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“I still can’t believe that the Mona Lisa was a self portrait, ” Behrad says when he and Amaya get back from retrieving the painting from an art show in 1990’s Montana. They’d brought it back to Da Vinci, before some lucky buyer could snag it for under fifty bucks.
“ Oh , yeah. Da Vinci in drag.”
“Who would’ve thought? Hey-- I bet Nate would get a kick out of that. It’s probably not mentioned in any of his history books.”
“We’ll have to tell him.” She agrees. “If he and Wally have already come back, he'll be in the library."
But from the looks of things, Wally and Nate are still off on their mission, because the only person in the library is Mick, dead asleep on one of the armchairs, with his feet kicked up on the desk, all over the documents that Nate’s left strewn across the surface.
“I could go for a nap right now, too.” Behrad shrugs, and Amaya rolls her eyes good-naturedly before strolling over to the chair to smack Mick right on his bald head to wake him up.
“What.” The man grumbles, startling awake.
“At least he’s fully dressed this time?” Behrad laughs, remembering earlier, when Mick had been late for the meeting and Wally sped off to learn the hard way that the notorious criminal, Heatwave, sleeps in the nude. Amaya nods in concession, and Behrad presses a hand to his earpiece to go on comms. “Hey, Ray, we’re back! What’s going on, schmience guy?”
A minute passes. No answer.
“Gideon?” Behrad looks upwards. “Where’s Ray?”
“I’m sorry Mr. Tarazi, but all of my internal monitoring systems have been disabled. I have been rendered blind, I’m afraid.”
Well, that’s not good. Behrad exchanges a nervous glance with Amaya, and they both turn towards Mick, who’s slowly getting out of the chair.
“Last I saw Haircut, I left him in the lab. He was cooking up that fancy fire rock.”
“Hopefully he’s just wrapped up in that cold-fusion thing he was raving about,” Amaya says, leading the way out into the hall.
---
They find Ray beaten up and bloodied on the floor of the ruined lab.
"Oh my god." Amaya runs over to Ray, while Behrad hovers in the doorway, staring at the mess. Even from this distance, he can see that Ray’s skin is pale where it isn't covered in mottled purple bruises or dark red blood, and there's broken equipment and shattered glass all around where Amaya’s crouched next to their injured friend.
“Is he breathing?” Behrad asks, feeling nauseous. Who would do this? He watches as Amaya gently turns Ray over and gathers his arm into her lap, feeling at his wrist with two fingers.
“I have a pulse.”
"Hey. Look." Behrad says, pointing to some of the wreckage, which is still smoking and crackling. "This just happened. Whoever hurt Ray is still on the ship."
"Idiot." Mick growls at the body on the floor, lumbering over to pick Ray up, carefully. He sounds annoyed, but there's an edge to Mick’s voice that Behrad figures is the most visible sign of concern as they’ll get from him. He knows those two are close, though Mick does his best to pretend otherwise. It doesn't take a genius to figure out that Mick’s probably pretty angry that Ray got hurt while he was resting.
"We have to get him to the medbay," Amaya says, nodding at Mick, who adjusts his grip on Ray into a rough fireman's carry and heads quickly out of the room. Behrad and Amaya hurry after him.
“There has to be an intruder on board.” Amaya grimaces, following Mick closely.
“Yeah. Maybe it’s Kuasa again? Wouldn’t be the first time.” Behrad suggests.
“No, he wasn’t wet at all. She would have just drowned him instead of… that.”
“Okay, true.” The alternatives that his imagination has begun to conjure up are more frightening. “You don’t think that the Darhks have gotten in, do you?”
“We’d already be dead.” Mick calls back towards them.
“Good point.”
It’s quiet for the rest of the walk to medbay, Behrad jumping slightly at any noise other than their footsteps, and he doesn’t relax at all until he’s helped Mick lay Ray down onto the leftmost medbay chair. Behrad grabs one of the breathing masks from their place on the wall and pulls it gently over Ray’s face, trying his best to avoid the cuts and bruises, and brushes Ray’s hair out of his face. Mick supports Ray’s head from behind with one large hand, before guiding him down to lay back against the cushioned headrest.
“Gideon, run a scan.” Amaya orders while clasping Ray’s wrists to the armrests. Streaks of light flood over Ray’s unconscious form from above, enveloping him in blue as Gideon reports the damage both over the speakers, and on the viewscreen to the right.
“Doctor Palmer has suffered a collapsed lung, three broken ribs, a shattered femur--”
“Okay, okay, that’s--” Behrad feels sick, and presses one hand to his mouth in an attempt to quell the anxious nausea threatening to overwhelm him. “Can you fix him? And find out who disabled your cams?”
“I take one lousy nap…” Mick grumbles, looking anywhere but at Ray.
“If I was capable of rage, I would feel it,” Gideon says, and honestly? Despite not having audible emotional tonal changes in her automated voice, Behrad thinks she sounds pretty angry. “The saboteur must be punished.”
“You stay with Ray. Mick and I will search the ship.” Amaya tells him before turning to walk out the door. Mick does the same, looking ready to kill, which is probably for the best, if Ray’s condition is any indication of what they’re up against. Ray’s a big guy, and he can hold his own in a fight, even without the A.T.O.M. suit. He wouldn't go down this badly against just anyone.
“Wait, guys. You don’t know who or what’s out there.” He tries to stop them, because even though he has faith in their abilities, the idea of Mick or Amaya being hurt this badly, too, is terrifying. In response, Amaya whips out a knife, and Mick raises his gun and lets it whirr menacingly. “Right. Okay, never mind, you’ve got this.”
Amaya leaves with a wink, and Mick with a tired eye-roll, and then it’s just Behrad, watching over Ray, with only the sound of the machinery to keep him company.
“Hey, G, we need to contact Sara. Is there any way to contact her in the Ice Age?”
“There’s no need. The jumpship never left its hangar.”
“What?” Sara never left the ship? How could anyone have snuck aboard under Sara’s watch? Unless somehow, the intruder got the jump on her and took her down, just like Ray. Or worse. “That can’t be right. Are you sure?”
“Positive.”
There’s an intruder on the ship. Sara’s unaccounted for, Ray’s down, Mick and Amaya have just gone off to investigate, and Behrad is alone. He rests one of his hands on his collarbone, feeling at the chain keeping his totem around his neck and takes a deep breath. In, and out, slowly. The totem’s weight on his chest is comforting, and he tries not to think about the worst-case scenario. Mick and Amaya will be fine-- they’re strong, and they can take care of themselves, and keep each other out of trouble.
Behrad just has to wait, and hope that trouble doesn’t find him, first.
---
Mick and Amaya aren’t gone for long before a rush of air sweeps through the medbay, accompanied by a crackle of lightning that can only mean one thing: Wally’s back.
The speedster appears, with Mick and Amaya on either side. Almost immediately, Amaya gasps in pain and grabs at her leg. Behrad rushes forward to help support her weight, just as Nate jogs in.
“Amaya!” Nate calls out, hurrying to her side. He looks towards Mick, helping Behrad guide her into one of the unoccupied medbay chairs. “What happened?”
“Sara. She’s wearing the death-thingy.” Mick closes the medication braces over Amaya’s wrists.
“What?!” Behrad looks up, alarmed. Sara did this? “Why would Elvis’ totem make Sara evil?”
“The totems work by amplifying the true nature of--” Amaya’s breath hitches, as she lifts her leg up onto the footrest, “--of whoever wears them.”
“And Constantine warned Ray that Mallus might try to take control of Sara again.” Behrad realizes.
“So, if Elvis could raise the dead with the totem, what could a former-assassin connected to a demon be capable of?” Wally asks. Nobody looks like they want to answer that.
“What the hell is going on?” A stern-looking hologram of Ava appears, partially-overlapping with Mick’s meaty shoulder. “Mr. Rory, would you please move?”
Mick shuffles over awkwardly, and Amaya answers her question. “Sara’s bonded with the Death Totem.”
“ What ?!”
“We think Mallus tricked her into wearing it.” Nate explains. Ava looks just as freaked out as Behrad feels.
“Look, the woman on that bridge was not Sara. All I care about right now is getting her back.”
“We need to find John Constantine,” Amaya says, and something in Ava’s face darkens.
“The demonologist?”
“Yeah, I know, he wears his tie a little too loose for my liking.” Nate scoffs. Right. Sara and Constantine slept together in the mental institute that Mallus zapped them to. Awkward. “But he’s saved Sara from Mallus before.”
“Gideon, can you up my pain medication? My leg is killing me.” Amaya asks, through gritted teeth. Her forehead is shiny with sweat as she waits for a response. “Gideon?”
“The Nostromo Sequence has been activated and will commence in T-minus three seconds.” She reports, and a beeping countdown overtakes the x-rays of Ray’s injuries on the viewscreen. Ava’s hologram looks upward, then blips away. “T-minus two seconds.”
“Gideon, un-commence.” Nate orders, as the beeping speeds up.
“That option has expired.” Then, the lights shut off, leaving only the dim glow of the night lights, and the doors slide shut, and the lock clicks into place.
They’re trapped.
“I’m gonna kill that witch!” Mick turns towards the doors and grabs at the seam between them, trying to brute-force them apart.
“If you kill her when she’s like this, then Sara dies too.” Amaya points out, still weak from the pain. With the Nostromo Sequence activated, the ship is on lockdown and Gideon is disabled, which means no pain meds, and whatever work Gideon was doing fixing Ray’s injuries has been stopped. Behrad doesn’t want to think about what could happen if they don’t get the ship back up and running soon.
“Better her than me!” Mick roars, wild-eyed. Behrad has been here long enough to know that Mick doesn’t really mean that. He lashes out like this, extra mean, when he’s upset. But still, it doesn’t help any of them.
“Dude, how can you say that?” Nate yells back.
“By moving my lips!”
“Hey, guys?” Wally tries. Mick and Nate keep yelling at each other, and Amaya winces at the noise. Ray lies still, face obscured by his breathing mask, and Behrad hopes that he’s stable enough to survive without Gideon until they fix things.
“Where were you when Ray was getting the crap beat out of him, day-drinking again?”
“Guys--” Wally tries again, but Mick and Nate’s shouting match continues, even as Amaya yells from her chair for them to stop. Behrad just watches nervously from where he’s standing-- even if he tried to say something, it wouldn’t do anything.
Wally gives up on talking, and turns towards the doors, using his speed to vibrate his hand rapidly enough to phase through the control panel. After a moment, the doors slide open, just by a few inches, but the noise is enough to stop the yelling and get everyone’s attention. Mick spins around and wrenches his hands into the gap and pulls the doors open enough for someone to get through, with a grunt.
“Guys, everyone, just relax. I’m gonna go knock her out and tie her up, and no one gets hurt,” Wally says, backing out through the doorway. He speeds off before anyone can respond.
“So, um.” Behrad breaks the following silence. “Do we think he has a chance against demon-plus-Death-Totem-powered Sara?”
“Let’s, uh, have a little faith.” Nate suggests, moving back to fuss over Amaya. Mick retreats to Ray’s corner while Nate whispers assurances in Amaya’s ear in an attempt to distract her from the pain in her leg. Behrad sticks to the other side of the room, one hand over his totem again, and wills himself not to get sick. Even now, he’s still no good with blood and violence, and the thought of having to fight one of their own makes him more anxious than he’s ever felt.
He hopes Wally is okay. When Rip had brought the speedster on board, they’d clicked almost immediately, like they’d known each other forever. Wally likes all the same video games Behrad does, and he loves music-- they’ve already made plans for karaoke night with Nate and Ray-- and the guy’s even willing to meditate with him. More than willing, actually, Wally had been enthusiastic about it, in a way that Behrad could only muster on this ship by getting Nate high on really strong weed, or lyoga root tea. It feels like they’re cut from the same cloth, in a way, even though they were born decades apart.
Behrad loves everyone on this ship. Nate and Amaya have become some of the closest friends he’s ever had, and it’s pretty much impossible not to love Ray Palmer, and even Sara and Mick have become some of the most important people in his life, despite their prickly exteriors. But Wally’s the sort of friend that he’s been missing ever since Jax left the ship, where even if he’s the least-experienced in being a superhero, he can feel a bit more at ease.
Maybe it’s an age thing-- he doesn’t know everyones’ exact age onboard, but he’s pretty sure that other than Wally, he’s younger than everyone else here by at least five years, which means he defaults to being the baby brother. And that’s fine. He’s been the baby brother his entire life, so he knows how that goes. It’s just nice to have someone his own age around, who just gets it, in a way that none of the others seem to. Wally’s just fun . He’s light on his feet, and keeps the mood bright in a way that Behrad thinks they sort of need, right now. So he hopes that Wally is okay, because they’ve already lost enough people.
But it’s been a few minutes since Wally sped off, which for anyone else, would be fine, but for a speedster? He should be done by now.
Amaya seems to have the same idea, and says as much as she drags herself out of her chair to stand, despite Nate’s protests.
“Wally, can you hear me?” Nate asks through comms, giving up on stopping Amaya. He clicks his flashlight on, and peeks out into the dark hallway. “Wally, talk to me, man.”
“Kid’s dead.” Mick concludes, unhelpfully.
“I’ve gotta go after him.” Nate decides.
“Are you crazy?” Behrad asks, but Amaya stops him with a stern, yet reassuring look. Right. Have a little faith.
“Just be careful out there.” She tells Nate, who nods grimly.
“If I’m not back in five minutes…”
“We’ll come after you.” Behrad promises, but he’s pretty sure his face is betraying any attempt at sounding confident. When Nate leaves, Behrad turns to Amaya.
“This isn’t going to work. I mean, I know Nate can handle himself in a normal fight, but against Sara? None of us stand a chance. If we keep sending people off to fight her, she’s going to just keep beating us every time.”
“Got any better ideas?” Mick grumbles.
“Well,” Behrad grimaces, trying to think. “I might be able to decouple the jumpship from Gideon’s mainframe? Then we could get off the ship, and maybe get help from Ava at the Bureau, or something.”
“Okay.” Amaya agrees. “That might work. But I can’t go with you on this leg… Mick?”
“Hell no. I ain’t babysitting the kid. You’re on your own.”
“Fine.” Behrad straightens, because that was just insulting. “But if Sara kills me, I’m going to haunt you forever.”
“You’re not going to die.” Amaya reassures him, patting his shoulder. “You’ve got this, B. Go.”
So he does. He goes off on his own, into the spooky, dark hallways that are so terribly lit that it’s either so dark he can’t see without his flashlight, or lit with a spotlight that’s pointed conveniently right into his eyeline. For some reason, parts of the ship are also steaming and smoking slightly, which doesn’t help him see any more clearly. Any sound other than his own footsteps and the roar of his rapidly-beating heart pounding in his ears makes him jump, and he flinches at the sight of his own shadow, but he keeps going, because he needs to make it to the engine room.
Unnerved by the complete absence of life in the cold, metal corridors, he presses a hand to his ear to check on comms. “Hey. Any sign of the captain, Nate?”
“No…” Nate replies, quietly, then he gasps. “But I found Wally.”
There’s the sound of Nate breathing heavily, like he’s running, and then it stops, and there’s just the static hum in Behrad’s ear as he holds his own breath.
Amaya breaks the tension, with a hesitant, “Is he…”
“Alive.” Nate confirms, and Behrad exhales a sigh of relief. “Sara must have shot him with the anti-speedster gun.”
“We’re gonna need a bigger medbay.” Mick’s voice rumbles through the earpiece.
With Wally’s state no longer weighing so heavily on his mind, Behrad moves through the ship more quickly, and before long, he arrives at Gideon’s mainframe.
“Okay, I need a minute to get things ready over here, but I’ll be done soon. Get ready to meet me at the jumpship.” He tells them, and grabs a large wrench from one of the utility carts nearby.
“Sorry, G.” He winces, glancing up at the ceiling, before raising the wrench and aiming for the glowing green helixes of Gideon’s systems. But just before he can swing downwards to do any damage, a familiar voice comes in from behind him, stopping him cold.
“You really never did have a knack for precision, outside of the kitchen.”
He whips around to a seemingly empty engine room, lit intermittently with flashes of green and orange and blue, but he hears the click of high-heels against the metal floors, and his sister walks out from behind some of the machinery.
“Zari.”
“Look at you, trying to be a hero.” She purses her lips in disdain, strutting closer. She raises her cell phone with one hand and taps the screen with the pointer finger of her other, and a camera shutter sounds. “It’s cute, really. I bet Maman and Baba would just love to see this.”
“You can’t be here.” Behrad backs up slowly, pointing the wrench at her. “You’re not real. This is the Death Totem playing tricks on me.”
“Oh, what, are you going to hit me with that thing? Get it out of my face. Didn’t Maman ever teach you any manners?”
“Who cares? You’re not even real.” Behrad’s back hits the wall as Zari looms closer.
“Of course I’m real, Behrad. You’re the one living in a fantasy world.” She laughs. “Superheroes? Magic Totem necklaces? That’s all so 2018. Enough with the games. When are you coming home?”
“This isn’t a game. I need to help my friends, and these totems are the key.” He clutches the pendant protectively. “Amaya says these totems are our birthright.”
“Oh, that’s cute. But that doesn’t belong to you. In fact, I think that’s my birthright you’re wearing around your neck, baby brother.” She says, like the words taste bad in her mouth. “You’re no hero, Behrad. You’re just a thief who ran off with the family heirloom. And you’re going to break our parents’ hearts.” She enunciates every word, slowly, and stops, staring him down, a few feet away.
“Zari…” He starts, shakily. Then, he squeezes his eyes shut, and shakes his head, turning to the side. Opening his eyes, he stares into the churning green lights that he came here for, and puts all of his strength into slamming the large wrench down at it. His hit connects, hard, and the impact sends him flying backwards with a wave of cold green light, and he lands painfully on the floor.
When he recovers from the fall, Sara stands above him where Zari had just been, and he barely makes it to his feet before she swings her leg at his head.
In seconds, it becomes ridiculously obvious that his meager hand-to-hand skills are no match for her, even though he’s come a long way with Ray and Nate’s training. He manages to blow her across the room with a gust of wind from his totem, but it doesn’t keep her down for long. Right as he catches his breath, Sara somehow appears behind him with a cold, clammy hand on his shoulder, and knocks him straight into one of the engine modules.
She pushes him up against the hard metal with a hand at his throat, pushing upwards despite their difference in height, and his lungs strain for air.
“Sara, please.” He gasps out, staring into her dead, empty eyes. Her face is gaunt, cheekbones hollowed sharp, and any color to her cheeks has been replaced with ashy gray. Even her hair is silvery-white, instead of its usual golden blonde. “Please, this isn’t you. You have to fight Mallus.”
Briefly, he catches her eyes flash into their usual icy blue, but just as quickly, they return to an inky black, and he thinks that maybe, he’s getting through to her.
“Please.” He tries again, clutching at her iron grip with his own two hands and feeling light-headed. At this rate, he won’t last much longer. “You’re hurting me.”
It doesn’t work. She uses her free hand to grab one of his wrists and wrenches it to the side, twisting viciously, and he screams.
Then, she releases his arm and swings her fist into his temple, knocking him out cold.
---
Behrad wakes up in the medbay, propped up against the wall sitting on a stool. He blearily registers Wally waving hello from the second Medbay chair, and figures that his injuries must be less serious, which is fine. He doesn’t mind waiting. Then, he sees that the lights are back on-- they must have defeated Sara, somehow.
“Hey.” He turns, and immediately winces at the way it sends a wave of pain lancing through his head. It’s Amaya, with Nate hovering to the left, and they both offer him reassuring smiles. “Sorry. We got your arm and neck all fixed up, but we ran out of seats.”
“Ow.” He complains, letting them help him sit up properly. “D’you have anything for a headache?”
“Yeah, here.” Nate hands him a few painkillers and a glass of water, which he takes and downs gratefully. The relief is almost instant.
“Wow. I love time travel medicine.” He blinks, and Amaya laughs. “Is everyone okay? How long was I out?”
“A few hours. It’s all good, now, though. Ava got Constantine here in time to help snap Sara out of it, and now we’re just waiting on Ray to wake up.” Nate reports. Behrad cranes his neck to peek at the sleeping man and sees that all of his cuts and bruises have been repaired, and he’s not wearing the breathing mask anymore. “Oh, and Mick’s the new bearer of the Fire Totem.”
“Huh.” Behrad glances at Amaya, who just smiles and shrugs. “I guess we probably should have seen that one coming. You okay, Wally?”
“All good!” Wally grins over at him. “Speedster healing. Can’t keep us down for long.”
Just then, Ray begins to stir, and Nate jogs over to check on him. Behrad stands to follow him, but his legs feel wobbly and Amaya has to reach out to help steady him. He thanks her, then goes over to stand by Wally as Amaya joins Nate at Ray’s side to catch him up on what’s happened.
“You scared me.” Behrad pushes gently at Wally’s shoulder, with a teasing smile.
“Hey, I’m not the one who had a broken wrist and a big old handprint on my neck.” Wally gives him a playful shove back. “They had to put you in this chair for a while after I woke up. The only reason I’m in here now is to make sure that gun didn’t mess with my speed. We might want to get another chair set up in here.”
“I’ll add it to the very long list of repairs that I have to do.”
Just then, Sara walks in, looking mostly back to normal, but smaller and quieter than usual. She’s not carrying the usual captain’s bravado she walks around with, but is more withdrawn, and smiles tentatively at them.
“Oh, it’s Sara.” Ray blinks at her. “Is it, uh, real Sara?”
“Yeah. It’s me.” She clasps her hands together in front of her. “I’m sorry, Ray. I’m sorry, everyone. I’m really sorry.”
“It’s good to have you back, Captain.” Nate says, one hand on Ray’s shoulder, and they all nod in agreement.
“I’m still trying to wrap my head around this mess.” Wally frowns. “Why would Mallus want to show me Jesse?”
“Or me, my grandpa?” Nate adds.
“I don’t know.” Sara sighs. “Mallus was trying to recruit me to his side using my darkest fears. Maybe that’s just… what he does, he looks into our hearts and broadcasts our deepest secrets.”
“Well, that’s... terrifying.” Behrad thinks back to not-Zari’s taunts. All of his insecurities, wrapped into one glamorous, nightmarish version of his sister. Probably better to not think about it. Maybe he’ll fabricate some edibles later to distract himself. “Um, anyways. Wally, wanna help me re-couple the mainframe? I could use that speed of yours.”
“Ah, music to my ears!” Wally hops out of the chair, and they both head out, waving goodbye to the rest as they exit.
---
“So, Jesse, huh?” Behrad asks, later, after they’ve finished fixing the ship. They’re in Behrad’s room, and he’s sprawled out on his bed, a few munchies in and finally relaxed after such a stressful day. Wally’s curled up on the couch, tossing a pen up into the air and catching it, over and over. “Who are they, your ex?”
“Yeah.” Wally sighs, wistfully. “Ex-girlfriend. Jesse Wells. She was from Earth-2, actually, and we dated for a while, but we broke up to focus on ourselves, and I guess I’m still not really over it. It’s fine, though, really. We’re both gonna find people who are right for us, eventually.”
“I’m sorry, man. That sucks,” Behrad says, because he’s not sure what else to say. His own romantic history hasn’t been all that successful, so he sort of knows the feeling, but he doesn’t want to make this about him.
Wally seems to have other plans, though, because he asks, “What about you, B? Did you leave anyone back in 2042? Girls, guys, otherwise?”
At least he didn’t ask about who Mallus used against him.
“No. Nobody in 2042.” Behrad laughs a little, then gets quiet, gaze wandering over to Wally, who’s sitting exactly where Nate had sat in the weed loop of the fun montage, lit by the same warm golden light of the table lamp. He must have strayed too long in the silence, because Wally catches on.
“Okay, nobody in 2042 . So we’re talking someone on the ship, then? Or someone you met in another time period?”
“No, no.” Behrad dismisses him, quickly. But the weed has loosened his tongue, and he ends up talking about it, anyways. “Well, I don’t know. I mean, there was this time loop, which didn’t really happen. It was kind of in my head, but also it was a computer program, and Gideon was involved, and-- okay, the point is, it’s nothing.”
“I don’t blame you, dude.” Wally shrugs. “Nate’s hot.”
“Wh-- I don’t like Nate --”
“Oh, come on. You might be fooling everyone else, but when you’re this fast, you start to notice where people look when they think nobody else is paying attention.”
“Okay, fine.” Behrad gives up, throwing his arms up in surrender. “But it’s not like I’m in love with him or something. I’m just… aware of his appeal. And I wouldn’t say no given the opportunity, but--”
“But Amaya.”
“Yeah.” Behrad agrees. “And I love Amaya. She’s one of my best friends, and honestly, they're great together. Like, if there’s any reason to believe in love, it’s them.”
“I know.” Wally laughs. “I still can’t believe she’s the same girl who ghosted him on his birthday. I was expecting some crazy bitch, but Nate was right. Amaya’s awesome .”
“She really is.” He laughs. “Anyways, I’ve had my fair share of crushes on unavailable people, so from experience, this whole thing will pass in a few months, once I meet some other person who’s way out of my league.”
“Hey.” Wally frowns, tossing the pen at Behrad. It hits him on the cheek and bounces off onto the bed. “Anybody would be lucky to have you. You’ll find your person. Or people. Whatever the world has in store for you.”
“Yeah, I know.” He sits up, leaning against the headboard. “Thanks.”
“Anytime, B--” Wally starts, but stops when Behrad tosses the pen back and it hits him straight on the forehead, leaving a dark blue mark on his skin. “Oh, dude, it’s on . You don’t know who you’re messing with.”
“Bring it on, Kid Flash.” He laughs, shielding himself with a pillow as Wally rushes over in a burst of lightning.
In hindsight? Not his smartest idea ever, challenging the world’s second-fastest man to a pen-throwing duel, he realizes, as the pen keeps disappearing after hitting him and reappearing somewhere else, way too fast for him to react. His face and clothes and pillow are all covered in little strokes of ink by the end of it, but he’s too out of breath from laughing to care, and any leftover weight from today’s earlier troubles melts away.