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 9

Because of You I Am

John wasn’t the hardest guy in the world to track down, despite what some people may have thought. He wasn’t on the tower, which was a bit of a surprise to Wally, which meant one of three things: He had left to handle something, he was in Coast City, or he was in Detroit. He tended to be really predictable.

Hence being back at the tower and setting the computer to the task of finding the wayward Lantern. Logically he could just sit back and wait for John to come to him but since he presently had the confidence for this whole confrontation thing he had better get it over with now before he had another self-esteem relapse and had to call Dick to yell at him again.

Yep. He was pathetic.

The computer beeped, signaling it had locked onto John’s energy pattern. Wally didn’t exactly didn’t understand the whole ‘everyone in the entire universe emits a subtly different energy pattern, based on a bazillion levels of light and sound frequency’ but if it worked who was he to disagree.

It was coming from space and was actually headed back towards Earth’s general…orbit. Figuring John was done doing whatever he was doing he commanded the computer to do that wonderful atom scrambling and rearranging thing it did to bring them to and from places.

He took a deep breath to steady himself. He could do this. He would not run off and hide somewhere.

Why was it that evil aliens, electronics, and the occasional evil billionaire were nothing to him but he couldn’t face a guy he considered one of his closest friends? Emotions were so stupid. He resisted the urge to smack his head against the nearest hard surface and instead settled for going down to the control pad to talk to John.

Because he could do this.

See, him, doing this.

Fuckfuckfuckfuck.

John was just stepping off the pad, a faintly bewildered look on his face. Wally was a little bit to preoccupied to notice that though and instead barreled into what he had to say with his usual tact and grace.

As in none.

“Look, John, I’m sorry I ran way like a wuss before with the thing but you caught be off guard and I’m not exactly good at that whole expressing emotions thing, not that really has anything to do with that, and I think maybe I’m a little bit screwed up in areas like that but you probably know that already since you’re always telling me I have serious issues and maybe I should get those worked on or something but that’s not really the point, you know? I think maybe you just scared me a little and I know that’s a really pussy thing to say and I’m just sorry about it and I’ve thought about it and stuff and I wouldn’t wholly object to you kissing me again.”

Of course all of this was said in one breathe in under ten seconds, with no pausing and if it were written out it would probably be one long word. Then he breathed, preparing himself for the next rush.

John just blinked.

“I’ve had this completely absurd crush on your for who knows how long and I figure that if you actually you know feel something for me that I should at least warn you how utterly pathetic and obsessive I am so you aren’t shocked a year or month or week down the line, or tomorrow with my luck which is really bad and I should warn you of that too. Getting involved with me is a major health risk and I personally wouldn’t advise it because I know our insurance coverage sucks and everything like that and that’s probably part of the reason I went all MIA on you. And then I don’t even know if you want to be involved with me or if you’re just tired of me mooning over you and decided to indulge me or whatever, though I don’t think that’s it because that’s just abnormally cruel and you may be mean on occasion, though never to me and I really appreciate that, but you never seemed cruel and if I’m freaking you out I’m sorry.”

Another pause, punctuated by more blinking from John. Which was fine, because Wally was just about done.

“And if you just want to be friends that’s fine with me because you’re one of my best friends and I’d hate to fuck that up and I know that’s all cliché and trite and shit you hear on bad daytime TV but it’s actually kind of true, not that I watch bad day time TV or anything like that, though if I did it’d be justified because TV really sucks in the afternoon unless its Cartoon Network but umm…” He stopped and fidgeted around for a moment, pulling on the bottom of his shirt. He’d suddenly run out steam and had nothing left to actually say.

Not that he’d exactly said a lot anyway. He was such a dork. He’d proven it just now. He’d had a plan, honestly he had, and he had it all plotted out in his head and none of it had involved super fast Wally babble or John staring at him like he’d lost his mind though he probably should have expected that since everything seemed to go that way when he tired to make confessions or important speeches and holy Christ he was even thinking in Wally babble now.

Not that he didn’t usually do that, but normally he could force his thoughts to remain mildly linear and let the non…linear ones fade to the background until he was ready to ponder it out later.

Oh god. What did he have to do to make it stop?

“Shit. John I’m sorry. I had…you know, things. In my head. Worked out and I’m just so confused and nervous that I can’t seem to stop myself from just blurting things out and look I’m doing it again and I wish I could figure out how to make myself stop it before I make an even bigger ass of myself-”

“What?” Finally John spoke and his entire train of thought/speech derailed dangerously. Literally. There were little thought people in his head screaming horribly as the train went off the edge of a bridge and plunged to the rocks below where all of their little thought bodies would be dashed against the jagged services.

And. Yes. Anyway.

“I’m sorry I ran away when you kissed me. You just freaked me out.”

Another blink then a slight curving of the lips that was almost sinister and very much un-John like but kissing him was also un-John like so who was Wally to judge.

“I see.”

“Really? Because I don’t think I even understood half of what I said. I think I went from Wally-speak to Bart-speak and that’s just a whole new level of scar-”

And rather abruptly he was not speaking because there were lips and hands and Jesus Fucking Christ and…yes. A bunch of stupid clichés ran through Wally’s mind at that moment, the sort that you find in trashy supermarket novels and bad internet porn and places like that and he would have laughed and not for the situation because how come none of his kisses were ever like that?

Maybe because he wasn’t some buxom beauty and there was something really different about this.

A bunch of things now that he thought about it.

His brain decided to take that moment to analyze and he would have rolled his eyes if he weren’t fairly used to being so damn scatterbrained.

A) This was a lot…harsher than before. But hey, if he’d been babbling at himself he’d go to great lengths to make himself shut up as well.

B) No stubble. Had John shaved? …Doubtful but possible.

C) His eyes weren’t right.

…Eyes? Green and glowy but…not the right sort. And he would know, considering how often he waxed semi-philosophically about John’s eyes and their possible X-ray and Wally melting properties.

Wally had another break through at that point and decided to share it by bringing his fist solidly into the jaw of the John impersonator. They stumbled back and, almost like some kind of hologram, the face of John flickered and then vanished.

“Oh, nasty!” He spit and wiped the back of his hand across his lips. Eww much?

He was going to kill Sinestro. Yes. Kill. Slowly and horribly.

And where the fuck was John anyway?

“Sorry to disappoint.” Sinestro was rubbing his jaw. Wally wished he had used that whole speed thing in that punch. He wasn’t exactly Superman but being smacked at high speeds always hurt. Oh well. Hindsight and all of that.

He glared. Yes. Kicking Sinestro’s ass. And then seeing if he could find a tape of that terrible little confession and showing it to John so he didn’t have to do it again.

Sinestro was grinning now. Wally thought it looked funny considering his lip was bleeding but he had a weird sense of humor.

“Nothing personal by the way…Flash isn’t it? The high speed talking gave it away.” Note to self: Do not give away identity in front of bad guys with badly timed confessions. “It’s just…what I do.”

Why did he have that creepy tingly feeling that came with being set up?

He got his answer when a glowing green chain wrapped around his wrist and the world went rushing at a weird angle and he found himself up close and personal with the floor, head once again cracking against unforgiving surface. This was getting old.

And maybe the brain damage was kicking in because he had the nerve to be seeing double. And seeing two smirking Sinestro’s? Not good. He groaned and shut his eyes. Ow.

Then he started to push himself up only to have more lengths of chain grow from the floor and grab him. Well fuck. Didn’t they have an alarm system for this kind of occurrence? Some kind of ‘Wally’s in shit again’ signal? You’d think with all the mocking he put up with there would be.

Oh well. There would be after this.

It was amazing how he couldn’t even be serious when chained to the ground. He wiggled around, trying to recall if he could vibrate through energy bounds.

“It’s a shame.” Sinestro was standing above him, smirking. “You’re actually very pretty.”

Wally went cold.

Okay, now he could be serious.

He knew Sinestro was going to earth because the idiot apparently was a true believe in World Takeover For Dummies and worshiped chapter four; How to Taunt The Hero Before Trusting Him to Die While You Cause Havoc.

Yes, Sinestro had, while cackling, regaled him with a tale of what exactly he planned to do now that he had his lantern and image. (The last part wasn’t so bad. Sinestro was far from attractive and looking like John was really a vast improvement? Not that he was conceited. He was just honest.) He was going to go to earth, steal a bunch of stuff, torment some people, and in general ruin John’s name before coming back and claiming his ring for his ‘collection’.

John had muttered something along the lines of it not being normal for any many to have that much jewelry but he was pretty sure it had gone over Sinestro’s head. Wally would have appreciated the joke no doubt.

But, and this was probably the worst part about the whole situation, he didn’t care that Sinestro planned to ruin his reputation. More power to him; his reputation was pretty much shot to hell anyway. Or was going to be the moment he got Wally to stand still for s few minutes and hear him out. And more than that his reputation was pretty much ‘harsh, fair, man of little words, asshole, scary guy who made the newbie shake in fear’. Kind of like Batman, only Bruce had ‘no’ instead of ‘little’ as far as words went and ‘psycho‘ and ’billionaire’ were in there somewhere.

Why did he care if they added ‘evil maniac’ to that list? He wasn’t stressed out over having ’Sleeping with the strangely Manic-Depressive Flash’ added to it.

Though, seriously, that was beside the point. Did John strike Sinestro as the type of guy to get all hot and frustrated over his name being ruined? What was it with this sudden ‘John is a shallow shallow man’ streak people seemed to be on? Was he shallow?

Did he care?

…No, not really.

In reality the only thing that John was really pissed off was about was the fact that this afternoon was pretty much guaranteed to be spent chasing down Sinestro and reclaiming his lantern from the alien. That wasn’t at all what John had in mind when he woke up this morning.

Well…not woke up, because woke up implies that he’d actually slept. Because he hadn’t.

Rather he’d spent the entire night doing something that was far more Batman and Superman than it was Green Lantern. He stayed up all night thinking.

Not to imply that John didn’t think often, because he did. He was a very thoughtful sort of guy actually. Or so he liked to think. But still, to forsake sleep in favor of heavy duty brooding and wall staring…it wasn’t him. He hadn’t even done that after Hawkgirl had left. He’d done some aimless ceiling staring of course, demanding that the ceiling gods explain why it was everyone he bothered to get close to died, left, or betrayed him.

Safe to say the ceiling gods hadn’t felt like giving him an answer. And then J’onn had asked if perhaps he needed some time to himself and so he’d given up on that idea least people start thinking he was insane. …Well, people aside from Wally.

His thoughts all seemed to come back to Wally and, shock of shocks, that was exactly who’d he spent the last night thinking about. He hadn’t meant to do it and had actually been pretty upset about because he really did prefer to just let things…work themselves out.

If he’d learned nothing since accepting the ring it was that Shit Happened. A lot. And there was very little to almost nothing you could do about it except sit back and wait and hope that maybe someone from the future or an alternate universe would pop up and give you a little bit of advice along the way.

Planning meant you had expectations for the future and when you have hopes and…begin to look forward to things you just crushed into the ground by the stiletto heel of fate and destiny that much harder.

Wait.

Fate. Stiletto heels.

...

Anyway.

The thinking hadn’t revealed much to him, beyond that he had been for a time an even bigger moron that Wally tended to be. When he sat back to consider Wally’s behavior, from the chronic blushing to the constant bothering and annoying, to the random moments when he just caught the younger man staring…

Wally had the hots for him. (Flattering)

Only not really. Because Wally was Wally and he was John, most of the time anyway, and they risked their lives every fucking day and you didn’t really get the hots for people in this sort of work. You had to…feel something more than that. (Even more Flattering) You had to feel more than the urge to roll in the proverbial hay at least, to do the staring and blushing thing because there was always that lingering fear of a terrible and horrible death.

And that just on the better days.

When he was feeling optimistic. When he was feeling pessimistic…well. He had very graphic and morbid death fantasies that it was probably best he never shared with anyone.

He sighed and pushed himself to his feet. Thankfully he wasn’t really drained, in spite of being smacked off guard by Sinestro, and had managed to keep a protective air bubble up. Now he just had to get back to earth and beat the living hell out of that lantern-stealing twit.

It may even prove amusing.

He didn’t really have anything major to worry about. It wasn’t like Sinestro could get into the Watchtower. It only opened based on power signals and…fuck. His lantern. Sinestro had his power source and thus his power signal.

Hell, he’d probably have an easier chance of getting in than John would at the moment. They needed a new system.

…Though…Sinestro wasn’t exactly the sharpest tool in the shed. The odds that he’d take the time to go the tower and defect from his original plan were slim. And, even if they weren’t John was going to have to err on the side of proven super-villain idiocy. Getting back to Earth was something else entirely.

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