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Flying across the rooftops of Chicago reminded Dick of something he had truly missed as Batman. Yes, he had missed the freedom of Nightwing in general and the feeling of not hating the mask he was wearing, but also he missed running from the cops. It sounded ridiculous and, frankly, unhealthy, but there was nothing quite like the rush of trying to do his job as a vigilante in a city that hated his guts.
Or maybe the Haven had broken him more than he would care to admit.
Regardless, the wind rushing by his ears, barely masking the sound of the sirens in hot pursuit of him made him feel alive; a stark contrast from how he felt wearing that fucking cowl. He could never regret his choice of taking on the mantle of Batman, but god it had sucked. He never wanted to do that again if he didn’t have to.
Dick flipped on top of the tallest roof in a wide radius, taking a deep lung-full of the chilled air. Gotham hadn’t been his home. No city had ever felt like home. Gotham had been a shared responsibility with Bruce, NYC had been a place he protected because he lived there, Blüdhaven had been his responsibility which had turned out just great, but really nothing had been his nest.
Perhaps he was returning to his roots by being a free bird.
As a circus kid, he had no true home. His family was constantly on the move from city to city. Performance to performance.
Still, something didn’t feel… right about the comparison. His parents had each other from place to place and Dick was on his own. Dick was happy to handle things on his own, he wasn’t exactly worried about not being able to do what he needed to do, but there was something in the back of his head that whispered that something wasn’t quite right.
Dick sighed, facing up towards the sky. It was too cloudy to see the stars. A shame, really. He had always associated the stars with Donna. He really should call her. Part of Dick hoped the clouds were signs of an upcoming storm, but he wasn’t sure why.
Dick jumped off the building with practiced grace, catching himself with his line. He pulled himself to the next rooftop towards his destination.
There was no reason to dwell on it, he figured.
Roy’s apartment felt empty, he decided. It wasn’t like he didn’t like peace and quiet, shit not going wrong was good, but his apartment felt… dead. He knew part of that was the gaping hole the death of his little girl had left, and god did that hurt, but it wasn’t the only thing.
His couch was empty, there were no photos hung up on the wall, even his phone was dead silent besides the occasional text from Jason about a job. Sure, Ollie had been a neglectful parental figure when Roy was young, but they had moved past that. They had.
Roy didn’t know why the man’s name made his stomach swirl in what felt like anger. Roy didn’t hold grudges, not many at least, and certainly not against family. He had made an effort to be a better parent, but that didn’t mean he hated Ollie. Being Speedy had still led Roy on the path he was on and he never regretted being taken in by Ollie for a single moment.
It was like his family had just vanished into thin air.
Just the thought made his skin crawl.
Roy did not thrive in being left alone. He wanted his apartment to be full of life like he was sure it had been before. Back with the Titans, probably. But that was then and this was now. And now was staring at his phone because he didn’t know what else to do.
He should probably call someone. Maybe check up on how Kory was doing. Or…
Or he should call Dick. Roy hadn’t seen him since the whole Talons attacking Gotham thing happened. Didn’t Dick get injured pretty badly during his fight? Had it healed right?
…Where was Dick even staying these days?
Roy shut off his phone and set it on his counter. He didn’t even know how to feel about Dick. His thoughts strayed to the other all the time, but it never felt right. The overwhelming emotions were backed up by such little history it felt like. Part of him swore he would crawl into hell and back for the man but why? They had been friends, like all the other Titans. It wasn’t a big deal. They had just been a part of the same teams.
A loud clap of thunder drew Roy’s attention off of his thoughts and towards the window.
Confiding in the storm felt as natural as breathing.
Wally’s body was being torn apart.
Literally, actually.
The Speed Force had always been something to be cautious of, but Wally was used to dipping in and out of it. It was natural to him in a way that he had never been able to explain to anyone. Not even Barry. He knew it would bite him in the ass eventually, but it wasn’t his fault this time. Really, it wasn’t.
It wasn’t his fault the timeline was fucked up and it wasn’t his fault that his normal methods of being grounded to Earth had been removed. Dick and Roy both existed still, he would be more distraught if that wasn’t the case, but they were separated. Physically, for sure, but also emotionally. It was a sign of how fucked up the timeline was that Dick and Roy had simply lost touch. That wasn’t like them. Roy never let Dick run away from them. Not for long, at least.
Wally needed to reach out. He needed to pull together so that he could pull him back. He was sure it would work, he was sure his boyfriends would remember him, but he needed them to be together for it to work. How was his lightning rod supposed to work if it was split in two?
Did that metaphor even work?
Wally sighed and looked in on what was happening as his gut twisted as the Speed Force worked to turn his physical matter into energy.
Roy was the most obviously not okay. His empty apartment screamed ‘depressive spiral’. Lian’s drawings were deeply missed as Wally found himself staring at the walls. He knew the timeline was keeping Dick and Roy apart, which explained why Dick wasn’t helping Roy through his grief, but where was Donna? Or any other Titans, for that matter!
How fucked up was this world? How did it manage to disguise itself as fine? As okay? It was driving him crazy.
Wally needed to get Dick and Roy back together, for their own sake as well as his. He just… needed to figure out how to do that.
Dick returned to the hotel he was staying at in Chicago. It had been a productive night, but he hadn’t slept in a while and falling asleep unintentionally when working on a case was the absolute worst. Hence, scheduled naps.
His Nightwing suit was stripped off of him before he tugged on the sweats that he had bought only after realizing he had only brought his suit with him to Chicago. Prepared for anything unless that something was anything unrelated to the job, he supposed.
Dick clicked his tongue as he looked over the suit. There was another spot that needed to be stitched together. A shame, really. He actually found himself enjoying this new version of the suit. It had been a long time since he wore red, but it wasn’t out of character or anything. Still, the suit did have an edge to it that he would retire whenever he returned to Gotham. Whenever that was.
He set to work patching the suit, when his eyes drifted towards his phone. He really should charge it and make sure no one had tried to contact him. His comms were still up and running if someone really needed help, but still… It was bad practice to not keep tabs on anyone that might need him.
Dick sighed and set down the suit before plugging his phone into the lamp on the bedside table. There. Now, he could stop worrying about it for no reason. He made sure the suit was hidden under the bed before flopping over and curling up on the mostly comfortable bed. Dick had slept on much worse and didn’t exactly have the money to splurge on a nicer hotel, but he was still allowed to complain internally. Or externally if he wanted. No one was around.
The light of his phone illuminated the ceiling as it powered on. He could feel his eyes want to droop and fall into sleep, the time sensitive mission echoing in the back of his head, but he grabbed the phone anyway. The position was awkward, the charging cable not quite long enough for how Dick was laying, but he could still read the screen.
Dick read through notifications before his eyes caught sight of one in particular. Missed call from… Roy? Why had Roy called him? They hadn’t talked since… Since Dick was Batman. Maybe even earlier, it was hard to recall when the break had happened.
He only hesitated for a moment before sitting up and pressing the call button.
Roy blinked awake as his phone rang. He reached for it, staring at it blearily as he read the caller ID.
Dick.
“Dick? Why are you calling me at 2am?” Roy’s voice was gruff with sleep. He was glad Dick had called him back, but he cursed the Bat for calling so damn late at night.
“...Is it really that late?” There was a pause before Dick laughed quietly. “Oh, I guess it is 1am here. In my defense, I was going to go to bed.” 1am? Where the fuck was Dick? God, how little had Roy kept up with the man?
“Why the change of plans?” Roy bantered easily before stopping himself and refocusing. “And where the hell are you to be in a different timezone?” He couldn’t help the twinge of worry that twisted in his stomach.
“I saw you called and, well, it would be rude not to return the call. And Chicago. Have some… business to attend to here.”
“Since when do you care about being rude? And Chicago? Dude, don’t they have a super strict no vigilante policy?”
“As if being a vigilante is ever really legal. The name literally says it right on the tin.” God, that was such a pedantic thing to point out. It made Roy laugh more genuinely than he had in a long time. “Plus, it’s fun. I didn’t like being Batman for a lot of reasons, but being the police’s number one friend was one of them.” Roy couldn’t tell how much of that statement was playful and he honestly didn’t want to know. Dick was an absolute menace when he wanted to be. Still, even the reminder of Dick being Batman left a sour taste in Roy’s mouth.
“Yeah, yeah. Just be safe. You’re pretty far away from home, pretty bird.” The pet name rolled off of Roy’s tongue before he processed what he was saying. Which confused him even more because it was a logical pet name for Dick, really. He was pretty and a bird.
“...I feel like I should tell you off for calling me that, but I’m not sure why.” Oh. So Roy wasn’t going crazy. Dick felt it too. Then again, Dick was always on the edge of being full-on nuts. In the silence of the pause in the conversation, Roy realized how relaxed his body was after talking with Dick.
“Come home, Dick.” Roy suddenly said, unable to stop himself.
“I don’t know where that is, Roy.” Dick said quietly.
“...We can figure that out together. My apartment has been too barren anyway.” Roy felt a tad bit too vulnerable asking Dick to live with him or at the very least stay with him for an amount of time.
“I need to finish this mission but… I didn’t really want to go back to Gotham anyway.” Dick confirmed and Roy couldn’t help the smile that spread over his lips.
This felt right. It really did.
Wally could not describe the relief he felt when he saw Dick and Roy in the same room. He wasn’t sure what had shifted to allow them to be together again, but it didn’t matter. Dick was good at defying the universe anyways. Wally should’ve had faith in him.
He didn’t wait for a moment longer before ripping himself out of the Speed Force and into Roy’s apartment. Lightning crashed around the room as Wally stood in the center of it.
Please work please work please work-
“What in the-?” Dick started, but before Wally could say the explanation he had rehearsed so many times over, he felt a hand cup his cheek. It was unmistakable Roy’s as it was his prosthetic hand. Wally placed his hand over Roy’s, feeling his gut twist as the Speed Force tried to pull him back and apart.
“I’m back, Roy. I’m back.” Wally didn’t know why that was what he said.
“Yeah, you are, Wally. You’re back.” The moment Roy said his name, Wally felt a huge rush of relief. Holy shit. He wasn’t going to die. Roy remembered him. Not a moment later, Dick flung himself at Wally and wrapped his arms around his neck.
“What the fuck, Walls? What the fuck happened? Why were you… Why did I forget you? How?” Dick went straight to interrogating, even as he held on tight to Wally. Roy laughed and nudged Dick with his shoulder.
“Give him a rest, Dick. We can figure this stuff out later, right?” Roy kept his tone light, but Wally could read the concern lacing it. Physically, Wally looked fine, but his exhaustion was palpable.
“Something, or some one has been infecting our history. Erasing and changing things. Making you… forget me.” Wally shook his head, wrapping his arms around both his boyfriends and melting into the touch. “It’s dangerous, and-”
“Later,” Roy cut Wally off. Dick glared at Roy before sighing and resting his head on Wally’s shoulder.
“You guys are gonna make me grey, I swear,” Dick mumbled into Wally’s suit.
“Eh. You’ll be a hot silver fox.” Dick was quick to elbow Roy for the comment, but it got a solid laugh out of Wally. He missed this. He missed them.
“It’s not my fault, Dickie. Not this time, at least.” Wally pressed a kiss to Dick’s hair and felt a rush of affection flood his system. He was still getting re-used to his body not being torn apart every second, but being able to hold the people he loved in his arms drew tears out of his eyes.
“Dick’s right though,” Roy added, resting his forehead against Wally’s. “Don’t disappear again. Got it? I’m too old to be dealing with this.” Wally snorted and shook his head.
“You’re like 25, Roy. Or 24? Something like that.” Wally corrected to which Roy pulled back with a horrified look.
“Oh we are fixing this timeline ASAP. I dealt with my twenties, I am not going back to it.” Roy broke away from the hug to gesture towards the bedroom. Wally snickered and hoisted Dick into his arms and started carrying him into the room. Dick was unphased and just smiled at Roy.
“You didn’t realize you were younger?” Dick’s laugh was muffled by his hand. Roy glared as Dick was tossed onto the bed.
“There’s been a lot happening, okay?” Roy huffed as Wally changed out his suit and into some of Roy’s lounge wear. He definitely didn’t take a second to just smell the clothes because that was weird and Wally was not weird. Wally joined Dick on the bed and Roy quickly followed after taking off his prosthetic. They piled together, limbs tangled and bodies squished together.
“This bed's not big enough for three people,” Wally pointed out, sleepiness creeping into his tone. Roy grumbled.
“Not my fault I didn’t remember I had two boyfriends to share a bed with.”
“I don’t mind,” Dick nuzzled underneath Roy’s chin. “It’s comfy.”
“Says the shortest,” Wally teased back, wrapping his arms as best he could around both Dick and Roy.
“Fucking barely!” Dick snapped back before smiling at Wally. “Deep down, I know I missed this.” Wally swallowed a lump in his throat and kissed Dick slowly and deliberately.
“Not going anywhere. Not anymore.” Wally promised, knowing that he would do anything to keep it.
Never again.