For itried

uhm. hi. it's been a while. (back from the dead)
so some time ago my friend here had a birthday and requested this fic and mere *3 years* later here I am, providing the goods.
I couldn't find a beta reader, so if you catch any mistakes please lmk so I can correct them, and if you wanna be my beta I will love you forever

I promise there is some birdflash fluff if you just keep reading

Warnings: contains homophobia and internalized homopobia

Wally was tired.

Today he had PE class, and pretending to be a total loser took a lot of energy out of him. He also got piles of homework from every single class (except PE but still) and he just finished the last math problem and closed his notebook.

He flopped down on his bed, buried his head in the pillow and closed his eyes for a second.

"Wally, dinner!"

No matter how exhausted he was, he would always jump to his feet to the sound of food.

"Coming, mom!" He yelled as he half skipped, half ran down the stairs to the dining room.

He sat down before either his dad or mom could get to the table and then waited impatiently for them to arrive. He knew that if he started to eat before they sat down, he'd get scowled.

"Now, now, son, no running in the house. You know how your mother feels about that."

"Sorry," he apologized, though he didn't even use super speed. His mom gave him a look and then sat down as well, putting down the last bowl on the table.

After a short blessing, Wally finally helped himself to the chicken and the salad, remembering not to take too much at once.

"So, honey, how was work?" His mom asked before taking a bite of her food.

His dad started going on about his workday when suddenly, Wally's pocket buzzed. He took out his phone and looked at it under the table to see who sent him a text.

It was Dick.

He smiled like a fool as he read about the newest tale of Alfred scolding Bruce for eating in the cave. He quickly texted back and returned to his eating.

"The food is great, mom," he said as he poured himself a second dish.

The redhead woman smiled and thanked him, and they all continued to have the normal dinner small talk, all while Wally kept receiving texts.

"Wally, you know it's not polite to be on your phone during dinner." Despite his best efforts, after the fifth time he pulled out his phone, his parents noticed.

"Who are you texting so much anyways?" His dad asked, his lips tagging a bit upwards, letting him know he wasn't really mad.

"Hm, just a friend." Wally looked down at his plate, missing the knowing look his parents exchanged in the process.

"Someone from that-" his dad waved his hand around- "group of kids you're in?"

Wally looked back up and sighed. "Yeah dad, it's someone from the team."

"You know, honey, we never got to meet these friends of yours, you should invite them over this Friday," his mom suggested.

Wally looked between both his parents, shocked. He was positive someone was pulling his leg right now because there was no way it wasn't a joke. "A-are you guys serious?"

His parents looked at each other strangely again, but Wally was too shocked to notice.

"A dinner party sounds great," his dad added, confirming this was indeed going to happen.

"Ohmygod, thank you so much!" It took him all his self-control not to get up and jump on his parents with a hug. He was pretty sure they wouldn't appreciate such gesture in the middle of the meal.

His exhaustion almost forgotten by now, as soon as Wally was dismissed from the table, he went up to his room and pulled out his phone again. This was going to be so awesome and he just couldn't wait to tell everyone!

~O~O~O~O~O~O~

Mr. and Mrs. West were good parents. So they liked to tell themselves.

They made sure their son always did his homework, that he always said his blessing before dinner and that he knew how to respect his elder.

Now, said son was almost 17-year-old and was growing to be quite a charming young man.

It's been more than a year since he had joined his little heroes' group, but lately, his parents got the sense that something had changed. He seemed to spend more time away, even when he didn't have any missions, and when he was home he always had his phone in his hand and a goofy smile on his face.

Soon, the Wests discussed the new development and decided that Wally must have a girlfriend, and she was probably from that team of his.

Like any normal parents, they made it their goal to meet their future daughter-in-law, and no, they were definitely not getting ahead of themselves.

And so when the time for the dinner party arrived and the doorbell rang, the two adults went into the living room to greet their new guests and try to get information about them.

~O~O~O~O~O~O~

Friday arrived in a flash (heh) and Wally couldn't be more excited. The dinner was going great and it looked like everyone was having a lot of fun. The speedster still couldn't believe his parents agreed to this, let along suggested the whole thing. But hey, he wasn't complaining.

They finished eating and were now sitting in the living room, waiting for dessert.

"Mari you outdid yourself." Wally's dad said when his wife came in with a delicious looking strawberries cake.

"Wow, it looks amazing!" Zatanna commented. M'gann looked like Christmas came early and Wally made a mental note to ask his mom to give her the recipe later.

After everyone got a piece, they went back to the previous small-talks with Wally back to observing. The speedster looked at his parents and friends and smiled. This evening couldn't get any better! He thought to himself. Well, one thing was missing for it to be perfect. He took the last bite of his cake and set the empty plate back on the coffee table. Strawberries were Dick's favorite.

The acrobat texted him earlier and said he had an urgent bat business to attend and he was very extremely sorry but he promised to make it up to him later. Wally sighed. He loved his friends, but he hasn't seen Dick in over a week and he missed him.

Artemis caught his sigh from across the room and smirked. "What's wrong, Bay-watch? Can't stand one evening without your precious boyfriend?"

"I'm sure Wally is very much enjoying our company." Kaldur, ever the diplomat, gave the archer a look that clearly said be polite.

Artemis stuck her tongue out to him, which was why it took her whole 7 seconds to notice the sudden tense silence in the room.

Then, though, she did notice.

She saw Wally's mom and dad, expressions shocked and outraged. But worse, she saw Wally's face. He looked terrified. His eyes were wide open and frantically moved between his parents in worry. His breath was held.

A quick glance at her teammates discovered them in a similar state to hers, tense and frozen.

Mr. West was the first to break the silence with a quiet, scary calm voice. "What does she mean, your boyfriend?"

"Haha," the blonde tried to brush it off with an awkward laugh, "I was kidding, I'm just teasing him." She looked at Wally apologetically.

"Son, what is the meaning of this?"

Wally swallowed. Well, the cat was out of the bag now.

He turned to face his parents, determined.

"Actually, I'm dating Robin, from the team."

"You mea-"

"Yes, he's a guy."

The team looked between the three Wests, all standing up now, feeling very helplessly out of place in the situation.

"Perhaps-" Kaldur tried, but he was cut off by Wally's mom who turned to face the rest of the team.

"Well, it was lovely having you all, but I think you should go now." Her visibly forced smile was wavering.

"Uhm." It looked like Connor was about to object, so the speedster gave everyone a meaningful look.

"It's okay guys. Thank you all for coming."

After that, every member of the team gave the redhead a hug or patted him on the back with whispers of 'good luck' and 'it'll be fine'.

Artemis remained last and took him into a big crushing hug. "I'm so so sorry." She whispered in his ear. "I didn't know-"

"It's okay." He pulled away and looked at her. "It was due to come up eventually."

"If you need anything… You know where to find me."

"Thanks, Arty." He smiled weakly.

The archer gave his shoulder one last squeeze before she followed her teammates out.

After the door was shut and his teammates were gone, Wally felt all his courage leaving him. He thought the short silence that followed was terrible, he could practically feel his parent's furry. But what came next was even worse.

"I can't even look at you right now." From the corner of his eyes, Wally saw his dad simply going out of the room.

"I can't believe you're doing this to us," his mom said sadly then walked away too.

Both his parents left. Left Wally all by himself in the living room, staring after their backs, long after they were gone.

It all happened so fast, one second his parents were happily chatting with his friends, and the next they were cold as ice.

Wally always knew his parents weren't big fans of anything LGBT+, but he tried not to think about how that would apply to their feelings about him. Knowing they would just shun him like that without a second thought definitely hurt.

At some point, he apparently slipped down to the floor, because he found himself staring at the coffee table, a little shell-shocked, for what felt like hours.

Oh God, they hate me now.

They will never speak to me again.

Why can't I just be normal?

After a while, still in a trance, he climbed up the stairs and went to his room. On the way there, he stopped by his parents' bedroom; the door was shut but he heard quiet voices through it. He couldn't decide if it was a good sign that his parents were talking this over, or if the muffled words he was hearing were full of rage and hurt. He kept walking.

He entered his room without a sound, got into bed and lay on his back. As he stared at the ceiling, silent tears started to slide on the sides of his face.

What would happen to him now?

~O~O~O~O~O~O~

Artemis felt like crap. She felt so bad for what happened, she just meant to harmlessly tease Wally. But most of all, she was worried for her friend.

As soon as she got to the Mountain the next morning, she went to the training room to search for Robin. Like she expected, the boy was already up and about, close to the end of his morning routine. He smiled when he spotted her and finished stretching quickly before marching up to the archer to ask her how last night went.

His wide smile disappeared though, after Artemis told him what had happened.

"Oh no," he said, his brow frowning above his sunglasses. He sat down on the bench and pulled out his phone.

He got back from the 'bat business' so late last night that he immediately crushed into bed. Then, first thing this morning, he zeta-beamed to the base to do his morning routine there instead of at the home, since he seriously missed his friends.

He was so excited to meet Wally again after a week apart that he didn't even notice how odd it was that the speedster didn't text him at all since before the dinner.

"Robin, I didn't know. I didn't mean to…" The archer made him look up from his phone, his worried expression softening to the look of her face.

"I know Arty, thanks for telling me." He got up and shouldered his towel before slipping his phone into his shorts' pocket.

"Tell him- tell him I'm sorry."

"I'm sure he knows."

~O~O~O~O~O~O~

A few more days passed before Wally showed up in the Mountain again, and Robin was getting more and more worried by the minute. So far he got nothing more than a few texts exchanges that didn't reveal anything about Wally's well-being, except that he was staying at his Uncle and Aunt's for now.

When the zeta beam finally announced the young speedster's arrival, the boy wonder was there in a bat of an eye. Wally stepped down and into the entrance hall and greeted his boyfriend with a soft smile. Robin moved close enough to put both his hands on Wally's shoulders and looked him in the eyes. They were a little red, but not as puffy as he expected them to be. Still, Robin has never seen such sadness reflecting from there before.

"Hi, babe," Wally let out, his smile holding.

Robin bit his bottom lip before pulling the redhead into a tight embrace.

Wally melted into him immediately, holding on to him like his life depended on it. "I missed you so much," he mumbled into Robin's neck. The strangled sound that followed that statement broke the younger boy's heart.

"I'm here, babe. I'm here."

~O~O~O~O~O~O~

A couple of hours later, they were sitting on Robin's bed in his room. Wally was already exhausted from telling Dick everything that happened. He was lying down with his head in the acrobat's lap while Dick's fingers, which were gantlets-free now that he was in civvies, were playing with his hair.

"Wally…" He started with a sigh. The older boy looked up at his boyfriend, their eyes meeting with no barriers between them. The care and the worry Wally saw filled his heart with so much love.

With his unoccupied hand, Dick took Wally's hand and squeezed. "I love you, and I'm here for you. Whatever you need."

The redhead smiled and leaned upward. Getting the hint, Dick met him halfway down for a soft kiss.

"Thank you. I love you, too."

Dick smiled down at him and pulled him up to eye level before starting again. "Wally, there's nothing wrong with what we do. Nothing wrong with us, with you." His hand now rested on Wally's cheek.

"I- I know," he replied, but didn't sound very convinced – impossibly breaking Dick's heart even more.

"Everything will be alright," He promised.

"Hmm."

As they lay on the bed together, Dick continuously providing comforting words and soft touches, he made a vow to make things right himself if he needed. And he already had a plan.

~O~O~O~O~O~O~

Friday arrived once more, and with it a very strange text message.

hey kid, I think it's time you paid your folks a visit – BA

Wally stared at the screen, perplexed. Was his uncle sick of him staying at his house already? Maybe he did mind the whole 'gay thing' after all.

With not much of a choice, the young speedster walked to his parents' house and went past the threshold with caution. His heart was beating loud and fast in his chest with worry, fear and uncertainty as he quietly closed the door behind him. Only then did he make out the dimmed voices from the living room and slowly followed them there.

Nothing could have prepared him for the sight in front of him. His jaw dropped open in shock as he took in what his brain could not yet process.

His parents. Sitting there. With his freaking boyfriend. Right there on the living room sofa! They were drinking tea and – wait were these AlfredMade cookies?!

He might have had some audible reaction, because the room's occupants all turned to look at him.

"Wally, dear, come here." His mom. Looking at him as if was not the biggest disappointment on earth.

He walked over in a daze, blinking slowly as if he's dreaming and scared he might wake up. His gaze traveled to Dick, who took a sip of his tea and smiled at him from around the cup. His eyes were shining.

"Here." His mom handed him a cup of tea and he took it numbly before sitting down on the sofa next to Dick.

"Son, Richard was just telling us about a business deal he helped his father with. It was very impressive." Mr. West looked quite charmed.

Wally turned to Dick with a questioning look (or a 'what the fuck is going on' look). Dick just smirked back, but then he subtly reached his hand to grab Wally's between their thighs. He squeezed it quickly and let go before Wally's parents could see.

"Richard is such a lovely young man, you should have brought him over sooner," Mrs. West almost cooed.

"Yes, I believe he will be good for you, son."

Wally was very close to expressing his thoughts out loud, which mostly consisted of different variations of the phrase 'what the fuck'.

Instead, he just nodded with every word his parents said until a smile crept onto his face.

He smiled so big his cheeks hurt.

After some time passed, he summoned up the courage to ask a risky question. "Mom, dad, is it okay if D- Richard and I go upstairs? I want to show him my room."

Something weird flashed in his dad's eyes, but nonetheless, he agreed. "Of course, Wally. But leave the door open."

Both boys got up from the sofa with a smile.

"Thank you for your lovely hospitality and the great tea, Mr. and Mrs. West." Dick picked up his dishes as he stood up.

Mrs. West started fussing around him with many "our pleasure" and "please leave it, it's fine!"

"Are you sure, Mrs. West?" Dick pointed at his empty plate and mug, "I don't mind."

"No, No. Go ahead." She smiled at him and sent Wally a look that said 'you could learn some manners from him'. As if she didn't tell him he was a terrible son a mere week ago.

They climbed up the stairs in silence, Dick letting Wally lead him into his room. They didn't close the door.

When they were finally a safe distance from his parents, Wally was all but ready to burst. "Dude, what the hell?" The shock still didn't wear off, though he was definitely smiling now.

"I just wanted to help your parents change their minds about our relationship."

Not satisfied with this answer, Wally raised an eyebrow at him.

"You know me-" Dick pulled his boyfriend to stand in front of him with a smirk -"nobody can resist my charm."

"Oh, I know." Wally's smile was back ten times bigger before he began laughing in a strange mix of happiness and relief. "You're the best boyfriend in the world!" He threw his arms around Dick and lifted him off the ground. They both giggled as Wally spun them around the room, but quiet enough so Wally's parents wouldn't hear them from downstairs.

Later on, they were both on their backs, lying breathlessly on Wally's bed. They turned their head towards each other, with something unnamed passing between the two when they shared a look.

"Thank you."

"Any time. I love you."

"I love you, too."

~O~O~O~O~O~O~

After that, Wally's parents warmed up to the idea of them dating more and more. It might have taken them some time (a long time) but eventually, the teens were able to hold hands, hug and even share small kisses without all hell breaking loose. And though it was difficult for him, Wally found himself slowly rebuilding the relationship he had with his parents, and the trust that was broken both ways that one faithful Friday evening. Thankfully, his teammates were always there for him and he had the best boyfriend in the world to support him the whole way.

so this was actually inspired by sort of similar real-life events that happened to one of my closest friends Robin Red R (you know the one).

ik things don't always work out with homophobic parents, but I feel like this showed a more complicated weird experience. Seeing Dick as an actual person (and a good influence and not just 'he made you gay' bs influence) helped them accept Wally too. (i still don't like his parents here tho duh)

I'm also still undecided about the role I gave Artemis here because I feel like I kinda used her and it's not cool. In my defense, I wrote most of this 3 years ago and I kinda didn't know how to move the plot along without it.. I might change it in the future.

I didn't write in a long time and it shows, and I never write angst and it shows even more, so I'm sorry for this bad quality fic and I hope you still enjoyed it :) please review with what you think and if you found any mistakes. thank you!