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 Six

Who I Am

Batman had announced to him, shortly after the Android incident, that he had tower duty for the next two weeks. That meant a rousing three hundred and twenty hours, give or take a few, of monitor duty, job assigning, and the boring diplomatic duties no one else wanted to get stuck with.

On the upside he got to bother John for the next two weeks. It was an unspoken rule that only certain people had monitor duty with certain other people, to avoid any major incidents, and Wally was regulated to Diana, John, J’onn, and Dove. Which wasn’t so bad when you considered Hawk was only allowed to work with Dove or that John could work with just about anyone but Superman.

There was some kind of weird power struggle going on there that Wally was pretty sure he wasn’t privy to. He couldn’t explain it but he got the feeling that John didn’t like Superman. Which was understandable in a way… They were kind of opposites. John was low-key and hated the limelight. He did his job quickly and effectively then came back to the tower to see what else needed to be done. Where as Supes stood for ‘Truth, Justice, and the American Way’.

The man gave interviews. John had to keep himself from throwing the media into the sun most of the time. And Clark had this ability to make…friends wherever he was. People flocked to him and you only had to glance in his quarters to see it. It was just a friendly area.

And then you had John. Who didn’t even own a TV. Because he was John.

Wally looked around his room in the Watchtower with a slight frown.

It wasn’t that there was anything wrong with it exactly. He was just sort of noticing for the first time that it didn’t exactly say anything about him.

There were posters of girls in swimsuits, bands he didn’t really are for personally, and newspaper clippings mentioning the League all tacked up on the eggshell colored walls. It looked like something your average guy would have. He chewed on his bottom lip thoughtfully.

Diana’s room looked like something straight out Cleopatra, aside from the computer and other ‘modern‘ convincesIt was pretty obvious to anyone who walked past that the Amazon was trying to recapture some of what she had lost in her new home.

Kara’s room spoke of a girl in high school. Pendants displaying Crows in bold red decorated her walls, along with pictures of friends and boyfriend, as well a picture of her family.

Hawk and Dove’s rooms were on opposite ends of the spectrum, much like they were; yet it seemed obvious the inhabitants were close. Hawk was neat and orderly (Something which Wally learned went around with that Military Guy thing) and Dove was…scatterbrained. His room looked worse than Wally’s apartment sometimes and that was saying something. But at the same time there was something of the other in there. In Dove’s room it was the neat desk with an American flag mug in the corner. In Hawk’s it was a poster of a deadpan looking smiley face with the words ‘I’m smiling on the inside. Really.’, scribbled under it.

People’s rooms said something about them.

Wally’s didn’t say much about him.

He wondered if he was having one of those soul-searching moments people had occasionally. There had to be a limit on how many of those things a guy was allowed to have in a month because he was feeling kind of…overwhelmed at the moment.

Which had nothing to do with the fact that John wanted to leave the League and leave them with that idiot of a Lantern. Nope…because Wally didn’t care about that at all. John was, after all, a grown man and if he wanted to be a pussy and run away because his girlfriend had betrayed him, then so the fuck what? If John wanted to abandon them because his heart had been broken, fine.

Wally tore down one of the band posters and tossed it into the center of the room. Strangely enough he actually felt a lot better. He grabbed the corner of the next one and pulled.

Sometimes he just didn’t get John. It wasn’t like he was the only one affected. Wally wouldn’t go so far as to call himself unlikable but he knew he tended to get on people’s nerves. Superman and Batman, in one of their rare areas of agreement, seemed to think he couldn’t be serious about things. They thought he was a joker and a kid and he didn’t mean kid like how John used it.

They meant it to be an insult. John used it…well, Wally didn’t mind when he used it.

Because, of course, he was hopeless in love with John. Duh. He had covered this point of conversation already.

Anyway.

Hawkgirl had gotten him. Where Diana was a like an older sister who was always willing to sit around and help him see the upside, Shayera had been like that crazy aunt you weren’t allowed to be around when you were younger. She cracked foul jokes, started fights in bars, and scared the living hell out of anyone with half a brain.

And Wally had loved that about her, but even more than that she was one of the precious few that understood him. She’d been at the hero thing for a long time but she’d never looked down on him or Diana as ‘new kids’ in need of guidance (it was funny how the fact that he’d been Kid Flash and risked his life for years seemed to escape people when they were busy being condescending) or been anything but totally honest.

When he fucked up she let him know, but when he did a good job she let him know it. She wasn’t going to coddle him but she didn’t expect him to slack off when he was needed either. He could easily see how she could have been a leader to her people.

There was something about her that made you want to trust her, believe in her, no matter what and stick by her to the end.

And he would have. He would have taken on the entire League on her behalf. But she couldn’t allow that, wouldn’t let them split over her. She wasn’t going to let anyone fight about her.

Which had hurt in a strange sort of way. Shayera and John had always been quick to come to his defense when he made a mistake (And the number of mistakes he’d made was greatly exaggerated. At first he’d been a little, as in constantly getting smacked with things that shouldn’t have been able to touch him, but he’d gotten better) and yet when she needed him she’d taken the choice out of his hands.

Even if it was for the ‘Greater Good’ he wished he’d been able to do something for someone else for a change. He was sick of being the Kid. Sure some of the newbies were younger than he was… well, okay, Kara was younger than he was, but he still had this feeling that people were watching. Judging.

Waiting for him to screw up. (But that could have been that low self-esteem thing talking…)

So yeah. John wasn’t the only one who was hurting. Maybe he hadn’t loved her like John had, but that sure as hell didn’t mean he didn’t miss her.

He must have been giving J’onn such a headache.

There was a knock at his door and he turned with a blink. He was pretty sure most of the League had gone back to Earth after the Android incident, all in need of a serious vacation. Which meant it was either J’onn coming to tell him to think quietly or it was John.

Strangely enough he wasn’t sure which one he hoped it was.

“Come in.”

He toed the pile of what had once been posters and newspaper clippings with a sigh before looking at his hands. Paper cuts. Bad ones. Or at least as bad as paper cuts could be. Tiny pinpricks of blood were welling up on his palm and between his fingers.

The door slid open and in walked John. And it was like…John. Not Lantern. But John. In well-worn blue jeans that had one hole ripped at the knee while the bottoms were starting to fray away from being walked on, black work boots and a white t-shirt. And Christ, that stupid goatee thing.

Only it didn’t look so bad now that John was out of the bright green spandex. Wally could actually kind of…appreciate it in this sort of setting.

Yep.

John’s eyes scanned the room then he arched an eyebrow in that slow amused way of his. “Are you having a private moment? Because I can come back later.”

“Uh.” There was a long pause then he shook his head. “Nah. I’m redecorating.”

“I noticed.” John said dryly. “Mind if I ask why?”

“I don’t think it suits me.” Wally said. He found he was having a hard time not staring at John. Which was weird because it wasn’t like he’d never seen the man out of uniform before. Well…not out of uniform and oh holy shit his mind was a dirty horrible place and yes he was thinking about John out of uniform and not in normal clothing and no because this was a bad bad thing.

“Right.” John just shook hid head in that ’why do I put up with you’ sort of way he’d perfected in the time they’d known each other. “You owe me a drink.”

“I do? Why?”

“We’re still alive.”

It took Wally a moment to realize what the hell John was talking about. And then he frowned, seeming to recall declining that little bet. And then an oh-so-helpful voice in his head declared him an idiot because no way was he about to refuse a chance to hang out with John.

They hadn’t really done that since Hawkgirl had left, what with John’s chronic moodiness and preference to long nights of something resembling teenage angst. Not that he’d ever tell John he was acting like a fifteen year old girl on some soap opera, because he wanted to keep all of his vital organs just where they were. But if he was less of a wuss and John was just slightly less frightening when he got upset he might have told him.

Maybe.

Probably not.

“Okay. I’ll be out in a minute.”

John nodded and turned for the door. Wally was about to start picking up all of the bits of paper on the floor (he wasn‘t quite as big a slob as rumored) when the older man‘s voice floated back to him. “And the new season of Amazing Race is starting tonight.”

Wally’s head snapped up and he was just able to gape at John’s back before his door slid shut again. Figured. John was an Undercover Reality TV Lover. He should have seen it coming. It just wasn’t natural to be able to watch a Fear Factor Marathon while eating the greasiest pizza in the galaxy and yet John had done it. Twice.

That had reality TV freak written all over it.

It was always the ones you didn’t suspect.

Thirty minutes later they were in Wally‘s rooms again. They had been forced to make their little beer run a short one because Diana and Dove were going to be off Tower duty in a few moments and neither wanted to hang around longer than they needed to.

Wally was kind of toying around with the idea of finding out if Dove was already involved with someone, since Hart really wasn’t as big of a pain as he liked to pretend he was. The thing was he didn’t know how one went about asking someone if they were interested in dating another guy without running the risk of offending them.

And since offending Dove would involve incurring the wrath of Hawk, he wasn’t to avoid that if it was at all possible. Because, again, he liked all of his vital organs just where they were.

Which reminded him that he really needed to check on Imp and Robin. Last he’d heard the new Boy Wonder was getting dangerously close to strangling Bart and since nothing productive would come out of that it was probably about time to let them off of the hook. He could easily handle tower duty and his usual ‘saving the world’ activities at the same time.

Wally was actually pretty good at that multi-tasking thing.

“I think Clark is mad at you.” John said mildly.

“Again? What’d I do this time?”

John smiled. “You made Kara start whining. Apparently she’s upset that you’re allowed to take time off and she can’t even go on a date.”

Wally rolled his eyes. “It’s not like it was my idea to take time off. Diana forced me.” Kind of. “Maybe we should set up a vacation program. Two weeks a year and the occasional weekend off.”

“I’ll be sure to run it by Bruce.”

“Do I detect sarcasm in your voice?”

John glanced at him from the corner of his eye. “Yes.”

Wally stuck out his tongue and John snorted. Wally’s lips quirked as he shoved his hands into his pockets. Now this was cool. Like before. Nothing was said for a few moments and Wally was willing to swear that John seemed…almost uncomfortable all of a sudden. He didn’t say anything, just flipped through the channels absently.

The great thing about being on a space station above the earth was that you got thousands of channels from just about every country around the world. (And yet half the time there was still nothing on. It was amazing how that worked.) So Wally could very well stare a the TV for thirty minutes, just trying to find something to watch while pretending that he wasn’t watching John watch him.

This was getting kind of weird.

“Wally.” Dove poked his head through the open doorway. John muttered something under his breath that Wally didn’t quite catch but, considering John’s general dislike for most people, it was safe to assume it wasn’t a flattering remark. Dove seemed to be thinking the same thing because he blinked at John twice before looking back at Wally.

“Yep?”

“Diana wanted me to tell you that if you need someone to be up here on Saturday she’s free.”

Saturday? What was he doing on Saturday? He knew that from time to time people liked to make plans for him (that usually involved boring ass baby-sitting assignments or watching people sign peace treaties or things like that) but he usually didn’t know about them until the day of.

“Am I going somewhere?” He looked over at John. “You aren’t sending me off again? Because I swear I’m not watching any more royals. That Prince Henry is a pain in the ass. And don‘t even get me started on those Hilton sisters. Or that Trump Girl.”

It was like every time some rich brat got threatened he drew the short straw and had to go play bodyguard when, in reality, he’d rather gouge his eyes out then deal with them.

…Sometimes he was almost as anti-social as John was. And that was a very scary thought, because very few people could match John on the ’anti-people’ scale. Not to mention the fact that most guys would give their…well, they’d give up a lot, to be in the positions he was sometime in.

But not him. He blamed John.

“Kara said something about you having a date.” Don said. He stepped into the room and leaned against the wall. Don was a pretty cool guy in that even John had a hard time coming up with a reason not to like him.

“Date? I have a date?” That was news to him. “With who?”

“Some guy.”

“From the park.” John added.

Wally was silent for a moment, letting that process. And then he laughed. Loudly. He didn’t mean to laugh at them, and he was willing to acknowledge it was nice of Diana to offer to let him take the day off as it were, but it was…well, funny.

Him going out with Hart that was. Because even if John didn’t manage to drive him to distraction, he couldn’t picture himself doing anything but hanging out with Hart. Because he was Hart and…well…he just was. They’d probably drive each other nuts within a few hours not to mention that he didn’t think Hart had the patience required to put up with him.

Nor did he have the patience to put up with Hart.

He laughed so hard he fell into a coughing fit. He could feel John rolling his eyes at his back but ignored it in favor of trying to breath. Don just watched with a patient half smile. He must have learned it from Diana. Or maybe Diana learned it from him, what with Don being the resident poster boy for finding a better way to do…things.

“I’m sorry.” He said once he’d managed to pick himself up off of the floor and stop laughing. “It’s just…I’m not…not…” He was fighting back a snicker very hard.

“Interested in guys?” Don guessed.

“No. Only yes because I am.” Neither John nor Don even blinked. Of course. “But I don’t have a date. Or a guy. And if I did it wouldn’t be that guy.”

“I’ll tell Diana you don’t need her to cover then.“ Don flashed him a smile. “Later. See you John.”

“Later.” Wally said while John raised a hand. Don left and a sort of…awkward silence fell between them. Wally couldn’t even pretend that John wasn’t staring at him openly, because…well, he was. Staring. At him. Very intently.

And it was really weirding him out.

John was looking at him like…like Batman would look at a really confusing piece of information or evidence. Like he was just itching to take it apart and find out all of its secrets and absorb all of the knowledge it had to offer, least he finally take that plunge over the deep end and loose his mind. Like whatever it was held the secrets to life and he desperately needed to have it to…breath.

Or at least that was what Wally interpreted Batman’s ’pensive look’ to mean. He supposed there was a chance he was wrong.

Not that that was the point.

And really maybe John didn’t look quite that serious. More curious than ‘desperate to know at all costs’. Which was good. Wally was pretty sure he didn’t want anyone staring at him like that. There was way too much seriousness in that kind of look.

Curiosity was usually something easily dealt with. It could be worked out calmly between two mature individuals and (as long as hazardous chemicals and radiation weren’t involved) a conclusion of sorts could be reached.

“What!?”

Okay so Wally didn’t do calm well.

John’s lips quirked slowly and Wally was pretty sure that if he wasn’t so damn annoyed that he would have melted into a pile of really disgusting looking goo. Because damn. Taunt a guy much? His hormones couldn’t take too many of those smiles.

“Something wrong Kid?”

Wally was pretty sure his eye twitched. “You mean beyond that fact you’re staring at me like I’m some kind of science experiment?”

“Yeah.”

“Nothing. Aside from that everything is fine.” Wally was starting to cross that line between ‘honest’ and ‘sarcastic’. Wally tried to remain on the ‘honest (and slightly annoying) side’ whereas John was purely ‘sarcastic (and condescending, smug, and too damn sexy…err, sure of himself…)’

John’s smile just got bigger. See, there was the smugness. Then those far-too-intense-for-Wally’s-good eyes looked away from him. And no, Wally wasn’t disappointed. Much.

“You’re going to have a hell of a time convincing everyone you don’t have a ‘guy’. Certain people around here like to talk, as if things aren’t interesting enough as is.”

The shift in topic threw him for a minute. Then, with one last glare at John, he shrugged. “Not a big deal. The people who need to know will know it isn’t true.” The other man nodded his understanding. “Why, GL, you worried about my reputation?”

“Your reputation could only get better.” John said dryly. Then he frowned. “I was worried. If anyone gives you any trouble-”

“You’ll be the last person I tell.” Wally said as he finally settled on a ‘Friday the 13th’ Marathon. “I’m not sure if you’re aware of this, but sometimes I can take care of myself.”

Because he could. Even if he got a case of very ‘girly’ butterflies at the thought of John worrying about him, he was past old enough to take care of himself. Besides John ‘defending his honor’ would look kind of weird to…well, everyone. Including himself.

“I’m aware. I just want to know so I can be sure to give them all of the diplomatic duties you hate so much. Being in charge has its perks you know.”

Wally laughed. The idea of John taking advantage of any kind of perks was laughable. “You know the way straight to my heart.”

John smirked then settled back in his chair. He pointed at the TV. “You know this shit is going to rot your brain right?”

“That’s the point man.” He let out a long-suffering sigh. “You have so much to learn.”

“Hmm.” This time his smirk seemed to border on ‘I know something that you don’t know and but that you really reallywant to know, but I won't be telling you because I'm a mean snarky bastard’.

John was weird.

J’onn looked away from the monitors for a moment and blinked. Perhaps it was time to take Batman’s suggestion and invest in some of that aspirin. Especially if he was going to be in the tower with only John, Wally, and their thoughts to keep him company.

Really he wouldn’t have thought John’s mind worked on such a…level. It seemed more befitting of Wally really...

Since things seemed relatively peaceful, J’onn decided that that moment would be as good as any to reinforce his mental barriers.

home          prior chapter          next chapter          fiction gateway