---- From chapter 4 ----

W: Why do I keep hearing rumours of a 'hot ebony with blue eyes and a Gothamite accent' eating lunch in the school cafeteria?
D: So, they think I'm hot huh?

----

The halls of Keystone High School were alive with rumours, the electricity of whispered voices alighting the halls and raising hairs on Wally's arms. Wally kept catching the tail-end of half-familiar phrases, and it felt bizarrely like people were talking about him, even though he knew they weren't.

He wasn't close with any of his peers, how could he be when he knew the Dick Grayson was always with him, just on the other side of a screen? How the hell was he supposed to form a connection with people who felt so distant?

He spent his weekends either fighting criminals, hanging out with criminals, or sitting in the V.I.P section of some high-end club with Dick Grayson and Roy Harper. So why would he spend time getting close to people he sat through History with when he could actually be in Rome in eight hours via private jet with one text?

Maybe Dick's God-complex was starting to rub off on him.

His point was, he didn't have any friends so he didn't have anyone to gossip with, so he had no damn idea what everyone was talking about. It was like they all knew something he didn't, and he was very uncomfortable being on the opposite end of the secret.

He'd been zoning out his math teacher since he'd sat down, but the whispered laughter of the girls behind him snapped him out of his daze. He leaned back a little in his chair, listening in on their conversation.

"How hot is hot though?" One of the girls asked, and in doing so reassured Wally that they weren't talking about him. He knew he was good-looking because Dick said so, but according to one of the girls from his Geography class he gave off a "taken" vibe, so no one made a move on him.

The girl's friend, whose name he didn't know, replied with, "Hot as in hot," her voice trailed off, and then she said, "but Melly said he sounds like he's from Gotham." There was a genuine concern in her voice; most of the world did sympathize with Gothamites.

Wally leaned farther back in his chair, more invested in the conversation now that he knew they weren't just gossiping about a guy from the other homeroom, but straightened up instinctively when the teacher called his name.

He scanned the board quickly, trying to decipher what exactly he was being asked, and when he saw the blank space left open for the answer, settled on: "Eleven meters?" and hoped he didn't sound hesitant.

His teacher nodded, pleased, and continued on with his lector, writing Wally's answer in the open space and backtracking to explain why it was correct to the kids who didn't have Dick Grayson as their personal tutor.

The girls behind him had moved on from gossiping to actually doing their work, and Wally started counting the minutes until the end of class.

Wally had a spare second, a fact he was endlessly grateful for because immediately following second period was lunch, which meant Wally had time to meet up with Dick and Roy, or Hartley and James.

Today, however, he made the trip down the stairs to his locker to ditch his stuff and resolved to study in the library. It took him longer than it should have to answer in maths class, and if Dick found out he was getting slow he would personally hang Wally from the flagpole.

Wally slammed his locker shut with his foot, shuddering at the thought, maths textbook in hand, and didn't even notice the empty space and missing book within the locker. Taking to the marble hallways of his school, he wondered how much trouble it would be for James and Hartley to rob a bank so that he had a good excuse to give Dick.

As he walked, a pair of students stepped out of a classroom he passed and started walking a few steps in front of him, talking quietly enough to be just overheard in the now mostly-empty hallway.

"Figures a guy like him would wear sunglasses inside," the guy scoffed, the broad shoulders of his jacket shifting as he crossed his arms.

"I think he's cool enough to earn indoor-sunglasses privileges," his friend, a short blonde girl, replied, spinning the football in her hands and shrugging her shoulders as she lazily tossed the ball up and down, catching it each time.

"Think we can get him on the team?" The guy asked, sounding a lot fonder now knowing that his friend felt similar. He ran a hand through his brown hair sheepishly as the girl laughed at him, light and at his expense.

"He doesn't even go to school here."

Wally missed the rest of their conversation as they turned down another hallway, and nearly walked into a teacher while trying to loiter nearby enough to listen in. He rubbed the back of his neck with his free hand, mumbling an apology and ducking around the teacher so that he could duck into the library.

Wally found an out of the way corner of the library to sit in, making himself comfortable at an empty table and preparing to fill the seventy-five minute period with studying.

Almost immediately, he was distracted.

"His hair was as dark as my soul," a deep female-ish voice joked from on the other side of one of the bookshelves had Wally's full attention, the maths textbook on the table in front of him completely forgotten.

"Did you see his eyes, Sam? They were as blue as a diamond!" Another higher, female voice replied, and Wally recognized the voice as that of Demi W-Something from his Maths class. She hadn't been there that morning, but he wouldn't be surprised if she and Sam, her significant other, had been skipping together.

"Never before have I so seriously considered a threesome," Sam said, half-sigh half-wish, and Demi cackled and there were the tell-tale sounds of kissing.

Wally didn't stick around, just gathered his unused textbook and moved to the front of the library.

Almost as soon as Wally sat down again at a new table, someone excitedly yelled, "His thoughts on biomedical engineering are next level," from the table directly across from his.

Wally had the sudden urge to slam his head inside his textbook and scream. Instead, he looked up and found that he actually recognized the three responsible for the loud conversation as some of his fellow "nerds."

"Screw biomedical engineering, did you hear him talk about Dostoyevsky? I'd bet my left kidney he's fluent in Russian," Liam signed dreamily, in response to Hazel's excited exclamation.

"Okay, but the way he subtly used biopsychology and societal pressure as overarching themes to answer your question about human nature? Outstanding. What a legend," Jackson's tone was similar to Hazel's and Wally held back a grin as the admiration turned to a yelp, presumably caused by Liam kicking him under the table.

Wally resisted the urge to interrogate his three classmates- they may have been lumped in together as the smart kids, but they weren't friends- and checked his phone for the time. He gave his textbook a narrow look and decided he was more interested in investigating the mysterious stranger that everyone was suddenly smitten with.

Whomever this guy was, he reminded him of Dick and his magic ability to make himself at home in any environment.

Wally felt his eyes widening, jaw clenching, as everything he had heard about the mysterious "stranger," clicked together. Wally ignored the desire to roll his eyes, half-hoping his brain was being connections where there weren't any, half-yearning to see Dick, no matter the circumstances.

He already had his phone in his hand, so he opened up the messenger app and texted Dick;

W: Why do I keep hearing rumours of a 'hot ebony with blue eyes and a Gothamite accent' eating lunch in the school cafeteria?'

He set his phone face-down on the wood and once again gathered his things. His phone buzzed in his hands almost the second he picked it up again a moment later and he sighed. Dick was out to ruin his life.

D: So, they think I'm hot huh?

Wally was almost to the cafeteria when the bell signalling the start of lunch rang. He doubled back to his locker to get rid of his textbook as the halls grew crowded, knowing just getting past the mob in the cafe would be a pain, let alone getting to Dick, and electing to wait out the first wave.

When he finally managed to elbow his way into the large, table-filled room, he didn't even make it six steps before he had to stop and sigh.

In the centre of the room, sitting on the tables, was the one and only Dick Grayson. His Chopard sunglasses were set on top of his head, nestled in his perfectly mussed hair, and the fact that everything he was wearing was designer was painfully obvious. Wally was pretty sure that, if he got a closer look, he could name each brand and designer, a skill born out of practice and paying a ridiculous amount of attention to the skin-tight clothes Dick wore.

In Dick's hand was a copy of Romeo & Juliet that he had borrowed from Wally, or maybe Wally had borrowed it from him, they had gone back and forth with the book so many times Wally couldn't remember who it originally belonged to. The cover was worn, but from use rather than carelessness, and Dick's voice was loud and clear as he spoke, bringing life to the words on the page. It was nearly impossible to take your eyes off him.

The rest of the room was very obviously experiencing what Wally and Roy referred to as "Dicknotism," (dick·no·tism. Noun. The act or practice of falling under Dick Grayson's hypnotism. Synonyms: mesmerized, love-sick, entranced, spellbound, enthralled, infatuated, hexed. Origin: Wally West and Roy Harper in Roy Harper's basement, 2012.)

Every single person in the room was hanging off every word, and judging by the words rolling off his lips, Dick was on Act 2, Scene 5, his favourite part, which means that Dick had managed to hold the attention of Wally's peers for more than twenty minutes, a truly difficult task, especially considering that he was reading Shakespeare. He never once stuttered or stumbled over his words, and Wally groaned and banged his head off the doorframe a few times, then once more for good measure.

Honestly, he was a little jealous that his peers got a reading from Dick. even though he knew Dick would read for him any time he asked. The keyword being asked, which would mean Wally would have to come up with some reason other than the truth- which happened to be "Your voice gives me actual mini heart attacks and also I'm madly in love with you,"- as to why he wanted to hear Dick read.

A few heads twitched in Wally's direction, but none of his peers were strong enough to pull away from Dick's gravity and actually look at him.

The friendship between average high school student Wally West and genius billionaire Dick Grayson was one of the best-kept secrets in the world.

Or at least it used to be.

"Walls! Dude took you long enough!" Dick's voice had stopped reading abruptly to Wally, and a few people blinked, coming back to reality from wherever Dick's voice had transported them.

Now that he had acknowledged him, Wally was a part of Dick's pull, and people turned to watch, parting to the sides so Wally could drift farther into the room.

"Got a pencil?" Dick asked cheerfully, completely at home as the center of attention. God, he was so pretty.

Wally found himself tossing the pencil across the room, following after it without even really thinking about it. Dick dashed to his feet to catch the pencil in his hand, and the people closest to him moved out of his way instinctually. Wally waited patiently as Dick scribbled something out in the book and rewrote it, repeating the sentence and looking pleased with how he improved it and having read the book countless times Wally could say with absolute certainty that he did improve it. The book was full of notes like that, from both of them, clustered together on the pages, some edits overtop of edits from years before.

Ignoring the eyes on him, Wally crossed the room and grabbed the sleeve of Dick's designer- Ermenegildo Zegna, specifically. Wally could tell; it was one of Dick's favourite brands-  hooded layered blazer, which looked ridiculously good on him and cost more than any car Wally will be able to afford in his lifetime and pulling Dick towards the doors.

A marathon of protests came with the action, but Dick silence the whole crowd with a wave, his wrist heavy with a Patek Philippine watch, and a promise to return.

Wally knew the cafeteria would erupt in an uproar of gossip as soon as they were out of sight, but he really couldn't find it in himself to care all that much. He and Dick technically weren't supposed to know each other, but they'd had a story prepared for years in case they were ever found out, and people would get over it soon enough. What he really wanted, was to know why Dick was at school in the first place.

Wally dragged the other into the nearest empty classroom, closed and locked the door behind them.

"Dude, what are you doing here?" Wally asked hurriedly, but without worry, if something had happened to Barry or Roy, Dick wouldn't be so relaxed. He watched as Dick set his sunglasses and the book on a clean desk and tucked Wally's pencil behind his ear. Wally moved closer to him, and he didn't startle when he turned around and found Wally so close, comfortable with the lack of distance between them.

"Reading Shakespeare," came Dick's cheeky reply, and Wally has never wanted to kiss him something fierce so badly. There was something else in his tone, and Wally pressed gently.

"But why?" his voice was whinier than he wanted it to be, a little bit of his longing sharpening it, and he gave Dick a look, daring him to comment on it.

"Maybe I missed you." Dick didn't glance away, didn't flush, just kept looking at Wally until his gaze was so sharp and blue Wally was drowning in it, then he kept looking.

Wally knew his face was flushed, and he told himself over and over again that Dick wasn't in love with him, just joking, playing along with Wally's desires- because he had to know about Wally's feelings for him, there was no way he didn't- and stopping before it went too far. Wally refused to delude himself into thinking there was even a chance that Dick loved him back because that would mean Dick was leading him on, and Wally would never paint him as the villain.

Dick's hands rose up and around Wally's chest, gripping at his shirt, bunching up the fabric in his fists, "Maybe I felt like you never want to hang out with me anymore," he went on.

Wally went to protest, to convince Dick that wasn't true, by any means necessary, but his breath caught in his throat as he felt Dick pulling him closer.

Dick rose onto his tippy-toes to counter the height difference between them, "Maybe I wanted attention." Dick's lips were right next to his ear now and he could feel Dick's unbalanced and drawn-out breaths. Dick let out a soft sigh, "Your attention."

Wally was unbearably hot, his whole body burning up. He always felt like this when Dick touched him like something was alive and pulsing under his skin.

"I-I... L-" the words died on his lips, burned up, and whatever he was going to say was lost as Dick rested his chin on his shoulder, nuzzling into his neck.

He got the feeling that the younger was more distressed than he was letting on, that the uneven puffs of breath were less for the purpose of driving Wally insane and more him trying to keep his breathing slow so Wally brought his hands up from his sides and wrapped them around the bird's torso, scowling a little how thin the fifteen-year-old was. Wally could wrap his arms around him fully and touch his other elbow. They were going out for dinner later.

They stood in silence for a moment, Wally's hands wrapped tightly around Dick's thin torso and Dick's entire weight draped over Wally, relying on the speedster to keep him on his own two feet.

Wally searched his head for those three little words he'd been about to say and berated himself loudly in his head, a bad taste in his mouth like he was still tasting the ash of those words the heat always tried to drag out of him.

The silence was cut off by the shrill ring of the bell and Wally had never hated the sound so much. They stayed like that for a moment after, and Dick moved first, withdrawing his hands and slipping out of Wally's grip. Dick's eyes were downcast for the briefest of seconds, but then he flashed Wally the enchanting grin he was famous for.

"Looks like it's time I return to my adoring public," he joked, forcefully, already halfway across the room. Wally opened his mouth to invite himself along, to read for Romeo, but Dick was already shooting him down, "And you have class." Dick sounded all too pleased that Wally wanted his attention and paused only to grab the book and his glasses off the desk he left them on.

"Come home with me after school?" Wally offered instead, despite knowing that Dick would have anyways and only got a nod in response, then the younger had slipped out of the room.

Wally took a greedy moment to breathe, shivering in the cold made by Dick's absence before he found himself following Dick out of the room.