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It’s one of those slow November days, always a little too cold. Condensation fogged the living room windows from the heat.
Outside, it was freezing cold, snow coming down in heaps and fog already rolling in. Gar was sitting in the living room on the opposite end of the couch from Victor, covered in blankets.
The cold sucks, the fog sucks even more. The fog was bound to make patrol and the training later a thousand times worse, and it would completely kill the mood. Safe to say he was pissed off enough already.
"I don't know how we're meant to get work done today." He whined. Every time there's snow, you would think they'd get a day off from patrol, because Jump gets cold in the winter, but no, instead they have to slave away in the snow on patrol and then train for hours afterwards.
Gar rubbed his face and slumped in his spot.
Victor let out a tired sigh. Hard same. He stretched his arms out. "It's gonna make training a pain, that's for sure, but at least it's sitting pretty instead of us getting hail or something." Vic reasoned.
He was probably right; the fog brought a sort of ominous beauty to the place, like what Raven does; he couldn't be too mad at that.
"It's just fog means that it's cold, and I hate the cold" Gar folded his arms. "It gives me the shivers no matter how many clothes I put on or how much fur I have." Gar pinched the skin between his eyebrows and ran his hands down his face.
"Yeah, I guess." He grumbled. He averted his eyes; Gar really didn't want to be in the freezing cold all day, though, you know, like most sane people.
"That's winter for you, man, welcome to Jump." He snorted.
"Hey, I'm right though, the cold s-"
Gar never got to finish his sentence.
A flash of red and yellow zipped towards the tower, zigging and zagging through the frost and snow on the ground and roads with ease. The lightning disappeared just as quickly as it had come.
The teens stared at each other in silence for a beat.
Gar broke the silence first.
"Dude, what was that?" Any other day, Gar would've pissed his pants laughing at Vic's face, but he couldn't laugh at Vic. He couldn’t blame Vic either.
He couldn't blame Vic; he was just as freaked out.
If not more freaked out.
"I have no fucking clue." Victor's eyes were wide; he blinked at Gar, who was leaning against the window using his palms, as if the streak was going to magically appear again, which it could.
The only person he knew who went that fast was The Flash, and that couldn't be The Flash.
Why the hell would The Flash be in Jump City? His streak was also another colour, from what Gar had seen.
What if whoever it was was some version of him made in a lab?
What would happen if they were attacked?
"We need to get Dick."
They needed to get Dick right now.
He would know what to do; despite all the crap they gave him, he was a good leader and a damn good strategist.
He'd know the right way of action.
Usually, Garfeild would do the standard intruder routine; this was a meta, though. One with super-speed, the plan had to change.
"Yeah, we should,” Vic whispered. They ran to the hallway.
The doorbell rang, a ding, piercing the air.
What kind of sick intruder would use a doorbell? That's some psychological horror crap.
And then it rang again, and again and again.
Garfeild flew down the hall, with Vic close behind him. Gar pressed the elevator button.
one time, - it’s not fast enough - two times, - it still wasn’t there - three times, - Gar was about to freak the fuck out.
Then, the elevator door opened, and Dick walked out in his uniform.
"What's going on?" Dick asked, his brows furrowed.
Vic spoke first.
"Dick, Gar and I saw a streak rushing to the tower. They’re at the door now. We thought it would be best to let you know, we aren't sure what protocol to kick up." He rushed out.
"Okay, I'll deal with it, don't worry, it's nothing," Dick reassured. He swept a hand through his hair, and he started strolling towards the elevator again.
"Deal with what, Friend Robin?" Kori had walked into the conversation at one point, not too long ago by any means, because Gar definitely couldn't remember her being there, or maybe he was in too much of a panic to notice. Raven was behind her, in her gear.
"What happened?" Raven questioned them; she gave them a once-over. She was an empath, so she probably could sense the major freaking out levels the two boys were radiating.
"Nothing concerning, don't worry," Robin replied, from ahead of them.
Raven raised an eyebrow at him questioningly, but Robin pointedly looked the other way and ignored it.
"I'll go deal with the situation; you guys can go back to whatever you were doing before this." He said dismissively.
"No way, man.” Garfeild was dead set, no matter what was out there, to clear his head of panic. "There is no way I'm missing out on this mystery thing I just found out about - an unknown thing coming up to the door, that Robin, the Master of Paranoia, isn't worried about? I'm staying.'' He stated firmly.
Victor nodded, standing next to Garfeild. "Yeah, I'm not missing out on this either."
"Ooh, I would like to meet this person of the mysteries!" Kori yelled, her hands in excited fists. Kori was always up and at 'em, ready and happy to discover anything new or make a new friend.
"Hm, I'm in, could be interesting," Raven said.
Robin sighed heavily, "Okay, c'mon.” he gestured lazily for them to follow him with his left hand.
He led them down the stairs, floor after floor, until they were right in front of the thick, reinforced front door. More frantic knocking.
Three rapid knocks hit the door.
Robin walked closer towards the door, picking up his pace a little, to a jog, while showcasing a rare smile.
"Jeez, I'm coming, hang on." Rob rolled his eyes, but with a fond smile.
Which, what?
As Garfeild moved angles, he saw a yellow ring of lightning outside the front door, the lightning crackling and whirring.
Robin typed in the code to open the doors' locking mechanisms and swung the door open.
Then all of a sudden, the yellow ring wasn't a ring anymore and ran into Robin. Thankfully, it didn't knock him to the ground, but he could tell all of them were ready to pounce on the attacker at a moment's notice, only to be stopped when they noticed Rob’s beaming smile.
"Rob!!!" The blur exclaimed. "I missed you so much, I swear I was dying without you, and I thought it'd be cool to come drop by because I wanted to come see you, and now I'm just realising that might've been a bad idea, but it's so worth it!" The stranger rushed.
The mystery person was clad in a yellow suit with some red parts. A lightning bolt insignia on the front of the costume, and had bright red hair with freckled skin, and somewhere in between a lanky and lean build.
Dude was handsome; he couldn’t have been more than 2 years older than him.
"Whoa, KF, calm down, I missed you too." Robin had a grin on his face as he looked at the stranger.
Starfire floated up next to Raven, who was standing by Robin and the Stranger.
"Friend Robin, is this the mystery person you speak of?" Starfire asked with an inquisitive smile.
"I hate you."
"Well, I wouldn't say mystery, I doubt Baywatch here could keep anything a secret." Robin teased the stranger, poking him with his elbow.
The stranger looked mockingly offended, putting a hand on his chest, clutching his imaginary pearls. "How dare you, Boy Blunder!"
Robin squaked, he squaked. This is not our robin.
"No, you don't,” he teased.
He was seeing this, just wondering how this person was still alive, because if that had been anyone else, they would've been skinned and hung on a wall by now.
Dick let out a sigh.
"No, I don't, he said, disappointingly.
They stared at eachother, smiling for a beat.
Dick cleared his throat.
"Baywatch. You're confusing the natives." He gestured his head towards the group of them watching on.
That seemed to wake the stranger up a bit, and he looked around at them quickly.
"Oh, um, sorry about that, that might've come off as a teensy bit rude." He rubbed the back of his neck sheepishly.
"I'm Kid Flash, Wally West, if you wanna get technical, nice to meet you!" He waved his hands, smiling.
Dick rolled his eyes fondly at his friend.
"So you're related to the Flash?" Raven asked, lifting an eyebrow.
"Yup, he's my uncle." Wally nodded in confirmation.
"And how do you know Dick so well?" Raven said sceptically, "I'd assume you'd know of each other, but not that you'd know each other personally"
Dick answered her this time.
"Our paths would cross sometimes when we would do hero or vigilante work in my case-" He waved his hands a bit- "Batman and Flash eventually saw how well we got along and kinda just let us be friends, we've known each other a long time." He gestured
"We were also on the Young Justice team together," Wally added happily.
"You guys must be close," Raven added.
"Yeah, I guess you could say we're pretty close." Wally looked slyly at Dick.
Dick snorted and covered his face with his hand to stop himself from smiling at his Kid idiot.
"OH SHIT THE COOKIES!"
They're fine!" He yelled.
Wally relaxed and flopped down into the snow.
He might be a speedster, but he doesn't think his heart has ever gone that fast. He almost lost the cookies that he spent ages asking Alfred to bake, all that work for nothing. Almost.
Wally had run outside the minute he had realised he lost them, in a flash of red, and he flew outside the door to check for the blue tub of cookies in the snow.
In all Wally's excitement, he must have lost them; they must have phased through his hands by accident, or he must've accidentally loosened his grip a fraction too much.
His theory was proven right when he spotted a blue lid peeking out from one of the heaps of snow.
He really should've gotten a bag with a shoulder strap or something, maybe something to invest towards. Anyway.
Wally rushed his hand through his hair in relief. He let out a long sigh as he sat down and sank further into the snow, the cookies on his chest, and, thankfully, still warm.
"Get back inside!" Dick stood at the doorway, in his new robin suit, grinning. It wasn’t really new; Wally just hadn’t been around it long enough. The suit had more green than Dick’s last one, which had shorter sleeves; his new one wasn't impractical for winter, God knows Dick hates getting sick. Wally was content to watch as Dick cupped his hands around his mouth and yelled for Wally to hurry up.
"Leave me to the elements, I'm at peace," Wally yelled back. He flopped his left hand onto his forehead like some Victorian child as he watched Dick get closer in his peripheral vision.
Dick sidled up next to him, his hands in his pockets, looking down at him. Dick had a red woolly-looking hat now firmly on his head, and his face was flushed from the cold already. "You sure, bud?" Dick tilted his head, a smirk on his face.
Dicks face broke out in a goofy grin that Wally had seen countless times through the years, bringing him back to when they were two sidekicks, just starting out, so much shorter and smaller.
It was obvious none of Dick’s teammates had seen him in a setting like this before. Wally saw them lurking behind in the doorway that he and Dick had just abandoned.
It had to have been a surprise to his team, but they could probably tell the look was as natural on his face as if it were born to be there, which it was; the smile lines they never saw appeared, popping back into existence as if they’d never been missing, dimples on full display. Dick was oblivious as he laughed at Wally, still pouting in the piles of snow.
"You Dumbass, how did you even fling the cookies that far?" "You have scrawny noodle arms!" Dick cackled as he bent down to inspect Wally.
"Hey, I could probably throw twice that in my sleep!" Wally said indignantly, and he waved his finger around at him in protest.
"Yeah, sure- I'd like to see you try Baywatch," Duck smirked, tilting his head up.
The two continued blabbering as the titans stared, forgotten in the doorway.
And the Titans watched as the two boys came in from the cold, noses pink and faces flushed red. Dick had his arm wrapped around Wally, guiding him, gently, in from the blazing cold, to share some warm chocolate cookies.
Guess it was gonna be a snow day after all, huh?