Chapter 5
The following day felt tedious compared to everything that had happened yesterday. Dick woke up, had breakfast, and headed to school.
He walked the halls going to class, he talked to friends but it was all so disarranged. He thought he would have been happier now that Jason was out of the woods. But for some reason everything felt distant. It was like he was expecting something to happen. Waiting for the moment everything fell apart.
"Hey, man you good?" Wally came walking towards Dick with a concerned expression. Dick looked up from his locker turning towards Wally.
"Oh, yeah I'm fine." Dick tried to smile but even that failed to look right. Why was everything wrong today?
"Sure you are." Wally said, voice full of skepticism. "What's really going on?"
Dick sighed, closing his locker door leaning against it.
"I don't know. Everything just feels weird today. Maybe it's because Jason isn't here."
"You hardly speak to Jason at school."
"I do too!" Dick shot back in a whiny tone. Wally rolled his eyes fondly before rubbing the back of his neck looking away from Dick's gaze.
“Umm speaking of Jason how’s-uh, how’s he doing?” Wally was hesitant in asking, wondering if he should've just left the question unsaid.
Dick sighed. He didn’t know how Jason was other than he was concerned about falling behind in his studies now that he was temporarily out of school. Though he has noticed him being a little more squeamish around Bruce. If Dick had to guess he probbaly still felt guilty about the whole situation. Probably thinks Bruce is mad at him. Actually that wasn't a guess. He definitely thinks Bruce is mad at him.
For the past few hours the only sentence Jason could form around Bruce was “sorry.” It reminded him of when Jason was first adopted. He had been playing with Ace when he accidently bumped into a vase breaking it. One minute he was cheerful and laughing; the next, he became an apologizing mess. Saying he would never do this again and he understood if Bruce wanted to punish him. Dick promised himself that day he would do everything he could to make Jason feel like he was a part of the family.
“I think he blames himself. He just keeps apologizing.”
"I'm sorry."
"Why are you apologizing? It's not your fault."
"I know but I'm still sorry. I hope Jason starts coming around."
"You and I both." Dick sighs, pushing off his locker.
Throughout the day Dick still couldn't shake the feeling something was wrong. He tried to ignore it but it just wouldn't go away.
Then he got the call.
.
.
.
.
.
𝑫𝒊𝒄𝒌 𝒕𝒐𝒐𝒌 𝒂 𝒔𝒕𝒆𝒑 𝒄𝒍𝒐𝒔𝒆𝒓 𝒕𝒐 𝒉𝒊𝒎, 𝒉𝒊𝒔 𝒎𝒐𝒗𝒎𝒆𝒏𝒕𝒔 𝒔𝒍𝒐𝒘 𝒂𝒏𝒅 𝒄𝒉𝒐𝒓𝒆𝒐𝒈𝒓𝒂𝒑𝒉𝒆𝒅. 𝑶𝒏𝒆 𝒐𝒇 𝒉𝒊𝒔 𝒉𝒂𝒏𝒅𝒔 𝒍𝒐𝒐𝒔𝒍𝒆𝒚 𝒄𝒍𝒂𝒔𝒑𝒆𝒅 𝑾𝒂𝒍𝒍𝒚'𝒔 𝒘𝒓𝒊𝒔𝒕, 𝒑𝒓𝒐𝒎𝒑𝒕𝒊𝒏𝒈 𝒉𝒊𝒎 𝒕𝒐 𝒅𝒓𝒂𝒘 𝒏𝒆𝒂𝒓𝒆𝒓. 𝑯𝒊𝒔 𝒐𝒕𝒉𝒆𝒓 𝒇𝒐𝒖𝒏𝒅 𝑾𝒂𝒍𝒍𝒚'𝒔 𝒇𝒂𝒄𝒆 𝒂𝒔 𝒉𝒆 𝒃𝒂𝒄𝒌𝒆𝒅 𝒉𝒊𝒎 𝒊𝒏𝒕𝒐 𝒂 𝒘𝒂𝒍𝒍.
"𝑾-𝒘𝒉𝒂𝒕 𝒘𝒓𝒆 𝒚𝒐𝒖 𝒅𝒐𝒊𝒏𝒈?" 𝑾𝒂𝒍𝒍𝒚 𝒂𝒔𝒌𝒆𝒅 𝒃𝒓𝒆𝒂𝒕𝒉𝒍𝒆𝒔𝒔𝒍𝒚. 𝑺𝒕𝒂𝒓𝒊𝒏𝒈 𝒊𝒏𝒕𝒆𝒏𝒕𝒍𝒚 𝒂𝒕 𝑫𝒊𝒄𝒌'𝒔 𝒎𝒐𝒖𝒕𝒉, 𝒈𝒖𝒍𝒑𝒊𝒏𝒈 𝒊𝒏 𝒂𝒏𝒕𝒊𝒄𝒊𝒑𝒂𝒕𝒊𝒐𝒏."
"𝑶𝒏𝒍𝒚 𝒘𝒉𝒂𝒕 𝒚𝒐𝒖 𝒘𝒂𝒏𝒕 𝒎𝒆 𝒕𝒐." 𝑫𝒊𝒄𝒌'𝒔 𝒗𝒐𝒊𝒄𝒆 𝒄𝒂𝒎𝒆 𝒐𝒖𝒕 𝒊𝒏 𝒂 𝒘𝒉𝒊𝒔𝒑𝒆𝒓. 𝑻𝒉𝒆 𝒘𝒂𝒓𝒎𝒕𝒉 𝒐𝒇 𝒉𝒊𝒔 𝒃𝒓𝒆𝒂𝒕𝒉 𝒃𝒓𝒖𝒔𝒉𝒊𝒏𝒈 𝒂𝒄𝒓𝒐𝒔𝒔 𝑾𝒂𝒍𝒍𝒚'𝒔 𝒇𝒂𝒄𝒆.
𝑾𝒂𝒍𝒍𝒚 𝒍𝒆𝒂𝒏𝒆𝒅 𝒊𝒏 𝒂𝒔 𝒊𝒇 𝒈𝒓𝒂𝒗𝒊𝒕𝒚 𝒑𝒖𝒍𝒍𝒆𝒅 𝒉𝒊𝒎. 𝑫𝒊𝒄𝒌 𝒕𝒊𝒍𝒕𝒆𝒅 𝑾𝒂𝒍𝒍𝒚'𝒔 𝒄𝒉𝒊𝒏 𝒘𝒊𝒕𝒉 𝒕𝒉𝒆 𝒍𝒊𝒈𝒉𝒕𝒆𝒔𝒕 𝒕𝒐𝒖𝒄𝒉 𝒂𝒔 𝒕𝒉𝒆𝒊𝒓 𝒍𝒊𝒑𝒔 𝒄𝒐𝒏𝒏𝒆𝒄𝒕𝒆𝒅. 𝑻𝒉𝒆𝒚 𝒃𝒐𝒕𝒉 𝒄𝒍𝒐𝒔𝒆𝒅 𝒕𝒉𝒆𝒊𝒓 𝒆𝒚𝒆𝒔, 𝒂𝒔 𝒘𝒉𝒂𝒕 𝑾𝒂𝒍𝒍𝒚 𝒄𝒐𝒖𝒍𝒅 𝒐𝒏𝒍𝒚 𝒅𝒆𝒔𝒄𝒓𝒊𝒃𝒆 𝒂𝒔 𝒔𝒑𝒂𝒓𝒌𝒔 𝒔𝒐𝒂𝒓𝒆𝒅 𝒕𝒉𝒓𝒐𝒖𝒈𝒉 𝒕𝒉𝒆 𝒂𝒊𝒓.
"𝑼𝒔𝒆 𝒎𝒆. 𝑼𝒔𝒆 𝒎𝒆 𝒊𝒏 𝒘𝒉𝒂𝒕𝒆𝒗𝒆𝒓 𝒘𝒂𝒚 𝒚𝒐𝒖 𝒘𝒂𝒏𝒕." 𝑫𝒊𝒄𝒌'𝒔 𝒃𝒓𝒆𝒂𝒕𝒉𝒍𝒆𝒔𝒔 𝒓𝒆𝒒𝒖𝒆𝒔𝒕 𝒆𝒄𝒉𝒐𝒆𝒅 𝒕𝒉𝒓𝒐𝒖𝒈𝒉 𝑾𝒂𝒍𝒍𝒚'𝒔 𝒆𝒂𝒓𝒔.
He gasped as he shot up from his bed breathing heavily. His heart fluttered in his chest. He looked around disoriented as his mind slowly comprehended the walls of his room.
"Fuck." He breathed out falling back on the bed bringing his hands up to cover his eyes.
Damn it Zatanna. If it weren't for her- those things she said- Wally would have never known. He wouldn't have realized.
Wally and Dick were walking down a hall chatting about something stupid that happened during lunch as Zatanna came walking over. One of Dick's many ex's turned friends. They stopped talking as she made her way over greeting them.
"Hey Zatanna what's up? Haven't seen you since you got suspended." Dick shed a sly smile looping his arm around Wally's shoulders. Zatanna had been suspended for pulling the fire alarm to get out of a math test.
Zattana smirked, pointing at Dick then Wally and then at Dick again. "Are you two... a couple?" Wally froze.
.
.
𝑾𝒉𝒂𝒕?
𝑾𝒉𝒚 𝒘𝒐𝒖𝒍𝒅 𝒔𝒉𝒆- 𝑰'𝒎 𝒏𝒐𝒕- 𝑴𝒆 𝒂𝒏𝒅 𝑫𝒊𝒄𝒌 𝒂𝒓𝒆 𝒇𝒓𝒊𝒆𝒏𝒅𝒔. 𝑩𝒆𝒔𝒕 𝒇𝒓𝒊𝒆𝒏𝒅𝒔.
𝑪𝒐𝒖𝒑𝒍𝒆.
The word echoed through Wally's head.
𝑫𝒐 𝒘𝒆 𝒓𝒆𝒂𝒍𝒍𝒚 𝒍𝒐𝒐𝒌 𝒍𝒊𝒌𝒆 𝒂 𝒄𝒐𝒖𝒑𝒍𝒆? 𝑰𝒔 𝒕𝒉𝒂𝒕 𝒔𝒐𝒎𝒆𝒕𝒉𝒊𝒏𝒈 𝒑𝒆𝒐𝒑𝒍𝒆 𝒕𝒉𝒊𝒏𝒌? 𝑰𝒔 𝒊𝒕 𝒋𝒖𝒔𝒕 𝒁𝒂𝒕𝒕𝒂𝒏𝒂? Thoughts raced through Wally's head as he felt his heart begin to pick up speed. He could feel the heat rising to his cheeks.
"N-no of course not!" His words came out more quickly and flustered than he'd attended. 𝑾𝒉𝒚 𝒊𝒔 𝒎𝒚 𝒉𝒆𝒂𝒓𝒕- 𝑾𝒉𝒚 𝒂𝒎 𝑰 𝒔𝒐 𝒉𝒐𝒕?
Everything was a blur after that. The only thing playing through his mind was: Am I in love with my best friend?
He hadn't been able to shake off the question and now he was dreaming of his 𝒃𝒆𝒔𝒕 𝒇𝒓𝒊𝒆𝒏𝒅. Dreaming of kissing him. What would have happened if he hadn't woken up? Would things have gone farther? Did he want them to?
Wally's hands slid down his face, eyes widening.
𝑺𝒉𝒊𝒕.
𝑶𝒉, 𝒔𝒉𝒊𝒕.
𝑰 𝒂𝒎.
𝑰'𝒎 𝒊𝒏 𝒍𝒐𝒗𝒆 𝒘𝒊𝒕𝒉 𝒎𝒚 𝒃𝒆𝒔𝒕 𝒇𝒓𝒊𝒆𝒏𝒅.
𝑰'𝒎 𝒊𝒏 𝒍𝒐𝒗𝒆 𝒘𝒊𝒕𝒉 𝑫𝒊𝒄𝒌 𝑮𝒓𝒂𝒚𝒔𝒐𝒏.
-
Wally stared at his breakfast. He hadn't been able to fall asleep after his revelation. I mean what was he supposed to do? He just figured out he has a life changing crush on his best friend. Not to mention said best friend was already in a relationship. Even if he wanted-which he did not- to confess he couldn't.
"Are you going to keep staring at those eggs or are you going to eat them?" Hal asked, chewing on his own breakfast.
"Sorry I'm just distracted. Worried about the big test in history y'know?" Wally smiled nervously looking at Hal. He normally didn't pray but right now all he could do was pray Hal didn't notice he was lying.
"I'm sure you'll do fine. You just need to stop stressing. Besides, it's not until next monday. You have a whole week to relax and study." Hal said, a reassuring smile forming.
"He's right y'know" Iris came walking out from the back bedroom guiding a still half asleep Barry Allen towards the coffee maker.
"They're both right, you'll rock that history test." Barry yawned out barely standing up straight. He leaned his head on Iris's shoulder wrapping his arms around her waist.
"Thanks." Wally said, trying his hardest to form a genuine smile. He looked at his plate of eggs, sighing as he took a bite. Today was going to be a long day.
-Bzzt-
Wally felt his phone buzz in his pocket setting down his fork.
Donna: Hey wanna meet at ***** to hangout?
Wally read the text, a smile forming on his lips. 𝑻𝒉𝒊𝒔 𝒘𝒂𝒔 𝒑𝒆𝒓𝒇𝒆𝒄𝒕. The perfect way to take his mind off things. It was certainly better than sitting around doing nothing as he thought about his new revelation. Wally quickly sent out a text saying he'd be there asking what time.
Donna: 1pm.
Wally: Ok
He set his phone down looking at the time on the kitchen stove. It was 9:06 A.M which gave him four hours. Four hours of trying to keep his mind distracted.
Wally was on his twentieth outfit choice when his phone rang. He walked over towards his nightstand unplugging his phone, hitting the answer button as he brought it up to his ear.
“What’s up, Donna?”
“Wally!” Donna shouts through the receiver causing him to wince, pulling his phone away from his ear.
“I texted you that we got here 5 minutes ago. When I agreed to be your chauffeur I at least expected you to be on time.”
“You did?” He looks at his phone, and— yup. How did he miss that? He spent the last four hours trying so hard to distract himself he must have done that a little too well.
“I did.” Donna's voice came out full of exasperation. Wally could just see her eyes rolling as she spoke.
“Now hurry your ass up or we'll leave without you.” The sound of a car horn blaring was heard outside Wally's window.
“Yeah get a move on!” He heard Garth scream over the car horn.
“Okay, okay, I’m coming.” Wally grumbled quickly putting his shoes on.
“Good!” Donna says hanging up before Wally can get another word in. He really needs to get his license. If he has to rely on Donna everytime they go somewhere he may just lose it.
He takes a moment to look himself over, sighing as he runs a hand through his hair.
He wore a pair of light blue ripped jeans rolled up at the bottom, a simple red T-shirt over top of a black long sleeve shirt, and his favorite yellow and white sneakers with a small black lightning bolt on the side.
This wasn't exactly his favorite outfit but unless he wanted Donna to murder him it was gonna have to do. So he pushes down all the second guessing that he probably does way too much and runs down stairs saying a quick goodbye to his aunt and uncles heading over towards Donna’s car.
As soon as he opens the door he slides into the backseat as Donna lets out a loud groan.
“About damn time! What took you so long?”
He shrugs, buckling his seatbelt. “I was distracted.”
Garth snorts. "Busy with what? Don't tell me you were trying to get all dressed up." He says mockingly.
"Shut up, I was helping Aunt Iris do some chores." Wally reaches to slap Garth's arm.
"Ok you two let's get a move on!" Donna says starting up the car.
The drive is a relatively short one, but lunch rush traffic makes it feel longer. Wally and Garth fight over control of the radio before Donna ends up winning when she confiscates the auxiliary cable. Garth and Wally sigh in their defeat.
They spend the rest of the trip singing everything as loudly and obnoxiously as they can. Occasionally Wally would try to reach for the radio controls but Donna always managed to slap his hand, fast and precise.
Wally slides out of the backseat, stretching as he looks up at the building in front of him. It’s big, and the parking lot is bigger. There's a big neon sign in the shape of a T that reads Titans Adventure Zone.
“This place never changes.” Garth says waking up beside Wally.
“Yep.” He says, smiling. Since middle school Wally, Donna, Garth, Dick and Roy have all been coming to Titans adventure zone. It's their number one spot to hang out and go bulling, play laser tag, compete in arcade games or do any of the other a million things this place has to offer.
Wally shoves his hands in his pockets as he begins walking towards the building.
The place is even bigger on the inside. From where you walk in, the bowling lanes lay out to the left, and the rock climbing wall lies to the right. The laser tag is near the back and the arcade is downstairs. They headed towards the stairs maneuvering through the huge crowds of people.
As they descend, the lighting changes. The carpet has a base of dark red with strips and curls of neon swirls set in a consistent pattern. The machines of the arcade light up the maze of games that seem to go on forever, all of them flashing and blinking and making all sorts of sounds to lure people in. Toward the back, he knows there’s an indoor mini golf course, twisting through makeshift caves lit by more neon lights. Music plays softly over the speakers above.
They head over towards the snack line ordering some pizza before heading towards the tables.
"Where's Roy? I thought we were meeting him here?" Garth asks, looking around.
"He should be here somewhere. I texted him letting him know where we are." Donna says, setting the pizza down on the table.
"About time you guys got here!" Roy comes storming over. "Do you know how depressing he's been!?" Roy points his thumb over his shoulder at Dick.
Wally is pretty sure the air down here is warmer than that of the floor above. It has to be. Because there’s no way his body is having this kind of reaction to seeing Dick. Yet at the sight of him something weird and foreign twists in his chest, heart lodging in his throat. Dick wasn't supposed to be here. This defies the whole purpose of Wally coming here.
Fuck.
Wally takes a deep breath trying to calm down when he notices Dick looks like he's been crying. His normally perfect hair looked completely messy.
"What's wrong?" Wally immediately abandons his internal panic in favor of finding out what's wrong with his best friend.
"Babs broke up with him remember?" Garth whispers as he leans closer to Wally.
"What!?" Wally quickly turns his head towards Garth. How did he not know about this? Why was he only finding out now? Then he remembered. When he checked his phone seeing that Donna had texted him she was at his house there were also a few missed calls. Those calls being from Dick.
Crap.
Wally felt terrible. Dick tried calling him looking for comfort and he was too busy trying to be busy. He couldn't even try to make himself feel better because he wasn't even doing anything important. And he also hated how his first reaction was his heart beating faster at the possibility he could be with Dick.
"I thought you already knew." Garth looks taken back by Wally's reaction.
"I didn't! I didn't even know he was going to be here!" Wally whisper shouts at Garth.
"That's the whole reason we all came here today! To cheer him up!" Garth whisper shouts back.
"He can hear you, he's only standing a few feet away. And you both need to get better at whispering." Donna says leveling a glare at both of them.
"Sorry." Wally says scratching the back of his neck.
"Yeah sorry." Garth grumbles looking down at the table.
"It's fine. Things have been rocky between us for a while anyways." Dick's voice came out bitter as he stared at his pizza slice.
"See what I mean? Depressing." Roy said, taking a bite of his pizza. Donna reached over, slapping Roy on the head.
"Ow!"
"That's what you get for being insensitive." Donna said through grit teeth.
"I'm sorry I didn't answer the phone when you called. I was distracted helping Aunt Iris with chores." Wally hated lying but he couldn't really say: "I had a dream about us kissing which confirmed that I have this huge crush on you so I was purposely busying myself trying not to think about you sorry your girlfriend broke up with you." That would be even worse.
"It's fine. I'm fine." Dick tried smiling but it barely even looked like a smile. He knew he had a bad feeling. Out of all the things that could have happened he didn't think he would be dumped. And it was over the phone. He guessed he should have been grateful it was a call and not just a text.
Wally looked at him as more guilt pooled in his stomach. He had to cheer him up. That's what best friends were for.
"Ok enough moping! Stand up!" Wally abruptly stood up clasping his hands together.
"What?" Dick blinked looking at Wally like he was crazy.
"Like Roy said, you're being depressing. It's my job to fix that." Dick sighed, laying his head down on the table.
"Just leave me alone." He whined out.
"No. We're here at our favorite hangout spot so let's turn that frown upside down!" Wally walked over dragging Dick up out of his seat. Dick protested but didn't actually fight back as Wally stood him up.
"You guys don't mind if we go off on our own for a while right?" Wally looked over towards Donna and the others.
"Please take him away and do your thing." Roy waved them off taking another bite of pizza.
Wally nodded, dragging Dick by his arm towards the arcade games. They reach the token machine as Wally pulls his wallet out to feed it dollar bills. He scoops out the tokens and shoves them into his pockets.
"There's cups for a reason." Dick grumbles holding a cup out to Wally.
"Oh right. Thanks." Wally grabs the cup filling it with the rest of the tokens. Dick just shrugs, pulling out a few bills of his own and feeds them into the machine.
"Come on, cheer up!" Wally leans a little into Dick's side, swooping his arm around his shoulders trying to ignore how his heart decides to pump blood at a lightning fast pace.
Once Dick gets all his tokens Wally begins walking down an aisle dragging Dick along. He makes his way through the crowd, his eyes lighting up as they land on the large dance machine, the screen is huge with flashing arrows with music set on a random shuffle as it waits for a customer.
They make their way towards the two dance platforms that have colored arrows laid out on their surfaces with two metal support beams behind them. The neon light illuminates off of the machine.
“Come on, you’re always excited to do this one.” Wally looks over at Dick disappointed by his everlasting frown.
“Yay whoopie.” Dick says unenthusiastically.
"Ok I'm going to take that as you being scared to lose."
Dick scoffs, “Yeah right. I win everytime we play.”
Wally quirks an eyebrow, smirk tugging at the corner of his lips. “Care to put your tokens where your mouth is?”
“Bring it, West.” Dick says with a competitive smile forming on his face. Wally does an internal victory dance.
They make their way to the machine and each claim one of the dance pads inserting their coins. They shuffle through the songs trying to find the best one. They finally narrow it down to two playing rock paper scissors to decide which one gets chosen. Wally won.
As the song starts up, Wally settles into the center of his pad, eyes on the screen with a focused determination.
They both start off strong wracking up perfect’s and great’s, but Wally quickly makes a mistake letting Dick take the lead.
Unsurprisingly, Dick wins. Before he can gloat, Wally challenges him to a rematch, claiming that was his warm up. Dick agrees but unsurprisingly Dick still kicks his ass the second time. Dick's always been good at rhythm games. He’s good with the patterns and the timings. Maybe it came from the years of training as an acrobat in the circus or maybe it was from being a cheerleader. Maybe he was just born to be good at this.
The song ends, and Dick's top score flashes on the screen. He beams, hands on his hips as his chest heaves his lungs feeling like they were on fire.
Meanwhile Wally glares at his own score leaning back on the railing behind him. He scowls at the screen, like he can somehow get the numbers to change.
“Told you I always win.” Dick grins.
Wally turns towards Dick a mischevious glint in his eyes. “What’d you say to a little competition?”
“Seriously?” Dick deadpans raising an eyebrow.
“I mean, I totally let you win that game so…”
Fuck it.
“Fine. How many games?”
“Three games each? We take turns picking for a total of six?”
Dick nods, “But the dance one doesn’t count.” Wally quickly adds on pointing at Dick in an accusing way.
Dick narrows his eyes before sighing. “Fine.”
Wally's face lights up with a fire that Dick is far too familiar with. It’s the same one he gets when he runs. One part excited, and two parts determined.
And just like that, everything seems to click back into place. Dick forgets about Bab's and Wally forgets about his new revelation.
“Who gets first pick?”
“Me.” Dick says, grabbing hold of Wally's wrist dragging him away just like Wally had been doing. Wally laughs, giving just enough resistance to be annoying and force Dick to drag him, but not enough to truly be against it.
When they get to the main aisle, Dick pauses, looking around as he searches for a specific game.
“What’re you looking for?” Wally asks after a moment. A curious hint to his eyes.
“There.” Dick says, starting towards his chosen game, tugging Wally behind him.
"You can't be serious." Wally says laughing.
Dick lets go of him, setting his cup on the floor.
“Afraid you’ll lose?” He asks, looking at Wally with a smirk
“Nope. Just wondering how we're going to beat each other at pacman.” Wally says gesturing towards the game.
“Like we do with every game. Whoever gets a higher score wins.”
Wally rolls his eyes, as he watches Dick start up the game.
Dick maneuvers pacman around with ease collecting as many of the little yellow points as he can while avoiding the ghosts. He clears 38 stages before pacman is taken out.
"Beat that." Dick says smugly, stepping aside for Wally. Wally steps up putting in his tokens. He's not as skillful as Dick while maneuvering pacman around but he does manage to clear 27 stages before dying.
"That's one to nothing!" Dick laughs.
"Whatever it's my turn to pick." Wally grumbles walking away.
Wally leads Dick across the arcade towards where the shooter games are, picking a zombie one. He quickly puts a token in before picking up one of the plastic handguns.
“This is a co-op game.”
Wally looks at him from the corner of his eye as he navigates the menu.
“Yeah, but the scores are calculated separately. Highest score wins.”
"Alright then."
Dick does a pretty good job holding his own, but Wally is on a whole other level. Wally stands back, taking up a legitimate shooting position, eyes trained and focused as they flickered across the screen. Each one of his movements are precise and calculated, a blazing focus in his narrowed emerald eyes.
And it's hot.
The way he holds the bright yellow plastic gun that’s connected to the game. Dick blames the distraction for his own piss poor score.
It's not weird finding your best friend hot. Dick wasn't blind after all.
In the end, Dick wins.
Wally groans as he steps away from the last game they played. He thought for sure he would be able to win. Stupid Dick and his unfair ability to be perfect at everything. Yet he can't help but laugh as Dick does a little victory dance, one that involves far too much wiggling and makes him look entirely ridiculous. Then he gets the perfect idea.
"Come on!" Wally turns gripping Dick's arm to drag him along.
“Where’re we going?”
“You’ll see.” Is all he says, flashing a mischievous grin. They end up in front of one of those ring toss booths, and Wally finally lets go of him to gesture grandly at it with both hands. “Ta-da!”
Dick laughs. "This is the big surprise? You know these are rigged right?"
“Oh, come on!” Wally punches Dick's shoulder making him stumble back a little.
"I want to win you something so take your pick." He gestures to the variety of items hanging as prizes. Dick sighs looking over the prizes carefully before his eyes land on a specific stuffed animal.
"That one." He points towards his chosen prize.
"Alright let's do this!" Wally grabs the rings, getting ready to aim. He takes a deep breath looking carefully at each bottle. He throws his first ring watching as it barely makes it on. He lets out a breath, throwing the next one. Watching as it hangs on the bottle just barely. His next ring misses and the one after that made it on but then fell completely crushing his spirit. He had one last chance. If he missed the prize Dick wanted wouldn't be an option. He takes a deep breath in aiming for the center row of bottles as he throws. His breath catches in his throat as the last one makes it on the bottle perfectly.
"Yes!" He punches his arm up into the air.
"Nice shot." Dick smiles fondly as Wally basks in the glory of his victory. Wally walks over collecting his hard won prize.
"Here you go." He holds out a mini cheetah plushie. Dick gladly accepts, smiling down at it.
"Why did you want that one?" Wally asks, looking down at the plushie.
"No reason." That was a lie. He wanted it because it reminded him of Wally. How he likes to run.
"If you say so."
Dick and Wally made their way around the arcade meeting up with Donna, Roy and Garth. The rest of the night was spent playing arcade games and even having a bowling tournament before everyone headed home.
"Hey Wally?" Dick asked as Wally started heading towards Donna's car.
"Yeah?" He turned around looking at Dick.
"Thanks for tonight."
"It wasn't my idea."
"Maybe not but you were the one who got me to stop moping so thank you. I had a good time."
"I had a good time too." Wally smiled before turning towards Donna's car. The ride home was boring as Donna and Garth argued over who got to control the music.
The next week was relatively a normal week. Dick was a little worried about running into Bab's but after getting targeted and forced to talk with her they both agreed it would be best to stay friends. Then the weekend came.
.
.
.
Dick's phone rang as he reached across his bed looking at the caller ID. It was Wally. He smiled, clicking the answer button.
"Hello?"
"Hey man, I need your help!" Wally's voice came across in a whiny tone.
"My help? With what?"
"Studying for the history test." Wally groaned out. A loud shuffling could be heard on his end of the phone as he most likely repositioned himself.
"Alright, fine. But I'm not helping you over the phone. So I suggest you get a move on."
"Right now?"
"Right now."
"Alright I'm on my way thank you so much!" Dick heard a loud thud as Wally fell off his bed scrambling to get his shoes.
"It's no problem see ya soon." Dick hung up sighing as he looked around his room. He cringed at how messy he had let it get. He quickly got up and began to tidy up. He figured he had approximately twenty minutes before Wally arrived.
A knock came on the other side of Dick's door.
"Coming!" He called shoving the last of his dirty clothes under his bed heading towards the door.
"Master Dick mister West is here and is waiting in the living room. Shall I fetch you both some snacks?" Alfred asked in his usual formal manner.
"You don't have to call Wally by his last name Alfred. Also snacks would be wonderful."
"As you wish." Alfred said, beginning to make his way back down stairs.
Dick followed him downstairs heading towards the living room. He stopped in the doorway as he heard the sounds of an argument. It was Damian and…Wally. Crap. Dick was about to intervene when he actually heard what the argument was about.
“They are not domesticated,” Damian says sharply. “Just because it looks cute doesn’t mean it’s a pet-”
“But can't a zoo domesticate a fox? Like a barn cat. If you just get it young-”
“They are not like cats,” Damian spits. He looks ready to either tackle or punch Wally. “They’re not even in the same family, they’re canids. They’re both in the carnivora order, like red pandas. Domestication takes thousands of years-,”
“Wait, aren't red pandas herbivores?” Wally asks, completely ignoring Damians point.
"Technically Red pandas are classified as carnivores because they're descended from the same ancestors as other carnivores. But they are practically vegetarians. About ninety-five percent of their diet consists of bamboo. They eat the nutritious leaf tips and tender shoots, but skip the culm which is the woody stem." Damian says proudly in a matter of fact tone.
"That's cool! I didn't know they only ate the leaf tips." Wally says smiling.
"They also forage for roots, grasses, fruits, insects and grubs." Damian adds on.
"Anything else you know about red pandas?" Wally asks out of genuine curiosity. He will admit he did pick a fight with Damian on purpose to pass the time waiting for Dick. But now he's actually intrigued on how much Damian actually knows.
"Well, despite their name, red panda's aren't actually closely related to the giant panda. Studies show that they are most closely related to raccoons along with close associations to the Musteldidae family. That includes weasels, otters, and wolverines."
"They aren't related to a normal panda!? My whole lifes a lie." Wally looked off into the distance trying to be dramatic. Damian scoffed, rolling his eyes.
"Hey, since you know so much about red pandas, can you confirm something for me?"
"What is it?" Damian narrowed his eyes at Wally.
"Is it true red pandas quack?"
"In a sense, yes. They make a variety of noises like tweets, squeals, grunts, hisses, and a "huff-quack".
"So they can quack, is what you're saying?"
"In a way, yes."
The conversation kept going on as Dick smiled. For a moment he thought he was going to have to step in. It was nice seeing Wally bond with his brothers.
He cleared his throat walking into the living room with a huge smile on his face.
"What's going on here?" Dick asked like he hadn't been eavesdropping. Wally stopped talking, turning to look at Dick.
"Red pandas." He answered, smiling over at Dick.
"Did you know red pandas are called firefox, red bear-cat, red cat-bear, and the lesser panda? I didn't. I only knew they were called firefoxes and red pandas."
"I did know that. Perks of having a younger brother who's practically an animal dictionary." Dick said playfully as he looked over towards Damian. Daimian rolled his eyes heading towards the exit.
"You love me! Admit it!" Dick called after him.
"I don't need your praise!" Damian called back, already heading down the hallway.
"He loves me and the praise even if he doesn't want to admit it." Dick said, turning back towards Wally.
"Clearly." Wally laughed out.
"Anyways, didn't you come here to study?"
"Yeah I did. Thanks again for agreeing to help me."
"That's what best friends are for. Now come on, I didn't clean my room just for us to end up studying in the living room." Dick said heading towards the stairs. Wally quickly followed.
They began studying for a while, stopping when Alfred brought up some snacks with tea. They thanked him and then began studying again.
"You've been reading that page for a while." Dick spoke up as he looked over Wally's shoulder.
Wally fidgeted looking away. Half of it was from embarrassment the other half from how close Dick was.
"I don't- I don't understand this part." He said pointing at his textbook. Dick leaned in closer reading over the section Wally pointed to.
"Alright it's not so bad. If you go back to this chapter here it goes over the context."
"Oh, that makes more sense." Wally looked closer at his textbook smiling.
"Yep. So now if you look at this part-"
.
.
.
"Alright if you look at this-" Dick stopped looking over at Wally. He sat leaned against the side of Dick's bed only a few feet away.
"Hey are you listening?" Dick gently nudged Wally causing his head to fall on Dick's shoulder. Dick smiled looking down at Wally. 𝑰 𝒈𝒖𝒆𝒔𝒔 𝒉𝒆 𝒇𝒆𝒍𝒍 𝒂𝒔𝒍𝒆𝒆𝒑. Dick thought as he brushed some of Wally's hair out of his eyes. He looked so peaceful.
"Hey Wally." Dick nudged him a little, making Wally stir.
"Come on, wake up." He nudged him again more forcefully.
"Hey dick-" Tim opened Dicks' door , freezing as he made eye contact with his brother. He looked down seeing Wally asleep on Dick's shoulder.
"Not. A. Word." Dick narrowed his eyes at Tim.
Tim smirked. "I didn't know you and Wally-"
"GET OUT TIM" Dick screamed, reaching for a pillow off his bed, throwing it towards Tim. Wally slowly woke up.
"Wha-" Wally froze as he looked at Dick's collar bone before looking up at Dick. His heart began thundering in his chest as he made eye contact with Dick. His face warmed as Sapphire blue stared into emerald green. He looked over towards Tim feeling his whole body grow impossibly hotter.
He quickly placed a hand on Dick's chest pushing off with a nervous smile.
"Oh wow! I must have fallen asleep." Wally said quickly gathering his things, standing up to make a b line to the door.
"Wally, wait!" Dick scrambled to his feet chasing after Wally pushing Tim out of the way.
"Wally!" He grabbed Wally's wrist.
"Sorry I didn't mean to fall asleep and it's late so I should probably go." Wally talked quickly looking anywhere but Dick's gaze.
"Wally, it's fine. I'm sorry I made you uncomfortable. I tried waking you up but then Tim walked in and-"
"It's fine Dick." Wally said reassuringly with a smile.
"But I do have to go so-" He looked down at Dick's hand tightly wrapped around his wrist.
"Oh- right." Dick laughed nervously letting go of Wally's wrist.
"Thanks again for helping me study. I feel a lot better about the test now."
"It's no problem, I know you would do the same." Dick smiled, waving a hand in a dismissive manner.
Wally smiled heading towards the door of Dick's giant ass house. How did he manage to become friends with a billionaire's son? It was a mystery still unknown. The only one knowing the answer was probably the universe.
He headed out walking down the sidewalk catching a bus ride home. The whole ride home he couldn't stop thinking about what happened. He was distracted the whole way up to his house as he walked up the porch steps. He placed his hand on the doorknob about to head inside before hearing the sounds of muffled screaming. He listened silently, trying to pick out snippets of the conversation.
He could make out Barry's voice indicating he was the one talking, but it didn't sound like he was talking to Iris or Hal. His voice was raised like he was angry, and it was clear he was yelling at someone but he couldn't hear anyone else.
Footsteps started walking farther back into the house making it nearly impossible to hear anything else. He took a deep breath turning the doorknob walking in. He looked around seeing Barry standing in the living room with a cell phone pressed to his ear and an absolutely livid expression on his face.
Wally looked at his uncle worried.
"Uncle Barry…?" Barry quickly looked up from the ground, his eyes softening as they landed on Wally.
"Wally," Barry said grimly, bringing down the phone. His expression was quickly filled with sorrow.
"𝒀𝒐𝒖𝒓 𝒇𝒂𝒕𝒉𝒆𝒓'𝒔 𝒐𝒖𝒕 𝒐𝒇 𝒑𝒓𝒊𝒔𝒐𝒏."