runningstart | MASK OR MENACE IC INBOX

MASK OR MENACE IC INBOX

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! )

Flat | Top-Level Comments Only

What happened?

[ Deep breath. ]

... You know those stories where someone wishes for something, but they don't specify all the parameters, so when they get their wish it's all... messed up?

...Bats showed up, didn't he? And he doesn't know you.

How— how did you know?

I thought I saw him on the ship. I figure if I managed to see him, then you definitely did and since you didn't text me with GUESS WHAT or something else excited, I'm gonna go out on a limb and assume it's because you talking to him wasn't a good thing.

It wasn't... the worst thing.

That's not saying much. [You've kind of experienced a lot of 'worst things.']

He was... nice. I mean, it can't have been easy for him, either, and he could have just turned me away, but he didn't, so...

You're allowed to be upset, Dick.

...

It's not fair. He was so nice. But it's not fair.

I'm sorry, dude. [Wally knows if either of his own parents -or Barry, or Iris- showed up and didn't remember who he was, he'd- well. It'd be rough.]

I don't know what to do. I should be happy to see him. I am, I guess, but I just —

I don't know.

Yeah.

...what'd he say to you?

[ Some of it's too personal to talk about. Some of it, he's still not sure what to think. ]

... A lot of things. He wants to get to know me again. But he also... he wants to test me. Us. To see if we can actually work together.

Okay. I guess that's...fair. [tryin real hard not to be biased here, for your sake dude] But at least he wants to get to know you again, so he's probably chill with the idea of having a sidekick. [If not a son.]

Yeah.

[ He bites the inside of his cheek, quiet for a long moment. ]

... Maybe I should just lay low for a while, you know? Go somewhere. Give him time to adjust.

Uh no. No need to go somewhere. If you wanna like...give him space or something, sure, whatever, but you don't need to go anywhere. [please do not go anywhere]

Not, like, forever, just... for a while.

[ But where would he even go? Wherever "home" is, it doesn't exist here. ]

Okay. Wellll...then I'll go with you. We'll roadtrip or something.

Hah. Right. With our no car, and our sweet minimun wage job money...?

[ Like Dick has a plan. But — in his head, anyway — he'd last longer on his own than Wally would. ]

I get over minimum wage, thank you. [barely] Besides, we're two superhero teenagers, I bet we could find a way to make it work. I could run us everywhere, so as long as we stock up on like, protein bars and energy drinks I'm good to go. [it would be horrible] We could go down to that circus town you like so much. Or wherever you wanna go.

Wherever I wanna go, huh? [ A quiet, halfhearted chuckle. ] Jeez, KF, you make it sound so glamorous.

[ And then Dick shuts up for a moment, just so Wally can't hear the soft little tremor threatening to make its way into his voice. His throat aches again. There ought to be some way to shut down the part of him that feels things this deeply, because it's so inefficient. ]

[...click]

[Wally throws open Dick's bedroom door a few minutes later. He'd been out of the house for the call, but he'd raced back and shoved a few things into the backpack slung over one shoulder.

He grabs Robin's jacket from the back of his desk chair and tosses it in his direction.]

We're going for a run, c'mon.

[ Dick's in the middle of packing an emergency escape kit — not because he's going to use it, but because he might need to, and being prepared helps calm him down (or at least that's what he's telling himself).

He catches the jacket on instinct, but looks wide-eyed at Wally. His face is a little puffy around the edges, but if neither of them says anything, it didn't happen, right? ]

... okay.

[ He doesn't even ask where to. ]

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