YAY! Another oneshot! So this one'll be before they establish their relationship as a couple. So it's more of a friendship thing. So anyway:

Title: Anomaly

Summary: Bats and Flash have monitor duty together... but the Flash seems kind of down... Strange.

Disclaimer: I don't own a thing!

Batman was keeping a vigilant eye on the monitors. However he also had a vigilant ear for any sound that would be indicative of either trouble or pests.

It had been mostly quiet for that night which was strange since he had monitor duty with the Flash. And the fact that it was quiet was highly improbable if the Flash would've been in a good mood. Normally (and by normally he means about 52.6% of the time) the red-clad superhero would appear and run his mouth at him. He'd talk about Central City, how some of the citizens of his city were doing, or even about what he'd had for lunch that day. He'd make dumb jokes and laugh at them by himself. Sometimes he'd notice that Batman wasn't laughing and would ask why he had to be a "stick in the mud." But most of the time (about 74% of the time) he didn't notice at all and would continue to laugh for quite a while. A while that could've been spent doing actual work.

He continued to watch the monitors without much more thought on the matter for about another hour or so. But in that time Batman still hadn't heard so much as a scuff of feet in the corridor. So naturally Batman had become increasingly curious as to what made the Flash so silent tonight.

Now, it wasn't because he was worried. No. He was just interested in anomalies. He hadn't become the world's greatest detective by letting small details like this pass by. He had become the world's greatest detective by scrutinizing everything that could possibly be scrutinized down to the smallest speck of dirt left in a footprint.

But the word "anomaly" had within itself several connotations. Of those connotations a few being that to classify something as an anomaly one must know what the routine or the constant is. And with the Flash it's hard to find that normalcy. It seemed like everything and anything the young superhero did would come from completely nowhere and would make no sense to anyone except the Flash. He'd sporadically change his mind when it was convenient for absolutely no one but somehow things always worked out. Sometimes it worked out so well that no one would be mad at him (about 87.2% of the time).

But Batman knew better than that. While the Flash's actions seemed sporadic with no real intention behind them, there were always undercurrents of consistency to his actions. Consistencies like compassion, an over the top willingness to be friends with anyone, a sense of justice and a strong if not strange sense of humor. That's why Batman could say with certainty that he could predict how the Flash would react to any given situation with about 63% accuracy.

Batman was in the middle of pondering these thoughts when the exact object of his attentions sulked into the monitor room.

If someone wasn't paying careful attention to him however they probably wouldn't have noticed any change in gait. But since Batman wasn't just 'someone' and he always paid very close attention to the tiniest detail, he noticed. There was a little minuscule drag in his steop. But he wouldn't bring it up. If the Flash wanted to talk about it then he would without any kind of prompting from anyone else.

And as if on cue he heard the young superhero's voice. "Hey, Bats?"

Without looking at him, Batman merely grunted as if to say, "Continue…"

Batman heard a shift of spandex and heard not long after that the sound of Flash scratching the back of his neck. "Bats…" he tried again and then paused as if trying to either figure out what he was going to say or try to remember what he had planned out before hand to say.

After that the sounds that were only heard in the room were the Flash's false starts at conversation containing such phrases as, "You know when…", "How come…", "What do…" etc.

This however piqued Batman's interest. The Flash was usually not only fast on his feet but also fast with his wit. He could string out a comeback to practically any insult in a matter of milliseconds and would be of the same quality as if say a comic book writer would spend months trying to figure out how exactly to word it.

So the fact that the Flash seemed to not know what to say coupled with the fact that his spirits didn't seem as high led Batman to believe that something was not just bothering him but really bothering him. But Batman couldn't deduce what until he had a bit more information.

So he patiently waited until Flash had all of his thoughts together.

He said, "Bats… you ever feel like… like people only ever want to be with you if they think you're something special?"

Batman continued to look at the monitors as he said, "Normally that's what attracts someone to someone else. They find something special about them that they can bond together over-"

Flash cut him off. "I don't mean like that. I mean… when you're only special if other people think you're special too…" he trailed off.

Batman processed that information for all of a minute then said, "If you're equating the word 'special' to the word 'famous' in one way or another-"

"Yes! That's exactly what I'm talking about! See? I knew you'd get it, Bats!"

Batman detected a more relaxed tone than what the younger superhero had previously spoken in. Perhaps all the Flash needed was understanding and a sense that someone else could empathize with whatever problem he had been dealing with.

The young superhero kept talking.

"I mean, sometimes I think I can only get women to look at me when I'm the Flash which is awesome that they know the definition of hot when they see it don't get me wrong. It's just that, y'know, Wally West is just as awesome and hot and an incredible stud and stuff, y'know? So why don't girls fall over themselves to get a piece of Wally West like they do for the Flash? I could walk into anywhere as the Flash and get a ton of numbers! But when I walk in as Wally West I'm lucky if I get one girl's number.

"I mean, I love the attention as Flash. But I think most of the time they just want the Flash and if they found out there was an actual human being behind the mask then maybe… they wouldn't want me that much anymore. Especially since I'm a ginger, right? I'm not tall, dark and handsome like Bruce Wayne, right? I'm more average height, light and incredibly hot, right? But I don't know why but women just don't seem to go for red heads with freckles. Whenever I'd get picked on in school for my red hair and freckles, Ma Flash would always tell me that when I grew up all the ladies would be hounding me because red hair and freckles on a guy is 'cute'. And I think I'm pretty damn cute but why doesn't anybody else think so?"

The Flash paused after this as if expecting an answer. Batman at the time wasn't willing to give him one so he waited until Flash's patience wore out or he thought of something else to say which he did. But it wasn't something he expected.

"Maybe that girl was right… Maybe I am annoying and… not worth it…" Flash whispered. It was hardly audible.

From what the Caped Crusader could gather, Flash… or rather Wally was feeling down on himself because a woman had rejected his offers of companionship… or perhaps his mood was brought about by several different women with the same type of reaction to his overtures. Perhaps Wally began to doubt himself and his value as a person compared to what he was as a superhero.

He surmised that this was probably the case. But still one thing eluded him. Why had the Flash come to him with this problem? He really wasn't in any position to give someone a pep talk on self-esteem… that was more Superman's domain. Actually pep talks in general were more Superman's domain.

But as he thought about it maybe it wasn't entirely about self-esteem. Maybe he wanted either conformation or denial that he was "annoying." That would certainly explain why Flash had come to him instead of to Superman or Shayera (they seem to have developed a strong friendship since they formed the League). Batman would often express his displeasure in so many words to many of the Flash's antics. So maybe in Wally-reasoning, if Batman denies that he's annoying then he's not and that girl was wrong and he could go on with life as he was before.

So the quickest way to remedy the situation would be to tell Flash that he wasn't annoying. That would knock down his pride as Batman a few pegs but he'd rather have normal happy bouncy Flash then this slow and sad Flash… since he knew and could account for approximately 63% of what Flash would do in any given situation when he was acting normally. If he was acting like this during an emergency Batman could only confidently account for 28% of that behavior. The numbers were better for regular Flash. That's why he needed to assure Flash that he wasn't annoying. For only that reason… at least that's what he told himself.

"You're not annoying, Flash. All things considered you're not that bad."

Even without looking in the direction of the younger superhero, Batman could tell that his mood had positively increased exponentially.

Good. Flash is in a good mood again. Everything has order and he can account for that 63% again. But that still leaves 37% unaccounted for. Which led Batman to be only slightly surprised and not at all pleasantly when he felt arms wrap around from behind him.

"Really, Bats? You think so? You're the best. Seriously. You're like the best friend a guy could ever ask for. Thanks, Bats, it means a lot coming from you considering how crazy I drive you all the time…"

The Flash had prattled on but after awhile Batman felt there was more important things to be doing than to hear the younger superhero sing his praises. So he turned his vigilant eyes to the monitors and kept a vigilant ear to anything that could be considered a threat. But what's the harm in half-listening to someone sing your praises?

Cheesy? Silly? Fluffy? Tell me what you think. XD Oh and if you would like to see a oneshot written of these two I'm all for suggestions.