#HAHAHAHAHA im imagining them posing as a 2000s era romcom

[fightwing]

dick HATES being out of the loop. and wally, ever expressive and ever emotional --- was very easy to read. his deadpan expression was meant to shame dick into realizing he can't play dumb, but the issue was dick wasn't PLAYING anything. in fact he was very much serious because his best friend in the whole wide world was mad at him and he was supposed to know why. the answer comes shortly, albeit doused in frustration. easier to spot, for sure but while he'd known gotham was never his friends FAVORITE place, he always figured he ultimately didn't mind it. at least, he always came when dick asked. it's only when his friend's pale features pooled crimson that they broke any real ice. but dick frowns at the admission --- wonders if he's made one of his favorite people feel unloved but then gets immediately overshadowed by the feeling of understanding. roy harper was a lot of things. A LOT. dick got the jealousy, sometimes. he wants to ask if something happened between the two of them, if there was some breaking point to cause all of this that dick had stepped into, but he can tell wally's working up to it. instead, dick waits patiently, watching the flicker of wally's gaze dance around their surroundings and him. no longer on the defensive and looking more to comfort, dick's fully turned towards wally with his hands crossed over bent knees. one foot is pressed beneath wally's own stretched legs, the other bent and folded beneath. he's watching wally as he finds the words he's searching for and dick's chest aches a bit with the clear admission of his perceived inadequacy. the way wally --- usually so bright and excitable, seemed intent on making himself smaller in his hurt. there's no refuting that. they all get some level of comparison to their mentors but something about the red hair had people confusing the two. and with a name like speedy, it was rarely the archer who got mistaken. roy was a spectacle in many ways, some parts of it even mirroring that of g.a. but there was no denying wherever roy harper went, he was bound to make an impression. it's the next part dick takes issue with. roy may get under his skin. may get him to places no one else on this earth has taken him emotionally --- their fights long, drawn out and complex, but roy harper made them BETTER. he pushed them, farther each time to become more than the mold of their mentors. to become themselves. with a bit of tasteful teasing here and there to really set a fire that burned down the forest. " kf, there wouldn't BE a team without you. " certainly wouldn't have lasted as long if someone wasn't there to pull them back together whenever they fell apart. hell, " i'm still trying to convince bruce the titans are a good idea, and it's been years. " batman was certainly not the flag-bearer of the teen titans and for as much as dick pushed against that, his duties were undoubtedly split sometimes. in fact, in the early years there was a real and constant fear that robin wouldn't be able to stay, and dick was still, to this day fighting that fight. donna and garth loved the team as much as he did and roy did too (even if he pretended he was too cool for it sometimes) but it was WALLY who held on tight enough for them to stick. wally who probably talked barry's ear off about the other sidekicks, wally who followed dick out when fights or missions went bad enough that the acrobat seriously considered the legitimacy of bruce's arguments. wally who reminded them they were more than the battles they fought. if wally was doubting his importance, dick had a LIFETIME of rebuttals for that. his hand lands on wally's forearm, squeezing softly and blue eyed gaze unwavering as he says " you're the one who keeps us together, man. we need you. " and maybe selfishly but most importantly, " I need you. " he can feel the heat rise on his own face at the honestly of his admission, but firm in the truth of his words. the impossibility of wally west. " you're one of a kind, wall. "

the reassurance only lasts so long, wally's tightly clenched jaw and stern features dimming in intensity only to shift into wry disbelief the second dick claims he hadn't looked at roy the way he had perceived ⸻ like the archer was some kind of glistening knight rescuing a damsel rather than a friend stepping in to help another. he draws up to his elbows to raise an eyebrow pointedly at dick, knowing he'd be stubborn but expecting a little more honesty from his part. it's then that he sees the genuine confusion drawing his brows, his mind working itself so hard around wally's perception that the taxing process reflected itself on his young face. it should feel good for him to have come upon a realization before dick grayson of all people, yet he only feels a faint relief that the magnitude of what his friend feels for the archer remains a blindspot the to the boy wonder himself.

‵ actually, i don't give a damn about spending more time in gotham than i need to. ʹ he shuts down not being invited as a gripe he held with straight-faced monotony that wavers as soon as the apology-slash-excuse moves onto his perceived lack of inclusion. this was much more tethered to the truth, and wally flushes from the neck up in embarrassment of how childish the real reason for his upset sounded when laced in the frank clarity of dick's voice. he breaks eyesight like a coward, sight trained on the empty plains they occupied and the sway of tall-grass caught amidst rustling winds. even nature seemed to mock him, seeing in the open field's undulation a reflection of dick and roy's carefree dance. wally frowns, closing his eyes to the realization he was being a big baby about all of this.

‵ bingo, rob. ʹ he somberly accepts, swallowing his pride. ‵ not the part where i feel unappreciated, 'cause it's always a fun and rewarding time when i get to rescue you instead of the other way around. ʹ a bright chortle rattles from his chest up to his shoulders, looking back at dick with fond eyes and his characteristic boyish, skewed smile. ‵ i'm - i guess i do feel left out ... but i can't say i'd feel this strongly about it if it was anyone other than roy harper that the press caught you with. ʹ sure, it would have bothered him regardless ⸻ the overflow of his burgeoning feelings for dick often transcended the limits of friendship in a way that terrified him and of which he was always, unfortunately, conscious about with every interaction, but such awakening he was much less prepared to face and willing to smother. ( especially considering the rage anything less than masculine normalcy would stoke in his father, to whom he was already such a big disappointment )

it's the fact that roy seemed intent on seducing people away from him before he'd gotten a chance to feel secure about his place with them, a continuous stealing of his thunder and a dampening of all the efforts he put into seeming at least fractionally interesting amongst exceptional company. ‵ people still call me speedy. ʹ wally grumbles through pouted lips; ' and no one ever mixes him up with kid flash ' goes unsaid. ‵ i miss the days we only saw him three times a year. ʹ comes his quiet admission, the most candidly honest he'd been up until this point. a limited appearance like groundhogs and santa claus, such was the ideal way someone so outlandish and all-absorbing as roy harper should present himself to the rest of society.