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Dick closed his eyes, trying to quell the racing of his heart as he stood outside of Barry Allen’s home. He was twenty-five years old, damn it. He could do this .
Taking various trains and busses to get here had taken ages, but Dick didn’t want to zeta when he made the decision that led him to standing in Central City, a thousand miles from home and waiting on the fastest man alive to come to the door. It’d given him hours upon hours to think of what he was doing, and why he was doing it. When he closed his eyes, all he could imagine was his energetic, red-headed friend, giving him smiles and making him laugh.
Wally helped him enjoy life, and he needed people like that as much as possible. While he loved his family, the Bats tended to attract drama and not know how to sit down and relax. Wally helped him do that; he didn’t how he lived when Wally was gone, without him to come over to his house and remind him to eat and watch movies with him.
He was interrupted from his musings as the door opened, and a flustered Barry Allen appeared in the doorway.
Even though Barry was much older than when Dick first met him as a rambunctious ten-year-old, he almost looked the same. The only changes to his face being laugh lines around his eyes and… currently, a blush and disheveled hair to match.
The moment passed so quickly Dick wondered if he imagined it — it didn’t take a detective to tell Barry was probably busy, maybe he’d just woken up, but he’d stewed in his own thoughts for over half a day and needed to let it all out before it consumed him.
“Dick?” Barry’s tone gave away the bafflement of seeing the other hero; his eyebrows were furrowed and his body already moving out of the way, the universal nonverbal for come in.
Dick stuttered out a greeting before walking past, his pace a little hurried as he walked to sit down. He sunk into the familiar fluff that was Barry’s living room couch. It’d cost a pretty penny, but Barry had said he fell asleep at the couch most days anyway. Barry sat at a chair adjacent to Dick, his posture stiff and gaze worriedly set on him.
Dick straightened up, holding his hands out in a placating manner. “Nothing’s wrong!” Besides the nerves that are alight throughout my entire being he carefully didn’t say, but it looked like Barry got it anyway because his posture relaxed and he rested his head on his hands, a small smile gracing his lips and his eyebrows raised — asking for an explanation without actually opening his mouth. The unease in him had passed, now the only emotion shown in his eyes was curiosity, and possibly a little amusement.
He took a deep breath, his eyes shutting closed for another second as he prepared for whatever was going to come out of his mouth. Barry looking at him with calm patience almost made Dick consider calling the whole thing off, heading back home and pretending like nothing happened. However, instead of bailing (which Barry would have stopped him from doing anyways), he opened his mouth.
“Okay, so, me and Wally have been friends for a long time, yeah? And for a lot of that time I’ve…” Dick closed his eyes yet again before opening them; he wasn’t going to hide and he wouldn’t have Barry thinking he was. “I’ve had… feelings for him. And since you mean so much to him, it would mean a lot to me if you gave me permission to ask him to go out with me.” He inhaled deeply, having not breathed once throughout his talk. Along with the embarrassment and nerves, he felt proud to have gotten it all out.
His eyes had been trained on Barry’s face, but too caught up in what was coming out of his mouth, he hadn’t noticed the change of expression. Barry’s confusion from earlier was back, and he sat up straight in his chair, his mouth opening and closing as he chose his words.
“Are you telling me that you two… aren’t already dating? ” He said, his eyes wide.
“What?” Dick nearly squawked out. “What made you think that?”
“ What made me…” He mumbled to himself, standing and starting to pace back and forth in front of the couch Dick sat in. “Probably the everything about you two! Wally never shuts up about you and whenever you two are together you can’t be more than five feet apart!”
Dick felt his face getting redder and he brought his hands to cover his face, this time unabashedly hiding from the other man. “We’re just friends!”
The sound of Barry’s footsteps stopped, and he heard a large sigh from the other man. Dick removed his hands from his face, putting them to rest on his legs as he looked down with his hair in his face. Barry’s feet walked closer until they were in front of him, and Dick looked into his eyes when he knelt down to get on his level. “Dick, I’m not mad at you.” He took his shoulders, making Dick feel like Robin meeting The Flash for the first time again. “I’m just surprised, is all. I’m surprised that you aren’t already together, and that you felt the need to ask me for permission.”
“You are one of the best people we know-” Dick jumped at the unexpected voice and turned around to look over the back of the couch, and wow, would Bruce be disappointed he let Hal get the drop on him that bad.
Hal?
“-Even though you’re one of the bats.” Hal finished, with a smirk. Dick took the time to look him up and down, and now Barry’s appearance from before made much more sense.
The Green Lantern stood leaning against the wall, looking not like a Green Lantern at all. The only thing adorning his frame was a fluffy red robe, and a flurry of hickies running down his neck. Barry didn’t have any to match, but Dick figured the healing factor he had would take care of those.
“Hal.” Barry’s voice scolded, more embarrassed than angry, and at that Dick couldn’t conceal his smile.
“I may be ‘one of the bats,’” He added the air quotes, “but I’m the least ‘bat-like’ of them all.”
Hal’s eyebrows lifted in amusement, nodding before he said. “Yeah, you’re actually confronting your feelings instead of collecting kryptonite as a shitty ‘I love you’ and hoping no one gets it.”
Dick groaned. “I hate how that applies to three of my family members.”
Both Hal and Barry looked curious at that, but when Hal went to open his mouth Barry made a quick hand movement, Hal’s mouth closing as quickly as it’d opened. Dick gave a thought to asking Barry to silence Hal at League meetings to keep Bruce from fuming the rest of the night.
Barry spoke again. “Hal was right, you are one of the best people we know. You’re a good man, and there isn’t anyone I would rather date Wally.” Dick’s grin from before turned warm, his insides filling with warm feelings at the praise and the mere prospect of being with Wally.
Dick dashed forward and hugged the speedster, feeling his body tense up at the surprise, then relax quickly as he patted him on the back. “Thank you.” Dick felt Barry shake with a chuckle as he murmured a You’re welcome.
Dick let go, leaning back into the couch and rubbing his eyes. “God, today has been a day. ” He stood up, stretching out his shoulders and back where Barry had been kneeling before he sped over to Hal’s side. “Do you think Wally would run over here to talk? I don’t wanna take another bus for years .”
Hal barked out a laugh, “Why the hell did you take a bus to get here?” The only reply he got was a shake of the head, Dick wasn’t explaining any emotional shit to the guy in a bathrobe.
“I think Wally would run around the world to see you.” Was Barry’s response, causing Dick’s cheeks to heat up again.
He said his goodbyes, received wishes of good luck, and walked out the door, only turning back once to see Hal pull a smiling Barry into his arms.
———
The benches in Central City park were only comfortable when you laid down on them, Dick was discovering. The idea to climb and swing from the trees scattered across the park was enticing, but even in the beanie and sunglasses he wore there was still a danger of him being identified. While people knew of his past as a Flying Grayson, it’d be a bit odd if he showed he still had those skills — even more, actually — after being taken in by Bruce Wayne.
Technically, Richard Grayson didn’t know Wally West. At least, according to the media he didn’t, and Dick was unsure how he will set up him “meeting” Wally for the first time in a place where Gotham press would be able to catch and believe if they decide to make their relationship public. That would probably be something he’d ask Bruce for help with, since he was the undisputed king of fooling the public. Well, that was something he wasn’t going to have to worry about until he stopped freaking out and called him .
Dick held his phone, his hands clenched around it as he breathed in and thought about what he was going to say. He didn’t want Wally to think there was an emergency and that’s why he was in Central, and why he was calling him. Also, asking him to run all the way here? Probably a little selfish, but he could do in a few seconds what would take Dick hours upon hours.
And Dick didn’t think he’d last the time it would take to get to Wally.
Dick took another deep breath in, conscious of how fast his heart was beating. He exhaled, and pressed the button to call the contact he’d been looking at for the past ten minutes.
“Hey! What’s up?” Greeted the carefree voice of his best friend.
Dick chuckled, feeling leagues calmer just after hearing his voice. “Yeah, um, I wanted to talk to you.”
A pause. “I… Kinda got that. Since you called me.”
Dick groaned, “I meant in person; I’m in Central City park. You think you can zoom over here and we can hang?” And so I can possibly ruin the longest friendship I’ve ever had?
A thoughtful hum came from the other side of the line, “I’ll be there in a second,” he said, hanging up directly after. Dick covered his face with his hands, his breath shaky as he took in what he’d just done. He shoved his phone back in his pocket and sat up, keeping a lookout for where Wally might come from. He couldn’t appear in the middle of the park, so Dick bet he would be seeing his red-headed friend emerge from a nearby alley any minute now.
A waving Wally soon emerged from behind a building, drawing Dick’s eye and immediately bringing a smile to his face. He was dressed in loose-fitting jeans that hung low on his waist and a faded graphic tee; he probably threw these on right after Dick called, if he had to guess. As he approached closer, Dick’s stomach churned with anxiety and he hoped none showed on his face. He knew his face was tinted red, but that could be chalked up to the summer heat.
“So, what’s going on with you that I had to run all the way here?” Wally said as he sat down next to him, sitting close enough where their legs pressed together — something so terribly normal, but so distracting for Dick as he attempted to muster up the courage to confess.
“Well,” He began, swallowing hard. “Nothing’s wrong, at all. I just had to- I wanted to ask if youwouldgooutwithme. ” Tumbled out of his mouth, the words coming out so quick they mangled together into nearly unintelligible nonsense; however, someone who could stretch a moment into hours? They’d have no problem parsing the sludge escaping Dick’s mouth.
Wally froze, the rhythmic fidgeting of his leg ceasing as he processed what Dick said. While before he’d been looking out into the park at the kids playing and grass swaying in the breeze, he now stared directly at Dick, his gaze never wavering.
Dick looked back, the muscles of his jaw clenching as he watched Wally’s eyes scan up and down his face.
“This isn’t a joke.” Was all Wally said, his inflection that of a statement, but Dick knew it was a question, one that surprised him.
Dick made frantic movements with his hands, careful not to touch Wally for once as he said “It’s not a joke at all! You can ask Barry I talked to him before I asked you and-” Dick almost rambled his way into talking about Hal and Did you know they were a thing? I sure didn’t, and who taught Hal to be that quiet? but was interrupted by a pair of strong arms wrapping around him faster than he could blink.
His arms were squashed between both their stomachs, their upper bodies twisted in order to embrace on the seat. Dick felt Wally’s breath tickle his neck, then his smile as he pressed his face against skin. Dick struggled to move his arms, finally freeing them enough in order to wrap them around Wally’s midsection. They stayed like that, Wally’s face in Dick’s neck and Dick’s face in his shoulder, for a while, Dick relishing the feeling of closeness between them. It was a relief after all this time holding back.
“Of course, Wally mumbled, his lips moving against the sensitive skin of Dick’s neck and making him shiver. Wally moved away, meeting Dick’s eyes with a beautiful grin on his face. “I’ve had a crush on you since forever , dude.”
Dick replied with a shaky laugh, “Well, dude , I didn’t know that or I would have asked you out sooner.”
“I was so obvious!” Dick shook his head vigorously and Wally put his arm around his shoulder. He did this a lot, but now with their feelings out in the open, it seemed much more intimate. “Have you noticed I get as close to you as possible? Even out in the field, I try to be near you. Almost every photo of the Titans has us standing next to each other.”
“Okay, but I definitely try to get close to you, too.”
“I think we meet eyes wherever we happen to be and immediately walk towards each other, I’ve just realized.” Wally was staring directly at him, his smile not having left his face. His other hand came up to stroke Dick’s cheek, moving upward to play with the hair that poked out of his beanie. “I wish I could see your eyes. I always loved how expressive your eyes were.”
Dick bit his lip, watching as Wally’s eyes tracked the movement. They might be getting too touchy too fast for having just revealed their feelings minutes ago, but they’d been keeping in their feelings for each other for so long, it felt like the most natural thing in the world.
Dick moved his head to look around, seeing no one nearby besides children and presumably parents in the distance who were too far away to see his face. Wally’s hand stayed playing with his hair, sometimes sliding under the beanie to tangle in the locks. Dick took off his sunglasses, squinting at the sudden increase of light reaching his eyes before adjusting, and finding an absolutely adoring Wally looking directly at him. Wally used the hand playing with his hair to cup the back of his head and pull him close enough to put their foreheads against one another, breathing in each other’s air, closing both of their eyes, and feeling content.
“So, Dick Grayson,” the speedster spoke, “you — twenty-five years old, a grown man — decided you had to ask my uncle if it was okay to ask me out?”
As Dick groaned in annoyance, Wally laughed until he couldn’t anymore because of the lips pressing against his. It was soft and cautious, Dick putting his arms once again around Wally’s midsection, and Wally cupping both sides of Dick’s face. Dick stopped the kiss, pulling back and asking “Is this okay?”
“It’ll always be okay, Dick, now that I have you.” He grinned at his overly cheesy line, and Dick smiled with stars in his eyes before closing the gap between them once again, the second of many, many kisses to come.