I don't own anything except my original/own characters and my original plot.

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Chapter 12-Heroes and Villains

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"HAPPY BIRTHDAY WALLY!" We all yelled in unison.

Wally grinned, speeding towards us. It was a small birthday party, with the team only, but we worked together earlier that day to get a cake- Wally's favorite part-, hang decorations, blow up balloons and find good music. It was a non-surprising surprise, inviting Wally over without telling him what we were doing for him.

"... eight, nine, ten!"

Wally let me go, and I stumbled dizzily. We were playing pin the ears on the Batman, a homemade superhero game made with press photos of Batman and Robin. Reaching out blindly, I stuck the ears on the poster. Laughter rang around me as I pulled my blindfold off.

The connected pair of ears was over Robin's eyes instead of on Batman's head. Batman without ears and Robin with ears for eyes was an incredibly comical picture. I laughed with the others, nearly falling over as I took a step back.

"You'd be a great Batman, Rob," I wiped tears from my eyes, plucking off the ears and holding out for Wally. Going to my tiptoes behind him I secured the blindfold over his eyes.

"One, two, three, four, five, six, seven, eight, nine, ten!"

Stepping back, I let Wally go when he stopped spinning. Wally took a step forward, turning his head to his right, then left. He didn't know where the poster was. Turning back to me, I choked back a laugh when he stuck the ears on my forehead. I was glad we used tape, not a tack.

"Well, you missed the poster," Artemis sassed, not bothering to hold back her laughter. Wally pulled the blindfold off and barked out a laugh when he saw my unamused expression.

"You'd make a good Batman too, (Y/n)," M'gann flew around me, snapping a picture with her phone.

"Gee, thanks," I said sarcastically.

"What do you want to do first, presents or cake?" Kaldur asked, his leader side shining through.

"Cake!" Wally was in the kitchen the moment the word left his lips.

"Why did I even ask?" Kaldur chuckled, a small smile pulling at his lips.

Within the short seconds it took to get to the kitchen Wally had already cut the cake and put slices on different plates for us. His was the biggest piece. Normally, we'd argue with him about how big his slice was, but seeing how it was his birthday, we had no choice but to go along with it.

"Let's skip the birthday song and eat, yeah?" Wally stabbed a fork into his cake.

"No, no, no. This is a tradition," Robin argued with a tone of finality. Wally groaned and sat down at the table, face in his hands.

"Happy birthday to you. Happy birthday to you. Happy birthday dear Wally. Happy birthday to you!" We all but screeched. Finishing, we laughed at the horror on Wally's face.

"Now you can eat the cake, Wally," Artemis assured, sitting down at the end of the table.

Wally sighed in relief and shoved cake into his mouth. If it was anyone else other than Wally, I would have worried they would choke. But this was our resident speedster, he was meant to work fast. Wally was on his second piece when we were halfway through our first.

"You are very lucky that you have a fast metabolism," I pointed at Wally with my fork before taking another bite of cake.

Wally gave me a smug smile, continuing on his slice of cake. I rolled my eyes and focused on my food again. Throughout the process, the team was telling hilarious stories about different mishaps on missions, most of which came from Wally. The most common ending was fire and a lecture from Batman.

"I thought this team was supposed to be covert. Most of your missions turned out to be giant dumpster fires," I laughed at their offended reactions, throwing my plastic plate in the trash can, "How are you guys not public yet?"

"It's a miracle."

"Present time!" M'gann clapped, flying to the living room. I allowed everyone to go to the living room before me. Sucking in a deep breath, I mentally prepared myself.

As we gave Wally his presents, they increasingly got more hilarious and better. M'gann and Conner teamed up to get him a pile of restaurant gift cards, the card coming when them stating they knew he'd eat anything. Artemis got him some Baywatch DVDs, Kaldur gave him a bin of suckers that said 'The older you get the more it sucks', Robin got him a shirt that said 'Gotta Go Fast', and I gave him the Flash sweatshirt I found.

We threw away the abundant piles of wrapping paper- after chucking them at each other in a war for a good twenty minutes- and turned the radio up. Either talking or being weird. It was pleasant, being around people that were growing on my rapidly.

Letting out a chuckle, I remembered the time I wanted to rip their throats out. The therapy sessions with Black Canary were world shattering in a good-bad way. Changing my views on the villains to what they really were, but changing my views on my family at the same time. My gaze wandered to Wally, the pep talk I gave myself that morning filtering through my mind, at least, the part I got through before ALICE told me to woman up.

Weaving my way through the dancing team, I tapped Wally's shoulder. Attention grabbed, he turned to me.

"I have the other half of your gift, come on," I grabbed his hand and led him to my room, where the music could barely be heard, filling out the silence with muted beats.

The door slid open, and I stood at the threshold before snapping into focus again. Wally following behind me, we walked inside. I shook my hands out, taking in another deep breath. I turned back to Wally, who was staring at me curiously.

"So where's this second ha-"

I was kissing him. My body jerked forward without my mind telling it to and pushed my lips to his. He tensed up, hands splayed wide in the air. Regret flooded my system. He hands gripped my waist and lifted me up to my tiptoes, seeing as how I was shorter than him. I had never kissed someone before, unless you counted my dream with Wally, but I didn't expect it to be like that.

The room fell away around me and my heart missed beats. What I lacked in experience Wally made up for, filling the gaps. Every fiber of my being was on fire. Not a painful fire, but a warm one that I wanted to stoke to keep alive. The kiss could have lasted a minute, or an hour. I lost track of time in the sheer bliss of it.

When we pulled apart, I resisted the urge to pull him back in. Our faces were flushed and our chests were heaving in a desperate attempt to get more air to our lungs. Wally leaned down and pressed his forehead to mine, a smile spread across the lips I just kissed.

"Holy crap," he whispered, making me giggle at his same quiet tone, "That was by far my favorite present."

"Yeah? It even trumped the gift cards?"

"Even the gift cards," Wally confirmed, stepping back, "Are you uh, are you sure you want to do this?"

"What do you mean?" I tilted my head in confusion.

"You're still recovering. It's only been what? Two weeks? I don't want you to feel rushed into something you aren't ready for."

I could have cooed at his consideration. I hadn't even considered my mental stability affecting our potential relationship, but he did. He did because he was a gentleman, a hero.

"Thanks for your concern Wally, but working with Black Canary has helped me out a lot. I feel really really good about where I am now. I know I have a long way to go, but that isn't going to stop me from wanting to pursue this."

Wally, while still slightly hesitant, nodded all the same, "Okay. If you're sure. But if there's ever a point where you want to stop, let me know."

"I will. Thank you, Wally."

"Will (Y/n) and Wally stop making out- Ow! You know it's true," Robin's voice broke through ALICE's speakers.

"Some of us are heading out, we want to say goodbye," Kaldur stole the mic from Robin, "Come to the zeta-tubes from wherever you two are."

Wally and I shared nervous looks. There were no cameras in my room, only ALICE, so Robin was just making an extremely accurate assumption. Kaldur or Artemis were the most likely candidates for smacking him.

Placing a hand behind my head, Wally sped from my room to the zeta-tubes. In front of the team, we took a wide step away from each other, neither of us missing their scrutinizing gazes.

"Happy birthday Wally," Artemis gave a two-fingered salute, "See you on the next mission."

"Happy birthday," Kaldur stepped through.

"Don't think I don't know what's going on here," Robin pointed at the two of us, letting out his signature laugh as he stepped through.

M'gann and Conner were the only ones left, and because they lived at the cave, they wouldn't be leaving. Wally and I laughed nervously when the two of them raised their brows, obviously questioning Robin's statement.

"We don't know what he's talking about."

"He must be high on sugar, huh?"

Wally and I cringed at our equally sorry excuses. Speeding off, Wally came back with his presents in his arms. He chuckled awkwardly one last time, said goodbye, and left.

"What was that all about?" M'gann floated around me, grinning wolfishly.

"Nothing, you know how weird Robin is. I'm gonna go to bed, goodnight," I jogged away from the zeta-tubes before the conversation could continue.

Out of their sight I let out a sigh of relief. They were likely suspicious, but if we were lucky, then they'd forget about what happened.

Stopping in my room I sighed again, jumping onto my bed without changing into pajamas. Snuggling into the plush pillows I closed my eyes.

"Good job. You woman-ed up. I'm proud of you (Y/n)."

"Thanks ALICE."

And I drifted off.