Archive of Our Own ^beta

The summer air was clear and crisp, a pleasant warmth with a cool breeze blowing through. There were barely any clouds in the sky, save for soft wisps brushing against rich blue. At the shore, waves curled forward and crawled upwards along the sand.

A way from the shore, two best friends sat atop a brick wall, enjoying a comfortable silence as they both worked on eating their respective ice cream cones. Both of their legs were mindlessly swinging back and forth, their eyes gazing out to the waves coming in from the lake.

Dick Grayson glanced over at his best friend and watched as Wally West tried valiantly to lick at a drop of ice cream that was escaping down his wrist. Dick snorted. “Your ice cream’s melting,” he commented, a cheeky smile on his face as he watched the redhead struggle.

Wally paused in his attempt to glare at him, and mocked in a high pitched voice, “'your ice cream’s melting’ yeah I know, thank you captain obvious.” Dick threw his head back with a laugh. Wally grumbled at his ice cream, then opted to just clean it up with the napkin wrapped around the cone. “I could have this cone finished within seconds, and you know it. Stupid secret identity.” He went back to eating the treat, albeit frowning as he did.

Dick giggled, then leaned towards him with an exaggerated pout. “Aw, poor Wally, has to eat his ice cream at normal human speed. What a tragedy- hey!” he exclaimed as Wally jabbed his elbow into his side. He almost lost grip on his cone, but thanks to his quick reflexes he re-gained it. He held it away, then threw his own glare at Wally.

The speedster scoffed and rolled his eyes at him with a smile. He turned away then, eyes trailing back to the lake. Dick huffed, but quietly followed Wally’s gaze and went back to eating at his cone. Just like that, the two of them fell back into that comfortable silence.

It was one of those rare weekends where Dick was allowed to spend a day and a night over at Central City. They didn’t happen often, as Dick had to stick to Bruce’s strict schedule. But every once in a while, Barry and Wally met the two bats at the nearby zeta tube in the late morning, Bruce giving an amused huff as the two friends greeted each other with an enthusiastic hug. Wally would always quickly fall into rambling about the day’s plans, Dick miraculously able to follow along even when he would fall into speed speech.

Currently, it was about three in the afternoon. The two of them were enjoying a snack before heading to the arcade, then after that making their way home.

After biting into the bottom of his cone, Wally glanced down at Dick’s shoes. They were a simple pair of black converse with white shoelaces. Wally looked to his own shoes, which were a bright pair of red runners with orange shoelaces. Wally hummed. Then an idea struck him. “Dude, let’s switch shoelaces,” he said.

Dick snorted, looking over at him with a quirked, questioning eyebrow. “What?”

“Yeah, let’s switch shoelaces!” Wally’s eyes lit up as he began to like the idea even more. “But only on one shoe. Let’s switch shoelaces on one shoe.”

“Why?” Dick laughed.

Wally gestured with his hands as he explained, “because it’ll be cool! Mismatched shoelaces, it’s cool! Plus, we never really get to see each other outside of missions and stuff, so it’s like we’ll have a piece of each other with us always!”

Dick grinned and placed a hand over his heart, saying, “aww, that’s sweet.”

Wally shoved lightly at his shoulder with a laugh. “Dude! Come on, don’t make this weird. Just give me your shoelace.”

Dick laughed, shoving back before asking, “can’t we just get, like, I don’t know, friendship bracelets or something if we want to keep, quote, ‘a piece of each other with us always’ end quote.” He flexed his fingers into quotation marks. Their ice creams lay forgotten beside them.

Wally pointed a finger at him and said, “friendship bracelets are common. And lame. Switching shoelaces is unique. And cool.”

Dick observed the serious expression on his face for a moment. Then he shrugged and agreed, “sure. Why not, let’s do it.” He then shifted to prop one of his feet up on the wall, beginning to work on disentangling a lace.

“Yes!” Wally pumped a fist into the air then followed Dick, propping his foot up and undoing his shoelace. They went silent for a moment as they focused on the task at hand. Then, they glanced up to hand each other their shoelaces, grins stretching their lips.

As Dick began to weave Wally’s shoelaces into his shoe, he shook his head and laughed. “This is ridiculous.”

“You’re ridiculous,” Wally retorted. “Don’t mock my cool ideas.”

“You do realise that me, being Bruce Wayne’s ward, probably can’t be seen out and about with mismatched shoelaces, it’ll be-” he sat up straight, turned his nose upwards and laid a hand on his chest “- an absolute insult to the neat, crisp and clean fashion sense of the high-society lifestyle,” he said, imitating the voice of a posh, British woman.

With a snicker, Wally sat up straight as well, copying Dick’s pose. “An absolute travesty to lay my eyes upon! How dare Bruce Wayne allow his ward to walk in such shoes! Mismatched! Of all things! Gerald, get me some water or I fear I may faint!” Wally swung backwards, laying the back of his hand across his forehead.

The two then burst into laughter, Wally clutching his stomach as Dick threw his head back. When their laughter died down, Wally said, “just wear them whenever you come to hang out here, then. You wear your pair and I’ll wear mine. Deal?” He held out his pinkie finger.

Dick shook his head with another laugh, but hooked his pinkie finger around Wally’s nonetheless. “Deal.”

They went back to tying up their shoelaces. Once done, they both hopped off the wall and looked at each other’s shoes. Wally’s left shoe now had a white lace, while Dick’s right one now had bright orange lace.

“Friendship shoes!” they both exclaimed in unison. They then high-fived and fist-bumped each other with bright smiles. At this point in their friendship, it wasn’t all that shocking that they were seemingly able to read each other’s mind like that.

Pointing a finger to the sky, Wally announced, “now off to the arcade! We’ve got high scores to destroy! Tickets to gain!”

“And prizes to win!” Dick finished. He went to follow Wally as the redhead turned, but paused with a gasp. “Wait, Wally, the ice cream! We can’t litter!” He gestured to the abandoned cones and napkins.

Wally turned back, eyebrows thrown up. He then nodded and walked back. “You’re absolutely right. As superheroes, we have to be more responsible than this.”

Two hours later when they walked into the Allen household, arms full of candy and toys from the arcade, Barry glanced down and noticed the change. He laughed, raising an eyebrow. “What happened there?” he asked.

“We switched shoelaces. Wally’s idea,” Dick explained.

“They’re our friendship shoes!” Wally added. Then he grabbed Dick’s hand and began to drag him up the stairs. “You wanna rewatch Megamind?” he asked, glancing down at the brunette.

“Only like a thousand times,” Dick answered with a roll of his eyes.

Barry huffed a laugh and shook his head in amusement, watching the two boys race up the stairs.

--

Almost six months later, Wally was collapsing face first atop Dick’s bed and releasing an aggravated, muffled groan. From where he stood at his desk, Dick looked over and raised a brow.

“Problem, Wally?” he questioned.

Wally flipped onto his back, staring up at the ceiling for a moment before telling Dick, “I’ve outgrown my shoes, Dick. I have to get new ones.” He tilted his head back, looking at his now upside-down friend, and sent a pout. “No more friendship shoes,” he said.

Dick frowned, tapping a pen to his lips. “Aren’t you wearing them right now?”

Wally paused, glancing away for a second. “Uh… yeah?”

Dick’s eyes narrowed. “Aren’t they uncomfortable, then?”

Slowly, a sheepish smile tugged at Wally’s lips. “Uh… only a little bit,” he settled on.

Dick huffed, rolling his eyes. “Take them off, Wally,” he told him.

Wally sat up, frowning. “But friendship shoes!” He threw out a hand.

Dick rolled his eyes again, walking over to his closet. “You’ve grown way too attached to the idea of friendship shoes. Take them off.” He opened his closet and stepped in, moving towards the shoe shelf.

Wally frowned one more time but complied and shuffled to the end of the bed. He began to take his shoes off.

“What size are you now?” Dick asked from the closet, looking over his shoes.

“Ten,” Wally answered, tugging off the runners and tossing them to the floor.

Dick found an appropriate pair of runners, then walked out. He handed them to Wally, saying, “might as well keep them off since you’re staying the night. But you’re wearing those tomorrow and chucking that pair out.” He pointed to the discarded runners.

“Yes, mom,” Wally said while placing the pair of shoes on the ground.

Dick rolled his eyes, yet again, and sat down on the bed beside the speedster. After a moment of silence, he asked, “still attached to the friendship shoes idea?”

“Yes!” Wally exclaimed, flopping back against the bed. “It was cool! It was our thing, you know? But then my stupid feet had to grow.” He brought his socked feet into view and wriggled them a little.

Dick pushed them back down. “You would’ve had to throw that pair away after they got worn out, anyways,” he pointed out. Wally merely crossed his arms and looked away, grumbling unintelligibly. Dick giggled and shook his head at his antics. He glanced at the red runners, one shoelace orange and the other white. He then tilted his head, squinting his eyes and thinking for a moment. Like a light being turned on, his eyes lit up and he looked back to his friend. “You know, we’ve kept this thing up for a couple of months now, seems like we’re pretty committed to it. It’d be a shame to just abandon it just because you don’t fit those shoes anymore,” he said, a suggestion in his voice.

Wally turned to him, suspicious. His eyes then lit up, seemingly catching onto Dick’s idea. He sat up smiling and jabbered, “we should take those same shoelaces and transfer them to other shoes and continue the tradition of friendship shoes!”

Dick laughed and pushed a hand against Wally’s face, who immediately complained. “No, Kid Idiot. That’s going to become exhausting and annoying after a while. Let’s just tie the shoelaces around our wrists.”

Wally wrinkled his nose. “But they’ve been near our stinky feet. And they probably have dirt on them.”

“We’ll wash them,” Dick shrugged, already reaching down for the red runner with the white lace. He placed it on his lap, then scrunched his face up. “Stinky feet, indeed.” He cackled when Wally shoved at his shoulder.

As he began to un-do the lace, Wally asked, “but isn’t that just like friendship bracelets?”

“Sure. But it’ll be our special and cool kind of friendship bracelets,” he said, throwing a smirk over his shoulder.

Wally stared for a moment, thinking over it. Then he lurched into action, lunging forward and hanging his torso over the edge of the bed. “Let’s do it!” he exclaimed. He then grabbed Dick’s ankle and pulled upward, causing Dick to lose his balance and fall backwards against the bed.

Dick let out a scream, his hands scrambling for the shoe that he’d lost his grip on. “Wally!” he yelled in annoyance, dropping the shoe to his chest and glaring at his friend. Wally merely laughed and tugged one of Dick’s converse pair off. Shoes that Dick had not grown out of, but was glad to get rid of once this was over. They were starting to wear off.

Once his shoe was off, Dick pushed his foot hard against Wally’s side, causing the redhead to tip over and go tumbling off the bed. Dick laughed in surprise, not expecting Wally to fall off. He sat up and shuffled back to the end, looking down at Wally who was sprawled on the ground, but laughing anyways.

“You’re a dick,” Wally said as he sat up, resting the shoe in his lap.

Dick threw his head back with a cackle, then responded, “though it was not my intent, you totally deserved it.” Wally stuck his tongue out at him, to which Dick immediately replied with by sticking his own tongue out. The two then returned to taking the shoelaces out. Once done, Dick stood up and helped Wally to his feet. “Let’s go to the bathroom and we’ll wash them in the sink,” he said, turning and walking towards the bathroom connected to his room. He paused to take his other shoe off after a few uneven steps.

He plugged the sink up and started the hot water. Wally hopped up onto the counter, swinging his dangling legs back and forth. Once the sink was full, they both dumped the shoelaces in, and Dick began to wash them.

“Ew,” Wally said when the water became a cloudy, brownish grey.

“Gross,” Dick agreed.

Once he finished cleaning them, he scrubbed and dried them in a towel. He got the orange one and handed it to Wally, saying, “would you do the honours, good sir?” while holding his right wrist out.

Wally snickered and took the shoelace. “Well of course! As long as you return the favour, my good fellow,” he replied, accepting Dick’s wrist and holding it in his grasp.

“I certainly will,” Dick said. Wally wrapped the shoelace and tied it around his wrist, finishing it off in a bow. He then held his left wrist out, and Dick did the same for him, giving him a bow as well.

The two studied the shoelaces for a moment before grinning. They high-fived and fist-bumped, similar to when they invented friendship shoes.

“Friendship bracelets!”

“Friendship laces!”

“Just call them friendship bracelets, Walls.”

“Fine.”

--

From then on, the two were always seen with a shoelace wrapped loosely around their wrist. They never wore them in costume, for the obvious reason that someone could easily make the connection between Robin and Kid Flash, and Dick Grayson and Wally West. But out of costume, they were never seen without them.

--

Two years later, Wally’s eighteenth birthday was held in the backyard of the Allen household. It was well after sunset, the area lit by the deck light and lines of fairy lights woven around the branches of the two lone trees. There was a small bonfire set up, and the small fireplace on the deck was turned on. Wally had blown out the candles and cut the birthday cake about half an hour ago. Now, everyone was scattered around the yard. They either sat at the long, foldable dining table, were standing and chatting in small groups, or were inside playing games.

Dick, having lost sight of Wally about fifteen minutes ago, was seated at the table. He was listening in on a conversation between the Garricks, Barry and Bruce, while absentmindedly fiddling with the bright orange shoelace around his wrist. The shoelace had begun to lose its colour over the months and was significantly less brighter than the day Wally had first tied it. Dick snickered at Bruce’s expression when Barry threw his arm around his shoulders. The snicker delved into a full laugh when Bruce turned his narrow glare towards his ward.

Dick leaned back in his chair. His attention was drawn away when he spotted a flash of red, and registered Wally jogging towards him. “Where have you been?” he asked, looking up at his friend with a raised brow.

Wally brushed his red locks back and blew out a breath. “The kids demanded that I play monopoly with them,” he explained, referring to his younger cousins on his mother’s side. He jerked a thumb towards the house. “I’ve been stuck there with Roy for the past ten minutes. They’re ruthless, I’m telling you. I went bankrupt so quickly. I hate that game.”

“You suck at monopoly,” Dick said, crossing his arms.

“Yeah. Which is why I hate that game,” he repeated. Dick laughed. Wally grinned, then told him, “I need a break.” He held his hand out to Dick, white shoelace shifting slightly. “Take a walk with me?”

Dick quirked a brow. “If you need a break, wouldn’t you rather be alone?”

Wally shrugged and said, “sure. But alone time with you is the best time.” He ended that statement with a wink. Then his eyes widened and his face quickly became red. “Uh, wait- that wasn’t-” He turned his scared gaze to Bruce, yelping when he saw the bat throwing him an unimpressed glare.

Dick burst into laughter, a loud cackle erupting from deep within his chest. Still laughing, he grabbed Wally’s hand and pulled himself to his feet. “Come on, let’s just go,” he laughed, shaking his head and dragging the red-faced speedster towards the gate.

Before they disappeared, Wally tried to save himself by calling out, “I wasn’t implying anything, I swear-” Bruce’s glare narrowed, and behind him Barry made quick ‘shut up right now Wally’ gestures with his hands. Wally snapped his mouth shut. “Noted. Shutting up now- gah!” he stumbled out of sight when Dick tugged sharply on his hand. He stumbled a few more times before righting himself. He looked to Dick, who was shaking his head at him and chuckling lightly. He grinned and fell into step with the other, squeezing his hand. Dick squeezed back.

Over the past few months, feelings that clearly weren’t of the friendship kind had begun to develop between the two. It had started with Dick. One day the two had been trying to make what should’ve been a simple smoothie. An argument had started over the ingredients of said smoothie, and in the next moment the two were wrestling in the kitchen. A wrong move had caused Wally’s elbow to hit the button on the blender. Crushed fruits, milk and yogurt went flying, spraying every inch of the kitchen and dousing the two boys. There was a moment of silence, before they both erupted in laughter, slipping on the now wet floor and crashing to the ground. As Dick glanced to the side to see Wally wiping a glob of yogurt from his cheek, he realised that holy shit he might be falling in love with his best friend.

It continued with Wally. When one particular mission had ended with Robin severely injured and bedridden in the batcave, Wally found himself plastered to his side for as long as he could. He still remembered the cold fear and worry when he saw the other boy collapse to the ground, unconscious, with blood steadily pumping out of a gash in his side. For the next couple of days, Wally stayed sitting in a chair next to the bed for as much time as Barry and Bruce allowed him, his leg bouncing and chin resting on his fist. When Dick finally started groaning and fluttering his eyes open, Wally was hit with the sudden urge to climb into that bed and kiss him from relief. It had shocked him enough that he didn’t respond at first when Dick croaked out his name. As he sped up the stairs and into the manor to alert Alfred, he realised that holy shit he might be falling in love with his best friend.

Others noticed. It wasn’t as if the two tried to deny said feelings. They accepted them without struggle. They just couldn’t ever really find the time to discuss them fully. To put a name to what they were feeling. Still, they found themselves stealing glances and light touches. A brush of a hand on a shoulder, a few seconds of holding hands during a debrief, even that one time that Dick had kissed Wally’s cheek in goodbye, leaving the speedster grinning dopily for the rest of the day. But still they had not gotten the chance to fully discuss it.

Wally figured that his birthday, a rare quiet and slow day, was as good of a time as any.

So they walked, hand in hand, away from Wally’s house and into the quiet of the street. They were both silent, simply enjoying each other’s company. As they strolled down the sidewalk, Dick moved his hand away to instead loop his arm through Wally’s and lean into his side, stealing a bit of that speedster warmth. Wally smiled brightly as Dick hummed contentedly. They kept walking until they reached the end of the street, and Wally guided them to a stop at the corner.

Dick frowned when Wally stepped away and he lost that warmth. Wally then grabbed both of his hands, and he let himself smile again. Wally cleared his throat, eyes darting off to the side.

“So. Dick, uh…” he trailed off, words getting stuck in his throat.

“Yes, Wally?” Dick said, tilting his head as his eyes twinkled, smile turning cheeky.

Wally huffed and released one of his hands to push lightly at his shoulder. “Don’t be a jerk. You know exactly what this is about.”

Dick chuckled, pushing back before snatching Wally’s hand back. “I do. So why don’t you stop stalling and spit it out already,” he suggested, quirking a brow.

Wally nodded, fingers beginning to absentmindedly fiddle with Dick’s. “Right. Okay. So.” He cleared his throat again, face shifting into a determined glare. “Dick Grayson.” Dick hummed. “I like you. I really like you. Like a lot. I like you so much that it makes me want to kiss you. And keep holding your hand just like this,” he briefly held up their joined hands, “and take you out to cheesy dates. And call you my boyfriend. So,” his gaze darted down to their hands, confidence faltering a little as he looked back up and asked, “what’d you think?”

Dick pressed his lips together, trying to fight back a giddy grin. Finally, he replied, “I think that sounds good.”

Wally grinned. “Yeah?” Dick nodded with an affirmative hum.

“Yes. I really, really like you too, Wally West. So much that whenever you talk too much, it makes me want to kiss you in order to shut you up,” he confessed.

Wally gasped, offended. “What!? Come on, I don’t talk that much! And even if I do, I’m a speedster! I can’t help it if my mouth works faster than my brain and I speak before I have the opportunity to think of the option of not speaking and-”

In one swift movement, Dick placed a hand on the back of Wally’s neck, pulling him downwards and leaning upwards to slot their lips together in a kiss. Which- yeah, Wally totally should’ve expected that. It was the perfect trap; get Wally to ramble so Dick had the perfect opportunity to properly shut him up. Wally can’t say that he minded. He closed his eyes, a smile tugging at his lips as he tilted his head to reciprocate the kiss. With the hand that had the shoelace around its wrist, Wally gently cupped Dick’s cheek and pulled him in closer. Dick hummed happily as warmth spread throughout his face.

They both pulled back with wide smiles on their faces. Dick lifted his other hand to wrap it loosely around Wally’s wrist He began to fiddle with the shoelace. Wally followed the movement, then his eyes brightened even more.

“Wait! Does this mean that these are our boyfriend bracelets now?” he asked, looking back to Dick.

Dick snorted, then giggled, then burst into laughter. Wally smiled and laughed lightly as he watched him. While still giggling, Dick said, “you’re ridiculous.”

Wally grinned sharply and leaned right into his space, teasing, “but you liiike me” and pressing a kiss to his cheek.

Dick snickered and pushed his face away, saying, “you do not get to tease me when you feel exactly the same way.” He then pulled Wally back and wrapped his arms around his shoulders, Wally’s going around his waist. “But, sure, they’re our boyfriend bracelets now. Happy?”

“Whenever I’m with you? Always.”

--

Six years later, Dick felt tears sting at his eyes, and his heart twist so tight it hurt. He stared at the white shoelace, curled and tucked so neatly into the depths of Wally’s bedside drawer. With shaking hands, he reached in and pulled it out. It unravelled to reveal the hole that had been readjusted over the years to better fit Wally’s growing wrist, and a messy limp bow that Dick rememberd tying so many times. He curled his fist around it and held it to his chest. His throat constricted painfully before he released a choked sob.

“Dick?” a voice called.

He turned to see Barry step into the room, clear worry in his eyes. “I-” Dick choked on his words. He simply uncurled his fist, showing the white string.

Barry immediately understood. His shoulders dropped, eyes becoming sympathetic and sad. “Oh, Dick,” he sighed, stepping further into the room and towards him.

Dick began to tremble, tears already spilling down his cheeks. “I was wondering whe-where it was I just- finding it is so-” he interrupted himself with a sob. Then Barry’s arms were wrapping around him and he was gripping at the back of the older speedster’s jumper. He buried his face in Barry’s shoulder and cried. For the third time that day. For the eleventh time that week. “It’s not fa-fair, Barry. He should’ve been buried with it at least! He should’ve-” He shouldn’t have died in the first place.

His legs became weak and he found that he just couldn’t stand anymore. Barry followed him as he collapsed to the ground. Dick curled into him, body heaving and shaking with uncontrollable sobs. Barry rubbed his hand over his back in circles, quietly shushing him as his own tears tracked down his face. Barry rapidly blinked before the dam broke and he, while trying desperately to hold it back, released a strangled sob. Dick hugged him tighter, and Barry took that as a sign that it was alright for him to break down crying, too. So he did. The two spent the next few minutes crying in each other’s company.

Then, while sniffling and trying to calm down, Dick pulled back. He began to pull at the shoelace, seemingly trying to disentangle it. “I- I want to,” he weakly threw up his wrist with the matching orange shoelace. Now a dull, greyish orange, worn out from the many years.

“I got it,” Barry murmured, taking the shoelace from him. He disentangled it, then held his hand out to give it back.

Dick shook his head and asked quietly, “can… can you? I don’t think I-” his hands were shaking way too much. It was going to be near impossible for him to try and tie it around his wrist.

Barry smiled sadly. “Of course, Dick,” he agreed. He then tied the white lace around Dick’s wrist, finishing it off with a bow like he’d seen Dick and Wally do so many times.

“Thank you,” Dick said, pulling his wrist back. He stared at the two shoelaces, orange and white, now on one wrist instead of two separate ones. He then looked around the room with a long, heaving sigh. He wiped at his eyes with the heel of his palm. “I need a break,” he told Barry.

Barry sighed, nodding and said, “yeah. Yeah, me too.” With a grunt, he rose up from the floor. “I’ll go make us some tea. You want me to call Roy?”

Dick considered that for a moment, then nodded. “Yeah, that’d be great. Thanks, Barry.” For helping him today, for trying to be the stronger one of the two, and for tying the shoelace when he couldn’t.

Barry simply nodded, giving him one last sad look before turning and walking back to the main area of the apartment.

Dick let out another long sigh. Slowly, he uncurled himself and moved so he was leaning against the bed. He looked at the boxes that scattered the bedroom and thought of the others that were in the main area. It was two weeks since Wally’s death, since he just disappeared into nothingness. It was a week after the funeral they held, where they buried an empty casket. It was the first day of sorting out Wally’s things and packing them away in boxes. They needed to find everything that Wally mentioned in his will that he wanted to give away. That, and there was also the fact that Dick couldn’t stand seeing signs of him around the house when he wasn’t here. He was sure that after a while, he would start putting things back. But, well, Dick was never very good at facing his problems head on.

Barry had offered to help as soon as Dick told him what he was doing. Roy offered to help if they needed it, the rest of the team reaching out with promises to help. Dick didn’t doubt that by the end of the day, the apartment was going to be full of people helping out. For now, though, the two of them had been sifting through Wally’s things for the past two hours. Barry was handling things in the living room, while Dick was going through the bedroom. He had successfully packed most of Wally’s clothes away, leaving behind a few jumpers and sleep shirts that Dick just knew he was going to be wearing and crying himself to sleep in for the next two weeks. He managed to only cry at one item of clothing he came across; the Nightwing jumper that Wally always wore on their movie nights. That was a minor crying session. A constant flow of tears and sniffles as he sorted through the rest of the clothing. But that shoelace… something in him just snapped at seeing that shoelace.

Those stupid shoelaces had been a constant in their lives for the past eight years of them. Subconsciously, they always held hands with the ones that had shoelaces on them. Dick always played with Wally’s hair with that hand, and whenever Wally cupped Dick’s cheek it was always with that hand. They were just… always there.

When this whole thing first started, Wally told him that it was so they always had a piece of each other with them wherever they went. Now, wherever the hell Wally was, whatever heaven or hell or black abyss, Wally didn’t have a single piece of Dick with him. But now Dick had two pieces of Wally.

He brought the wrist with the two shoelaces to his face. He glared. “Stupid shoelaces,” he mumbled, “what good are you if you don’t even keep us connected anymore.” Still, as upset as he was at the dumb shoelaces, he pressed his forehead against them and released a sigh.

A couple more minutes, a cup of tea, and a helping hand from Roy, and he’d try again at sorting through Wally’s belongings.

--

If anyone noticed the extra shoelace around his wrist, the one they know used to be wrapped around Wally’s, they didn’t say a single word.

--

Three years later, Dick was standing in front of a door and steeling himself for what was about to happen.

Two days ago, he had been in the watchtower to debrief the brand new Teen Titans on their recent mission, while also discussing the progress on their new base. He was in the middle of guiding the team to the teleport, and organising Gotham patrol with Damian, when a muffled commotion was heard behind one of the hall entrances. Dick paused, a frown on his face as he held up a hand to signal the Teen Titans to a stop as well. Then a steady buzz filled the air, and a form of red and yellow began to vibrate through the entrance. Dick had enough time to register narrowed green eyes before there was a crack of white lightning, and the form came speeding straight for him. The form barrelled into him, causing the both of them to fall in a heap to the ground.

Dick had groaned, raising a hand to his head and using the other to push into the shoulder of the person above him. The person sat up suddenly, both hands by Dick’s head. Dick registered the bright red hair, the familiar Kid Flash suit that looked nothing like Bart’s, the green eyes and the many freckles.

He choked, eyes widening. “Wally? Wally!?”

Wally stared down at him, catching his breath for a moment before exclaiming, “Dick! Oh my god- Dick-”

Damian lunged forward and swung his knee into the side of Wally’s head. Wally was immediately knocked unconscious with a sharp yell, and proceeded to collapse on top of Dick. His head landed on Dick’s shoulder, his arms sprawled to the side and bending at awkward angles.

Dick, eyes still wide, stared up at the ceiling of the watchtower. Hesitantly, slowly, he placed his hands on Wally’s shoulders and glanced down at the mess of red locks. He heard running footsteps, and soon enough his vision was swarmed by the faces of the Flash, Batman, Martian Manhunter and Miss Martian.

Dick’s gaze narrowed, his fingers digging into Wally’s suit. “What. The fuck.”

They moved Wally off of him after that, Miss Martian levitating him back to wherever he came from. He watched her drag his unconscious, supposedly dead, boyfriend away. He almost wanted to stop her, to take Wally, or the Wally lookalike, and wrap him in his arms and never let go. But he needed answers. He needed to know if that was actually Wally, or someone impersonating him. If it was the latter then Dick was going to lose it.

Barry was quick to explain that he had just appeared to them in a flash of energy. They were scoping out a suspected operative base for some CADMUS wannabees, when he had just appeared. Wide-eyed and rambling about how he was finally back. Barry had apparently broken out into tears, so certain that it was him. But Bruce had put a stop to the reunion, insisting that they take him back to the watchtower and have him assessed.

They were just in the middle of doing that when Clark had let it slip that Dick was in the watchtower. At the mention of him, Wally had snapped in some way and threw himself into a panic, rambling about how he needed to see Dick right now. When Batman firmly told him no, that’s when Wally ran. And Wally was fast. Fast enough to outrun Barry and speed throughout the tower until he was able to locate Dick. Even with Barry shouting at everyone he saw to stop Wally, no one could catch him.

After the explanation, Bruce sent Dick home. He told him that he’d tell Dick as soon as they got any confirmation. He reminded him to not get his hopes up. Hours later, Bruce told Dick,

“The mental scans done on him by Megan and John proved to be positive. He passed them all. It’s him, Dick.”

Dick didn’t go on patrol that night, much to Damian’s annoyance. He stayed at the manor, although he got zero sleep because oh god Wally’s alive.

He needed a day or two to think. He needed a day or two to convince himself that this wasn’t some cruel dream or a fucking nightmare. He needed a day or two to convince himself that this was real.

So after that day or two, he beamed himself up to the watchtower in casual attire. Two shoelaces around his right wrist. He walked towards the med-bay where Bruce told him Wally would be staying for a while. When he turned the corner, he saw Barry leaning against a wall opposite a door. When he glanced up and saw Dick, he pushed off it and waved his hand in greeting.

“Bruce told me you were coming today. Figured you needed just one more confirmation before you face him,” he said.

Dick nodded. Barry was right. Even though he had tried to convince himself, there was a part of him that still hardly believe any of this was actually happening. “You’ve talked to him?” he asked.

Barry nodded, folding his arms. “I have. It’s definitely him, Dick. It’s-” he huffed a laugh, shaking his head “- it’s funny. He keeps on asking after you. Reminds me of when he kept on asking me when’s the next time you could come over for a sleepover.”

And, god, hearing that kind of comparison just twisted Dick’s heart. One of the things that was always certain about Wally was that he never really changed all that much. Hell, before he died, or disappeared, there were a lot of times that Wally would call Dick time and time again whining, “when are you coming home? I’ve had a long day and I want some Grayson cuddles.” So from asking when he’s coming over to when he’s coming home, Wally never changed that much. It was… relieving to hear that he was still the same, in some ways.

Dick folded his arms across his middle, glancing to the floor with a sigh. “… you’re sure it’s him?” he asked, voice quiet and vulnerable.

Barry smiled reassuringly. “Yeah. I’m sure.” He then frowned, tilting his head. “Are you sure that you’re ready to see him? You can take some more time if you want-”

“No,” Dick said immediately. “No, I’m okay. I’m ready to see him now. Plus, if he keeps asking for me it’d be a shame to keep him waiting, wouldn’t it?” A smile tugged at the corners of his lips.

Barry laughed, then pulled him into a tight hug. He patted his back and assured, “you’ll be alright, Dick.” He pulled back, hands squeezing his shoulders. “Take things slow, alright? Leave if you need to. Wally’s well aware that this is shocking for everyone. Well, more aware than he was when he first got here.” He chuckled.

Dick smiled, grateful. “Thanks, Barry.”

Barry smiled back. “Anytime, kid.” He patted his shoulder before brushing past him and walking back down the hall.

Dick watched him leave for a moment. For the past few years, he had begun to feel that Barry and Iris were like second parents to him. They’d grown close after Wally disappeared, all feeling the loss the hardest. They started doing monthly, then weekly lunches. Whenever they were at those lunches and Dick was laughing at a story from Iris’ work, there was always that small, sharp twinge of sadness that they could’ve gotten to that point under better circumstances. That maybe one day Dick could’ve gotten the chance to have them as in-laws if he and Wally ever got married. God, Dick had wanted to marry Wally. Then he died and that was no longer an option.

Now he was alive.

Taking a deep breath, Dick stood in front of the door and steeled himself for what was about to happen.

He punched in the keycode and watched the door slide open before he stepped in. On one of the beds, Wally was sitting in a shirt and a pair of sweats. He had his head in his hands, but his gaze snapped up when the door opened. His eyes widened and his body straightened up when his gaze fell on who it was.

“Dick,” he breathed out, hands falling to his lap.

For a moment, all Dick could do was stare. He… well, he actually did look a little bit older. As if he had actually aged over the past three years. As if he had actually aged wherever he was.

“Where did you go, Wally?” were the first words out of his mouth.

Wally faltered, blinking and his mouth opening and closing. He hadn’t expected that to be the first thing Dick says to him. Honestly, neither had Dick. “I- speedforce,” he said, pointing a finger in a direction as if that was where the speedforce was.

Dick frowned and began to move just a little closer. “The place that speedsters get their powers?”

Wally nodded, his gaze darting around the room. “Uh, yeah. Kind of sucked me right into it.” He laughed, though there was no humour in it.

“Okay,” Dick said. He could tell that Wally didn’t want to discuss the subject further. So he dropped it. For now.

Wally’s gaze darted back to him. He stared for a moment, eyes unsure and clearly nervous. Then he sighed, his shoulders dropping. He looked at Dick, eyes wide and apologetic as he said, “I’m sorry I just ran right into you the first day I got back. I should’ve known that it would’ve been a shock but I just wanted to see you so badly. All I ever wanted to do while in the speedforce was to see you. I’m sorry. Barry told me that you were pissed afterwards-”

It finally clicked why Wally looked so nervous. Why he was avoiding looking right at Dick. Wally thought he hated him. Wally thought that Dick not coming to see him for two days was a sign that he didn’t want to see him at all. “I don’t hate you, Wally,” he told him, interrupting his little ramble.

Wally stopped, stilling and eyes widening. “You… you don’t?”

“No!” Dick exclaimed, surprising himself and causing Wally to jump. “No. No, I- fuck. Okay. Shit.” He turned away for a moment, rubbing his hands over his face and carding his fingers roughly through his hair. Okay. He managed talking to Jason after he was dead for a year. He can manage talking to Wally after he’d been dead for three. He turned back.

“This is really difficult, Wally. Losing you destroyed me. Losing Jason, almost certain I was losing Barbara, and then losing you? I just could not handle it. What made it worse was that the only person I wanted comforting me after losing you was you. I quit being a hero for a year.” Wally’s breath visibly hitched at that. “I never quit after you did because even if you weren’t by my side on the field you were still beside me everywhere else it counted. I couldn’t fight knowing that you weren’t going to be there when I got home. So I quit. I was forced to come back because Jason came back and threatened Tim’s life so I had to help Bruce with that complete shit show. Then Bruce got taken and we thought he was dead and I had to become Batman in order to care for and train Bruce’s son. I was Batman for a year. I was Batman for an entire year.”

He slapped a hand to his face, letting out a short, helpless hysterical laugh. His vision blurred with oncoming tears, throat beginning to constrict and chest winding up tight. He pulled his hand back, catching Wally's openly worried, maybe even scared, expression. “And now the universe is telling me that you’re back? Now everyone’s telling me that you’re actually here, that you’re actually Wally, my Wally and that you’re here in front of me? Wally- Wally if you’re not actually here then this will break me. If this is some cruel trick I won’t be able to go on- I can’t- I can’t-” now he was shaking, chest heaving with sobs and face flushing from the onslaught of tears. Wally dove up from the bed and rushed towards him, curling his arms tight and firm and warm around him.

And, fuck, Dick just couldn’t help himself. He didn’t give a single shit if this wasn’t real. He broke down in Wally’s arms. He clung to Wally, burying his face in his chest, digging his fingers into the back of his shirt, and broke. He cried like when he cried on the day he lost Wally. But this time he was breaking down in the familiar and safe arms of Wally West.

Wally held him close, squeezing him impossibly tight. He gently shushed him and whispered reassurances like ‘I’m here’ ‘I’m real’ and ‘you’re okay’. He wouldn’t deny his own tears because god he had missed Dick. He wasn’t lying when he said all he thought about while in the speedforce was seeing Dick. During all the seemingly never-ending running, all the tiredness but never able to stop running, he just wanted to see Dick. And now he was back, and holding Dick in his arms. He couldn’t help but cry. From worry for Dick, from anger and sadness at all that he went through, and from the happiness and relief of holding Dick again. It was a confusing blur of emotions.

They eventually moved to the floor, holding each other tight in their grasps as Dick began to calm down. Soon, when Dick’s tears faded into small sniffles, he slowly untucked his face from Wally’s neck and pulled back enough to glance up at him. His gaze flickered down to Wally’s lips, before with another sniffle he leaned back down and rested his head on Wally’s chest. Not ready. Not yet. Wally rested his chin atop Dick’s head, returning to rubbing circles in his back. He wasn’t ready for that yet either. They both went quiet for a few more minutes, thinking to themselves about their future.

“Wally… I don’t think what we had can ever become what we will have,” he said, slow and a little bit hesitant.

Wally sighed. “No. You’re right. We can’t go back to the way things were. You’ve been through so much and I… I’ve seen too much.”

Dick thought to ask about what he meant by that another day. Now, he pulled back and settled his hands atop Wally’s shoulders, a tentative look upon his face as he picked at a loose thread. “I think we can create something new, though. What’d you think?”

Slowly, a wide grin bloomed across Wally’s face. “I think that sounds good,” he replied.

Dick matched Wally’s grin, his eyes, although red and puffy, were bright and twinkling.“Yeah?"

Wally let out a laugh, breathless and full of joy, then nodded and said, “yeah. You know, I really, really like you. So much that whenever you talk too much, it makes me-”

Dick clutched tightly at his shoulders and surged upwards, capturing Wally’s lips in a desperate kiss. Wally immediately reciprocated, a hand going up to hold and caress Dick’s cheek, while the other clung to his jacket. Fuck it, they were ready now. One of Dick’s hands glided up and his fingers buried into fiery red locks. Both of their eyes were shut tight, furrowed eyebrows drawn upwards. Like a positive and negative magnet, they pressed against each other, leaving no space between them. In that moment, not even the force of nature could tear them apart. Slowly, they pulled back, but not before colliding again with a slower, gentler kiss. Pulling apart for the final time, they pressed their foreheads together and breathed in each other’s air, blue gazing into green through half lidded eyes. Dick’s gaze flickered briefly down to where his hand was. He blinked, then his eyes widened.

“Oh! Um, I think…” he leaned away, bringing his wrist into Wally’s view. “I think this belongs to you, actually.” He shook his wrist, the shoelaces jostling and knocking against each other.

When Wally realised what he was looking at, he gasped. His eyebrows jumped up, and he looked astonished to see the strings. He brought a hand up to fiddle with the white one. “The shoelaces…” he trailed off, then turned a watery smile to Dick. “You wore it?”

“Yeah. It… it didn’t feel exactly right that no one else was wearing it, so I decided I would,” he told him. Then he frowned, worried at Wally’s quick reddening face and shaky, watery eyes. “Walls? You okay?” he placed a gentle hand to the speedster’s cheek, rubbing his thumb over the freckles there.

Wally looked from the shoelaces to him, then gave a wet laugh. “Yeah. Yeah, I guess I… I guess I really missed the shoelaces.” He laughed again, feeling generally confused in his mixture of feelings. “I wish I was wearing it when I went into the speedforce,” he said, rubbing the white string between his finger and thumb.

Dick hummed in agreement. “It didn’t really seem all that fair that I had two pieces of you while you had none of me.”

Wally looked back to him, eyes gazing at him as if he just made everything make sense in the universe. Smiling slowly, he looked back to the shoelaces and asked, “can I…?” he raised his hands towards Dick’s wrist.

“Of course, Walls. It’s your boyfriend bracelet.”

Wally barked a laugh at that. He pulled Dick in for another kiss, and pecked his cheek before he worked on getting the string off Dick’s wrist. Once off, Dick tied it around Wally’s. He finished it off with the usual bow. They both grinned down at it, feeling as if something had just clicked into place. As if the universe had righted itself. Wally cupped Dick’s cheek with that hand, Dick’s hand automatically going up to wrap loosely around his wrist. The two shoelaces sat opposite each other, finally back to their rightful places.

Without the extra weight on his wrist, Dick felt that he could finally breathe again.

--

An hour later, Barry and Bruce were both looking through the window on the med-bay door, at Dick and Wally who were fast asleep on one of the beds. They were curled around each other, a tangle of limbs. A flash of orange and white showed that they were holding hands in their slumber.

“That is so cute,” Barry cooed, a bright smile on his face.

“Yes. I suppose it is,” Bruce agreed, a smaller, fond smile on his face.

Barry glanced to him and asked, “do you remember when they first put the shoelaces on their wrists? And they came running down the stairs to show off their new ‘friendship bracelets’ while holding hands?”

“And then they held hands for the rest of the night without ever realising it?” Bruce continued, raising a brow and releasing a chuckle.

Barry laughed lightly. “Yes! Honestly, it was as if they put the shoelaces on those wrists just so it would look good when they hold hands. They could’ve put it on both of their right wrists, but no, had to be right and left.”

The two older men shared a chuckle. They went back to watching their sons for a moment.

Then Barry leaned towards Bruce and said, “I can’t wait for us to be in-laws, Bruce.”

Bruce paused, turning slowly to him with a narrowed gaze. Then, something miraculous happened. He rolled his eyes and replied, “okay, Barry.” He then turned and began to walk down the hall.

Barry gasped loudly, eyes lighting up. He was quick to follow Bruce, calling, “you called me Barry! You actually called me Barry! Not Flash or Allen, Barry!”

“Don’t push it, Allen.”

“Noo! Go back to calling me Barry! For a moment there it felt like we were actually friends!”

“That's enough, Flash.”

"Oh, come on!"