Hey! Seems like some of you guys like this fic based on the first chapters so I'm posting the second! I have the third chapter already mostly written so I'll be finishing that up, then I'll start working on the fourth and hopefully get through most of it before I post the third chapter. But I'm glad you're liking this story!
This story, for me, is actually one of my better works of writing as a whole so I hope you guys think so too and like where ever I go with the plot. Thank you!
I don't own Young Justice.
Wally began to stir from his slumber, and he could already feel the morning eye crust flaking off as he blinked his blurry vision away. He sat up at the empty feeling in his stomach, and the smell of syrup wafting through the mountain. He sprung to his feet, disregarding the fact that he was still only in his oversized red t-shirt and orange and yellow plaid boxers, he ran out the door towards the smell. He skidded into the room to find that M'gann was already putting the pancakes on plates, and the Boy Wonder himself was sitting on one of the stools, his computer in front of him. Robin was already dressed. He was wearing a dark blue t-shirt that clung to him just right, his black skinny jeans (that were a great pleasure to the eye), his sunglasses, and his usual black converse. His sweatshirt and leather jacket were draped over the couch.
Wally only then realized that he just got up, and he definitely looked that way too. Wally had to hold back a blush as he felt a breeze go by his legs, I am most definitely still in only my boxers... Wally thought to himself. Then his thoughts were interrupted by Robin cackling.
"Wow, you must really be hungry if you were willing to disregard getting dressed, and just come in here, in only a t-shirt and boxers," Robin said smiling at his friend. Wally just laughed a little too.
"Yeah, well you know, I really love food," Wally said trying to brush this off, acting like he had no insecurities whatsoever about his best friend seeing him in his boxers.
That's right, he was more embarrassed that Robin was seeing him in his boxers, than M'gann, who is a girl. Why? Well, just because Wallace West, and Kid Flash alike, both had a majorly huge crush on the Boy Wonder, and Richard Grayson alike (yes, he does know Robin's secret ID).
"It doesn't matter," M'gann laughed, "how about some pancakes?" she said, snapping Wally out of his daze. Wally just nodded vigorously and sat next to Robin, trying to brush off the awkward. But sitting so close to Robin only made him feel more flustered, because now their legs were touching. Wally's bare one, against Robin's jeaned one. But Wally tried to ignored this, as M'gann set a huge stack of pancakes in front of him, leaving the bottle of syrup within his grasp. Wally took the hint, and began to drown his stack of fluffy pancakes in the sugar saturated molasses. Robin just rolled his eyes and went back to his pancakes, while M'gann just went back to the stove to make more.
The rest of the team woke up minutes later, first Kaldur, then Artemis. Wally asked M'gann where Superboy was, and she just said he was in the training room, and that he already had some pancakes. Artemis laughed at Wally for the fact that he was in his boxers, he just stuck his tongue out at her, and went back to eating his pancakes.
The rest of the morning went like so, they all went about their routines, then training (Wally got dressed for that), then M'gann suggested that they all go out and see "the sights" because they would be having no missions for the weekend. They all agreed and got ready.
Robin was already dressed, and it was kind of cold, so he slipped on his blue sweatshirt and put on his leather jacket over it. He sat down on the couch and began going over some files. He couldn't get the image of Wally in his boxers out of his head though, and believe me, those boxers left very little to the imagination. He also couldn't help but think about just how cute Wally was about it, getting all flustered, and how whenever he would pout, he would look like a puppy, and how he...
"Hey Dickie!" Robin almost jumped out of his skin, Reggy appearing next to him, sitting uncomfortably close. Robin was just trying to calm himself down from sudden shock.
"You scared the shit out of me, Reggy." Reggy just laughed then smiled more at Robin's comment.
"Oh, so you swear? Sexy." Robin just grumbled something under his breath, he got up, putting his computer away. He made his way back to the island, and sat down. Reggy walked over to him and sat next to him. "So, you gonna talk to me at all today my sweet?" Reggy asked, trying to sound innocent. Robin could swear Reggy was the only person who could turn every single sentence into a flirtation.
"No," Robin grumbled as quietly as he could. He knew that his entire team were each in their rooms, getting ready, and he already risked a lot just getting startled by Reggy, also just plain talking to him.
"Awh, come on! Can't you just ditch the team just this once, and spend the day with me?" Reggy begged. Robin just looked over at him and sighed.
"No, because no one can see you, you know that, and everytime I talk to you when I'm not alone, I look crazy," Robin growled out as low as he could. "And, no because I already spend nearly every second with you now." Reggy just pouted and sighed.
"Yeah, well usually there are other people around and stuff so it doesn't really count. So why can't we just be alone in your room at the manor, then you can talk to me, and we'll be, you know, alone, just the two of us, in a giant bedroom..." Robin looked over at his like he was crazy. "What?" Reggy questioned. Robin looked around before replying.
"You do realize you're dead, right? And that I'm not? Plus, you know that I like you as a friend, and it's not even like we could do anything regardless," Robin said in hushed tones. Reggy's eyes visibly brightened.
"So, what you're saying is, that if we could do something, we would?" Robin just looked at Reggy, bewildered.
"No! That's not what I said, you heard me say I like you as a friend! Heck, barely even that at this rate! And nothing more!" Robin yelled while whispering at the same time. Reggy just looked at little stunned, and hurt. He cast his gaze down, and before Robin could say anything else, he disappeared. Well I never thought I would actually do that anytime soon, guess I'm not as nice as I thought. Then again, I shouldn't have to listen to his unwanted flirtations all the time anyway. He doesn't really have the right to be mad at me for it... but I still shouldn't have been so...
"Hey Robin, who were you talking to?" Artemis asked as she walked in the room.
"... Absolutely no one."
The team were all walking down town, looking at shops and things. Wally kept insisting on stopping for food, and they all decided by that time that they were all a little hungry. So they stopped at a little place called the Bay Breeze Café. They all picked a table and ordered. Wally pretty much ordered the menu (that includes all kinds of cake and ever hot chocolate known to man), while Artemis just ordered some black coffee and a blueberry muffin, Kaldur ordered some earl gray tea and a bagel with cream cheese, M'gann ordered some lemonade (despite the fall season) and a strawberry muffin, Superboy got water and a plain bagel, and Robin decided on mint hot chocolate and a pistachio muffin.
They all chatted while eating, Artemis trying to restrain herself from making a comment about Wally's eating habits. Everything was pretty good. Until Robin heard a woman asking for help.
He looked over while the rest of the team were still talking, and he saw the women leaning over tables, asking if they could help her, if they could see her. That's when Robin realized that this woman was dead. She looked in her about mid to late 40's, she had dirty blonde and gray shoulder length hair, and she was dressed for the season. She was wearing a brown wool jacket, underneath that she had on a flower patterned sweater, that's main colors were yellow, and orange. She was also wearing a pair of light brown khakis, and she had brown leather boots on that went up to her ankle, and zipped up from the side.
Robin looked as she asked if people could see her, then she noticed Robin looking at her, and made eye contact. Robin quickly looked back to the team, and he could see the woman coming over to him at the corner of his eye.
"You can see me!" she practically shouted into Robin's ear, Robin only flinched slightly. He tried to wait for a moment when they (the team) were all talking to one and other and wouldn't notice him looking at "nothing."
"I know you can, I saw you!" Robin, when everyone was turned away, looked over at her and nodded. She smiled super bright, and was about to tell him her life story when-
"I'm gonna go to the bathroom, be back in a sec," Robin said to his team louder than necessary, they nodded, and he stood up and shuffled for the bathroom, trying to make sure the woman was following him. He walked into the men's room and checked to see if anyone was around, there was no one. Luckily the woman followed him into the bathroom without hesitation, he was half expecting her to ask him if they could talk anywhere but the men's room. Robin turned to face her, and she looked at him to say something.
"So, you said you needed help. Died recently I guess, what's your name?" Robin said after a small awkward silence. The woman just looked a little startled and said,
"Oh, my name's Ellen, and, um, yes, I have some, um, how do I put this...uh..."
"Unfinished business?" Robin finished for her.
"Yes! That's it!" Robin was now just surprised that she was cutting straight to the point. Most ghosts asked for meaning, or why he was the only one who could see them, or what they were supposed to do now.
"What is your 'unfinished business' then?" Robin asked her.
"I need you to tell my daughter that I have a hidden college fund account for her that I never told anyone about." Robin looked slightly bewildered.
"That's it?" Robin asked. She nodded.
"Yep, My address is 5 Spruce Road, it's in Portland, my house should be fairly easy to spot." Robin nodded. "When you get there, just ask for Kelly." Robin nodded again, and she smiled. She turned suddenly, and smiled even brighter.
"Is that..." She pointed to an empty space, Robin could only assume what she was seeing.
"The light? Yep, and you should go into it, I'll get that message to your daughter." The woman smiled, and she stepped forward, and disappeared. Robin sighed, and left the men's room. He was just happily surprised by how little he had to do for her.
Usually it takes him about 20 minutes to get the person to understand what's going on, and even longer for them to finally get to their point. But Robin could only guess that she probably died peacefully, therefore leaving her with no anger. So she only cared about getting her small message across, and Robin just couldn't wait to see the odd reactions on this woman's daughter's face when he told her that he just 'happened to know that her deceased mother kept a hidden college fund for her that no one else knew about besides her and obviously a strange 15 year old that they had never met before in their life'. Robin shrugged that off, he was used to doing this sort of thing by now. So, he went back over to their table and sat back in his spot next to Wally.
"Dude, what took you so long?" Wally asked looking at him like he had just spent an hour in there. Artemis then commented,
"Yeah, it's been like," she looked down at her watch, "5 minutes. I thought boy's pee'd fast" Robin just shrugged at them, he didn't realize that the time he'd taken contemplating the short amount of time this woman took to get to her point made his visit to the bathroom longer than anticipated.
"I wasn't just going to the bathroom. I had to call Batman about a case we're working on." Yeah, that works, Robin thought. His team shrugged, and took the excuse.
They finished eating in peace, no more ghosts, no Reggy. Things were pretty good.
They left the café soon after, and headed back towards the cave, a successful outing in their books. A really successful outing in Robin's too, considering he didn't get caught helping that woman. But now he has to go talk to that woman's daughter. He'd have to deal with the rest of the family too, but he was happy to help.
So, Robin gave the team a quick goodbye, using the excuse "bat stuff", he told Bruce that he was going to Barbra's (he also mentioned to Babs to cover for him) and he sped away on one of his civilian motorcycles towards 5 Spruce Road Portland.
Upon arriving in Portland, the day had turned down an even more cold and moist path than earlier, yet it didn't feel dreary like Gotham, just misty and very fall like. Robin kept his sunglasses firmly in place as not to be recognized, and he pulled slowly down Spruce Road. He kept looking from house to house, waiting to see the number 5 on any of the mailboxes. Luckily the house was fairly easy to spot (just like the woman said) because it was not only on the side of their mailbox, but they had a stone in the lawn that said 5 Spruce Road.
Robin slowed and parked on the street next to the house. It was a medium community sized house that was entirely painted a purple gray color. Robin hopped off his bike, setting his helmet on the handlebar, and walked up the long drive way toward the front door.
Even though this wasn't Robin's first time going to a complete strangers family telling them something either entirely random that their deceased loved one wanted them to know, or doing the whole "s/he's here with us and s/he want's you to know.." blah blah blah thing, it never takes away the nervousness that he'll just embarrass himself in front of these people and then get the police called on him. But he couldn't fret now that he was already standing on their porch.
Robin reached up to his face, pushing his sunglasses up a bit further, and he rung the doorbell. He only had to wait about 3 seconds before hearing a set of heavy footsteps coming down a set of hardwood stairs, approaching the door. He could count down to when the door would finally open, and when it did behind it revealed a tall average weighted brunet man who was currently dressed in a black shirt and dark jeans. He looked like he hadn't been sleeping much, and he had kind type of loneliness in his eyes.
"Yes?" the man asked as he stared down at Robin. Robin was shaken from his thoughts, and he looked up at them man, trying to think of something to say.
"Um, yeah, may I speak to your daughter Kelly?" Robin asked, trying to fit his words together. The man looked a bit confused, but the kindness was still there.
"Uh, sure. What exactly is this about, before I get her?" he asked. A perfectly reasonable question, and Robin didn't have a perfectly reasonable answer, so he just went with as much truth as possible.
"It's about your deceased wife, Ellen. My condolences, by the way." Robin saw the shock on the man's face, and he was just praying to god right now that he wasn't at the wrong house, otherwise this would look very strange.
"Oh, uh, I see... Um... Have we met anywhere before?" the man asked another perfectly reasonable question.
"Uh, no. But I met your wife once before at the Bay Breeze Café," Robin went with. He knew that Ellen must've been to the café before, otherwise she wouldn't have been there in the first place.
"Oh, really? That makes more sense, she loved going there after work. Did you meet her there with Kelly?"
"Uh, yeah. Yeah, and I just need to talk to her, so..." Robin looked at his feet, then back at the man.
"Of course." The original depressing warmth was back in his eyes, replacing the confusion. "I'll go get her and leave you to it." The man went back into the house and went calling for his daughter. Luckily the man would most likely leave him to talk to Kelly alone because Robin never did look too much like any sort of threat at all.
"Yes?" Now Robin heard a fainter, higher voice he could only assume was Kelly. Robin looked up, meeting the eye's of a 16 or 17 year old girl with flowing dirty blonde hair. She was only about an inch taller than Robin, and she was wearing a blue softball uniform. Robin took an intake of breath, and began his tale, hoping to get this over with with a minimal amount of questions he couldn't answer asked.
"Um, hi, my name's Robin, and, uh, I have a message from your mother, Ellen." Kelly looked very shocked at what she was hearing. She didn't know what to say at first.
"Is this a joke?" Robin looked slightly offended, yet not totally unprepared for a question like that, and he continued.
"No, of course not. I, um, just met your mother once and she told me this, and I thought it best to tell you." Kelly nodded, going along with his tale for only the time being.
"So...?" Robin took another breath.
"So, um, she told me, to tell you, that in the event she couldn't tell you this herself, that she has a hidden college fund account for you that only she knew about," Robin slightly rambled out, now waiting for a response. Kelly was just blank faced for a moment before replying.
"That does sound like something my mom would do, but this little story you're telling has a lot of holes, and I don't feel like letting you fill them. So, bye." She started to close the door on him, when he stopped her by saying,
"Just check all that accounts under her name, and see if there are any hidden ones, okay?" Robin said politely. Kelly hesitantly nodded, and shut the door even more slowly this time. Robin just sighed, and walked back across the dew covered grass to his bike.
As he was getting his helmet on, he noticed a face looking at his through one of the upstairs windows, it was Kelly. She was looking at him almost intensely, and Robin could tell that she was just hoping that he didn't just lie to her, that there was some truth to what he said. Just something that could possibly connect her to her mother again, something that Robin always hoped for. She wouldn't be disappointed.
She then shut the curtains in her window, and Robin left 5 Spruce Road Portland for hopefully the last time.
"When do you think Rob will be back?" Wally asked Artemis as he sped through out the kitchen, searching for something to eat. Artemis rolled her eyes at his antics, and scoffed.
"I don't know, Kid Idiot. He'll probably be back in no time, but I can't really tell you," she said as she continued to watch him go back and forth between cabinets, and the fridge. He was already holding a loaf of bread, peanut butter, jelly, jam, fluff, bananas, an apple, a jug of milk, and a plate. For some reason he wouldn't put the items down on the counter until he found whatever else it was that he was looking for, which Artemis thought was stupid. But she was sort of concerned as to what the speedster was going to do with everything; besides making a super sandwich. Artemis continued to watch as Wally sped around the room, when she heard the sound of Red Tornado opening the doors to the garage.
Artemis looked back over to the kitchen to tell Wally that Robin was back, but he had already disappeared, leaving a pile of food on the counter next to his plate.
"Hey, Rob! What took you so long to get back?" Wally practically shouted as Robin set his helmet down on the seat of his bike. He looked over at Wally and smiled, obviously glad to see him.
Robin was just about to tell Wally that he got caught in traffic, when Wally continued.
"Where'd you go anyway?" Wally was now standing directly in front of him, smiling; yet he was still waiting for his answer. Robin wasn't expecting the question, even though he should have, so it took a moment for him to gather his thoughts.
"Uh, I was just out with Bats, like I told you before I left," Robin said, hoping that would get him off. It didn't though.
"Well, yeah, I know that. But, I meant, like, where did you go, go?" Wally explained himself, and Robin took a small moment to think up something good for the speedster.
"We were just wandering Gotham, looking for evidence as to where, uh, Scarecrow, is right now," Robin said as smoothly as possible. He always hated lying to Wally, that was part of the reason he told Wally his secret ID.
"Oh, 'kay," Wally brushed everything off, and smiled. "I was just about to make myself a snack, if you wanted anything?" They were walking back towards the kitchen, and Wally saw Artemis standing there still.
"No thanks Wals, hey Artemis," Robin said as he moved into the kitchen, and sat down on one of the stools. Artemis responded with a 'hey' back, and Wally went back to making whatever it was that he was making. Artemis rolled her eyes again, and sat next to Robin.
"So, how was 'bat stuff', fun?" Artemis asked, putting air quotes around bat stuff, as if she wasn't entirely convinced by his means of leaving the mountain. Robin just shrugged.
"Ya know, batty and stuffy; as usual," Robin replied with a smirk. Artemis scoffed lightly, and went back to watching the speedster as he smeared all manner of condiments on pieces of bread. Robin watched too.
"You sure you don't want anything?" Wally asked again. Robin just shook his head.
"Nah, I've had my fill of about everything for today." Wally just gave him a confused look, along with Artemis, and shrugged it off.
"Well, your loss."
They chatted for about a good ten minutes while Wally ate his strange sandwich contraption, then M'gann and Superboy came back from wherever it was they were.
"Hey M'gann," Robin said, waving at her.
"Hi guys!" she replied cheerily back. Wally looked over at her, she was clinging to Superboy and looking at him in a lovey-dovey way. Wally was just about to flirt with M'gann as usual, despite her obvious relationship with Superboy, but he looked back over at Robin and felt he really didn't need to play the flirtatious straight guy right now. But that didn't mean he was going to start flirting with Robin, no matter how much he wanted to, he knew that he'd just be opening himself up for awkward silences and rejection.
"What have you two been up to lately?" Artemis asked suggestively, while wiggling her eyebrows a bit. M'gann blushed, Robin laughed, and Superboy looked confused, while Wally was just plain not paying attention.
"Nothing much, we were just on the beach for a bit," M'gann said awkwardly blushing, as she clung a little bit more to Superboy, smiling. Artemis had a mischievous sparkle in her eyes, and she hummed a bit.
"I see, was that all you two were doing, while you were alone; together, on the beach?" she asked while emphasizing her thoughts on what they were really doing down on the beach. If it's possible, M'gann's blush grew even deeper, and Robin had to stifle his snickering. Even Superboy was shifting a bit uncomfortably.
"Well..." M'gann searched for words she would never find, and Robin couldn't take it anymore.
"Don't worry Megs, we know about you and Supes here," Robin said, and Artemis shot him a glare; she was hoping that she could hold this out for as long as possible.
"Oh, really? Were we that obvious?" she asked, and Robin burst out laughing with Artemis close behind.
"Ob-obvious?! M'gann, we saw it before you did!" Artemis said in between laughing at the couples awkwardness. Then, even M'gann couldn't help but giggle at the fact that she even thought that it was a secret. Then they were all laughing, even Superboy was smiling because his girlfriend was smiling.
But Wally wasn't laughing, he was too caught up watching Robin laugh. Him smiling, giggling to his heart's content, his eyes lighting up; you could even see it behind the sunglasses. Wally was smiling like an idiot, and no one questioned it; considering they were all laughing and smiling like idiots. He just wasn't smiling for the same reason.
"Well, looks like all your flirting has gotten you no where, and never will for that matter," Artemis said, calming from her laughter along with everyone else. But Wally did notice he was still staring at Robin.
"Wally?" Artemis asked again, trying to get his attention, he hummed and looked over at her, coming out of his trance.
"Huh?" he asked, looking at the archer. Now everyone was looking at him. Including Robin, who, for some reason, didn't even notice Wally staring at him before.
"I said something to you, and you just kept smiling like an idiot looking at the Boy Wonder here," Artemis said, and Robin looked at Wally, cocking a thin black eyebrow. Wally now felt the spotlight hit him, and he felt a blush creep up on him, consuming his cheeks, masking his freckles in red. Wally wasn't sure what to say now, considering he could just tell them that he was staring at his best friend for reasons not so "friend-like". He especially couldn't say that when said best friend was staring at him intensely in confusion.
"Uh, I was just laughing with you guys and got distracted by, uh, my food!" Wally said frantically, hoping that they'd all buy it. M'gann and Superboy went with it, while Artemis couldn't say it wasn't likely (he really loves his food), but Robin could see straight through that little white lie.
"Alright, we'll go with that, since no one can deny your eating habits," Artemis said, settling the subject to rest. Wally grinned at the fact his little lie worked, and went back to eating his snack. While M'gann and Superboy went over to the couch to sit and watch TV for a bit, and Artemis left to go train for a bit. But Robin remained at the counter, Wally noticed this immediately, along with the look the boy wonder was giving him.
"What?" Wally asked, and he finished the last of his sandwich. Robin just tilted his head and gave him a look that said 'I-can-see-straight-through-that-lie-you-tried-to-sell'. Wally gulped.
"Mind telling me what you were really smiling like an idiot about?" Robin said, expecting a truthful answer this time. Wally just looked like a deer caught in headlights. What am I supposed to say? 'Oh, I was just admiring how gorgeous you are, wanna go out?' He'll probably hit me! Wally screamed at himself. Robin could see his distress, and sighed.
"It's fine Wally, I can tell that you probably don't want to say." Understatement of the year, Wally thought, but Robin continued. "But whatever it is, it caused a problem in your pants." What?, then Wally looked down and saw what Robin was referring to, and he most definitely wasn't talking about the jelly stain on his pant leg either. No, he was referring to the newly created bulge coming from his crotch.
Wally's face flushed bright red, and Robin giggled a bit, only causing the problem to grow in size. So, Wally did the only thing he saw fit; he booked it out of the kitchen and to his room as fast as possible. Leaving Robin having to stop himself from laughing. Oh, but he wouldn't be laughing if he knew he was the cause of the problem.
Robin calmed himself down at the counter as he noticed something in the corner of his eye.
"Where've you been Reggy?" Robin asked, and Reggy appeared sitting by his side. Robin sighed, and looked at him.
"Out and about, you know..." Reggy said after a bout of silence. Robin then looked down, and sighed again.
"I'm sorry about what I said earlier," Reggy nodded, a small smile came to his features, and Robin continued. "But you have to realize that not only am I your friend, and that's that, and you have to come to grips with the fact that you're dead. Even if you can talk to me whenever because I can see you, that doesn't mean that you're alive. Do you understand?" Reggy looked down at his hands, and nodded. Robin let a smile overcome him, and he nudged the stool Reggy was materialized on, and he looked up.
"I understand. I just wish I had tried to do more when I was alive, you know, like... well yeah. That's all," Reggy said solemnly.
"Yeah, me too."
I hope you guys liked this chapter! I'm getting ready, leading you into the conflict of the story with these first two and the next chapter just so you know.
Thank you for reading! I hope you guys will continue to follow this story and like where I go with it! ;)
Review!
