From Mars, With Love
Feb. 23rd, 2007 01:11 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
shankieNo Jimmy Olsen, but, there is me finally having the bravery to write Wally's parents as they are in comics canon. Or at least try. I also gave in to DCAU canon about Wally's eyes. Le sigh. This may or may not be related to my own mum visiting me the other day, because she's such a sweetie.
From Mars, With Love
DCAU, J'onn/Wally, PG
Wally and J'onn face their greatest challenge to date; introducing J'onn to Wally's parents.
Part Five: Courtship Rituals
You knew you’d have to do this eventually.
I’m not disputing that.
You’re totally making a big deal out of nothing, remember, I can tell?
I never said I didn’t want to go.
As if you have to.
I’m sure it’ll be very… nice.
Liar.
Wally looked up at the clock; ten minutes, forty-one seconds, he’d been sitting here. One of those bank waiting areas that’s all old coffee and fake brass accents and smells vaguely like cleaning supplies. And dust.
Oh look, ten more seconds.
What is it they say about watched pots?
They still take too long to boil.
I really do want to meet your parents.
The battered copy of Parents got another browse before it hit the chair next to him. Children. He liked children.
This is going to be bad.
Your new savings account?
Wally rolled his eyes and plucked at a stray thread on the knee of his jeans.
There’s a reason my parents got divorced.
And yet, they’re willing to put aside their differences for one evening.
Because my dad thinks all the secrecy means you’re rich or something. He will ask for money.
So you keep thinking.
It’s been five years.
I know.
It was all Wally could think about. Friday night, he and J’onn were going to Blue Valley, to his mom’s house. His mom wanted to know who he was dating; it’d been a while, and he supposed it was a mom thing to always want to be up on stuff like that. J’onn was a little concerned about the little revelation that he wasn’t actually a petite female writer from Seattle.
And his dad was going to be there.
Wally sighed. Eleven minutes, five seconds.
I’m going to die.
I sincerely doubt that.
Starvation, dehydration, boredom, right in this chair. Croak croak, frog frog dead.
I suppose you’d enjoy a thirteen hour monitor duty shift instead.
Touché.
J’onn was craving cookies and that wasn’t helping at all. Wally licked his lips and tried to calculate how close the nearest grocery store was. Too far.
The door in front of him was still closed, and he was still waiting.
Twelve minutes, twenty-two seconds.
There was a bunch of little flecks of shiny sand on the blue patterned carpet.
Thirteen minutes, thirty-one seconds.
Oh look, a fly.
And the door opens!
“Oh, thank God.”
“Uh, hello, Mr. West?”
Thankfully, the rest didn’t take all that long, and he was distracted; after sorting out his finances, there was the city to patrol, laundry to do, a kitchen floor in bad need of a good mopping… and J’onn reminded him of a phone call to make.
* * *
Wally didn’t actually know where his father had been for the past… decade? Something like that. But his mom still lived in Blue Valley, in the same house she had since before he’d taken off. They’d decided the best thing might be for J’onn to arrive as Jess, because that’s who they thought he was, only more conservatively dressed than usual in a simple black dress. Still with the green hair, but that was going to be the least of the things they’d have to be worried about.
The doorbell was audible on the inside echoing past the door, and it was a moment before his mom answered it. She looked at Jess first, with narrow judgment in her eye, having a kind of ferocity that one wouldn’t guess from her suburban housewife look.
“Wally’s told me so much about you,” she said neutrally.
“Hi, mom,” Wally said, trying to distract her away, and got a quick hug and an order to come inside.
It smelled like furniture polish in the living room, where J’onn was already anticipating a difficult reception and Wally tried to reassure them as coffee was offered.
There was a knock on the door while his mother was in the kitchen; typical of his father. He wouldn’t be left alone with her, mostly for legal reasons. His parents didn’t greet each other as she let him in, but he could imagine they might be communicating in gestures, and his father soon walked in and joined them, sitting heavily in an easy chair, taking his hat off to scratch at his balding head.
“So, finally found a woman decent enough to bring home to your mother?” He looked Jess over with less appraise and more appreciation and Wally felt J’onn’s discomfort distinctly.
“Dad, could you please?”
“Yeah, right. I’m sure you’re very, um, a very lovely girl, miss.”
I think being straightforward would be the best approach.
I forgot about that, he’s a little, um… uncivilized.
Wally’s mother returned, and they all were sitting around the room looking at each other after a minute; each of his parents in chairs with as much space between them as possible, their squirming guests sitting next to each other on the couch trying not to fall into defensive positions. Wally was, at least; J’onn was less phased.
“I think, um, now would be the best time, to, uh…” Wally looked at J’onn for help.
“We have something to tell you,” Jess said, looking now serious in the way J’onn was serious.
“I knew it’d be something,” Wally’s father said with an air of resignation.
“Could you keep a lid on it, for once in your life?” his mother gritted.
J’onn was trying to hide a flicker of amusement, which Wally registered with a long-suffering sigh. “Mom, dad, please..?”
“Right,” she replied. “What is it?”
“See, you know how I’m in the Justice League, right?”
“Can we talk about that?” his mother asked, “isn’t that all, top secret?”
“I don’t think the FBI has your house bugged.” His father coughed, but Wally was pretty sure they didn’t. Why would they, right? J’onn was still laughing a little on the inside, and Wally decided they should just get on with this already. “Anyway, Jess isn’t, uh, Jess. She’s… one of my teammates.”
“She’s a little short to be that Wonder Woman chick,” his father commented dryly.
“Well, yes. Usually.”
J’onn was surprised at how unsurprised Wally’s parents were at the Martian Manhunter revealing himself to have been their son’s girlfriend.
He’d just shifted then, to prevent prolonging this any more, and they looked back at him as if trying to recall what his name was. From what he could pick up, that’s exactly what they were doing.
“J’onn J’onnz,” Wally supplied. “From, uh, Mars.”
“Mars,” his mother said.
“I thought Mars didn’t have an atmosphere or something,” his father said curiously.
“Not anymore,” J’onn said somberly, not meaning to come off quite as somber as he did. “It’s a pleasure to meet you.”
“Do you need some kind of special passport to come to Earth from another planet?” Wally’s father asked suddenly, “I remember wondering that once, seems to me if you’re coming from France it should be easier than coming from Mars, if you know what I mean.”
“I have honorary citizenship from the United Nations,” J’onn replied; nobody had ever quite asked him that before.
“Didn’t the Martians invade a while back?” his mom broke in.
“White Martians, but they weren’t really Martians,” Wally replied quickly. “J’onn is the only real one.”
“What’s that mean, only?” his father asked.
J’onn and Wally were quiet for a moment.
“I’m the only Martian that still lives.”
“That’s terrible,” his mom said, “you poor thing. What was it like?”
And so, for a long time, J’onn told Wally’s parents about Mars. About the wandering sprawl of dwellings in the sand that had been their homes, the proud monuments that had been the seats of their civilization, great libraries and meeting places, places of learning that would draw Martians from all over their world to study.
It took some effort for Wally not to close his eyes and get wrapped up in the mental images coming from J’onn’s mind, made clear by his fond recollections, rekindling his deep love and missing of his world.
Neither of them were at all surprised, still; Wally wasn’t quite sure, but he’d figured his father was some kind of government agent or something. Hush hush, at any rate, and his parents had never been surprised by anything. Didn’t bat an eye when he suddenly gained super-powers, and his father had been more interested in his advertising career and his potential fortune than his heroics.
J’onn finally fell quiet, and mentally remarked on seeing Wally in their faces, in his father’s graying red hair and his mother’s eyes. Pale blue that concealed as much as they left open.
“Does that mean you’re an immortal or something?” his father asked after a moment, setting his empty mug pointedly aside.
“Not… as such.”
J’onn would likely live thousands of years. Wally tried to imagine that, already having difficulty with the span of time he’d already lived.
“Were you gay back with the Martians, too?” Wally’s mom shot his father a sharp look at his question, but J’onn answered obligingly.
“Humans are very different from my own people, I don’t see your genders as you do. Martians are not so divided as you are, but I had a wife.”
“What, do you pick which one you are or something? What’s that supposed to mean?”
“It isn’t that simple, but you are… essentially correct.”
It was easier to imagine when J’onn looked like himself, lithe and graceful like all the Martians were. The way he looked for everyone else had been tailored from Superman and Batman, and was thusly about as masculine as it could get, and it was hard to imagine who he really was.
Most people really didn’t know, and J’onn was content to be an enigma.
“Then, how do you have children?”
“A couple would take parts of themselves and join them together, creating a new whole from each.”
“So, you can’t have children with him?” his mother clarified.
“No.”
She seemed disapproving at that, like she’d have been perfectly content and unquestioning as long as she had some hope of grandkids. Wally was a little tired of this being her main concern since he’d graduated high school.
“Mom…”
“It’s just a question,” she snapped defensively, and he conceded. “Anyway, I think dinner should be ready.”
They ate, their subject dropped for his mother to try and interrogate his father into telling just where he’d been recently, and as usual, he had little to say about it. He’d been ‘busy’ with some secretive work.
Neither J’onn nor Wally really were pressed to know much about the details.
“Well,” his father crumpled his napkin on his plate and stood. “It was nice to meet you, mister or whatever J’onnz, hurt my son and I know people that’ll make you disappear.” He nodded at Wally’s mom. “Mary.”
With that, he left, slamming the front door behind him, and leaving a strained silence.
She pulled a pack of cigarettes out of her pocket, and J’onn winced internally as she lit one and sighed raggedly. “Bastard.”
“He hasn’t changed much.”
“No. But you have. I was a little worried I’ve have two assholes to worry about.”
“Uh, thanks.”
She shrugged.
“Wasn’t like I ever had much say in how you turned out.” She smiled and threw the cigarette out with a hiss in a glass of water. “For the best, I’m sure.”
“It was very nice to meet you, Mrs. West,” J’onn said. It was important to him that she accept him, and he was a little concerned by her apparent train of thought.
“You too, J’onn. You seem nice enough to me, green or not.”
They spent the next hour as if J’onn was any guest, and he didn’t talk about his other identities, but did elaborate some on why he chose to be Jessica, the insight he got from an outsiders perspective of alien guests. Enjoying life as an everyday human, which she seemed to understand and find a little funny at the same time.
When they said their goodbyes, she gave them both hugs, and they were glad not to have other things to do that night.
J’onn and Wally went to spend their last night together in his old apartment; tomorrow he was moving in, they were moving in, and although Wally couldn’t give J’onn a family, he could give them a home they could share when they were both on Earth. They flew home, Wally hugging onto J’onn against the night air, but not really minding being a little cold. It was beautiful, up above the lights, where the stars were huge in the sky.
He worried, and J’onn tried to ease that worry. J’onn wasn’t sure if he was even ready to have a family yet, children, dependants. The thought was a scary one. Wally understood that, and smiled as J’onn looked like himself again inside, and Wally decided that he didn’t much care if it’d be strange to have pictures of an alien on his wall.
His parents liked him well enough. J’onn liked them, too, even his father, and chuckled to remember him as they embraced and Wally was all wrapped up in tangled arms.
Wally was vastly relieved.
They were able to be together that night, but as happened so often, J’onn couldn’t come to Earth for days. Some explorers from some high-tech world of bug people had shown up and the League’s star diplomat had been dealing with it.
So Wally moved in by himself, and waited, but didn’t pay much attention to what J’onn was doing even if he missed him. Diplomating with the bug-people didn’t have any interest, at all, and he didn’t have the patience to follow it. It was on the Watchtower they saw each other again, J’onn beckoning him up like a desire for his presence more than a clear request.
J’onn was waiting in the hanger for him, echoing and hollow around the Javelins parked on the steel floor, no techs around at this time of day with any work to do.
He wanted to take them to Mars, and had arranged for their transportation to be borrowed for it. Wally was a little taken aback by the gesture, knowing that J’onn hadn’t returned to Mars lightly since he’d left. But J’onn extended his hand, and assured him he would be honoured if Wally would join him.
It didn’t take long to get there with the Javelin’s engines, and this time, Wally wore a space suit when they exited the ship. He could feel the whipping wind buffeting his mask, moving through the sand under his feet. Mars was harsh, vicious all around them, but J’onn was more serene just to be here, reaching out into the very ground’s familiarity.
They walked over where streets used to be, where his people used to work and play and live, but was now just red sand flowing in rivers around them. J’onn wasn’t remorseful, but happy, to think about the way it used to be. It could never truly be gone, if he was still here to remember the way it was before the winds ate away the evidence once the builders were no more. Mars, the planet itself, was strong and willful, still alive with Hronmeer, and for the first time Wally truly understood, and held onto what the old god meant to J’onn.
In every step, J’onn was speaking to his people, asking them to listen from their rest in the sands, to hear that he hadn’t forgotten them.
J’onn then spoke to his father, wise and gentle, and his mother, the Manhunter. The one whose path he’d followed along with pursuits of the mind. Wally couldn’t be sure, but he got the feeling they were there, and could see him, and it was strange and touching like an unexpected religious experience. He could hear their voices from J’onn’s mind, how his mother could be both strong and kind, his father worshiping her with love all his days. Not without conflict, but Wally was still envious of that.
I’m glad of them. They created you.
Wally smiled, and hoped that, if J’onn’s family really could see him, they liked him. He liked to think that he’d like them as much as he’d always liked J’onn, even before this. J’onn assured him that they would.
When they left, he felt very much like he had just met J’onn’s parents, not his other family, but Wally understood it was too soon for that, and they both thought about them, holding hands over the console on the way back.
The bug people were still there, and had a flurry of demands over their quarters when J’onn landed. Wally assured him that he’d still be waiting when he was done. He didn’t like that they had so little time… but the time they did have actually being together made up for it.
He felt lucky, and left J’onn to matters of room temperature, urging him to hurry in following him back to Earth.
From Mars, With Love
DCAU, J'onn/Wally, PG
Wally and J'onn face their greatest challenge to date; introducing J'onn to Wally's parents.
Part Five: Courtship Rituals
You knew you’d have to do this eventually.
I’m not disputing that.
You’re totally making a big deal out of nothing, remember, I can tell?
I never said I didn’t want to go.
As if you have to.
I’m sure it’ll be very… nice.
Liar.
Wally looked up at the clock; ten minutes, forty-one seconds, he’d been sitting here. One of those bank waiting areas that’s all old coffee and fake brass accents and smells vaguely like cleaning supplies. And dust.
Oh look, ten more seconds.
What is it they say about watched pots?
They still take too long to boil.
I really do want to meet your parents.
The battered copy of Parents got another browse before it hit the chair next to him. Children. He liked children.
This is going to be bad.
Your new savings account?
Wally rolled his eyes and plucked at a stray thread on the knee of his jeans.
There’s a reason my parents got divorced.
And yet, they’re willing to put aside their differences for one evening.
Because my dad thinks all the secrecy means you’re rich or something. He will ask for money.
So you keep thinking.
It’s been five years.
I know.
It was all Wally could think about. Friday night, he and J’onn were going to Blue Valley, to his mom’s house. His mom wanted to know who he was dating; it’d been a while, and he supposed it was a mom thing to always want to be up on stuff like that. J’onn was a little concerned about the little revelation that he wasn’t actually a petite female writer from Seattle.
And his dad was going to be there.
Wally sighed. Eleven minutes, five seconds.
I’m going to die.
I sincerely doubt that.
Starvation, dehydration, boredom, right in this chair. Croak croak, frog frog dead.
I suppose you’d enjoy a thirteen hour monitor duty shift instead.
Touché.
J’onn was craving cookies and that wasn’t helping at all. Wally licked his lips and tried to calculate how close the nearest grocery store was. Too far.
The door in front of him was still closed, and he was still waiting.
Twelve minutes, twenty-two seconds.
There was a bunch of little flecks of shiny sand on the blue patterned carpet.
Thirteen minutes, thirty-one seconds.
Oh look, a fly.
And the door opens!
“Oh, thank God.”
“Uh, hello, Mr. West?”
Thankfully, the rest didn’t take all that long, and he was distracted; after sorting out his finances, there was the city to patrol, laundry to do, a kitchen floor in bad need of a good mopping… and J’onn reminded him of a phone call to make.
Wally didn’t actually know where his father had been for the past… decade? Something like that. But his mom still lived in Blue Valley, in the same house she had since before he’d taken off. They’d decided the best thing might be for J’onn to arrive as Jess, because that’s who they thought he was, only more conservatively dressed than usual in a simple black dress. Still with the green hair, but that was going to be the least of the things they’d have to be worried about.
The doorbell was audible on the inside echoing past the door, and it was a moment before his mom answered it. She looked at Jess first, with narrow judgment in her eye, having a kind of ferocity that one wouldn’t guess from her suburban housewife look.
“Wally’s told me so much about you,” she said neutrally.
“Hi, mom,” Wally said, trying to distract her away, and got a quick hug and an order to come inside.
It smelled like furniture polish in the living room, where J’onn was already anticipating a difficult reception and Wally tried to reassure them as coffee was offered.
There was a knock on the door while his mother was in the kitchen; typical of his father. He wouldn’t be left alone with her, mostly for legal reasons. His parents didn’t greet each other as she let him in, but he could imagine they might be communicating in gestures, and his father soon walked in and joined them, sitting heavily in an easy chair, taking his hat off to scratch at his balding head.
“So, finally found a woman decent enough to bring home to your mother?” He looked Jess over with less appraise and more appreciation and Wally felt J’onn’s discomfort distinctly.
“Dad, could you please?”
“Yeah, right. I’m sure you’re very, um, a very lovely girl, miss.”
I think being straightforward would be the best approach.
I forgot about that, he’s a little, um… uncivilized.
Wally’s mother returned, and they all were sitting around the room looking at each other after a minute; each of his parents in chairs with as much space between them as possible, their squirming guests sitting next to each other on the couch trying not to fall into defensive positions. Wally was, at least; J’onn was less phased.
“I think, um, now would be the best time, to, uh…” Wally looked at J’onn for help.
“We have something to tell you,” Jess said, looking now serious in the way J’onn was serious.
“I knew it’d be something,” Wally’s father said with an air of resignation.
“Could you keep a lid on it, for once in your life?” his mother gritted.
J’onn was trying to hide a flicker of amusement, which Wally registered with a long-suffering sigh. “Mom, dad, please..?”
“Right,” she replied. “What is it?”
“See, you know how I’m in the Justice League, right?”
“Can we talk about that?” his mother asked, “isn’t that all, top secret?”
“I don’t think the FBI has your house bugged.” His father coughed, but Wally was pretty sure they didn’t. Why would they, right? J’onn was still laughing a little on the inside, and Wally decided they should just get on with this already. “Anyway, Jess isn’t, uh, Jess. She’s… one of my teammates.”
“She’s a little short to be that Wonder Woman chick,” his father commented dryly.
“Well, yes. Usually.”
J’onn was surprised at how unsurprised Wally’s parents were at the Martian Manhunter revealing himself to have been their son’s girlfriend.
He’d just shifted then, to prevent prolonging this any more, and they looked back at him as if trying to recall what his name was. From what he could pick up, that’s exactly what they were doing.
“J’onn J’onnz,” Wally supplied. “From, uh, Mars.”
“Mars,” his mother said.
“I thought Mars didn’t have an atmosphere or something,” his father said curiously.
“Not anymore,” J’onn said somberly, not meaning to come off quite as somber as he did. “It’s a pleasure to meet you.”
“Do you need some kind of special passport to come to Earth from another planet?” Wally’s father asked suddenly, “I remember wondering that once, seems to me if you’re coming from France it should be easier than coming from Mars, if you know what I mean.”
“I have honorary citizenship from the United Nations,” J’onn replied; nobody had ever quite asked him that before.
“Didn’t the Martians invade a while back?” his mom broke in.
“White Martians, but they weren’t really Martians,” Wally replied quickly. “J’onn is the only real one.”
“What’s that mean, only?” his father asked.
J’onn and Wally were quiet for a moment.
“I’m the only Martian that still lives.”
“That’s terrible,” his mom said, “you poor thing. What was it like?”
And so, for a long time, J’onn told Wally’s parents about Mars. About the wandering sprawl of dwellings in the sand that had been their homes, the proud monuments that had been the seats of their civilization, great libraries and meeting places, places of learning that would draw Martians from all over their world to study.
It took some effort for Wally not to close his eyes and get wrapped up in the mental images coming from J’onn’s mind, made clear by his fond recollections, rekindling his deep love and missing of his world.
Neither of them were at all surprised, still; Wally wasn’t quite sure, but he’d figured his father was some kind of government agent or something. Hush hush, at any rate, and his parents had never been surprised by anything. Didn’t bat an eye when he suddenly gained super-powers, and his father had been more interested in his advertising career and his potential fortune than his heroics.
J’onn finally fell quiet, and mentally remarked on seeing Wally in their faces, in his father’s graying red hair and his mother’s eyes. Pale blue that concealed as much as they left open.
“Does that mean you’re an immortal or something?” his father asked after a moment, setting his empty mug pointedly aside.
“Not… as such.”
J’onn would likely live thousands of years. Wally tried to imagine that, already having difficulty with the span of time he’d already lived.
“Were you gay back with the Martians, too?” Wally’s mom shot his father a sharp look at his question, but J’onn answered obligingly.
“Humans are very different from my own people, I don’t see your genders as you do. Martians are not so divided as you are, but I had a wife.”
“What, do you pick which one you are or something? What’s that supposed to mean?”
“It isn’t that simple, but you are… essentially correct.”
It was easier to imagine when J’onn looked like himself, lithe and graceful like all the Martians were. The way he looked for everyone else had been tailored from Superman and Batman, and was thusly about as masculine as it could get, and it was hard to imagine who he really was.
Most people really didn’t know, and J’onn was content to be an enigma.
“Then, how do you have children?”
“A couple would take parts of themselves and join them together, creating a new whole from each.”
“So, you can’t have children with him?” his mother clarified.
“No.”
She seemed disapproving at that, like she’d have been perfectly content and unquestioning as long as she had some hope of grandkids. Wally was a little tired of this being her main concern since he’d graduated high school.
“Mom…”
“It’s just a question,” she snapped defensively, and he conceded. “Anyway, I think dinner should be ready.”
They ate, their subject dropped for his mother to try and interrogate his father into telling just where he’d been recently, and as usual, he had little to say about it. He’d been ‘busy’ with some secretive work.
Neither J’onn nor Wally really were pressed to know much about the details.
“Well,” his father crumpled his napkin on his plate and stood. “It was nice to meet you, mister or whatever J’onnz, hurt my son and I know people that’ll make you disappear.” He nodded at Wally’s mom. “Mary.”
With that, he left, slamming the front door behind him, and leaving a strained silence.
She pulled a pack of cigarettes out of her pocket, and J’onn winced internally as she lit one and sighed raggedly. “Bastard.”
“He hasn’t changed much.”
“No. But you have. I was a little worried I’ve have two assholes to worry about.”
“Uh, thanks.”
She shrugged.
“Wasn’t like I ever had much say in how you turned out.” She smiled and threw the cigarette out with a hiss in a glass of water. “For the best, I’m sure.”
“It was very nice to meet you, Mrs. West,” J’onn said. It was important to him that she accept him, and he was a little concerned by her apparent train of thought.
“You too, J’onn. You seem nice enough to me, green or not.”
They spent the next hour as if J’onn was any guest, and he didn’t talk about his other identities, but did elaborate some on why he chose to be Jessica, the insight he got from an outsiders perspective of alien guests. Enjoying life as an everyday human, which she seemed to understand and find a little funny at the same time.
When they said their goodbyes, she gave them both hugs, and they were glad not to have other things to do that night.
J’onn and Wally went to spend their last night together in his old apartment; tomorrow he was moving in, they were moving in, and although Wally couldn’t give J’onn a family, he could give them a home they could share when they were both on Earth. They flew home, Wally hugging onto J’onn against the night air, but not really minding being a little cold. It was beautiful, up above the lights, where the stars were huge in the sky.
He worried, and J’onn tried to ease that worry. J’onn wasn’t sure if he was even ready to have a family yet, children, dependants. The thought was a scary one. Wally understood that, and smiled as J’onn looked like himself again inside, and Wally decided that he didn’t much care if it’d be strange to have pictures of an alien on his wall.
His parents liked him well enough. J’onn liked them, too, even his father, and chuckled to remember him as they embraced and Wally was all wrapped up in tangled arms.
Wally was vastly relieved.
They were able to be together that night, but as happened so often, J’onn couldn’t come to Earth for days. Some explorers from some high-tech world of bug people had shown up and the League’s star diplomat had been dealing with it.
So Wally moved in by himself, and waited, but didn’t pay much attention to what J’onn was doing even if he missed him. Diplomating with the bug-people didn’t have any interest, at all, and he didn’t have the patience to follow it. It was on the Watchtower they saw each other again, J’onn beckoning him up like a desire for his presence more than a clear request.
J’onn was waiting in the hanger for him, echoing and hollow around the Javelins parked on the steel floor, no techs around at this time of day with any work to do.
He wanted to take them to Mars, and had arranged for their transportation to be borrowed for it. Wally was a little taken aback by the gesture, knowing that J’onn hadn’t returned to Mars lightly since he’d left. But J’onn extended his hand, and assured him he would be honoured if Wally would join him.
It didn’t take long to get there with the Javelin’s engines, and this time, Wally wore a space suit when they exited the ship. He could feel the whipping wind buffeting his mask, moving through the sand under his feet. Mars was harsh, vicious all around them, but J’onn was more serene just to be here, reaching out into the very ground’s familiarity.
They walked over where streets used to be, where his people used to work and play and live, but was now just red sand flowing in rivers around them. J’onn wasn’t remorseful, but happy, to think about the way it used to be. It could never truly be gone, if he was still here to remember the way it was before the winds ate away the evidence once the builders were no more. Mars, the planet itself, was strong and willful, still alive with Hronmeer, and for the first time Wally truly understood, and held onto what the old god meant to J’onn.
In every step, J’onn was speaking to his people, asking them to listen from their rest in the sands, to hear that he hadn’t forgotten them.
J’onn then spoke to his father, wise and gentle, and his mother, the Manhunter. The one whose path he’d followed along with pursuits of the mind. Wally couldn’t be sure, but he got the feeling they were there, and could see him, and it was strange and touching like an unexpected religious experience. He could hear their voices from J’onn’s mind, how his mother could be both strong and kind, his father worshiping her with love all his days. Not without conflict, but Wally was still envious of that.
I’m glad of them. They created you.
Wally smiled, and hoped that, if J’onn’s family really could see him, they liked him. He liked to think that he’d like them as much as he’d always liked J’onn, even before this. J’onn assured him that they would.
When they left, he felt very much like he had just met J’onn’s parents, not his other family, but Wally understood it was too soon for that, and they both thought about them, holding hands over the console on the way back.
The bug people were still there, and had a flurry of demands over their quarters when J’onn landed. Wally assured him that he’d still be waiting when he was done. He didn’t like that they had so little time… but the time they did have actually being together made up for it.
He felt lucky, and left J’onn to matters of room temperature, urging him to hurry in following him back to Earth.
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on 2007-02-24 03:20 am (UTC)...In the comics, isn't Rudy West a con man? I thought Wally knew this...
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on 2007-02-24 07:31 pm (UTC)no subject
on 2007-02-25 03:55 pm (UTC)He could hear their voices from J’onn’s mind, how his mother could be both strong and kind, his father worshiping her with love all his days. Not without conflict, but Wally was still envious of that.
Aww, woobie Wally. They've both had--problems isn't the word, but it'll have to do--with their families, and both seem to be trying to help the other deal or at least accept. It's sweet and very couple-y.
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on 2007-03-04 07:55 pm (UTC)Thank you, I'm glad you enjoyed it (with my superbly late reply!)
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on 2007-02-27 03:56 am (UTC)“I thought Mars didn’t have an atmosphere or something,” his father said curiously.
“Not anymore,” J’onn said somberly, not meaning to come off quite as somber as he did.
Your J'onn is so great with that tendency to slip into woobie without any warning or intention to.
“Were you gay back with the Martians, too?” Wally’s mom shot his father a sharp look at his question, but J’onn answered obligingly.
Heh, the whole grilling by the parents was wonderfully spot on, humorous and tense and I loved how his parents were open without being exactly friendly. And the divorced-vibe between Wally's folks was painfully spot-on. :(
They walked over where streets used to be, where his people used to work and play and live, but was now just red sand flowing in rivers around them.
Yeah, and then the visit to Mars was so different, so quiet and awed and meaningful. It really gave the story a feeling of completeness. Nice!
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on 2007-03-04 08:19 pm (UTC)I'm glad I could get J'onn right, I always feel like I'm totally flying by the seat of my pants when I'm writing him, you know? So I'm always so surprised to get it something close to right. ::laughs::
Thank you! :)