MASK OR MENACE IC INBOX

[runningstart]

WALLY WEST
"You've reached the personal voice mail of the Wall-man. The honor is yours! Leave your deets, I'll holla back atcha."
[ BEEP. ]

KID FLASH
"This is the contact for Kid Flash. If it's an emergency, call Robin; he'll know where I am. Otherwise, leave your info and I'll get you back ASAP."
[ BEEP. ]


[ voice | text | email | action ]

( Please specify in tag subject line if the contact is for Wally West or Kid Flash! )

Comments

[performance]

... I called you. So I guess I wanted you to know. Or stop me. Or come along.

[ He scuffs his heel in the dirt. ]

I don't know which one.

[runningstart]

Let me just put my opinion out there: don't run off at all. So, I guess I'm going with the 'stopping you' option.

[performance]

You know I'd miss you, right?

[runningstart]

That's super comforting. [FOLDING ARMS.]

[performance]

[ flustered little pout ]

Shut up. I'm trying to be sincere here.

[runningstart]

If you wanna go somewhere and be alone for a while then go, dude. If it's 100% necessary, for your piece of mind or nerves or whatever, for me to not be around when you leave then I'm not gonna stop you. Sometimes you do what you gotta do.

But I'm not gonna feel good about it, even if you mean it when you say you'll miss me. 'Cause that's assumed, that you'll miss me and I'll miss you, and thanks for the heads up but the last time you vanished I thought maybe the Shade had put you in some alternate dimension or something. So excuse me for not being happy with the prospect.

[performance]

[ Dick's quiet for a long moment before he reaches up toward Wally, grabbing blindy for his hand or wrist or fingers or whatever to tug him down, too. ]

[runningstart]

[Wally sits down easy, just whumpf right onto the ground and leans back against the fence.]

You're an idiot. [he doesn't mean it]

[performance]

[ Their hands stay clasped for a moment too long, like they had been when Robin had gone plummeting into the heart of an alien mothership and Wally had launched himself right after him like all they had left was each other. When Dick lets go, he just slumps to the side until his shoulder's pressed up against Wally's. ]

Yeah, but you keep following me. What does that make you?

[runningstart]

Obviously an even bigger idiot. [Wally sighs and thunks his head back against the fence post.]

[performance]

[ a beat, as he glances down at the ground, one hand toying with a small rock. ]

I won't run anymore, okay? And I'll talk, if you want. Not when you're still my ride home, but... sometime. Live up to my own standards and everything.

[runningstart]

[Wally sighs, turning his eyes up to the stars overhead. It's dumb to think that maybe they're more visible because they're higher up, and he knows it's more a matter of a lack of light pollution than it is altitude but there's no denying that the sky is nicer out here than it is in Heropa.]

It's fine, dude. I know you. You don't have to change a thing.

[performance]

[ Dick goes quiet, a sweet, spreading ache in his chest. He's really, really lucky to have found someone who can put up with him at all, much less someone who'd say something like that. He feels like a mess sometimes — like if anyone ever found out all the crazy, awful things he bottles up and hides deep down inside, they'd leave for greener, more well-adjusted pastures.

He doesn't want to drag anyone down with him. But he hopes Wally would stay. ]

Maybe that's why I want to.

[runningstart]

[Wally mimes something shooting over his head.] Whoosh. You lost me.

[performance]

Nnghh— I mean you make me want to be a better person or whatever, okay?

[ hope you like getting punched in the knee GOD WALLY HE'S TRYING TO BE COOL AND MYSTERIOUS ]

... That sounded so lame.

[runningstart]

Dude.

That was straight-up romance novel. Like, the kind my mom reads when she thinks I'm not paying attention. [the kind that wally grabs and starts reading aloud from the backseat when they go on family trips and make his mom all embarrassed when he gets to the dirty parts]

[performance]

Y-yeah, well!

[ This is why he doesn't talk about his own feelings. ]

... Better than your lines, [ he mutters despairingly, burying his way too hot face in his hands. Which wasn't less embarrassing at all. ]

[runningstart]

My lines are cream of the crop, sure-fire date winners, dude. Don't even get on my bottomless well of charm. You know how much positive female attention I've gotten here? More than I know what to do with.

[performance]

[ ... Dick lifts his head. Lowers his hands. Blinks, flatly, at Wally. ]

Right.

Obviously you should coach me.

[runningstart]

[There he is.]

Sorry dude, this is 95% genetic. Can't be taught.

[performance]

You haven't been dating anyone here, dude. I'd know. You'd rent one of those banner-flying airplanes.

[runningstart]

I don't have that kind of money. Trust me, if I did I'd probably get stock in the company, I'd be using it so often.

[performance]

I want to live in your universe, dude. It sounds amazing.

[ Maybe it's because he wants to smooth over the verbal beatdown he gave Wally earlier, or maybe it's just because he wants to get it off his chest, even if it's just in a roundabout way. And if he talks about it like it's another one of his elaborate secret identity games, it's almost actually easy to say. He's a pro at this stuff. ]

Real talk, though: sources tell me that at least one actual flesh-and-blood being totally has a thing for you. If that helps you sleep at night.

[runningstart]

Whoa, seriously?! I mean I expected this, naturally, but who? [He sits cross-legged and rests his elbows on his knees.] And is it me or is it KF? I'm cool with either.

[performance]

I can't tell you who! [ Gentle elbow to the ribs. ] That's like the first rule of these things, jeez.

... and it's Wally West, not Kid Flash.