Hey guys. Happy Belated Valentine's Day. I wanted to finish this sooner but I just... didn't get around to it. So this one is longer than the other ones and I hope that for the most part that the character's are in character becuase I tried really hard to keep them IC. So, there's that. So anyway story time.

Title: Hey Sugar

Summary: Bruce comes home to a Valentine's Day surprise. Except it's not a surprise since he's Batman and he and Wally have a talk about relationships.

Once Bruce Wayne got home he knew something was off. It wasn't because it was Valentine's Day, one of the days he's been conditioned to develop a nervous tick under his eye since all of his exes call him back on that day and women he doesn't even remember meeting try to proposition him. And it wasn't just because of all the lewd text messages he's been receiving to his Blackberry (which was supposed to be for professional use only). And it wasn't even because upon returning home he'd seen a trail of chocolate candies wind up the staircase until they were out of sight.

It was because of Alfred.

Through the many years that Bruce has known Alfred and through his own astute observation skills, he was able to distinguish Alfred's expressions from one another. Now to the untrained eye, it seemed like Alfred only had one maybe two expressions he ever bothers with. Blank obedience and slightly amused obedience. But Bruce knew there were a lot more than just those two, in fact he can hardly describe any of those as blank. You just need to know what you're looking for. Most of the time they were just little subtleties that gave the normally stoic butler away.

Like right now. Right now Alfred was looking at him same as always as if he had come home on just any other day. Except there was a twinkle in his eye as if he were in on some kind of fantastic joke that only he would ever get.

So when he walked in and he was greeted by a "Good evening, sir," Bruce was already suspicious.

But he knew Alfred's pride as a butler would get in the way of him divulging any information that he'd be privy to if he would just out right ask him what was happening. So he decided on a less direct approach.

"Good evening, Alfred. Is dinner ready?"

Without changing his expression Alfred answered, "I'm terribly sorry, sir, but I was under the impression that you wouldn't be back until a later hour. And since young Master Timothy is with his friends at a party tonight I didn't make any such preparations."

Bruce didn't comment on that since he already knew there was something strange going on and Alfred's statement had only bolstered that fact. No matter what Alfred always made dinner. Even if he was told that none of the Bat family would be back until much later, even when he was told that nobody was hungry and even when he was told in a fit of self-despair and rage to just leave, Alfred was always there with a hot meal, a glass of milk and a gentle pat on the shoulder.

Bruce said, "I see…" and he once again found himself looking at the trail of chocolates leading up the stairs. "Do you know what all that is about, Alfred?"

And Bruce was just quick enough to see that strange amused twinkle in Alfred's eye become brighter. But then it just as quickly went back to normal as Alfred said in a monotone voice, "I was meaning to investigate that, sir, but I did have a lot of things to do at the time and thought it could wait. But if you're curious, sir, you could always follow it and see where it leads."

So it was a game.

Bruce sighed. He had a few guesses as to what awaited him at the end of the trail and hoped it would be one of the more bearable ones.

He dismissed Alfred with a "Thank you" and proceeded up the stairs following the trail of chocolates all the way up.

They were simple chocolates. You could buy them from any convenience store and even to get this many wouldn't have cost a whole lot. That narrowed down his options by at least a quarter. He decided that this definitely had a romantic air to it and wouldn't end up being some bad attempt at throwing him a surprise Valentine's Day party in his own manor (which seemed to be a favorite past-times of his co-workers from Wayne Tech).

He started to think of who would do this. To get Alfred in on it, it would've had to be someone he trusted. That narrowed down the selection considerably since there weren't that many people Alfred would trust enough for… whatever this was. So he felt he could safely narrow it down to the founders of the Justice League since the only other people that Alfred trusted were Dick and Tim. Bruce could possibly see either of them doing this as some kind of joke. But he didn't think that if that were the case, Alfred would be as amused with it as he seemed to have been only a few minutes before.

As he started to climb the next flight of stairs, Bruce realized that maybe this was an honest attempt at earning his romantic attentions. Alfred would always hint in a subtle and non-domineering way that Bruce should think about finding someone to spend time with who wasn't just one of Bruce Wayne's "lady-friends" that he brings home practically every other night. That would be good motivation for Alfred to be on board with this whole thing.

So the only question now was who the culprit was.

Bruce had already narrowed it down to one of the original seven and quickly came to a conclusion. J'onn wouldn't be interested in this kind of relationship with a human. He was too focused on keeping the earth safe and barely left the Watchtower plus even if he did want to pursue this kind of relationship with him, Bruce didn't think that J'onn would use such a roundabout way when he could just tell him.

Clark was out of the question since he and Lois were dating and he was too much of a boy scout to seek a homosexual affair with his colleague.

Shayera and John were a couple and Bruce seriously doubted that either of them would be interested in a three-way relationship, especially since John was as straight as an arrow.

That left Diana and Wally.

Bruce had suspected that both of them had some kind of less than just professional feelings for him. However, he thought that maybe Diana's had been less prominent as of late. Whether it was due to her losing interest or his own lack of interest. Also, Diana wouldn't have waited for a day where only the people of man's world put any sentimental value into it. And even if she had, she wouldn't have done it like this. She would have just confronted him face to face and would have talked about it.

As he was rounding the last corridor and could see where the trail ended, in front of the door to a guest room, he concluded that it had to be Wally.

All the pieces fit. Wally was definitely the sentimental type and would go out of his way to make someone feel special. He also thought he was creative enough to come up with something like this and claim it as his own idea, even though he probably had seen it a million times on TV shows.

And as he opened the door he was unsurprised to see Wally. The chocolate trail led over to a loveseat but Wally was over by the vanity trying to pull a pink wool sweater off over his head. He still had a white T-shirt underneath (Thank God) so Bruce wouldn't have to yell at him for indecent exposure.

"Wally," he called curtly.

Wally let out a surprised sound as he quickly pulled the sweater off and looked at him. Then he looked at the sweater and back up at Bruce and tossed the thing aside as he managed a sheepish grin.

"Ba-Bruce! You were… I mean this was… Umm You're…" Then in the blink of an eye he was over on the loveseat sprawled across it like a smug cat that had just had the most delicious meal. He adopted a much more confident grin as he said, "Hey, sugar," in a voice that Bruce was sure sounded sexy in Wally's head.

It was a little amusing. But Bruce wouldn't smile. No, he'd make Wally sweat for a little while.

Bruce gave Wally a piercing glare and his best scowl as he said, "What are you doing here?"

Wally's grin disappeared and for a minute he looked afraid and a little heartbroken. A small part of Bruce's brain (the illogical part) was telling him that hurting Wally's feelings right now was not a good idea.

But Wally managed to crack an unconvincing smile as he said, "Uh… y'know… it's Valentine's Day… and I figured today's as good a time as any to… y'know…" the speedster trailed off clearly unsure of how to correctly word his motivation for doing all of this.

"To try and sleep with me?" he asked. He wanted to see Wally's reaction.

Wally's eyes went wide with surprise. But then they quickly narrowed with indignation. He stood up and said, "No!" Then he thought for a minute then said, "Well… I mean, maybe… but-but not if you didn't want to too. I mean, what I really wanted to do was maybe ask you out first… and then… maybe…"

Wally looked at the floor and scratched the back of his head. He muttered, "This is so not going how I planned it."

Bruce let his gaze soften at that. "And how was this supposed to go exactly?"

Wally laughed a little nervously and said, "It's kind of dumb actually."

He sat back down on the loveseat and scratched the back of his head. He still didn't look at Bruce.

"For one thing I was supposed to be laying here when you came in. All sexy like, y'know. And you were supposed to be pleasantly surprised. Then I would've said, 'Hey, sugar' then you would've melted into a pool of goo and then… I don't know…" he threw his hands in the air, "happily ever after, I guess."

Bruce crossed his arms but let his expression relax into something neutral. "Looks like someone didn't think this whole thing through."

Wally let out an exasperated sigh and said, "I guess." He put his elbows on his knees and supported his forehead with the heels of his hands.

Despite what he wanted other people to believe, Bruce did have feelings. He was human after all and he cared a lot about people. He cared a lot about Wally. He didn't want to crush his spirit or anything. In fact if he could, he'd like to build it up every once in awhile. It was always… really unsettling whenever Wally didn't have that big goofy grin on his face or when he wasn't cracking some joke.

Wally was not like the billionaire playboy Bruce Wayne. He didn't treat sex or relationships like disposable razors. Use it for awhile then after it gets dull throw it away. He values it and thinks it's one of the most important things that a guy could have. Barry and Iris taught him that.

Sure he talked a big game with women but that was more of a front. To women he knew, it was just friendly teasing. For women he didn't know it was more or less to start a conversation. It wasn't serious.

But right now, in a guest room in Bruce's manor, Wally was being absolutely serious and Bruce could tell that Wally had been scared of the way Bruce would react. But for whatever reason, in Wally-logic, the desire for whatever Wally wanted out-weighed the risks of having his plan fall through enough to actually plan all this and even go so far as to get Alfred in on it.

"Wally," Bruce started.

The speedster didn't move.

"Wally, look at me."

Slowly but surely the red-headed man in front of him lowered his hands and looked at him. There was evident hurt in his eyes but Wally was trying to hide it.

Bruce walked over to him and put a hand on his shoulder. "Just because you didn't think it through doesn't mean you didn't put a lot of thought into it. And I really do appreciate it, Wally."

The hurt in those green eyes receded a tiny bit and Wally smiled a little. Then it disappeared as he said, "There's a 'but' in there somewhere, right?"

Bruce raised an eyebrow. "No, there's not."

"Oh... okay. Now what?"

"Now I'm going to ask you a question."

"Okay, shoot."

"Why?"

Maybe he shouldn't have asked it. Maybe he should've just sent Wally home and tried to forget this night ever happened. But he couldn't help but be curious which was strange since he was normally never curious about this type of thing. Maybe he was… interested?

Wally seemed to have understood what he was referring to and once again looked away. He scratched the back of his neck again. Then he sucked a whole lot of air in and let it out in a whistle. "That's a doozie of a question there, Bats."

Bruce took a seat beside Wally and said, "I've got time."

Wally choked out a half-sigh half-laugh and said, "Right," before he began.

"When I first met you all those years ago as Kid Flash, I looked up to you. I was like, 'Here's a guy that's not a meta but uses his brains to beat up baddies.' And for me, that was pretty darn cool. 'Specially since I wasn't doing too well at school at the time. I wanted to be like you. I wanted to find something that no one else could see and solve a mystery and then land the bad guy in jail. I wanted to become like you and like Barry.

"I wanted to be the fastest man alive but also the world's greatest detective. I wanted to be some weird hybrid of Batman and the Flash.

"Then I grew up and while admiration was still there hormones started kicking in too. I was a confused, hormonal and hyper mess when I was a teenager. I mean I'm still hormonal and hyper just not as confused.

"Then… Barry…"

He didn't have to say it. He probably knew that and decided to skip over it to save himself the pain of saying it.

"Then I became the Flash. And I got to work with you more. And my weird awkward crush became a lot more than that. And I just want to see if maybe there'd be a chance you could see me like how I see you?"

It was a question. One that Bruce was supposed to answer definitively. He was supposed to say, "Yes, there is a chance," or "There's no way in hell that's happening."

But for the first time in his life, Bruce didn't have a clear-cut answer. He didn't know if there was a chance but he still wanted to try. That was all he had to say. He could say he wanted to try and then that would make Wally feel better and would open up new options for Bruce so that Batman and the millionaire play boy wouldn't swallow him whole.

Before Bruce could think of what to say, Wally put a hand on his shoulder and said, "Alright, Bats. Your turn."

"My turn?"

Wally gave him a sheepish little smile and was also pretty red in the face. "Yep. Now you get to tell me exactly what you think about me."

He was probably looking for either rejection or something he could strew into acceptance. Should he tell him honestly what he thinks about him? Should he just say nothing and send him home? Should he say something intentionally mean to make Wally forget this whole thing?

No, that would crush him. Bruce decided that was the last thing he wanted to do when looking into almost unbearably trusting green eyes.

He decided to go with honesty.

"You're too honest. You're too sporadic and you also care too much. It's often that blind sense of caring that gets you into trouble. You don't stop to think about who's lying to you and who isn't. You automatically give them the benefit of the doubt and rush in to save them when they could just as easily have led you into a trap."

Wally winced and said, "Jesus, Ba-Bruce. You make it sound like it's a bad thing."

"Sometimes it is."

"Alright…" Wally said and paused. Bruce took a good look at him. Wally was definitely blushing but he was definitely thinking about what Bruce had told him.

"So…" Wally said at length, "it doesn't sound like you hate me. It… even sounds like you like me… a little."

Bruce didn't answer. He didn't want to say anything that could give his feelings away because he didn't know what kind of feelings he himself had.

He felt Wally's hand slip from his shoulder to his arm. Wally looked away and got a little redder in the face as he said, "You know… Bruce, I really like you. Like a lot but I understand if you don't like me back but I think… we'd be good together."

He amended that statement quickly with a "but that's just how I see it."

Bruce didn't want to think anymore. He wanted to just take Wally up on whatever he was offering. He wanted to reach over to Wally and hold him. He wanted to try this but he couldn't shake all of the thoughts that this was a terrible idea.

He kept thinking about how he wouldn't be able to give Wally what he needed or what he wanted. He kept thinking of the possibilities of how this wouldn't work out if he agreed to it. What it would mean for the League. Would they be putting countless of lives in danger because of this?

Was the risk too great?

He knew the answer to that. So he couldn't do this. He couldn't say yes to Wally.

So he said so. He thought if he just explained it to Wally he'd understand. Even though Wally acted immature at times, he knew when to act like an adult and face things with an air of dignity.

And for the most part, that's how Wally took it. He looked heartbroken but didn't lash out. At least not until Bruce had mentioned putting innocent lives at risk. Then Wally's eyes flashed in anger as he looked at Bruce.

"Bullshit," he'd said.

"Wally?"

"Bruce, do you know how many relationships there are within the League? And do you know how many 'innocent lives' have been put at risk because of these relationships?"

"Wally–" Bruce was going to say but Wally cut him off.

"No, I'm not going to let you use that as an excuse to get out of this because it's not a good one. John and Vixen are a couple now and John and Shayera have some weird thing going on but they can still do their jobs. I'm pretty sure Booster Gold and Blue Beetle are seeing each other and they're still good at their jobs… well, at least Blue Beetle is but Booster's never been too good at this job. And what do you think the Vigilante and the Shining Knight are doing in the video room of the Watchtower. They're not watching Clint Eastwood movies, I can tell you that."

"Wally…"

"The point is, Bruce, they all still do their jobs well and still save lives and aren't distracted when it really counts. So I don't see why this would be any different."

"Because, Wally, it's like I said. You care too much."

"So you think I'd lose it if I saw you hurt? God I- We get hurt every day, Bruce. I know what that looks like and I can handle it. I'm not just some kid anymore! I'm an adult but no one ever listens to me or takes me seriously when I tell them things. And just because we'd be in a relationship wouldn't mean I'd react any differently if that were to happen. Remember, Bruce, I've had a gigantic crush on you since I hit puberty."

Bruce sighed and shook his head.

Wally continued, "Just say it, Bruce." His tone held the tiniest bit of bitterness in it. It was so surprising to hear it in the normally cheerful voice Bruce let the surprise show on his face as he looked at the man sitting next to him.

That man looked hurt and confused and angry, emotions that Bruce never thought he'd see in the young man's eyes.

"Just tell me that you're not interested in me and I'll leave you alone. You don't have to come up with these dumb excuses to save my feelings or anything. So-so just say it."

"Wally…" It was all Bruce could say. And for awhile they just stared at each other. Bruce couldn't bring himself to look away and he couldn't lie to Wally, not when he was looking into his eyes.

Neither of them moved or flinched for awhile. They just stared.

But then Bruce saw a flicker of realization pass across green eyes. And within milliseconds, Wally's facial expression softened and looked less hurt than it had before. And within milliseconds of that happening, he felt warm callused hands on either side of his face and it shouldn't have felt as good as it did.

"Bruce…" he heard Wally calling softly, sweetly and he really could get used to Wally saying his name like that. He noticed that Wally's face was getting dangerously close to his own.

"Bruce, if you don't stop me soon I probably won't stop at all."

He didn't say anything at all and before long he found himself being kissed. Wally's lips were chapped but they were warm and felt nice. The first kiss lasted only a few seconds but after Wally pulled back Bruce leaned forward and sought his lips for another kiss.

Kiss after kiss after kiss. With each kiss their bodies got closer until Wally was all but straddling him. Wally's hands had moved from his face to his shoulders to wrap around his back. One of Bruce's arms wrapped around Wally's waist to bring him closer. His other hand found its way into Wally's hair and he would drag his fingers through it.

He didn't remember when Wally had started to vocalize how much he was enjoying this. Probably around the time when the kisses started to last longer and became deeper. Wally would let out little pleased sighs or hums of excitement. Then those were joined by the hesitant and soft calling of his name in between kisses.

Soon after that, Bruce heard his own voice calling Wally's name with a little more urgency. He also felt his hand travel under Wally's shirt and could feel the warm skin of his back.

Wally pulled back a little probably in order to talk but Bruce leaned forward and continued to kiss him so Wally had to settle with talking in between kisses.

"B… Bruce if this is… okay then we should… probably… move over to the… bed. Is this okay?"

Bruce pulled back to look at Wally. His lips were a little swollen from all of the kisses. His face was an interesting shade of red and his hair stuck up at odd ends thanks to Bruce's explorative fingers. His green eyes were filled to the brim with the ever intoxicating cocktail of love, admiration and lust.

"Wally," he said. He'd wanted to sound reserved and cool-headed but what came out was raspy and coarse.

He tried again, "Wally, it's okay."

The red head in his arms gave him a smile that lit up the room and his heart (he'd never admit to actually thinking that though).

He stood up and made his way over to the bed pulling Wally along with him. "Oh and Wally," he added.

"Yeah?" Wally answered sounding a bit too much like a really excited horny teenager about to get some for the first time.

"Remind me to listen to you more."

whoo! so I actually enjoyed writing this one. And as always if you're so inclined leave a review and I'll throw up jelly beans because I'll be so happy.

Oh and for everyone who reviewed thank you guys so much! They were all really nice and I'll do my best to keep it up! :D