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English
Series:
Part 3 of (when I'm away I will remember) How You Kissed Me
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Published:
2017-10-29
Words:
906
Chapters:
1/1
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12
Kudos:
569
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28
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4,857

Eyes Are Never Closing (hearts are never broken)

Summary:

“Go,” Dick says, lips tilting up in a forced smile. “Go, I’ll be right behind you.”

Tumblr Prompt: A hoarse whisper “kiss me”

Notes:

Title from Photograph by Ed Sheeran!

Tumblr prompts: Kissing prompts

Enjoy!

(See the end of the work for more notes.)

Work Text:

The blast doors at the end of the hall are already closed, trapping the team within the confines of the room they’re in. M’gann’s unconscious, and Kaldur’s dehydrated and bleeding out, arm slung over Artemis’s shoulder and barely able to support his own weight. Conner’s carrying M’gann, Robin hooked up to the computer mainframe and trying desperately to hack the doors open. On the other side of the door they’d entered from there’s the sound of footsteps and the laser weapons the enemy carries.

It’s a veritable army that they’re facing down, and logically Wally knows that even if they’d been at full strength they wouldn’t be able to take them.

But now, two heavy hitters down and none of them unscathed, the odds of getting out of this are practically negative.

Wally readies himself to fight, readies himself to go down by the side of his team, his friends, his family, readies himself to die protecting whom he can for as long as he can.

The footsteps get nearer.

Then the blast doors, the only obstacle to their freedom, open.

But there’s no victorious cheer from Robin, no triumphant cry or even satisfied hum.

It’s cold, harsh silence, a grim smile and thinned lips.

“Go,” Dick -because it is Dick speaking now, Wally can tell. It’s the way his shoulders tremble, the way he breathes deep, the way he bites his lip for just a nanosecond- says, lips tilting up in a forced smile. “Go, I’ll be right behind you.”

The rest go, hobbling slowly to the doors, and it’s a long walk down to the doors, far enough that the team is already out of earshot, and Wally knows that something is wrong.

Something is wrong with the set of Dick’s shoulders, with the way his jaw trembles ever so slightly, the way his brow furrows and the way his fingers shake as they type on his holo-keyboard.

“You-” Wally starts, and his throat dries out, cutting off his sentence. “You are coming, aren’t you?”

And Dick smiles the smallest of smiles, the saddest, most humourless smile Wally has ever seen, and then Wally knows.

“If- If I don’t stay here and keep the doors open,” Dick begins, and Wally doesn’t want him to complete the sentence. “If I don’t- If I don’t, Walls, the doors will shut again and then we’ll all be trapped here.”

“Then let me run you there,” Wally pleads. “Hold them open for the rest of the team to make it out, then let me run you there. We can make it, I’ll carry you there, carry you across the threshold like my bride, huh?”

Wally tries to joke, tries to laugh, but the sound sticks in his throat and comes out as a sob.

Dick smiles sadly. “Walls, you know you can’t make it there in time if you’ve got to deal with my deadweight too. You’re running on empty, and your leg’s already injured. You won’t be able to make it in time if you carry me.”

Wally sobs. “You can’t-”

“Go, Wally,” Dick says, a soft, almost understanding smile on his lips, and the footsteps are getting closer. “Go.”

Wally shakes his head, pulls down his cowl, looks Robin, looks Dick Grayson, right in the eyes. “I-”

But Robin just closes his eyes, looks down, fiddles with his computer glove some more.

Wally swallows, mouth dry, lips chapped, throat parched, and wonders how it could be that his cheeks are soaked with tears, his eyes still wet, but his mouth is desert-dry.

Let me stay too, he wants to say.

Let me do this one last thing with you, he wants to beg, but his shoulders shake and his eyes leak and he gulps, and what comes out instead is, “Kiss me.”

A dry, hoarse, half-unheard whisper, soft and breaking down the middle and already so hurt, but Dick’s head snaps up and his lips -soft, red, bitten lips, lips that have never been kissed, lips that have never known intimacy, never known the touch of another’s- part ever so slightly, the most shock his Robin persona allows him to show.

“Kiss me,” Wally repeats, and this time it’s stronger, more certain, and then Dick’s leaning in ever so slightly.

Wally meets him the rest of the way, closes his eyes and tilts his head, and then they’re kissing, soft and sad and wet with tears, and Wally can’t tell if they’re his tears of Dick’s, but it doesn’t really matter, does it?

The kiss is salty, gentle and warm and Dick’s tongue darts out ever so curiously, hesitantly, to lick at the seam of Wally’s lips, and they part, allowing that hesitant intruder in, a soft, wet, gentle touch, and then they’re pulling back, foreheads pressed together.

“Go, Kid Flash,” Robin says, and his lips are red and plump and spit-slick, and Wally stares.

“Go,” Robin repeats, and even through the lenses of his mask Wally knows his eyes are sad. “Go now, and don’t look back. Tell the others- tell them I’m sorry. A-And tell Bruce that I love him, and that this wasn’t his fault, and tell him that I-I want him to move on, okay?”

Wally nods, silent, and turns to go. He takes a single step, and Dick’s voice echoes out behind him, soft and shy and vulnerable.

“Wally?” He says, and Wally turns his head just so.

“I love you.”

Notes:

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