I admittedly wrote this two years ago (maybe just one?) and found it on an old flash drive. This was some of the stuff I used to delete. I tried to fix it up so I could post something as an apology, but it's still a little… older. I guess. Hope it's not that bad. The original author's note reminded me that I wrote this solely because of my mask kink. Sorry it's not quite smutty.

Disclaimer: You know the deal.

Wally shook his head with a small grin as he attempted to knot his tie around the collar of his white dress shirt with fumbling fingers. He didn't know why he was here, his auburn hair slicked back professionally and a dusty sort of white to the slacks belted around his hips with a sway to each shaky step in the brown dress shoes. He didn't know why he had said yes, a faint blush falling align with his freckles and tracing out the excited glint in his emerald eyes, but he knew he wouldn't trade it in for anything else—except maybe the ability to fasten a tie.

"Really, Grayson?" he teased, catching sight of the figure making faces at him in the reflection before he chuckled quietly, "Why are we doing this?"

Dick was already dressed, and that was to state it mildly without saying he was to his highest nines. He was the redhead's exact opposite, in saying he wore near all black except for his white dress shirt, his tie a matching scarlet. His lengthy blackened locks dragged along the nape of his neck, but their slick back looked so much more natural than the other's did. The jacket over his shoulders lacked a crease, not a stagger to his form for even the briefest of a second.

A pink tongue traced out the slightest of a smirk, maybe unconsciously and maybe because it knew those eyes were following it with interest. Watching the face the reflection showed him, the dark-haired boy casually waltzed over in his dress shoes to join the struggling teen.

"Do you mean 'this' as in getting dressed?" he forced his voice innocent, batting his eyes, "because I believe it to be customary that we wear clothes to public outings. The press doesn't exactly look favorably on public nudity, even if you do have a nice piece."

The glare he was shot was obviously calling out his bluff, but the twenty one year old kept his attention to the mirror as he continued his struggle with his tie.

"If I was worried about getting dressed, I wouldn't bother and we'd be naked doing more… interesting things," he offered a smirk of his own, looking to the side to make his wink a bit more discrete.

A forehead nestled itself to the nape of his neck, two arms wrapping snugly around his stomach, a small content sigh unfolding out between his shoulder blades. Wally chuckled happily, interlacing his fingers with the tan set placed around his middle, shaking his head with a small smile.

"You know what I mean, though. Why'd you invite me of all people? Won't the media freak out about you bringing a guy to this thing, no less me?"

There was worry nestled in the gruff tones behind that small smile, a certain nervousness behind the forced expression, one that tightened the hug around his middle and made him feel just a bit more safe.

"Of course the media will freak out. This is Wayne Tech's 75th year Masquerade Ball. It's a pretty big milestone," a gentle kiss was placed to the pale neck before Dick spun around to Wally's front and secured his tie with an easy motion. "Besides, you're pretty hot. They're definitely going to want their cameras on you."

He set his hands flat to the tensed shoulder blades, feeling their surprise with a confident smile before he leaned close and placed a tender kiss to the slowly growing smile.

"Now come on, Alfred's probably waiting for us downstairs. He says he made our masks to fit us exactly."

"I still don't get why mine's covered in frickin' leaves," Wally grumbled under his breath as he stepped out of the limo, throwing on a surprised grin the second the cameras started flashing his way.

His mask shielded his forehead and traced down to the edge of his jaw by his ears, but it curved under his eyes so his freckles were on display by request. The base layer was dark, but thin green leaves were sewn into the fabric to where it looks like they were growing out of it. A black lace was secured over the leaves, made up of flower patterns small enough that the leaves were still visible, and it all cut off in big enough diamond like shapes to show the brilliant emerald of his eyes.

As the reporters began to crowd him, voices frantic and excited in demanding to know who he was, Dick stepped impatiently out of the limo and slid his arm around the white jacketed one. While Wally was ecstatic enough to replace a six year old on Christmas morning, he had the face of someone who'd been working a dead end job for years now. In other words, he was smiling, but it definitely wasn't for the cameras.

"Don't you even think for a second it's because you're 'wild'," Dick teased, the corner of his smile raising for a little smirk, "I tell him about our dates, but never that much."

His mask was a bit more unique, to say the least. The black base was outlined in a thick golden coil with the insides frayed to the point they intricately circuited throughout the fabric until they seemed to be veins, all pumping directly to the golden workings incasing his navy eyes. It cut off right at the tip of his nose, covering his forehead and securing in his hair so the wire couldn't be seen.

Wally was near giddy in the laugh that left his grin, touching his hand down over the arm hooked in his own.

"Maybe you don't, but I definitely do. Why else do you think you're golden, sweetheart?"

The blush that crossed the dark-haired man's face interlocked with surprise and gave off the cutest expression that the nineteen year old had given off all night. He looked down at his toes and his shoulders swayed with a giggle of all things, causing the cameras' flashes to grow that much quicker. Every reporter wanted to know who the date of Bruce Wayne's ward was.

"You going to tell 'em?" Wally asked quietly, running his thumb over the back of the ebony's hand lovingly as they started up the stairs to get inside.

Dick didn't answer until they reached the top step, and even then, a word didn't leave his lips for a good ten seconds. Raising gloved hands, he clutched the white lapels tight and pulled the excited smile up against his lips, not wasting any time in indulging the twenty one year old into a shameless kiss. From the way the background was a roar, slurred out in the daze the kisses always left them in, one might think this was the apocalypse a millennia too soon.

"This is my boyfriend!" were the four words the ebony shouted out to the reporters, pulling back with the proudest of grins before tugging the dazed redhead in the doors behind him.

It hadn't taken long for the first shy invitation to dance to become their fiftieth, not an ounce of hesitation now in the arms they held around each other and the closeness they held. Dick bound his arms protectively around the neck he had the back of his face pressed into while Wally's were bound around the small of his back, nails tracing out incoherent shapes to the skin beneath. His lips were set to side of the man's face, but he wasn't kissing him, rather just letting him feel his smile.

They had stopped earlier to get something to eat, some cake and some punch glasses, and now both had spinning heads and giddy thoughts. There wasn't even a question that there had been an alcohol in the drinks, especially from the way the ebony clung to the older man for support, but there wasn't anyone in the room who really seemed to mind. It was just one drink, and it had seemed to calm the two down.

"I love you, Wally," Dick murmured against the vein that helped him feel the frantic beat of the redhead's heart with a small smile as the song drew to an end.

The emerald eyes cracked open and curiously glanced down at the face burrowed tightly to him.

"I… I love you, too, Dick," he laughed gently.

The way the phrase sounded on his lips, let alone against his skin, was enough to leave him breathless because only this man could make it sound that important. Only this nineteen year old, the one he wanted to punch in the face most of the time for being so perfect, could make his name sound so beautiful.

The next song to start had a violin crooning out gently, the piano quickly tracing it out in a softness that let them both sigh happily onto each other because it was moments like this that they never got to have. It was always dodging a bullet or a blast, protecting the other and trying to hide that they were together to keep from giving the bad guys a way to get at them. Not that they didn't enjoy that, but this was heaven itself and both were fine with their fates.

"That's a uh… beautiful suit you've got there, Mr. Grayson," Wally started quietly in the up-turned ear, earning him a curious gaze with the husky tone he used, "But you know who it'd look better on?"

White gloves softly toyed with the end of his hair, stroking at it gently with curiosity strong in the dilated pupils.

"Mm?" the noise vibrated out against his neck, making him shiver.

The redhead leaned closer so his lips would brush the shell of Dick's ear, a wobbly smile holding them upwards.

"The floor."

He kissed the skin beneath the ear before he lifted his head up with a chuckle, surprised to find the tan face lifting to follow his gaze. There was definitely a smirk on those lips, but there was something else in those eyes behind the mask.

"Is that an invitation?" he raised an eyebrow beneath it, still keeping them close enough to fit like puzzle pieces, "because I'd like to RSVP in person, if you don't mind."

With that, he leaned in and in a moment, the two were joined at the lip, contented little sighs covered by the trills and tremors of the music for the evening. The beat encouraging their movements, hips discretely brushing in a good, swift time. Tiny chuckles were traded off with taste buds as their smiles opened up, inviting the other in for a playful little exchange until neither could particular stand it.

"D… Dick," Wally broke them apart with a pleading tone, the hunger almost seeming to darken his eyes a few shades behind the mask.

The ebony had the same look on his face, lips parted with a craving written along their curve.

"I've got an idea," he grinned slyly, pulling the tie out from inside the white jacket with just his index finger and gripping it tight over his shoulder before leading them off away from the crowd.

Wally didn't argue for even a second, hopelessly staggering behind with a lovesick grin that basically trailed hearts behind him with every step. He didn't even remember stumbling up the stairs, but he wouldn't forget feeling the door close as he was shoved up against it.

"Let's get to dressing the floor then," Dick licked his lip with interest, biting at the path he made before he discarded his jacket to the carpet beside his dresser.

As the evening went on, the music bled through the walls and the lovers danced along in another way, leaving the ball hours later with the slightest of a limp to the ebony's step and grins near identical in size.

-F.J. III