Chapter Text
Wally had been so wiped the day before that he hadn't figured out what he was going to say about… everything.
He’d been focused on just getting the injured man to safety. Getting those injuries cared for. He hadn’t thought much beyond those two goals. He hadn't even thought to wonder how it would look, come morning, when there was some stranger, in Wally's own pajamas, also in Wally's bed. Asleep next to Wally.
Some days were just like that. No good deed going unpunished, or something like that.
But hey, a t least Wally was living with his uncle and not his dad. That would have been so, so, so much worse. If Rudy was anything, he was... yeah. Not someone you wanted to find you in bed with a guy, even if the entire situation was a misunderstanding. Innocent.
God, though. It had been so late when Wally had found the man . He’d been running on fumes.
F or the whole day, the emergencies kept piling up, courtesy of the fallout of the latest world domination scheme. The whole day was a mess of running (ha!) from one thing to another, saving one person after another, rounding up one criminal after another. Hero stuff. With no break.
When Wally had had time for a breath – when it finally looked as though things might be wrapping up on there world-saving front – he'd found the obviously injured vigilante , half-hidden and unconscious. And then he'd seen the creeps apparently looking for that particular vigilante. Unless there was another badly injured vigilante who would make an easy target.
Not like it mattered. Wally knew the type. Troublemakers and wannabe villains. If they found a mask, they’d probably act on it, try to benefit from the misfortune and weakness, exploit it. And it wouldn’t be pretty.
Wally hadn’t done much thinking from there. He'd scooped up the unconscious form, suspiciously located near a Zeta access point on the far side of Keystone , and he’d… run. His conscious mind wasn’t necessarily the one making decisions, but he knew he could trust his instincts.
His feet took him home.
Barry and Iris (and Hal) hadn't been back yet, and Wally had been so tired that, as soon as he'd dealt with the man’s injuries and changed him out of his uniform (and hid said uniform away because… duh), he crawled into bed, right next to the other man, the stranger, and fell asleep.
Dead asleep.
It should have occurred to Wally that there would be problems, come morning. That the spontaneous arrangement would look questionable at best. Sure, Wally was a good kid, but bringing a stranger into the house? That had to be bad enough. Not settling the stranger in the guest room? Sleeping in the same bed with some guy he didn’t know at all? Yeah. Yikes.
Wally hadn’t even set his alarm or anything. He was just that out of it by the time he’d finished dealing with the stranger’s injuries and his own injuries. He just crawled into bed, next to the shallowly breathing stranger, drew his blankets up over his head, and fell asleep.
So.
Yeah.
Wally woke late the next morning, warm and content, with the sun falling across his face. He had his arm around something solid and his nose buried in something soft and... smoky? Wally wrinkled his nose and curled closer. Awareness trickled in from there.
He shot up, removing himself from the warmth as if it had suddenly burnt him.
Had he seriously—?
Wow.
He’d cuddled up to a stranger, curling around his back. Wow . He’d had his nose in the stranger’s hair, even. Was that smoky scent part of whatever had happened to him? Wally couldn’t even remember any fires in Central or Keystone, recently. Or explosions. Where would he have acquired that singed, campfire scent? No, never mind! How had Wally ended up curled up behind him like that? Yikes!
This guy was a stranger! What if he’d woken up while Wally was still wrapped around him? Oh god, how embarrassing would that have been, even?
Yikes .
What if he’d woken up and turned out to be a rogues’ gallery member, not a vigilante? Wally didn’t know the guy from Adam, after all. And he’d just... what? Brought him home? Tended to him? Tucked him in? Hid his gear and dressed him in pjs ? Geez. Wally could have been, like, murdered in his sleep.
Wally rubbed his hands over his face, then threw back his side of the blankets to throw his legs over the side of the bed.
He leaned over to drop his head back into his hands. He hadn’t thought about it at all. He’d just... acted.
And now there was a stranger in his home. In his bed . Christ.
The door creaked open. “Wally—?”
Wally sucked in a breath and turned, wide-eyed, to the door. To Barry.
Between them slept the stranger, curled up in Wally’s blankets like he belonged there.
“Uncle Barry,” Wally said in a tight voice. His eyes betrayed his concern, in more ways than one, when they flicked over to the other occupant of his bed. The only thing visible of him was a halo of long dark hair and the top of his head. If Wally hadn’t looked at him, Barry might very well have missed it entirely, which would have given Wally time to come up with what he was going to say.
If. “If” was the operative word.
Barry’s eyes followed the path of Wally’s gaze, then jerked back. “ Wally ,” he said. His eyes were wide and his eyebrows crept up his forehead. He looked almost... hurt. Maybe even a bit betrayed. “Wally, what—?”
“ Shh ,” Wally waved his arms at Barry and jumped to his feet. He took a moment to flip the covers back into place, behind him. The motion, however, disturbed the sleeping man. He turned over, the blankets falling back a bit. Not enough to show any physical features of the man, beyond his hair and a bit of pale skin. “I can explain,” Wally hissed, creeping around the foot of his bed.
“What do you mean ‘you can explain’?” Barry motioned to the bed. Now he just looked a bit panicked. “Oh, god. Please tell me you were safe, at least.”
“What? No ! I mean yes? No, but... oh my god,” Wally felt the horror shape his expression and pull his shoulders up around his ears. “Oh my god,” he repeated, hissing. He stepped forward, quickly, and pushed Barry back, out of the room.
“What do you mean no?” Barry looked panicked. “Wally, you could really wreck the girl’s life if you—”
“Oh my god, shut up,” Wally squeaked. He stepped out into the hall and closed the door behind him, quietly. “I didn’t sleep with—I mean. I did, but not. Not like that! Oh my god. I don’t mean I didn’t use protection or something! I mean, I didn’t, but that’s because I didn’t need it. I mean!”
“ Wally .”
“I mean! I didn’t! I didn’t need to, because I didn’t—didn’t have. Uh. I didn’t. Do. Anything. With.” Wally felt all the blood rushing to his face. He had to be at least as red as his hair. Had to be.
Barry eyed him, the way you eyed a wild animal.
“I didn’t have sex with—with...” Wally swallowed hard. Girl. Barry thought that there was a girl in Wally’s bed. He felt the heat practically double, radiating off his face uncomfortably. He didn’t want to correct Barry, but he knew better than trying to hide that. I mean, what was he going to do? Hope no one realized that the guy in his bed was a guy, even after he woke up? “He’s. He’s not even a—”
Barry looked shocked.
“Oh my god, no! No, I didn’t. No one had sex with anyone, last night!” Wally said. Way too loud.
Barry and Wally looked at each other for a long moment, both flabbergasted.
“Wally?” Iris walked around the corner, into the hall. She was frowning and wiping her hands off on a dish towel. “Barry? What’s going on? Walls, honey, why are you shouting about having sex?” Wally glanced from her to Barry. “Or rather, not having sex,” Iris amended.
Barry didn’t quite meet his eye. Wally turned back to Iris. “Was I shouting?” he asked.
“Yeah.”
Wally just about jumped a mile at the unidentified male voice that jumped in.
“Sorry.”
Wally turned to find the sleeping beauty, amused and leaning on his doorframe. Wally hadn’t even heard the door open.
“I didn’t mean to,” the stranger motioned vaguely.
Wally glanced over his shoulder, where Iris and Barry had wide eyes fixed on the dark-haired male. He turned back to his stranger, still flustered, but also feeling a sudden burst of purpose. And worry. “What are you doing?” he frowned. “You shouldn’t be up!”
The stranger hummed and pulled his shirt – Wally’s shirt – up. He lightly traced the gauze-covered stitches Wally had threaded through the gash in his side. “They’re sturdy. I should be fine.”
“Fine!” Wally threw his hands in the air, then began ushering the stranger back into the room. “No. You need to rest or some shit. This is so not fine.”
The stranger tossed an amused grin over Wally’s shoulder, at Barry and Iris, while Wally manhandled him back to the bed, then turned his grin onto Wally. “I should really go, actually. My, uh, dad? He’ll be worried.”
“Call him,” Wally forced him to sit down.
“We’re not really a ‘call dad’ kind of family. If you could just give me back my—”
“Hell no, lie down.” Wally forcibly tucked him in. “I did not perform semi-conscious first aid to watch you prance around like you weren’t actively bleeding out when I found you, man.”
“Are you holding my things hostage?”
“Yeah.”
The guy laughed. “All right. You win. But I’ll take that call, I suppose.”
Wally walked around the bed, tugged his phone off the charger, unlocked the screen, and handed it off to the stranger. “Whatever, dude. I need a minute, though.”
“Right,” the guy grinned up at him. “ Gotta convince your dad that we didn’t have sex, right?”
Wally immediately coloured bright, unfortunate red, once more. ”Shut up! And he’s not my dad, he’s my uncle!” Yeah, like that last bit was even important. He fled after that, closing the door behind him and leaning up against it. Suddenly, facing his Uncle Barry and Aunt Iris was a hundred times as desirable, if the alternative was dealing with some hot stranger who might have been flirting with him.
Maybe he just wanted the hot stranger to be flirting with him.
“Who was that?” Barry asked.
“I have no idea,” Wally scrubbed his hands over his face a few times.
“What?” Barry and Iris exchanged a look. Barry frowned and turned back to Wally. “You don’t know?”
“I found him after that last rogue run,” Wally mumbled. ”He was hurt, bad.”
“You could have taken him to a hospital,” Iris said.
“Yeah, no.” Wally shook his head. “He’s a mask.”
Iris nodded slowly.
“And he was really hurt. And I was really tired. I just... ran home, you know?” Wally silently begged them to understand, but also not to ask too many questions, especially if there was any chance of the ninja convalescent overhearing.
“Why’s he in your bed?” Barry asked.
“Honestly?” Wally huffed. “I didn’t think about it. I just did what I could. I cleaned his wounds, stitched and bandaged him up, changed him out of his costume...” he cleared his throat. “Yeah. Then I just threw on boxers and a tee and crawled into bed. I didn’t... you know. I didn’t think about it. I just. Let autopilot take the wheel.”
Barry sighed deeply.
Iris, though, looked satisfied. “Even dead on your feet, you couldn’t help doing one last good deed, could you?”
Wally shrugged.
“ That's my boy,” Iris said. She was proud of him in a way that Rudy had never been . Proud of him, supportive, trusting. She loved him in the ways Wally had always craved, because she loved him with no conditions, unlike Rudy.
“Reminds me of me n' Hal,” Barry offered. “When we first met. You seemed to hit it off. With your, uh, new friend. Was that the first time you spoke to him?”
“Probably not, but it’s the first time he could respond back. Being as. Ya know. He was unconscious before. And then asleep,” Wally shrugged. “I have no idea what I'm doing.”
Slowly, it filtered into Wally's mind that he'd handed his unlocked phone to the complete stranger.
He narrowly resisted the urge to tap into the Speed Force to return to his unlocked phone and the undeniably attractive stranger (that he really wished he’d settled in the guest room to avoid literally everything that had happened so far). He did, however, beat a quick return, regardless.
As Wally opened the door, the stranger glanced up, then muttered a farewell and hanged up on his call, clearly cutting the conversation short. He plastered on a frighteningly effective smile. “So, did you convince your uncle that you didn’t exhibit any shameful homosexual tendencies,” he teased.
“Uh, no,” Wally frowned, eyebrows pinching together. “Barry’s cool. He knows I’m bi, so that’s really not the problem. The problem would have been the whole... sex with strangers thing. Stranger. Just the one. You. Oh my god, I hate this conversation.”
The guy tipped his head back and laughed. “I’m kidding. Seriously,” he pushed his hair out of his face. “Frankly, if that was the problem, I’d be worried about his relationship with his aviator friend.”
“Hal?”
The stranger nodded.
And... then it occurred to Wally that the stranger hadn’t met Hal and therefore shouldn’t have any clue about who he was. Or what his relationship with Barry was. “Uh, okay, hold up.” He put his hands out, as if physically trying to stop the conversation. He would have laughed at himself, if he weren’t getting more unnerved by the second. “How do you even know that my uncle has a friend in the first place? Or what career he’s in? Or—”
“Oh please,” the stranger rolled his eyes. “Former Air Force pilot turned test pilot would have been more on point. And, technically, he hasn’t been either of those for five years, has he?”
“How do you...?”
“So, you have no idea who I am? Like, at all?” the stranger crossed his arms.
“Should I?”
“I mean, this is your house, isn’t it?”
Wally nodded slowly.
“Hell, your room. Your bed . Shouldn’t you know something about your bedfellows?”
Wally rubbed his hands down his face. “So you know who Uncle Hal is. Great. Awesome. I’ll tell him he has a fan—”
“I’m more a Superman kinda guy.”
“What does that have to do with my, with Hal?”
“Not really a GL kinda guy,” the stranger said, looking smug.
And, okay, Full stop. Right there. How the hell did this guy know... no, Wally wasn’t going to jump to conclusions. Maybe the guy was just, like, super good at cold reading. Maybe he’d poked through the phone and found pictures or Hal’s contact information. GL didn’t have to mean...
Wally cleared his throat. “Okay, you’re freaking me out,” he said.
“That’s kinda neat,” he said.
“Neat.”
“Yeah. How many people can say that they freak a speedster out,” the stranger sat up. “Besides my ‘dad,’ anyway.”
Wally could hear the quotes around ‘dad.’ “ Hang on,” Wally waved his hand. “I am so not following.”
The guy just sat there, looking amused. “Well. You’re Kid Flash. Cuter under the cowl than I was expecting, but that’s a point in your favour . Your uncle is Flash – the second one, specifically. Your... ah, other uncle, I suppose? He’s Green Lantern. Earth’s first of, like, four now, I think.”
Wally felt his jaw drop, but didn’t seem to have the wherewithal to amend that.
“Your aunt, though, is your only blood relation in the house. Technically speaking, neither Barry nor Hal are related to you, but because Barry’s with Iris and Hal’s with Barry, I guess it’s a bit transitive, right? I don’t know how the poly dynamic works between them, but they all live in the same house, so I suppose it does work, regardless of known specifics.”
“Jesus Christ. None of us even introduced ourselves,” Wally felt a jitter running through him, just under his skin. It was an anxiety thing, so he elected to ignore it for the moment.
“Wallace West,” the guy pointed at him.
“Wally,” he corrected, automatically.
“ Mmhm . You’re Kid Flash. Then there’s Bartholomew Allen, Harold Jordan, and Iris West. Or West-Allen? I don’t have the specifics about her, actually, since she’s not a cape, the way your uncles are.”
“Why do you even know that?” Wally demanded.
“Well, B’s always telling me to be prepared. I was heading into Flash territory, so I read up on your files. And Jay Garrick, of course. On the off chance that, during the emergencies, he was taking up the suit again, however temporarily.”
“Who the hell is B?”
“Right,” the guy offered his hand, as well as a big smile. “I’m Nightwing . I work with Batman.”
Wally squeaked and zipped away, long enough to grab Barry and shake him a few times, then drag him along back to the stranger’s bedside. “Say that last one again!” Wally demanded .
The guy had his head leaned back again, and he was cackling. “My god, B doesn’t even have to work with people to instill the fear of god in them, does he?”
“Repeat it!” Wally demanded again.
The guy, Nightwing , shook his head and turned to Barry, still smiling that cheerful smile that kind of gave Wally the creeps, though he couldn’t figure out why. “I’m Nightwing ,” he said. “It’s okay, you probably haven’t heard of me. I’m mostly a Gotham/ Blüd haven cape.”
“The other part!” Wally whined.
Barry looked at him with amused confusion.
"I work with Batman.”
Barry stiffened. “Oh. My god.”
Nightwing nodded.
“But... but ‘I work alone’?”
“He’s a bit deluded. He hasn’t worked alone in, like, a decade. Longer if you count Agent A.”
Barry slapped his hand over his face. “Is he gonna , like, show up here? Please say no. He scares the shit out of me!”
“Wait,” Wally said. “When you say you need to call your ‘dad’...”
“To be fair, he is my dad.”
Barry swore.