
"Bruce! Nothing, just cleaning and uh...don't tell Alfred!"
"What happened to you?!"
Suddenly Bruce was in his face, a hand on his chin and tilting his head from left to right.
Right. He was still bloody and probably looked like a small horror show.
"Ah, it's alright. That happens sometimes," Wally tried to reassure Bruce. And it wasn't even a lie. In his line of work and with his powers? Yeah, running into walls was a common occurrence.
Bruce narrowed his eyes and glanced from Wally to the wall and back again. "You're avoiding me."
"What?! Me? Never! I-"
"You're trying to avoid me and ran into a wall." Bruce probably would've found this slightly amusing, if Wally's face wasn't caked in dried blood.
Hearing about someone running into a wall with high speed sounded more amusing than it was to see the result.
Wally just shut his mouth close and blushed. Not that it was visible under all that red. His hair, the blood. He was a red mess.
The following silence confirmed the theory and Bruce slowly let go of Wally's chin.
"Is there a reason to avoid me?"
"..I don't know, is there?"
Wally was walking on thin ice there. Bruce was his cryptic self like always and Wally still didn't know if Bruce had read his message.
Though based on their current interaction it didn't seem so. Which made his behavior probably very weird. Running into walls and avoiding Bruce.
"Do you...do you mind if I get cleaned up?" Because that was a reasonable request. Wally was sure of it. And not because he tried to pretend he didn't know about their recent topic.
"Not at all. I'll accompany you," Bruce nodded and started to walk past Wally, only stopping to see if Wally was actually following.
"Don't tell Alfred? About the wall I mean."
"Funny. It's my mansion but you're worried about Alfred's reaction." as funny as it might've been, Bruce only sounded vaguely amused.
Which made Wally feel guilty about several things. Ruining the wall. Ignoring the fact that it was Bruce's mansion. He felt like a douche bag.
He just was about to voice his apology, when Bruce continued talking.
"But you don't need to worry. I'll just renovate the whole room."
Wally gaped at Bruce. Renovate the whole room? Because of that? Because of him? He really was a douche, wasn't he? Ruining a whole room.
Both walked in silence then. Bruce seemed relatively calm while Wally hadn't felt this agitated in forever.
They finally reached a bathroom and Wally turned on the hot water to wash his face properly. He might even have had a small scare at seeing his own face like that if it weren't for the fact that he was used to it.
Or that his speed allowed him to look like he was used to it. Small blessings and all that.
After he cleaned his hands, he started to use them to rub the dried blood away, the water helping a great deal.
In the mirror Wally could see Bruce standing in the doorway and watching him. He immediately focused on his own reflection, instead of Bruce's.
Bending down, he finished cleaning his face and grabbed a towel to dry his face.
"About that text of yours…," Bruce suddenly said and Wally froze up.
He stared at the faucet, the towel partly hiding his face. He must've imagined Bruce talking. Really, there was no other explanation. Wally had relaxed about that. There hadn't been any clues that Bruce had….that he had read it.
Slowly he lowered the towel and turned to Bruce but he looked the same as ever. Still looking at him. Though not through the mirror this time.
"What?" If Wally just played dumb, then he could find out. Bruce would either answer with a question of his own or-
"Your message. I'm sorry I didn't reply to it right away."
If it weren't for the apology Wally might've just fallen over or done something equally embarrassing. As it was he just mildly blushed again and shook his head. "It's...it's alright. You had to...had to go to that meeting and...stuff…"
Great. Amazing. Lame. God, why was he so lame.
Bruce looked with something that might have been mirth at Wally and came closer.
The bathroom was huge, yet Wally still felt trapped between Bruce and the sink.
He continued to hold onto the towel, probably the only thing that kept Bruce away.
Not that Bruce was doing much? Though maybe Wally had just entered a higher speed. That could be possible. Blinking a few times, he checked how fast Bruce seemed to breathe and discovered that, oh, he hadn't accidentally speed up.
Bruce was, in fact, just standing there.
And staring.
Was Wally supposed to say something now? About the message?
"How'd you get away from the police so fast?" Well. That wasn't the question he had wanted to ask. But it was a good one anyway.
Bruce looked at Wally before looking down at the towel in his hands and gently took hold of it as well. "I insisted that I would be fine and they let me go. Under the condition that they escort me home. Which they did."
Ah, it was that easy to get away from the police? "And Dick?"
"Dick," Bruce started and slowly took the towel away from Wally, to place it on the sink behind him. "Is currently arresting the criminals which tried to attack me."
Awesome.
Wally had wondered about that at the back of his mind. It really hadn't been a pressing matter but his mouth had inquired about it anyway.
"About your message, Wally," Bruce started again and judging by his face he knew how nervous it made Wally. "...we don't have to talk about it. If you don't want."
He really didn't want to, but only because he didn't know what the result would be. Any possible result would be scary.
Bruce could reject him. Or worse, actually feel the same? What would happen then? And there was so much in between that was possible.
On the other hand, Wally would always question himself about this, if he walked away now.
"No...no it's alright." Maybe his voice was a bit too high pitched. Maybe.
Bruce didn't comment on it.
"So...you like like me?"
Once more Wally wanted to know if this really was happening to him or if this was some weird fever dream. Not that he ever got any fevers. But dreams. He got a lot of them.
Hearing Bruce Wayne ask in a manner similar to schoolgirl if Wally liked him was the weirdest thing.
Wally had just used that expression in his panic and his inability to phrase things in a manner that sounded alright.
He took a deep breath. "Yeah..I like you...a lot but…," Wally trailed off and stared over Bruce's shoulder. "...I just like you."
"But what?" Bruce wasn't giving anything away and if it weren't for the kind look Wally was receiving, he almost could have thought Bruce was going to make fun of him.
"I like you," Wally echoed again and looked directly at Bruce again. "Might even have a crush on you." There. That was the most adult confession he could make.
Bruce hummed, which was a weird response to a confession, and lifted his hand to cup Wally's face. The second followed soon and Bruce leaned in.
Blushing madly, Wally stood completely motionless, afraid to break the moment they were having. But Bruce kept coming closer, even tilted his head somewhat and stopped a little distance away.
"Does your nose still hurt?" It was a whisper, low and making his spine all tingly.
"No...no, just… a weird sensation." Wally couldn't focus on his nose right now. Not with Bruce's breathe on his face.
"Mhhh, good," Bruce murmured and closed the gap between them.
Their lips met and suddenly Wally knew how to move again. He pushed gently against Bruce, met his lips with his own head slightly tilted, restricted by the hands on each side of his face.
It didn't take long for tongues to suddenly meet and Wally wasn't sure who started it first.
They slid against each other, brushing along the lips only to meet again.
When they broke apart Wally's back was pressed against the sink and Bruce rested against his front.
He really didn't mind.
His blush was still strong but at least he had an answer now. Wally was pretty sure that was one heck of an answer.
"What..are we going to do now?" Because that was a legit question that people asked in this kind of situation. Right?
"We can continue to make out in this bathroom," Bruce grinned and leaned in even more. "There are more things that can be done in a bathroom." And that definitely wasn't helping the heat radiating from his face. "What we are going to do however, is find Alfred and eat something. I'm sure you didn't eat because of these messages."
Wally rolled his eyes and looked away from Bruce, which was quite a feat considering how close he was. With him being tall enough to block out most of his view.
But Bruce wasn't wrong and at the mention of food his stomach chose to growl as well.
Traitor.
"Fine," he scoffed and wiggled a bit to get out from between Bruce and the sink.
Bruce wasn't helping in any way as he let Wally slide out before actually stepping back.
Smiling now, instead of grinning, Bruce looked at Wally before turning around and walking out of the bathroom.
Wally followed immediately.