Well, Are You In?
And It Feels SoDisclaimer: This is a purely fan-made piece that is using the world and characters from DC Comics, particularly from various Batman and Flash franchises, and is made entirely for enjoyment. No financial gain has been made in the making of this piece. All other situations and plot developments are mine.
Summary: “That good, huh? I always knew Wally had hidden talents, and if you’re still in a daze over it, clearly he’s better at kissing than anyone-”
“He won’t talk to me now.”
Author’s Note: Because figuring out continuity and separating shows is too much work for me, this is a massive conglomerate of things from various comics and shows, and doesn’t pay huge attention to canonical details or facts because FANDOM. Also, title is influenced by Paramore's 'Misery Business' because I was having troubles coming up with one that worked and was getting frustrated when that song came on the radio. It turned into one of those ‘heeeeeey…that might work!’ moments. It's not a direct line but it got me a heck of a lot closer to where I wanted to be, so…we'll take it!
Possible out-of-characterness and un-beta’d
Constructive Criticism is always welcomed
Published: 4 December 2020
Rating: T
Nightwing knew something was up when Oracle took off her headset and turned to face him. "Spill," she demanded.
"Spill what?" He asked, pulling off his mask and getting to work on his gloves.
"You were distracted out there. What's going on?"
"I wasn't distracted."
Oracle lifted an eyebrow. "No? So nearly sailing passed that mugging, getting punched in the back a few times, almost missing the silent alarm, starting to walk right across the crime scene-"
“It’s nothing.”
“So you admit you’re distracted.”
Dick decided he wasn’t going to dignify that with an answer. He pulled out his eskrima sticks and stuck them in their wall chargers before ducking behind a screen to change into his civvies.
She sighed, and he could sense her switching from ‘information mode’ to ‘friend mode’. “Dick, it’s not like you to be so…sloppy. Seriously, what’s going on here?”
He was silent for a moment.
“You know you can talk-”
“I kissed Wally,” Dick interrupted, coming out with his shirt still twisted in his hands.
Babs blinked, then smiled slowly. “That good, huh? I always knew Wally had hidden talents, and if you’re still in a daze over it, clearly he’s better at kissing than anyone-”
“He won’t talk to me now.” He looked down at the crumpled shirt.
Barbara blinked again. “What?”
“Wally won’t talk to me. I’ve tried everything.” Dick twisted the shirt a little more before untwisting it unhappily. “I’ve called him, texted him, e-mailed him…I even took a zeta over to Keystone, but he didn’t answer his door-if he was even home.”
“That’s…not like Wally at all,” she said slowly. “And you tried the Watchtower and the Hall and Mount Justice and all that?”
He nodded. “He wasn’t at any of those places. And there was nothing in any of the mission logs or news about something happening to him so…”
“Huh. You know, if you came and told me you kissed anyone else and then they ghosted you, I’d tell you that you needed a remedial course on kissing, but it’s Wally we’re talking about here. You could be the worse kisser in the world, and he’d still look at you like the sun shone out of your ass.”
Dick looked up from the mess he’d been making of his shirt. “What?”
Barbara waved off his question, lips pursed as she thought. “I do bring up a good point…was it a bad kiss?” She asks, glancing over.
He dropped his gaze back down to the fabric in his hands. “…I don’t think you really want me to answer that.”
He heard her eyebrows shoot up. “Oh, really. It was so good you’re afraid I’ll get jealous? May I remind you that our first kiss was you leaning awkwardly over our motorcycles before running off so we could chase down the bad guy? You didn’t give me a chance to make it stunningly amazing!” Babs’s tone, despite her words, was light and teasing.
Dick shut his eyes for a moment. “…It was jumping off the tallest building and coming home at the same time,” he finally murmured, remembering the strange mix of wild exhilaration and warm contentment he’d never felt before, but desperately wanted to feel again.
“Wow.”
“Seriously, it was the best first kiss I’ve ever had. I wasn’t…I didn’t know it was possible for anything to feel so good or right.”
“Okay, you might want to stop there, or I will feel obligated to hit you.” She was silent for a moment. “And now you can’t get a hold of him.”
“Yeah. I think…” Dick swallowed hard. “I think I ruined things between us.”
“You didn’t ruin things,” said Barbara automatically. “Wally loves you too much for that. You two have too much history and friendship between you for either of you to throw it away that quickly. Maybe he’s trying to process it. I mean, kissing you has been a lifelong dream of his.”
“What?”
“Oh, come on, Dick. Wally’s had it bad for you for years. He hasn't exactly been subtle about it, either. I'm glad you're giving him a chance." Babs suddenly narrowed her eyes. "You are going to give him a chance, right? Because it would be unbearably cruel of you if you were just looking for a quick lay."
Dick hoped he looked as offended as he felt. "I would never do that, much less do that to Wally! I thought you knew me better than that."
"I do know you, which is how I know you're not against a casual fling, and if you told Wally that's all you wanted, he'd might pretend to go along with it because he's a stupid boy who always puts your happiness above his.”
“I would never do that to Wally,” Dick repeated. He took a moment, twisting his shirt back into another ball. “You said…Wally wasn’t exactly subtle. For how long-”
“Oh my god, you two are made for each other!” Barbara threw up her hands. “You’re both dumb, clueless boys who can’t tell when someone has it bad for you! Dick, he’s been head over heels for you since before I met you. Why do you think he dislikes me so much?”
“Wally doesn’t dislike you.”
“Yes, he does. He respects me, he trusts me, and he’ll work with me, but he doesn’t like me, and a huge part of that is because he’s so jealous over our previous romantic relationship he can barely see straight. He also blames me for part of our breakup, and he thinks I broke your heart, something he might never forgive me for. Why do you think he also avoids Zatanna and Koriand’r? Again, so jealous he can barely function.”
Dick tried to reconcile his memories of Wally with Barbara’s assertion that during all the time, Wally harboured romantic feelings for him. It wasn’t as hard as he thought it might be. In fact, it made a shocking amount of sense.
“Huh.”
Babs rolled her eyes. “Boys.” She got more serious. “So, what do you want to do? Do you want me to see if I can track him down?”
“No, just let me…I’ll try again when I wake up.”
She studied him for a moment. “Okay. If you change your mind, you know where to find me.”
He nodded shortly.
“If you’re not planning to crash here,” Barbara said when he just sat there. “I recommend putting your shirt on instead of destroying it. Not that I don’t enjoy the view, but I do have some things I’d like to get done and that doesn’t help.”
Dick blinked and looked down at the mess in his hands. “Uh, yeah, sure.” He shook the shirt out and frowned at the deep wrinkles, but pulled it on anyways. “Um…could I steal a bowl of cereal? I’m out and I haven’t had a chance to get more yet.”
Barbara sighed, loudly and theatrically. “You can, but if you eat the rest of mine…” She let the threat hang ominously.
“Thanks.”
A few moments later, he had a large bowl filled to the brim and as he ate he turned over the facts in his head. So, Wally liked him and probably wouldn’t be opposed to more kissing. Dick just had to find him and let him know he was completely on board with that. Easy.
Dick had this in the bag.
xXxXxXxXxXx
Wally was about the furthest thing from subtle as you could get, which was making the fact that Dick couldn’t find him all the more infuriating. It got to the point that Dick even showed up on the Garricks’ doorstep, baseball cap pulled low over his brow and eyes covered by the biggest pair of aviators Dick could find.
Both Jay and Joan were as helpful as they could be. Jay even offered to suit up and zip around the city to see if he could spot Wally out on patrol or something like that.
Dick was sorely tempted to take the old man up on his suggestion-it was going on three days of no contact from Wally, which was the longest Dick had ever gone when neither of them were on a mission-but he finally regretfully refused. This was between him and Wally-for the moment, at least. If he didn’t find Wally soon, all bets were off and Dick was going to call in just about every favour owed to him and then some.
But he still had a few options left before he got to that point. Since Wally had always told him ‘mi casa es su casa’, Dick was going to take him up on it. He knew where Wally kept his spare key and it seemed like a good time to put that knowledge to use.
Wally wasn’t in when Dick got there, so he got comfortable on the overstuffed sofa and pulled up the most recent issue of Forensic Science Today to read while he waited.
About a half an hour after Dick settled in for a wait, Wally came home. Even before he pulled his cowl off, Dick could see his shoulders were slumped and his eyes downcast. Seeing Wally like that made Dick want to wrap himself around Wally and hold him until he softened and the brightness came back into his eyes.
Maybe he could do that later, but first, they needed to talk.
Dick waited until Wally wasn’t right by his door and thus couldn’t just barrel out the moment Dick opened his mouth before speaking. “You’ve been hard to get a hold of the last few days.”
Wally froze.
Dick got to his feet and tucked away his phone before padding quietly over to his best friend. “Walls,” he said softly, gently putting his hand on Wally’s shoulder. “Talk to me.”
Wally’s pretty green eyes darted around the space, looking everywhere but Dick. “Uh, hey, Dick. Didn’t know you were planning to come over, but now’s not really a good time-”
“Did I screw everything up?”
“What?” Wally’s attention immediately snapped to Dick’s face.
“When I kissed you. Did I screw everything up forever between us?”
Wally’s brow furrowed. “You didn’t kiss me,” he said. “I kissed you.” Then his jaw snapped shut, as if he hadn’t planned on saying that.
“Nope, I definitely kissed you.” Dick stepped in a little closer, encouraged by the fact Wally believed he had instigated things, not Dick. “Your memory’s going in your old age.”
“Or maybe you’ve gotten hit on the head one too many times,” Wally shot back. “Memory’s one of the first things to go.”
“You’d know-how many walls did you crash into when you were trying to learn how to vibrate through-”
“Hey! Low blow, Grayson. Low blow!” But Wally’s eyes were smiling as he said this and the banter between them was familiar, so Dick began to breathe a bit easier.
Slowly, he shifted his hand up from Wally’s shoulder until it rested right underneath Wally’s strong jaw. He let his thumb drift up until it brushed the edge of Wally’s lower lip. “So…I haven’t screwed everything up?” He asked lowly, feeling his heartrate start to pick up at the feel of Wally’s warm and freckled skin.
Wally swallowed hard. “I…” He stuttered, seemingly distracted by Dick’s thumb against his lip. “I thought…it was…we established you were wrong. You didn’t start things; I did.”
“Nope, not how things happened.” Dick grabbed one of Wally’s hands that was hovering uncertainly near him and deliberately planted it right above the swell of his ass, just to help move things along a bit. As much as he wanted to just put Wally’s hand directly on his ass (he had heard from numerous people it was one of his best features and he wasn’t above using his best assets to get his way), it seemed a little too forward for the moment, so he settled for a compromise.
Wally made a startled noise in the back of his throat, and then seemed to realise what had just happened. He got very still.
“Because I remember the whole thing very clearly,” murmured Dick. He couldn’t tell if the temperature of the room was rising due to his proximity to a speedster or his own feelings, but the room was definitely hotter than it had been earlier. “I undeniably was one who-”
Wally kissed him and oh. Oh, it was even better than the first time! Wally’s mouth was hot and Dick was going to have to take some time off from everything because they were going to have to make up for lost time. So much making out to make up on.
Far too soon, Wally pulled back. “See,” he said, voice with a low, gravelly edge Dick had never heard before and it made him a bit lightheaded, “I kissed you.”
“Can’t rewrite history,” Dick countered, feeling breathless in the best possible way. He slid his hand into Wally’s windswept hair. “It didn’t happen like that. It was more like this.” He pulled Wally’s mouth down to his and licked at Wally’s lower lip until his mouth opened.
“Tongues were definitely not involved,” Wally muttered as he pulled Dick right up against him and before pushing his own tongue into Dick’s mouth.
“Hm, you could be-could be right about that, but-ah!-best to be sure about it. Maybe it’ll spark something,” Dick gasped when he finally had to pull away for oxygen and Wally took the opportunity to see how sensitive Dick’s neck was.
He enjoyed it for a few moments, and then he tugged Wally’s face back up to his. He smiled as he took in Wally’s flushed cheeks and dark eyes; he did that. He pressed forward again.
Right before his lips touched Wally’s, Wally’s stomach gave a mighty grumble. Dick paused and he opened his eyes. He was too close to see anything more than the bright pink of Wally’s face, so he unwillingly leaned back.
Wally was looking down at his stomach and his face was twisted with betrayal. Dick couldn’t help it and started to laugh.
“Kick a man while he’s down, why doncha,” Wally grumbled. “Now I see why your parents named you ‘Dick’.”
“Says the man who’s going to be enjoying it in the near future,” Dick fired back cheerfully.
Wally’s eyes snapped up before narrowing. He backed Dick into the wall behind them. And yeah, that was kind of hot. Dick felt his breaths get shorter and his blood surged through his veins.
“Always got to get the last quip in,” muttered Wally as he used his slight height advantage to his benefit.
Okay, Dick knew he had a type, but why had he never noticed that Wally checked absolutely every single box?
Wally kissed him and Dick was never going to get tired of this. Wally’s mouth was assertive and determined, and honestly, why hadn’t he been kissing Dick for years now?
Just as things started to get hot again, Wally’s stomach let out another rumble. Dick laughed, but this time it was softer, fonder. “All right, hotshot,” he said, brushing his nose against Wally’s. “Let’s order a pizza or something, and we can talk about this all, okay?”
“Yeah, okay.” Wally ducked and quickly kissed Dick again, but pulled away before Dick was ready for him to.
Dick swallowed hard as he watched Wally head over to his refrigerator (where a truly alarming number of take out menus were stuck to the front); Wally wasn’t even trying to be obscene or sexy or seductive, and Dick was already regretting being apart. He reminded himself that they needed to talk before they went back to doing the fun stuff; he needed Wally to know he didn’t want a casual fling.
He leaned against the edge of a counter as he watched Wally settle on a menu. “You just want the usual?” Wally asked, thumb moving over his phone’s screen.
“Yeah.”
Wally nodded once and quickly placed the order. “Okay, done.” He turned and suddenly looked a little nervous.
Dick felt his heart swell with affection. “We’ve known each other for a long time,” he said, pushing himself off the counter and sauntering the short distance up to Wally. “And you know me better than just about anyone, so you know I prefer not to do casual.”
Wally blinked. “Uh, yeah?”
Dick looped his arms over Wally’s shoulders. “I like serious relationships. Ones that could potentially last forever.”
Wally’s eyes dropped down to Dick’s mouth, which was hugely flattering. “Uh-huh.”
“And I hear from a lot of people the best relationships stem from people who were friends first.”
“Uh-huh.” Wally placed his hands on Dick’s waist very carefully, as if he still wasn’t sure he could do this yet.
“So I think this could be the best relationship ever.” Dick started leaning in, now he had that out of the way. He really wanted Wally’s mouth against his again.
Unfortunately, Wally drew back slightly, studying Dick’s face. “You want to be boyfriends?” He sounded surprised, and there was something vulnerable in his expression, something naked and desperate and painfully hopeful.
Dick nearly said something flippant, just to take that look off of Wally’s face, but then he remembered Barbara’s assertion of how long Wally had wanted him, and his heart broke a little bit. “Yeah,” he said instead, curling one arm so he could slide his fingers into that pretty red hair. “I want to be boyfriends. I think we could be amazing together, don’t you?”
Wally swallowed hard. “…Yeah,” he said hoarsely. “We could.”
Dick smiled and nuzzled in.
Wally tilted his head and surprised Dick by kissing him achingly slow. He caught Dick’s face with one hand and took his time taking Dick apart. Under normal circumstances, Dick would have enjoyed the attention, but this wasn’t normal circumstances; this was Wally West, the fastest man alive and firm believer that one minute was fifty-nine seconds too long to wait for his pizza rolls to cook, who was taking his time with Dick.
Dick’s knees went soft. Knowing that Wally wanted to savour him went beyond being arousing and intense; it was mind-blowing and Dick didn’t think he was ever going to recover. There were far worse ways to go.
Dick didn’t know how long they stood there, pressed up against each other, mouths moving slowly together, and arms curled tightly around each other, but if Wally’s phone hadn’t gone off, they might have stayed there just like that all week.
Wally eased back and he had to stop Dick from following him. “Pizza’s,” he rasped. He cleared his throat and tried again. “Pizza’s here. I gotta…I’ve got to go get it.” He brushed his thumb over Dick’s cheek. “I’ll be back in a moment.”
“You mean in a flas-”
Wally kissed Dick before he could finish the tired old joke. “Asshole,” he breathed across Dick’s lips, and then he was gone, leaving Dick feeling unstable and cold.
Dick drew in a breath and let it out slowly. Then a smile bloomed. He’d never felt so grounded yet so free before. It probably wouldn’t always be this easy, but he could feel it in his bones-it absolutely was the right decision. This was going to be something worth nourishing, worth fighting for, worth the time and effort.
And then Wally reappeared, a truly massive stack of pizza boxes in his arms, and Dick thought his heart might explode with happiness.
His smile grew, and then he went to get some plates and napkins.
Wally caught his eye as he came over and he grinned, bright and resplendent, and Dick had never been more content with his life choices. If it meant this could be his, it was all worth it, and it felt so good.
x Fin x