Lazing out on the neatly manicured grass of the manor grounds beneath the sky wasn't the sort of thing Dick expected to have time to do once he'd taken on the mantle of Robin. Lying on his back and inventing shapes out of the clouds rolling above him seemed like a childish thing to do, an old habit that had died with his family and his childhood.

And then Wally had come into his life with all the subtlety of a tornado, bringing last-minute ice cream runs and alphabet fridge magnets spelling rude words in hard-to-reach places and exasperated sighs from the lips of adults. And cloud-gazing.

Compared to their other shenanigans, the cloud-gazing was incredibly tame. And yet, sometimes, it was Dick's favourite thing, especially after a hard night. Or even the occasional good one.

They were older now—Wally was nineteen and Dick was seventeen—but, even in the chill of winter, the compulsion to lie under the clouds together was impossible to resist. Dick didn't even live at the manor anymore, except for some college breaks, but Alfred made them both feel at home regardless.

It was a quiet thing, lying there and watching the sky, listening to the wind ruffle the leaves like an annoying older brother. Talking didn't come easily to the pair anymore. Too many things had changed them—college, girlfriends, Dick's identities, more death—and it was like they were two completely different people. Dick could feel Wally slowly slipping between his fingers, less like a whirlwind and more like a river. It was slower, perhaps, than his memorable entrance so many years ago, but it never stopped no matter how much Dick wished it would.

There had been a time, a few years ago now, when the pair had played at being a couple. They'd even gone on a few dates, kissed a little, held hands. Dick had known even then that he was in love with Wally. But, like all games, the playing eventually came to an end before Dick had worked up the nerve to confess the depth of his feelings. Then Wally swooped up a girl and, not knowing what else to do, Dick followed suit. He liked girls, of course, and he liked the girls he had dated. But the could-have-beens hung over his head like—not clouds, exactly, because clouds came and went. More like a piece of his skull. It was a part of him now, and he couldn't do anything about it. Or so he told himself.

Wally gazed up at a cloud that Dick personally thought looked like a castle, though he hadn't exactly spent much time looking at it. Wally's eyes were far more interesting. Outside the manor grounds, green wasn't something that was seen often in Gotham, and even then it was usually associated with a criminal, usually Poison Ivy or the Joker. Most Gothamites avoided the botanical gardens because of the former, and no party or circus clown would dare have green hair as part of their costume.

So green was usually something Dick associated with Bad Things, like homicidal plants or the person who murdered his little brother. Wally was the exception to that.

Wally's eyes glittered. Wally's eyes were alive. Wally's eyes crinkled at the corners when he smiled and Dick wanted to kiss the creases. He also kind of wanted to cry because that was never going to happen. They barely even spoke as friends anymore.

Wally's bright, vital eyes flicked to Dick's and trapped him in his gaze. "Your face is gonna get stuck like that if the wind changes. Then you're gonna look like somebody stabbed you for the rest of your life."

Dick forced a smile onto his face and flopped down onto his back, snorting at Wally's remark. "Doesn't matter what face I make. Everybody still wants a piece of me."

Wally laughed. "Artemis always said I was a bad influence. I guess I owe her money."

"You made a bet with your girlfriend about whether it was your fault I'm conceited?"

"Ex-girlfriend, but basically." Wally sat up. His smile looked about as forced as Dick's felt.

"Ex? When did that happen?"

"Oh. Months ago. Didn't I tell you?"

Dick didn't bother hiding his frown. "No."

"Right. Sorry. Must've slipped my mind with everything that's been going on."

Dick stared up at the clouds, willing his heart to stop drumming against his ribs like some kind of morbid xylophone. Wally hadn't been single in years. The hope blooming in his gut hurt too much to let it run free.

"Is everything all right?" Dick managed.

"Oh. Yeah. We're good. Just drifted apart, you know?" Wally's voice sounded too light to be as nonchalant as he was pretending, but Dick decided not to call him on it. They were both a bit out of sorts today.

Wally lay back down with a long sigh. The biggest cloud overhead looked like a flower of some kind. A daisy, maybe? Dick said so, to break the silence if nothing else.

"Eh, looks like a bumpy cloud to me," Wally replied. "That one over there looks like a dragon."

"Or a lizard."

"Same thing." Wally's pinky finger bumped against Dick's. They both held their breath for a moment before jerking away. Dick tried not to read too much into it.

"So, how's the team?" he asked, grabbing onto the first topic he could think off.

"They're okay. Ish. I mean, considering the circumstances." Wally turned his face in Dick's direction, but Dick kept staring at the sky. "They're worried about you. You haven't been around much since Jason... you know."

Dick wished he didn't know. "Yeah. Bruce took it the hardest. It's hard to be around him. We're not really getting along."

"I'm sorry." Wally was still watching him, but this wasn't a conversation Dick could handle face-to-face. "You should come visit the team sometime. It's not good to isolate yourself when stuff like this happens, you know? Google said so."

"Well, I wouldn't want to disappoint our machine overlords," said Dick. His tone of voice was all wrong for the joke, but Wally laughed anyway. "I'll think about it."

"Good man. Well, almost man. Manlette."

"That sounds like a cannibal's breakfast, Wally."

"I bet you've got more experience with cannibals than I do," Wally replied.

Dick chuckled a little. "Probably." He finally gave into the urge to meet Wally's gaze.

Wally's eyes were soft, gentle. Fond. Dick felt warm just looking at him.

It would be so easy to sit up, to brush his fingers against Wally's dappled cheeks and kiss him. It would be the easiest thing in the world. He could do it. He wanted to do it. Even if Wally never wanted to see him again afterwards, it would be worth it just for that one perfect moment.

Dick sat up. "Can I ask you something? A serious something? And if you laugh, I'll smack you all the way to Metropolis and back."

"I won't laugh," Wally promised.

God. Okay. This was harder than he'd expected. But he couldn't just jump Wally out of the blue. If he asked first and the answer was no, at least they could possibly salvage their friendship. Or at least remain on speaking terms.

Dick took a deep breath, let it out and took in another one. "Okay. So. I know we messed around a bit as kids with, you know, dating, but did you ever think things could've become serious between us?"

Wally frowned, and Dick very much would have liked to sink into the ground right in that moment. "I've thought about it," Wally said after a few seconds of consideration. "You never said anything, though, so I tried not to."

Dick fought back a laugh that couldn't have been anything other than hysterical. "I... same. Yeah. I wasn't sure if you were even into guys, or if I was just some weird exception because of how close we were as friends."

"Ditto." Wally did laugh a little bit then, but Dick figured he wasn't laughing at his expense at this late stage. "I am, by the way. Though... not exclusively."

"Yeah." Dick's brain had vacated the premises. "Same. Uh. Again."

A grin slid across Wally's face, crinkling the corner of his eyes in that way Dick loved. "You're blushing." He pressed a hand against his reddening cheek. "And so am I. Christ. Okay." He laughed softly. "Only you could go from discussing cannibalism to, uh, matters of the heart. So to speak."

"How poetic," Dick ribbed, though his insides were definitely squirming with glee at the turn the conversation had taken. He hadn't felt like this since Zatanna had first kissed him, and that was years ago. Despite how much he and Wally had drifted, being here felt right.

As he'd predicted, it was all too easy to touch Wally's burning, freckled cheek. His fingers tingled. He leaned in before he could change his mind, and Wally met him halfway.

Dick's insides fizzed with electricity the moment their lips touched. He sank into the kiss, his weight pushing Wally down onto his back. They split apart, giggled, and came together again. Wally's fingers tiptoed across Dick's ribs and Dick accidentally elbowed him in the gut when he hit a ticklish spot, but that was okay.

They rolled apart after a while, but laced their their hands together. Wally's eyes were alight with the kind of mischievous glee that had made Dick fall in love with him in the first place. Above them, a cloud had shaped itself into a heart, though Wally tried to claim it was a butt for a while before finally relenting.

They lay there together, hand-in-hand, until the sun began to sink below the horizon and Wally's stomach grumbled for food. They walked back into the manor, still firmly attached to each other, and, for the first time in months, Dick couldn't wipe the grin off his face.