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wally thought he was gonna be a bad parent bc he was raised by rudy and mary but turned out to be a great one bc he was loved by barry and iris :)))

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the flash 2023 #8

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Dick is the sole owner of Wally’s closet

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Something that'll haunt me when you're not around

Read it on ao3 here ◊ Based on this AU ◊ Part of this series

Summary: “It’s… it’s not about you.” “Yeah, see, I have a hard time believing that when you’re drunk off your ass in my kitchen less than a week after I dumped you.” “I told you,” Wally mutters, “she put a spell on me.” “Who? None of your villains have actual magic.” “I told you who it was.” Dick sighs, grabs at the countertop with both hands until his knuckles are white. They’ve been through this already. It didn’t end well before, and it won’t now, either. “Raven wouldn’t do that.” “Why not? Her dad’s fucking Satan, isn’t he? Actually,” Wally snickers, and Dick isn’t sure if it’s that Wally hasn’t fully sobered up yet or he’s just been spending too much time around Hal when he follows up with: “her mom did.”

———

There’s a light on in his kitchen. 

Dick lands on his fire escape, praying nobody’s awake and looking out the window. Usually, he’d be more careful and sneak in another way, but he can see Wally there at the table, muttering to himself about god knows what, and even with the surge of anger that rushes through his veins… Dick can’t turn down a friend in need, and clearly Wally needs it. He’ll humor him… just for a minute.

“She put a spell on me,” Wally mumbles as Dick climbs in the window. He ignores the statement; he’s sore enough from patrolling the streets of Bludhaven and having that conversation again isn’t going to help.

“What are you doing here?” Dick accuses, shutting the window behind him. He rips Nightwing’s mask off and takes in the sight of the mop of red hair flopped against his sorry excuse for a dinner table.

“M’drinking,” Wally slurs, barely lifting his head.

Well, no shit. The table is littered with empty beer bottles, which is odd for a speedster, because they physically can’t get drunk. But tonight, there’s something glowing on Wally’s arm, and Dick stomach twists at the sight. He walks forward, pushes Wally’s sleeve up, and sure enough, there it is: a metal band secured tightly around his wrist, with a blue light fading in and out. It blinks so slowly that Dick thinks Wally would be driven insane by it, if it wasn’t currently cutting off his powers and likely his circulation in one go.

Wally hates power dampeners more than anyone Dick’s ever met. He claims being disconnected from his powers is like having a part of his soul ripped away. He doesn’t even like seeing them used on the bad guys, but here he is, using it to drown his sorrows in Dick’s shitty apartment. Dick pushes down the feeling of guilt that creeps into his throat that somehow, this is his fault. He reminds himself it isn’t—that Wally did this to himself. He told Dick he was the only one he loved, but then that wasn’t true, was it?

“A power dampener? Where did you even get this?” 

“Barry says… not to, y’know, run under the influ-fluence.”

“That’s not even how it… Look, if this is about the other night, I really think I’m the last person you should be coming to.”

Wally just groans and lazily tries to pull his arm away, to no avail. Dick’s still got his utility belt on, so he keeps a tight but gentle grip on Wally’s arm with one hand and starts digging around for some tools with the other, to get this thing off—or at least loosened.

“How’d you even get alcohol? We’re all underage, and I know you’re not sneaking it from home.”

“Roy got me a fake ID.”

“Of course he did,” Dick pinches his nose. “Wal, Roy is not the person to go to for dealing with relationship issues. I mean, I’m pretty sure he’s dating—or at least been sleeping with—an assassin. He’s got his own issues to deal with, and you have other friends.”

Wally stares at him for a second. Dick keeps his eyes locked on the power dampener. He’s close to getting it turned off, and luckily, Wally’s not even fighting it. He hasn’t said where he got it, and Dick doesn’t really want to know. If he’s so upset he’s willing to subject himself to wearing one just to be able to get drunk, then he’s desperate enough to do all kinds of things.

Probably.

“It’s… it’s not about you .”

“Yeah, see, I have a hard time believing that when you’re drunk off your ass in my kitchen less than a week after I dumped you.”

The power dampener doesn’t loosen up, but Dick manages to get it turned off. Wally’s eyes start to get less hazy, his cheeks a little less pink as his powers come back to him and his hypermetabolism sobers him up. Good. Dick gets up and goes to look in the junk drawer for the metal cutters. 

“I told you,” Wally mutters, “she put a spell on me.”

“Who? None of your villains have actual magic.”

“I told you who it was.”

Dick sighs, grabs at the countertop with both hands until his knuckles are white. They’ve been through this already. It didn’t end well before, and it won’t now, either.

“Raven wouldn’t do that.”  

“Why not? Her dad’s fucking Satan, isn’t he? Actually,” Wally snickers, and Dick isn’t sure if it’s that Wally hasn’t fully sobered up yet or he’s just been spending too much time around Hal when he follows up with: “her mom did.”

“Stop it. That’s not funny. You know better than anybody that you don’t pick the family you’re born into. And again: Why would Raven do that to you? She wouldn’t hurt any of us. She’s our friend.”

Wally shakes his head. “She’s your friend, Dick. She’s my teammate. There’s a difference.”

Dick turns to glare at him. “The Titans are all our friends, Wally. That’s how this works.”

“Roy, Donna, and Garth are my friends. You—I don’t know what we are anymore, I’m not even going to try. The others are my teammates on a team I don’t even want to be on!”

The only sound in the room is the clock ticking on the wall. Dick can’t tell if Wally’s hands are vibrating or if they’re just shaking with anger… or with something else. 

“Like hell you didn’t want to be a Titan.”

“I wanted a break,” Wally corrects. He’s standing now, starting to pace like speedsters always do when they’re thinking too hard. In Dick’s cramped kitchen, Wally looks like a zoo animal doing laps in a much-too-small enclosure to try to work out his stress.

“I didn’t want to come back yet. I wanted to focus on—on school, I wanted to take a break. Hang up the Kid Flash suit until I knew who I was without it and could come back when I was ready. You asked me if I wanted to work with you when you built up your new team in California and I said no.”

“But you changed your mind!” Dick argues. 

“She changed my mind!”

“This is bullshit. Raven wouldn’t—”

“She admitted to it, Dick!”

“What?”

Ice floods Dick’s veins. He’s never coped well with betrayal.

“You went back to Gotham for the weekend,” Wally starts, his gaze distant. “Something came up, some big, magical whatever, and we ran into some other heroes. Zatanna was there, and I guess maybe it’s the Trigon thing or there’s some other bad blood between them, because she asked why we trusted Raven to begin with. And then she said all this stuff about traces of magic on me, and I just—I told you, it was like I was under a spell whenever she was around. She said she only did it because fate demanded I be on the team, or something, and I’d told her I wouldn’t go. She needed me there. I guess she never meant for it to get this out of hand, for me to be so obsessed with her, but she can’t undo it…and I can’t undo your broken heart.”

Wally hangs his head in defeat. 

It explains a lot. Hell, it’s a great excuse for the way Wally’s been acting pretty much the entire time they were together; but it doesn’t change the fact that Dick is sick and tired of the boy he loves chasing after someone else right in front of him. It doesn’t change that he can’t do this anymore, especially if there’s no way to undo the spell. 

“She’s not sorry. She admitted it was wrong not to tell me, but she’s not sorry that she did it. But I am, Dick. I’m sorry. You know why? ‘Cause I was stupid enough to trust her. I trusted her, and because of that I hurt you, and I’ll hurt everyone else I’ll ever love too, since she can’t fix it. I have to live with that.”

“Wally, come on,” Dick says, but he knows the truth just as well as Wally does.

“My future is ruined, don’t you get it? I knew we weren’t meant to be—I’m at peace with that, always have been. But whoever I was supposed to find, they won’t… they won’t get it. If you can’t, how would they?”

“Who said we aren’t meant to be?”

“Don’t kid yourself, Grayson. There’s a reason we never really put a label on whatever this has been.”

It’s not like it isn’t true. They can talk all they want about a breakup, but the fact of the matter is that the last few months have been no different than the rest of their lives, albeit with a little more kissing, and Dick knows as well as Wally does that commitment isn’t easy for him. That he’s always going to be distracted, and whatever Wally wants out of life is nowhere close to what Dick assumes his own future will be (assuming he lives long enough to see it). It’s been fun, it has. But they were never the endgame.

“I think you're still a little drunk, Wal,” Dick says, and he’s not even sure why he bothers. A speedster’s true power is spiraling into oblivion. Must be a side effect of all that time they have to think. 

“No, no—you turned the dampener off, I’m sobering up. But that’s—my head is clear, Dick. Clearer than it’s been in months.”

“Whatever’s going on with Raven—none of it erases the way you treated me. That’s why I told you we’re done. I love you, but I couldn’t watch you running after her like I wasn’t there. You’re my best friend, Wally. When it was just us… I was happy.”

“I know you were. I was too. But god, Dick, what I’m saying is—I think all of this, it’s a sign. I’m cursed to always be a little bit in love with Raven, and that’s something I have to live with now—something I have to figure out. But that’s not all there is, right?”

Wally’s eyes trail towards a picture pinned to the fridge with a magnet. It’s from a few months ago, when he and Barbara went ice skating. Just a regular day, back before, well. 

Just thinking about it hurts, and from the look on Wally’s face, he can tell.

“You’re my best friend, too. That’s why I know you’re a little in love with Barbara, even if you two refuse to address it. And that’s also why I know you still miss Kori, and whatever you two had, it’s not dead and buried yet. You’re a part of me, Dick. I can just feel it, like… like a soulmate, but not like that. You keep me grounded, like a lightning rod. But there’s someone else out there I need to find… if I can.”

Wally’s eyes sparkle, literally. Like lightning flashes through them. He’s quiet for a second, and his lips move like he’s trying to find a name for something that won’t quite come to him. Dick reaches into the drawer and grabs the metal cutters.

“Do love spells change fate?” Wally asks, but it’s rhetorical. He looks at Dick, who just shrugs. He raises his arm, and Dick takes his hand.

“I don't know, Wal,” Dick mutters, “It seems to me that if there’s anything stronger, love would be it.”

“Love wasn’t strong enough for us,” Wally says.

Dick cuts the power dampener off his best friend’s wrist. Wally smiles softly at him.

“…But maybe our friendship is.”

“Love spells really aren’t a joke, are they?” Superman says.

His hand is on Flash’s shoulder, hesitant, but firm. It’s a nice reminder that some things are real. That she’s just in his head.

“Dick told you?” Flash asks as his mind starts to clear. They’re far away enough from the group now that the effects of the spell are wearing off.

“Barry told me,” Superman corrects, “back before… everything. I don’t feel good about it, but we had a bit of a gossip circle going on.”

“Huh.”

“If you need a minute, take it; we have time.”

“Yeah… yeah, okay.”

Flash sits and pulls his mask off. He rubs at his face, and tries not to let the adrenaline crash overwhelm him. The League’s first-ever team up with the Titans should’ve been exciting, it should be the most fun he’s ever had—these are his best friends he’s working with! It should feel like the best day of his life. 

(Third best, actually, after the day he got his powers, and after the day when he found out his parents were getting divorced and they were going to let him live with Barry and Iris full time. But who’s counting?)

It’s not the best day, though, because he can’t be around Raven without losing his mind, and now they need Superman to babysit him just to keep him focused. Clark watches Wally carefully.

“If you want to talk…” he offers, and Wally doesn’t meet his eyes. But he doesn’t stay silent, either. Part of him needs to talk—to get it out.

“...It was back before the skies turned red,” Wally starts. He wrings his hands together, trying to work out the anxious energy.

“She said she only did it to get me back on the team because they needed my help. I was taking a break, though. I told them, it was a break. I’d be back if they really needed me. I mean, god, Kid Flash was— was the best thing that ever happened to me. I wasn’t throwing it all away, I just wanted to take some time off to focus on college. My entire life was centered around the Flash; I wanted a taste of normalcy, to figure out who Wally West was without the mask. I told the Titans I was done for good, but I don’t think I meant it. I don’t know; I guess I must’ve assumed they all knew what I was doing. Maybe she did. Maybe she didn’t care.”

He kicks some dirt around, hangs his head.

“And then she took matters into her own hands, and now she says she can’t undo it. None of it even mattered in the end, either, because— because—” Wally gestures down at his suit. 

“Look where I ended up anyway.”

“I’m sorry, Wally.”

“I’m sorry, too. But it’s weird. Looking back, part of me is glad Raven dragged me back in when she did. I got a little more time working with Barry, before… you know. I treasure that. But every time I come down from this high of seeing her, it starts to sting. Like I can’t stop myself from loving her even if it hurts. And I don’t—I don’t trust her. I know she’s a hero and she’s good deep down, but I can’t trust her, and I really don’t know how Dick still does. He was the one who got hurt the most by it. And now… there’s this girl I’ve been seeing.”

“That, you’ve mentioned,” Clark teases. 

“Yeah, Linda,” Wally says, and his cheeks flush. “I told you about her. I think I’m in love, for real. But she’s so… she’s everything to me. I look at her and I’m home.”

“But?”

“But I’m cursed,” Wally says. “I will always love—however artificially—someone else, and if that drives Linda away, I don’t know what I’ll do.”

“In my experience,” Clark offers, “these things tend to work out.”

“You just say that because you got the girl.”

“Actually, I say that because I’ve never met a Flash who didn’t. Love is powerful, Wally. If anyone’s going to figure it out, it’ll be you.”

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i drew him !!

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mrs and mr linda park-west for dear linden @donnatroia for the khtd server gift exchange!! ✨🥰🎉⚡️✨🎈

with a bonus cousin

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wallylinda doodlin

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similar but unrelated topic. may or may not be writing a birdflash breakup fic bc of this

jlu wally who moonlights with the titans my beloved. he gets seen out there and articles get published jokingly accusing him of “cheating” on the justice league and he’s like “no you don’t understand. the league is the other woman”

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jlu wally who moonlights with the titans my beloved. he gets seen out there and articles get published jokingly accusing him of “cheating” on the justice league and he’s like “no you don’t understand. the league is the other woman”

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A Really Good Day

Read it on ao3 here! ◊ Based on this post I made (@fastestloseralive)

Summary: Somebody has to tell the employees at the Flash Museum that the Scarlet Speedster has a new sidekick, and who better to do that than the Flash’s biggest fan?

———

Wally runs up the stairs out of the subway station, climbing two at a time because he’s in such a rush, and steps out onto the sidewalk in downtown Central City. He takes it all in: the sights, the sounds, the smell of somebody selling hotdogs from a stand on the street corner. The afternoon sunlight reflects off the statue in the park across the street. His hero glows golden, and Wally West feels like he’s home.

He takes a moment to appreciate his lot in life—there isn’t a single other kid on earth who can say their uncle-turned-father-figure is undoubtedly the greatest superhero of all time. He pulls on the straps of his trusty old Flash backpack (the one he’d gotten for Christmas from Aunt Iris ages ago), and jogs across the street, making sure not to go too fast as he weaves between the other people crossing. 

Of course, he stops in front of the statue first. It’s odd, he thinks, how the sculptor was able to make it look so much like Uncle Barry without being able to actually see the features on his face. Then he skips up the steps to the museum, unable to hide his joy any longer. You’d think that with everything that’s changed over the last few months, he’d get bored of it, but no. There is nothing cooler than the Flash Museum, and there probably never will be. 

The doors are propped open to the public like always, which might seem a little odd considering how often the museum gets trashed by rogues, but that’s why they’ve got a security guard posted outside. On today’s shift is a man named Michael Ross. 

Barry has drilled this into Wally’s head over the last few months of superhero training: “Speedsters are heroes for the people, not for the glory.” So, just like his uncle, Kid Flash’s new mission is to meet all the citizens of Central, to get to know them, and to help them whenever and however they need it, no questions asked. 

Learning everything he can about the people at the Flash Museum feels like a step in the right direction, even if he’s not wearing his super suit at the moment. Wally knows the following about Mr. Ross: He’s fifty-something years old and used to work in private security back in the day in Metropolis. He’s got a husband at home, two kids in college, and—most importantly—does not know Superman. What a bummer.

“All on your own today, Wally?” Mr. Ross asks. He’s got a little radio clipped to his belt, tuned into the local sports station. Mr. Ross is always listening to baseball games, and today it sounds like the Central City Stars are playing the Metropolis Meteors. 

“Uncle Barry’s picking me up later,” Wally says, grinning. “Have you heard yet? There’s a new hero in town!”

Mr. Ross laughs and rolls his eyes, but he pulls out a newspaper and hands it to him. 

“Bring this one inside. Maybe they’ll make an exhibit out of it!”

Wally takes it with a grin, salutes him, and skips through the doors into the entrance hall.

He heads right up to the members’ admission desk. 

“Hello, Mrs. Jones,” he greets the older woman sitting there. She smiles right back at him. 

“Hello, Wally. You came straight from school today?” 

“Uh-huh. Uncle Barry’s going to pick me up after work. Hey, did you hear?”

But Wally doesn’t even give her a chance to answer him before smacking the newspaper Mr. Ross gave him down onto the desk. He’s grinning from ear to ear; he can’t help it. He’s never been more excited in his life. He’s right there on the front page, pictured with his hero, taking down Captain Cold like they’re Batman and Robin or something.

It is so totally awesome.

“Of course I heard, Wally,” Mrs. Jones says. She rolls her eyes at him, but in a friendly way. She’s always been kind to him. She works reception here as a way to spend her retirement years; she taught third grade for almost forty years. Barry actually had her as his third grade teacher, and even though that was a million years ago, she remembers him. Every time Barry comes in, she gently teases him over how he never outgrew being a fan of the Flash. 

Well, that’s fine. Wally isn’t going to outgrow it either.

“Your hand, hon?” 

Wally holds up his hand, and Mrs. Jones stamps it. It’s a red Flash logo—supposed to act as a sort of day pass, so those who enter the museum can go in and out as often as they please during the day and won’t have to pay admission again. Admission for kids has always been free here, but Wally always asks for a stamp anyway. He thanks her, tells her to keep the newspaper, and that he hopes to meet this “Kid Flash” one day. 

As he runs off, he looks back and shouts, “Maybe they’ll give him his own wing of the museum!” 

Maybe it’s selfish, but he really does hope so. The Flash is turning into a bit of a legacy hero these days, and Wally wonders if one day, when Barry’s old and retired like Jay Garrick is, if he’ll be the new Scarlet Speedster. 

Or he’ll stick to his own (much cooler) role forever. Either way, he bets the tour guides here will have to bring him up. Speaking of which…

Flash Fact! The tour guides at the Flash Museum have a love-hate relationship with Wally West. His favorite pastime lately is hovering at the back of groups of kids on field trips or innocent tourists, and interjecting every five minutes to show off just how much he knows. As the Flash’s number one fan and the president of the Blue Valley Flash Fan Club (a group so exclusive he was the only member), it’s his job to make sure everyone knows he’s superior here.

Wally has made this abundantly clear multiple times to his favorite Flash Museum employee: Jamie Hartwick, who might be the most fascinating person Wally has ever met. Jamie and his husband, Drew, both grew up in some farm town north of Keystone City, so small it’s barely even on the map. Drew doesn’t get along with his parents, so he and Jamie ran off to Central and got married as soon as they could, before even starting their freshman year of college. Drew’s a firefighter now, and Jamie’s going to school and majoring in Zoology, and he’s been working at the Flash Museum for the last three years in order to pay his tuition. 

Jamie is the only person Wally knows who really understands him when it comes to how he feels about the things he’s passionate about, and is maybe the only adult he’s met outside of Barry and Iris to ever really listen to him… even if Jamie does often have to shoo Wally away from his tour groups for interrupting too much. When Jamie’s on his break, though, he’ll walk the halls with Wally and talk nothing but Flash lore. He knows almost as much as Wally does; at least, as much as a regular civilian possibly could. But today, Wally has the upper hand.

As they start to head toward the Turtle Man display (one of Wally’s personal favorites), somebody turns to Jamie and asks him what he thinks of the Flash having a sidekick. People start muttering to themselves, confused; not everyone’s seen the paper yet. Wally grins and worms his way up to the front of the crowd so he can listen.

“Oh, you mean that new speedster kid? Right.” Jamie kind of stops, lets the group circle around again to listen. He glances briefly in Wally’s direction, shoots him a look that screams ‘please, for the love of god, let me finish before you explode,’ and clears his throat to speak.

“As many of you might know, there’s been a lot of stories coming out lately about certain members of the Justice League working with younger sidekicks—Batman and Robin in Gotham City are a prime example of this. Green Arrow and Speedy also come to mind, and recently, there’s been a few sightings of a young girl working side-by-side with Wonder Woman. As of yesterday afternoon, it seems like our own hometown hero has picked up a partner of his own. While we don’t know much—”

Wally bounces on his heels. He squeezes his hands into fists, relaxes them, squeezes again. It’s really, really happening. He cannot hide his smile, and Jamie’s looking at him strangely, but he does not care. Being introduced like this? By a tour guide at the Flash Museum? This is the best day of his life. 

…Well, yesterday was the best. Or maybe it was that day when he found out Barry was the Flash, or actually it might’ve been the day it was decided he could live with Iris instead of being stuck in Blue Valley with his parents forever. Either way, this moment is up there.

“—this kid is clearly a speedster, and seems relatively capable of holding his own. He helped the Flash take down Captain Cold, primarily by making sure to get bystanders out of harm’s way. Obviously, there is a lot to be said about the ethics behind letting children fight crime, but that’s something you’re all welcome to decide your feelings about on your own time. As far as I’m concerned, our heroes caught the bad guy, and no one got hurt. That’s what I call a really good day.”

“Our heroes.” 

Heroes! Plural! 

People are muttering, and Wally’s hand shoots into the air. He doesn’t even wait to be acknowledged before he starts talking. 

“Jamie, Jamie! It’s Kid Flash!” 

The tour guide glances back over in his direction, and he looks affectionately exasperated, but gestures for Wally to come forward. 

“Kid Flash?”

Wally nods, and presses on. This is important.

“Flash’s new sidekick is named Kid Flash,” he explains.  “Not Flash Kid. Or—or Baby Flash, or Flash Boy, and especially not Speedy, ‘cause that’s taken. My aunt Iris—you know, the reporter who wrote the article in the paper about him? She met him last night. She told me all about him.”

“Did she?”

“Uh-huh.”

Jamie pushes his glasses up, rubs his face, and sighs. He knows very well that if he entertains this conversation, this tour is never going to end. 

Somebody in the crowd jokes, “Sounds like he should be giving us this tour!” 

Wally’s day just gets better and better. Jamie’s not impressed.

“Thanks for sharing that, Wally. I’ll make sure to spread the news. Meanwhile, why don’t you go check out the Kids’ Zone? Mirror Master’s Maze just reopened after the attack last month, and we had to rearrange things, so there’s a new path through, and—”

“Really?” Wally shouts, excited. “Okay, okay—but I’ll be back later! To talk about Kid Flash!”

As he runs off, he can hear a rumble of laughter, and someone asks Jamie what that was all about.

“Oh, don’t mind him. Wally’s a great kid, and the biggest Flash fan I’ve ever met. He’s always hanging around… he’s sort of our unofficial mascot.”

Oh, you bet he is. Wally’s got everyone here wrapped around his finger, including the curator, Mr. Myles. He’s barely eleven and he’s already been offered a job here for when he’s older—it would be his dream job if he didn’t already have that as of last night.

After conquering the maze in record time, Wally’s last stop in the museum is the gift shop. Lucy Jacobs, who goes to Central City High, has two dogs named Bennie and Indy, and used to do pageants as a kid. She works in the gift shop on Tuesday afternoons, but also is there all day on Saturday and Sunday every other weekend as a ploy to get out of spending time with her mom—her parents’ divorce ended in a particularly nasty custody battle (which Wally can unfortunately somewhat relate to) and Lucy prefers to keep her distance. She greets Wally when he comes in and he says hello back. He asks her if she’s heard about Kid Flash yet.

“I have, actually. Mila’s super excited that a kid her age is a superhero. Now she’s convinced she’ll be Green Lantern one day, or something. You think he goes to your school, Wal?” 

Wally shrugs. He knows for a fact that Kid Flash goes to school with Lucy’s sister, because Mila Jacobs sits three desks down from his own, but it’s not like he can say that. 

“It’d be cool if he did, but how would I know? He wears a mask!” 

Lucy laughs and Wally excuses himself to wander around a bit. Iris gave him some cash to buy her a new Flash t-shirt for the Flash Day parade next month, so he really should get on that. 

The problem is, there’s a lot of stuff in the gift shop that Wally wants, if he doesn’t already have it. Everything from Lightspeed energy bars to plushies to Beyblade toys that were made as a collaboration with The Top (that was a wild era of toy commercials), and man, is it tempting to waste all his money on something silly like that. There’s even superhero trading cards! Wally’s been trying to complete his collection of JSA-era cards forever.

Oh, but the real problem isn’t the Flash stuff. Again, he’s got an entire room full of Flash merchandise. Heck, he’s even got a growing collection of Green Lantern memorabilia—Uncle Hal’s made sure of that—but there’s so much more to think about. The gift shop also sells a bit of Justice League merchandise, and he’s actually considering getting a Robin-themed t-shirt (will Kid Flash have his own merch here soon? God, Wally hopes so) when he hears a voice calling his name.

Barry waves at him from the front of the gift shop. Lucy’s ringing up a shirt he’s picked out for Iris and he thanks her as Wally strolls up to him.

“I was supposed to buy that,” Wally says. “Iris gave me money for it.”

“I know, Kiddo, but I thought you should pick something out for yourself. It’s a special day, isn’t it?”

“Yeah… it is.”

Wally grabs the Robin t-shirt and a Flash-themed yo-yo, just for good measure. Barry waits while he pays—Wally makes sure to thank Lucy as he does—and they decide to backtrack through the museum, greeting everyone they come across on their way out.

They’re just passing the statue out front when it dawns on Wally that the parking lot is in the other direction.

“Barry,” he says slowly, twisting the golden ring on his finger, “are we driving home?”

This time, it isn’t the statue of the Scarlet Speedster that’s being illuminated by the setting sun. Barry is the one who is golden; he always has been. Wally has never felt luckier.

“Actually, Kid, I thought today we could take the long way home.”

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Hell yea! I can tell how much fun went into making those fics, it's amazing. I did not consider the amount of father(-ish) figure Batman potential in this scenario, and I love that the Titans are still around. Who do you think would be the most shocked by the reveal? Any other stuff you've added/developed since the fics were written? You're a legend btw :]

Honestly I think if I went back and rewrote those fics, I’d pull back a little on Bruce as a father figure and try to make it more clear I think he’s more of just an adult in Wally’s life that he can rely on. Since writing them I’ve kind of built up a pretty solid timeline of events that isn’t… 100% canon accurate to any specific form of media, let’s leave it at that (my three friends who have seen The PowerPoint will know what I mean & are sworn into secrecy for the most part lmao).

(Putting the rest under a read more because this got long)

But I think it would just be nice for Bruce to keep his distance but Wally knows he’s not totally alone in the world. I go back & forth a lot on if I think Iris is around or not & the whole deal he has with his parents so it’s whole thing.

I can’t really speak on reactions of specific characters; I think by the time you get into JLU that everybody knows Wally’s a legacy hero and honestly it’s not that much of a surprise if you’ve been paying attention. Wally’s barely reached his early twenties but the Flash—noticeably an adult—has been around for I dunno 15-20 years? Not including the gap between Barry and Jay of course. But not all of the League would know that going in so they’re just sitting there demanding answers. There’s nothing they can do about him having been risking his life since he was a kid.

Couple things I did think about a lot:

During the Thanagarian invasion while John & Wally are paired up to get around the city, John says Wally seems familiar and asks him if he knows Hal Jordan. Turns out when Hal would brag about his nieces and nephews to his fellow corps members, he included Wally and Roy in that. Go figure. Actually the whole thing with Hal is a hot mess because he’s… well the timeline is iffy but “parallax vibes” is maybe the best way to describe it? Which actually works out because when I first made up this AU I didn’t realize Kyle exists in that universe but honestly I never watched anything outside JL/JLU & I probably should because I’m a completionist but whatever I also decided Teen Titans is vaguely canon in this AU so it’s my canon now <3

Wally is absolutely miserable when Superman dies in that one episode of Justice League, partially because he knew Clark somewhat well (I decided Iris went to college in Metropolis in this timeline & had interned at the Daily Planet around when Clark first started working there so she knew him pretty well & it’s why Wally knew him originally, too) & gives a speech at the funeral they had for Superman before they found out he wasn’t dead and that speech includes something about knowing what it’s like to lose your hero & how it’s going to be hard to try to live up to his legacy but they have to try, same way Wally’s trying with Barry’s. I want to write this one but the dialogue eludes me so I won’t lol

Been going through a Captain Marvel/Shazam phase lately so in that one episode where Clark absolutely crushes Billy’s spirit and makes him quit the league, Wally runs after him and tells him that Superman told the rest of the founders about his identity as a kid and says he’s not going to try to talk him into staying; just quietly hands him a Titans communicator and says that he’s been there before with the whole “don’t meet your heroes” thing. I love Barry to death but no one is flawless and while he definitely had the best mentor out of the group, I think it’s a requirement of being a Titan & a kid hero to have that kind of moment so it’s a whole thing. Not that Billy would BECOME a Teen Titan either, it’s just sort of a “if you ever really need backup but you don’t want to call the league in—I get it. but the titans will be there to have your back.”

Also I find it incredible that Roy’s a reserve member of the league because Speedy and Flash are banned from doing monitor duty together because it’s like how as a teacher making a seating chart you can’t put best friends next to each other or you will regret it for the rest of time

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hi guyss <3

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titans annual 2025

wally read the room man

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update: posted it here

what if I wrote the “wally is essentially the flash museum’s mascot” fic and posted it today

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Turning my beautiful king Wallace West into a 15 year old nonbinary lesbian with the world’s worst anxiety disorder and probably religiously listens to Muse was one of the best things the absolute series could have done

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everyone should read impulse 1995 over and over over and over over and over over and over over and over over and over over and over over and over over and over over and over over and over over and over over and over over and over over and over over and over over and over over and over over and over again and than write a bart fic, Bart supremacy!!

You're 💯% right anon.

Everyone should stop what they are doing, right now, read Impulse (1995) and write a Bart-centric fic.

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what if I wrote the “wally is essentially the flash museum’s mascot” fic and posted it today