Breaking Your Own Heart (A Birdflash Fanfiction)

Breaking Your Own Heart (A Young Justice Fanfiction)

Since Batman had recently started keeping tabs on the team communicator frequencies, Wally pulled out his phone and called Dick instead. Knowing him, he had probably retreated home the instant he dropped that little bombshell on Zatanna. He didn’t like hanging around the rest of the team when he was upset, no matter how many times Wally had tried to convince him the team was there for him if he needed them. Dick was the sort of person who felt the need to project a cheerful image at all times, even when he felt like curling up into a ball and dying.

Dick answered after a few rings. “Zatanna told you.”

Wally was so used to Dick’s poor phone technique by now that he was able to leap right into the conversation without stopping to orient himself. “Actually, it was Artemis. Zee’s… uh, well, she’s kinda crying.”

Dick’s sigh was audible through the phone line. Wally had enough practice reading the little sounds the kid made in place of words when he was particularly upset to know that he sincerely regretted hurting Zatanna.

“Why’d you do it?” Wally asked him. “I thought things were going great for you two.”

“They were.” Dick let out another sigh, which lasted for at least three seconds.

“You trying to blow someone’s house down?”

“Yeah. Yours.” A little humour had returned to Dick’s voice, but Wally didn’t delude himself into thinking he was actually feeling better.

“If my house can withstand a speedster, I’m pretty sure your little bird lungs won’t even shake the curtains,” Wally replied. “Come on, dude. Spill. Why’d you break up with her?”

Dick sighed yet again, soft and airy and tired. Wally would have missed it if he hadn’t been paying such close attention to every little noise he heard through the line.

“I swear to God, if you sigh one more time, I will reach through the phone and strangle you,” Wally said irritably. “Come on, kid. Use your words.”

“You wouldn’t understand.”

“Try me.”

“No, I’m serious,” Dick said quietly. “You’ll think I’m an idiot and yell at me.”

“I won’t yell,” Wally promised. “I’m worried about you, dude. This isn’t like you.”

Despite Wally’s earlier threat, Dick let out one final sigh. It was half-voiced and sounded like it had snagged in the younger boy’s throat on its way out. Wally was distressingly familiar with that particular sound. It was one Dick only made when he was close to tears.

“Okay,” Wally said. “Don’t worry about it right now. I’ll come over and we’ll talk face-to-face. You at home?”

“Yeah, but—”

“Sorry.” Wally made a crackling sound into the phone. “You’re breaking up.”

“Wally—”

“I ca… hear… gotta go.” Wally hung up and rushed out the door, grabbing his jacket.

~~~

He found Dick in Alfred’s rose garden in a quiet corner of the property, running a finger along the petals of a pearly-white flower. Wally recognised it as the type Dick laid at his family’s graves on the anniversary of their deaths. Dick usually didn’t go near the rose garden except for when he was upset.

“It’s worse than I thought,” Wally said dramatically, drawing level with his friend, who threw him a glare that was rather weak for his usual standards.