Author's Note: Hi there. See? You didn't have to wait a month. The first small part of this chapter was written while I was listening to this one song on repeat, Wonderful by Everclear. So, I "borrowed" a few lyrics too.
Summary: His father is back and everything around him seems to be crumbling right before his eyes. Sequel to Things Fall Apart.
Disclaimer: I own a notebook full of my writing of Young Justice, that's about it. Wait. Nope, that's it.
The Center Cannot Hold
Part Three
Wally covered his ears trying to drown out the sound of his father shouting from downstairs. Though muffled, he could still make out the familiar raised voice, only his mother's own meek one seemed to be muted. When his dad started shouting, his mother told him to go to his room, close his eyes, and cover his ears. When it was over, she would come up and get him. Recently, the shouting seemed louder to the point that the only place Wally felt safe was in his closet.
He hoped that one day, his dad would find out why he would get so mad, hearing him scream and say bad words all the time scared Wally. He just wished that life would go back to the way it used to be, when his mommy and daddy were happy. School was the worst though, all the other kids were always smiling and laughing. His teacher would ask him if everything was okay, he would always say yes, he didn't want his teacher to know when the bell rang, he didn't want to go home.
The shuttered doors to his closet opened, Wally felt the sunlight on his skin. Soft hands grabbed his arms, pulling them away from his ears. "Wally, honey." his mother whispered. "When I count to ten, open your eyes, okay?" Wally nodded.
"One"
Two
Three
Four
Five
Six
Seven
Eight
Nine
"Ten. Alright, open your eyes." Wally did as he was told, his mother smiled at him. "Everything is wonderful now."
She would always tell him that when the yelling was over, that everything was wonderful. His mom would count to ten and tell him the same thing and he believed her. At first. Recently, he didn't understand how she could smile with tears in her eyes and say everything was wonderful.
"Mommy?"
His mother pulled him forward, wrapping her arms around him. One hand laced through his hair. Wally hugged her back with all the strength he possessed in his small frame.
"Every-"
"Mommy, please don't tell me everything is wonderful now." Wally murmured against her shoulder. His mother's body shuddered and he thought he heard her whisper;
"I'm sorry, I'm sorry."
l-l
"Kid? Wally? Can you hear me?"
His dream faded back to a fuzzy memory, his senses were aware that he wasn't laying on the hatred ground anymore and the air didn't reek of Grodd either. Which meant that he was still alive or he died. Once he shifted, Wally knew it couldn't be the latter, judging by the sourness in his neck and chest.
"Had me scared there for a scared for a second, Kid." his Uncle sighed in relief from beside him. Through half lidded eyes, Wally looked at the older speedster.
"Grodd?" he winced at how raw his voice sounded. He felt cool glass press into his hand, he murmured his thanks before drinking some of the water.
"Back in his pen where he belongs." he assured, "How do you feel?"
The teenager pushed himself up, promping himself up against a pillow, "Throat hurts, but that's all."
"Good." Barry said, settling back into what looked like Wally's desk chair.
He does not want you.
The ginger speedster nearly flinched as Grodd's words came back to him. They weren't true, his Aunt and Uncle loved, they took him in. But. What if? For years a thought remained in the back of his mind, that he was burdening them, that maybe they wanted a family of their own but Wally was in the way. Except Wally always managed to push those thoughts away.
"You okay, Kid?" Barry's voice broke Wally out of his trance like state.
"Yeah, I'm fine."
Barry hooked two fingers on Wally's shirt collar (only now did he notice his Kid Flash uniform)."That'll take another day to heal completely, looks like you get to skip school tomorrow, that will make your Aunt happy."
He touched his neck, wincing at how tender his skin was, which probably meant there was a decent sized bruise there. That marks it, he and Supey were going to start an anti-monkey club. But, on the bright side, no dreary classes to go to.
l-l
"Wally! What are you doing here?" M'gann greeted, floating over to the speedster upon hearing the computer system announce his arrival.
"Hey, Megalicious, my day just got a whole lot better." Wally said, for once he didn't have to force himself to grin.
Seeing as how he didn't have to stick around school today and being home alone was too boring, Wally left a note saying he was going to be at the Mountain all day. Here, Wally didn't have to worry about the chaotic mess he called his life back in Central.
"Was your day bad before you arrived?" the green martian asked evidently concerned for her teammate.
"No, I was just, it was awesome before and not it's even more awesome." he said, it sounded completely lame and fake even to him.
"Good job, Kid Smooth." a voice cackled from the other side of the room, there was no mistaking the owner of that voice.
"Dude! What are you doing here?" Wally repeated M'gann's previous question, zipping over to the couch where the Boy Wonder was seated but not before winking at the female martian.
"I could ask you the same question, KF." Robin retorted and Wally swore the younger's sunglasses flashed.
"Yeah, but I asked first." Wally countered jumping over the back of the couch landing beside the Boy Wonder.
Robin snorted, "A run in with Bane ended with the west wing of my school collapsing, no big deal." he explained with a shrug, "You?"
"Small fight with Grodd." Wally replied deciding to keep it vague.
"Small fight, huh?" Robin repeated inching his head upward, trained not to miss a single detail, it was a cake walk catching a glimpse of the yellow skin on the speedster's neck. "You know a turtle neck would cover that up, better."
"Pass." Turtlenecks were itchy anyways.
"You know, Supey is off trying to book a show on the Maury Povich show, Aqualad is talking to the whales and Miss M is planning on what looks like a hundred layer cake." Robin trailed off.
"And?"
"Up to going to Gotham?" Robin asked the corner of his mouth corked up.
"Rob, you know Flash doesn't like me going there." Wally lowered his voice so only the young acrobat could hear him.
"So, we won't tell him, simple enough." Robin said as if he was explaining how to open a door to a three year old who didn't know what sarcasm was.
"Won't Bats rat us out?"
"He's away on a last minute League mission in Tibet or the moon, point is, there's nothing to worry about." Robin shrugged.
"Fine." Wally relented, "But, you have to talk to my Uncle if I scrape my knee."
"Yeah, yeah, woe is the speedster with the mother hen posing as his mentor."
"...Shut up."
.:...:.
You have no true friends
"Wally!"
The speedster blinked once the younger teen snapped his fingers in front of Wally's face, "Huh? What?"
Eyes, now absent of sunglasses narrowed at the other, "Are you okay?"
"Yeah, I'm fine." he answered perhaps a little too quickly. He was going to have to work on his ability to lie if he wanted to fool the kid who was being trained by the world's greatest detective.
"You don't seem 'fine', you keep spacing out. Are you sure you didn't hit your head yesterday too?" the usual snark returned to the Boy Wonder's voice, though Wally knew that snark was Dick's own brand of concern.
"Don't worry Dick, the head's perfect okay, I've just been a bit distracted."
Dick moved his gaze forward, looking at the other Gothamites as they walked down Union Square, "You know you can tell me if you want."
Those you call friends don't care
Shut-up. Wally scolded the annoying voice that kept popping into his thoughts, "I'll keep that in mind."
Dick hid his disappointment, deciding that if anything was going on with his friend, Wally would tell him, "Alright." he sighed, "What do you want to do?"
The better part of the day was spent roaming from the nearest arcade to the park, where Wally conned Dick into buying him half a dozen hotdogs from a vendor. Dick's ire towards the speedster was starting to steadily increase the more Wally began to space out. On top of that, the usual Kid Mouth was barely saying more than a sentence of words. Every time the young acrobat would ask if the other was okay he would get the same I'm fine. Dick swore, if he heard another, I'm fine, he was going to throw himself into Gotham Harbor.
"Wally! What the hell is-"
"Hey, isn't that Arty?"
"What?" Dick blurted looking in the direction the speedster was. Sure enough, the only blonde archer on their team was standing in front of them, starring directly at the two, "Crap, crap, crap." Dick cursed pulling his sunglasses out and putting them on just as Artemis began walking towards the two.
"What are you two doing here? And did I just see you without your glasses?" she asked, directing the last question to Robin.
"Seeing things again, afriend*? You know that isn't healthy." Robin smirked.
"I knew it, you do live in Gotham." Wally laughed at the same time.
Artemis' eyebrows knitted together now fully annoyed at her two teammates, "I know what I saw and-" she glared at Wally, "I told you before geek, I don't live here."
Wally snorted, "Then what are you doing here?"
"The same as you, walking." she snapped, "Why wasn't he wearing his glasses?"
"You've obviously been in the sun too long, afriend, you should head inside." Robin said with mock concern.
"Yeah, Artechoke, maybe you need to lay down."
"I told you to stop calling me that!" Artemis hissed at the speedster, "Don't tell me he knows your secret identity."
"Please, like I would tell Kid Mouth of all people." Robin snorted.
They only pretend to like you
Wally looked down at the gray stone, trying to block out the words. Though the response went unnoticed by Robin, it didn't escape Artemis'.
"As much fun as it is talking to you Artymess, I have to go." Robin sighed with a tad bit of dramatic flare, "Try not to run into any walls on your way back, Wally." Just like that, the Boy Wonder ducked into the nearest alleyway, pulling a ninja on them.
Artemis crossed her arms, "Okay, Baywatch, spill it."
"Spill what?" Wally asked trying to play innocent.
"You can't fool me, Wally, and what happened to your neck?" She asked eyes already trailing towards the mentioned part.
Wally pulled his over-shirt up so that the collar was snugged against his neck, "I messed up."
The archer scoffed, "Why doesn't that surprise me." Wally's gaze narrowed at Artemis as she continued, "And don't even think about lying, did Robin seriously tell you his real name?"
"What does it even matter if he did? It doesn't concern you, Artefact."
Artemis ignored the nick name, "Yes, it does. We're a team now, what one of us knows concerning another teammate, the rest of us should know."
"That's rich coming from you." Wally snapped, the archer stood still, quiet now. "What? You're allowed to keep your life secret, but I'm not?" Wally snapped his mouth shut realizing his mistake too late.
"Your life?" Artemis repeated slowly, eyes going to his neck again, "Wally is everything okay?"
They do not care about you. They lie to you.
For that moment, Wally thought that Artemis actually sounded concerned, "I- yeah, just slip of the tongue." He scrambled for an excuse, "I have to go."
And he did what he was best at, he ran. He only wished this would be the last time he ran away from someone close to him.
To be Continued.
Final Thought: * - afriend is a term coined by a few of my friends, Robin is an acrobat and Artemis is an archer, therefore, they are afriends, for more on this I highly recommend Heroes and Hormones by feeltheRUSH.
Though I am the creator of Artefact and Artechoke, I'm clever.
I am back in my comfy casa de dorm room. After last years fiasco, I'm going to be trying to do better this year, but no worries, I will still be updating and you won't notice a difference because they'll still be as sluggish as hell. Currently I'm trying to finish these two works which are both going to be long by the looks of it, reading material to keep everyone occupied and from throwing rotted vegetables at me? I still have to start writing part four anyways. Until then, this is Fallen signing out saying, stay classy readers.