I don't own anything except my original/own characters and my original plot. Sorry for the late update, my internet went out.

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Chapter 18 - France

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FRANCE.

Home to Paris, the City of Love. Love, what I was so afraid to confess to Wally.

"We are now landing in Paris. The weather is cold at thirty-three degrees Fahrenheit, the time is twelve o'clock sharp."

"This flight was worse than the last one," I gripped my seat sides tightly as we landed without a hitch.

"But there wasn't any turbulence," Wally pointed out, grabbing our luggage.

"I was waiting for it," I hissed in an exaggerated paranoid tone.

Wally laughed, his eyes sparkling with joy. I smiled contently, eyes full of lightning, yet you could always tell what it meant. We walked down the steps and greeted the flight attendants, sharing a quick conversation about when the next takeoff would be. Leaving them to their own devices, we got into the car waiting for us.

Pulling out of the airport, I took the time to take in everything that was Wally. The spark in his eyes that never left despite his past. The freckles spread over his face because of the sun. The inward curve of his nose. And his lips that were really, quite kissable. The way his ears shifted when he smiled, his eyes crinkling at the corners. Wally was perfect to me.

Inside of him, in all his awkward glory, was magic that could kill him in seconds. What I was leaving him for. For his life, I had to give up mine. But watching him become aware of my stare, and tilt his head in curiosity, I knew it was worth it.

"You good?"

"Yeah," I breathed out, turning to the window, "Just taking it in. I always wanted to go to Paris."

"Me too. It's different than I thought it would be, but you see the Eiffel Tower and it's the same."

"We have a day here. We're going to England tomorrow afternoon and spending Wednesday night and Thursday there before heading home early Friday morning," I repeated the schedule to myself, drilling it into my mind.

"Bonjour," our driver greeted when our conversation was finished, "Welcome to paris."

"C'est assez froid ici n'est-ce pas?" I asked conversationally. The driver turned to me with an impressed smile.

"Les hivers sont froids," the driver agreed.

Wally leaned over and whispered, "What are you saying?"

"I said it's quite cold, and the driver said they have cold winters here," I explained shortly.

"I think French is my favorite language out of the ones you know," Wally sent me a sly grin. I smacked his arm, scoffing.

"You watch it or you won't be hearing me sweet talking in French anytime soon," I warned with a wave of my finger.

Wally grinned again, turning to look out the window. I did the same. Paris was truly beautiful, with bustling snow covered streets. The driver pointed out monuments on the way, explaining their names and history.

"We have arrived at your hotel," the driver announced after about twenty minutes in the car.

"Thank you."

Both of us simultaneously opened our doors and got out. Taking our bags out of the trunk, we waved to the driver one last time before entering the hotel.

The lobby was homey, with cream-colored walls and intricate painting on the ceilings, renditions of famous ones. Wally, while I was distracted with the decorations, checked us in. Grabbing my hand he shook my out of my awestruck daze and took my bag to the elevator for me.

"What do you want to do? Sightseeing first, stores tonight or tomorrow before we leave?" I suggested.

"Sure," Wally nodded, no objections. The elevator doors opened and we stepped out, walking down the hall to our room.

The room was spacious, matching the design of the lobby. It had two beds, a bathroom, and a sitting room. A balcony faced the Eiffel Tower directly, most likely raising the price of the room exponentially. But Bruce was paying, money wasn't a problem.

I noticed a package on one of the beds. It was nicely wrapped, and my name was written on it neatly. I picked it up cautiously, opening it and reading the note that came with it.

We'll hope this can stay on the bridge ~ Bruce

Under the note was a lock. A generic store bought one you'd open with a house key. The key was in the box as well. Half of the lock was bright yellow, the other pitch black.

"Bruce you shipper," I mumbled, realizing the yellow was for Wally and the black was for me. He designed it to match our uniform colors.

"There's no kitchen so I guess we're eating out while we're here," Wally dropped his suitcase on the other bed. I giggled, he had a one-track mind, and it was obvious.

"Of course you only care about the food," I laughed, placing the lock back in the box, "Come on, I want to sightsee before it gets dark."

~*~

The only sightseeing we ended up doing do was going to the Eiffel Tower, even then, Wally and I were amazed at what we saw. The sun was setting in the distance so lights were up on the tower. It was supposed to put on a light show every hour for five minutes all night, so Wally and I were going to try to see it from our hotel room.

"You know someone died on TV from the Eiffel Tower," I told Wally as we looked straight up to see the top, "He made a special flight suit and wanted to see if it worked, he insisted that he jumped instead of using a test dummy. You can guess that his suit didn't work."

"Why do you know that?" Wally asked, slightly disturbed. I shrugged, my neck started to ache, so I stopped looking straight up at the tower.

"It was something I learned in school. Every once in a while I had a lesson revolving around a great tragedy in history, that was one of the smaller ones."

"I can't believe they would teach you something like that," Wally shook his head, chuckling.

"Now that I've seen the outside world I can't really believe it either, but villains are villains. And a lot of the tragedies had to do with them. They were proud of their work..." I trailed off, mind wandering. I was their greatest work, greatest weapon.

"Want to eat?" Wally changed the subject, successfully pulling me out of my thoughts.

~*~

After dinner we slowly walked back to the hotel, window shopping and enjoying the cold air nipping at our noses. When the temperature decreased even further, and other pedestrians became rare along the sidewalk, we hurried our pace to get back and warm up.

When we reached the hotel, I let Wally shower first. When we were both showered we said goodnight, walking to our separate rooms. At my door, I paused, taking the short steps to Wally's room.

"Wally, can we sleep in the same bed tonight?" I asked nervously, fidgeting with my hands, "I forgot my music box back at the cave and I had a nightmare back in Greece."

Wally sped over to me, picked me up, and put me in his bed with a gentle smile. I let out sigh of relief, moving under the covers and closer to Wally. It wasn't awkward, just comforting. It wasn't the first time we slept in the same bed either, furthering our comfort with each other.

"Can you speak French again?" He whispered, breath tickling my neck.

"Je suis désolé, Wally," I whispered back, closing my eyes, "Je ne peux pas te préparer à ce qui va arriver. Mais je dois le faire. Je vais briser ma promesse à Richard. Je briserai ton coeur mais... je t'aime."

All was silent for a few moments. I wondered if Wally secretly spoke French and I just gave myself away.

"What did you say?" Wally questioned, disproving my doubts.

"You'll figure it out," I assured, closing my eyes. Wally kissed my forehead, wrapping an arm around my waist and pulling me closer to his chest.

I was warm, comforted. Snuggling closer, I sighed contently. I wanted it to stay that way.

~*~

The next morning I woke up before Wally, not shocking considering it was Wally. Wally's arm was wrapped around me, his face in my hair. I slowly shifted, so I was facing him.

"Wally," I whispered, kissing his cheek. He grumbled, moving his head slightly, "Wally wake up."

"What?" He grumbled, morning voice peeking through.

"It's time to get up if we're going to get stuff done, we're leaving later today."

"Just five more minutes," he mumbled, pulling me closer.

"Wally if you don't get up right now I'm going to get breakfast without you." I threatened.

I was suddenly on the edge of the bed. A yellow blur was moving around the room, moving things around rapidly. Within ten seconds Wally stood in front of me, clothes on and hair tousled.

"You're making me feel slow," I grumbled, crossed the hall to my room. I pulled some clothes out of my bag, changing into them.

"I make everyone feel slow, that's the point," Wally shouted from the other room. I rolled my eyes, shaking my head.

I walked into the bathroom, closing and locking the door behind me. I put on my clothes, did my hair and makeup, and walked back out. I stopped in my room to grab my purse, shoving Bruce's lock into a smaller pocket. When I went to put my shoes on, Wally was on his phone, texting someone.

"Texting Dick?" I asked, grabbing my desired pair of shoes.

"What?" He looked up, tucking his phone away in his pocket, "Oh, y-yeah."

I shot him a look, dropping the topic and slipping on a pair of shoes before grabbing the room keys and walking through the door, Wally on my heels.

"There's a shop I saw yesterday that I want to stop at, it's near the Love Lock Bridge, is that fine with you?" Wally asked me, my hand dug into my purse until I felt the lock.

"That's perfect," I assured, the cool metal contrasting my warm hands.

We walked through the streets of France once again, occasionally stopping to ask for directions to the Love Lock Bridge, but when we got closer, we could see it. Wally told me to wait where I was while he ran to the shop to get what he wanted.

Instead of doing what I was told I swiftly walked to the bridge, searching for an open spot among the many locks. I had to walk down a bit, but I managed to find a place that didn't already have a lock on it.

I took out the lock and key, unlocking it and placing it on the bridge. I locked the lock and stepped back proudly. Our lock stood out more than the rest, which were a plain silver.

I walked back to the spot where I was supposed to wait for Wally, another minute or two passed before Wally came back out of the store, carrying a small bag with him. He made no notion to show me what it was. I trusted him, and didn't ask to see. He'd show me in due time.

"Alright, I got what I needed, any stores you want to go to?"

I grabbed his hand, excitedly leading him down a few side streets to a small jewelry store we had passed the day before. We entered and I looked through the aisles happily. I fixed my gaze on a gold, pearl drop necklace on one of the shelves. It looked old, but was still beautiful, and looking at it, it would go with the dress I had got from Greece.

I gently grabbed the necklace, taking it up to the front desk and checking out. Wally looked around the store in wonder as I approached.

"What are you looking at?" I asked curiously, grabbing my bag.

"All the jewelry in here is old," Wally marveled as we exited the store. I snorted, obvious statement.

"It's an antique jewelry store," I explained, pointing out the sign before realizing he couldn't read French, "You don't find jewelry like that anywhere nowadays."

"Want to hit a few more stores and see the tower again before we go?"

"You know me so well."

~*~

"Well, at least I can wear the dress and the jewelry together when I'm twenty," I sighed as I packed up everything later that night.

"Something to look forward to over the course of the next four years," Wally grinned, zipping up his suitcase.

We took the elevator down to the lobby, turning in our key and checking out. The driver was already waiting out front for us by the time we got out. He took us straight to the airport where we got on the plane for the second to last time.

"Only one more plane ride after this," Wally assured as he watched me tighten my seatbelt.

"I really don't like planes," I shrunk down in my seat. Wally grabbed my hand reassuringly.

"We're superhuman, if it goes down we can save it," Wally encouraged.

"Right," I nodded, closing my eyes tightly as the plane took off, "Where are the barf bags again?"

"Okay, I'm moving seats."

"I'm serious!"

Translations:

Bonjour - Hello

C'est assez froid ici n'est-ce pas - It's quite cold.

Les hivers sont froids - Winters are cold here.

Je suis désolé, Wally, je ne peux te préparer à ce qui va arriver. Mais je dois faire ça. Je me casse le promesse de Richard. Je vais lui briser ton cœur mais... je t'aime. -- I'm sorry Wally, I can not prepare you for what will happen. But I have to do it. I will break my promise to Richard. I will break your heart but...I love you.