I wonder if I should put 'angst' in the genre category...? But it's mostly fluff...

Special shout-out/thanks to Sroloc Elbisivni for getting me motivated to type this up (even if having to do it in sections directly onto docs manager was a pain in the butt).

"We should do something," Dick says at a break in the dialogue of the movie they were currently watching.

"We are doing something," Wally answers his best friend, "It's cold outside so we're staying in and watching movies. And Alfred has promised to keep the hot chocolate coming. Don't argue with the hot chocolate," he says in a serious tone.

As if to prove his point, Alfred entered the living room holding two steaming cups of chocolaty goodness.

"But I've been cooped up here for three weeks!" the Boy Wonder whines. Just before winter break has started at Gotham Academy, Killer Croc had broken Robin's arm and ever since the fifteen year old has been under house arrest, as per Alfred's orders.

Which is why his best friend has been sleeping over at the Wayne Manor the past few days, to keep a certain grounded bird company (and from going stir crazy).

Dick turned his attention to Alfred. "Come on, Alfie, please? You said my arm is nearly healed and as long as I'm careful I can go out, right?" The butler looked as if he was about to protest so Dick rushed on, "Plus Wally will be there to stop me from doing anything stupid."

"Wha-?" A certain red-head began to sputter with a mouthful of hot chocolate. "Don't bring me into this! I'm perfectly fine with staying here. In the house. Where it's warm." He tried to sink down into the couch more as he wrapped his blanket around him tighter. "With the hot chocolate..."

"But I'm so bored! Bats won't even let me into the cave for another two weeks and I've already done everything there is to do in this place! I just want to go out and walk around or something." He shot a mischievous glance at Wally, "Maybe go to that new all-you-can-eat place that opened up a couple months ago."

Dick saw Wally stiffen at the mention of food. The speedster continued to pretend to ignore what was beging said but the Boy Wonder knew better.

A long sigh came from Alfred a moment later and Dick knew he had won.

"Very well, Master Dick, but only if you are accompanied by Master Wallace. And," he continues, making the wide smile that had spread across the young raven-head's face falter for a moment, "you return home at a reasonable time."

"Of course, Alfie! C'mon Wally! Let's go!"

Dick practically dragged his best friend to the front door, ignoring his protests of overdramaticness. "But the hot chocolate~!"

Soon the two were bundled in multiple layers of winter clothing. Dick took his time and carefully slid his injured arm into his coat sleeve. He knew it wasn't completely healed but as long as he was careful he would be fine.

They were soon on their way, Dick enjoying the fresh, crisp air while Wally grumbled. "You know I hate the cold Rob. And bribing me with food? Not cool man, not cool."

"But all the girls say the way to a man's heart is through his stomach."

"Girls huh? And what girls are those?"

Dick's shoulders slump forward a little, "The ones from romance novels."

"R-Romance novels?!" Wally repeats, shocked, "You read romance novels?!"

"I told you - I've done everything I could do to keep from dying of boredom the past three weeks. Including..." he trialed off, leaving the sentence unfinished, not really wanting to repeat himself.

"So..." Wally said, trying to dispel the awkward tension that had suddenly fallen between the two of them. "What kind of food does this all-you-can-eat place have anyway?"

"Man, that was good," Wally sighed in content as he patted his full stomach. "We should do this again some time."

Dick chuckled as he ducked his head and turned away from Wally, looking at the restaurant's manager who had been giving them the stink-eye for the past forty-five minutes. "Sure sure, but not for a while, they might not let up back in. Even if I did pay for you twice."

"And I thank you for that, again. Ah~ Gotta love having a loaded best friend. I need to take advantage of you more often."

Dick's chair scrapped against the floor loudly as the Boy Wonder stood up quickly. Eyes downcast he walked briskly towards the exit.

Realizing what he had said and how his best friend had taken it, Wally cursed to himself as he chased after Dick as quickly as he could without revealing his secret identity.

"Dick! C'mon, wait up! I didn't mean it like that! You know me - Kid Mouth, doesn't think before he speaks. I'm sorry!"

He had finally caught up with him about two blocks from the restaurant (the bird could be pretty fast when he wanted to be).

"I am sorry, Dick. I was only joking about being friends with you for your money. I-I was your friend long before I knew how rich you were! And, dammit, you're just enjoying me babble on and make a fool of myself, aren't you?"

"Yes. Yes I am."

"So...everything good? We good?"

"I don't know...it is all rich boy's greatest fear to be taken advantage of for their money...I might be scarred for the rest of my life...unless..."

Wally's mouth dropped open as he realized this was Dick's plan all along. "You-! You Bat!"

A lopsided smirk came from the Boy Wonder before he replied in a sing-song voice, "Not an insult~"

They had a staring contest that lasted all of ten seconds before Wally gave in. "Fine," he said, sighing loudly, "But nothing weird! Or kinky, or scary...and Batman cannot be involved!" He added for good measure, more terrified of the Bat than he cared to admit.

Dick smiled, "I know just the thing."

"Seriously?"

"Seriously."

"...Seriously?!"

"Yes Wally, seriously."

"Seriou-"

Dick was unamused by his friend's verbal repetition and covered his mouth with a gloved hand to shut him up.

"You were jerk, this is your punishment." Dick's hand moved from Wally's mouth down to grab his wrist so his friend would be less likely to try and escape. Which also resulted in him practically having to drag the ginger into the ice rink.

Though for the most part Wally was resigned to his fate, he had to get at least one more exaggerated complaint in, "This isn't just punishment-this is torture!"

Only once inside and surrounded by a number of people did Dick let Wally's hand go, trusting the speedster not to use his powers in front of civilians.

"C'mon Wall-man, ice isn't that bad," Dick commented before heading towards the rental counter.

"Have you ever tried to run on ice? You don't get anywhere. No traction."

"Which is why people use ice skates." He handed his friend a pair before thanking the high schooler behind the counter and leading Wally towards an empty bench so they could exchange their boots for the newly acquired skates.

"You know, if you stop being negative and complaining all the time this might actually be fun for you."

He grumbled, "I'll try."

The two of them wobbled over to the side opening of the ice rink and stepped onto the ice. Dick slid out smoothly towards the center of the rink while Wally side-stepped to the side, clinging to the wall.

Turning direction, Dick glided back towards his wall-clinging friend. "C'mon Wally, I'm sure your parents didn't name you so you'd have an unhealthy attachment to walls."

"Ha ha," Wally laughed dryly. "That's almost as funny as you being a dick."

Their childish banter went on for a bit longer before Dick got them back on track to the task at hand. "So am I going to have to bribe you with food again to get you to let go of that wall?" ...though teasing to accomplish said goal was always more enjoyable.

"And what happens to your master plan if you can't get to me with food? Learn any other tricks in manipulation from your romance novels?"

"Quite a few actually, but I was so sure I would only need the one involving food to make you do whatever I wanted."

"Well then, I am sorry to inform you, that no longer works on me."

"Really?" That one word was laced with a large dose of skepticism.

"Yep," Wally replied confidently. "So take your best shot, Boy Wonder."

"Alright then, how about a kiss?"

Wally feels his face grow warm as he sputters out some incomprehensible sounds that probably weren't words to begin with.

The two of them had been side-stepping this dance with each other all day and didn't even realize it. One saying or doing something that would get the other's hopes up before immediately dashing them...

"...way to a man's heart is through his stomach..."

"...we should do this again sometime..."

"...take advantage of you more often..."

...holding his hand with the excuse it was to keep him from running off...

"...how about a kiss..."

"...I'm sure one of those cute girls that keep glancing at you could be talked into it."

Wally closed his eyes and took five agonizingly slow, deep breaths (that at superspeed wasn't even noticed by Dick) before throwing one of his signature grins at his best friend. "Nah. 'Sides, I'm pretty sure all those girls are looking at you."

"Oh? What's this? The ever-confident Wall-man thinks I'm better looking than him?" Dick's voice was teasing, and knew Wally well enough that his next words would be something along the lines of 'Ha! As if! No one is better looking than moi!'

But secretly, somewhere in the far reaches of his heart he wished the answer would be...

"Yes."

Now it was Dick's turn for his face to grow warm, but luckily (or maybe unluckily?) Wally had turned and started pulling himself along the side of the rink, leaving his best friend to get his blush under control before rejoining him.

Working off a bit of nervous tension by doing some fancy footwork before sliding past Wally backwards so the two were facing, Dick smiled a bit shyly at his friend.

Wally scowled at at the acrobat's perfect execution of whatever those fancy moves were called. "Show-off," he grumbled to himself, though he was almost certain his companion had heard him.

Dick chose not to comment on the jab and instead tried to continue their previous conversation, "So you really think I'm better looking than you?"

The speedster's face was gaining back some of the color it had lost and Dick could've sworn he heard him growl. "Just drop it.

"No." The Boy Wonder could be annoyingly stubborn when he wanted to be.

They had a battle of wits in the form of a staring contest before Wally, once again, gave in to his friend. "Yes. Now are we going to skate or should I just go home?"

The threat of Wally leaving made Dick bite back his next comment. "Sure. Of course. Now let's see if we can get you to stop clinging to that wall."

"I swear to God, Dick, if you leave me stranded out here I will never speak to you again. Ever."

Dick chuckled at the empty threat. The skating lesson was going well, Dick had successfully gotten Wally away from the wall, but now, instead of clinging to said wall, Wally was clinging to Dick. The later wasn't complaining.

"God, this is so embarrassing," the red-head whined. He was holding Dick's hands in a death grip (being mindful of Dick's injury) as he attempted to stay balanced enough to slide his feet forward one at a time. All the while trying (unsuccessfully) to ignore the stares they were getting.

"Can't we just go back to your place? I can practically hear Alfred's hot chocolate calling my name..."

"Come on Wally, we've been here all of fifteen minutes and you already want to leave?"

"Yes. And in case you forgot I never wanted to come here in the first place. Punishment or payback or whatever it is..."

A wobbly misstep by Wally resulted in Dick having to act fast so he could support the boy with two left feet before he caused them both to fall onto the hard ice.

A depressed sigh left Wally's lips, "Just face it, you're wasting your time trying to teach me to skate."

Dick was steadying Wally by holding firmly to his upper arms and kept that grip even when the speedster tried to pull away.

Without warning Dick was suddenly pressed against Wally's chest as the two half slid, half turned a 180 before a jarring jolt rippled through Dick from Wally's direction.

The younger boy looked up at a ticked off red-head who was glaring over his shoulder.

"Watch where you're going! You could've hurt somebody!"

Realization dawned on Dick that Wally had put himself in the pathway of an out of control skater and taken a brunt of the blow. Dick felt his face heating up again.

"You okay? How's your arm?"

Oh, right. His arm. He had promised Alfred to look after him so he wouldn't injure his arm anymore than it was.

"Fine," was the stiff answer as he pulled away from the warmth of his best friend. "Let's go."

"...'Go'?" Wally repeated in confusion as he let Dick pull him towards the side of the rink. "But you just said-"

"And you just said it's a waste of time. I'm agreeing with you; let's go."

"Are you...mad?" Wally asked hesitantly.

"No. Why would I be mad." He tried to keep his voice normal but a hard undertone seeped in.

"I don't know, that's why I'm asking."

He received no answer as they finally made it back to the safety of the wall. Wally moved one hand to the wall but kept the other holding onto the upper arm of Dick's coat.

A few more moments of silence was all Wally needed to know Dick wasn't going to talk, "Dammit Dick! Talk to me!"

The gymnast used his years of training to get out of the vice grip his best friend had on him before turning around and skating towards the opening in the side of the rink that lead back to the benches and their shoes.

Wally stood gaping after the bird for a second and then started to make his way after him (which was slow going because Dick had dropped him off about 50 meters from the opening so it took him a while to pull himself over there).

By the time he made it off the ice he had lost sight of Dick. Wally had seen him take his skates back to the girl behind the counter so figured he was on his way out.

He used as much of his power as he dared in such a crowded place...basically that meant he only used it to take off his skates and tie his shoes.

He rushed at a normal pace to hand the skates back in before he ran outside. Pretty sure Dick was heading back home he turned in that direction and went as quickly as he could without attracting attention from any passerbys.

Finally, after what seemed like forever, he caught sight of Dick's back. He was haunched over seemingly to protect himself from the cold and Wally refrained from calling out o him in fear he would get spooked and run.

No one was in the immediate vicinity so Wally put an extra boost in his step to close the final distance between them.

Not wanting to give Dick the chance to get away again, Wally appeared in front of him and grabbed both his shoulders, determined not to let go this time no matter what fancy ninja tricks the other tried.

But before he could form a coherent thought and voice it, Wally stood frozen, gaping at the smaller boy before him.

"What the-? Are you crying?! Oh crap! Did I grab you too hard?! Is your arm hurting!? Shit! It was back at the ice rink, wasn't it? You wanted to leave after that guy hit us! Dammit, I should've noticed! I'm sorry! I-!"

Before Wally could string another twenty sentences together in a single breath, Dick cut him off by taking his breath away.

A good five seconds pass (and to a speedster that can feel like a life time) before Dick pulls away with a sad, knowing, look in his eyes. "Go home, Wally."

Another ten seconds pass before Wally can get his jumbled thoughts in order (is kissing some kind of new ninja move to make people let of of shoulders?! 'Cause if so it totally worked!) and start chasing down his best friend (almost boyfriend?) again.

But of course being distracted while using superspeed is a bad idea, so he really had no one else to blame but himself when he slipped on ice, slid right past Dick, and fell into a snow bank.

Dick hesitated, being torn in wanting to make sure Wally hadn't hurt himself and putting as much distance between them as possible.

It hadn't been long, but it was long enough, because when Wally popped out of that snowbank, emerald eyes burning, boring into Dick's sapphire blues, the older wasted no time in rushing up to the younger before he could run away again, and crashed their lips together once more.

After Dick got over his shock (Wally giving him all the time he needed) their kiss turned fiery and more passionate. So many years worth of ignoring their feelings, shoving them down, pretending they weren't there just erupted as the two teens fully embraced the new feeling they both found they enjoyed very much.

Both oblivious to the world around them until they had to pull away for air.

"You can't run away from me."

~FIN~