A/N- Holy twenty-four reviews... Thank you for feeding the gnome, he was very happy.

For being awesome, I'll give you some Bart and Wally interaction.


It took a lot to shock Wally. After all, he had a girlfriend that came from a family of assassins, a best friend from a world class circus act, and he had doubled as a vigilante for multiple years. Over the course of his adventures, he had been punched, stabbed, attacked, kidnapped, ambushed, and participated in countless other not so friendly activities. Not to mention that he kept finding daggers in Artemis's pockets when it was his turn to do the laundry. At his current stage in life, he figured that surprising him would be impossible.

He was wrong.

His day had started out normal enough. He woke up to cook breakfast, Artemis went to work, and he lounged around a bit, enjoying on of the rare days he didn't have work or class. The only thing he did out of the ordinary was run by the corner store to get gummy bears. He had run out days prior after preforming an experiment with the candy and some molten potassium chlorate. He was still regretting that idea.

To sum up his day, it was perfectly normal. Well it was until he arrived home after his excursion.

It wasn't every day one came home to see Bart Allen hoisting himself up, using the door frame, all in the name of looking through the windows at the top of his front door.

"Wally! Are you home?" Bart yelled into the glass, and it took most of his self control not to turn the other direction and run. How had Bart gotten his address? The kid had only come into their lives a week ago, and despite Dick's encouragement to accept him, Wally had been doing an amazing avoidance dance. He knew his friend wasn't happy with him, because of it. That still didn't explain...

'Wait a second...' Wally thought.

"Dick, you are one sneaky bastard." He mumbled under his breath. Pushing his irritation down, he approached the youngest speedster from behind. Bart hadn't noticed him, and Wally was half tempted to watch Bart stick his face up against the glass until he did. If it weren't for the fact that he had the nosiest neighbors known to man, he would have too. "Uh... Bart?"

"Wally!" Bart yelled as he jumped from the door frame and launched himself at the red head. "Dick said you wanted to see me. Which is weird, because I swore you were avoiding me, becauseyou'reneveratthecave. Iknowyou'renotKidFlashanymore,butafter-"

"Woah! Dude, slow down." Wally interrupted. If he didn't know an better, he would have thought his ears were bleeding. Bart looked at him bewildered. The kid had forgotten that Wally wasn't as fast as he was. He wasn't sure if he should be flattered or annoyed.

"Sorry, I guess I felt the mode right there." The younger boy apologized sheepishly and he rubbed the back of his neck. His words left an awkward silence hanging in the air, and the two of them stood there, looking at each other, and not saying a word.

"How about we just go inside?" He suggested, trying to break the tension. Taking his key out of his pocket, he unlocked the door with practiced movements. The door swung open, and in the blink of eye, Bart had already darted inside and plopped down on the sofa next to his dog.

"I didn't know you had a dog. What's it's name?" Bart asked before Wally could fully grasp what happened.

"Spitfire. I just call him Spit." He answered, coming to his senses, and the pitbull raised his head at hearing his name.

"Spitfire?"

"Don't look at me like that, I didn't name him." Wally defended himself, and he made his way to the couch at a normal speed.

"Why do you do that?" Bart asked as Wally pushed Spit off the couch and took his seat.

"What? If Spit wants to lay on a couch he can buy one himself."

"Not that. The walking thing. Why do you go so slow?" Bart asked, and the actual curiosity in his tone made him stop the sarcastic comments that were bubbling in his throat.

"What do you mean?"

"I mean, why did you walk when you can go so much faster?"

"Force of habit I suppose."

"Habit? You go that slow all the time?"

"Well Yeah."

"Why?" Wally couldn't believe his ears. Every speedster knew why normal speed was important. If they didn't automatically know, they figured out quickly or were told. It had a little to do with secret identities and more to do with family. Bart's dad should have taught him why from the very start.

"Just think of everything you would miss if rushed through life." He explained. "Half the fun is the wait. The best memories are made crammed into the back of a car on a road trip, waiting for the food to show up at a restaurant, and in line for only god knows what. It's about the journey, not the destination."

"Then why is there a destination in the first place?" Bart questioned, and Wally had to admit that it was a pretty good one.

"I guess because everybody need something to work towards." He said, "Didn't your dad tell you all this?"

Bart didn't answer. His eyes dropped to stare at the floor. Sadness radiated out of him, and Wally could tell that there was something that the newest member of the team wasn't telling them about the future. He had seen that kind of sadness before. He saw it in the eyes of Dick and Artemis. It was the look of a kid who was forced to grow up too quickly. Something had happened to Bart that he wasn't up for sharing, and Wally would bet that whatever it was caused him to seek refuge in the past. He wouldn't even put it past the younger boy to claim his time machine broken.

"Bart, what aren't you telling us?"

"Lot's of stuff, but I can't tell you. I might crash the mode." Sensing that the conversation would be over if he pressed to hard. wally didn't want that. He actually found himself liking his cousin from the future, and the tension wouldn't help anyone. But more than that, whatever Bart was hiding from, Wally knew that he wouldn't be the one to send him back to it, mentally or physically. If that meant not calling him out on his transparency, so be it.

"Can you at least tell me what the mode is?" He asked, keeping his tone light. He was trying to slowly shift the conversation. Apparently it worked, because Bart visibly relaxed and started meeting his eyes again.

"Nope." Bart replied, just like Wally thought he would.

"Why?"

"I could crash it."

"How about why I was removed from the family?"

"That's a long story." Bart said, grinning. Wally looked at the smile on his cousin's face and he briefly wondered if he really wanted to know.

"How long we talking about?" He asked, but he already knew deep down. A 'long story' translated to 'long enough to get hungry' in speedster talk.

Bart raised an eyebrow at him.

"Yeah, I get it. I'll order pizza."


A/N- I was only planning for this to be a one or two shot, but if you want it continued, let me know. Feel free to submit suggestions. I love me some input.

Feed the idea gnome, leave a review.