A Flash by Any Other Name
May. 21st, 2006 04:00 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
shankieTim conspires, Bruce makes an offer, and there's mud. Lots and lots of mud.
Part Twenty-Eight: Natural Disaster
"What's he doing now?" Tim asked, landing next to Batman and peering over his shoulder.
"Playing with the de-cel line again." Bruce held up the binoculars, watching Wally psyching himself up to shoot up another grapple.
"So, why've you been letting him out on patrol so much?" Tim settled cross-legged on the edge of the roof, where the sloping slate evened off to a ledge, and pulled out a bag of sandwiches.
Bruce didn't answer him, just thoughtfully watched Wally land; he was getting the hang of it.
"There's something going on between you guys, isn't there?" Tim finally said through a bite. "You act all weird around him. And that costume, which is like, stuff you never do."
He'd expected the others to work it out eventually; it was simpler than an awkward discussion on the subject. But he didn't quite know what to do with Tim's line of questioning.
"Alfred knows something. Nightwing does, too. But they won't say anything, they just said to ask you about it."
The only thing Bruce wanted to say in reply was don't talk with your mouth full.
"I think it's cool. He's a nice guy. We kinda worked together that one time, you know, when you went missing and they helped me take down Faust. Or I helped them. Or whatever. Flash actually treated me like I wasn't a kid. Even though he kept calling me that." More chewing and swallowing. "I think he just has a knack for calling people annoying nicknames and not having them be annoying. Or as annoying. You know."
"Implicitly."
Tim finished his sandwiches, then tucked the plastic away in his belt.
"So are you going to spill or what?"
Silence.
"You know, I can just go talk to him about it. And I'll bet he's got tons of embarrassing stories." He said tauntingly.
Bruce watched Wally dash out of sight as a couple walked up onto the roof he'd been on; it occurred to him that either Wally was running slower, or ever since the conflict with J'onn, it was easier for him to see his super-speed movements. After a moment he turned to Tim and considered his words. He decided to just answer his first question and hope that Robin dropped the subject.
"Yes."
"See? I totally knew it." He looked proud of himself, preening a little. "I mean, why else would you be nice to him, right?"
"Hn."
"So is it serious?"
Bruce looked straight ahead, and Tim studied his face for a moment, then turned back to look out over the city.
"Woah. That serious, huh?"
They sat quietly together for several minutes; Gotham was surprisingly peaceful. Even considering that it's more flamboyant criminal element were mostly incarcerated or missing, that was something. He doubted it would last long.
"You know what you should do? Ask him to move into that big old house of yours. I mean, it's massive, way too big for just you and Alfred. It's not like a commute is a problem for the Flash."
Bruce fired out a grapple line and they both swung across the street and a crossed over a few blocks to the top of City Hall, where he stopped again, and they crouched again in vigil.
"I've considered it."
"Really? Colour me shocked."
Bruce noted that Tim didn't refer to the house as 'our', even though he lived there, too. He supposed that his apartment in the converted stables was something he considered his own, and separate. He was always very independent that way, spending very little time in the manor proper. It'd taken years just to convince him to live on the property at all. 'Perhaps I should have done more.'
"Head back, Robin." He said.
"Alright. Night Batman."
Tim leaped off the rooftop and sailed down towards where his bike was hidden; Bruce watched him before he disappeared, then tapped his com on a line to Wally.
"S, calling it a night."
"Where are you?"
"City Hall."
Half a second later, he was swept off his feet and the world was flying by in a blur; again he noticed it was easier to make out objects as they moved, easier than the last time Wally had carried him at speed. 'Hm.'
By the time he was finished musing and began to consider where they were going, they'd crossed the wet blue hills of the oceans and minutes later, stopped on a sunny beach that stretched off into the horizon. Bruce looked around at the scrubby foliage and grass lining the soft sand, and a distant breaker that sounded every few seconds.
"Australia." Wally said with a grin. "You wanted to talk, remember?"
"Mm."
Wally had changed into a pair of cutoff jeans, and tossed him a pair of swimming trunks he recognized as his own, laying out a blanket patterned with dancing skeletons in garish colours. He smoothed it out over the sand, then laid down and put his hands behind his head, closing his eyes and soaking up the sun.
Bruce took off his cape, laying out and methodically taking off his uniform, laying it out on the fabric to prevent sand from getting somewhere uncomfortable or into his utility belt, slid on the navy shorts, and stretched. It'd been longer than he cared to admit since he'd been out in the sun like this, and it's rays were invigorating, driving off the usual feelings of tension and weariness he found at the end of the night.
He settled down beside Wally and relaxed. Bruce didn't often appreciate surprises, but this one was rather nice.
"I talked to Bart. We've decided to make me his legal guardian."
"Going to have to be careful. He's nothing but impulse."
Wally laughed.
"Impulse, huh? Yeah, suppose he is." Wally wiggled out and stretched, then flopped onto his stomach, propping his head up on his hands and looking at Bruce. "Going to have to go house-hunting, now. Much as I like what you did with the place, it's too small for two speedsters."
Bruce thought about what Tim had said to him, and chuckled. The little schemer had been hanging around with Bart, and apparently, conspiring with him.
"There... is a suite of rooms in the east wing that have been empty since my grandfather lived in the manor. I could have it remodeled for you."
"Wait, wait..." Wally sat up, kneeling and tilting his head a little to one side, which made his loose red hair feather slightly across his face as it glowed in the sunlight. "You're asking me to move in with you?"
Bruce gave him a wry grin.
"Just an offer." He shifted up on his side, propped up on his elbow. "Besides, you've been sneaking over pretty much every night."
"I haven't been sneaking..."
"You wait until after Bart is asleep and go out the window. You said so yourself."
Wally smirked.
"Bart will drive you insane."
"I'm already insane, according to you."
"I'll drive you insaner."
"So nothing new."
"It'll make Clark upset."
"Clark can go fuck himself."
"You hate my taste in music."
"Hence hiding you away in the east wing."
"My stuff will clash with your opulent wealth."
"I couldn't care less about the feng shui of the manor."
"The League will find out eventually."
"The League can go collectively fuck themselves."
"Now there's an image." Wally put a hand on his hip. "And aren't you supposed to be on the pessimistic side of this argument, anyway?"
"Never hurts to be unpredictable."
"Ok, fess up."
"Hm?"
"Ulterior motives. I want a list."
"I don't always..."
"Yes, you do Bruce. List. Complete list."
Bruce sighed and laid back, running a hand over his hair, getting damp with sweat from the heat of the sun.
"Access to the technology of the Treadmill. Influence in the development of a powerful meta-human. A live-in mechanic that can work at the speed of sound. Someone who will appreciate Alfred's cooking on a regular basis. A meta-human I can trust living in the city in case of emergency. And..." He sat up, leaning in close to Wally's curiously listening expression, tracing the edges of his face softly as he lowered his voice. "Constant availability of a willing sexual partner."
"That's quite a list." Wally whispered.
"Does it bother you?"
"Everything about you bothers me." He replied with a grin.
Wally wiped away the growing frown of concern on Bruce's face with a sloppy kiss, still smiling as he stroked Bruce's tongue with his own and slid a hand up his thigh, pushing back the mesh fabric and revealing the pale skin underneath to the sun's rays.
"You sure do make a guy feel appreciated, though." Wally said with a wink. "In your own twisted way."
"You asked." Bruce stroked his hand through his soft red hair. "I'd meant to say something else first. Wally, you..."
They both groaned in unison as their League communicators went off.
"We're going to have to take a vacation one of these days." Wally said.
"What's a vacation?" Bruce said with a smirk before tapping his ear. "What is it?"
"Flash here."
"Batman, Flash." J'onn said over the line, "There is a mudslide headed towards a village in Brazil; the people there are trapped by a flooding river on the other side, and rescue workers in the area are not equipped to traverse the landscape."
"J'onn, this isn't..."
"I know, Batman. As it is, Superman and Green Arrow are the only other available help I could get. Are you... ready to be transported?"
"One moment." Bruce said, hitting his com-link again.
"Crap." Wally said, hunting through his black uniform.
"What?"
"Forgot to bring one of my rings. Guess I'll have to go as-is and change on the Watchtower." He watched Wally move in a kind of stop-motion as he changed, pulling on his own uniform, then buckling the belt.
He hadn't actually answered Bruce's offer. There'd be time for that, later.
"I think people on the Watchtower expect the unexpected from you as it is, Wally." He shook sand out of his cape. "Have you been running slower recently?"
Wally gave him an odd look before putting on the black domino mask.
"No... little faster if anything. Why?"
"Nothing." He tapped his ear. "We're ready, J'onn."
They left behind the blanket and their other clothes to fetch later, and materialized on the platform in the comparatively cold, antiseptic air of the Watchtower. Clark gave Wally a raised eyebrow before he took off towards his quarters and returned seconds later in his red uniform.
"What?" He asked.
"Nothing." Clark said.
"Mudslide, here we come." Ollie's sarcastic voice echoed as he strolled over onto the platform. Bruce hated this sort of work; he wouldn't admit it vocally, but it was part of the reason he was only part-time. Other League members, with flight, for example, were much more effective at the work.
He sighed as they made their way to the hanger and boarded the Javelin; he took the controls, while Clark sat beside him and Wally began bickering with Ollie teasingly.
"I'm tellin' ya man, it's all about Ottawa this year."
"You can't be serious. That's like rooting for the Mighty Ducks!"
"With their new goalie and the rookies in the lineup, New York doesn't have a chance!"
"Those rookies are a better bet than the mutants you're pullin' for."
Bruce drew up his lips in amusement for the rest of the flight.
* * *
Wally stood on a firm spot on the hill, where the torrent of mud was slower and shallow, next to Bruce who had just been given him a lift up by Clark, flying off and x-raying for anyone they missed. Ollie was in the Javelin with the last few stragglers, and had just vanished behind the tree line across the angrily flooding river.
They were all covered in a slick coating of brown dirt, except Bruce, who'd managed to get away with just muddy boots and the edge of his cape flapping wet against his legs.
Wally didn't think that was at all fair.
"You ever go sledding as a kid?" Wally asked, jabbing Bruce with a muddy elbow.
"A few times..." He answered slowly.
He looked over the slope, peering for any random branches or rocks, but it was just a straight-shot down a few hundred feet into a puddle that couldn't be more than a foot deep. And grinned.
Bruce had edged away from him, but there wasn't far to go on the ledge.
Heh.
"Flash, if you're thinking what I think you are..."
"Oh, but I am."
He ran behind Bruce and grabbed him around the waist, sending the two of them hurdling down the slope with splashes of dirty water and mud flying all over the place and splattering over their cowls.
"Yeeeeehaaaaw!"
At first Bruce tried to slow down their descent by dragging his gauntlets in the thicker mud underneath, then gave up, resignedly steadying himself, holding his legs out straight and together. Wally just bounced over the hill, grinning like an idiot as he kept hold of Bruce, pulling Batman's cape under his butt like a makeshift sled.
"Yes, awesome!" He yelled as they hit a steeper drop and hung in the air before landing again in the puddle with a splash and a squish underneath them.
Wally fell back in the mud, holding his sides and laughing harder than he had in a long time, while Bruce distastefully tried in vain to straighten his mud-heavy cape.
"Wally, if we'd hit a jagged rock or a sharp branch..."
"Haha, but we totally didn't! That rocked!"
He kept right on laughing, until he was just wheezing and chuckling, and used some of the water to clean off his cowl lenses. Through brown streaks of grime, he saw Bruce was glowering, with his arms crossed stubbornly. Waist-high in muck, it's hard to look intimidating.
Wally burst out in an uproar again.
"Oh come on Bats, you have to admit that was fun!"
"I don't have to do any such thing."
Wally shook his head and splashed some mud on Bruce, undoing all the filth-removal he'd just been attempting on his cowl.
"Don't start something you can't finish." Bruce said threateningly, with a wicked grin.
Wally splashed him again.
"That's it!" Bruce yelled, leaping over on top of Wally and putting him in a hold.
With a giggle, Wally slid out of his grip and used a touch of speed to gain the upper hand and flip Bruce over with a loud 'Plop!' Bruce swept out his feet, making Wally lose his balance for long enough to jump up and throw him back in the mud on his chest, pulling up to kneel on his back and use one arm to hold his head out of the water.
"Concede?"
"You wish!"
Wally struggled a little, but Bruce kept firm, using his free hand to slap his mud-coated butt with a wet smacking noise.
"Uncle! Uncle!" Wally finally cried.
"Are you two alright?"
Bruce let go and Wally sat up as Clark's voice sternly came from over them. He was floating with his arms crossed over his chest and a stern parental look on his face. That he was also coated in drying muck didn't make him any more intimidating than Bruce had looked, and Wally just laughed. Bruce stiffened beside him, standing up and vainly attempting to look dignified.
"Fine."
"Right." He coughed, then put his hands on his hips, his filthy cape flapping unsteadily in the wind and sending little flecks off it. "We're ready to go, local rescue has everything covered now."
Wally stood up sheepishly, and Clark grabbed their hands, giving them a lift over the where Ollie was wiping his arm over his forehead, which only succeeded in streaking the dirt on his face. They loaded into the Javelin, which Clark commented would have to likely be hosed out as Wally and Bruce dripped all over the floor and covered the seats. He'd taken the controls, saying the two of them would just get muck in the electronics and making them sit in the back.
Ollie didn't ask why Batman had suddenly gone from mostly clean to looking like he'd just been swimming in the stuff, just gave him an arch look before sitting down next to Clark.
Wally was failing at stifling giggles the entire way back, while Bruce pretended to be all angry. He knew better, though. If he was really angry, he'd be giving him the Death Glare of Doom.
When they all landed in the hanger and walked out onto the metal floor, the techs' faces visibly fell and they gave long-suffering sighs. 'At least we didn't blow a hole in it...'
That was something, right?
J'onn was waiting in the hanger entrance, with all his Martian unfazableness.
"Batman, The Question has requested that you meet him in his quarters... once you aren't dripping on the floor."
Bruce nodded, and they all continued in a beeline for the locker room, leaving a streaky trail of dragging capes and muddy footprints in their wake.
Wally headed for the shower at the end, not daring to touch anything; his gauntlets didn't come off, and making a clean towel dirty would be just wasteful. Ollie and Clark had already ducked into the ones in the front of the row, and the room began filling with warm steam that filtered up through intakes in the ceiling.
"I really have to make detachable gauntlets on this thing..."
"Do you need some help?"
Wally turned around to see Bruce, sans cape, gauntlets, belt, or boots, looking at him appraisingly as he was halfway through peeling off his uniform.
"Isn't this a little..?" Wally whispered conspiratorially, gesturing his head outside.
Bruce closed the door to the little changing-room outside the shower itself, locking it firmly, with a finger on his lips.
Super-hearing. Right.
He slid his hands under Wally's uniform, deftly pulling it off and draping it against the wall, where it stood up unevenly and stiff in places. Wally returned the favour, pulling off the cowl and revealing a mud-streaked face gazing back intently.
As he leaned in to wiggle down the kevlar-reinforced fabric on his legs, Bruce leaned over and whispered above a breath into Wally's ear;
"I told you not to start anything you couldn't finish."
Wally grinned at him, leaning back to turn on the water before pulling them both in and sliding the curtain shut.
* * *
Bruce & Wally mudwrestling by![[livejournal.com profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/external/lj-userinfo.gif)
a_bashful_boy
Part Twenty-Eight: Natural Disaster
"What's he doing now?" Tim asked, landing next to Batman and peering over his shoulder.
"Playing with the de-cel line again." Bruce held up the binoculars, watching Wally psyching himself up to shoot up another grapple.
"So, why've you been letting him out on patrol so much?" Tim settled cross-legged on the edge of the roof, where the sloping slate evened off to a ledge, and pulled out a bag of sandwiches.
Bruce didn't answer him, just thoughtfully watched Wally land; he was getting the hang of it.
"There's something going on between you guys, isn't there?" Tim finally said through a bite. "You act all weird around him. And that costume, which is like, stuff you never do."
He'd expected the others to work it out eventually; it was simpler than an awkward discussion on the subject. But he didn't quite know what to do with Tim's line of questioning.
"Alfred knows something. Nightwing does, too. But they won't say anything, they just said to ask you about it."
The only thing Bruce wanted to say in reply was don't talk with your mouth full.
"I think it's cool. He's a nice guy. We kinda worked together that one time, you know, when you went missing and they helped me take down Faust. Or I helped them. Or whatever. Flash actually treated me like I wasn't a kid. Even though he kept calling me that." More chewing and swallowing. "I think he just has a knack for calling people annoying nicknames and not having them be annoying. Or as annoying. You know."
"Implicitly."
Tim finished his sandwiches, then tucked the plastic away in his belt.
"So are you going to spill or what?"
Silence.
"You know, I can just go talk to him about it. And I'll bet he's got tons of embarrassing stories." He said tauntingly.
Bruce watched Wally dash out of sight as a couple walked up onto the roof he'd been on; it occurred to him that either Wally was running slower, or ever since the conflict with J'onn, it was easier for him to see his super-speed movements. After a moment he turned to Tim and considered his words. He decided to just answer his first question and hope that Robin dropped the subject.
"Yes."
"See? I totally knew it." He looked proud of himself, preening a little. "I mean, why else would you be nice to him, right?"
"Hn."
"So is it serious?"
Bruce looked straight ahead, and Tim studied his face for a moment, then turned back to look out over the city.
"Woah. That serious, huh?"
They sat quietly together for several minutes; Gotham was surprisingly peaceful. Even considering that it's more flamboyant criminal element were mostly incarcerated or missing, that was something. He doubted it would last long.
"You know what you should do? Ask him to move into that big old house of yours. I mean, it's massive, way too big for just you and Alfred. It's not like a commute is a problem for the Flash."
Bruce fired out a grapple line and they both swung across the street and a crossed over a few blocks to the top of City Hall, where he stopped again, and they crouched again in vigil.
"I've considered it."
"Really? Colour me shocked."
Bruce noted that Tim didn't refer to the house as 'our', even though he lived there, too. He supposed that his apartment in the converted stables was something he considered his own, and separate. He was always very independent that way, spending very little time in the manor proper. It'd taken years just to convince him to live on the property at all. 'Perhaps I should have done more.'
"Head back, Robin." He said.
"Alright. Night Batman."
Tim leaped off the rooftop and sailed down towards where his bike was hidden; Bruce watched him before he disappeared, then tapped his com on a line to Wally.
"S, calling it a night."
"Where are you?"
"City Hall."
Half a second later, he was swept off his feet and the world was flying by in a blur; again he noticed it was easier to make out objects as they moved, easier than the last time Wally had carried him at speed. 'Hm.'
By the time he was finished musing and began to consider where they were going, they'd crossed the wet blue hills of the oceans and minutes later, stopped on a sunny beach that stretched off into the horizon. Bruce looked around at the scrubby foliage and grass lining the soft sand, and a distant breaker that sounded every few seconds.
"Australia." Wally said with a grin. "You wanted to talk, remember?"
"Mm."
Wally had changed into a pair of cutoff jeans, and tossed him a pair of swimming trunks he recognized as his own, laying out a blanket patterned with dancing skeletons in garish colours. He smoothed it out over the sand, then laid down and put his hands behind his head, closing his eyes and soaking up the sun.
Bruce took off his cape, laying out and methodically taking off his uniform, laying it out on the fabric to prevent sand from getting somewhere uncomfortable or into his utility belt, slid on the navy shorts, and stretched. It'd been longer than he cared to admit since he'd been out in the sun like this, and it's rays were invigorating, driving off the usual feelings of tension and weariness he found at the end of the night.
He settled down beside Wally and relaxed. Bruce didn't often appreciate surprises, but this one was rather nice.
"I talked to Bart. We've decided to make me his legal guardian."
"Going to have to be careful. He's nothing but impulse."
Wally laughed.
"Impulse, huh? Yeah, suppose he is." Wally wiggled out and stretched, then flopped onto his stomach, propping his head up on his hands and looking at Bruce. "Going to have to go house-hunting, now. Much as I like what you did with the place, it's too small for two speedsters."
Bruce thought about what Tim had said to him, and chuckled. The little schemer had been hanging around with Bart, and apparently, conspiring with him.
"There... is a suite of rooms in the east wing that have been empty since my grandfather lived in the manor. I could have it remodeled for you."
"Wait, wait..." Wally sat up, kneeling and tilting his head a little to one side, which made his loose red hair feather slightly across his face as it glowed in the sunlight. "You're asking me to move in with you?"
Bruce gave him a wry grin.
"Just an offer." He shifted up on his side, propped up on his elbow. "Besides, you've been sneaking over pretty much every night."
"I haven't been sneaking..."
"You wait until after Bart is asleep and go out the window. You said so yourself."
Wally smirked.
"Bart will drive you insane."
"I'm already insane, according to you."
"I'll drive you insaner."
"So nothing new."
"It'll make Clark upset."
"Clark can go fuck himself."
"You hate my taste in music."
"Hence hiding you away in the east wing."
"My stuff will clash with your opulent wealth."
"I couldn't care less about the feng shui of the manor."
"The League will find out eventually."
"The League can go collectively fuck themselves."
"Now there's an image." Wally put a hand on his hip. "And aren't you supposed to be on the pessimistic side of this argument, anyway?"
"Never hurts to be unpredictable."
"Ok, fess up."
"Hm?"
"Ulterior motives. I want a list."
"I don't always..."
"Yes, you do Bruce. List. Complete list."
Bruce sighed and laid back, running a hand over his hair, getting damp with sweat from the heat of the sun.
"Access to the technology of the Treadmill. Influence in the development of a powerful meta-human. A live-in mechanic that can work at the speed of sound. Someone who will appreciate Alfred's cooking on a regular basis. A meta-human I can trust living in the city in case of emergency. And..." He sat up, leaning in close to Wally's curiously listening expression, tracing the edges of his face softly as he lowered his voice. "Constant availability of a willing sexual partner."
"That's quite a list." Wally whispered.
"Does it bother you?"
"Everything about you bothers me." He replied with a grin.
Wally wiped away the growing frown of concern on Bruce's face with a sloppy kiss, still smiling as he stroked Bruce's tongue with his own and slid a hand up his thigh, pushing back the mesh fabric and revealing the pale skin underneath to the sun's rays.
"You sure do make a guy feel appreciated, though." Wally said with a wink. "In your own twisted way."
"You asked." Bruce stroked his hand through his soft red hair. "I'd meant to say something else first. Wally, you..."
They both groaned in unison as their League communicators went off.
"We're going to have to take a vacation one of these days." Wally said.
"What's a vacation?" Bruce said with a smirk before tapping his ear. "What is it?"
"Flash here."
"Batman, Flash." J'onn said over the line, "There is a mudslide headed towards a village in Brazil; the people there are trapped by a flooding river on the other side, and rescue workers in the area are not equipped to traverse the landscape."
"J'onn, this isn't..."
"I know, Batman. As it is, Superman and Green Arrow are the only other available help I could get. Are you... ready to be transported?"
"One moment." Bruce said, hitting his com-link again.
"Crap." Wally said, hunting through his black uniform.
"What?"
"Forgot to bring one of my rings. Guess I'll have to go as-is and change on the Watchtower." He watched Wally move in a kind of stop-motion as he changed, pulling on his own uniform, then buckling the belt.
He hadn't actually answered Bruce's offer. There'd be time for that, later.
"I think people on the Watchtower expect the unexpected from you as it is, Wally." He shook sand out of his cape. "Have you been running slower recently?"
Wally gave him an odd look before putting on the black domino mask.
"No... little faster if anything. Why?"
"Nothing." He tapped his ear. "We're ready, J'onn."
They left behind the blanket and their other clothes to fetch later, and materialized on the platform in the comparatively cold, antiseptic air of the Watchtower. Clark gave Wally a raised eyebrow before he took off towards his quarters and returned seconds later in his red uniform.
"What?" He asked.
"Nothing." Clark said.
"Mudslide, here we come." Ollie's sarcastic voice echoed as he strolled over onto the platform. Bruce hated this sort of work; he wouldn't admit it vocally, but it was part of the reason he was only part-time. Other League members, with flight, for example, were much more effective at the work.
He sighed as they made their way to the hanger and boarded the Javelin; he took the controls, while Clark sat beside him and Wally began bickering with Ollie teasingly.
"I'm tellin' ya man, it's all about Ottawa this year."
"You can't be serious. That's like rooting for the Mighty Ducks!"
"With their new goalie and the rookies in the lineup, New York doesn't have a chance!"
"Those rookies are a better bet than the mutants you're pullin' for."
Bruce drew up his lips in amusement for the rest of the flight.
* * *
Wally stood on a firm spot on the hill, where the torrent of mud was slower and shallow, next to Bruce who had just been given him a lift up by Clark, flying off and x-raying for anyone they missed. Ollie was in the Javelin with the last few stragglers, and had just vanished behind the tree line across the angrily flooding river.
They were all covered in a slick coating of brown dirt, except Bruce, who'd managed to get away with just muddy boots and the edge of his cape flapping wet against his legs.
Wally didn't think that was at all fair.
"You ever go sledding as a kid?" Wally asked, jabbing Bruce with a muddy elbow.
"A few times..." He answered slowly.
He looked over the slope, peering for any random branches or rocks, but it was just a straight-shot down a few hundred feet into a puddle that couldn't be more than a foot deep. And grinned.
Bruce had edged away from him, but there wasn't far to go on the ledge.
Heh.
"Flash, if you're thinking what I think you are..."
"Oh, but I am."
He ran behind Bruce and grabbed him around the waist, sending the two of them hurdling down the slope with splashes of dirty water and mud flying all over the place and splattering over their cowls.
"Yeeeeehaaaaw!"
At first Bruce tried to slow down their descent by dragging his gauntlets in the thicker mud underneath, then gave up, resignedly steadying himself, holding his legs out straight and together. Wally just bounced over the hill, grinning like an idiot as he kept hold of Bruce, pulling Batman's cape under his butt like a makeshift sled.
"Yes, awesome!" He yelled as they hit a steeper drop and hung in the air before landing again in the puddle with a splash and a squish underneath them.
Wally fell back in the mud, holding his sides and laughing harder than he had in a long time, while Bruce distastefully tried in vain to straighten his mud-heavy cape.
"Wally, if we'd hit a jagged rock or a sharp branch..."
"Haha, but we totally didn't! That rocked!"
He kept right on laughing, until he was just wheezing and chuckling, and used some of the water to clean off his cowl lenses. Through brown streaks of grime, he saw Bruce was glowering, with his arms crossed stubbornly. Waist-high in muck, it's hard to look intimidating.
Wally burst out in an uproar again.
"Oh come on Bats, you have to admit that was fun!"
"I don't have to do any such thing."
Wally shook his head and splashed some mud on Bruce, undoing all the filth-removal he'd just been attempting on his cowl.
"Don't start something you can't finish." Bruce said threateningly, with a wicked grin.
Wally splashed him again.
"That's it!" Bruce yelled, leaping over on top of Wally and putting him in a hold.
With a giggle, Wally slid out of his grip and used a touch of speed to gain the upper hand and flip Bruce over with a loud 'Plop!' Bruce swept out his feet, making Wally lose his balance for long enough to jump up and throw him back in the mud on his chest, pulling up to kneel on his back and use one arm to hold his head out of the water.
"Concede?"
"You wish!"
Wally struggled a little, but Bruce kept firm, using his free hand to slap his mud-coated butt with a wet smacking noise.
"Uncle! Uncle!" Wally finally cried.
"Are you two alright?"
Bruce let go and Wally sat up as Clark's voice sternly came from over them. He was floating with his arms crossed over his chest and a stern parental look on his face. That he was also coated in drying muck didn't make him any more intimidating than Bruce had looked, and Wally just laughed. Bruce stiffened beside him, standing up and vainly attempting to look dignified.
"Fine."
"Right." He coughed, then put his hands on his hips, his filthy cape flapping unsteadily in the wind and sending little flecks off it. "We're ready to go, local rescue has everything covered now."
Wally stood up sheepishly, and Clark grabbed their hands, giving them a lift over the where Ollie was wiping his arm over his forehead, which only succeeded in streaking the dirt on his face. They loaded into the Javelin, which Clark commented would have to likely be hosed out as Wally and Bruce dripped all over the floor and covered the seats. He'd taken the controls, saying the two of them would just get muck in the electronics and making them sit in the back.
Ollie didn't ask why Batman had suddenly gone from mostly clean to looking like he'd just been swimming in the stuff, just gave him an arch look before sitting down next to Clark.
Wally was failing at stifling giggles the entire way back, while Bruce pretended to be all angry. He knew better, though. If he was really angry, he'd be giving him the Death Glare of Doom.
When they all landed in the hanger and walked out onto the metal floor, the techs' faces visibly fell and they gave long-suffering sighs. 'At least we didn't blow a hole in it...'
That was something, right?
J'onn was waiting in the hanger entrance, with all his Martian unfazableness.
"Batman, The Question has requested that you meet him in his quarters... once you aren't dripping on the floor."
Bruce nodded, and they all continued in a beeline for the locker room, leaving a streaky trail of dragging capes and muddy footprints in their wake.
Wally headed for the shower at the end, not daring to touch anything; his gauntlets didn't come off, and making a clean towel dirty would be just wasteful. Ollie and Clark had already ducked into the ones in the front of the row, and the room began filling with warm steam that filtered up through intakes in the ceiling.
"I really have to make detachable gauntlets on this thing..."
"Do you need some help?"
Wally turned around to see Bruce, sans cape, gauntlets, belt, or boots, looking at him appraisingly as he was halfway through peeling off his uniform.
"Isn't this a little..?" Wally whispered conspiratorially, gesturing his head outside.
Bruce closed the door to the little changing-room outside the shower itself, locking it firmly, with a finger on his lips.
Super-hearing. Right.
He slid his hands under Wally's uniform, deftly pulling it off and draping it against the wall, where it stood up unevenly and stiff in places. Wally returned the favour, pulling off the cowl and revealing a mud-streaked face gazing back intently.
As he leaned in to wiggle down the kevlar-reinforced fabric on his legs, Bruce leaned over and whispered above a breath into Wally's ear;
"I told you not to start anything you couldn't finish."
Wally grinned at him, leaning back to turn on the water before pulling them both in and sliding the curtain shut.
* * *
Bruce & Wally mudwrestling by
a_bashful_boy
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on 2006-05-21 08:24 am (UTC)no subject
on 2006-05-21 09:14 am (UTC)'Scuse me while I reboot my brain.
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on 2006-05-21 09:23 am (UTC)no subject
on 2006-05-21 09:28 am (UTC)Wally is good for Bruce, I can't think of any Bruce/Wally fic that ended badly (though Te made hers kinda creepy)
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on 2006-05-21 09:35 am (UTC)Creepy, huh? Now I'm curious... don't suppose you could point me in the right direction to that?
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on 2006-05-21 10:12 am (UTC)http://teland.com/jl.html#unan
The best thing about you asking me this - I goto t go back and read them.
Damn I love Te fic :D
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on 2006-05-21 02:31 pm (UTC)no subject
on 2006-05-21 02:34 pm (UTC)It was fun :D
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on 2006-05-21 02:40 pm (UTC)no subject
on 2006-05-21 09:59 am (UTC)::brain moves slowly at 6am::
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on 2006-05-21 11:58 am (UTC)Oh, and the conversation with Tim was very spot-on as well. I wish Batman had told him not to chew with his mouth full. :)
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on 2006-05-21 02:27 pm (UTC)no subject
on 2006-05-21 12:06 pm (UTC)no subject
on 2006-05-21 02:29 pm (UTC)no subject
on 2006-05-21 03:16 pm (UTC)The List.
The Mud.
You have a knack for amusing me, even as you make me worry when there is peril, and angst over them if they fight. A onderful series.
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on 2006-05-21 07:59 pm (UTC)no subject
on 2006-05-21 05:54 pm (UTC)no subject
on 2006-05-21 07:56 pm (UTC)no subject
on 2006-05-21 06:27 pm (UTC)It's nice to know that even the Bat thinks about sex once in a while.
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on 2006-05-21 07:55 pm (UTC)no subject
on 2006-05-21 08:17 pm (UTC)That and it shows how Wally's humanized him by that actually showing up on the list. As opposed to it being a repressed after thought to the whole moving in together list.
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on 2006-05-22 06:38 pm (UTC)This line had me laughing out loud. The people at the library now think I'm very, very weird, as opposed to just very weird.
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on 2006-05-22 09:53 pm (UTC)no subject
on 2006-05-22 11:43 pm (UTC)This is one of those fics I hope go on forever. I love all the characterizations you've got going, I can tell you've really thought about it and while you've made Bats a bit easier to approach he's still Batman. And Wally? You're Wally is priceless!!
Really great work love! Totally wonderful. I can't wait to see more!
It will go on forever, right?
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on 2006-05-22 11:50 pm (UTC)At this point, this will either go on forever, or something close. At least until I completely run out of ideas, haha
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on 2006-05-23 12:12 am (UTC)no subject
on 2006-05-23 12:31 am (UTC)no subject
on 2006-05-22 11:56 pm (UTC)no subject
on 2006-06-12 05:28 pm (UTC)I love you.
I can tell that another twist is coming up...
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on 2006-06-16 02:09 pm (UTC)Let the continued make out sessions begin!
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on 2006-08-07 09:46 pm (UTC)