Chapter Text
There was no soul left at Titans Tower.
Every hero, young and younger, inhabiting it had decided to flee and get some well deserved fresh air in their civvies after the last mission had been successfully drawn to an end with last night’s debrief.
Every hero but one.
After seeing the rundown state their leader had been in, the Titans and their mentors had taken the unanimous -and obviously secret- decision to leave the unassuming little bird behind on the nest; after all, it was well known in the capes community that Nightwing had always been one to beat himself to the bones, run himself ragged until no energy whatsoever was left in his body.
It hadn’t been a purposely mean decision, really, as they would never have willingly left him behind in any other circumstance. No, they just wanted him to sleep and get the well deserved rest he had needed for god knows how much time. He needed to take care of himself for a chance and, if he wouldn’t do it on his own, well… what were friends for if not for that?
Moreover, he really really deserved it. And it was something all of them knew, from the oldest to the youngest and most recent addition to the team. But even with all of them knowing, the fact that he too deserved that type of kindness and understanding he offered everybody else still escaped Dick’s own mind –purposefully or not nobody knew-.
So there was no soul left at Titans Tower and Dick, despite the never ending night shifts and sleepless hours and contrary to popular belief, had always loved sleeping in, snuggled up under the covers, buried in the warmth of his bed as the sunrays slowly but surely started lapping at his skin.
He was feeling toasty, really, but the abnormal peace and quiet that could be breathed in the air at their home base was starting to raise the hairs on the back of his neck, making him feel all sorts of unsettled and wrong.
Without wanting to give it more laps around his head though, he decided to get up to personally investigate and discover the reason why everything felt so quiet and peaceful that morning. So, without further ado, he carefully and lovingly stretched his tired body as a cat would, put some oversized t-shirt he found at the feet of the bed and paddled out of his bedroom in the tower to solve the mystery.
*
At that same time, their resident speedster ran around in the kitchen, preoccupied with the preparation of various breakfast foods and the complicated task of not letting any of them burn, probably the most important duty of his position as “holder of the fort”, a position that he himself had declared as his totally not ulterior motive and reason to stay behind while Dick slept and the other heroes were away.
A dumb and futile excuse, really.
Everyone and their mother both knew and joked about the relationship that the two of them had, saying how they would go straight from friends to an old married couple in the blink of a speedster’s eye, without even knowing. They had always liked to stage-whisper about Wally’s infatuation with their Robin, because of course he loved him, how could he not? Loving Dick Grayson was a universal constant, no doubt. But Wally’s love for him was a tad bit different than the others’, a bit less… platonic, if you will.
They had also talked about how Dick had always been nice to everyone and showed his love in a totally shameless, unabashed way and, though it was apparent that the boy loved every single one of them, his blue eyes would sparkle a different, special way only reserved for when he looked at Wally. But how could the ginger believe that bit of information everyone spoke about when Dick was that blue-eyed, dimpled-smile dreamboat of a guy taken out from art museums, teenage daydreams and Greek tragedies and he was just good old Wally West?
It was true that they had been dancing around each other, which was a fact no one could deny as they had been doing it not for days, weeks or months. AGES. Eons if you asked Wally, as someone whose time ran at a different speed.
Since their first time working together as sidekicks to their own heroes, Dick and Wally had had that spark between them, had connected immediately, understanding each other at a deeper level, sometimes without even needing words to exchange entire sentences in the middle of a conversation –it had been downright creepy and utterly annoying to most of their friends at the time, such as Roy, who would roll his eyes into his skull at their shenanigans.
So maybe, as their fellow heroes had more than once said, they did do have a chance to become something more, something else… but nobody would ever know. Wally had accepted long ago that they would keep on being the bestest of friends and only that. Nothing more, nothing less. As, between the fear of breaking what they had and every other possible reason he could come up with not to confess his erstwhile blossomed feelings, the knowledge that he’d deprive the world of Dick Grayson, from all the people that loved him and that he loved back; that had been the one reason to stop him from taking that one last step to get to the ultimate finish line.
A robin was meant to be free, to fly high. He was meant to explore and enjoy life at its fullest and Wally wouldn’t keep him from doing that.
He couldn’t trap Dick Grayson in a heart-shaped cage. He just wouldn’t.
Just like he wouldn’t let his brain keep on marching through the depressive path that was his love life. There were more important things at hand right that moment, as the sun had almost reached its highest point in the sky. He had a sleeping beauty to wake up –no nonconsensual kisses involved, of course, thank you very much- and a stomach to feed, two if the rumbling he could hear coming from his own meant something.
Thus, after having plated every dish and putting all of his culinary creations balancing on a couple trays in both hands, still unaware of the figure casually leaning on the door to the kitchen looking at him with fondness, he got ready to give the best boy in the world the best surprise bed breakfast ever.
***