A/N: Back and ready to rock. A little tired and lackluster, but that's just finals week talking.
I do not own Young Justice or DC Comics
2 am
II.
Blood in the Carpet
"OUCH."
"Hold still," Wally says slowly, as he dabs the cuts across Roy's back with antiseptic. Roy reigns in the darker of his curses as Wally tosses the rest of their cotton-ball supply into the waste basket. There's a small mound of scarlet puffballs, slowly building up. He needs to be more careful.
"So you were saying?" Wally asks conversationally. He sounds deceptively calm, but the medical tape makes a loud riiiip as he tears it sharply from the roll. "Something about how you fell three stories onto a car?"
"Through the windshield," Roy corrects roughly.
Wally gives him a look that manages to look both deeply unimpressed and subconsciously channel Black Canary. Or one Iris West, come to think of it. The look that woman gave Roy when Wally brought him home to meet the folks…
Barry Allen was one brave man.
"Uh huh."
Wally starts winding the gauze around Roy's chest, pausing every few seconds to tell him to raise his arms. After a minute he tightens the bandages like a corset's strings and Roy chokes.
"All better. You need a Tylenol?"
"I wasn't aware we were married," Roy wheezes as he accepts the two pills. "You mind reigning in that passive-aggressiveness a little?"
Famous Last Words. Wally smiles flirtatiously.
"Hey, looks like I didn't get your head, Mister Red Arrow." Roy pales, as Wally's thumb strokes away a stream of dried blood from his eye that he's completely forgotten about. The stuff's all matted into his hair too. Shit. "Guess I better go grab that Neosporin again."
"Tell me we bought the kind that doesn't sting."
"You threw yourself out a fucking building, Roy. I think you can handle the Big Kid's Spray."
"It wasn't like it was intentional."
"Dude, cut the bullshit," Wally huffs. His hand's a bit gentler than his tone would suggest, as it wipes away the blood. "I have the same job you do. I usually try to inflict less damage on myself than the pretty, homicidal girl chasing after me."
"Gunshot wounds versus glass cuts, Wally," Roy mutters. "Take your pick here."
"Notice how I've been pulling glass, and not bullets out of you."
"There's a good reason for that."
"Yeah, Cheshire's a lousy shot."
Wally pauses. All at once, the sharpness drains out of him, and he somehow manages to clean the cut above Roy's eye without actually meeting Roy's eye.
Oh damn. Damn, damn, damn. Think of something to say, Harper.
"I'll borrow Robin's grappling hook next time or something," he says weakly. Wally's hand stops at his eyebrow. "She's… I won't let her get to me next time. Alright?"
Wally looks skeptical, as he finishes cleaning the blood out of Roy's hair and applies the butterfly bandage.
"If her idea of toying with you gets you to voluntarily jump out a window…" He raises an eyebrow. "What exactly did she say?" Wally asks casually.
"Nothing important."
"Uh huh."
"Honest. Now quit looking at me like that, it's creeping me out."
"Suit yourself. Not gonna pry." And with that, Wally whooshes away from the bed to clear the supplies away. Within seconds, he zips back and buries himself under the covers on the other side of the bed. Roy army-crawls over the covers, wincing at the stabs of pain in his back.
"What?" Wally says as Roy repeatedly shoves at his shoulder. Eventually Roy succeeds in rolling him onto his side. Wally's mint-green eyes regard him coolly.
"You didn't even kiss it better," Roy tries seductively, only half-joking as he drops down onto one shoulder. Wally smiles and rolls back over without saying anything. "Wally? Hey. Baby, talk to me."
"Hey, Hotshot. Be happy I'm still sleeping in the same bed as you." There may have been a bit of affection hiding underneath that petulance. Roy's relieved enough that he takes the stupid nickname without comment.
"There's only one bed, though," Roy says as he settles down.
Wally raises his head just enough to glance at Roy over his shoulder.
"We own a couch."
A/N: I don't think I could pull off the whole part-time student/full-time hero thing quite the way these two can. Moonlighting as a hero and school/work in the daytime? Pass. Holy hell, that is not happening. I'd need to be hooked to a permanent coffee-IV. I'd come out so bruised, I'd look like a battered wife.
That being said, running into Cheshire isn't quite as awkward as meeting the Ex. But try telling that to Wally. Oh Roy. You poor baby.
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Sarcastic Wally likes it when you review. It helps to tame his jealousy (;
- vivevoce