gingercupboards | (no subject)

[ Dick shoves back, but way gentler this time. Good houseguest instincts are deeply ingrained in him, after all, and upsetting authority figures is one thing but upsetting parents— ]

Play nice, then.

No. This is my house, I always let you win when we're at your place. [no wally dick just always wins because he's better than you

Wally spreads out on the couch and throws his legs across Dick's lap, getting comfortable as the new map loads.] Wanna play co-op?

[ Dick adjusts to it, resting his forearms on Wally's shins and getting comfy. Which only makes him think back to their almost-kiss, and then he's wondering if maybe they should put the controllers aside and try it once more, but...

Maybe that'd be making it weird again. ]

Co-op sounds good.

[Maybe Robin would feel less self-conscious about it if he knew that Wally was thinking the exact same thing, sneaking glances whenever Robin's attention is elsewhere, crossing his ankles and being as obnoxious as possible to distract him from the fact that it feels like his molecules are vibrating.]

I wanna be point. I'm awesome at point. [Wally scrolls through the selections, glancing over at Robin to see how the changing light and color plays off his face.]

[ Normally Dick would tease, but sometimes it's more fun to just let Wally have his way and see if he gets flustered all on his own. Either that or he's going mushy, but— no, let's blame the first thing. He shoots Wally a playful glance, meeting his obnoxious fidgeting halfway and grabbing at his ankles. ]

Your house. You pick.

[ And he drums his fingers against Wally's calf as he waits. ]

[It's just his stupid ankles but Wally still feels his belly do that swooping thing it was doing right when they almost kissed. Maybe it's because it's familiar, or whatever, he doesn't know.

Wally suddenly vaults up and slips his legs off of Robin's lap.] I'm gonna get some Coke. Want any?

[ The suddenness is surprising, but for a moment, Dick wonders if he's done something wrong. Gotten too cozy or made it too obvious, or— but no, that's ridiculous. It's Wally. Right? ]

Sure, if you're up.

[no no, wally's got it all planned out

He stands up, leans just right over Dick and he's gonna do it, he'll kiss Dick back. He's been thinking about it since the run home. It feels uneven, him being the only one to get kissed, and even if they can't make it...y'know, further than that, he can at least do this.

So he's gonna kiss Dick back. Right on the cheek. He's gonna do it.

...and then he gets nervous, moves too fast and bangs his nose into the side of Dick's face.]

Gah-! Ow!

[ Dick squawks a little in surprise, recoiling and blinking wide-eyed at Wally. A flush spreads across his cheeks and the tips of his ears, his heart pounding again. ]

Did you just— Are you okay?

[NO HIS PRIDE IS MORTALLY WOUNDED.

Wally's fine but he uses the excuse of a wounded nose to cover his face and hide his shame. WOW. THAT WAS EXTRA SILKY SMOOTH, WEST.]

...fine...

[Wally drops his hands and sighs, slumping back on the couch.] Just...y'know, trying to put the moves on you. [And failing miserably.]

[ Dick freezes, only going redder. It's... weirdly endearing, how earnest Wally is about it compared to the front he always puts on around girls. But at the same time, Wally failing at this puts Dick on the spot to pick up the slack, and he's not at all sure what to do.

At last, he settles for honesty. ]

We're really bad at this, aren't we?

Excuse you, I'm usually pretty damn good at this. I'm just off my game tonight. [Wally shoves himself up. He really does still want something to drink, but instead of leaving Dick there on the couch alone he takes the other boy's hand to pull him up. And then doesn't let go.] C'mon, I'm thirsty.

[ Dick gets to his feet, and then he's left holding Wally's hand, which... okay, it isn't even remotely the first time that's happened, but it's maybe the first time it's been actual handholding instead of... whatever. His heart flutters embarrassingly, and he gives Wally's hand a brief squeeze. ]

Then I shall accompany you to the kitchen.

[It is kind of embarrassing, but they're both sort of reaching the critical mass point of humiliation where it just doesn't even matter anymore. So Wally squeezes Dick's hand back, and even though it's kind of a pain to open the soda and get glasses down and everything with just one hand, he doesn't let go. Even when their hands get kinda sweaty, he doesn't let go. Even when Dick's hand keeps bumping against his leg- actually, that's not bad. Not a reason to let go.

They stay in the kitchen for a while, the glow of the TV illuminating the livingroom beyond, their fingers linked and their arms brushing and swapping stories about school. It's normal, it's the same, but there's just that element of more that Wally hadn't even known he'd wanted. He rubs his thumb up and down Dick's, glances down at him before reaching over and taking off Dick's sunglasses, quiet and slow.]

[ And for Dick, the world narrows down to just the two of them, alone in Wally's quiet kitchen late at night. It's such a simple little gesture, but it means everything: that Wally's the one person on earth he trusts to do something like this. The one person who he'd wanted to know him so much that he'd gone behind Bruce's back. The one person who can always remind him that even if Dick and Robin are two masks he wears, whatever he is underneath those is still real.

Everything's brighter, suddenly, without the glasses on, but all that matters is Wally's green, green eyes. ]

If you're trying to put the moves on me again, it's working.

Oh good. Haven't lost my touch.

[And Dick is right there, and his eyes are so blue, and maybe there's no star canopy overhead or superhero costumes or plans or anything, but Wally can't think of a time more perfect than one-thirty in the morning after losing four rounds of Deep Space Marine to kiss Dick Grayson.

So that's what he does.]

[ It isn't the world's most spectacular kiss. His nose bumps against Wally's when he turns his head the wrong way, and his lips are a little too dry and he's suddenly acutely aware of the rough spot where he split his lower lip in a fight the other day, and it takes him a minute to figure out just how to move his mouth, but.

But he lifts his free hand to Wally's cheek and tips his head just right on the second try, and it's not that bad once he stops overthinking it. Maybe actually almost pretty good, though the fact that it's Wally might be skewing the results. ]

[Nope, not an awesome kiss, and Wally's had a little more experience with this than Dick has but it's not enough to make much of a difference. Rob's lips are too dry and Wally doesn't know what to do with his other hand, and not much is happening but Rob lifts his fingers to Wally's cheek and he feels stupid and giddy anyway.

It's actually not all that different from kissing a girl. Go figure.

So Wally pulls back and away. He lets go of Robin's hand so he can rub his sweaty palms against his jeans.] Okay, cool. [First kiss done. Wally feels a little bit light-headed, but in a good way.] See? Wasn't so hard. [is his grin dopey because it feels like it's probably dopey]

[ Dick hadn't even realized how warm his hand had gotten until Wally let go of it. He can feel his heartbeat in his face, and he's pretty sure he's red right up to the tips of his ears, but he feels almost as light as he does right after he lands a particularly amazing leap. ]

Pretty awesome, actually. [ And if Wally's grin is dopey, Dick's is just as much so. His lips are still tingling and he can't seem to wipe the smile off his face. ]

Okay you're right, it was awesome. [Wally's grin gets a little sharper and he reaches past Dick to open the fridge. He pulls out a 2 liter of Coke, pours Dick a cup and then just drinks right out of the bottle for himself. Attractive.]

C'mon, it's my turn to beat you. [And he jerks his head back toward the living room, but a strange look crosses his face and he leans in to peck Dick on the lips. When he pulls back he's triumphant, I can do that now written all over his face, because he can and he's allowed to kiss Dick and nobody gets to say anything about it. Dick let Wally kiss him. Wally West is allowed to kiss Dick Grayson.

Yep. The walk he uses to get back to the living room is definitely a swagger.]

[ Dick's sure that he's never looked this smitten in his life, but he can't bring himself to care. He follows Wally back to the living room, vaulting over the back of the couch — great houseguest manners, but hey, the parents aren't awake — and then he turns back to grin at him. ]

I'm not gonna go easy on you just 'cause you kissed me, you know.

[ But he might. (Maybe he won't have a choice, if he keeps thinking about that kiss.) ]

Yeah, whatever.

[He doesn't though, and Wally loses again but he's fine with it because when they pass out on the couch sometime between two and three, Dick's head is right against his chest and Wally feels his breath on his shirt and that weight is probably the most comforting thing he's ever had to lull him to sleep.

They both come to an agreement not to tell the team about their relationship. Not out of fear they won't understand, but just to keep things under wraps. Robin makes it pretty clear that he's not telling Batman, and after a couple failed attempts on Wally's behalf to tell his parents about Dick, he decides to give up as well. They keep things in secret and behind closed doors, and considering they don't ever get further than holding hands or exchanging close-mouthed kisses, it's not a big deal.

Weeks pass, and those turn into months and Dick and Wally both creep up onto their next birthdays, Dick approaching fifteen and Wally preparing for seventeen. Dick shoots up an impressive handful of inches while Wally only manages one more, and Dick puts on more weight than Wally does and Wally jokes that Dick's finally catching up to the big boys, which earns him a punch. Wally doesn't think about how if Dick keeps growing like this, he'll be taller than Wally. He doesn't want to consider a day when he might not be able to cart the Boy Wonder around on his back.

The missions Batman gives the team get harder and harder, until instead of the League tackling the Big Bads (as Wally calls them) the team is being deployed to tamp down crises that were before meant for more experienced hands. With the responsibility, though, comes more danger, and it seems like the more success the team experiences, the more of them that return from these missions with cuts and broken bones instead of just bruised egos. Artemis takes a bullet that puts her in the hospital for a month. Aqualad has to be taken back to Atlantis for proper poison treatment after a run-in with the Joker. Even Conner was in the med-bay, for a short time, when someone stabs him with a kryptonite-dusted knife.

Wally's never felt terror like tonight, though. Because they're on the rooftops, helping out in Gotham -with an Arkham outbreak just hours ago- and he gets pinned down and tastes blood and dirty rainwater and gravel on his tongue. He's struggling, fighting against one of Ivy's burly home-grown henchmen when he hears M'gann scream a warning to Robin and the panic of it stabs right through to his heart. He wrenches up his head just in time to see Harley giggle as she clocks Robin with a mallet and send the Boy Wonder staggering over the edge of the roof.]

Robin!

[KF doesn't remember what happens next but then he's tearing down the side of the building and his goggles aren't even on his head anymore so Robin's plummeting figure is just a blur of color against the backdrop of slick lit skyscraper windows.]

Edited 2014-06-11 05:02 (UTC)

[ "ladies and gentlemen, children of all ages"

He's a third of the way down the side of the building when he comes to, wind whipping through his hair and howling past his ears and he recognizes the feeling of weightlessness before anything else. He's flying—

"the fearless Flying Graysons"

No, he's falling. He's falling, and his head is swimming and his eyes won't focus — where, what — he's not supposed to fall, he's never supposed to fall, he's a Grayson, but he can see the edge of the building above him receding into the night sky and the bottom drops out of his stomach and he screams with what's left in his lungs because he's had this dream before, only this time it's real.

"dazzling, death-defying feats"

But he's Robin, and time slows down as his instincts kick in. Reach for your line, reach for your line, he thinks, but at the speed he's going his limbs are fighting a losing battle with wind resistance and reaching for his belt is the hardest thing he's ever tried to do.

And then he sees Kid Flash, and the terror's back because he's falling too and please not him, not Wally, please. Except: he's not falling, he's running? Can he do that, what happens when he hits the ground, Robin's never seen this before but he doesn't have time to think because the ground is getting closer and Wally's the closest thing to a lifeline he's got right now and—

"all performed without a net"

He reaches for Wally's hand. ]

[Robin's hand reaches out for him and like that, time snaps to standstill.

In the span of half a second, Wally exists for what feels like days. Neurons fire at rates of 1,000Hz; 1,300Hz; 2,000Hz, faster, faster. His molecules vibrate, spin, electrons whirling dizzily around protons and neutrons, all he is, just electrons, protons and neutrons in varying combinations,

hydrogenheliumlithiumberylliumboroncarbonnitrogen

and so is Robin, so is everything, like the hand reaching out to him, the one he's grabbing,

oxygenfluorineneon

threading his fingers through Robin's like he had last Saturday, the Thursday before that, Wednesday, weeks ago, months ago, years ago, faster, faster dammit and Robin's Dick's his eyes are so blue it's like looking at a theoretical chemical composition or at the sound barrier as it breaks,

sodiummagnesiumaluminumsilicon

but the transfer from vertical to horizontal is going to be rough because gravity doesn't like to change tracks and Robin is in his hands, Robin's wrapped up in his arms and the ground is coming fast, very fast, not as fast as he and Robin and his team is up there, Superboy was shouting after Wally as he tore over the edge, so was Zatanna, he remembers them screaming like it was yesterday (it was seconds ago West get a grip) and Robin's shaking in his arms and his scalp has a sticky spot on it from the blood, there's the ground, threetwoone-

The transfer is like two railroad spikes to Wally's knees but he doesn't even notice until they're a block down the street, and the pain is gone two blocks after that because his healing time is god, so fast, hours in seconds and Wally runs three more blocks, burning off the kinetic energy as he thinks to himself frantic, one single strain of thought in the storm of too much,

Am I gonna be like this for the rest of my life?

Left turn, left turn, back to the building, back up the side, momentum's carrying him but it's harder to run against gravity than with and nothing's going to change that, not him, not Speed not anything but they make it to the top and Kid Flash feels the soles of his feet burn as he skids them to a stop and hits something solid and collapses against it.

He doesn't stop though, too fast, trembling, buzzing, humming like a livewire and he touches his fingers to Robin's neck to find his pulse and use it as an anchor, to reassure himself, alive, alive, not a mess of differently-arranged molecules on the asphalt below, still in the same pattern, still breathing, slow, slow pulse (fast for him though) right there under Wally's fingers and he wills his heart to slow, slow, slow down-

Slow.

Breathe.

Phosphorussulfur chlorine argon, potassium, calcium. Scandium. Titanium.

Slow.

Robin is warm and shaking in his arms. Wally's curled up against a roof-mounted A/C unit (now dented), cradling him. Their teammates are gathered around, staring at them both; M'gann has tears in her eyes and Aqualad looks astonished. Rocket is gripping Wally's knee.

Someone asks if they're both okay. Wally nods and they see it, so he's back to normal speed.

Robin. Robin. Dick. Robin.

Wally buries his face against Dick's hair and can't look back up.]

You're okay, [he says, trying to be reassuring to him but his voice too thick and shaking, not like too fast but too much, he's crying, he's definitely crying. Robin almost died. Robin almost died. If he'd been one millisecond slower, he'd have spent the rest of his life without his best friend, his partner, without Dick.]

Edited 2014-06-11 18:03 (UTC)

[ In an instant, they go from moving faster than Robin's ever moved in his life to completely still, and it's all he can do just to catch his breath, heart pounding. Other people are saying things, asking questions, but all he can focus on is the way Wally's voice sounds right now, scared and relieved and trembling — he's not sure he's ever heard him sound like that before, and he never, ever wants to hear it again. Not because of him, not for anything.

Robin knows how it feels, the way time goes elastic when someone you (love) care about falls, the way they seem like they're dropping too fast and so slow all at once and there's nothing you can do but watch, and he'd— he'd almost— and Wally had almost had to go through that. He has to swallow around the thick stinging feeling in his throat.

But he's alive, Wally's alive, they're alive and it's gonna be okay. ]

You're amazing...

[ He is. He is, and he always has been. The words come out muffled against the warm, solid weight of Wally's chest, and his voice is small and shaky but unmistakably awed, and it's only then that he realizes his arms are wound so tight around Wally that he's not sure he can let go. He doesn't want to anyway. Maybe they'll just stay like this forever. ]