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It was 1:39 when Dick’s phone vibrated under his pillow. Dragged out from heavy sleep, he groped around under his pillow in the dark until his fingers brushed against the device. The moment he pulled it out, the glare of the screen bursting to life in his face had him squinting as he slowly came to. Dick vaguely registered Wally’s name on the screen. A photo of his boyfriend grinned back at him, his face stuffed full of cotton candy against the dusk light gleaming off the shore of Happy Harbour. Dick rolled over onto his back and lifted the phone to his ear. “Hello?” he croaked.
“Dreaming of me, babe?” Something didn’t match up. Despite the flirtatious words, Wally’s voice was hoarse and subdued, uneven with a hitch on every other breath.
Dick pushed himself upright, kicking himself free from the tangle of his sheets as leaned back against the headboard and rubbed his face. “Wally?”
Wally sniffed on the other end. “How many other people call you babe?”
“One too many,” Dick replied as he swung his legs over the side of his bed.
“Were you asleep?” Wally asked. Dick hummed under his breath in affirmation. “Thought you’d be on your way back from patrol or something.”
“Not tonight. Gotta sleep some time.”
“Sorry.”
“You okay?”
“Yeah, uh…” Wally’s voice cracked. He swallowed on the other end of the line, his voice still coming out thick and shaken. “My folks know. So… that’s debatable I guess.”
Pushing off the edge of his bed, Dick padded over to his window. His chest felt suddenly stuffed with cotton. Crowded and too warm. “I’m assuming it didn’t go well?” His only response was a wet burst of a laugh, muffled into the receiver. Out the window, the gardens of Wayne Manor stretched on into the midnight dark, hedgerows and flowerbeds broken up in spots by the twists of the driveway.
Dick would have been lying if he said he wasn’t expecting this someday. This was a secret a year past its prime. Keeping their relationship under tight lips around Wally’s family was one thing, but he’d been protecting this entire part of his identity in the dark. Dick knew from first hand experience how difficult that could be. How draining it was to live that kind of double life. But where Dick’s inability to be open with his friends was a matter out of his hands, and something that his fellow proteges understood as a part of the hero life, Wally’s was a matter of safety at home. Sooner or later, the bubble was bound to burst. He’d just hoped for so long that it would at least be on Wally’s terms. Apparently, he hadn’t been so fortunate. “Alright,” Dick sighed. “What happened?”
Wally took a moment just to breathe, trying and evidently failing to even himself out. Dick heard him shifting on the other end of the call, the gentle rustle of fabric and wind. “It wasn’t like it was all at once, y’know? I think… I think my Mom was already starting to figure it out. I’d see the way she’d look at us whenever you came over, and I think I was just so desperate to pretend everything was fine that I ignored it. She started pushing me to date her friend’s daughter. That should have been a sign,” Wally laughed humourlessly, that bitter sound he always made when he was trying to save face from his volatile emotions.
“I started getting careless. I uh… tried checking out this Gender and Sexuality center in Central. Honestly, I just went once to see what it was about, but I left one of their fliers in my backpack and my Dad saw it when I was doing homework. Asked me what the fuck it was. Had to lie and say I found it with the junk mail when I stopped at the mailbox on my way home from school, and I didn’t even notice it. Still don’t know if he believed me, but he just threw it out and left it at that. The look he gave me Dick…” Wally trailed off, and Dick could hear the hitch in his breath, the deep in and out. “Anyway, it was stupid little things like that, you know? Not really enough to give anything away, or that’s what I thought. But then my Mom borrowed my phone and went through our texts, connected the dots. She flipped out, told my Dad, and they confronted me, and… it all just kind of snowballed from there. Right off a fucking cliff.”
Dick pressed his forehead against the cool glass. He could picture it the moment he closed his eyes. Mary and Rudolph West, crowding over their only son in outrage. Wally, backed up into a corner, lashing out in his own panic. “And what did they say?”
“Well, my Dad can’t believe his only son is a Fag, so there’s that,” Wally croaked. “We really got into it. He told me to get out, so I did.”
“You ran?”
“What I do best, babe,” The false bravado in Wally’s voice cracked, like he was trying to swallow a sob and got it stuck in the back of his throat. “I’m… I’m not gonna lie, I’m pretty fucked up right now.”
It was difficult not to allow his guilt to bloom red hot and prickling in his chest. He didn’t put Wally in this situation. They hadn’t done anything wrong. The Wests were entirely to blame for their intolerance - but he couldn’t help that little voice of doubt in the back of his mind telling him that he’d played a part in this too.. “Where are you now?” he asked.
“Just outside Central,” Wally replied. “Just sort of started running toward the city. I thought about going to Aunt Iris and Uncle Barry, but I just… I don’t know. I just don’t want to think about it for a while, but I have nowhere else to go, and-”
“Hey, hey, it’s fine.” Dick’s gaze trailed to the distant glow of Gotham City’s lights against the overcast sky. “Come here. If you’ve got enough juice, you can take the Zeta tube to Gotham and run out to the Manor. If not, I can come get you.”
“I can make it fine. Thanks, babe,” the relief in Wally’s voice made Dick’s heart stutter. “You sure B won’t mind?”
Dick pushed off from the window, padding lightly toward the door of his bedroom. “I’ll talk him around. See you in fifteen?”
“Ten.”
Dick breathed into a smile. “‘Kay.” With their subdued goodbyes, they hung up, and Dick pocketed his phone as he headed down the hall.
Although it was no difficult task, he made sure to keep his footsteps silent and light as he padded down the grand halls of Wayne Manor, past marble busts and ancient portraits. Waking the house wasn’t a substantial concern. Bruce, even if he wasn’t on patrol, was typically up at this hour, but Jason was asleep (or at least he was supposed to be). With Alfred, it could be either or, but the butler slept on another floor anyway. The Manor, though steadily gaining new occupants as the years went on, was hauntingly still at this hour. The old beams creaked and moaned under their own weight. Wind rattled against the antique windows, and drafts slipped through the halls with low whistling sounds. Wally’s situation preoccupied his thoughts as he walked, but gradually an idea began to form for how he might, just for one night, help him feel safe. It wasn’t much, but it was something.
Dick had initially figured he’d try the Cave first in search of his guardian, and had started toward the entrance through the library, but was surprised to find the light to the study seeping onto the floorboards from down the hall. Dick tapped his knuckles lightly on the solid oak door before pushing it open. The creak of the hinges sounded far too loud at this hour, amplified by silence.
Bruce glanced up from his desk under a raised brow at the late night intrusion. His adoptive father had a certain way of looking at a person when they walked unexpectedly into the room. It was no different for him. Keen detective’s eyes flitted briefly over him, taking in the details of his rumpled pajamas, the phone held loosely in his hand, and piecing together the beginnings of whatever narrative that had brought him here. Dick hadn’t done the whole ‘searching him out in the middle of the night’ routine in years, when he used to have nightmares about his parents’ fall. On those past nights, he’d end up silently padding into the study, taking a book off the shelf, and reading in Bruce’s company until he fell asleep on the sofa.
Bruce could see clearly that he was devoid of tear stained cheeks and hitched breath, which only left more questions. Dick tried to offer a sheepish smile. “Hey,” he whispered as he stepped inside and approached the desk. “Is it cool if Wally comes and spends the night?”
Bruce’s expression only twisted. “Now?”
Dick shrugged. “Does anyone in this house adhere to a normal sleeping schedule anyway?” he attempted nonchalance with a laugh. Bruce wasn’t buying it for a second. Dick let out a heavy sigh and pushed his hair out of his face. “His parents found out about us,” was all he said for a moment. He swallowed, mouth dry. “He got kicked out.”
Dick didn’t really think about how Bruce might react to hearing that, but the way he sat up straighter, shoulders stiff and jaw set said enough. He’d always played ambivalence and mild annoyance toward Wally when he was around, but Dick knew that he secretly liked him. Alright, ‘like’ may be a strong word, but he approved. More than that, he cared.. “Does Barry know?” Bruce asked, right down to business.
Dick shook his head. “I don’t think so.” Bruce nodded. Barry would no doubt find out by morning, whether Wally told him or not, and when he did there would be hell to pay for the Wests. Bruce would be more than happy to help. “Wally is welcome here, then,” he replied.
Dick flashed a tired grin. “Thanks, Bruce.” With that, he turned toward the door. He’d barely made it to the threshold before Bruce’s voice called him back.
“Dick?”
The boy popped his head back through the door. “Yeah?”
Bruce spoke without looking up from his papers. “Your bedroom door stays open.”
Dicks’ face flushed, his ears burning. Caught. Well, he couldn’t exactly argue now could he? “Uh… you got it, Boss. One more question though.”
“Hm?”
“Where does Alfred keep the Christmas lights?”
.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.
Ten minutes ended up dragging out into twenty by the time Wally arrived.. Dick had just been making a return trip from his bedroom to the kitchen to clean up when he heard the knock on the door in the grand foyer. Dick slid the rest of the way down the banister, landing in a jog at the bottom. Pulling the heavy oak door open, he was met with his boyfriend standing on the front porch, the dried tear stains on his cheeks glistening in the soft glow of the lights inside. Dick stood in the doorway. “Ten minutes?” he teased lightly, almost hesitantly, testing out the waters.
Wally shrugged. “It’s a nice night. Thought I’d slow down. Enjoy the breeze.”
Dick nodded. “And are you…?”
He couldn’t finish. Wally attempted a wide grin, and then he just – crumbled. His mouth quivered, chest caving in as he tried to hold back, to hold everything in. He was imploding. Dick was there in a second, stepping out onto the porch and pulling Wally’s head down against his shoulder. Wally held onto Dick like a child around a comfort toy, fingers curling in the back of his shirt as he shuddered harsh breaths against the crook of his neck.
Dick didn’t know how long they stood out there like that, but by the time Wally was pulling back to rub his sleeve furiously against his face, the cool air of the night had seeped through his socks and nipped at his toes. Dick placed his hand on Wally’s arm, tugging him inside. The door shut with a heavy thud behind them. “Come on,” he whispered.
Together, the two of them made their way upstairs in silence, trekking down the vaulted halls to get to Dick’s bedroom. Dick, however, hesitated outside the bedroom door, the somber expression he’d been wearing slipping into something bordering hope and excitement. “This is really lame, just a warning,” he said as he opened the door.
Wally stopped short in the doorway. Dick had transformed his bed into a blanket fort. Duct tape pinned layers of sheets to the ceiling, walls, and headboard to engulf Dick’s bed, and the window in a cocoon of purple and blue. His dresser had been pulled up to the foot of the bed, a slim TV perched on the top and enclosed in the blanket walls as well. Strings of little white lights acted as support, illuminating the enclosed space and casting starlight on the fabric walls. A slow smile tugged at Wally’s lips. “Wow, Dick,” he breathed as he turned to look down at his boyfriend. “This is really lame.”
Dick elbowed him playfully in the ribs. “Don’t pretend you don’t love it.”
Wally raised his hands in surrender. “Hey, I love lame stuff. I’m dating you, aren’t I?”
Dick rolled his eyes as he crossed the room and pulled back one of the sheets to create a door. “Shut up and get in my fort.” Wally laughed, hand reaching out for the bedroom door before Dick stopped him. “Wait,” he said. “Gotta leave the door open, Bat’s orders.”
Whispering a quiet ”damn” under his breath, Wally obeyed and left the door ajar. He army-crawled his way inside, keeping his head low to avoid knocking anything out of place as he dove for the pillows. As he flipped onto his back, stretching his arms out under his head, Dick followed inside and dropped next to him. “Not bad for twenty minutes, Bird Boy.”
“No, this I did in ten,” Dick corrected. “Thought you were going to be here by then.”
Wally turned his head to his boyfriend. “What did you do with the other ten?”
With a slight grin, Dick sat up and turned to his nightstand. Tucked off to the side were two steaming mugs sitting behind a few bags of potato chips and Doritos, and a litre of coke. “Tried to recreate Alfred’s famous hot chocolate recipe. It took me a few attempts, but I think I ended up with something that at least won’t poison us,” he said as he handed Wally one of the mugs. It had Green Lantern’s symbol on it – he’d bought it just to annoy Bruce. Dick’s had a cartoonish U.F.O slapped across the side.
Wally accepted the mug, inhaling a long whiff of the steam rolling off the surface. Taking a slow sip, he nearly melted. “Babe. You rock my world.”
Dick smiled over the rim of his mug. Success. Bracing a hand behind him, he leaned back and sipped at his own hot chocolate, watching Wally tentatively. The seventeen-year-old had slowly curled himself around the mug, back against the wall and knees pressed to his chest. Wally drank the hot chocolate quite happily, but by the time he was three quarters finished, he was caught by his own muddled reflection on the surface. He stayed like that for a long while, expression blank.
Dick frowned. “You’re not going to be able to sleep, I take it.”
A little surprised at the sudden statement, Wally could only look up at Dick for a moment before nodding in resignation.
Dick nodded in return. Taking another sip of his drink, he set the mug aside and crawled to the end of the bed. “I guessed as much. That’s why,” he grunted as he leaned over the edge and dragged up a game console, “I prepared.” Fiddling with the remote, Dick turned the TV on, momentarily blasting the inside of their blanket fort with bright blue light.
Wally squinted until the glaring light faded into the console start screen. He laughed humourlessly as he stretched across Dick to set his own mug aside on the nightstand. “You really thought of everything, huh?”
“I tried.”
Wally’s eyes fell down to his lap. His voice went low. “I don’t want this to become a Wally Pity Party.”
Dick tossed him a controller – the neon yellow transparent one, Wally’s favourite. He shot his boyfriend a grin. “That’s why I won’t go easy on you.”
For a kid with a literal billionaire for an adopted father, Dick had a pretty outdated favoured console - a Game Cube. Oh, he had the latest consoles too, a VR headset, even a handheld that wasn’t even on the market yet. But he always defaulted to the Game Cube. . ‘Shut up, it’s retro, I like it,’ had been Dick’s retort at Wally’s teasing. In reality, it had been the first game system Dick had ever owned. One of the first things Bruce had bought Dick when he finally came to live with him. There was a sort of nostalgia surrounding it. In any case, the speedster only started teasing about it because Dick was kicking his ass.
So, Mario Kart and Smash Bros it was. For about two hours, they played circuits, trading jabs both verbal and physical. Dick threatened to break up with Wally about five times over the course of their little tournament, most notably every time Wally’s thumb hovered over the button to deploy a blue shell. Wally still sent it every damn time. Dick got him back by picking Rainbow Road every chance he got. Through the night, the bags of junk food slowly depleted, their hot chocolate drained and replaced by Coca-Cola that more than once dribbled onto Dick’s duvet. It only made the state of the blanket worse when Wally decided, after a crushing defeat on Yoshi’s Island, to attempt to shove a handful of broken Doritos down Dick’s shirt. It had ended in a wrestling match and Dick pinning Wally to the mattress, the red head laughing for mercy and Dick claiming victory.
They played a few more rounds after that, until Wally had evened the score with a win on Bowser’s level. He tossed the game controller aside, flopping back onto the bed with a sigh. It was about four in the morning at that point, far from dawn still, but it felt like it had been night for a week. Dick saw the way the events of hours earlier were finally beginning to settle in the tired circles under Wally’s eyes, still red and raw at the edges.
With his boyfriend’s interest in video games dwindling, Dick shut the console and TV off. Instantly, the absence of light from the TV screen left them in the ambience glow of the fairy lights. He climbed over to Wally. Laying on his side, he draped himself over his boyfriend, head on his chest and arms wrapping tightly around him. Wally’s arms circled him in return instantly. They didn’t speak for the longest time. It wasn’t uncomfortable, or awkward. It was needed. Still, it seemed like an eternity had passed under the little white lights before Wally spoke.
“I’m not sure I have a home anymore,” he said, like he was thinking about it for the first time. Dick’s throat constricted. Wally continued though, giving the boy in his arms a squeeze. “Except maybe here.”
Dick hummed under his breath. “You can stay at the Manor as long as you nee-“
“Not what I meant,” Wally smiled dimly.
Dick propped his chin on Wally’s chest, staring up at him with something between a smile and a pout. Wally’s eyes were catching the strings of lights, emerald green sparkling and still glazed with tears from hours of crying. Dick rose on his elbows, shifting on top of Wally just enough to kiss him properly. The speedster’s hand slipped down to the small of his back as he likewise slipped his tongue past Dick’s lips. When they parted, Dick tilted his forehead against Wally’s. “I love you,” he said.
With their chests pressed together, Dick wasn’t sure if it was his heart doing double time or Wally’s. This wasn’t the first time they’d said it. They had been on this level for a few months now, but still every time Wally heard those words, it was like the first time all over again. Wally smiled, surging up for another kiss – only for his grin to widen against Dick’s mouth as he let out a long, drawn out “Gaaaaayyyyyy.”
Dick sputtered his indignation, trying his damndest not to laugh as he pulled back. His eyes narrowed, but in the end, he couldn’t resist that lopsided grin. “Yeah, you caught me.”
Wally snickered, his laughter fading off with a content sigh. He pulled Dick down to him again, burying his face against his boyfriend’s neck. They lay there on their sides, almost too hot with the insulation of the bedsheets and the close contact, but neither minded. Dick combed his fingers through Wally’s hair, listening to him breathing for a few minutes before he spoke again. “You wanna talk about it now?” he whispered.
Wally took a moment to reply. Just a nod. Dick sat up, shifting behind Wally so that he could tug the red head onto his lap as he leaned back against the headboard. Wally complied with a heavy, shuddering sigh. His eyes fluttered closed of their own accord as Dick continued scratching his fingers lightly against his scalp. “I kind of expected it, y’know?? Dad’s always been religious. I mean, so was Aunt Iris growing up, but she’s talked about this stuff, she’s openly supportive. With Dad… I just never knew for sure, and that was the worst part. I couldn’t read him. Honestly, I think the most I’d hoped for was indifference. He’s indifferent to just about anything I do,” Wally scowled at the ceiling. “I just thought that maybe in time he’d be a little better, and I could tell him then but – I just wasn’t ready for that .”
Dick’s frown creased. “Things like this just don’t happen anymore.”
“But they do,” Wally looked up at him, the angle turning him upside down. “They do happen, babe. Maybe not as often, but… it’s like two steps forward and one step back sometimes. Yeah, things are getting better, but you legalize gay marriage in a few states and suddenly people act like homophobia is over. And then when problems do come up, they get ignored.”
Dick quirked a brow down at him. “When did you become all philosophical about this stuff?”
Wally grinned. “I told you, I went to the GSRC.”
The conversation drifted off, with enough having been said about Wally’s situation for the time being. There were more important things to discuss anyway; like how Wally could so outrun Superman if he wanted to, and who took down the most baddies on their latest mission, and whether or not aliens were real.
“Dude, two of our best friends are a Martian and a Kryptonian.”
“No, but I mean like – alien aliens.”
Their talk of stars and constellations soon had them both lulled and content, yawning about binary star systems as they snuggled down under the covers. They finally fell asleep at five in the morning, tangled up in each other, feeling safe in their nest of sheets and Christmas lights. It was after noon before they woke up. Alfred made waffles, with no comment on why Wally had spent the night. Bruce would have told him the situation, but there was no mention of it.
Wally had ten missed calls from home from that morning alone. Thought he said nothing about ignoring his parents outright, he didn’t call back. Not yet. Instead, he and Dick returned to their blanket fort for the remainder of the afternoon, moving on to The Legend of Zelda and Tony Hawk: Underground . Jason ended up worming his way in for an hour to decimate them both at Mario Party, a fact that he was all too happy to lord over them. The invitation to join their game had, at one point, been offered to Bruce as he passed down the hall, to which the off-duty Dark Knight just scoffed in amusement and kept walking
And whenever the excitement dimmed down, a level completed or a game drawing on too long, Wally’s eyes would inevitably drift to his phone sitting on Dick’s nightstand. He needed distractions, and Dick was all too happy to provide them, but the inevitable could only be held off for so long. In the middle of Jason’s attempt at clearing a floor on Luigi’s Mansion, Wally’s phone lit up with Barry’s name. Wally, who’d been lounging back and making commentary to annoy Jason, tensed up the moment he saw it.
Dick caught on. He nudged Jason with his foot, trying to pry his attention away from the screen. “Jay, why don’t you run down to the kitchen and grab another bottle of soda?”
“In a minute, I’m almost done,” Jason protested as he furiously tapped the buttons on the controller.
Dick kicked him harder. “How about now? ”
With Jason’s eyes finally ripped from the game, Dick nodded his head toward Wally, who was holding the still-buzzing phone in his hand with a look of agony. Jason, as brash as he could be, was also surprisingly emotionally intelligent at times - but he was also a kid. And so it wasn’t without a last longing look at the TV before he crawled out of the blanket fort and left the room.
Wally spared Dick a grateful look before taking a deep breath and answering the call.
“Hey Kid,” Barry greeted before Wally had the chance to speak. “Bruce called me.”
Of course he did. Wally sighed. “Right. Please don’t say you’re sorry.”
“Then I won’t,” said Barry, though it was clear in his tone that he was. “Listen, why don’t you come stay with me and your Aunt for a few days. She’s over at your house… talking to your folks right now.” Translating, of course, to unleashing hellfire on her elder brother and his wife. “We won’t make you talk to them, but we’ll – figure something out.”
Wally took a moment to think it over. As much as he would love to stay with Dick, he knew he’d have to go back home eventually. “Thanks, Uncle Barry.”
.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.
Wally stayed with the Allens for the next week. He had pretty much taken over the guest bedroom anyway, had clothes and a phone charger and shampoo there for the thousand times he’d crashed there after patrol. He had no direct contact with his parents for the entire week. Any word from them came through his Aunt, who acted as a sort of mediator (although she had no issue telling Mary and Rudolph West exactly whose side she was on). According to Iris, his father had regretted throwing him out from the moment he shut the door behind him, but hadn’t known where Wally ran off to in order to call him back. Wally didn’t say so aloud - but he wasn’t sure how much of that he believed. She hadn’t been there. She hadn’t seen the look on his face.
Regardless, after the week was up, Wally’s parents came to the Allen house. A sort of neutral meeting ground, Iris had told him. By the end of the night, Wally was back in his own bedroom. Crashing onto the mattress, he stared up at the ceiling. He'd been gone only seven days and already the room smelled stale, dust floating in the moon beams under his window. The house was entirely too quiet to breathe properly. Like his freshly outed sexuality was an elephant in the room, and the longer they tried to ignore it the bigger it got, suffocating all the air out of the house.
Even on the drive home from Aunt Iris and Uncle Barry’s place, his parents were different. His mom just chattered on as if nothing had ever happened. His dad wouldn’t even look at him. If this was the new normal, Wally was just going to have to get used to the thin thread of tension running through the house, and hope that it didn’t snap.
Looking to distract himself, Wally slipped his phone out of his pocket. Dick had already texted him.
How did it go? DG
Alright. WW
Mom was a mess. I felt bad, she was just sort of in shock when it first happened. Tried to get me and Dad to stop shouting at each other, but she wasn’t exactly on my side at the time either. WW
And your Dad? DG
Wally left that question on read for a few minutes. He tried to replay the whole discussion in his head, but it just wasn’t connecting, like he’d zoned out just to get through it. He thought over his response before typing it out.
It seemed like he was actually kind of upset, but I don’t know. He’d had a few when Mom told him about us, so I think his reaction was a lot bigger because of that. WW
Doesn’t mean it was okay. DG
Well… anyway, he said he wanted me to come back home. We hugged it out, but I’d be a rotten liar if I said it wasn’t awkward as hell. WW . WW
And? DG
And there wasn’t a damn word said about the whole gay thing. WW
Like they won’t acknowledge it at all? DG
Yeah. They just said they were sorry for the way they reacted, and they wanted me to come home, and they loved me and all that junk. WW
Ah. DG
Now it’s just tense as fuck. I could cut the tension with a plasma laser. WW
Technically, you could cut anything with a plasma laser. DG
You get what I mean. WW
It’ll get better. DG
Want to spend a night over here again? DG
Nah, I feel like I should spend a few nights at home after this week. It’ll just make things worse if I’m leaving right away. I'll survive. Next weekend? WW
Done. DG
Mind putting up that blanket fort again? WW
Who said I ever took it down? DG