The confession is shocking and saddening. The room goes silent enough that Wally can swear on his life that he could hear literal nothingness. He doesn't know how to properly respond and his mind flounders for a response.
He's just like Dick, he thinks. I swear, he can actually be Dick and I wouldn't know any better.
Wally berates himself for being a jerk in his mind. He's comparing a dead ringer to his best friend and he's been doing it ever since he met the boy-behind-the-counter. It's unfair to the younger teen because Gardner is Gardner and Dick is Dick.
Simple as that, he reminds himself.
"Dude, I—"
"Don't you dare say you're sorry," Gardner says swiftly in a harsh voice and the stare he partners with his words make Wally feel just a few degrees colder. There's something in those blue eyes that Wally cannot place. "Don't you dare pity me."
"I won't," Wally says in a quick voice so that he can remedy the situation. "I won't. Promise."
Gardner narrows his eyes just a tad before he diverts his attention somewhere that isn't Wally's face. He licks his lips gingerly and after closing his eyes, he places the sight of now-emotionless orbs onto the freckles of Wally's face. "Good."
The ginger nods awkwardly, trying to appear casual and kind of failing by a bit. He offers Gardner a curious look. "So, uh, if you don't mind me asking... what happened to them, exactly?"
Blue eyes crack experience a crack in the impassive facade. There's a flash of panic that disappears almost too fast for Wally to catch. The speedster is fast enough to see it and it makes him even more curious.
"My parents were murdered," Gardner says, delivering the words without a single hitch in his voice. Those words make Wally's stomach do things a stomach shouldn't be able to do. Along with the odd action done by his inner organ, his throat goes dry and he can't seem to find his voice.
No one should be able to speak like that about their parents being murdered, he thinks. His mind is borderline horrified at this revelation but he can't say he's never heard those words before. They had come out of the mouths of many superheroes.
Those words had come out of Dick's mouth at some point after the mask came off.
"When, exactly, did this happen?" Wally asks. He immediately colors red. Like he's been told on numerous occasions, he speaks faster than his brain thinks. It's a curse because often times he can say offensive or inconsiderate things.
And the latter is exactly what he said to Gardner.
It comes as a surprise to see that Gardner has no visible reaction to the inquiry that should be upsetting to the black-haired boy.
"I'm afraid," Gardner says, "that that's a story for another time." He gets up and brushes off invisible specks of dust and debris that are most definitely nowhere on his pants while giving Wally yet another unreadable expression. "You must be hungry. How does Chinese sound? I don't feel like cooking—and don't worry, it's my treat."
Wally just nods. "Yeah, that's cool."
The café boy walks over to the kitchen counter after a beat of hesitation. He picks up the telephone and dials a number. He gives an order but he doesn't bother asking Wally for anything. The speedster is a little miffed but at the same time he doesn't want to spend too much of Gardner's money.
"Now that that's taken care of, how about you give me an impromptu lesson? We have a few hours before I need to go to work," Gardner says as he turns around to grab the handle of the fridge. He pulls it open and grabs two bottles of water and tosses one over to Wally.
With reflexes just a touch too fast for that of a normal human, Wally catches it. He misses the knowing gleam in Gardner's eyes because he's too busy berating himself for showing the speed. He blames it on the fact that Gardner really is too much like Dick.
And that makes himself silently lecture himself for comparing the two. Gardner and Dick have to be completely different people. They must be otherwise Wally won't know what to think.
•••
It's the middle of the school day and he doesn't know what to do. He isn't tired enough to sleep and he isn't motivated enough to flip through those stupid index cards left to him by the older teen. So, forgive him if he's rather clueless on what to do.
Letting his feet guide him, he finds himself casually strolling into the café where only one of his coworkers is manning the front counter. He sits himself down on the stool and heaves a sigh that's plagued with many troubles.
Sparing a curious glance at his younger friend, the on-duty teen asks if he's alright in a soothing voice. He flicks away the unruly dirt-brown hair that's in front of his right eye.
"I don't know," the younger teen says uncomfortably because he isn't used to talking about his feelings.
The older teen with hair of dirt and eyes of hazel just smiles. The older teen is the real Gardner LaRou and the real Gardner LaRou is a college freshman who works the day shift once-a-week whenever his professors don't hold classes for the day.
Not-Gardner smirks, letting his blue eyes light up. "That aside, hello, LaRou. How's the shift going?"
"Hello yourself," the real Gardner LaRou says back. "The shift's going fine. Wanna take over? After all, you've been borrowing my uniform for a while, haven't you?"
The younger teen flushes scarlet as the real Gardner tugs on the red apron that not-Gardner had put on after Wally's sudden arrival at the café.
"How did you know?" he asks, looking suspiciously at the brown-haired college boy. He distinctly remembers wiping the footage of each night where Wally visited. He replaced all the footage with loops of him mopping up the floor and wiping down the tables and a few seconds where he'd stare into the static on the television.
He was also positive that he had carefully placed the cloth back into the employees locker belonging to his coworker.
"The way you folded my apron whenever you put it back in my locker," Gardner says in a matter-of-factly voice. "Only you have the habit of folding it so neatly instead of throwing it in the locker. Well, you and probably my butler from when I used to live with my parents."
"Oh."
"I'm not even gonna ask how you got into my locker," Gardner says in a light tone. He nudges not-Gardner with a minute punch to the arm. "So, whatcha doing here? You obviously aren't here to work since you take the night shift all the time."
Scratching the back of his head, the sixteen-year-old shrugs while looking down at the counter. He bites his lip because he doesn't know what to do. His next words are spoken in a quiet and low tone while he faces away in case that there were any open eyes and ears. "Hey, um, you'd cover for me, right? I mean, if someone finds out that I've been using your name."
"Of course," Gardner replies with a thousand-watt grin. "I owe you for that incident weeks ago. You've done a lot for me and this is the least I can do, right?"
Not-Gardner smiles. "Right."
•••
Wally knocks on the door of Gardner's apartment. In his other hand are two bags from a fast food joint that he and Dick used to frequent whenever the latter was in Keystone. He had no idea what to order Gardner but his body was on autopilot and decided to order what Dick used to.
"I, er, hope he's not allergic to anything," he mumbles to himself, holding up the bags. "And that he likes this stuff."
Before he can knock again, the door opens. Gardner looks a bit disheveled as if he had been woken up from an afternoon nap on the couch. If that were the case, then the nap did nothing to reduce the bags under those blue eyes.
"Hello, West," he says in a voice that's drunk on sleep. He rubs his eyes and moves to the side.
"I brought tacos," Wally says awkwardly, jiggling the bags in the air. Gardner's eyes zero in on the bags and his tongue peeks out briefly to lick his top lip. The speedster notices and remembers that Dick had that same habit whenever faced with food he liked.
Wally steps in and kicks off his shoes while Gardner presumably goes off to grab some drinks after he locks the door. The super-powered student has to hesitate before he invites himself onto the couch and places the bags on the coffee table.
"So, uh, how was your afternoon?" Wally asks when Gardner sits himself a few inches away from him.
"I was pretty turbed until you got here but since you"—Gardner reaches forward for the bag and pulls out the order Wally got with Dick in mind—"brought these, I'll consider forgiving you."
Wally does a double-take on the fourth word that left Gardner's lips in that sentence. "Did you just say turbed?"
Gardner's cheeks experience a slight dusting of red. "You mentioned that Grayson has a unique quirk with his words," he says while avoiding Wally's eyes. "I just figured if aster is the opposite of disaster, turbed is the opposite of disturbed. Am I wrong in my assumption, West?"
"No, no," replies the speedster who finally reaches for the other bag of fast food. "You're right. Dick used to say turbed a lot, that's all. It surprised me."
"Well, West, I like to think I'm a man of many surprises."
"Oh? So you're a man now?" Wally grins. "With that height, you coulda fooled me."
Blue eyes light up but there's a twitch in his lips that tell Wally that the younger teen is anything but offended. "You take that back, West! I'm only a few inches shorter than you."
The reply he's ready to shoot back dies down as Wally feels a sense of nostalgia. He remembers the arguments he had with Dick being like this. So, he punches Gardner lightly on the arm.
"And you still have voice cracks," Wally says in a cheeky voice.
Whaaaaat? A new update? Already? :0
So, not-Gardner's character is very interesting and just a touch confuzzling, isn't he? I wonder what his real name is... hehe. As I've said before, I will not be confirming or denying any of your theories. I'll make you think things but then I will try to confuse you. It's more fun this way. ;)
Oh, just so you know, not-Gardner will only be referred to as such when the real Gardner LaRou is in the scene. If he isn't, he'll be referred to as Gardner. Just wanted to clear that up for y'all. :)
Questions: Why do you think Jason calls Gardner "G" if his real name isn't Gardner? :0 And what "incident" was the real Gardner referring to? And yes, I did mention it before. :P So, by now, who (or what) do you think not-Gardner is?
Now, do y'all have any questions for me? I'll be happy to answer any of them. :3