Wally looked at himself in the mirror, hair and skin damp from the shower; towel hanging off his hips as he peers into the reflective glass. He doesn't like what he sees…but then again he never particularly has. Red hair hang hallway down his brow, dark rings around his dimmed green eyes. He hasn't been sleeping well. He's been kept up late by perturbed thoughts of a boy who he's come to know very well—hence the staring.

He's becoming someone one he doesn't want to be. The boy is fifteen and if that didn't make thing worst he was leading a perfectly innocent girl along to distract him…which was putting a strain on the relationship of the boy and the girl. No, this was someone Wally West truly did not want to be. He didn't want to be his father. He didn't want to be the monster that lied to his mother, that—behind her, no, their backs—cheated on them with another family, another woman.

Wally shook his head, spraying water everywhere from his still damp hair. The reflective surface now flecked with water droplets he sighs and exits the bath room. After deliberation he's made a choice. Not the most favorable of his options but the only one he could make…and it broke his heart to do it. He walked into his room, trying not to look at the elephant plush still on his bed among the pillows, and grabbed his phone from the nightstand.

He deftly activated the screen and navigated his contacts. He didn't have to go very far down for this particular name. He pressed dial and brought the device close to his ear. He took in a deep breath as the call was answered.

"Hey, beautiful." He greeted.

"Hey Wally." Artemis answered back, not too particularly thrilled to be receiving this call. She still hadn't made up her mind if this guy was a waste of her time or not.

"What are you doing tomorrow? I was hoping a movie and a dinner?" There was a brief silence.

"Why Wally West, that sounds like you want to go on a date with me." His toes curled and his heart raced.

"Yeah…I do." He said a bit awkwardly. "I know I've been…distant but I mean it this time. You and me. No one else." There was a longer silence before she replied.

"Just you and me? No Megan, no Barbara and no Richard?" She said the last name with a certain tone which made Wally feel slightly guilty.

"That's what 'you and me' means." He said in forced amusement. He had to do this.

"That so? I was starting to wonder if you knew what that meant." She said in her usually snarky attitude.

"So…are we on?"

"You've got yourself a date West. See you tomorrow." She hung up. He tossed his phone on the bed and sighed. His eyes wandered from the phone to Zitka.

Yeah, he HAD to do this.

::

It had been a few weeks since he and Wally had spent any time together other than the very short chat sessions and the occasionally responded text message. When he Skype called him Wally never picked up, saying something like 'I have a friend over. I'll talk to you later' or 'At work, kind of busy.'. He knew the last one was a bull shit excuse because he had been "busy" many times at work and still Skyped with him. Wally was ignoring him. No, he wasn't reading into it and no, he was overreacting. His so called best friend and crush was avoiding him. What was worst is that he recently learned i.e. right now, that Wally has been "hanging out" with Artemis…a lot.

Currently he lay on the floor of Barbara Gordon's room staring up at the ceiling as Zatanna, from the computer desk, and Barbara, from the bed, looked down at him.

"I'm sorry Dick but…You had to know nothing was going to come of that crush right? Wally's straight…and it's not like this is the first time you had a crush on a straight guy. Remember when you first met Conner? This isn't the end of the world." Barbara gave him a pitying look.

"It's… it's not the same Babs. Sure I had a thing for Conner but there were no signals from him. Conner and I didn't have this…closeness. I mean I've known Wally for less than five months and he's my best friend…" He thought about that statement and looked up the red head. "No offense." She shrugged.

"I'm going to have to agree with Dick on this one. I've only met the guy once since I've come back but…it felt like something was there. The way he looked at Dick. There's no way to say that there is nothing there."

"Well…I guess I can't argue with you there. I mean you made Artemis feel threatened…which is scary by the way. That chick is like a tiger ready to pounce around Dick before they started getting serious." From that statement Dick groaned into his hands.

"What do I do?" I can't just…pretend he doesn't exist."

"I'm sorry dick but…I guess if you were ever in the running…he chose Arty." Dick isn't sure which one of them said that particular comment, he doesn't care. All he wants…all he needs right now is…

"I know it hurts…but you'll get over this. This isn't the end of the world, there are plenty of fish in the sea and all that jazz. Really, Wally's the one missing out." He gets distracted from the pep talk when his phone buzzed three times in his pocket in short bursts…meaning a text message.

He digs in his pocket and retrieved the phone then looked at the screen. His breath hitches when the phone lets him know it's from Wally. Richard hadn't gotten a text, unprompted, from Wally in weeks. He opened it, apprehensive.

The girls peered down at his curiously. "From Wally?" Babs asked.

"Yeah…" He said.

"What's he want?" Zee asked.

"He wants me to come over." A silence filled the room. Zee broke it first.

"That sounds like a terrible idea." She glanced at Babs for confirmation. Babs nodded back at her.

"She's right. You need to stop before it gets worst Dick."

"Yeah…you're right. I know you both are… I won't go." He smiled at both of them. Then looked back at the message.

::

Wally sat in his living room as he watched TV. Some mindless cartoon he wasn't really paying attention to. He checked his phone for the umpteenth time and he sighed when there still wasn't a reply from Richard. He couldn't blame the younger boy…Wally had been ignoring and avoiding him for weeks. He would have been mad at himself too.

"Ugh!" He groaned and flopped onto the couch. He hated this…this whole situation. He regretted coming to Gotham for that internship. He regretted going into that coffee shop his second day here and meeting a pretty blonde in line. He regretted meeting her friends…he regretted agreeing to Barbara's simple request of taking her fake cousin to the mall. Most of all he regretted—

A knock at the door derailed his train of thought. He hops up from his spot on the couch and nearly ran to the door. He unlocked his and opened the door a little too quickly. On the other side stood a very nervous looking Richard, hands behind his back. He looked up at Wally, lower lip caught between his white teeth and blue eyes looked uncertain.

And suddenly, Wally didn't regret any of it. He moved aside wordlessly and Dick entered into his apartment. Wally let out a slow breath before he closed the door.

Here is your very very very overdue chapter…which is a bit on the short side. I am sorry for that but at the point where I finished it didn't seem like I could continue without spilling into the next chapter's story.

I do hope you guys enjoyed the chapter though! Things are going to start getting a lot more angsty after this so be prepared! There are only 4 chapters left!

Also, I'm sorry if I slip in an out of third and first person…there's an original story I'm working on that's in first person and it just kind of comes though. I combed through the fic and I think I corrected it all but if I didn't…I'm sorry.