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So, Dick’s a little whipped.
Okay, a lot whipped, but it’s not his fault. Wally’s just so… Wally. His bright green eyes and equally blinding smile and jokes that, while absolutely shitty, never fail to make Dick chortle. It’s a problem, how starry-eyed he goes when Wally walks into the room.
So much of a problem, in fact, that his students seem to be noticing.
It’s not that they’re blatant about it; they only visit each other’s offices or classrooms if it’s the end of the day or they actually need something for a lesson. But he supposes there must be something in the way he goes all loose-limbed and smiley at the sight of the redhead that cranks up his students’ suspicion.
“Mr. Grayson, is Mr. West ever coming back to sit in on our class?”
Dick gives the boy a confused look as his writing comes to a halt. “I beg your pardon?”
“Well, he just seemed to give you a boost of energy.”
“He does that for everyone,” Dick deflects, because wow if that wasn’t true. He could run a mile just from a loving look from Wally and the truth is a bitch.
“True, but… it really made you a better teacher.”
He can’t help but laugh as he leans back in his chair. “Every single one of your grades has gone up in the past two weeks. Mr. West helped me, yes, but I can tell you guys respect me now.” Several mouths open to protest, but Dick cuts them off with a genuine chuckle. “Look, I get it, English sucks. I don’t hold it against you. I’m just glad you guys are able to focus and put in the effort you need now.”
“So… no more Mr. West?”
“You all have science,” he chides. “You’ll see him everyday for the rest of the semester.”
There’s nothing much else that can be said without giving away their motives, so Dick is left to mark the essays in front of him.
A knock pulls him out of his marking haze and—Wally.
Dick is smiling, he knows he is, like the awestruck students he’s seen right in front of him, but-but—Wally.
“Speak of the devil,” he whispers. He opens the door for Wally, raising a brow at him. “You know you can’t just pop in whenever, right?” he whispers, quieter than anything the people in the room can pick up.
“I know,” Wally responds, just as quiet, “but I think you took my laptop when we had our last date.”
Dick feels his face run hot, because of course. Why wouldn’t he accidentally take Wally’s laptop? “Do you need it right now? These kids are bloodhounds for teacher romance and I don’t need them making up more things in their heads.”
“What,” Wally lilts, “you aren’t hopelessly falling for me?”
“Shut up. I’ll give you the computer back later.”
Wally spots someone over his shoulder and his expression sours. “Charlie! I still need your report! You’re lucky Mr. Grayson is keeping me from disrupting his class and making you finish it!”
The class’ attention shifts from them to the poor kid who didn’t do his homework. “Good save.”
“I try.” His expression softens as he locks eyes with Dick once more. “Why don’t you come to my place tonight?”
“Goodbye, Mr. West.”
“You’re too soft on them, Mr. Grayson. They won’t learn how to be heard working college students like this.”
“I’ll worry about my students futures, thank you very much.”
“Never mind,” a girl in the back whispers, “they totally hate each other.”
Dick doesn’t know which rumour is worse.
They’re both called in to talk with the principal later that day.
“Are we that obvious?” Wally asks, rushed and panicked.
“No,” Dick admits, “but your bedroom eyes certainly don’t help our case.”
“I am a gentleman, Richard, I wouldn’t give you bedroom eyes before our first kiss.”
Dick completely disregards the heat sitting high on his cheeks. “You’re impossible.” He shifts a little as they continue walking up the stairs. “Does it bother you?”
“What?”
“That I haven’t kissed you yet?”
Wally brushes his hand against his, something that looks casual to the prying eye, but deliberate and immensely comforting to Dick. “’Course not. I’d wait forever for a kiss from you. Hell, I’m chill just watching you live.”
“Oh, ‘cause that’s not creepy.”
Wally gives a chest bow before opening the door for Dick. “I try, M’Lord.”
The principal doesn’t look terribly upset with them as they walk over to her desk. “Richard, Wallace.”
“Wallace!?” Dick howls. Oh, this is too good.
“Y-Yes.” Wally looks away from both Dick and the principal. “You don’t see me making fun of your full name.”
“That’s fair.”
Wally is back to looking at him with overflowing fondness, and Dick decides that he needs a picture of Wally. Or maybe a custom painting. “So, Ms. Murray, why did you want to see us?”
“Well,” she mutters, “I was told that you two were having an argument of sorts in front of the students. I was going to give you both a lecture on professionalism, but it seems that you two may need another version of that talk.”
Dick smiles sheepishly at the woman in front of him, but she doesn’t seem to open to the idea of her employees having… relations. “Look, Ms. Murray, nothing about what Wally and I do outside of the school interferes with how we do our jobs—”
“I don’t need to teachers going around parading their relationship, Richard.”
“I’m sorry, didn’t Garfield and Raven get together once? There was a whole announcement made for them, and the school was completely supportive.”
“Yes, well, times have changed—”
“Oh no they haven’t,” Dick glowers. “You just don’t want two of your male teachers together. Is that it?”
The silence grates against Dick’s ears and the tension is even thicker than molasses, but nothing is strong enough to stop the rage zapping back and forth between himself and Wally. “Julia,” Wally stresses, “that can’t be true?”
The principal doesn’t seem to be bothered with how her words are affecting the men in front of her. “They don’t need to see something so impure, that’s all.’
Wally is the one to send his seat flying back in anger as he stands, planting his hands on the desk and boring holes into the soul of the principal. “You don’t get to have a say in this, okay? We’ve done nothing explicit in front of the students, so you have no reason to fire us. And you definitely can’t fire us for being into men, so.”
He holds his hand out for Dick, who takes it with a grateful, yet strained smile.
“We’re leaving.”
“Where’re we going?”
Wally looks to him with a mischievous smile. “You can cook, can’t you Boy Wonder?”
Making a mix of a choked and amused sound, Dick stumbles in his steps. “’Boy Wonder’? Where the hell did you get that?”
“Along with the rumours about us going around, there’s word that you were a prodigy when it came to acrobats.”
“You heard unbelievably wrong. My knowledge of food preparation does not go beyond ceral.” Dick tightens his grip on Wally’s hand. “You can cook for me, then. At your place?”
Wally bares his teeth in what should be described as a shark-like smirk, but the joy in his eyes makes Dick’s heart do The Thing.
Wally’s place is nice, and Dick is very impressed with it. “You’re a high school teacher.”
He knows it’s a rude thing to talk about, but he knows first hand how many zeroes are on that paycheck, and this apartment? It doesn’t add up.
“I am,” Wally laughs, “but my dad died a while back. Had pretty good life insurance; so, I used it to buy this place.”
Perfect, Dick thinks. “I’m—I didn’t—that was not the plan, I promise.”
Wally seems unbothered entirely as he takes Dick’s jacket from him. “Don’t worry about it. Hated the old fart, anyway. Always seemed to love the bottle more than his own son.” He looks to Dick with hopefulness brightening his eyes. “I’m hoping yours is better?”
“He’s a little… clogged on the emotional front, but he’s good to me. And my three brothers.”
“Three?” The redhead whistles, baffled and maybe a little impressed. “Younger or older?”
“I’m the eldest,” Dick explains fondly. “They’re all royal pains in my ass, but I love them.” He fiddles with the hem of his shirt for a brief moment. “You should meet them sometime. Damian might give you a hard time, but he’ll grow on you.”
It’s a good idea, but they both share a look that says ‘slower, let’s do this slower’. With a small nod, Wally heads to the kitchen to get started on dinner.
“What do you feel like having?” Wally calls. “I’ll eat just about anything, so all suggestions are welcome.”
“Surprise me. If the food tastes as good as you look, it’s going to be a great dinner.”
Dick cannot, in any way, believe those words just flew from his mouth. Wally rounds the corner to look at Dick, unimpressed yet trying to repress a smirk.
“Are you serious?”
“I don’t even know what happened, I’m so sorry.”
He walks off with a shake of his head. Dick buries his face in the throw pillow, hoping with his whole heart that he’ll just sink into the couch and never have to face Wally ever again. He feels his eyes slip shut, the four hours of sleep he barely managed the night before finally creeping up on him. Closing his eyes for a minute won’t hurt.
When Dick opens his eyes again, the clock has moved two hours ahead and the sun has set.
“Fuck!”
“You know, Dick, if you found me company that boring, you should have just said.”
He’s quick to sit up, coming within just a couple inches of Wally’s face. “It wasn’t! It’s not! I just—last night was a rough night, and sleep was not my friend, and—”
“Dick,” Wally whispers softly, adoringly, “I don’t mind. Seriously. Your food is being kept warm in the oven. I’ll go get it for you.”
“You don’t have to,” Dick protests.
“I mean you already took a nap on my couch like a princess, might as well continue the special treatment, no?”
Groaning in unadulterated embarrassment, Dick covers his face with his hands as he launches himself back against the couch. The smell of potatoes and fish fills his nose not a moment later, though, so he’s right back up and gleaming at Wally. “You, Mr. West, are an angel.”
“Well, this angel is officially off duty. Pick a movie, Boy Wonder.”
“You gonna keep that up?”
“What, would you prefer I call you Mr. Grayson? I call you that five days a week.”
Dick rolls his eyes as he scooches over to Wally, leaning his head on the toned shoulder beside him. “How the hell are you so in shape? You eat like an elephant.”
“I used to think I ran a lot to burn off the food, but now I can’t tell if it’s that or eating enough to fuel my running. It’s a blur of leg cramps and tacos, if I’m being honest.”
Dick laughs lightly as he selects a movie—some cheesy romcom, and he’ll fight Wally tooth and nail if he gets shit for it—and shakes his head. “You’re such a dork.”
“I could be your dork.”
He leans up, looking deep into Wally’s eyes for anything but the sincerity that’s making his chest burn in the best ways. He finds nothing, and smiles softly as he presses his lips to the pair in front of him.
Dick doesn’t pull away for a little bit, happy to hold his plate at a weird angle while the narration of some freshly-graduated woman tries to navigate her way around the Big City floods his ears, because Wally’s lips are as perfect as the rest of him. Softer than Dick’s own, he knows, but the satisfied noise that Wally lets out as he presses closer tells him that it’s a non-issue.
“I like that idea,” Dick whispers.
They both set up blankets and pillows on the floor of the living room hours later as if they’re children, but they’re both poking fun and enjoying themselves, so Dick doesn’t complain.
“And, this way,” Wally explains, “we don’t have to have the awkward conversation of what to do with the bed.”
“I haven’t had a sleep over in a decade.” Dick stares at the ceiling. “Wow. Nostalgia’s a bitch.”
He gets loud snores in response. With a snort, Dick turns onto his side and mutters a small goodnight, Wally, before letting his eyes slip shut again.
Dick is woken up to the sight of shimmering eyes and the smell of pancakes. Well, this is domestic as shit. “Get up, Dick, we have to get to the school in an hour.”
“So why am I awake now?”
Wally shakes his head as he tugs Dick up by his arms. “So we can have a nice breakfast together before we go back to dancing around each other like birds doing a mating call.”
That’s fair enough.
Soon enough, they’re in Wally’s car once more and heading to work. “You think people’ll care we came out of he same car?”
“Nah, the teachers carpool all the time. This may prove a peace treaty has been reached between us.”
“I hope so.”
They pull into the parking lot, bustling with students and teachers alike, and Wally drives to his assigned spot. He looks over to Dick, face unreadable, before leaning in gently.
Dick, being the shithead that he is, gets out of the car and grabs his bag from the back.
“Now, now, Mr. West, you can’t just go kissing your coworkers like that.” His tone is way too scandalized to be believed by anyone, but the way Dick’s air is so playful and radiant—Wally just smiles helplessly.
“Yeah, I guess you’re right.”