Wally's chortle didn't last long because they arrived at the Observatory zeta to Dick's place in under a minute. He tapped in a well-memorized code to a beam near the manor and let the blue light warp around them until they stepped out a couple of blocks away from Dick's house.

He plopped Dick down onto the sidewalk and scooped up the bags, slinging one free arm around the shorter boy's shoulders. who knew how long he'd be able to do that?

"Can I … walk you home?"

Dick just laughed and they strolled back up the hill to Wayne Manor, leaning into each other's warmth.

At the door, Wally handed Dick the now empty tupperware and ran a hand behind his neck.

Ugh. So much work at school … which he totally didn't want to do, but …

"So, when can you hang out again?"

"Tonight," Dick wound his fingers into Wally's. "I was thinking… Pulp Fiction. Or a Godfather marathon. Or," he frowned thoughtfully. "I guess we could do Emperor's New Groove."

The speedster blinked at him, and Dick snorted, reaching to unlock the manor doors. "What, were you really going on leave me on the front porch, 'smile the while you kiss me sad adieu… till we meet again'?" Wally at least had the grace to look ashamed. "Yeah, not happening. C'mon, Romeo," he tugged the speedster inside, closing and relocking the door and making a beeline towards the entertainment room. "I promise I won't make you late for class tomorrow, but tonight we're gonna pop in a movie and make out on the couch."

It was a very big, very comfy couch.

"Alfred, we're home!" he yelled as loud as he could, just in case Alfred was up in the West Wing. He'd get a talking to about using his inside voice any other time, because Alfred could hear him just fine when he didn't shout—sometimes Dick wondered how it was possible that the butler didn't need a walkie-talkie to keep up with them—but on days like this, the ageing man indulged him and Dick had learned to take his wins where he got them.

Pushing Wally into the kitchen as they passed, Dick gave him a cheeky grin. "Gather snacks. I'll set it up."

'Set it up' actually meant 'find the DVDs', which only took a moment, because the first two were both Dick and Bruce's favorites, and the last one was in the remarkably small pile of Disney that he owned. Spooning up against one of the arms of the couch, Dick fanned them out for Wally when he came back in, bearing cookies and chips and… more strawberry desserts.

They probably made enough to last a month.

Not that Dick minded.

"Pick one."

"Mmmphhhhhhhmmm," Wally hummed through a half-eaten Oreo cookie as he considered his options and plopped the snacks down on the table.

Wally couldn't decide, eventually playing a mental game of eeny meeny miny mo: "Looth lik itsh

The Emperor's New Groove."

He swallowed and plucked the DVD off the couch and headed toward the TV, toga billowing out slightly. "I'm all about the ponchos thing today anyway. They knew what they were doing."

Alfred, for his part, had taken Wally's toga in stride, simply plucking Wally's backpack from his hands and heading toward the laundry room with a slight grin but not a word. Not that anyone at Stanford would have even noticed he came home wearing a picnic blanket, but he was thankful that he wouldn't have to do laundry himself.

And he maybe didn't try hard enough not to flash Dick as he bent over to pop in the DVD but oh well.

"Mm," Dick hummed, not-so-subtly tilting his head for a better view. "I can see that."

He made grabby hands at Wally until his boyfriend rolled his eyes and shifted close enough to grab, letting Dick pull him down onto the couch and arrange his limbs until they were both comfortable, Wally sprawled between Dick's legs and squishing him back against the couch.

Propping his free foot on the coffee table and tangling the other with Wally's on the couch, Dick wrapped his arms around the redhead and tugged him even closer. Wally remained limp until he was done fussing, long since used to the whole process.

"I remember when I always used to be the little spoon," Robin said gleefully, chin digging into Wally's shoulder. "I think I like this better."

"It's not a race," Wally whined, totally lying, because it totally was. "You better not win-win, dude. I'll regret giving you enough piggy back rides to stunt my growth. It's a miracle I'm as tall as I am."

Dick had also arranged Wally out-of-arm's-reach of the table and he lazily flailed one arm in that direction in protest. Dick rolled his eyes and grabbed another cookie for the squirming jerk in his lap, patiently feeding it to him over the opening credits of Emperor's.

Wally hummed a thank you as he let himself melt back against Dick; for all his protests, he really didn't mind having a warm, grabby pillow after a day running them back and forth from their day by the water and at the observatory.

Belly full and wrapped in the actually really comfy picnic blanket (well, besides the stray blade of grass getting into "places") and pressed against the soft heart beat of his best friend/boyfriend a wave of exhaustion dragged Wally under, and he felt his eyelids droop.

What? Getting shoved into a lake was hard work!

Twenty minutes of competitive swimming fully-clothed hadn't helped.

So Kronk hadn't even had a chance to finish his spinach puffs before Wally's head lolled to the side and with a light snore passed out on his boyfriend's plush couch.

Dick split up an Oreo and lightly licked at the cream, giving Wally a few minutes to settle into his sleep as he lowered the volume and kept watching, but eventually his boyfriend's snores grew to the point where he might as well just mute the movie. He carefully maneuvered the lolling head to his shoulder, where Wally immediately burrowed his face into the crook of his neck, and Dick tried not to squirm because, Seriously, KF, must you drool on me?

Once he'd wrapped them both in the throw blanket pulled from the back of the couch and made sure Wally was comfortable, the redhead stopped snoring and Dick could return his attention to the screen, one hand cupping the side of Wally's neck to stop him from sliding off, his own head leaning on top of his best friend's.

Dick wasn't fond of sleeping when he knew there would be nightmares, and he didn't go to bed without saying goodnight to Elinore, at least, but today had been pretty emotionally exhausting for him. He turned up the volume again, covering Wally's exposed ear when he shifted in discomfort, then muted it altogether and tried to force himself to eat a cream-filled strawberry, but his eyes grew heavier and heavier, and when he fell asleep the remote dropped silently from his hand onto the plush-carpeted floor.

At about 1:30 am Wally jolted awake; he hadn't planned on staying this late, much less falling asleep. He carefully started extracting himself from Dick's koala grip - school wasn't pressing exactly, but he should get - but Dick wasn't having it, and once Wally managed to maneuver himself far enough away to turn and look at him, he stalled.

His stomach wrenched at the pained look on Dick's face; the distress of this day would never really go away, would it?

Wally placed a warm palm over the cold sweat that coated Dick's forehead, gently running his fingers into the dark, soft bangs. As carefully and gently as he could, he squeezed beside Dick to hold him, and pressing a kiss to his temple, clucking a series of quiet shhh, shhhs, ran his hands soothingly through his hair until the boy quieted beside him.

When Dick finally fell still, Wally wrapped both arms around him and pulled him as close as possible and buried his face in the crook of his neck, nose against the now even pulse that fluttered through his veins, and let himself drift back to sleep.

School could wait.