saga/title/fandom: You and I Got Something

author: Dimitri Aidan

rating/genre: (PG-13 (for now))- Drama/Romance

warnings: slash, adult situations, adult language

summary: (Flash/GL, Batman/Wonder Woman, Superman/Lois Lane. A little Nightwing/OMC and Hawkgirl/GL) As they get ready for Bruce and Diana's wedding, Flash thinks. Getting together isn't easy in their line of work, but somehow he and John managed it; evil robots, best friends, and Yellow Lanterns be damned.

comments/disclaimers: The lack of GL and Flash interaction in JL:U spawned this story. Actually the lack of Flash in general was upsetting. In the comic Raven is an empath. I’m not sure if that applies to ‘Teen Titans’ on Cartoon Network but it doesn’t matter much. She, at some point, used her power to convince Wally that he was in love with her. She had good intentions but…you know that’s a shitty thing to do. And in this story Wally is decidedly fucked up because of it. He just doesn’t know it yet.

Chapter Five

Misunderstand Me

John had come to the conclusion some time ago, while camped out in Wally’s apartment and watching a terrible movie and cracking jokes, that there was something about the younger man that made things seem less bleak. And it wasn’t like Wally had this overwhelming sunny demeanor or was overly cheerful or even really optimistic, because he wasn’t.

Wally was actually kind of twisted in his own way.

John kind of liked that about him.

It wasn’t often you met someone as…well, sickeningly honest as Wally was. Someone so human. Maybe it was that he’d been at this entirely too long but John didn’t see things like a ’normal’ person would see them. He saw them in something that wasn’t quite black and white, but was pretty damn close.

It was like…even when things were bleak he was obligated to not comment on it. It was always optimism and eternal hope and saving people from evil, but always stopping just shy of really stopping it. He couldn’t deviate from that and things could never be hopeless and he could never let himself lose it. Because they were beacons of light in the darkness, the protectors of the world and all the worlds around it and all of the shit they teach you

But Wally didn’t always hope. He didn’t have the ability to always hope.

And when he thought a situation was screwed up he said it and when he thought things were hopeless he was more than happy to riff on just how hopeless they were.

It annoyed some people (Superman came to mind. He and Wally clashed over Wally’s unique type of inspiration constantly. You would have thought after that trip to the world without Wally that he would have learned to appreciate it, but that wasn’t the case.) but to John it was refreshing.

Being a hero meant you could only tell a certain kind of truth.

Wally just told the truth and if you didn’t like it you had better close your ears and walk away because it just kept coming.

Sometimes you needed to hear the truth, even when it was less than moving and awe-inspiring. And the truth always made things seem less…daunting. Somehow facing down a hoard of man eating aliens and having Wally say, in that bright way of his, that they were about to fight a bunch of aliens interested in swallowing their vital organs made it less terrible.

And John kind of figured that was how the Justice Lords lost their way when they lost Wally. They lost the human element, the part that pointed out just how sad, fucked up, and absurd their lives were. The thing that made it possible to laugh at themselves and stop them from taking it too seriously. They lost their humanity and lost touch with what they were trying to protect…lost sight of the line between hero and dictator.

Protector and Jailer. Because really the line was thin. Sure, they could lock the Earth away and never again would it be threatened and never would people have to worry, but would being safe matter if they had no freedom?

It was strange to think one skinny pale red haired slacker was the one thing standing between him and something he was honestly afraid of becoming.

And sometimes it made perfect sense.

Kara stepped off of the platform and smoothed down the front of her skirt. Annoyance was practically rolling off of her in waves and a few of those standing near her wisely wandered off to the side. They all knew it was the best way to avoid violence or a stray heat beam from the blond. Not that Kara lacked the ability to control herself.

She was just…temperamental on occasion. And when one combined that with being one of the most powerful beings of a planet things had a tendency to be destroyed or blow up when she was angry.

“Where’s Flash?” Superman asked looking away from the screen he and Lantern had been watching. Supergirl frowned and crossed her arms over her chest.

“He’s busy with his boyfriend.”

There was a moment of silence. Superman blinked, looked around…and then blinked again. Wonder Woman, who’d been perched on the edge of a stool looked visibly startled and nearly went pitching forward. Lantern turned, eyebrow arching just so.

Boyfriend. Wally?

“He’s what?”

“On some kind of date. With some guy. In some park.” She made a vague gesture. “Why does he get a vacation to goof off with some guy but I can’t even get through one date with Jimmy without having to save the day?”

“Seniority.” Wonder Woman deadpanned. Superman’s lips twitched.

“And, of course, Superman isn’t Flash’s dangerously overprotective cousin.” Arrow added. Superman glowered at him but Arrow just tipped his hat obligingly. Seeing he wasn’t getting far in that department he glanced back at his cousin.

“What about Flash?”

She shrugged. “He ran off so I assume he plans to make an appearance. He seemed pretty upset about it though. Not that I blame him. Having a date cut short bites.”

“This guy-” Lantern started.

“About this tall, blond-red hair, blue eyes.” She listed on her fingers. “Kind of cute.” (Unbeknownst to her, but obvious to some others, Lantern’s lips pressed into a thin line at that.) “They have some sort of date or something on Saturday. Do you know what I’m doing on Saturday?”

“I take it that it doesn’t involve a date.” Wonder Woman said.

“I wish. I get to help Pa Kent fix the fence.” She paused for a moment. “The normal slow way.”

“Don’t whine.” Superman muttered. “I could keep Jimmy busy for the next decade you know.”

Her eyes narrowed. “You wouldn’t dare.”

“Okay, I’m here! No need to worry, everything will soon be under total control!” Flash’s voice range out and unknowingly defused what could have been a super family squabble.

Superman snorted loudly but Wally either didn’t hear it or had chosen to ignore it. John figured it was the former because Wally could be an asshole when he wanted to be. And lord knew that Superman made John want to be an asshole.

But maybe that didn’t extend to all people.

“Took you long enough.” Lantern frowned at him. “I’m sorry if the fate of the world is interfering with your personal business Kid, but do you think you could at least attempt to answer next time you’re called?”

Flash shot him a winning smile. “I’ll consider it. So what’s the damage today?”

Lantern’s expression was nothing short of exasperated and long-suffering. He leaned over and hit a button. Flash, along with the others, watched in silence as images of the android crashing through the force wall of the Lanterns then go straight thought the planet filled the screen. Flash winced then looked over at Lantern who stared back. He rubbed at his arm anxiously before letting out a breath.

“Well. We’re fucked. Per usual.” Lantern’s lips quirked as the sullen and almost restless air that had been around him seemed to lessen considerably. Lantern couldn’t put his finger on it exactly but something about Wally’s presence and almost darkly humored attitude put him at ease.

And it was funny because most people wouldn’t have expected Flash to be soothing at the best (or was that worst) of times or have such a twisted sense of humor, and certainly not both at the same time or for them to compliment each other.

But they did.

“As always your optimism is very inspiring.”

“I try.” He shrugged. “So what’s the plan? And did Bats come up with it, because I’ve been noticing that his plans kind of suck lately.”

“Yes, no, and I’ve been getting that feeling lately.”

“Heh. So about this plan. How exactly are we going to take out this evil overgrown kitchen appliance? And do you realize this goes right to what I’ve been saying for months?”

“Not again. Flash-”

“No, I’m serious. It’s the electronics GL; they’re all fucking nuts. Totally plotting against us. And I bet the Android is their leader.” Flash had the audacity to look genuinely excited about this new turn of events and how it would affect his favorite conspiracy theory, and Lantern wasn’t sure if he was amused or appalled.

Wait, no. He was appalled. Flash couldn’t be serious for even thirty seconds. So he was very much upset and…appalled.

…kind of.

“And here we go again.” Superman let out sigh.

“Um.” Kara and Arrow exchanged confused looks. They didn’t know Wally well enough to realize he was insane and that they were better off not questioning it.

“Don’t give me that! We get attacked by robots are least twice a week. That’s just not normal.”

“You’re not normal.”

“Normalcy is a scam anyway.” Flash looked thoughtful for a moment. “I think it’s a Catholic scam.”

“What’s a Catholic?”

Lantern rolled his eyes upward. They were getting wildly off course. This was to be expected, as distraction was Wally’s specialty. And times like this he was glad for it.

Without Wally to lighten the mood he was sure tension would eventually strangle the entire League and turn them into…well, something none of them wanted to be.

“GL.”

Lantern blinked at the sound of Wally’s voice in his earpiece. For a moment he put some serious thought into asking the speedster how he’d managed to get patched through to him but thought better of it. It was Wally after all.

When he wanted something things tended to happen.

“What?”

There was a pause then: “Sorry about that thing earlier.”

“You mean convincing Diana that we need to attack the pope?”

“…no.” He could almost hear Wally’s smirk. Figures. “Not showing up when you called. You know if you needed me for anything I wouldn’t flake on you on purpose. You‘re my best friend and all that.”

Lantern arched an eyebrow at some far away star. If he didn’t know better he would have thought that Wally was having one of those sincere movie-esq moments. “And what prompted this heartfelt apology from you?”

“Why does everyone think I have an ulterior motive?” He sounded almost petulant. An image of Wally pouting flashed through his mind and John sighed mentally. Way to be focused.

“Because it’s you.”

A sigh. “That hurts John.” And that gave him pause because he was pretty sure he could count on one hand the number of times Wally called him John. The younger man seemed more comfortable with ’GL’ and he was fine with that.

…kind of.

“…and I figure we’re all about to die and it would be a good idea to get any bad feelings sorted out before we get to the pearly gates.”

He rolled his eyes. “We are not going to die.”

“Bull-fucking-shit.” Wally muttered darkly.

He chuckled. “If we live you’re buying the beer.”

“No way. You’ll live just to spite me.”

“You seen Wally?” Lantern asked as he helped pull a slightly scratched up Wonder Woman from the side of a building. She ran a hand through her hair, pulling at a knot absently before shaking her head.

“I’m sure he’s around here somewhere.” She gestured around what had once been a fairly quiet suburban street. Not it looked like…well like an invincible android had come tearing through while handing some of earth’s mightiest their behinds. Some of the other Lanterns were digging said mightiest from the rubble that had once been a barbershop.

A crowd was starting to form and the press would crop up any minute now, demanding to know what had gone on and spouting all that ’the public had a right to know’ crap. Lantern hated the media. He didn’t even like Clark’s girlfriend on the very principal of the matter.

Hell, he didn’t really like Clark.

Then again that had nothing to do with the reporting thing.

“So. Did we win?” She asked brightly.

“After a fashion.” He decided he didn’t want to get too heavily into what he had almost lead the other Lanterns to do inside of the shop. Part of him wondered if he hadn’t been walking that line between ‘League’ and ‘Lords’ a bit recklessly a few moments ago.

Where the hell was Flash anyway? He was suddenly in the mood for beer and pointless reality TV and Flash was the only one he knew who would go for such unproductive activity.

Plus he didn’t have a TV. He’d never felt the need to watch it until he’d begun spending time with Flash outside of saving the world. And they’d stopped hanging out and he’d stopped watching TV and now he had this wicked craving for TV but of course he didn’t have one.

…He was beginning to think like Wally spoke.

“I doubt Android will be bothering us anymore and Luthur is still alive.”

“…Is that a good thing?”

“Damn if I know.”

“Hey John!” The only other human lantern called over to them. John made a face (He really didn’t like Kyle) then raised a hand in acknowledgement. Kyle jogged over and, after flashing a wide smile at Diana, then nodded towards the thickening crowd.

“The rest are about to jet. You know how it is, no more alien exposure than is necessary.”

“That’s fine. Clean up is our favorite part.” His voice was a total deadpan but Kyle just blinked. Right. Sometimes he forgot his sense of humor went over some people’s heads. “Never mind.”

“Right. So…it’s good to be back home. If you were serious about leaving for a while-”

“I am.”

“I wouldn’t mind taking over. I miss it. And things seem to have gotten really interesting around here. I’ll try to work on the guys in charge.”

Lantern twitched before replying slowly. “Thank you.”

“Not a problem.”

Lantern nodded and was about to suggest that he go fishing for Supergirl’s team when a streak of red went past him. A few seconds later a breeze went by as well, as if trying to catch up with the figure. He looked at Wonder Woman to see if she had noticed it. She just shrugged her shoulders.

“Probably eager to get back to his date.” John decided in that instant he didn’t like the faint bitterness that his voice held.

Diana’s eyes widened. “John-”

He turned away stiffly. He didn’t like the understanding he saw spark in her eyes, and he liked the pity he saw there even less. The last thing he wanted was for her to feel bad for him. After all he had this all under perfect control.

As long as he kept busy the lingering ache of Hawkgirl’s departure and the strange bitterness that he felt when he realized that Wally had finally given up on cheering him up (sure he’d told Wally to go fuck himself, but he hadn’t’ expected him to actually give up…) and the strange feeling he got when he realized he actually missed the hyper active redhead, didn’t really mean as much. They were just dim feelings, background noise that he could avoid.

They didn’t bother him as much as they should have.

Work.

Work was good.

So what if he was walking that thin line he’d been musing about earlier.

“I’m going to see about Supergirl’s team. We didn’t have a chance on the way down.” He left the ground without waiting for an answer.

He could work all of the pain and frustration out of his system and as long as he kept that up he could begin to forget it. He’d simply work it all away. And if he could work a few galaxies away it’d be even easier to do.

In theory anyway.

He often found that theory and fact had little to nothing in common with each other. Some un-thought of factor always seemed to rear its head and bite him in the ass just when he thought he had everything under control.

With his luck his new station would be a planet of redheads.

His lips quirked at the thought.

Of course hair colored didn’t have anything to do with anything. It was more…uniqueness. Both were unlike anyone he’d ever met before and he’d met a lot of different beings from all over the galaxy. Finding someone different was a rare thing indeed.

Everyone he’d ever felt for was that way. Different. New. It was…intriguing and he sort of liked the unpredictability that being unique came with. He was, by nature, a very in order and predictable person and sometimes he liked having the boat rocked.

Thought where Wally was concerned he imagined it was more ‘constant’ than ‘sometimes’ and yet that didn’t bother him much. It was almost endearing in a strange sort of way how open and reckless Wally lived his life.

And strange was pretty much par for the course.

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