Archive of Our Own

"Wait so like, what's a fanfiction?" Wally made air quotes as his head tilted off to the side. "Cuz I'm confused."

For someone as fast, charming, brilliant, awesome as Wally is, especially considering that he's really cool, fast, amazing, humble, and fast, most people would probably assume he'd know just about everything!

Except for his friends, family, team, enemies, his (lack of) fans, and… okay that's not exactly the point he's trying to make.

And yet, fanfiction is apparently the one thing that stumps Kid Flash.

Wally's classmate, McCayleighynaia, had just came up to him a few minutes ago, asking if he was interested in beta-reading her new 'Justice League fanfiction' she just finished writing this morning.

The reason as for why specifically Wally got approached? He was covered—and still is covered—from head to toe in Justice League merchandise. Courtesy of his uncle Barry, who thought that it'd be an absolutely fantastic idea to fill Wally's entire closet with a bunch of clothes that had his superhero friends' logos plastered all over everything. Wally still totally pulled it off though, even if he did look like a superhero nerd.

McKaylayiniana, or whatever form of 'tragedeigh' her parents had for some reason decided to name her, laughed her fucking ass off the very second Wally asked her the question.

Clutching her stomach hard, she doubled over and slapped her hands against the cafeteria table. Wheezing hard and long, small tears formed and fell between the quick gasps for air.

"Okay, yeah, that does not answer my question at all!" Wally exclaimed, giving two thumbs ups despite the miserable frown on his face and that cold glare seated in his eyes, targeted at Mckyalaiynaiania—who he seriously needed to learn the name of. "Seriously though, what's a 'fanfiction?' Like, I actually don't know dude."

McCaellinyaniana paused, slowly turning her head back towards Wally as she sat upright.

"Wait—like, actually?" Her jaw went slack while she looked Wally dead in the eye. "Oh my fucking god, you have been missing out on so so so so so much! "

"And what exactly am I missing out on? There's only like—" Wally checks his watch. "Nine—wait no… Eighteen minutes left before next period starts! Anyway, you going to tell me or not?"

"Well I mean, y'know, it's fanfiction! If someone's super into, I don't know, The Flash? And then they write a story about The Flash, then it's fanfic."

"Huh," Wally considered. "That's actually pretty cool."

Wally ended up taking Kaylin's—that was MkClayianyaina's nickname—offer to beta-read her fanfic, so now he had her number saved in his phone somewhere.

He'd gotten himself settled into bed after wrapping up a few missions with the team, so it's been about time that he finally took a deep dive into this whole fanfic thing.

Starting with whatever link Kaylin had sent him earlier.

"Something something… a link here and—Found it!" Wally managed to pull up the link on his phone, it was on some random obscure writing app he'd never seen nor heard of ever before.

The other text she sent from the message prior to the link said that the fic was like 'something gay' or whatever—he'd only glanced at it for about a second, but does a text message really matter that much? It's just a dumb story anyway.

It very much did matter that he checked Kaylin's other text.

Wally had just finished reading this polyamorous gay fanfiction where his uncle, Superman, Batman, and Green Lantern were all caught fucking each other. The fic had somehow spiraled into this whole 'fluff' and 'found family' thing with Wonder Woman, Aquaman, Martian Manhunter, and Zatanna.

He doesn't actually know what 'fluff' or 'found family' means in this context. To him, it's just some random community buzz words that were included in the story's notes tab.

Though, the only words that came to mind Wally tried to describe what the absolute fuck he'd just finished reading, were the words, 'What the hell man?' He's not exactly sure who needed to hear it, but he's never particularly had plans to visualize his uncle having a fucking orgy, nor did he plan to have that picture rammed deep into his skull.

He's extremely concerned that there are people going around publicly asking others to read this shit. But at the same time—it's unfortunately not the worst thing that's ever happened to him at public school. It's actually objectively tame.

More importantly, that very interesting piece of literature had led him to this website called 'Tales Of Our Own', or TO3 for short—which was also certainly a choice.

Then the thought struck him.

Wally had always been struggling with his crush on Robin for like, forever. He's tried ranting about it to Donna, but that just never really felt good enough, like he could never fully articulate what he wanted to say or what he needed to say.

And fanfiction may or may not just be the key to Wally's struggles—because if he couldn't verbalize it, then he could totally write it out! With like, a ton of details omitted, their secret identities and all that stuff just so he could post it online—but the point still stood sky-high—at least for Wally it did.

Wally would often fantasized about going on a date with Dick—not like a friend date or some super chill hang out between guys, but as in a date. Like all lovey-dovey, not just him and his best-fucking-friend.

But him with his best friend as his boyfriend.

He knew it would never happen though, Dick would never ask him out—he doesn't swing that way, and he probably wouldn't even find Wally attractive, and even if he wasn't straight, he severely doubts that Dick would ever even consider Wally as potential boyfriend material.

But luckily, with the power of fanfiction at his side—Wally now has the ability to make it happen! ...Even if only fictional and written only as Robin and Kid Flash, not them as Dick and Wally.

Though, their relationship turning romantic really is as good as fictional regardless.

But before Wally even knew it, his fingers had already found the keyboard in a flash—buttons mashing and forming words.

Which is also when Wally realized he actually doesn't know that much about his best friend.

Like technically, he knows a lot about Robin, and he should know a lot about Robin, but also… does he? Wally knows the fact he's part Romani via his mom's side, that he prefers Superman like way over the Bat, and that the guy's full name is Richard John Grayson.

But that's all surface level stuff really.

What Wally's struggling with is Dick's personality. There's simple things, from the way he takes his coffee, laughs, or talks when he's excited. But now that he actually wants to describe Dick—his brain just won't function.

He knows that Robin is kind, witty, confident and compassionate, charismatic and lighthearted. But what good is it, knowing all these traits, knowing who Dick is, if he can't show who Dick is? If he can't write who Dick is?

Wally started typing and could only hope the issue would work itself out.

"No—Dick wouldn't say that," Wally mumbled to nobody except for himself. "He'd probably be nicer, wait no… sweeter. Or softer, actually—yeah softer, let's try that."

Wally had stayed up all night in an attempt to write the stupid fic, but the words on the page just never seemed to come out or describe the moment the way Wally would envision it in his head.

For example, Wally always imagined the two of them having this totally passionate make out session in the middle of his little fantasy romance—one where they'd be all over each other, with Dick's hands cupping Wally's face as he gently bit down on Wally's lower lip, mashing their lips together with an acute fervor, just to push back harder against each other's lips.

Except when Wally tried to write down that very visual onto the document, it came out looking something like: 'Robin grabbed Kid Flash's face and they kissed so hard, it was hot as hell and i sorta wanna kiss dick and wake up next to him and—'

His writing literally just wasn't fucking working, not to mention that Dick's dialogue was all wrong—he wouldn't call Wally pet names like 'Angel' or 'Baby,' and in all honesty, Wally couldn't really imagine Robin calling him some cute affectionate pet name.

Robin and Kid Flash always had dumb this thing going on where they'd give each other increasingly weird nicknames, for example Dick nicknamed Wally 'Chuckle-Brains' a while back.

Then somewhere along the way 'Chuckle-Brains' turned into fucking 'Twinkle Toes'—Wally's not too sure how that even happened, but honestly? He's gotta admit, he somehow finds those kinds of names kinda hot.

Then again, he finds just about anything having to do with Dick pretty hot.

Now, would hearing Robin call him 'Babe' be sexy as hell? Yes, yes it would. Would it also just be incredibly awkward and highly unlikely or inaccurate? Also yes.

Wally pressed the backspace key more times than he would've liked, his fingers dancing across the keyboard. The button's clickering and clackering continued to interrupt the day's predawn hours.

Until his phone rang.

"Kid Flash, we've got another mission," Wally picked up, as Robin's voice came through from the line's opposite end. "Where are you?"

Wally rubbed his eyes. "Yo dude, it's like three in the morning or something… Way too early for—"

"It's nine A.M.?"

"Oh."

Wally checked the time on his phone, and sure enough, it was 9:37 A.M on a Saturday. He opened his curtains—and it revealed a perfect bright, coruscating blue sunny sky without a cloud in sight, a tantalizing view really. He tried heading downstairs, and Aunt Iris had already reminded him that he missed breakfast—those high stacks of waffles with maple syrup were already getting semi-soggy.

Well fuckity doodle doo.

Wally rushed to get into his Kid Flash costume, popped the waffles right into his mouth, and zoomed all the way over to Robin's coordinates.

"Jeez man, 'm so freaking tired," Wally whined, he scuffed his feet hard off the ground with his shoulders slumped. The team had made quick work of the mission, but to Wally's inconvenience, the aftermath of his all-nighter finally caught up to him.

"Wally, are you alright?" Garth frowned.

"I'm fine, great actually. Just some school stuff, like this stupid homework I forgot to do last night because I started writing some dumb fanfic—which I'm still working on by the way, and—"

"Fanfiction?" Donna questioned, curious. "You're interested in that stuff?"

"Well no—but technically yes? But I also don't really like… y'know?"

"Wow," A small grin tugged at Donna's lips. "I'll admit, I never took you for the fanfic-y type!"

"Because I'm not the type!"

"Then why are you writing fanfiction?" Roy's eyebrows furrowed.

"Oh shut up!" Wally groaned, slamming his palms up against his eyes and dragging them all the way down his face. All because his stupid mouth decided it wouldn't shut up. He was about as cheerful as a turkey on Thanksgiving, and if the floor were to suddenly open up and swallow him whole, he'd gladly dive in. Hell, he'd probably get down on all fours and suck a guy's boot.

"Huh, I didn't know you wrote. You think I could read it sometime, Walls?" Dick pat Wally on the back.

Absolutely not. "Yeah, 'course dude!" Kill me.

The moment he got back home, he went straight for the stairs and dug up the only good narrative he's written from its dusty computer file catacombs. He swapped the cast's names out for trashy sitcom characters—Wally was ever so thankful for the 'Find and Replace' feature—and made a few 'quick' edits.

Apparently he was way worse of a writer last year than he originally thought.

Commas were literally nowhere in sight, he missed way too many periods, and not even for God's sake could he keep the tense consistent—he really has no fucking clue what sort of crack he was on last year, but it better have been good.

The pseudo-fanfic was …considerably ready for Dick to read—but if Dick had read the fanfic Wally was actually writing, he would genuinely just fucking disappear. No warnings, no goodbyes, just fucking poof poof.

He'd rather have Dick think that he's a horrible writer than have him read a fucking Robin/Kid Flash fanfic written by yours truly. That would literally be the equivalent of telling him 'Oh yeah, I'm so fucking into you. Please shove your super hot face against mine.'

And besides, Dick and him were just friends. Nothing more.

Ding.

Wally's phone beeped, Robin just finished writing up a quick text asking if he could run him over to Central, something about wanting to read the pseudo-fic in person.

Dashing all the way over to Gotham, Wally arrived at Wayne Manor's pristine and pearly pointed black gates, just to see Dick dressed oh so fine in his casual clothing. Somehow, the guy could—and did—turn a regular black T-shirt, gray cardigan, and dull jeans into the most fashionable shit Wally's ever seen.

Seriously, how come Dick's never once considered modeling?

Dick hopped onto Wally's back, giving Dick a piggy-back ride as Wally breezed through the city, he's practically a human taxi. Wally slowed down as he came face to face with his aunt's front door. Dick dropped onto the porch's auburn wood as he slipped his shoes off. Iris and Barry never really had a policy on shoes; it was expected you kept your shoes on, but nobody's holding you at gunpoint. Wally never learned how or why Dick always took his shoes off before entering a house, especially as a civilian.

That's when you just chalk it up to rich people shit.

Wally unlocked the front door and waltzed right in—sneakers on—as he gave a lazy salute to Barry and climbed up the stairway. "Let me pull the fic up real quick," Wally mumbled, navigating through the opened browser tabs until he found the fake fanfic. "It's just a dumb sitcom I wrote about, you can prolly just jump right into it."

Dick hummed a little tune, settling down onto Wally's desk chair while Wally leaned against his bed frame.

"You used the wrong 'your' here, it should say 'you're' as in 'you are.'" Dick manually pulled the slider down via the mouse's cursor.

"Oh no! Everybody run, it's the grammar police!"

"'The desert's sweetness was overwhelming,' is Cathy experiencing a mirage or something?" Dick's voice lilt.

"Would you shut up for a second if I said yeah?"

"Maybe when you don't mix up 'loose' and 'lose.'"

"Oh, c'mon!" Wally pouted, but Dick only grinned with such an astute gleam in his eyes.

"So, I finished the story, Walls! You could try working on your grammar, like putting in some commas to add clarity. The plot's also little hard to follow along, but good job!"

"Come again?" Wally's jaw dropped. He almost reopened his fat little mouth to say that he does use commas—but he can't exactly tell Dick that he reused an old narrative from last school year and framed it as the newly written fanfic that Wally hasn't been working on. "You've already read everything?"

"What can I say? I'm a quick reader Walls, you could try it out sometime," Dick mused, leaning back against the chair.

"Jeez man…" Wally groaned.

Robin exited out of the tab on Wally's computer, when Wally realized that he forgot to close the other tab. Like the tab with Wally's Robin/Kid Flash fanfiction.

"Huh, what's this?" Dick spun around until he was facing Wally, a fat grin plastered square on his face as he skimmed through the fic's contents.

"Okay! So uhm, look—there's this girl in my class, Kaylin, yeah, Kaylin! And she uh—she heard I was writing something, so she sent me her own fic to review! Except uh, it's super weird, y'know, cuz she's like—shipping us as superheroes!" Wally awkwardly laughed with beads of sweat dripping down his forehead. "Like Kid Flash and Robin together, which is completely and totally insane and weird right? So y'know, don't dwell on it or anything!"

Worst lie he's ever told in his entire fucking life.

Dick raised an eyebrow at Wally's garrulous elocution, though he could see the cogs in Dick's brain turn as he ultimately decided the topic was best left unaddressed.

"So basically a girl thinks we look good together, and she's unknowingly having Kid Flash review her work?" Dick leered lightheartedly. "Sometimes I wonder how you get yourself into these situations—but I'm way more curious now."

Wally grit his teeth. This was literally the one thing not supposed to happen.

"We could—we could read it together, if you want."

Wally seriously needs to stop doing this to himself.

"It's not bad, though the progression is pretty fast," Dick scrolled down the document. He'd slowed down his reading a lot for Wally, and it wasn't like Wally was a slow reader or anything—he just kept getting lost in his own thoughts; worrying about if Dick liked it, what it would mean if Dick liked it, trying to gauge Dick's reaction to the text, if he didn't like it, and so on and so forth—but that also meant that he spent about ten minutes staring at one paragraph, forgetting to tell Dick he can go down… multiple times.

"Especially considering that this is what, 10k words?" Wally blinked—he hadn't paying attention to what Dick was saying, since he got lost in his own brain again. Somehow on that exact topic too, but he only heard random intervals of Dick's voice, some ramble about the progression, then the plot, writing, blah blah blah. The word and character count panel was pulled up, but there really was just more blah blah blah, something something, lame words, more lame words, and other blabber.

"—But I actually do really like how it's written, even though the dialogue makes me feel very… how do I put it? Like, do I really seem that brooding to others?" Dick titters.

"I get it's just a story, but even with my very lighthearted dialogue there I just… I don't know; I might just have remake my entire identity if I come off so standoffish!" He jokes sheepishly. "… Especially to civilians."

Well, it hardly comes off as a joke but Dick's clearly trying to frame it as one.

"Anyway, I'm scrolling down now," He pulls the slider down with the cursor—also seriously, who does that?—and takes a swift glance over the new words.

"There really is a lot of kissing scenes," Dick comments. "I'm honestly surprised that the little character versions of us are still friends at this stage in the fic."

Wally's cheeks flushed. What could he say? He was super into Dick, how could he just not write them kissing in basically every scene? And while yeah he probably should add a scene where they talk about their relationship, make out about it, boyfriend stuff, blah blah more cute stuff…

How the fuckity doodle doo would he go about that? Like as much as he would love to be Dick's boyfriend and how close he is to the guy, it's just weird. Weird thinking about them talking like that.

He doesn't know what he means by the word 'that', but they've just never been that vulnerable with each other. They talk a lot, complain, sometimes vent, and other times they're forced to reveal things about themselves via villains or people who want to hurt them.

But something so outwardly vulnerable, so deep in discussion and defining, he couldn't imagine such a situation with Dick.

Dick lives for deep conversations, He loves researching deep and talking about emotions and all this crap, but at the same time, has Dick ever actually opened up? Has he actually talked to the team, been a member of a team, than some perfect mask of a leader?

There's been a few times he's technically been vulnerable, but it's only at the hands of villains—like them stealing something deeply personal he owns, and having to chase after with the team; but the team trusts each other. Wally trusts Roy as much as he does Donna and Garth, and maybe he trusts Dick a bit too much, so the team is welcoming to difficult topics and conversations.

Dick just won't have them about him.

And maybe that's why Wally felt like he couldn't write Dick.

They just weren't close.

Wally hadn't even noticed it, but apparently Dick was busy writing a list of revisions for the author the whole time he'd been yapping.

Also like goddamn, how do the Bats even fucking do it? They slip past everything, probably even subconsciously based off this alone.

Dick had already left Keystone, Wally transported him out himself, so now he's just alone in his room making some dumb edits to gay RPF fanfiction of all things.

How desperate could Wally get, really? He falls for a guy, has comforted him and been comforted by him, talk about their separate pasts and histories together, meets up with daily just to hang out, making all this endearing nicknames for each other with, and whatever else happened between the two of them, because he fucking writes a story about them in love and finds out he actually doesn't know jack shit about the man he's dreamed of?

For all he knows, Dick Grayson is a concept of a guy. He's known for such a long time that he puts up a false image of himself out there, that he fakes who he is for the public, some disguise being with Bruce or whatever. Then he's put up another mask to be this ideal leader of the Teen Titans—but he's always more genuine, more human, and just himself. Or that Wally had originally thought.

He feels betrayed. He shouldn't feel betrayed. He's never technically lied to him, never said something wrong, did something wrong, but all these dumb romantic feelings make him feel like such an idiot, such a loser to even think that he could hold Dick's hand at the altar and say 'I do' as the priest allows them to kiss, as they cut the cake together hand in hand, both of them in suits with their bestmen and their grooms.

It's not even that big of a goddamn deal, but why is he so overwhelmed? So upset? So angry and miserable? He should've known they wouldn't have worked out anyway, because Dick loves vigilante work more than anything.

He slams his hands against the keyboard, a line of gibberish materializes on screen, before he just shuts down his computer. Anything more, and he might just break the five-hundred bucks Barry had put down for a piece of junk like this.

Robin's always so fucking mysterious, so conniving and calculating. He could be evil, could be cruel, villainous and Batman could secretly be some cult leader or whatever, Wally doesn't fucking know. Just, Dick could be anything and the team would never suspect him. Because he's supposed to be their friend. Their top ally. Their leader and their hope.

Wally was always the type to get his hopes up. Maybe he should have just listened to Rudy and given up on superheroism when he still could, because hell—at this point? What does Wally got going for him?

He could leave the Titans Tower right now, nobody would notice. Kid Flash is always doing random bull crap anyway, and at this hour, everybody's probably out lounging. Maybe training or whatever they do—Wally doesn't really give a shit about how his teammates spend their free time honestly.

Dick moseyed through the Tower's hallways, before knocking on the room door. He continues to open it though, seeming a bit unsure for once in his entire fucking life as he walked through.

What's he got to be confused about, Mr. Rich Rich over here, this time?

"Wally, hey, I was just looking for you." He supplemented, with this tiny little frown tugging at the corners of his lips, probably plastered on like his whole identity for fuck's sake.

How much of his knowledge about Dick is real? How much of it is fake? Wally's overreacting, he knows he is, but knowing is different than feeling. And Barry's always commented on how emotionally driven Wally's been, but at least he could keep a consistent face.

"Yeah, cool, " Wally grumbled. "What for?" His eyes darted away from Dick. Anywhere but Dick. Couldn't face him really.

"Dude, you. The hell's been up with you lately? You've just been—"

"Dude, you don't get to fucking 'dude' me like that," The words blurt out. Wally didn't mean to interrupt, he's not sure why he did—but the words just kept coming. "You know damn well what you're fucking doing to me, and it's driving me fucking insane Dick! I like you a lot, I love you so so so so fucking much that it's killing me inside and I don't even know what to fucking do! I'm tired of just pretending that I'm okay with just being your friend or with just being there, but I'm not! And for whatever reason there is, why the hell can't you just fucking talk!"

"Not once in your fucking life do you even try to communicate, you keep fucking running and hiding behind a smile when you're supposed to confront shit like a hero, and what's stopping you from actually opening up, and being a fucking person?! Just be a guy!" He took a deep breath, processing everything he just said.

This wasn't how any of this should've—no, would've gone if Wally could just be chill. He's always supposed to be chill, but the words just spilled out like puke, with fat slimy chunks of hate and love.

Dick's stunned, standing straight as small jolts go straight through his spine. His mouth is almost agape, but it isn't. It's shut and it's tight like always.

"… Okay—I… Okay," Dick doesn't add anything else—hesitantly veering when he lumbers toward the door. A moment later, he turns his head back only to see Wally's upset expression, before closing the door behind him.

Wally is such a pathetic bastard.

He hadn't touched the fanfic for a while.

Wally's used to Dick running for a bit, coming back, then all is good and peachy and boom! It's done. But clearly that hasn't happened yet—which leaves Wally all muddled.

It's not like Dick hasn't been distant before, or that he hasn't taken a long time to do these things—even though he usually tries to fix the issue immediately—but this is way longer than usual, especially considering Wally is literally Dick's best friend, or at least he thought he was.

And it's not like Wally can't reach out about these things, because he does! He's just so used to it being…. Dick. Dick's kind of just that guy who does everything, and it's to the point that it feels weird if he even tries to do anything slightly involving him. Dick always makes everything his problem, it's like he just can't rely on others whatsoever, like only he can do this or only he can do that, and the team's just there as background.

Or maybe Wally is just insecure himself. Maybe he just can't handle not knowing everything about a guy he thought he sort of knew better than he did, maybe he just can't handle that the same guy he barely knows is his crush. Maybe Wally just needs to fucking grow a pair, get over himself, and just cope with the fact that he and Dick never had a chance at working out.

He's known that Dick likes girls, but Wally isn't a girl and he's certainly not pretty like one. He knows he shouldn't get hung up on stupid insecurities like this, but he just wishes that he was the type of person Dick could just fucking look twice at, like maybe if he was better looking or less loud, less clingy, less him.

Then there's the way Dick holds back so much information, only presents what he deems necessary; Wally just never really liked that, and he hates that he's only realizing that now.

The friend zone is all he'll get, and Wally should be grateful he was even able to get there. He probably ruined it, ruined their whole thing. Ruined the relationship Wally's worked so hard to keep without gutting someone in the process.

Why did he just have to yell? Why was he so fucking emotional? It isn't that serious, it was never that serious. It's just him.

Wally's the issue. Wally's always the issue, even before he became Kid Flash. Back when it was just him, Rudy, and Mary over in Blue Valley. Rudy pushed Wally too hard, then punished him when he could keep up—Rudy would discourage Wally, demean Wally, call his ideas and ambitions unrealistic and dumb—Wally always did get too stuck in his head. Wally always was so unrealistic, should've been focusing on his studies, should've made his life goals sensible like Rudy's were. Like working at that manufacturing plant his dad wanted him to go. It's consistent labor and effort, pragmatic really.

Then he met Barry, his idol, and his dreams came true. They shouldn't have, because Wally thought he finally was someone, finally enough, finally lovable and cool and great or whatever, but it was only spurious.

Rudy kept berating Wally, his mom kept ignoring it. And yeah, Barry supported him, but then he met Dick. Dick kept being out of reach. Maybe he should've guessed that could've been the case, he's an acrobat anyway. Acrobats never stay in one place.

He should just run back to Keystone and never return. Quit being Kid Flash, quit the Teen Titans. After all, one speedster was enough for this world and Barry was it.

Wally posted the fanfic.

He hasn't edited it since Dick gave him the pointers—not that he'd known the author was actually Wally—but he just gave up. It wasn't worth it.

The dumb fanfiction could only last for so long anyway, and the last scene Wally had written in there was a kiss. A sweet kiss underneath a dazzling sunset, but was it sweet? Was it actually fucking sweet now that Wally was filled with tears and pain as he cried himself to sleep, as he sobbed over the fact that Dick could never, would never love him the way Wally admired him, desired him, cared for him, loved him? It wasn't Dick's fault that Wally had accidentally confessed his love to him, it wasn't Dick's fault that Wally was so needy, so fucking desperate and pathetic for his attention.

Wally's noticed that lately, Dick only talks to him if he's his last resort—if there's no one else. On missions, he used to always pair himself with Wally, but now he's all buddy-buddy with Donna the same way he was with Wally. Donna's cool, Donna's great actually. It just really fucking hurts getting replaced by a girl who without a doubt, is attractive as hell, just like Dick. Someone better than him, stronger than him, cooler than him, and someone Dick could fall in love with.

She's done nothing wrong, she just happened to be in their crossfire. Which makes it hurt so much more.

It's starting to feel like Kid Flash just isn't part of the team anymore. He doesn't really talk to Roy or Garth as much as he would like too, then Robin's pulling away and he's always been pretty close with Donna anyway. Just now it's being flaunted all up in his face—well, they haven't outwardly shoved it in his face, it's just very notable since that used to be Wally's spot right next to Dick, as his best-fucking-friend who couldn't even last forever.

Wonder Girl, Speedy, Aqualad, and Robin were all fine, chill, and ever so peachy. Just not Kid Flash, their supposed teammate.

To make matters work, it feels like that since Robin kinda just ditched Wally, the team's efficiency somehow doubled? Maybe Wally's overthinking it, he hasn't actually timed their missions so he couldn't compare it anyway. But the team really would be better off without Wally, wouldn't it?

It didn't matter. One day, he's probably going to get kicked off the team for not being good enough. For never being good enough, and all Wally could do is suck it up and cry into Barry's arms, before he's inevitably sent back to Blue Valley with his mom and dad.

"Hey, uh, Walls?"

Wally practically sprang up in shock, before falling on his back as the chair tilted over.

Wally was busy tinkering with the ring Barry made for him all those years ago—something with the ring was malfunctioning after their last mission, and he didn't want to bug Barry over something so minuscule—and besides, Wally was great with machinery! Well, it probably didn't count as machinery considering it's just a ring, but at the same time, with how heavily adjusted it is—and how it's classification wasn't the point!

"Ouch." Wally winced as he got back up—pushing the fallen chair back into place and fixing its position. The small hit he took stung just a bit, but it'll heal—Wally's got accelerated healing and all that jazz… Though if he was some type of cartoon character, there'd definitely be a fat pink bump protruding from his head, his green eyes replaced by black swirls even.

But he's not a cartoon character, so he's just standing there looking lame as he reels.

Dick's still in the doorway, startled from Wally's jumpy reaction.

"Uh, what's shakin', bacon?" Wally pulled out the finger guns, clicking his tongue in pure, agonizing awkwardness. He's got absolutely no idea on what the hell he's even supposed to do, nor say! Seriously, at least cartoon characters get a script.

And whilst externally, he was busy smirking all dumb and silly—internally he was grimacing hard.

Dick blinked just once, his mouth parted just a fraction as Wally's sheer idiocy sunk in.

"What's kickin, chicken?" Wally continued, his sheepish grin slowly faded away as he shot the finger guns… again. "Okay, yeah, this isn't working—so uh… What's up?"

Dick took a quick, barely noticeable gulp.

"Just wanted to talk to you man, cuz I don't know… Been awkward at the tower and—"

"And you constantly avoiding me, not talking to me, acting all fine and peachy like you weren't slowly killing me inside, then there's the fact that nobody knows jack shit about you, you're extremely shallow and—" Wally broke off, huffing.

He seriously needs to learn to shut up.

"… Sorry uh, just—just forget everything I said."

"No, it's fine man—I've just… I've been thinking more about what you said, you know? About liking me?"

"Oh."

"It's not—I'm not mad, okay? It's fine, really," He rushed out. A soft, bordering on vibrant shade of red dusting his cheeks as he shifted closer. "I was uh, doing some reflecting. I guess I haven't been as open with you guys—with you—as I've been asking everyone else to uh, be."

"That's—that's cool."

"Yeah."

"Yeah."

"So uhm..."

"… Yeah."

Wally wasn't exactly sure what to say. He rubbed the nape of his neck, just hoping that this awkward silence would end and—

"So one of the things I've been thinking about is the way I feel about you," Dick blurted out. "And I guess that it also, just took me a second to realize, that—that I'm into you too."

His voice trailed off at that last word, going quiet. But everything that Dick had said in these past few moments were everything Wally wanted to hear; he wanted to hear Dick try to work on himself and make an effort to be open—to actually communicate and show to the team who he is, instead of always hiding behind his mask.

But the number one thing he's always hoped for—begged for and cried for? Dick's reciprocation.

He finally has Dick's love. The love of the man who Wally always thought was straight, would never choose him. Wally thought he'd be stuck as Dick's best friend and nothing more, and now he had his love—his care, his attention and commitment.

Wally loves Dick Grayson. Dick Grayson loves him too.

"That's everything I've ever wanted to hear." Wally's cheeks pushed high, his eyes sparkling and crinkling at the corners—radiant smile stretching wide—the boy was practically glowing, it may as well have been the happiest day of his life despite everything.

Tears of happiness began to stream down his face, and despite Dick's concerned looks, he pressed his lips against Dick's own—didn't even ask, just took, because Dick was finally his.

His soft lips, his effervescent smile, his gorgeous face, virtuosity and acuity, him.

It wasn't the cleanest kiss in the whole world, it was messy and open mouthed, but he was happy. They were happy.

Dick accidentally bit down on Wally's lower lip a few second too late after the surprise lean-in.

"Ow!" Wally playfully whined, pushing himself off of Dick's body as he giggled. His fingers reached up to brush the spot Dick had nipped at.

Dick's face somehow turned even redder—anymore and he may as well be a ketchup bottle, not that Wally's complaining—he'd gobble up his new lover in no time, ketchup or not.

And Dick grabbed Wally by the shoulders, before pulling him closer and capturing Wally's lips for himself.