Bart wakes up with sun shining on his face from a hole in the tent. He closes his eyes and tries to move away from it and back to dream land, but soon realizes he can't. There's something physically restraining him, keeping him still, and his subcouncious almost starts to panic. Then he opens one eye and sees Wally's sleeping face, resting on top of his arm and oh, that's why he can't move. Wally's arm is also hugging his waist and it's heavy, but it's also warm and kind of comfortable. He lets himself have a moment to enjoy this before he remembers he and Wally kind of hate each other. They are not supposed to get along, they never did - and they never will. Bart's from the future, he knows these things, - so how did this happen? They fell asleep back to back and now he wakes up cuddling his older cousin?

The redhead tries to untangle himself from Wally, but any movement he makes, no matter how small and careful, makes Wally twich his nose. Bart can't move without waking Wally up and that can't happen. Last time Wally woke up, Bart was caught caring and those ten seconds it took to change the subject were the worst thing he has ever endured, - Reach Invasion and slavery aside, - and he doesn't need go through it again. Sure last night was lots of fun, it seems like Wally's opening up to him and that they're getting close, but Bart knows it's only because Dick's been around a lot in the past few days and he would rather not get his hopes up in case his plan to get the two of them together fails and Wally's back to being an insufferable know-it-all.

He's trapped and there's nothing he can do, so Bart draws closer to his cousin and closes his own eyes, resigning himself to the fact that there's no alternative. If he falls asleep again, then there's a chance Wally will wake up before him and he'll be the one who will have to deal with all the awkwardness.

Yes, good. Good plan. Bart's such a good planner. He falls asleep listenning to his cousin's heartbeat with a tiny smile on his lips.

xxx

Next time Bart wakes up, Wally's gone. He sighs in relief and gets up, out of the tent, and into the house. There's a bunch of cookies in a basket on the table and a note underneath it.

Summer's over for me, kid. Had to go back to my intership, on the uni's lab, and I'm gonna be gone all day. You know my number in case anything happens. Take care and try not to destroy the house while I'm away.

The cookies suddenly turn bitter in Bart's mouth and he doesn't even know why, but he's disappointed Wally will be gone for the entire day, and he's... He's sad. They didn't have any any plans, so he has no right to be sad, yet he is.

He finishes eating the cookies and decides to go to Mount Justice for training. Looking on the bright side, he'll get to see Tim and ask for his help to improve the plan.

Bart's disappointment only grows when he finds out Tim's in Gotham doing the Dynamic Duo thing with Batman. He hangs around with Cassie and Jaime for a while, practices a few moves with Conner and when he decides it's time to text Tim, he notices he's got a new message and it's from Wally.

Have you burned the house yet or what

house's still stading last time I checked. I'm on the cave.

Another mission so soon?Wally's reply's way too quick and Bart raises an eyebrow, but still decides to text him back.

nah, just practice.

Nice. Hope you're having fun. Bart can see Wally's typing something and that something takes almost two whole minutes just to end up being five words. Did you see Dick today?

Nope. Tim's not here either, maybe sth's up in gotham today Bart's about to dismiss it, and put the phone away, but a new thought occurs to him and stops his hand. Why didn't his cousin just talk to Dick? Why is Wally talking to him instead? There's something going on and he wants to know what. Why? Did something happen? He sends it.

Wally types and types and types and the message finally arrives seconds before Bart goes crazy from waiting. It's nothing. I mean, it's just that I haven't talked to Dick since yday morning. He usually checks with me after a mission, but he hasn't yet, which means he's probably busy and I don't want to disturb him but i still… did you know that he once forgot to eat for an entire day bc he was busy? can you believe this asshole? that's why i make him check in with me after missions just to know if he's alive bc he sucks and i just… I worry about him.

When he finishes reading Wally's text, he's practically bouncing up and down with excitement, because this is great! Wally worries about Dick, because he cares, and he cares because he loves Dick! And Dick loves him too, or he wouldn't put up with talking to Wally everyday! Bart's so busy basking in the righteousness of his mission to get them together that he almost misses Wally's new text.

He's my best friend. I worry about him.

Nooooooooo. No, Wally, no. Enough with the denial already.

I'll call if I hear sth. Bart types, shoves the phone back to his pocket and heads for the zeta tube, smiling all the way and determined not to let this minor setback discourage him. He wanted to get Tim's input, but he can't wait any longer. He's already behind on the plan, he got distracted by Wally not being as much of an asshole as he usually is and now he needs to make up for it. Phase 3 starts immediately.

xxx

Finding and sending the gifts is easy. He sends a box of chocolate to Dick in Wally's name with a "just so you don't forget to eat, you asshole" note. He debates over writing a xoxo in the end for ten whole minutes, but then decides against it. Dick and Wally aren't there yet. But soon they will be. Soon.

He sends Wally a single rose and a note that says "I'm alive, don't worry." No signature, no anything, because with Dick less means more.

And then Bart goes home and waits. He waits and he waits, then he waits so more, while trying his hardest not to die from boredom. One day later the doorbell rings and Dick comes in for a surprise visit.

"Hey, dude, you busy?" Dick says.

Bart trips and falls on his face, trying to see both Dick's and Wally's faces.

"Quite the contrary, bro. I'm super bored. You wanna come in?" Wally looks back when he hears the loud bang of Bart's face hitting the floor. Before the older redhead can ask him, Bart mumbles an "I'm fine" and gets up.

Bart uses his super speed to get himself together and does it just in time to see Dick's hand brush against Wally's. Wally takes half a second to respond and suddenly they're holding hands and smiling at each other like the lovesick puppies they are and that's it. That's the moment Bart's been waiting for his whole life, - okay fine, not for his whole life. The plan's not even a week old, but time passes differently for a speedster so trust him when he says it's been too long.

And then the moment's gone. Dick smiles and takes his hand back, head slightly montioning to where Bart's standing. "Sure, wanna hear about how the Riddler almost blew up Gotham again?"

"Yup. Gotham stories are my favorite, I have the "onlyingotham" tag tracked on twitter and tumblr."

"Yeah, but you never check them because you keep forgetting your passwords." Dick rolls his eyes, and nudges him on the ribs.

"Why would I need to remember passwords when I'm best friends with a genius hacker? Come on." Wally doesn't even try to pretend he's hurt by the remark and throws his arms around Dick's shoulders, pulling him in. "Videogames 'til we pass out?"

Dick nods, they exchange a brofist and Bart watches them go to the sofa, feeling heartbroken. That was not what he was expecting. That was not supposed to happen. Maybe they didn't get the gifts, because they would have at least talked about it if they had, right?

Sure, Bart kept the notes straight to the point and not romantic at all because he didn't want to overdo it, but the gifts were still romantic; the box of chocolate was heart shaped and the rose came with a red bow wrapped around it, for god's sake. It was supposed to make them realize they cared about each other as more than best friends, but watching the exchange, nothing seemed to have changed between them.

He knows Wally definitely got the rose because he was home when it was delivered and he saw his cousin's reaction when he read the note. Wally scoffed, but the look on his face was fond, and he kept it in a vase by his bed. But maybe Dick didn't get the chocolate.

Bart says no when Dick asks if he wants to join them, goes to his room, locks the door behind him and calls Tim.

"I might need you to break into Dick's place." The speedster says, instead of greeting and he can almost hear Tim's eyebrow raise. "Think you can do it?"

"I could. But why would I do that?" Tim's voice is careful. "Is he in danger, did anything happen?"

"No, no. It's nothing like that, he's fine. He's actually here, playing videogames with Wally. I just need to know if he got a box of chocolate last night. It's very important. Please, Tim, just do it for me and I'll explain everything tomorrow before practice."

"How about you explain it to me now? You're not making any sense."

"Come on, I dare you! No, I double dare you!" Bart insists, pouting despite the fact that his friend can't see him. "Please. Do you trust me?"

"Fine." Tim sighs. "I'll go, but first you need to promise me it's nothing bad and that you'll tell me what this is about the moment I call you back with an answer."

"Deal! Thanks so much, Tim, you're the best friend ever, you're…"

"Yeah, Bart, same. I'll call you back in two minutes, tops. See you."

"Only two minutes, but how… Oh, you've already zetaed there…" Bart knows Tim hung up right after the "see you" bit, but he's still amazed at how competent his friend is.

He puts the phone away, opens the door carefully not to make a sound and glances over the living room to find Dick and Wally on the sofa. Wally's yelling and using his superspeed to crush all the buttoms of the video game console at the same time. Dick's laughing and trying to use his hand to block the redhead's vision of the screen.

It's weird seeing both of them like this, relaxed and happy and young. Dick and Wally appear to be two completely different people from the Nightwing and Kid Flash he knew, and it's a nice kind of different. They melt around each other, eyes softening and bodies relaxing only because of the other's presence. It's so obvious that Bart's tempted to forget all about his plan just to go there and yell at them for being so damn stupid.

Both Dick and Wally deserve this. They deserve to go home after a long day to someone who loves them, someone who worries and cares and makes them happy. Bart just wants them to be happy.

He lingers for a second more than he should, because suddenly Wally turns his head and looks right at him, a smile forming on his lips. "Hey, Kid, you sure you don't want to play with us? I promise to let you win."

Bart closes his hands into fists and takes a deep breath because he wants to. He wants that. He wants Wally to be this happy, all the time. Because if Wally's happy, then maybe they'll go on more camping trips or go superheroing together, they'll talk, have fun and share stories so Wally will stop thinking of him as a liability. He wants a Wally who doesn't hate him, because Bart doesn't hate him back, not really.

His cellphone vibrates, bringing him back to reality. It's Tim and in less than two minutes. Incredible.

"We're about to order some pizza, come on, kid!" Wally adds.

"Nah, I'm good. Maybe some other day?" Bart waves at them, and as soon as he gets back into his room, door locked, he answers Tim. "Please have good news."

"Good news is chocolate or no chocolate?" Tim asks and Bart's left speechless for a moment.

"I don't even know, just tell me what you found."

"He got the box of chocolate, and ate two of them, the rest is in the refrigerator." Tim ignores Bart's cry of but that makes no sense and keeps going. "Want to tell me the whole story now?"

"Yeah, sure." Bart sits down on his bed and clears his throat. "You know how Dick and Wally love each other and belong together, but are way too dumb to do something about it? So I decided to do something about it and I have this plan, and it's super awesome, really amazing and infallible, but not really because phase 3 just failed and I don't know what I did wrong, please help." He says it all in one go and waits for Robin's feedback.

"Bart, that's, uh… I don't think that's a good idea. It's not…" Tim says, after a long pause and Bart's half offended, half curious because he's never seen Tim having trouble with words before.

"No, you don't understand, it's a great idea, because if they start dating, they'll be together all the time and they'll be happy and…" And Waly will be nice to him again. "And you want Dick to be happy, right? He's yourbigbrotherandyou…"

"Bart, stop, you're speedtalking again. Look, you need to trust me on this. Your plan is a bad idea and you need to drop it."

"And how do you know? You didn't even hear it, you didn't even…" Bart can't keep the disappointment out of his voice.

"I just know it."

"But how can you know it? You can't possibly…"

"I just know something you don't. And I wish I could tell you, because I can see you care about getting them together, but it's not my secret to tell. You're just going to have to trust me when I say this is a bad idea."

"But why? I mean, of course I trust you, but I don't understand… Have you seen the way they look at each other or how they eat off of each other's plate without asking for permission, or how their hugs last a few seconds longer than a friend hug is supposed to last, or…"

"Bart. Bart! It's not going to work because Dick and Wally are… Uh, they're kind of already… Dating… Other people." Tim finishes the sentence with a long suffering sigh and Bart feels like someone just punched him in the face because what?