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'They only want you when you're seventeen, when you're 21, you're no fun!' "I love this song." Neither Dick nor Wally had spoken for maybe an hour at this point. The rest of the Titans were out doing whatever they thought Dick couldn't handle. So Dick had gotten back from school, realised the tower was empty and invited Wally over.
"Why?" Wally laughed, it was kinda weird, since Dick always claimed they hated songs that were so repetitive. "I thought you hated this sort of song?"
"Well, yeah. But like. It's kinda us, y'know?" No. He did not know.
Dick sat up, which they regretted with how comfortable they had been laid when between Wally's with their head on his abdomen. "Yeah. But like-"
"I swear to god, if you said 'but like' one more time." Wally reached over and ruffled Dick's hair to the point where it was just a mess.
Dick decided the only way to react to that was to repeat 'but like' over and over while practically tackling the older boy, ending the interaction with the fifteen year old in hysterical giggles, and the seventeen year old trying not fall off the latter's bed, knowing their art sketchbook was literally just laid on the floor.
"'Then don't tell me, how do you know you can trust me?'" They had been listening to one of Dick's playlists, and this one had that one 'podcast' with the TV girl, cigarettes out the window and the audio from dangerously yours. The younger teenager knew it by heart, and could just recite it, both in time and with the emotion.
"'I love you, and I belive you love me.' 'You're quite wrong, this had only been an adventure to me.' 'That's isn't true, Katherine.' 'It is true. You smiled at me, I was flattered. It was an adventure for a holiday mood.' 'You may as well take my heart, Katherine, it's already full of you. You walked into it the day we met.' 'You're a fool, Rudolph Estefan.' 'Oh, but isn't any man who falls in love? Do you know what you are to me? You're something to believe in again. You're the type of person who'd ceased to exist for me, a fine and honest woman.'" They had laid back down, in the comfortable position of laying between Wally's legs while they were both on their phones, but on the phones together. Social antisocialism.
"'Oh, my darling, you're such a child. Take your foolish little dream and your heart and go, please go!' 'What is it? What's wrong, my dear?' 'You know nothing about me! You've known me only three weeks!' 'Three weeks?! Katherine, I've known you all my life!' 'All your life?' 'It's true! I've seen you 1000 films, read you in as many books! When I've heard beautiful music, I though "she'd like that." I've looked at flowers and known one day I'd give them to you.' 'Oh, stop, stop! You must listen to me! I'm not that woman, perhaps I was once, but I'm not now. You see, you were wrong.' 'See, I've known all along. I had Albert look you up the day you arrived.' 'And it.. didn't make any difference...?' 'It didn't make any difference.' 'I will betray you.' 'If you do, you will betray yourself at the same time.' 'Yes... yes I will... if I betray you, I betray myself, but if I betray him, I betray my country. My country is very dear to me.' 'Dearer than I?' 'No... no, not dearer than you...'" Whenever they did something like this, with their emotions sounding so high, Wally was always slightly surprised Dick wasn't taking drama GCSEs.
"'Then! Will you help me defeat him?' 'Help you? By giving you any information I may possess concerning our plans?' 'Yes.' 'Oh, you're very clever aren't you? Oh I can read you like a book now. You though I was young an easily swayed! That you could make me love you! And that I would throw over my country, my duty, for you!' 'That's not the way to look at it it Katherine!' 'You weren't so wise after all! Because you've lost, do you hear me! Lost! You guessed wrong in our little duel of wits! You forgot how close hate is to love!' 'You don't know what you're saying, Katherine.' 'You never loved me, you knew that I loved you, and you used that!' 'Katherine stop talking like a child! We're playing for countries now!' 'Yes, we are, aren't we. This is a gun in my hand, Rudolph. I'd advise you to be careful what you say.'"
It amazed Wally everytime they did it. "I don't get how you can do that." He was voicing this thoughts.
"Do what?"
"That. Be able to recite some random audio, at the same time as you're playing what? Moshi monsters in your phone? cuddling with me, and be able to to tell me exactly what happened in the last ten minutes of lone star. And then just, be so different when your team is home."
Dick shrugged. They didn't really know how they did it. Their brain just focused on so much different shit all at once. They was barely even watching 9-1-1 Lone Star, that they'd put on maybe an hour ago, but then again, they had watched it so many times that they could tell him what was going on with just a quick, few second glance. "What day is it?"
"Woah, okay, that was so relevant." Wally rolled his eyes, it was less avoidance, since he did get the unsure shrug before, but still. It felt like stuff was being avoided. "Friday, you don't you have school tomorrow. You going to finally catch up on your art coursework? Since you've got, y'know, like two weeks to finish your sketchbook."
"Yeah, yeah, whatever, I'll do it this weekend. I need to do my chem homework too." Dick was getting up again, though this time to stand properly. "Do you know where I left my hoodie?"
"Uh, no, your chair probably, or it's in your bag," Wally shifted, so he could sit better against Dick's headboard. He knew his partner's meds were starting to wear off. Dick was a creature of habit, took their medication at exactly 7:45 every morning before they left for school, and around about now, 9:50pm, they'd start to wear off, and they'd get sleepy. So, the enby was heading to grab their pajamas, unbind, and just get ready for bed, even if they weren't going to sleep for maybe another hour.
"Hey, Walls?" Dick was picking up their shorts and their hoodie, but had left their phone on the bed. "Can you check what's in the queue?"
"The queue is..." Wally was picking up Dick's phone, and putting in their password, but Spotify was taking a bit of time. "Uh, you've got Pink Skies, then The Lovecats, then a couple more TV girl songs."
"Thanks, Flasher,"
"No problem, Wonderful boy."
***
It was around 11:10 when the rest of the Titans got back. Dick was asleep, curled up beside Wally, who was still up. The TV was still on Lone Star, but it was paused, and Dick's record player, which had been connected to their phone was turned off. That meant the main hallway for their bedrooms in the tower and the living room was more or less silent.
And apparently that silence wasn't good enough for the Titans. The same titans who like to play loud music at midnight and not care to leave anything about their leader.
They said Dick was a bad leader.
They weren't a bad leader. They just had a bad team.
And the moment the music started playing, Wally rolled his eyes and hoped it didn't wake Dick up. And when it inevitably did, the younger enby just sleepily mumbled; "I kind hate them, I'm not going to lie..."
"I know, Kid,"
"Don't 'kid' me... 'm your partner, not your child." Dick sat up, yawning and rubbing the slept from their eyes.
"Dick... go back to bed, I'll deal with them, c'mon." Wally sat up beside them, leaving his phone on the bedside table, and trying to gently coax his enby back down. It didn't really work, but thanks to literally superspeed, Wally got up and to the door before Dick, and so Wally was going to be the one to deal with it.
The ginger pocketed his hands and walked down the hall. "Can they at least play good music if they're going to play it loud...?"
When he got to the end of the hallway, he put a hand on the wall and mental crossed his heart, practically begging for strength not to scream and wake Dick up further.
"Hey, can you lot do me a favour?" He asked when he was actually in the room. Leaning against the doorway, and seeming casual. "Two favours actually." He added, when he saw where the four of them where stood. Crowded around Dick's ¾ completed A1 board for their art.
Cyborg turned, give him a slight glare, but waiting for him to continue.
Wally bit back a smirk. The other titans didn't like him because Dick did. "First, step away from that, and second. Can you lot shut the actual fuck up?"
Starfire, bless her still slightly confused heart, did move away from Dick's board. She was kind, but when she didn't understand something, the titans took advantage of that and usually explained it in a way that made Dick look like the bad guy.
Raven and Beast Boy however, just turned to stare at him like Cyborg was. Intentionally not moving. "You don't live here," the latter argued.
"Mhm, I don't," Wally agreed. "But neither will you if you guys get kicked out for messing with Robin's coursework and wake him up." He Hated that, usurping he/him for Dick around the titans. But it was for their protection. They couldn't come out as non binary to them, they just wouldn't be safe.
"Coursework? Really, you think we're going to belive that?" Cyborg asked, being ignorant as hell right now. "Robin doesn't do coursework, he'd not even in school."
Wally felt his eye twitch slightly. Were they really this dumb? Did they genuinely not know what their leader did during business days? They literally moved here, to jump city, because it was a better school for then. "He... he is? He's literally taking his GCSE's in four months. His textbooks are literally around you constantly, and he's brought home about four different A1 boards. How in the holy hell did you not know he's in school?"
"Whatever." Raven rolled her eyes. And Wally felt like he hadn't wanted to punch a woman as much as he did in that moment.
"Just- turn the music off. Your leader is trying to sleep." He walked forward, going to grab the A1 board, about to take it back to Dick's room so they wouldn't mess it up.
"He's barely a leader," Beast Boy muttered as he moved out the way before Wally genuily pushed him. He earned himself a side eye from the speedster, and within literally seconds, the board was gone and Wally was back to being stood in the doorway.
"You lot are assholes you know that, right?" The ginger crossed his arms. Actually pissed off now. "You could at least show him the respect he deserves."
"What respect? He's a dickhead to us."
Wally didn't know which of the three said that, since he was more focused on not starting a physical altercation over it. "The hell you mean 'he's a dickhead to us' he literally is the reason you have food in the house, and a roof over your head!"
"Well, we didn't ask for it? Did we? He's younger than us by like two years, and he acts like he's the oldest! He acts like ue can boss us around! He acts like he's so much more important, than that he didn't need us, or that were incompetent!" Wally hated that Beast Boy was shouting now, but he did kinda start it.
"Because you are! You all lack manners, never said thank you to him despite the fact he keeps your asses alive. And don't go off about his age, you guys all act like three year old half the time, so don't play the age card when he's just mature. And plus, he can boss you around! He's your leader, not by choice, but by abilities! He's got both street smarts and book smarts and you all act like absolute idiots!" Waly protested, and really, while he might sound repetitive, he wasn't wrong. They were insensitive assholes to Dick, assholes who got amuses when they got injured.
The back and fourth continued between the speedster and the shifted. It was only paused when Dick walked in. The enby was tired, and it showed, it showed that they'd been asleep. Their hair was ruffled, and their domino was spightly squewiff, but the team couldn't see their identity which they cared about more. They were also still in their 'pajamas' or at least the clothes they called their pajamas. Their shorts and hoodie.
This was NOT the Robin the rest of the team knew. But this was the Dick that Wally knew.
"What the fuck is going on?"
The team had never seen Robin as anything other than polished and proper, nothing out of place, and certain not swearing. The four titans half froze. But Wally turned and gave them an apologetic smile.
Cyborg called at Wally for the second time that night, one that screamed 'stop it, this isn't normal'. Wally just rolled his eyes for the bazillionth time that night at spoke. "Sorry, Rob, they're being assholes. Like usual."
Dick just gave a tired hum. The same hum that the team almost 100% of the time took as dismissive. "When are they not."
"Who are you, and what have you done with Robin?" Raven asked, seemingly only half joking. Especially since Raven didn't do jokes.
Dick rolled their eyes, not that they could see it under their domino. "Just turn the music off."
They were doing their best to sounds normal, like the Robin they knew, but they were struggling slightly. Knowing full well they were about to get consistently misgendered.
Beast boy crossed his arms, changing stance."Hell nawh-"
"You did not just say 'Hell nawh' right now." Dick just deadpanned the shifter. They were just trying to process how this sixteen year old just unitoniczlly said that. They just shook their head slightly then turned to Wally. "Go turn off the router and hide it."
Wally let out a huff of laughter when the rest of the titans protested. But he disappeared in a blur of light. When he did, Dick turned around and walked out of the living room.
They were half way back to their room when Wally came back in line with them, walking beside them. "You're my favouite enby, you know that, right?" Wally always really bad when he had to misgender Dick for their protection.
Dick didn't reply. They were just tired. They locked their door behind Wally and just beeline for their bed.
"D'you want me to stay?"
Again, Dick didn't answer, but actions spoke louder than words. Eapically when the actions were Dick putting their head against Wally's chest and curling up again.
"I've got you, sweetheart..."
Wally placed a kiss to the top of the ravenette's head, and let them just it in the now silence once more.