emotional maturity speedrun = poly relationship unlocked

i feel like this is an underrated ship dynamic (there are like 60 works of varying quality on ao3), I've only seen it a few times but cmon those three had something, idk if it was this but a man can dream 

Wally and Arty are together, and Dick is fine with that because he likes both of them but knows neither is available so he's an adult about it but he notices that Wally and Artemis are pushing him away. He tries to reconnect but Wally makes a comment about them not being boyfriends/Dick is acting like a clingy gf. He's really hurt and decides not to salvage the friendship anymore, guessing that he must've overstepped because both of them are acting like he's a hassle to be around. 

Artemis feels like shit because she thinks she broke up this really good friendship by pushing Dick away and talks to Wally about reconnecting, only to find out he's into Dick but likes what they have so to stop himself from doing something stupid. She's like I'm into him too. They decide to both apologize and explain their feelings. Throuple antics.

Wally, Artemis and Dick had always been inseparable. Part of it came from how inseparable Wally and Dick had been before she was in the picture. When she and Wally got together, they made a promise that it would never harm the friendship he had with Dick.  It predated her by a mile so it was only fair. She didn't really intend on becoming friends with Dick, well at least not as close of friends as he was with Wally but he had a habit of growing on people. Then they were suddenly no longer Dick, Wally and Wally's girlfriend. They were Dick, Wally and Artemis. 

She never got jealous of Dick crashing their dates from time to time because he had this ability to know when was the right time to tag along. He gave them space but never too much that they thought he felt left out. Artemis used to jokingly introduce him as Wally's boyfriend with how much time they spent together. At some point, people stopped thinking it was a joke but didn't pry. 

When Wally and Artemis retired, they ensured Dick they'd still spend time together. That their friendship didn't need death-defying missions or murder mysteries to keep going. 

At least, they thought it didn't. 

Something changed a month after retirement and suddenly having Dick around was uncomfortable. When he joined them on movie nights, having him share their blanket or knock their hands when he was reaching for the same snack bowl brought a weird unnervingness. When he joined them on dinner dates, they felt like he didn't fit in right anymore. Sometimes it felt like they were both more concerned about listening to Dick speak than engaging in the conversation.

They didn't talk about it but they slowly stopped inviting him to places, slowly stopped answering his texts and slowly didn't visit him in Bludhaven. Life went on without him but they could feel that void which only made them more confused about why things felt different now. How could it be that they missed him but couldn't bear to be around him? 

Secretly, they were both aware of how their skin tingled when Dick touched them. Each of them adored his smile and his horrific dismantling of the English language. They would both see him in the guest room, curled up on the single bed, and wonder about buying something bigger to fit him in it. Maybe then he'd stay for longer. Playful platonic pecks were no longer enough. They left them itching for something more, something with more passion and intent. They got jealous when he spoke about going on a date with Barbara and were secretly happy when he told them that they were staying friends. They wanted to take him on dates, real ones that he wasn't just crashing or last minute invited to halfway through, they wanted to see him as in his oversized sleep shirt and criminally short shorts drinking his coffee at the breakfast bar and more than anything, they wanted him for themselves. 

The issue was that they had each other already. They couldn't just add a third, could they? Neither wanted to break up to shoot their shot with the acrobat. They just wanted Dick there too. Of course,  they didn't know how the other felt and none of them was about to bring it up for fear of ruining what they had. In their attempts to pretend the feelings weren't there, they had to pretend Dick wasn't there. Even if it hurt him in the process.

"Hey," Dick greeted. He wore a small backpack of his overnight clothes and his laptop because God forbid he had the night off. Artemis looked him up and down with an unreadable expression so he went on. "It's the second Thursday?" 

Every second Thursday of the month meant Dick would come over for a chat and some dinner, sleeping in the guest room for the night and they'd go to bed knowing he was safe for once. He was looking forward to it and he guessed they were just too busy this week with their civilian lives to say something about it. He'd been using that excuse a lot for them lately but he grew up with Bruce so he'd heard it enough to use it for other people. Besides, people can be busy without saving the world every Tuesday.

"About that," she began, glancing back to Wally who was standing awkwardly in the kitchen. He quickly dipped out of sight when Dick looked at him. The acrobat frowned at that. "We were thinking of just having the night to ourselves, to be honest. Work has been crazy lately so we haven't really had any quality time."

"Oh." He tried not to show the sting of hurt on his face. "Uhm, rain check then?"

"Yeah...actually it might be best to sort of discontinue this thing."

"Right, yeah, of course. No problemo. Just give me a text when we're back on, okay?" She nodded and closed the door a little too fast for his liking. He stared at the wood grain for a second then tucked his thumbs underneath his backpack straps and walked back to his motorcycle. 

He couldn't help but glance back at the house he was once always welcome in. He didn't know what he did but he must've done something terrible to deserve this. Did he get in the way too often? Had they grown out of him being their third wheel? Was he too much now that he was still a hero and they weren't? Maybe the only reason they liked him in the first place was because they thought they had to. There weren't too many teens fighting crime back then so options were limited especially when Wally met him. Perhaps they got a taste of a life where he wasn't there and it was too good to pass up. 

Well, he got the message loud and clear. He'd seen so many people distance themselves from him over the years and he'd thought that this time, it would remain how it always had been. He should've learned to stop being so optimistic. It would've saved him a great deal of pain. Dick felt his heart ache at cutting off their ties, especially when they'd been together for so long and gone through hell and back together but it just hurt too much to cling to people who didn't want him around anymore. At least he had work. It didn't matter if the team didn't like him and it didn't matter if they left him too. He had Nightwing. Nightwing would never abandon him.

They didn't text to rearrange their sleepover. He didn't reach out to ask about their days.

For the next week, Artemis couldn't stop thinking about it. She did want Dick to stay over. She missed how even as a hunk of muscle he still looked small and cute when he felt safe around them. She knew Wally was missing him too. They got into little spats here and there and although they apologised by the time they went to bed, she didn't doubt that the new tension was because of their dwindling relationship with the acrobat.

"We need to talk," Artemis stated one evening. She paused the TV to emphasize her point.

"You know I hate that line," Wally replied but he still gave her his attention. "What's up?"

"I need to ask. Why did you stop talking to Dick?"

"You stopped talking to him too," he answered defensively. 

"I know but I want to know why you did."

"You tell me first." She huffed out a laugh but decided it would be better to say her reasoning first.

"Things got weird. I don't know, it sort of felt like," her voice trailed off as she realised something. She felt the same way with Wally. Not to the same degree, she was very good at hiding her discomfort when she was younger but she still felt it. Anxious whenever she saw him, awkward when he got in her personal space and she wanted him to go away but never liked the space he left. "It felt like when I had a crush on you." She hated to admit it but when she looked over at Wally, he had the same look on his face. They were in the same boat only she feared they'd realised too late.

"I felt it too. He's just so- so easy to be around. He fits so perfectly with us and then I couldn't stop thinking about it. The more we hung out, the more awkward it got because I kept thinking about you and then thinking about him," he answered. "I thought about how good we'd look together."

"I think so too. I want you but he'd be a great addition, y'know," she muttered.

"Right! Like, I feel the exact same about you and Dick. I just didn't say anything because-"

"You didn't want to hurt me."

"And you didn't want to hurt me either."

"So we hurt him instead," she concluded. He nodded solemnly. "Do you think he'd like us that way too?"

"He's said before that he's pan and would probably be down for a throuple if he found the right people but that was years ago," he said. "I think we've already fucked this up enough that we can't do much more to ruin it." She hummed in agreement. If they had nothing to lose then they could apologise and propose the idea to him. He deserved to know why they were no longer friendly with him even if he didn't feel the same way. "If you want this Arty, you know I'm all for it."

"Obviously I want it. I don't know for how long I've wanted it but I know I want it now."

"Then I guess we should start thinking of a good apology, huh?"

Dick wasn't expecting any visitors so when he heard a knock on the door, he immediately went on high alert. He turned down the TV for a moment and strained his ears as he stalked up to the door, carefully dodging the floorboards he knew would creak under his weight. He looked through the peephole and sighed with a mix of relief and disappointment. 

Outside of his door were Artemis and Wally. Both seemed rather dejected which he reluctantly found some joy in. His hands hovered over the locks. Did they deserve his time of day? Before he could answer the question, he was already undoing the locks and opening the door. He leaned against the frame and folded his arms across his chest with an unimpressed expression.

"Breaking the silent treatment?" he asked.

"We've got a lot of explaining to do," Artemis answered softly. "But we owe you an apology first."

"I'm guessing you want to come in for that?"

"That'd be nice. No offence but you live in a pretty dodgy place. I'm surprised I still have my wallet," Wally joked although it fell flat. The acrobat thought on it for a moment and then moved away, giving them a nod to follow him inside. They rushed inside before he changed his mind and sat themselves down on his couch whilst he locked the door. He didn't join them. Instead, he leaned against his kitchen counter. "We're so sorry for how we've been treating you."

"We know that just saying sorry isn't enough and you don't have to accept our apology just because we said it," Artemis added. He remained unimpressed.

"You're shit at apologies. I'm hoping this explanation saves you."

"Dick, we've been pushing you away because we didn't communicate with each other. Retirement has been giving us time to think about our feelings and having you over so often just made us feel them so much more but we were too scared of ruining our relationship that we ended up ruining our relationship with you," she continued.

"And those feelings are?"

"We're in love with you," Wally said. 

Dick stared at them in silence for a few minutes. It felt like an eternity. Then, he finally spoke.

"That's all? You really put me through all that because you love me?" he asked. They nodded guiltily. "Guys, we've practically been in an unspoken throuple since we were kids! All you had to say was you needed time to think about it and I would've happily given you space."

"To be honest, we didn't even know what we were thinking until we talked about it," Artemis defended. He rolled his eyes and pushed himself away from the counter. 

"So what does this mean now?"

"It means that we want you to be ours but you don't have to be. If you don't want this then we go back to how things were before." 

He ruminated on the thought. He had to admit that he wasn't opposed to it. He'd actually rather like having both of them and both of them having him. He knew that he'd had a crush on the pair for a long time but he always thought it would never come to fruition. Now here was his chance to have it but they'd treated him like gum stuck to the bottom of their shoes for a while. What if they start feeling differently in the future and he's once again pushed away as though all those years they spent together meant nothing? It was a lot to put on the line but he'd be damned if he wasn't a risk taker.

Slowly, Dick made his way over to the couch where they made space between themselves to sit down. He couldn't deny the small blush that burned his cheeks when he filled the gap. He just slotted in so well. 

"Do things have to be so different? I mean, what we had before worked. It'd just be nice to be more romantic sometimes."

"Trust us, we've got a tonne to make up for so you're gonna be spoilt rotten," Wally assured him with a cheeky grin.

"Oh, you bet your ass you're spoiling me rotten."

"Is that a yes then? Will you be our boyfriend?" Artemis asked to clarify. 

"I'd love to." Wally and Artemis both kissed his cheek. Honestly, he'd probably go through it again to have this. He won't though. Too many people would fight them even if they were in retirement now.

I feel like this should've ended with smut but i fucking hate writing that - unfortunately i'm not the breed of ace that writes amazing porn