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Wally scrubbed at his eyes as he stumbled down the halls of Mount Justice. He had been trying to fall asleep for hours now with not an ounce of success. His body was craving sleep, he could feel it in every single limb, weighing him down with exhaustion. But his mind was too wired to let him enter that beautiful REM state.
It wasn’t exactly a mystery as to why, though. It had only been that morning that he and his friends had been trapped in that disaster of a training simulation. He supposed technically his body had been asleep for that, in a sense… but boy was his brain tired.
Of course, no one was blaming M’gann for what had happened; but she had still locked herself away in her room and refused to see anyone. Wally had caught the trace sounds of sobbing off and on throughout the night and had waffled between reaching out or not. In the end, he figured he probably wasn’t the person she’d take the most comfort in, so he’d let it go for the time being.
Batman had ordered all of them to stay here, so they could more easily monitor for any possible side-effects that had yet to manifest. So far the only one Wally could account for was insomnia.
He figured if he couldn’t be at home, taking comfort in his own bed, then maybe a late-night snack would be beneficial. Comfort food usually put him in more of a mood for sleeping… well, it put him more in the mood for a lot of things, but he wasn’t going to split hairs about it.
He looked up and quirked an eyebrow when he saw a soft light coming through the kitchen doorway, probably the one above the stove. It made sense that he wasn’t the only one sleep was evading.
Wally entered the room and paused when he saw the figure seated at the counter; he’d know that mess of dark hair anywhere. Though Robin usually tended to hide away in tall hard to reach places when he was upset, the fact that he was sulking in the kitchen wasn’t what surprised Wally into hesitating… the dark shades so commonly found on his friends face while in the mountain were, instead, resting by his elbow.
Wally frowned and spoke up hesitantly, “Rob?”
He wasn’t expecting any reaction at all- like Batman, Robin always seemed aware of everything around him- so Wally was a bit shocked when the other boy’s shoulders jerked as his hand scrambled for the glasses.
“Whoa, whoa, hey,” Wally held up his hands, though they really did nothing to placate with Robin facing the other way, “It’s just me.” He already knew the kid behind the mask, so it made little difference to him.
Wally walked over to take the chair to Robin’s left; he hadn’t moved to put the glasses back on after Wally had identified himself and was now fidgeting with them between his hands “You okay, man?”
A small shrug was the only response he got, and Wally heaved a heavy sigh. He knew his friend well enough to know that if Rob wasn’t in a sharing mood, there was little the speedster could say to get him talking. And maybe Wally wasn’t the right person to get M’gann through this… but he would swear off doughnuts for life if he couldn’t be the one to help his best friend. In fact, he was probably one of the only people currently residing in the mountain that would even know where to begin.
“So today was an awful mess, huh?” he started the ball rolling, “I mean, I feel like kind of an idiot for not realizing it was all… you know… fake. We thought the whole League was dead and we just went on as though, what, it wouldn’t affect us? Then Artemis… got zapped, and it was like dialing a switch from 0 to 100 in seconds.” He scratched his head uncomfortably, “I’m still trying to work out why it affected me so much, we don’t even really like each other more than half the time.” He gave a half-hearted huff of laughter and then nudged his shoulder against Rob’s, “And you were just so level-headed the whole time, dude… I really don’t know how you did it; I was full on frea-“
“I wasn’t,” a hoarse voice cut him off mid-stream. Wally turned and saw that the other teen had lifted his head, giving Wally a good look at his face. Though his expression was fairly blank, Dick’s eyes were clouded and haunted. “I wasn’t calm,” he continued when Wally didn’t interrupt, “After Artemis died, everything felt so real. I was terrified,” his voice cracked a little and Wally really wanted to hug him but held off for the moment.
Dick swallowed and looked back down, shoulders hunching even further. “I’m sorry, Wally,” he apologized sounding choked, “We all decided weeks ago that I wasn’t ready to lead, but then Kaldur died and no one was going to step up and… I failed. I misled you guys; I let Conner sacrifice himself, and then you… when we got stuck on that ship. It wasn’t right. It wasn’t fair either. I didn’t care about what would happen to me because… because Batman was dead.”
It had been a while since Wally had seen Dick emotional enough for tears, but it twisted his heart just the same every time. Even more painful was the way he tried to stifle them, as though they were a sign of weakness that he couldn’t afford. The boy sniffled and wiped his eyes with the sleeve of his hoodie. “But you guys…” he tried to complete whatever thought he’d been on but eventually just shook his head, “I just messed up. I’m sorry.”
“No,” Wally refused with a firm shake of his head, “Don’t be sorry, man. You didn’t mess anything up… the whole thing was pretty messed up to begin with honestly.” He draped his arm around Dick’s shoulders and squeezed until the other finally looked up to meet Wally’s eyes. “We all made mistakes, Rob,” he used the moniker for the sake of sensitive ears, “Yeah, maybe you should’ve told us what you suspected, maybe Kaldur shouldn’t have stayed behind and forced you into that position to begin with; but when it comes down to it, it wouldn’t have changed anything.” Wally gave him a small smile. “It was good plan,” he emphasized, “It was made to save lives and we all would’ve been glad to be a part of it, even if we knew there was no one to rescue. Because we’re heroes, we protect the innocent no matter the cost. And, speaking personally,” he added with a nonchalant shrug, “I think you’re the best of the bunch.”
Dick’s mouth quirked into a tiny smile and he looked down in a rare display of self-consciousness. “Thanks, Walls,” he whispered softly, “You’re a really great friend, I don’t know what I’d do without you.”
“Die of boredom, I’d wager,” Wally grinned, happy to see a hint of that bright spark in Dick’s eyes again. “You know, I think Artemis stashed some popcorn under one of these cupboards,” he stated, looking around, “What say you and I snatch a bag and watch some Netflix in my room?”
“She’ll probably kill us when she notices,” Dick offered, but he was already standing and stuffing his shades into his pocket. Wally zipped up from his stool to grab one of the hidden treasures and arrived at the microwave 0.3 seconds later; waiting for the corn to pop into buttery deliciousness was the hard part. Dick snickered at his overdramatic groan of impatience and Wally felt immensely accomplished that he’d been able to assuage at least some of Dick’s guilt.
As he walked down the hall again, his best friend by his side, Dick leaned over to nudge him with his elbow.
“For the record,” he smiled at Wally with a grateful look, “I think you’re one of the best there is, too.”