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Wally West had been the biggest superhero fanboy. Posters of his idols had littered the walls of his bedroom, comic books based on their adventures had poured out from his bookshelf, and he had been in possession of several collectable action figures he was quite proud of. Then his Aunt had gone and married one of his idols and, rather stupidly, Wally had replicated his uncle-in-law’s experiment that had given him powers. That was how Wally had become Kid Flash, but it was also the reason he was no longer such a groupie. Suddenly he knew these heroes, up close and personal. He felt weird having their faces staring back at him while he tried to sleep and it was weird reading the comics because superman’s secret identity was not Jason Anderson, a lowly postman but the friend of everyone on his route. So there had been an overhaul. Wally had purged his room of the majority of his superhero memorabilia and what he had kept had ended up in a bag deep in his closet, that was until he and Artemis had visited Megan and Connor at their high school. Seeing all of the teens in superhero tee shirts had sparked a memory that had sat in the back of his mind almost forgotten.
“Are you going to tell me why we left Megan’s cheer competition early so that you could dig in your closet?” Artemis said with a hint of annoyance as she watched the backside of her idiot boyfriend as he tried to parse through a mess that had been accumulating since he had started ‘cleaning’ his own room.
“Just wait!” He said as he turned to catch a glance of the blond perched on his bed, her legs crossed in annoyance, but an amused smile playing at her lips. He turned back into the closet, pushing aside an old blanket and several christmas sweaters before letting out a victorious whoop. He grabbed the black trashbag and pulled it out of his closet.
“Great, you dragged me here so we could look through your trash.” Artemis deadpanned as she scooted over to make room for him on the bed.
“Hold on babe, you will see!” Wally quickly ripped the bag open and dumped its contents over their laps. A pile of t shirts fell out. These weren't just any tee shirts though, they were superhero t shirts. Artemis gaped as she parsed through them, turning to her boyfriend, all she could think to say was,
“You are a huge fucking nerd.” Wally laughed as he grabbed a green tee with an arrow plastered on it. He pulled of the shirt he had been wearing before and tugged the new one over his head.
“Hmmm I can see why you like the look so much, maybe I should give up the red and yellow and join the archer family.” Wally teased as Artemis rolled her eyes.
“You can’t even shoot a crossbow, how do you expect to work an actual bow?” Wally laughed as he got to his feet and pulled Artemis with him.
“Mmmh, I am starved babe, let’s go out for food.”
Wally, being the immature boy he was, took up wearing his old t shirts with a certain gusto. At first it was just the green arrow shirt, and everyone on the team thought it was cute. On several occasions Miss M had asked Artemis why she didn’t wear the flash logo.
“Because I am not a dweeb.” was all she had responded with. The team had shrugged it off, unknowing that the worst was yet to come. One day Wally showed up to the cave in a batman shirt and refused to take it off, saying that a bunch of civilians had complimented him on it. He continued his shenanigans, wearing anything from green lantern to wonder woman. Then one day he went to far. He came into the cave with a superman shirt. It wasn’t that conner was mad at it, Wally would have expected that, it was that he laughed at it. No one had seen Conner laugh like that, head thrown back tears streaming down his eyes. When he had finally calmed down enough and the team had recovered from the shock they were finally able to ask him what was so funny.
“I am just imagining baby Wally in a superman onesie with a little batman doll and it is hilarious.” After that Wally stopped wearing the shirts to the caves as often, because he knew that his friends would be quick to tease, even Kaldur liked to make fun of him, bowing over dramatically and calling him ‘my king’ when he wore an aquaman shirt. Wally did not, however, stop wearing them out and about. He loved it when people complimented him on the shirts because it reminded him that people appreciated what he and his friends did. The risks that they took were worth it because these people were safe.
When Wally died, the hardest part for Artemis was cleaning out the apartment. It was hard because they had built a life together, and here she was tearing it apart. When she found his collection of superhero t shirts, she remembered the young idiot she had fallen in love with. She remembered how much he had loved these shirts, and how the team had given him such a hard time over them. She remembered him buying new ones with the logos of up and coming super heroes. His favorite shirt was the one of her arrow pattern and his second favorite was the one with the nightwing logo stamped across its chest. She wanted to curl up under the shirts and remember his scent as it wafted around her, but she knew she had work to do.
The winter holidays were right around the corner. It had been six months since the death of Wally West. No one had heard much from Artemis, but somehow every superhero that had been lucky enough to call Wally West a friend found a package in their homes. They all had the same note attached: From Wally and Artemis. Inside every hero would find a worn t shirt and a photo of a red headed boy wearing it.