-We had our first snowfall here already, so I decided to finally use this idea I've had for at least a year or so now-
It still wasn't clear if it was a sudden turn in the weather, or a devious escaped wizard, but Wally found himself leading the way into the suburbs of Keystone, darting from awning to bus shelter, shielding themselves from the heavy barrage of fat snowflakes.
"There!" Wally sprinted ahead, slipping and sliding on the wet ground, and punched the doorbell. He continued knocking as his friends caught up.
"Wally, if you dragged us out into a cul-de-sac just for no one to be home, I swear I'm gonna--"
But before they learned what Artemis would do to his noggin, the door opened.
"Heavens! What are you doing out in this storm? Come in! Come inside!"
"Grandma, thank you so much for answering!" Wally shot inside and clutched the woman in an icy cold hug. He quickly pulled back and began doffing his wet shoes. "These are my friends, we were just heading towards Blue Valley so I could show them the old school building when we got caught in... THAT!"
"Oh, you're chattering away almost as fast as Jay does!" Their host, a white woman in her mid-eighties, wearing a flowy floral-patterned frock and a pair of understated middle-class earrings, looked them over with a good-humored stare. "Friends from work then?"
"Oh, yeah." Wally replied sheepishly. "You know Robin, of course, then of there's Kaldur (Aqualad) , Artemis (who's a human), and M'gann and Conner (they're aliens)."
"Hold on, who said you could spill our names?!" Artemis scorned. "I mean, it doesn't change much for me, but it's seriously against the collective union agreement!"
"That only applies to public relations, not people associated with the league."
She scoffed "Yeah? That's my point!"
"And these people are associated with the league, duh!"
"Well if they're anyone, who are they?" His other friend added.
"Artemis! Conner!" Kaldur hissed, and made to apologize to their generous host, only to she that she looked very amused.
"Guys, this is my Grandma Joan." Wally explained. "And that old guy in the corner watching tv is my Grandpa Jay; he was the first Flash."
"Hi Grandpa Jay! Hi Grandma Joan! I'm M'gann!" They bubbled like excited pasta water. "You don't look related to Wally."
"Well, unlike you and Supes, most of us aren't identical of our relatives..." Artemis reminded. "No offense."
"But You can't be related." The clone glossed over her comment, too focussed on taking in every inch of their hosts. "Your super speed isn't hereditary, and the chances of three people in the same... "
"Oh yeah!" M'gann interrupted. "You got it when you blew up your garage!"
"I seriously regret telling you guys that..." Wally muttered. "No, I'm not related to them. Jay was the first flash, Uncle Barry met him when he became the second Flash, and when I came along... well..."
"When Wally came along we held him captive until he started calling us grandma and grandpa." Joan tucked the tag of the his shirt lovingly. "It's good you're out of the storm, you best warm up. Jay, would you put the kettle on?"
"I would." He reluctantly stood from his chair and shuffled towards what was probably the kitchen.
"Now come inside! Take off your things!" Joan welcomed them in. "Help yourself to blankets, Wally knows where everything is." She gave Wally a kiss on the cheek. "I'll see how the tea's coming along, you kids get settled."
The six teens, despite being piled onto of each other, took up practically the entire rug. They were wrapped up in as many blankets as they could find-- except Artemis and Conner, who refused to be cuddly and vulnerable, no matter how cold it was.
"mmm peppermint." Dick gave his drink a safety sip. He mused on the faint spattering of blizzard against the window, and tugged M'gann in closer so he could be comfortably squished between them and the other ginger.
"Jayy, can we put on some TV?" Wally asked.
"If you'd like, though I don't suppose we've anything here that would interest anyone your age."
"Challenge accepted!" M'gann crawled out from Dick's needy cuddling and began sifting through ancient DVDs and VHS tapes, muttering names aloud. "Hey! How about this one? It's got the lady who was in 'Till the Clouds Roll By!"
Wally made grabby hands until they passed him the archaic box set. "Huh, Murder, She Wrote. You like that, right Rob?"
"I would've sold my teeth for Angela Lansbury." He replied. "Put it on, I think M'gann and Kal will like it."
The aging man raised an eyebrow. "I'm mighty surprised you've heard of it. Sure it was huge in the 80s, but that must've been thirty years before you came along."
"Please, I used to sit up and watch it with my Púrodad-- like, my Grandad-- whenever I couldn't sleep." He shrugged. "And we'd just sit there until either I fell asleep or Bats got home and it became his problem." He chuckled fondly, moving over so M'gann could reenter after struggling and finally managing to slide in the DVD.
"Wally was always the same staying with us," Joan told him, settling down on the couch with her husband. She affixed a pair of glasses and began scouring a crossword book. "Whenever his aunt and uncle couldn't take him, he'd stay here, and would stay up to make sure Barry got home safe from work."
"We best be leaving soon." Kaldur said reluctantly, sitting up from the cuddle pile. "Some of us have curfews to meet, and I don't want to be responsible for sabotaging."
"Oh, no, you're not going out in that cold!" Joan insisted. "We'll drive you into town."
"Thank you, but you've been too kind. We'll be fine without your concern." Kaldur assured her.
"Disagree! we'll take the free ride."
"Artemis..."
"We aren't equipped for the snow, Kal, we're in civvies, it'll be so cold!"
Kaldur sighed, he hated to feel like a burden, but he couldn't stand the idea of putting his friends-- his team-- in any sort of danger. "I don't want you to be uncomfortable."
"Good. Not to mention that as an aquatic, you're not built to deal with ice, you'd freeze!"
"I'll just get the engine warmed up." Joan made towards the door and turned the handle. "Oh, it won't--" Wally scrambled up, but his socks slipped on the linoleum and crashed to the ground. He pushed off his socks and hurried to join his grandmother. "Look at you, Mr. chivalry." Wally braced a foot and kicked against the wall, dislodging the door. "Why thank you."
"Always eager to please!" Wally sat on the floor to reinstate his socks, finding himself chill without them.
The elderly woman opened the door to exit, only to be met with what must have been two, or two-and-a-half feet of fresh flakes, fluffy and white as the inside of a loaf of bread. "Oh no!"
A single 'oh no' was all it took to summon every working and nonworking hero to the kitchen.
"What's the matter, darling?" Jay, was the first on scene, worried for his wife and adoptive grandchild. The children, not having super speed but having young joints, were less than a second behind him.
"It seems we'll be stuck here some time." Joan admitted. "No use trying to drive or to run for the rest of the day."
"Hey but, some of us have curfews!" Robin pointed out.
"I'm afraid there's no leaving now." Jay said. "It'll be dark any minute, and I don't feel comfortable letting any of you kids out in snow that deep, you'll be buried."
He wasn't wrong, the snow was over half robin's height now, and easily too tall for any of the others to walk in, let alone attempt running in."
"Wally, you always say that you see a lot of snow in the Midwest, is this common?" Kaldur asked.
"No way! All that in one afternoon with no previous signs? There's some weird magic at play."
"Magic?"
"Magic!"
"I meant it hyperbolically, Like, it was done by Weather Wizard, but obviously it's done through temperature and humidity manipulation--"
"Nope, Wally cited Magic, no take-backs!" Artemis high-fived her fellow Gotham-kid.
"Yeah yeah. Who cares!"
"We do, Wally, we're emotionally invested in you!" M'gann added.
"Well, I suppose we'll have six more for dinner." Grandpa Jay said. "Do we have enough food?"
"I know how to ration." His wife teased, closing the door sharply. "Otherwise you'd have eaten me out of house and home almost fifty-years-ago!" She cupped Wally's head as he stood up from the kitchen floor. "You'd best call home and let them know you'll be staying for dinner."
"Oh, I'm in trouble." Dick said.
"Ditto." Artemis added.
Kaldur, M'gann, and Conner simply nodded at each other, they had no one to contact, and needn't worry.
"I'm sure we can set up beds for you." Jay said.
"This kindness is unprecedented." Kaldur said, since he was ten, he'd seen any faint tolerance of him as a great charity he had to repay. It also didn't help that his teammates kept sprinting out of line. "Is there anything we can do to contribute, or maybe to bare our own weight?
Jay tutted thoughtfully and leaned against the fridge. "Well... You kids don't happen to know how to use shovel, do ye?"