The duvet is heavy, thick, plush and warm with his body heat. Wally snuggles back into it with contentment. He feels good for what seems like – and apparently is – the first time he can remember. His pulse feels alive in his veins, circulating through him like the jolt from defibrillator paddles shocking life back into a corpse. He basks in the feeling, sleepy and cosy.
Vaguely he recalls the doc somewhere in the night. A mirage so hazy it poses equal chance of being a dream as reality. He hopes he didn't say anything inappropriate to the guy while half asleep. He can't be sure but he seems like that kinda guy that might do that. He also hopes Bats will let him run again today. It felt so good yesterday it almost started becoming sort of sexual.
"You gonna get up today? Or just spent all day pretending to be a burrito?" Robin's voice mocks slyly from his bedside.
"B'ritto" Wally replies as he roles over to get a look at Robin and blinks owlishly. "Not at school?"
"Obviously" Robin smirks, rolling his eyes fondly "Weekend."
Burrito-Wally nods dumbly before turning a little pink in the face. "M'sorry bout' yesterday"
"Yeah, I know" the Boy Wonder replies, smirk dropping into a soft smile "We're good."
The meta shoots up like a striking cobra, wrapping his arms around Robin's neck and nuzzling into his hair like an especially over-affectionate cat. He's still groggy and warm and apparently wonderfully forgiven and feeling cuddly. He giggles – in a totally manly way- at Robin's discomfort as he stiffens before awkwardly squirming to get loose of the embarrassing embrace like the teenager he is.
"Hush now, sweet Dick" West sniggers in a mock-deep voice.
Robin feels himself go totally still in shock before berating the overly obvious reaction.
"W-What?"
"Dude!" West replies, abruptly holding him by the shoulders at arms length with a look of pure scandal "From 'Return of the Spotted Dick Part 2, the Sequel, The Revenge-aning'. How can'you not have seen it!? S'like, the pinnacle of killer mu'tunt pudding B-movies!"
"...Uhuh..."
"Same guy that made Mega Shark verses Giant Octopus"
"...is that a fact?"
West nods enthusiastically, apparently not noticing the strange slip in Robin's tone and grins at him like a dope. Eager to move the conversation along from the near-miss, Dick pokes the meta playfully in the stomach as retribution "- Anyway, come on and get up"
"Why? M'I gonna get to run again?"
"Noooope - " Robin pops cheerfully "- Batman's says I'm allowed to beat you up!"
The boy wonder seems far to overjoyed at the prospect for Wally's tastes.
"Wha'? Whyyyyy?"
"Physical therapy." Robin responds with an impish grin.
"Snt' it supposed to be Physi-o-therapy?"
"I know what I said."
The banter feels familiar – but then of course it should – Wally has bantered with Robin may times since he arrived here. West pouts and blows a raspberry before moving at Robin's insistence to dress, blind and deafen himself once more.
The gym from yesterday has been filled with mats that Wally's feet sink into a little as he steps on them. He's reminded of a deflated bouncy castle – which he apparently has experience of.
He quickly discovers its not as springy as he imagined when Robin drop-kicks him into it.
A verbal explanation of the exercise would have done.
The sparring doesn't feel especially foreign to him, but it seems he's not even remotely capable of holding his own against Batman's protégée. His ass finds itself reconnecting with the floor many more times in the hours to follow. The two should cut the foreplay and start dating if their gonna hook up so often.
Wally is much taller and somewhat heavier than the lithe 13 year-old menace, but Robin is fit, quick as a whip and skilled. While Wally can sloppily dodge the attacks he can see coming, Robin's heavier hits come from his blind spots – of which there are apparently many – and sneak attacks.
There is a degree of instinctive combat reaction in West's muscle memory (the extent of which was Robin's original task to discern before he started taking a distracting enjoyment in landing West groaning onto his butt over and over again). He can block some hits, counter or avoid others and knows how to put his body into a punch when adequately motivated to do so. Otherwise he doesn't seemed so thrilled with the limited movement punch-up.
As he begins to whine about his freshly bruised tail-bone between pants Robin concludes he's kicked him around enough.
He has hardly the honed reflexes or combat aptitude of a trained assassin or super-criminal. Unless he was a totally inept one. Bruce notes Robin's report of the morning's activities and remains unable to discern the purpose of the scraps of suit West was found in beyond simple friction-resistance and streamlining. All factors are being considered as Bruce weighs the possible outcomes of turning West loose on the general public.
Should it prove safe enough he'll need papers – all of which Batman is easily capable of fabricating; records of his birth, education, tax and employment history. He'll require a place of origin and city of residence; somewhere large and tolerant of meta-human mutations where he can get lost in the crowd. Batman will be watching him of course. Since he was the one to put West back together he now claims responsibility for the impetuous young man – for better or worse.
West showers and Alfred feeds him, remaining unphased and gracious as the meta pesters him for seconds and thirds. After the run his appetite has asserted itself with a vengeance, seeming to become the dominant all-consuming thought in his head. This voracious need to consume works against West in his public safety evaluation; something so close to an addiction could easily turn him to a life of crime if funds were to become lacking.
Properly fuelled his muscle tone has quickly begun to re-develop. Consciously or not, West's body wracks itself with micro-vibrations which keep his muscles in a constant state of toning, adding shape and bulk to his thin limbs.
Running seems to have catalysed this within him. Bruce would like to investigate further, but Batman is needed elsewhere.
The escape and subsequent confrontation of a number of inmates following a prison-break in Arkham Asylum keeps Batman and Robin busy for the rest of the weekend and totally absent from the cave or manor grounds.
The Joker is amongst the escapees and is determined to lead the dynamic duo in a deadly game of cat and mouse across the length and breadth of Gotham. Bruce cannot rest until he returns the madman to captivity.
Alfred suspects they will return battered, bruised and with broken bones. No encounter with the Joker is sustained without injury. He worries for them.
In the meantime he tries to busy himself with West; attending to him as appropriate and leading the compliant meta-human senseless through the cave to the gymnasium each day.
The respite from Bruce's testing also gives Alfred the opportunity he's been waiting for to inflict some much needed elocution lessons upon the young man, while keeping the butler close to the cave should the masters return and have need of his medical aid.
West doesn't seem particularly enthused by the tuition but endures it with patience and jokes.
He will never speak the Queen's English and Alfred acknowledges such propriety wouldn't suit the youngsters easy informal charm, but the focused set of lessons does seem to help lessen his slurr until it resembles something closer to a lazy accent. Alfred is quite pleased with the result. West wasn't so concerned by the missing letters or words but is apparently happy that Alfred is happy and does his best to remember his teachings.
Two days without the presence of either and Wally too is notably worried for Batman and Robin.
The 'doc' is apt at disguising it, but his own concern grows with every hour and Wally is gifted with a deep natural empathy that allows him to perceive this. He feels terrible for the sweet Englishman's upset. It only serves to amplify his own.
Waiting for the situation to resolve itself with patience and humility is apparently not one of his stronger attributes. The extended absences of his host and friend doesn't help to calm the nervous energy that no amount of running seems to be able to prevent building inside him.
Even accelerated, his mind is apparently no match for his feet.
The doc arrives with a hostess-trolley and props open the enclosure door to wheel it through as is his new custom since a conventional tray became too small to carry his meals.
Before Wally's aware of anything beyond the drive to help he finds he's sped past him and through the crack in the door. The rush of adrenaline from leaving the cell at his heels swamps his higher brain functions in an all encompassing natural high and he whoops loudly, glancing back at the enclosure in awe of his own freedom, shortly before smacking into a meaty grey wall.
Jade eyes slowly inch forward in disbelief and horror.
"Bats!" He yelps.
The Dark Knight's Batsuit is savaged with cuts and gashes, mud and burns. Robin is stood behind him in similar condition, the two having clearly just returned. The boy wonder is the picture of the exhaustion that Batman must also feel but resolutely hides. Regardless, he manages to pull West up from his dumbstruck position on the floor by the collar of his hospital attire. The enraged expression on his face is more than enough to silence any attempts to squirm free or thoughts of protest in the meta; even going so far to actually scare Wally. The skin at the back of his neck pricks upright in fear.
"Get. Back. Inside" The Batman growls, each word sliced apart from it's predecessor with the crushing clench of the man's teeth.
"I- um, I was just – Was gonna-" Despite the doc's best efforts Wally finds his words don't seem to work at all any more.
Batman roughly takes his wrist, his gauntlet-covered grip vice-like and makes Wally flinch in pain. He is hauled unforgivingly back into the enclosure where the doc still stands unsure of what transpired beyond a sudden gust of wind.
"Oh Master B- " He greets before catching glance of the frightened and now struggling red-head pulled into the room behind him "- Oh my."
West is locked away without second thought. Bruce is in no mood to deal with him and his ill-timed escape attempt only exacerbates the black fury coursing through him. The Joker killed three children this night. Three children that shouldn't be dead. Another three families that will never heal.
Alfred wraps up the injuries he can see. Fractured bones and broken ribs.
Robin is silent throughout; wounded in a way that cannot be re-set. The children asphyxiated in joker venom in front of him. His eyes are wide and blank, squashing any reaction in an attempt to save-face.
Alfred insists him to bed. He has school tomorrow.
Dick shakes his head; he's sure he'll see the dead eyes of his parent's in the children's faces if he dreams tonight. Bruce wonders if a light sedative might help.
Alfred's zeal remains, bidding Dick to say goodnight to Mr. West before retiring. Bruce watches the butler's plot with muted interest as Robin wanders lost into the enclosure.
West his cowed on the bed and takes but one glance at his visitor before dragging Robin into his chest, like holding him will make the world right again. Like it's not three children short. Perhaps it does. Dick's self-imposes stoicism dissolves after a minute of utter stillness and then he's wrapping his arms tight around West like its a natural reaction.
For now Bruce will allow West to act as a human therapy-dog for Dick's sake.
In the morning his escaping indiscretion must be dealt with.
AN
In Young Justice I really liked Wally and Dick's almost-questionable-but-not friendship. Although their now very different ages I wanted to keep that. I vaguely remember in the Static Shock/JLU crossover episode Batman mentions Robin is off with the titans (this is while Wally is already in the Justice League), so that's why Dick is a lot younger than Wally in this and where the Robin from this continuity will eventually end up.