Chapter Text
Wally was perched on a rooftop in Central City, taking a break with a bag of chips as the sun came up over the city. It wasn’t in him to slow down very much, but by now he was more accustomed to running at slow speeds for his friends without the Speed Force, and especially his boyfriend.
The boyfriend he immediately tried to contact, because he hated when missions meant that they had to be separated for more than a day. He and Uncle Barry had been working hard on trying to track and destroy the latest rogue who seemed to be targeting metas with some sort of drug or weapon which made their powers and genetics even more unstable. Barry was worried for both friends and rogues who were vulnerable to whatever was happening. They were taking more precautions than usual because none of them knew what effect this thing would have on a speedster. The Speed Force was different, but did that mean they were immune from whatever this was? Either way, it separated him from his boyfriend, and so they had set up check ins.
“Wing?” He asked as he pressed the comm to change the frequency to the private one he shared only with Dick.
“Hey KF!” Nightwing’s voice is upbeat but tired as it comes across the comm. “How goes your case? Anything new?”
“Nothing good.” Kid Flash said with a sigh. “Another meta found seizing because of whatever this is. S.T.A.R Labs is trying their best, but it’s like every sample is different.”
“Like it’s being made individually for each person affected.” Nightwing hummed. “Well, if you need any help, I’m still one hundred percent human over here.”
Kid Flash grinned. “Thanks, Wing.” He knew the offer was real , and while Nightwing didn’t have any powers, Wally would trust Dick to have his back any day of the week, and usually over superpowered allies. “So what’s shakin’ in Blud since I’ve been gone?”
“Well, you know that new vigilante we had been hearing rumors about?” Nightwing asked, his voice somewhat excited. “He’s real. I met him the other day. We’ve worked together twice, and he seems good.”
Wally’s eyebrow climbed. Nightwing had been a hero longer than all of the younger generation and longer than a number of the main Justice League roster. He wasn’t easily impressed. “So what’s his deal?”
“He’s a more physical fighter, but still has some skill with acrobatics.” Dick said, in a voice that said he was running through the encounters again in his head. “Strong. He’s a good six foot, probably around two-twenty, maybe two-twenty-five.” Dick snapped his fingers. “He’s build kind of like that Russian weightlifter…what was his name… Dmitry Klokov. He carries knives, but so far I haven’t seen him use them. He hasn’t needed to.“ Wally heard the respect in Nightwing’s voice and his stomach dropped. Dick was someone who admired competence, especially in vigilantes. “At the same time, though, he trusted Dick. He wasn’t someone who would betray Wally.
“What’s he look like? Do you know?” How vigilantes hid their identities varied between them, some, like Batman, hid most of their face, while others, like Superman, didn’t conceal their faces at all.
“White.” Dick answers, slowly, in the way that he did while trying to get the details right. “Redheaded, with a streak of white in his hair. I couldn’t tell the color of his eyes because there were white lenses in his red domino mask. His costume is almost all black, except for a red bird on it. He goes by Flamebird.”
That made Wally’s stomach almost reject his snack, if it wasn’t already mostly digested. He had been in love with Dick since he had gone by Robin. Kid Flash had been there when he had debated on what identity to take when he felt like he had ‘ outgrown’ Robin. He could remember as Dick had told him all about the famous Kryptonian superheroes. The famous Kryptonian heroes, who were reborn over and over to be in love and destroyed by betrayal of their friends every time.
While Wally had never brought it up, never asked, secretly, somewhere in that selfish heart-of-hearts he had hoped that maybe one day Dick would bring up the possibility that maybe Wally could give up Kid Flash and become his Flamebird. He had never voiced that desire, too afraid to be turned down or worse, humored , into it. Now there was someone else who had learned the stories and taken up the mantle. Someone who was in Blud, not stuck in Central on a mission.
And worse, he was a redhead . Wally yanked briefly at his own hair and resisted the urge to sigh. Everyone knew Dick had a thing for redheads. There was him, obviously, but before him had been Starfire, and before her had been the first Batgirl. Wally wanted to run to Blud and punch the new vigilante in the face…or just make sure that Dick never worked with him again.
But, he couldn’t do that, because he loved Dick, and Dick was one of the friendliest guys he knew. So… that meant that he would have to take advantage of one of his breaks, or his uncle’s distraction, to run back to Blud and give this musclebound lothario a talking-to about staying away from Kid Flash’s Nightwing. He could have the name, but Dick was Wally’s, and it was going to stay that way! “Did he say anything about how on Krypton Flamebird and Nightwing were partners?” Somehow, Wally had managed to make it seem like his quick mind hadn’t turned to ways to find and convince this vigilante that he wanted to stay far away from Nightwing.
“No.” Nightwing answered, with a sigh. “He said he plucked it out of the air.”
“Weird.” Wally said, thoughtfully. “You’d think that if he picked it out of nowhere that he would have gone with Fire bird instead of Flame bird, or just Phoenix.”
“Yeah, but he sounded kind of embarrassed about it.” Nightwing said with a laugh. “Like he thought I’d tease him about it.”
“You wouldn’t do that!” Wally said, loyally. “But we don’t know this guy, so keep your bat-paranoia well-honed, okay?”
“You know I will.” Dick said warmly, and Wally, sitting on the edge of the roof of one of the tall Central City skyscrapers watched the sun come up, pretending that he was watching the dawn of a new day with Dick instead of just talking via the comms. “Love you, Wing.”
“Love you too, Wally.” Dick answered, voice warm. “Get some sleep.”
“You too.” Wally answered. “Don’t dream of new birds, okay?”
“You’re the only guy I’m dreaming about, Walls.” Dick reassured him. “Kryptonian legend or not.”