Here’s an edited wip of my Birdflash oneshot.
Fair warning, this will probably change in the final product as I try to figure out at what point in the timeline I want this fic to take place.
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“You look like shit, Dickie.”
“Gee, thanks, Walls. You’re such a loving boyfriend,” Dick retorted. He tried for a smile, but Wally watched sadly as it twitched and fell before it could become what it once was–what Dick’s smile used to be.
Dick opened his door wider in invitation and Wally rushed in and examined the place. Gotham wasn’t ever known for its beauty, but even with that in mind, Dick’s apartment looked pretty rough. Empty containers of takeout and miscellaneous trash littered the floor and countertops. His couch was sprinkled with brown spots that he almost assumed were polka dots before he realized they were most definitely patches of dried blood. Clothes were strewn across every surface, their musk permeating his senses. Dick brushed past his side and made his way to the kitchen, opening his rickety fridge to expose the meager amount of food he had. Wally would bet his life savings that each of the five items had gone bad too, based on the state of the place.
Dick turned to toss Wally a water, “So…what, uh, brings you here?” Dick’s awkward tone hangs heavy between the two. Now that Wally could get a good look, his lover was in rough shape. Even worse than his apartment; which was a feat, his mind whispered. His hair laid limp and greasy along his neck and his bags seemed to have bags of their own. A couple of dark bruises peeked through the collar of his shirt, some leading down to his left arm if the strange way he seemed to carry it was anything to go by. Dick clutched his own water bottle, doing his best to look anywhere but at him.
“You haven’t been responding to my messages,” Wally started, “I texted the other Robin, uh Tim, I think? But he never got back to me either, so I got worried, you know? Figured I’d take matters into my own hands. I don’t have super speed for nothing.” He waved his hands around, doing his best to lighten the mood. “It’s been a long time since we’ve gotten to talk, let alone seen each other in person, but, you know, if this isn’t the best time, I can totally leave. I know this is kinda spur of the moment.” Wally wished he could slap himself the moment his lips stopped moving. Some of the younger heroes had started calling him a professional yapper and he wished it didn’t fit so damn well.
Wally watched as Dick took a breath and rubbed his temple as if he had a headache. He winced. Yeah, this probably wasn’t the best time to show up out of the blue.
“No, I…You don’t need to leave, “ Dick sighed. “I’m sorry I haven’t been responding, Walls. Everything’s just been… a lot, to put it simply. I’ve been so busy trying to balance my day job, Bludhaven, and…and being Batman. I just haven’t had much time to myself lately, if you can’t tell by the state of my apartment.” Dick laughed pitifully and winced when it shook his aching arm.
He couldn’t help moving forward into the kitchen and enveloping Dick in a hug, something he definitely should’ve done the moment he’d arrived. His partner sighed shakily and moved to wrap his arms around Wally’s middle. He felt Dick’s face pressed against his chest and hooked his chin to the top of his greasy head. Dick had always been one for physical comfort, a miracle considering who he’d grown up with and the environment he’d been forced into at the ripe age of nine. Wally would be lying if he didn’t say Dick’s need for physical affection didn’t bring him relief and make him feel needed. Sometimes, he felt powerless amidst his lover's strife–Batman’s rule against metas in Gotham limiting his ability to help. Providing Dick a simple hug; feeling the tense muscles in his shoulders loosen and his breath hit Wally’s neck as he sighed in relief, was Wally’s respite from his perpetual guilt.
Wally knew about Batman’s…death. He’d been there when Dick hosted Bruce’s funeral, letting Dick squeeze the life from his hand as he listened to the speech from Alfred. With Bruce gone, the natural order of Dick’s family had seemed to fall apart. Dick had taken the mantle of Batman, a title Wally knew he had never wanted–never felt right for him. He’d be lying if he said he fully understood the magnitude of such a change–that he knew how large the chasms carved by trauma had grown to separate Dick and his siblings. And yet despite that, he knew one thing for a fact. Dick, his lover and the man he’s known for well over a decade now was not the type of person to let others shoulder pain on their own. He took and took and took until he knew only he carried the weight of the sky on his shoulders, letting his muscles feel relief only when his family no longer felt pain. And he’d continue to carry that weight with a smile as long as he knew his family would smile back, unaware of the sky creeping in on Dick’s tense shoulders.
Wally squeezed his arms tighter around Dick’s back, supporting him as his breaths became ragged in their silent embrace. As Wally did so, a sick thought entered his mind, fueled by the anger and pain he felt for his partner; a small part of him–microscopic even–was glad Bruce wasn’t here. Not because he reveled in the effects his passing had on Dick, nor because he wanted Dick to be forced into the role of Batman, but because despite his struggles, Bruce had never been good for Dick. Yes, he played the parental figure Dick needed when he was younger and yes, he provided the necessities for Dick to survive, but he never provided what Wally knew Dick needed most.
“Do you wanna move to the couch, babe?” Wally whispered, cheek pressed against Dick’s head. He feels Dick nod silently and Wally zipped them to the couch in less than half a second. Wally sat and patted the spot next to him, watching as Dick laid his head on his lap, pressing his cheek to Wally’s stomach while letting his legs hang off the side of the couch.
Never one comfortable with silence, Wally broke it first. “If you don’t wanna talk, I won’t push. We can chill, watch the Office, eat popcorn–whatever you want. I just worry…you know? Not being able to be here to help and hearing on the news, Batman and Robin this and Joker and Two-Face that…I just wish I could do more for you.”
Wally looks down to meet Dick’s pained stare and internally winces as Dick opens and closes his mouth, struggling to respond.
“Me and the bats have it handled over here, okay?” Dick starts quietly, aimlessly running his hand over Wally’s knuckles. “You don’t need to worry about me, honey. I know you have more than enough to deal with back at Central and I don’t want to stress you out with problems I have handled.”
Wally lets his free hand run through Dick’s hair, quickly relishing in the way Dick warms to his touch. “I can’t lie and say I wouldn’t be stressed, you know me too well for that, but I’m here to support you, Dick. To be your listener when you’re stressed.” He paused for only a moment before speaking again, “I know you, Dick. I’ve known you for almost every era of your life as you have, mine. I knew you when you were my scrawny, baby leader-”
“Hey-” Dick tried to interject, but Wally kept going.
“I knew you when you wore that god awful blue and yellow disco Nightwing suit-”
“It really wasn’t that bad-”
“And I know what it looks like when you don’t have things handled. You don’t need to soften the blow for me Dickie and you don’t need to play the perfect soldier.” Wally paused. Let it be known even the Flash is out of breath from time to time. “You were always there for me during rough times, so please let me be there for you.”
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ok so because it seems riptide is gonna be coming up on a VERY interesting point in the story in regards to reveals, with them on their way to the hole in the sea and on their way to arlin and etc etc etc, i figured i might as well put this hunch of mine here as a monument to see whether it’ll get disproven or not.
i have a feeling that chip is far more important to the story than we’ve been led to believe, not just to the story as we know it, but the WORLD of mana as a whole, or at the VERY LEAST with everything going on with the hole in the sea.
a lot of stuff is up in the air and very ambiguous, especially in regards to what actually happened to chip when down there; however, from what i remember it seems incredibly likely that he somehow learned celestial when down there, and is the only one of the og black rose pirate crew that we know of who can speak celestial and READ THE MAPS.
IN CELESTIAL.
ON CHIP, DRE, AND FINN’S AS BACKS.
from what we know, or at least what i remember, lizzy also doesn’t speak celestial. dre can’t speak celestial. finn probably doesn’t speak celestial.
it also seems that whatever caused all of them to not remember most of what happened in the black sea was INTENTIONAL.
there’s a near complete absence of memory for pretty much everyone after a certain point. with how the black sea canonically messed with dre, finn, and arlin’s memories in the one shot, corrupting their perception of their memories to make important moments to them instead be painful (as seen with arlins memory of picking up chip and taking him onto the crew being ruined with a sense of betrayal as an adult chip stabbed arlin, which i won’t even get into how that could make chip reuniting w arlin that much more tragic because arlin can only associate chip w betrayal now coupled w how many more of his memories might’ve been corrupted over the course of the past DECADE in the hole in the sea with him apparently being the most susceptible to failing the necessary save to not have his memories corrupted) which makes it incredibly likely that whatever influence the black sea has not only impacts MEMORY but also DESIRES.
this tracks w how almost all of niklaus’ deals involve people’s desires and twisting them, and when their desires corrupt them enough they begin to die and spew BLACK OOZE.
SUCH AS A CERTAIN OTHER LARGE BODY OF LIQUID COLORED SIMILARLY WITH CORRUPTIVE PROPERTIES AND TIES TO DESIRE.
in the one shot the weird egg thing and the entire area they were in dealt heavily in desire.
when corrupted people in the black sea are slain their strongest desires from when they were alive were passed on to the person who killed them (jays newfound desire to find the dread queens tomb, gillions desire to help the tree, and whatever chips desire was cuz i’ve completely forgotten but it’s probably incredibly relevant 😅).
whatever chips ties are to the hole in the sea, and possibly to the prophecy, and the entirety of the black rose pirates legacy, i feel like we’re gonna find that a lot of the things regarding chips past is gonna be a whole lot more important to mana than we thought.
and i’m incredibly excited.
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