[The Watchtower
March 26, 15:30 EST]
Wally imagined that he looked an awful lot like a deer in headlights as he stared at his best friend. The terrible thing was, Dick didn't look all that different from him, which meant that this was not going to be a normal conversation. It meant that something was still broken between them, and Dick was aware of it.
Wally stared at him in open shock, reeling still from Dick's sudden appearance. However, Dick seemed to recover much faster. He took a deep breath and straightened up more, showing all the signs of someone about to recite a very well-rehearsed speech. Then he really saw Wally, no doubt taking in the layers of grime and dust covering his face and costume, and his expression turned confused, "Uh…what the heck happened to you?"
"Training," Wally answered lamely. He was only just able to get the word out of his paralyzed jaw. "It's sort of a long story…"
"Superman kept saying that he heard all these explosions," Dick began slowly, turning his head slightly. "Was that you?"
"Maybe," he said evasively, putting on his best poker face.
They fell into an awkward silence – Wally shuffling his feet nervously and Dick looking like he was mentally scrambling to remember something. In the distance, the shower was still running, and the noise was deafening to him. He supposed that he could just run for it – shower and change in two seconds flat so Dick couldn't track him and then hide somewhere in the Watchtower until the end of the world.
He didn't know why he hadn't prepared himself for Dick sneaking up on him. Dick did this all the time. The fact that the locker room air ducts were so easily compromised was a little worrying, but his best friend had gotten into tighter spaces before. Wally should have been expecting him to come contorting out of one of the electrical outlets in his uncle's quarters.
In no time at all, Dick looked pulled together again. Oh no. Wally should have taken the pause to escape. Why hadn't he run?
"Have you been avoiding me?" Dick asked immediately, not wasting any more time.
The visibly hurt and confused look on his face twisted a knife in Wally's heart, but he wasn't ready to be honest yet, "What? Why would you think that? No, my aunt just…uh wanted me to sleep. By myself – I mean, without any visitors. Any more visitors. Some of them she couldn't keep away."
"Are you sure?" Dick made a face. "Because I kept asking your uncle if I could see you, and he told me that he didn't think you were ready to talk to me yet."
Oh, holy crap. Uncle Barry was the worst liar in history.
"Uhm…" Wally floundered for a response as Dick's stunning blue eyes started expertly decimating his defenses.
"Please don't lie to me," Dick said sadly, suddenly looking very small.
Wally looked back at him quietly, feeling devastating shame rush in on him. He didn't want to lie to his best friend and couldn't believe he'd thought that was the way to go. "I was avoiding you…"
"Why?" Dick didn't seem put off by the admission. Instead, it looked like he was encouraged – terrified, but encouraged.
He was probably freaked out over what he saw in Wally's memories and was hoping to clear things up right now. Oh no, if the conversation kept going down this road, he was going to have to tell Dick the truth. Crap. Wally ran a hand through his dirty hair and tried to stop shaking. Well, if it was going to happen, then it might as well be on his terms. He took a deep breath and plunged right in.
"I didn't really want to talk about this," he explained, his insides writhing with antsy energy. He got right to the point. "About what you saw in my memories with Zoom, right?"
Now, Dick looked like the one put off balance. He nodded quietly, "You – He… You didn't tell him my name…"
Wally blinked at him in blank surprise. He hadn't thought Dick would mention that bit first. Had he misread the situation? Maybe Dick didn't care about the love thing after all. Was the torture what he'd been so desperate to talk to him about?
He shook off the shock abruptly and blurted, "Of course not!"
"But…he was torturing you," Dick shook his head like he didn't understand. "You could have given him my name and made it stop."
Wally stared at him like he had nine heads. That was the stupidest thing he'd ever heard! "What? I wasn't going to – Okay, first: There's no way in hell I would ever give him your identity. Second: Zoom hates me. He would've kept torturing me anyway. And, third: I just told you! I would never tell him your secret identity. I'd never tell anyone, no matter what they did to me."
"That's stupid!" Dick started to look more like himself again as he suddenly got angry. "It might have saved you all that pain."
"Are you listening to me? Like, you can hear that I'm speaking English, right?" Wally cocked his head to the side, narrowing his eyes at Dick quizzically. "The sole reason that Professor Zoom was trying to get your name out of me was so that he could kill you. You get that? If I'd told him, then you'd be dead the second you went out anywhere as Richard Grayson. Why would I sentence you to death just to spare myself a little pain?"
"A little pain?!" Dick's eyes bugged out of his head. "He was killing you! He was destabilizing your molecular structure and tearing your insides apart!"
"So?" Wally shrugged, getting irritated now at how dumb his best friend was being. "It's not like I only agreed to keep your secret until the day someone asked for it. That's not much of a promise at all."
"There are exceptions!" Dick shouted at him angrily. "Like when you're being tortured to death!"
"No!" Wally growled back just as heatedly. "There aren't! Not ever. God, it's like you wanted me to betray you and lead Zoom right to you."
"What I didn't want was to ever see you like that again!" Dick was actually trembling as he yelled. His knees buckled, and he sat down hard on one of the benches, looking around manically and moving his arms like he wasn't sure what to do with them. One hand was tugging at his raven hair convulsively while the other was clenched so hard into a fist that the knuckles were white. When he finally pulled himself together enough to look up, Wally saw that he didn't look mad anymore. He looked lost. "I've been right here the whole time! I was there when Batman and Black Canary found you dead in your house with a knife sticking out of your chest! I waited for almost seven hours not knowing if you were going to live or die. I watched your uncle try everything possible to save you and listened to you scream in agony when you finally woke up. And I stayed with you every night when you were recovering so that you wouldn't have nightmares!"
Wally shut his mouth and felt all his anger drain away as he listened to Dick rant on. The boy wonder stood back up suddenly and walked right up to him, stabbing a finger into his chest. His eyes blazed with intensity, and he was less than five inches away, nearly matching him in height.
"Then, when you were finally starting to be okay again, you got ambushed by Zoom and Blue Trinity, and I watched the feed from your goggles, knowing the whole time that I should have been there with you! You asked me if I wanted to come with on that run, and I turned you down! Do you know how that made me feel?! I looked for you every day, and I didn't even know if you were dead or not! So, don't you dare tell me it's only a little bit of pain! It's more than that to me. I don't ever want anything like this to happen to you ever again, and I'd rather die than have to see you go through that kind of agony," Dick finished breathlessly, face red and chest heaving. His eyes were like live wires – wild and burning with passion beneath the few strands of black hair that had fallen out of place. Wally felt his insides tie themselves into knots while his heart started beating faster than a race car.
He'd never seen anything so beautiful in his entire life.
Without waiting to stop and think about what he was doing, Wally took the sides of Dick's face in both hands and kissed him.
It only lasted a couple seconds, but that was plenty of time for Wally to realize what he'd done. He pulled back as absolute horror came crashing down on him and watched in slow motion as Dick's eyes turned into wide circles. His mouth hung open in shock. Neither one of them moved a muscle for several heartbeats. They just stared at one another, centimeters apart, frozen in time.
Until Wally reeled back like Dick had burned him. He held out his hands defensively and started panicking, "I'm sorry! I don't – I… shouldn't have done that. Dick, I'm so -!"
"Shut up…" Dick's dumbfounded expression suddenly turned hopeful. He closed the distance between them and hooked one hand around the back of Wally's neck, pulling him down into another kiss.
For a moment, Wally wasn't sure how to respond. He just stood there numbly until an intense wave of calm settled over him, stronger even than how he'd felt after he confessed to his aunt and uncle everything his dad had done to him. This felt so unbelievably right. Wally wrapped both arms around Dick's waist and pulled him flush against him, his heartbeat speeding up to a steady hum. Dick held onto him just as tightly, and Wally could feel him smile against his lips.
Dick pulled back just enough to rest his forehead on Wally's, and he heard relieved laughter issue from the black-haired boy. When he opened his eyes, he found Dick grinning at him, "This is why we've been so weird around each other lately, isn't it?"
"Oh my God," Wally nodded with a helpless sigh. "I've been stressing out about this for like two weeks."
"A month," Dick admitted with a little half shrug.
"I really like you," Wally smiled at him after a minute, feeling a little embarrassed. "A lot more than a best friend."
"Yeah, I kinda got that," Dick laughed in response, no doubt referring to the kiss they'd just shared.
"I know," he took the teasing good-naturedly. Wally was so happy right now that Dick could've punched him in the jaw and it still wouldn't have wiped the giant smile off his face. "I just wanted to say it."
"Then, I like you too," Dick's grin grew even wider. His fingers tangled themselves in Wally's hair and started dragging lightly along his scalp. "When did you realize?"
"Uh…the day I got kidnapped by Zoom, actually," Wally thought about it for a second, absently threading his fingers together at the small of Dick's back. "When we were just coming into California. That's when it really hit me. I mean, I'm sure it started way before that, and I just couldn't tell. I was probably in denial; you know how I am."
"I wasn't much better," Dick laughed half-heartedly. "I think I started feeling this way that first night in the Watchtower when I stayed with you, and it took me all the way until the day Roy and I came over to figure it out completely. Actually, Artemis helped me see it more than anything else."
Then Dick's expression was suddenly annoyed, and he narrowed his eyes at Wally accusingly, "Did you know that she's been all over you since January?"
Instead of getting nervous, Wally just snorted with laughter, "This is hilarious. Do you know how jealous I've been of Zatanna lately? I've been trying to hate her for two weeks, and the girl hasn't done anything to me. I don't even know if she likes you for sure or not."
"Oh, she does, but she's not my type," Dick confirmed with a distant frown like he was remembering something. Wally's mood was about to tank in concern when Dick knocked their heads together lightly with a playful smirk. "Oh, please, like you aren't in the same boat as me with Artemis after you. Calm down."
"I don't like this whole being jealous thing," Wally sighed tiredly. However, if it meant that he got to be with Dick like this, he could deal with it.
"Don't worry; I've always preferred speedsters over magicians. Although, I kinda like you being jealous," Dick winked at him smugly and moved in for another kiss. For half an instant, Wally was tempted to turn his head to stubbornly avoid it, but he caved at the last second and met Dick's lips with his own. That's when he realized that the younger hero was about to have a lot of power over him, and it was probably going to be really terrible for winning arguments.
All too soon, Dick broke the kiss, and when Wally opened his eyes to see what was wrong, he found Dick frowning at him in confusion, "Why do you taste like a sidewalk?"
"What…?" Wally blinked at him uncomprehendingly for a second before he thought to glance down at himself. Right. He was still filthy. He stepped back away from Dick and patted down his costume. "Oh, that's concrete dust. Sorry, I was gonna shower, but then you ambushed me."
"What were you doing?" Dick cocked his head to the side suspiciously.
"Training. I told you," Wally explained simply. "We were practicing vibrating through things without making them explode."
"How'd it go?" Dick's eyes lit up in interest.
"Uhh… Well, I managed to vibrate through all of the walls," he answered evasively with an optimistic tone.
An impish smile slowly spread across Dick's face, "And how many did you blow up?"
"All of them," Wally reported proudly, placing his hands on his hips and successfully puffing out his chest and holding the pose until Dick's laughter poked cracks into his façade. He darted over to retrieve his towel and the spare costume he'd stashed there from the last time he'd trained in the gym. "I'm gonna grab a really fast shower if that's cool. I feel like I'm breathing in all this gunk. Please don't go anywhere?"
It was a question, but Dick still nodded and leaned against the lockers with his arms crossed and an easy smile on his face, "I won't. Just hurry back."
Wally didn't need any more persuading. He dashed out of the locker room and back to the showers where the stall he'd turned on before was still running. He stripped off the rest of his Kid Flash uniform and hopped under the spray. Normally, he could shower very thoroughly in the span of two seconds, but this time, he took his time and stretched that to almost a minute.
Wally was euphoric. He closed his eyes and tilted his face into the water, letting the hot spray run over his aching muscles as he thought about what had just happened. It was almost too good to be true, and Wally was in disbelief that Dick felt the same way about him. He knew that they'd run across a few little problems soon if they decided to be together this way, but he pushed them from his mind. It was way too early to start worrying about what his friends and family would think. Wally just needed to shut off his superspeed for once and enjoy taking it slow.
He turned off the water and toweled off in record time, changing into the fresh uniform in the blink of an eye and zipping back into the locker room where Dick was still waiting for him. The boy wonder was standing in the middle of the room now, arms dropped at his sides and facing the door, but Wally didn't spare a thought as to why. He just sped right up to him and threw his arms around Dick's shoulders, grinning impossibly wide.
Dick didn't respond like he'd hoped. Instead, the black-haired boy glanced at him with a nervous expression, and that's when Wally heard the sound of someone clearing their throat behind him. His muscles locked up immediately, and he very slowly peeked over his shoulder.
Roy was standing in the doorway, leaning against the frame with a sly smirk on his face.
Wally jumped back away from Dick, his face burning red hot with panic and embarrassment. So, maybe it wasn't too early to freak out over what his friends and family would think after all…
He started to stammer out an explanation, but Roy pushed off from the frame and walked up to them, holding out one hand to quiet him, "You don't have to do that. Your guilty little faces say it all. So, when did this happen?"
The way he said it, and the way he looked right at Dick, gave Wally pause. What was that about? Had they talked about this before?
"About five minutes ago," Dick answered begrudgingly.
Then the smuggest grin Wally had ever seen stretched across Roy's face, "I told you that you had nothing to worry about."
"Just shut up," Dick muttered, looking away stubbornly.
"Wait… I'm confused," Wally looked back and forth between the two of them. "How does Roy know?"
"I figured it out," Roy crossed his arms and shrugged one shoulder. "Dickie over there is much worse at being sneaky than he thinks."
"Don't call me that," Dick grumbled, only getting more irritated when Roy reached out and ruffled his hair.
"Well, I think it's cute," Roy eyed them both with a superior look. He hooked his arm around Wally's neck and leaned in to speak covertly. "If you need any tips, you just let me know, alright?"
Wally bristled, leaning away from Roy and fixing him with a look, "What the hell does that mean?"
"He thinks he's an expert just because he's dating someone," Dick sidled over to stand beside Wally, matching his mild glare at their older brother. "A certain supervillain someone."
Roy's teasing demeanor abruptly vanished, and he scowled at Dick, "You just can't keep your mouth shut for two days, can you?"
"What – Cheshire?" Wally raised an eyebrow at Dick for confirmation. "We've known about that for months."
Roy looked extremely annoyed at that, "We're not dating…"
"Mmhmm," Wally smiled at him doubtfully, exchanging a look with Dick out of the corners of his eyes.
"How have you 'known about it for months'?" Roy narrowed his eyes at them suspiciously.
"Uhm, dude. December. New Orleans," Wally rolled his eyes with a sigh, remembering clearly the night that he, Kaldur, Artemis, and Roy had chased down Sportsmaster and Cheshire. "She had you pinned and kissed you before I knocked her off. You totally liked it. I could tell. So, I told Dick."
"We figured, if anything, we could tease you with it forever," Dick chimed in as well. "We didn't expect to find you meeting up with her regularly all through January."
"And, how do you know about that?!" Roy threw his arms up in frustration, glaring at the both of them in disbelief."
"We followed you," Wally shrugged like it was no big deal.
Roy's eyes bugged out dangerously, "Are you joking?! It's not like we were going on dates! Half of those times we 'met up', she attacked me. If you were following me, why didn't you help?!"
"Oh, come on," Dick ignored his outburst. "It's not like she was really trying to hurt you. It's called 'fight flirting'. Catwoman does it to Batman all the time. You just have to deal with it."
"Besides, Cheshire's been sort of avoiding fights with the other heroes lately. Especially the Team. Maybe that has something to do with you," Wally trailed off suggestively. "Although, I think it's also because she's Artemis' big sister. She probably doesn't want to estrange herself by killing one of us."
"What?!" Roy's mouth dropped open. "Artemis is her sister?!"
Dick elbowed Wally in the ribs, and he cringed outwardly. Oops.
"Yeah…" he made a pained sort of face and tried to speak delicately. "Artemis told us herself towards the end of December. Sorry – I guess we all just kept it need to know."
"Get used to it, Roy," Dick half smiled with a shrug. "If you and Cheshire get married, Artemis is gonna be your sister-in-law."
"I'm not going to marry-" Roy shut his mouth abruptly like he'd had something to shoot back at them but changed his mind. He took a deep breath and went to one of the lockers instead, putting in his combination. "I'm not doing this with you two. I'm going to go shower, and when I come back, you had better be gone or Batman and Flash are gonna find some anonymous emails detailing the newest extracurricular activities of their sidekicks."
Dick laughed out loud and called him out on his bluff, "You don't know Batman's email."
Roy just slammed the locker shut and stomped towards the showers, "Then I'll get it from Ollie."
"Ollie doesn't know it either," Dick and Wally whispered to each other at the same time.
Then at the last second, Wally caught a glimpse of Roy's shoulder and the black and yellow bruise covering it all the way to his back. Wally dashed to his side quickly and pulled him to a stop so he could get a better look at it, "What the heck happened to you?!"
Roy craned his neck to look at the bruise, revealing another one on the side of his jaw, "Just patrol. It's not even that bad."
He said that too quickly. Dick noticed as well, and he narrowed his eyes at Roy suspiciously, "You're lying…"
Roy glared at him and moved his eyebrows like he was trying to silently convey something important, "No. I'm not."
"Now who's being patronizing?" Wally countered with a mild frown. Roy had raged for so long over not being treated like an equal by the League, and he was doing the same thing to them! "Tell us."
Roy stared at him for a long moment, deciding what to do, before he sighed unhappily, "Some Velocity got to the streets…"
Wally's arm dropped to his side numbly, and he felt his chest go cold.
"Cheshire gave me the heads up this morning. I've been in Chicago tracking down every sale," he continued carefully, watching Wally closely for his reaction. "Now, it's not the newest version. We analyzed the samples we got our hands on, and it's only Velocity 8. But there are already a lot of people using. I got tagged a few times, because there's no way to know who's taken the V8 unless you get up close."
"I destroyed every drop of Velocity in that base!" Wally growled suddenly, pointing at Roy angrily once he snapped out of his shock. He wasn't mad at the archer; he was remembering how he'd nearly gotten himself killed trying to make sure V9 never got out.
"Well, that's just it. 'In that base'." Roy said reluctantly. "Zoom must've had another stash somewhere – him or Vandal Savage."
Wally felt the fury rolling through his body and started shaking until Dick put a hand on his shoulder to help steady him.
"There's more," Roy sounded unwilling to tell them. "Professor Zoom sightings have started up again. They're concentrated in spikes all over Central City."
So, he was alive. Wally knew that Zoom had most likely survived, but he'd been holding out hope anyways. Either way, alive or dead, this was a problem, "Have you told anyone yet?"
"No," Roy answered with an uncomprehending frown. "I was kind of doing this under the radar. Didn't think the Justice League would approve of me working with Cheshire. Why?"
"You didn't see my memories, did you?" Wally said it as more of a statement than a question. He felt his whole body go on high alert.
"No…what's going on?" Roy was lost, but Wally didn't have any time to explain. He turned to Dick and found him just as alarmed.
"What Zoom said to me…"
"About the Manhunters attacking right after Velocity is released," Dick supplied the rest for him urgently. "But, you destroyed the ones that were designated to attack the Watchtower. You don't think what Zoom said still applies, do you?"
"Zoom's so fast that he can only be spotted by regular humans if he wants to be," Wally shook his head furiously. "He's letting himself be seen just to taunt me so that I know the League's going to be attacked anyway. It's for the same reason that he released Velocity so soon – to let me know that I didn't change anything."
"Are you sure?" Dick frowned.
"I'm positive," Wally nodded confidently. "It doesn't matter how many Manhunters I took out. We know that there are more out there in the universe, and I know Professor Zoom. He wouldn't have done this for no reason."
Roy still looked skeptical, but he was staring to the side like he was running through all the facts in his head. Dick was looking at Wally with wide, clear eyes, and he knew that they were definitely on the same page.
"The Manhunters are coming."
"Go warn Batman and Flash. I'll tell the Lanterns," Roy snapped out of his daze and pointed at each of them seriously. "Move fast. I think you're right."
Wally looked over at Dick, and it felt like time slowed down for a moment. His eyes roved over the contours of Dick's face, his sapphire eyes, and the hard lines of his eyebrows and mouth. He'd already analyzed the situation and was ready to act. Wally had never felt more in sync with anyone else.
Roy sprinted out of the room, and Dick instantly reached out for Wally's hand, "Keep your communicator on."
"You too," Wally squeezed his hand tightly. Then he dashed out of the locker room as well, outstripping Roy easily and running through the Watchtower up to the residential level where his uncle's quarters were.
He sped to the door and keyed in the lock combination as fast as possible. It slid open too slowly, and Wally rushed into the room. His aunt was still at her laptop typing up her newest story, and Uncle Barry was looking out the window at space, drying his hair with a towel. Both looked up when he ran in.
"Sweetie, what's wrong?" Aunt Iris closed her laptop curiously, half rising from her seat when she saw the look on his face.
"The Manhunters are going to attack," Wally blurted immediately. "Any minute."
Uncle Barry was suddenly in front of him, expression severe and all business, "How do you know? I didn't hear an alert go out."
"There won't be one until Robin reaches Batman. We just figured it out literally two minutes ago," he explained in one breath. "I need you to trust me. Please. I'm not wrong."
"I trust you," Uncle Barry assured him very seriously. He was a blur of motion, and then he had his costume on. "I need you to run to the med bay. Tell Max to get Jay and Joan planetside. Give this address to him."
Wally looked at the slip of paper his uncle had scrawled a few words on and glanced up at him questioningly.
"It's a safe house in Alaska," his uncle sped to the dresser and pulled out a small black bag. He handed it off to Aunt Iris, who slung it over her shoulder without even a single word. She pulled out a strange metal bracelet from one of the side pockets and slid it onto her wrist with practiced ease. A small red light started blinking when she pressed a button on it. Was it a tracker? "I got it when I married your aunt so that I had somewhere safe to take her in case my identity got burned and she needed to disappear fast."
"Okay," Wally gripped the paper tightly, heart still pounding madly with adrenaline.
"I'm taking Iris there right now. She can't be up here when we're attacked," his uncle scooped Aunt Iris into his arms right as the Watchtower's security system started going off. A small red light above the door started flashing along with a panic siren. "Just hold tight up here, and I'll be right back."
He made to speed out the door, but Aunt Iris clutched his arm frantically, "Wait! Isn't Wally coming with us?! He can't stay here if the Manhunters are on their way!"
Uncle Barry paused, and Wally looked between him and Aunt Iris, feeling his body go icy with dread. There was no way they'd make him sit this one out, right? Not after everything he'd gone through – everything he'd done. They'd been protecting and babying him for far too long, and it had to stop.
"Babe," Uncle Barry said reluctantly, looking down at Aunt Iris with a regretful frown. "This is gonna be…life or death for the Justice League. And if it falls, then the planet falls. Earth can't afford to have him out of the picture. With Wally able to make things explode now, he's going to be one of the League's heavy hitters. I can't ask him to stay out of the fight."
Aunt Iris' eyes filled with tears of dismay, and she looked like she was anxiously trying to think of some kind of argument to offer to the contrary.
"You're going to have the hardest job of either of us, Iris," he spoke sympathetically. "You'll have to wait for us to come back when it's all over and trust that we can do it. Do you think you can handle that? I know Wally and I will both fight better if we know you believe in us."
Wally felt his own eyes start burning when his aunt tearfully nodded and reached out for him. He sped to his aunt and uncle and let her curl her arm around his neck and shoulders in a tight hug, "Be safe. Please. Both of you."
"You too," Wally sniffed hard to hold back his emotions. Uncle Barry left quickly for the zeta tubes, and he went the opposite direction towards the medical bay to warn the rest of his family.