A Brand New Light

Chapter 7: A brand new level of embarrassment

As Barry pulled onto the high way everyone unbuckled their seatbelt, the new comers following the examples of the others. Dinah rolled down their window and propped her feet up on Oliver's lap and got out some green nail polish, it was the one time of the year where she could actually enjoy her nails being painted. Hal reclined his seat and closed his eyes as he stretched. He had driven for a whole day and was up all night the day before it, so he was ready for some sleep. Roy had turned around and started talking to Jade, he knew she was nervous about making a good impression. Some hours passed before Hal awoke to a growl. Looking into the back he saw the other adults were amused, Zatanna, Kaldur, Conner, and M'gaan were looking confused, Jade looked exasperated, and Tim hadn't looked up from his tablet.

"She's been flirting with Wally for the last hour." Barry whispered to him and he looked at Barry with a mixture of shock and horror before looking back. This was not going to end well, and Wally looked like he was getting extremely uncomfortable. That was when Tim decided to ask his question.

"Artemis, why are you hitting on my brother's fiancé?" The team looked at him as he raised startling blue eyes up from his tablet.

"Fiancé? Wally's engaged?!" Artemis looked at the red head that had gone red with embarrassment. Carefully Dick climbed onto Wally's lap, wrapped his arms around Wally's neck and kissed him fiercely while raising his right hand in Artemis' direction. On his ring finger was a silver band with a red, yellow, black, and blue stones, his left hand grasped the chain around Wally's neck to show a matching ring. Hal smiled before looking at Barry, he noticed Barry's grip was tight and a light flush on his face.

"Alright Dick, give the other speedsters a break." Hal chastised lightly. Dick broke the kiss and leaned his head on Wally's shoulder, cold eyes glaring at Artemis.

"But how can you be engaged already, you don't even know if you would still want to be together later in life." Artemis protested.

"They've been engaged since Wally was ten and Dick was eight. It was their idea, they didn't ever want to be apart. So they proposed to each other then." Bruce explained not looking up from his book. "They've been together ever since Wally was seven and Dick was five. Their feelings have not diminished in the least since then." Wally hugged Dick close causing the raven haired one to smile. They drove all day before they entered the outskirts of Central City. There Barry pulled up to a medium sized house.

"This is where we will spend the night before we finish the ride down to Florida."

Barry parked the car and they all climbed out.

"Where are we?"

"Wally's Godfather's house." Jay answered Zatanna's question. The front door opened and Leonard Snart walked out.

"Captain Cold is his Godfather?" Artemis was baffled.

"We have a very strong connection to our villians here." Barry said as he waved hello to Leonard.

"Lisa, they're here." Leonard called into the house and everyone got out of the van and Conner helped Wally into his chair and they all went inside to see a huge table laid out with a bounty of food. The other heroes looked at it with worry.

"Don't worry you goody two shoes, it wasn't stolen or paid with stolen money." Leonard snorted and wheeled Wally to the left of the head of the table. They all sat down and began eating all the food. Half way through Barry got up and came back with a baseball cap on, it was bulging out oddly but everyone was distracted by a glowing glass gazebo that was visible from the dining room.

"What is that?" Tim asked, folding his napkin on his plate. He was looking at the glowing gazebo.

"The Palace of the Rogue Princess. You'll be staying there tonight, it is already prepared for your arrival."

"The rogues have a princess?" Wally blushed at M'gaan's question.

"Yes, they do, and now that he's done, I'll take Wally to go get ready for bed." Lisa stood up and wheeled Wally away, his face red as his uncle's hero suit. Leonard got up and looked at them.

"I'll show you into the Palace." Everyone got up and followed him outside to the glass covered gazebo. They walked inside and gasped, the place was beautiful. There were multiple breeds of flowers covering the metal poles in between the glass panes. There were queen size beds at the base of every pane done up in a particular flower theme. The one in the middle was gorgeous. It was a king size done the pattern of roses, rose sheer curtains were pulled back and a beautiful painting of a red headed princess was hung above the bed. In fact there were many paintings of the same person all around the room. There was one of her on a perch in a bird cage, one of her cupping a robin in her hands with a gentle smile, one of her looking up while kneeling on a bird cage floor in front of the moon, and several in floral themes. The one above the regal like bed was of the princess and a blonde queen like person.

"Who is this princess?" Artemis asked. "And is she dangerous?" Tim looked at all the pictures closely. Bruce smiled at his newest son.

"Tim?"

"These paintings, the eye color shifts, as if the artist can't get the right shade of green. There is only one person I have seen with eyes like that." They turned and Lisa wheeled in the princess in the picture.

"Alright darling, I will leave you in the capable hands of your prince." The girl looked up at her with a blush and smile. Long red hair was pooled at the small waist and green eyes glittered. She was wearing a beautiful long baby blue silk sleeping gown with ribbons of green around the neck and wrists.

"Wally, he's the princess." Tim stated and everyone looked at the long haired girl.

"Wally?!" The red head waved at them shyly.

"It's a long story." He said and smiled as Bruce lifted him out of the chair and placed on the king sized bed.

"Barry, you know the rules." Lisa said as she sharply eyed the flinching man.

"Yeah, I know." Hal looked at Barry.

"What rules?"

"Since Wally and I are connected the most to the speed force, there are repercussions to it. Like accelerated growth of hair, accelerated body functions, increased stamina, and the like. Wally's and my hair grows out rapidly after a few days and reaches down to a certain length each time. Wally's is more manageable than mine. I've earned the nickname Queen Rapunzel with mine." Barry then lifted the hat off to show an extremely complex braid. "We're not allowed to cut our hair until we are about to leave." Barry started to undo the braid and the blonde locks continued to flow down to the ground until there was a medium sized pool at his feet. Everyone gasped.

"Wow Barry, you really do look like Rapunzel." Barry blushed and sat down on the bed left to the king size and Hal joined him. Roy pulled Jade to the one next to that one, then Dinah and Oliver took the bed next to theirs. Conner looked at Tim as the others paired off; Kaldur with M'gaan, Zatanna with Artemis, Jay with his wife, Dick crawled onto the king size with Wally and Bruce paired off with Max.

"Tim, would you like to bunk with me?" The clone was still shy with relations outside of his small family and the team. Deep blue eyes looked at him, and for the life of him he couldn't read the cerulean depths.

"Alright." The shorter bird agreed softly and walked over to the last bed and crawled into it. Conner smiled softly and let out a breath he didn't know he had been holding. Barry brushed out the long blond hair with difficulty before huffing and putting down the brush in irritability. Hal turned to him with a confused and slightly apprehensive.

"Want some help?" Barry turned to him with a relieved look.

"Please, this is a pain." Hal sat up and moved over to the blond. He leaned over the bed and scooped up the long blond locks, marveling at how silky they were before picking up the brush and brushing out a section of the long hair.

"I never knew about this, how come you never told me?"

"It was embarrassing, I get made fun of enough by the Rouges for being feminine. Unfortunately it was ill timed this time, usually I can cut my hair before we get here." Hal hummed as he moved on to the next section of hair.

"And knowing you, you donate everything that is chopped off don't you?" Barry chuckled and nodded slightly. Out of the corner of his eye he saw Roy slip his shorts off the side of the bed before both of them moved to the center of the bed and the covers pulled up to their necks. He had never seen Roy so content, he really hoped this woman didn't betray him. Hal finished brushing the golden hair out and noticed everyone was sound asleep, or rapidly getting there. "Let's head to bed, after we braid this, that way it's not a rat's nest in the morning." He whispered and he gently, but tightly weaved the golden locks into a simple braid. Barry laid down next to Hal and whispered his good night, and he got a soft one in return.