Archive of Our Own ^beta

Chapter Text

Robin held on tighter to the figure in front of him as the cold snow bit into his hands where he had them locked around the Speedster's neck. Wally had suggested that he could hold Robin 'bridal style' while he ran, but Robin had smacked him once before climbing on his back.

Of course, they wouldn't be stuck in this situation in the first place if the Zeta beam hadn't disengaged randomly and spat them out in a frozen wasteland. From his best guess, it was the Northern Hemisphere, but since he hadn't planned on going somewhere frozen, he hadn't packed his cold-tech and none of his electronics were working.

So without a way to call for help, he grumbled his way on to Wally's back, ignoring the smug "Aren't you glad you have the fasted kid alive with you" taunts.

It wasn't that Kid Flash hadn't carried him before, but lately Dick had been going out of his way to avoid being physically close with his best friend.

It had all started on his fifteenth birthday when Wally had tackled him to the floor singing "happy birthday" at the top of his lungs.

Unfortunately, what Dick had noticed was his friend's body pressed up against him. Unlike his own reinforced suit, with every advanced material made to minimize damage to his body, Wally's was pure spandex, and he could feel every muscle under the material.

Dick was brought back to the situation at hand at a sudden deceleration. As he moved to ask Wally why, he felt them beginning to fall.

Using his acrobatic skills and position, Dick pulled the both of them into a tumble rather than crash, rolling against the hard packed ice for a moment before coming to a stop.

"Wally? Wally!" Robin patted his best friends cheeks, trying to bring him around. Wally groaned once, and Robin sighed a little out of relief before moving to check Wally's food compartment on his arm, only to find it empty.

"KF?"

"Mmr?" Wally grunted as he pulled himself up, supported by Robin's arm.

"Do you have any food on you?"

"Nope, was going to replenish when we got back to Mount Justice." Wally rubbed the back of his head and winced.

Robin resisted the urge to hit his already injured friend out of frustration. "Kid Idiot! How could you be so stupid? We're in the middle of a frozen wasteland and carrying me is going to burn twice as much ener-"

"Yeah, yeah." Wally cut him off, using Robin's shoulder to push himself up. Robin quickly moved to help him, still muttering vague insults under his breath.

Wally's stomach grumbled loudly, and he looked at Robin with a shrug, "I don't think I'm going to be able to run any further, but I think we're somewhere in northern Alaska."

"Alaska? How'd you figure?" Robin looked around. All he could see was white. White ground, white sky, and a light, but steady, falling of snow.

"The direction the sun is moving, plus the fact there was water to our left and ground density. It's that or the Yukon." Wally shrugged, "Barry won't let me go any farther North than Alaska without him, afraid I'll stop on the wrong piece of ice and fall into the ocean."

"Ookay," Robin said, feeling particularly whelmed by his friends observation. He reached over and pulled Wally's goggles off of the top of his head.

"Hey!" Wally complained halfheartedly reaching to take them back, but before he had a chance, Robin had pulled his mask off with a wince as the spirit gum snapped and pulled Wally's goggles on instead, switching them into heat-vision.

Unlike his gadgets and both of their communicators, Wally's goggles had been made to work in extreme temperatures. It added extra weight, but it did not throw off Wally's movements like it would have thrown Robin's,

And Robin was glad it didn't. Making sure Wally was capable of standing on his on, Robin stepped away to turn in a slow circle, looking for any signs of life or building.

"I think there is something that way," Robin gestured towards a blip he noticed in the foreground.

Robin handed Wally his goggles back. He glanced at his mask for a moment before shoving it in his pocket, not wanting to bother with cold spirit gum on his face.

"Woah, Dickie boy! No mask? But what would Bats say, there are polar bears out here, and they might see you!"

"Shut it," He wound his arm around his best friends waist to help support the weaker boy before starting off in the direction of the blip.

They walked on in silence, though Robin could hear the chattering of his best friends teeth and could almost swear the boy felt thinner around than he had when they had started. Robin mentally berated himself for not noticing before his friend was running low. He sometimes forgot that even though Wally was meta, it didn't make him indestructible, and without constant sustenance his power became more dangerous than beneficial.

"LOOK!" Wally shouted, using his arm that wasn't wrapped around Robin's neck to point at the cabin that was becoming visible in front of them. He sped up, pulling Robin with him towards the door.

They hurried to the door, where Wally pounded loudly on the door. Robin took a moment to look around.

"Wally, I don't think anyone's here." Wally stopped pounding and looked at Robin, "No tracks of any kind or smoke coming out of the chimney. And the heat reading wasn't high – possibly just some residual from the sun earlier."

Wally slumped up against the wall next to the door dejectedly. Robin rolled his eyes, before pulling out his lock picks from his utility belt and getting on his knees next to the lock.

It took him just a moment before the door popped open into the small cabin. Wally followed him into the cool room.

Robin flicked a nearby light switch, but nothing happened. "Probably a summer fishing cabin, and they turned off the energy when they left."

Wally just grunted and flopped down on a dusty looking love-seat The room they were standing in was tiny, with a stove against the wall and an unplugged refrigerator next to it. Robin noted the one door, figuring it was the bedroom and the restroom was likely an outhouse outside.

Hopefully they wouldn't have to find out.

Robin glanced again at his best friend, who had now pulled his legs up to his chest and was shivering ominously. "You okay?"

His friend opened his eyes for a moment, meeting his gaze before he shrugged, "Just hungry and cold."

Normally Wally was never cold, he would naturally vibrate to keep himself warm. But as low as he was on energy, he could barely keep his eyes open.

Robin went back to pull the front door closed, cutting off their only source of light. Pulling two glow sticks out of his belt, he cracked them both and tossed one towards the couch next to Wally and used the other to head towards the make shift kitchen, desperately rummaging through for some food.

The first cupboard held a plates and a bowl, plus a single frying pan and mug. He moved on to the next, finding a first aid kit and emergency kit. Taking note their location, Robin moved on to the last cupboard.

Finding long shelf-life food supplies, he sighed in relief before grabbing a few packages of beef jerky before running back towards Wally. Climbing up on the couch next to his friend, he shook him sharply. "Wally?" He shook harder when his friend still didn't respond. "Wally!"

The speedster blinked sluggishly, and Robin ripped the beef jerky package open and ripped one of the pieces into smaller bits before putting them in Wally's mouth. When it became obvious his friend was too far out of it to chew, Robin moved so he was straddling his friend and force feeding him small bits of beef jerky.

It was slow going with the tough meat, but eventually Robin got Wally to eat enough, without choking on it, that he started to regain consciousness.

Realizing the position they where in, him straddling Wally, Robin stood up quickly with a blush. He shoved the beef jerky packages back into Wally's hand before moving back towards the make-shift kitchen. He could feel his cheeks burning and he cursed himself for being so foolish.

His best friend was practically on the edge of starvation, and he was crawling all over his lap like some pervert.

"You okay?" Wally asked after finishing off the last of the beef jerky packages. Robin shrugged before grabbing a bag of vacuum packed oatmeal and tossing it at his friend. "Hey! I know I need food, but dry oatmeal? That's disgusting!"

Robin flipped Wally off over his shoulder before grabbing a energy bar of some sort out of the cupboard. Wally moved over on the couch slightly, making more room for Robin to sit next to him. Robin did so with a blush, opening his energy bar as well. They settled into a quiet, but awkward silence.

Chapter Text

Wally crinkled the empty oatmeal package and tossed it haphazardly across the room, making Robin give him a look.

"What? I'll pick it up later, and it's not like anyone's going to mind," he made a sweeping gesture before lowering his voice, "Nobodies here."

Robin rolled his eyes, "I'm glad you're feeling better, I was worried your sarcasm froze."

"Ha. Ha." Wally stretched, groaning a little. The food made him feel better, but he still felt weak. It had been years since he had run himself that low, and he was positive he would be getting a lecture from both Uncle Barry and Aunt Iris when he got home on top of the one Rob had already given him.

He grunted a little before looking around the room. There were two windows, on either side of the small room, but all he could see was that it was getting darker. Still, the majority of their light came from the two glow sticks still sitting on the couch.

"If we wait till morning, I should be strong enough to run both of us back to civilization."

Robin nodded, "If we are going to stay here, we need to figure out a way to stay warm. I can already feel the chill in my uniform, and it's only going to get colder."

Wally watched his friend push off the couch and walk towards the closed door. He considered, briefly, getting up and following Rob, but there was still a fatigued feeling in his legs that made him nervous to stand on them too long.

"Ew." Robin complained from the other room. "There's a bed in here, but it smells disgusting. And one blanket."

Wally twisted the way he was sitting so he could see the doorway, "Any chance of a space heater sitting back there? Or a sauna? A sauna would be really great right about now."

Robin muttered something under his breath that Wally couldn't hear. Deciding to ignore the grumpy bird, Wally finally pushed off the couch to stand up with a wobble.

Robin was next to him as fast as any speedster, arm around his waist to steady him. Wally allowed himself a moment to relish the feeling of that lithe arm around his middle before tuning into Robin's words.

"You can't just stand up like that, Wally! You need to eat some more and then rest if we're coming to be able to leave in the morning again."

Wally let Robin push him back on to the dusty, and a little bit gross smelling now that he had a chance to think about it, couch and watched Robin make his way back to the kitchen pantry. He rolled his eyes. It wasn't that he didn't appreciate Robin's concern, but there was a nervous energy about him lately that was making Wally nervous.

It was like his best friend didn't want to be around him any more.

At first he wondered if it was something he had done. He had gotten the silent treatment for two full weeks that one time he had bounced the dirty sock off Rob's head and landed it in his cereal, which he still thought should have gotten some recognition for being awesome.

But it wasn't the silent treatment, and he wasn't angry. It was like Robin was uncomfortable. But Robin didn't get uncomfortable. Dick got uncomfortable.

So what had Wally done to make Dick uncomfortable?

Dick turned around carrying yet another stack of non-perishable food types and Wally averted his eyes, feeling self conscious about staring at his friend for so long.

"There is only one blanket in there," Dick said, tossing the food next to Wally and motioning back towards the bed room. "And a bed, but it stinks. I figure you can crash on the coach with the blanket and I'll take the floor."

"Arfm rm-" Wally stopped, taking a moment to swallow the handful of bran cereal he had just taken a bite out of. "I'm not going to let you freeze, Rob. Besides, there is no way I could sleep on this tiny couch. We can just share the blanket and bunk down on the floor. It's not like we haven't done stuff like that before. Remember that one time when we couldn't get out of the batmobile and Bats found us like five ours later curl-"

"It's not the same!" Dick burst out, and Wally noticed his cheeks had turned a bright red color. They both looked away awkwardly.

Wally wasn't sure what had set Dick off – or why he was feeling so awkward. Wally was the first to look back and he was taken off guard.

He had known Dick wasn't wearing a mask, but for some reason the wide blue eyes shocked him when he looked back. He was used to Dick's mask, but he really did enjoy seeing his whole face, he was so-

"You should go grab that blanket." Wally said, voice rough as he cut off his own thoughts. Robin left without a word to grab the aforementioned blanket.

Wally wasn't sure what was wrong with him, it was like he had a crush on his best friend, which was just ridiculous. You don't get crushes on you're best friend, especially when you are both boys, he is only barely fifteen and his father is the legendary Batman.

Giving his head a shake, in hopes that maybe it would knock his thoughts right out of his head, and carefully slid off the couch and onto the floor, knowing that Robin would likely flip out again if he tried to stand.

It wasn't like he was invalid, he just needed a little sleep to let the Speedster healing work its magic. Then he'd be right as rain and ready to run them back to civilization in the morning.

Robin came back carrying a queen sized blanket, dropping them down next to Wally. "There is a sheet on the bed, but it smells like B.O. and fish, so I figure we'll have to make due with this."

Wally smoothed out the blanket on the floor before motioning Robin to lay down next to him. "If we lay on this half, and fold the top over us, we should be warmer."

Robin did as he said, not meeting his eyes. Wally pulled the blanket over them, turning to face away from Robin so they weren't making eye contact. The limited size on the blanket made it so they had to be touching. Wally focused on holding as still as possible until he finally faded into an uncomfortable sleep.

Chapter Text

Being the Boy Wonder had taught Robin a lot of things. If a villain tosses something at you, hold your breath and run. If you find yourself in the middle of the air, tuck and prepare to roll.

And if you wake up and you're not sure where you are, don't let on that you're awake an assess your situation.

So when he woke up, feeling warm, and his arm tingling he kept his eyes closed.

Zeta beam malfunction. Wally. Snow. Cabin. Wally.

He opened his eyes to find himself on top of his best friend, his head rested on his shoulder and his leg hooked around the redhead's legs, holding him very close.

Which was causing a, uhm, rising situation.

He might not be a speedster, but Robin could be fast. He could also be graceful, but not today.

Only up for a moment before his legs entangled with Wally tripped and he fell again, this time landing across Wally's stomach, shocking him awake as well.

"OW! What the hell?" Wally helped to push Robin to his feet.

"Dude- sorry! I just got -" Robin trailed off as Wally looked away, his face turning bright red. With Wally pushing him up while he pulled himself, he managed to get himself righted and standing on his own two feet. Wally's face began to turn red as he stared up at Robin. Looking down in horror, Robin realized that his tights did not hide the growing issue as well as might have been hoped. With a yelp, he ran into the bedroom and pulled the door closed behind him.

He slid down against the door, sitting on the floor. He pulled his knees to his chest and rested his head against them, feeling his cheeks burn.

How could he be so stupid and let himself fall into this situation. Wally was his best friend – and the only friend who knew everything about him. So there he goes, fucking it all up and messing his whole life up.

There was a hesitant knock at the door. Robin's head snapped up and he let his legs unfold to lay flat on the floor in front of him. He waited in the silence until he heard a voice. "Uh – Rob?" there was another pause. "Dick?"

Robin let his head thump against the door. "Let's just leave it, Wally."

"No, seriously. It's just.. science. You know, biology. When your sleeping, your body goes through the stages and uh-" He broke off, and Robin flashed back to the first time Wally had tried to explain sex to Robin when he was only eleven and first read about it. It was awkward mismatch of science and a kids imagination.

"That wasn't it." Robin said abruptly, his brain shouting at him to shut up, "I, uh. Have a crush on you?" his voice cracked awkwardly on the last word and Robin considered smashing his own head into the wall repeatedly until he either died or passed out.

As the silence on the other side of the door stretched out, Robin seriously considered holding his breathe until he passed out. He was fairly certain he could do it, too.

Then there was a strange shaking sensation and a moment later, a groan. "Okay, dude, you need to open this door, because if you don't, I'm going to keep trying to phase through it and that just isn't going to work." Wally sounded a little tired and Robin winced, silently berating his friends stupidity. He couldn't phase through doors, and trying was just going to tire him out. In fact, Barry had forbidden Wally from even trying when he wasn't around. Robin stood up and pulled the door open, coming face to face to his best friends whose ears where slightly red, but he had a determined look on his face.

"I-" Robin started, not sure what he was going to say. But Wally didn't give him a chance, and lunged forward, stopping just a moment before kissing Robin on the lips.

It felt like it took Robin a millennium for his brain to catch up with his body and to respond. Once it did, he wrapped his hand in the taller boys red hair and deepened the kiss.

They pulled apart with a gasp for air and looked away from each other.

"I – uh. I like you too, Dick." Wally said, "How lame does that sound? I mean, I've, uhm. Been gay for yo- no! Not like that. Ugh. You're the one who likes words, you say it!"

Robin almost laughed in his face, feeling elated, but instead grabbed the redhead's arms, letting them swing slightly. "Wally, I would like to date you."

Wally smiled, and nodded, "Yeah, that would be great."

They stood there for a moment until Wally tugged Robin forward into his arms, holding on to him tightly.

And that's where the Flash found them about half a second later, standing in the doorway holding each other.

"Never fear the Fla- Uh, boys?" Barry Allen stood inside the front door to the cabin, his presence bringing a flood of cold air into the already cold room. Robin shivered slightly, but Wally's naturally higher body temperature chased it away.

That is, until he pushed Robin away with his meta speed. His face had returned to it's bright pink state and he was avoiding both Barry and Robin's eyes. Robin rolled his eyes before reaching out to snag Wally's hand. When Wally looked up in shock he just raised one eye brow and looked at the Flash, who just shrugged.

"I can leave if you guys want? Well, I mean, no. Could you imagine Iris or Bruce if I told them I left you two alone in a secluded cabin after this development?" Flash fidgeted, rubbing the back of his head. "So, uh, anyone want to be rescued?"

Wally and Dick looked at each other and grinned.