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"You're the guy we trained beside, fought beside. You're the only you we know."
"Stay put," Roy instructed Wally, who gave him a cheeky vanilla grin before continuing to devour his monster cone of ice cream. Some of the sugary treat dribbled onto his hand.
"Why?" the rebellious twelve-year-old demanded to know. Immediately the older boy hushed him, but to no avail. Several other customers in the crowded McDonalds outlet turned towards the source of the commotion. Wally ignored them completely. "I wanna come look for Rob! I can—"
"Stay put, or I'll take away your Chemistry set."
Before Wally could ask which one?, Roy disappeared into the milling crowds. He felt pretty confident in his stern threat, and mentally thanked his mentor for the training that had helped him take accidental notice of the scientific paraphernalia tucked into various nooks of Wally's room. Turning his thoughts instead to his other charge for the day, he nearly groaned out loud. Rob's probably wandered off by now, he realized, feeling a mental face-palm coming. It was not a good idea to lose Batman's kid.
Batman's kid — a whole side to 'Rob' Wally didn't know about. [1] Since the two first met on Troll Patrol (read: babysitting day) with Roy, Robin had struggled with that imbalance. It was one of the few things that seemed to genuinely bother him, apparently.
And now I've left Wally alone, too. Great. Pushing away the thought that he was a true idiot! (complete with exclamation point), the archer threaded his way through the crowds and managed to collect about fifteen future bruises from the brick-like bags several women toted.
The Flash, or Barry Allen as he was known when in civvies, had been adamant about Speedy babysitting his nephew — and it didn't help that Green Arrow owed him for yet another interpersonal event. "His parents are out, and Iris and I were invited to the—"
"Wayne Foundation fundraiser, I heard," Roy had interrupted, a touch shortly. And naturally, once Rob had found out Wally's parents wanted him babysat, he had volunteered to complete the trio.
"It's easy enough!" Barry had reassured him. "Just don't let Wally feed Rob glitter glue and no matter what," he stressed, his usual smile replaced by an uncharacteristic seriousness, "no chocolate milk after nine." Then the Scarlet Speedster had clapped him on the shoulder in the manner of someone bestowing his blessings, and said reassuringly, "You'll be fine."
Just fine, Roy repeated to himself sarcastically. Finally he reached the toy store window, in front of which Robin had apparently positioned himself — quite prominently, too. The nine-year-old, to Roy's growing consternation, had begun casually performing on-the-spot flips off the wall in his boredom, to the gasps of several passers-by.
Whose idea was it to bring these two to the mall?
Oh right. His.
Relief flooded through Roy, but somehow it came out as a reprimand. "Why didn't you go to a counter, get someone to help get me?" he scolded, the kindly tone in his voice making the lecture anything but fierce. "What if I hadn't realized you weren't there?"
Robin blinked up at him behind sunglasses custom-made to fit his small face. "I knew you'd come back for me," he slurred, looking a little tired and ridiculously adorable. His slender young frame began to sag and he rubbed at his eyes. Sighing, Roy nudged the back of his head, and through a series of light taps guided him back to McDonalds.
Wally took one look at his friend and, giving what little remained of his ice cream a mental goodbye, proffered it with a smile.