Disclaimer: I do not own Young Justice
Author's Note: Slower chapter, but I wanted that to help get across that things aren't okay for Wally. Hopefully that worked. This chapter was hard to write cause Conner and Wally's friendship makes me really sad, so writing them hurts a bit. But I feel like I did them justice. ALSO I'm taking a bit of break, so chapter 7 won't be up next weekend, but the week after. I'm just a bit burnt out from writing at the moment and have hit a huge block. Hopefully the block will pass painlessly.
Wally was lying in the bleachers at his school. Classes were over for the day but he didn't feel like going home. He didn't want to face his parents who would know immediately that something was wrong, especially when he wouldn't be able to confide in them. The day had passed by slowly and uneventfully. There were no arguments during lunch. No talking out in class. No laughter when walking down the halls. No plans to spend time together. Nothing happened and he was grateful, it gave him the time to get the strength and willpower to go home.
Wally yawned and squinted up at the sky, fighting his closing eyelids. He hadn't slept at all that night. Every time he closed his eyes all he could see was Kent dying over and over again. The whole night he had listened to Dick snore softly. How he had managed to physically make it through the day was still a mystery to him.
The boy placed an arm over his eyes, blocking his view of the sky. He had no idea what he was going to do for the rest of the day. He knew eventually he would have to leave his hiding spot and face the world. He didn't know what his friends were up to either, though he didn't mind. Seeing them would only add to the number of things reminding him of the night before, and for the time being, he wanted to ignore the next part of the day.
Artemis had a similar tactic to him. Complete and utter avoidance. He saw her once during the day in the halls. They made eye contact briefly before she turned and walked the other way. He couldn't blame her; he wanted to avoid himself as well, but he wouldn't deny it had stung a bit. Dick was the only one to forcibly stick around him; mostly it seemed out of fear of Wally doing something stupid. He understood his friend's actions, Dick was the only one who had seen Wally truly upset about something is the past, but he needed to be alone that day.
Wally rarely needed to be alone. He was always the one to go and comfort someone or to wait for that person to come to him. He wasn't used to being on this side of coping. He wasn't even sure he knew how to cope with something this big. He was the lucky one. His life had been a breeze. He had a good home, good friends, good grades – a good life. Sure he had his own issues with things, but he had places to turn. He never felt unable to reach out for help.
But this threw him. He felt every minute and every second since Kent died. Everything moved so slowly, time barely ticking away, and yet he didn't feel like he could keep up. His life normally felt like a blur and that was comfortable. He could move on from the stuff that wasn't good because new things kept happening. Now every second added to the weight on his shoulders. He felt every breath, no longer skipping one to make room for another. Life finally had a hold on him and Wally couldn't break from it.
He sighed and let his eyes close under his arm. He didn't want to doze off, but his eyes were starting to win that fight. He knew that the sleepless night and long day would take their toll on him; he had just hoped he would have been able to hold out longer. He wasn't ready to deal with his grief both awake and asleep. He wasn't ready to come to turns with it.
Just as Wally felt as though he was to give into his exhaustion, he heard a voice call out his name. Slowly he opened his eyes and sat up. He sighed when he saw who it was. Conner was standing on the stairs of the bleachers. He had a backpack slung on one shoulder, arms crossed over his chest. Wally frowned. He wasn't ready for anyone to talk to him about what had happened. He just wanted to try and deal with, or ignore, what had happened alone. He didn't want anyone to try and help him out of the slow motion that was consuming him.
"Go away, Conner," he said. Conner looked at him and made his way over to the ginger. The dark haired boy grunted as he sat down, dumping his bag on top of Wally's. "What do you want?"
"I think this is the longest we haven't talked," Conner said slowly, as if choosing each word precisely. "What's wrong?"
"Nothing's wrong, I just felt like not talking to anyone today," Wally muttered, looking away from his friend. He felt like there was a war waging inside of him. Half of him wanted to tell Conner everything that had happened and the other half wanted to punch his friend for trying to reach out. Wally wanted to avoid the latter; he knew punching him would only lead into his own hand getting hurt.
"Seriously, Wally? You expect me to believe that?" Conner asked, turning to look at his friend. "I've never seen you walk as slowly as you have today and normally the first thing you say to me after I'm back from the farm is 'did you bring me any pie back.'"
The boy sighed a rubbed his face. He let his hand fall and returned the gaze, "It doesn't matter. Look man, Megan probably needs you now or something. She had a rough time last night as well."
"I've already talked with Megan. I'm here because you need someone, and I wasn't there so I'm not going to try and fill in how you felt or what happened. You can talk freely with me," Conner said. He reached over to Wally's shoulder, grabbing it gentle. "So talk."
Wally didn't open his mouth. He stared ahead, thinking of what he could say, wondering if he had the words to say what was need, if he even wanted to talk. He could feel Conner's eyes on him as much as he could feel his hand. Wally shrugged the other boy's hand off and stood up. He took a couple steps away, his back turned to his friend.
"You know, I've known about Kent for awhile now. Dick told me about him when he first told me about the whole agent thing," Wally said. "He told me how he started. He was just like us, found out about a friend in the Agency, helped that friend out on a mission, and then he got asked to join up. Just like that, gets to be an agent. And like, I get that times have changed since whenever Kent was young. I understand that. But I resented him for it."
He paused. He wanted to see if Conner would comment. If he would say he was being ridiculous. If he would just tell him to relax and suck it up, to move on. If he would say anything at all. But his friend remained silent, a quality on which Conner could always be relied on – to be quiet when needed.
"I resented him making it in. I wanted to be like Dick and Kaldur so desperately, but apparently it's too dangerous to just let anyone in anymore. So I did everything I could. I go on every mission I can and I give so much of my life to this stupid Agency, and for what? But I get it now. I get why the Agency doesn't want me, I can't even save one person."
"Wally…" Conner said softly, but didn't continue. Wally was thankfully for his quiet friend. He couldn't deny it was nice to get it off his chest to someone who wasn't going to baby him.
"I feel like everything has just stopped, which is saying something because I don't think I've ever felt stuck before," Wally said, turning back to his friend. He had a weak smile on his face, one Conner didn't return. "I don't really know what to do right now. I feel like I should just stop with helping Artemis, Dick, and Kaldur. Now would be the time, right? Artemis joined, so they wouldn't really be losing anything."
"Wally," the black haired boy said, more force in his voice this time.
"Don't worry, I'm not going to stop. It wouldn't do any good. And I realize I'm not good enough to be an agent," the redhead said, sighing. "I just thought maybe if I could get through that mission things would make more sense about this whole agent thing. Like, if saving this amazing agent that started off like me would answer all the questions I had. I thought maybe this would make the Agency better for me, somehow, you know?"
Conner nodded slowly, looking down. Wally knew Conner was always a bit apprehensive about the Agency. He found out about it all when Wally and Megan did, but it turned out that his cousin, Clark, had been an agent for years. Wally knew how hard that had hit him. The two had been close when Conner was growing up, and to find out this huge secret from friends wasn't the greatest bonding moment. He wasn't sure if two had made up about it yet.
"Look, I might not be the one to really get advice from about the Agency, but I do know you love helping people. I don't think that Kent guy would want you stop, especially with what happened," Conner offered. "Wally, you're good at what you do, and you've definitely been a big help to them all. Take a break if you need to, but don't give up. And hey, apparently freelancing is working out for Roy, maybe it will for you. You're probably too much for the Agency to handle, anyway."
"Yeah, you're probably right. You know, for someone super grumpy, you give some decent advance," Wally said sitting down next to his friend, laughing a little.
"I've been friends with you and Dick long enough to know how to deal with hyper active people," the other boy joked, smiling at his friend. Wally smiled and bumped his friend's shoulder with his. "Hey, anything else you want to get off you chest while we're here?"
Wally's smile wavered and he coughed into his hand. Conner looked at him, and raised an eyebrow. The ginger tried to smile again and sighed, "Yeah, actually there is. Oh man, this is just going to be awkward and I totally blame having not slept in over twenty-four hours, but I'm sorry, dude."
"For what?"
"Being an ass to you and Megan. Look, I've totally been crossing a line with the flirting with her and you know, invading in on your relationship. It was pretty uncool, so, you know, I'm sorry," Wally explained, rubbing the back of his head. He glanced at Conner, hoping bringing it up would not result in any hidden anger letting loose suddenly.
"Yeah, that was definitely weird," he replied.
"So I've been told."
"Thanks for apologizing. I didn't really know how to deal with it, so thanks for this," Conner said, looking at his friend. The two boys grinned at each other. Wally lifted a fist up, and rolling his eyes, Conner bumped his against it, "Are you going to talk to Megan about it?"
"Yeah, definitely. I assume she told you about what happened. I feel pretty shit, so I'll take her out for ice cream or something and give her a proper apology," the redhead said, stretching his arms up over his head.
"Do you want to head out or are you going to hang around here more? I have to meet up Megan now, and I think Dick is waiting for you," Conner said, standing up. He bent over and picked up the two backpacks, handing one to Wally.
"Yeah, I should get home and maybe finally sleep," he answered, standing up. He took his bag from his friend and slung it over a shoulder. Conner turned and began to make his way off the bleachers, Wally following.
They walked in silence through to and through the school. Both boys seemed to be comfortably lost in thought. Wally enjoyed when it was just the two of them, it gave him a good reason to slow down. Better than the reason that was still hanging over him. He still didn't feel okay. He still felt every second still pressing down on him, but was starting to feel manageable.
When they walked out of the school, Wally glared at his friend. Conner seemed to be trying to keep from smiling. Dick and Megan were waiting for them, but so were Artemis and Kaldur. The ginger punched his friend in the arm as they made their way to their friends, "You said it was just Dick and Megan."
"No, I said I was meeting up with Megan and Dick might be waiting. I didn't lie, I just left out I that everyone was waiting," Conner replied, a smirk fully on his face now.
Dick moved forward to sling an arm around Wally when the two reached the group, "Hey man, we're all going to get ice cream if you want to join."
"I actually think I'm going to go home and sleep finally," Wally answered, snaking out from under his friend's arm. "But I'll walk with you as far as I can."
Everyone nodded and the group started out. Wally walked in the back, watching the sidewalk glide past with every step. He could hear his friends talking ahead of him and smiled. He didn't need to join in, but hearing them talk made him grateful to have them there. Each step he took made it seem like the ground was going by faster. He finally felt like the world was gradually starting to get back to its usual pace.
As he watched the ground move by with each step, Wally saw from the corner of his eye a pair of heeled feet fall in time next to him. He didn't need to look up to know who it was. The two of them didn't say anything to each other as they followed their group.
When they got to where Wally had to turn off, Megan gave him a quick hug, telling him to get enough rest and that they were all looking forward to his perkiness coming back. The other three waved and heading down the road, Artemis hanging back.
"One of these days you're going to have to stop lollygagging on my behalf," Wally said, smiling at her.
"Right," she answered, looking down.
They stood in silence, Wally watching her as she kept her eyes down. He wanted to thank her for what she had done. For being there with him at the end of the night. For not judging him when he broke down. For accepting his raw self. But all the words to express this got caught in his throat and all he could manage was a small cough to try and clear it. Wally glanced down the sidewalk to see their friends waiting for her to catch up, all of them trying to look somewhere other than at them.
"You really should get going, you don't want to make them wait anymore," Wally said, rubbing the back of his head as he turned back to Artemis.
The blonde looked up and sighed. Just as he thought she was going to head off, she walked forward and wrapped her arms around him. Wally let his one arm fall and placed it on the small of her back. His head fell on her shoulder. After a few beats he felt her loosen the grip and they pulled apart. Artemis smiled at him faintly.
"Get some sleep," she said, brushing some of her hair that fell into her face, tucking it behind an ear. He only just noticed her hair was down, and couldn't help but stare a bit. He had to admit, to himself, that he definitely liked her with her hair down.
"Yeah," he answered. She nodded and began to walk away. Quickly, he reached out and grabbed her hand. "And Artemis, thanks."
She nodded again without looking back. Wally let go and watched her lightly jog to catch up with their friends. He looked away once they started on their way and began to make his own way home, a faint smile on his face.