Wallace West. What a weird name…

That exactly had been Dick's thoughts when he first read the name. He turned the envelope around to look for the senders name and address. Someone named "M. West" had sent the letter – most likely a relative of this Wallace.

He shook his head and took the letter up to his apartment, for now.

Barely two weeks ago he had moved in to this place. It was just normal to still get mail for the person who lived here before, right?

At least that's what he figured would be the case. Why else would someone put his address on a letter but a wrong name?

Dick didn't know who exactly lived here before however. As far as he knew it could have been anyone from an old gramps up to a small family. Well, Wallace kind of sounded like a gramps name – so this was his guess for now.

Nevertheless, he would send the letter back tomorrow, telling them they used the wrong address. No big deal and nothing to worry about.

Unfortunately it wouldn't end that easily. Just a week later he got another two letters, wrongly delivered to him instead of Mr. West. They were from different senders then last week's mail, though still some of his relatives judging by their last name.

Dick huffed slightly annoyed. He would have to send those back too… he really hoped this wouldn't continue in such an extent. He didn't mind this happening once in a while – and he didn't care about the money he spent on sending some letters back either. But the way to the nearest post office was in the opposite direction of his work. He had to go an extra route just to be nice to some strangers.

Well, those strangers would have to wait for him to want to walk to the post office then. He would just postpone it to his next free day or something.

He slightly regretted this decision three days later when another two letters arrived – from the same senders as the last two ones.

At the same time he started to wonder why the postmen delivered all this mail to him anyways. His mailbox clearly read "R. Grayson" - nothing close to "Wallace" or "West". He should consider talking to the postmen too…

Not wanting to get another bunch of letters he prepared the return mail the same evening and brought them to the post office the next morning. He really hoped this would lessen the wrongly delivered mail.

It didn't though. Or at least not as much as he hoped it would. He got another letter from one of Mr. West's family members and a postcard by the next week. He just grumbled to himself as he threw both on his sitting room table to prepare a return mail immediately.

Seriously, who was this Wallace? Dick never got this many mails by anyone. And who still sent that many letters anyways? Hadn't this guy heard of emails or something?

He really has to be an old man - the only reasonable explanation.

Dick sat down on his couch taking a closer look at the postcard. Only now he noticed it had a picture of Gotham City on it. Blinking rapidly he picked the postcard up again.

This was his city! The place he grew up at!

Who would send someone a postcard of Gotham, though?

He turned the card around and looked at the neat handwriting. Curiosity got him and hey, no one would ever know if he read the postcard, right?

He had already started reading anyways…

Hey Wally!

How are you doing? I'm fine. Being back to Gotham is nice and mum is happy to have me around again. My new job is really cool and I met some people from the old days. Do you remember Megan and Connor? The guys we hung out with before College? Well they will visit me this weekend, feel free to join us! They would be happy to see you again.

Greets,

Artemis

After reading the message Dick registered there wasn't even a full address he could relate to for returning the postcard…not to mention it was already Friday anyways. Even if the mail would have gone to the right address, this Wallace – or Wally – surely wouldn't have been able to come to this meeting.

Who would ask something like that via postcard, for real? Did she even want him to visit too? Most likely not…

He shook his head turning the postcard around again. The picture on the front was really beautiful. It showed one of the nicer parts of Gotham and he could even see his old home in the far back.

It was impossible to return this card, so maybe he should just … keep it…? It felt downright wrong to keep someone else's mail. But on the other hand, it wasn't even that nice of a message. Not to mention he couldn't do much about it anyways. He had no idea where this Artemis lived.

After another two days of thinking about it he finally pinned the postcard to his fridge – next to some other pictures of Gotham and his family. He still felt bad about keeping it for a few weeks though.

The mail did get less over the time, but they never stopped – even after more than half a year. Every now and then he got a mail back telling the sender was sorry for using the wrong address but he barely read those.

They made him be less grumpy about the wrong mail delivering though. By now he didn't even mind the walk to the post office. It almost became some kind of weekly routine and it even made him send some more letters himself. He had to walk to the post office anyways, so why not use it, right?

After the postcard from Artemis he never thought again about talking to the postmen about the issue however. It wasn't like he hoped for more nice postcards or something, but he couldn't deny it got him interested.

He knew by now that "M. West" - from whom he got the first letter - was indeed Mary West: Wally's mother. Also he found out this Wally wasn't an old man but barely a few years older than himself. He didn't know an exact age but out of all the info he gathered he couldn't be older than 21 or 22.

All together he had gotten another 4 postcards, 3 of them he could return, but the other one was now pinned to his fridge too. It didn't show Gotham, unfortunately.

He was able to return some of the postcards mostly thanks to his good memory. He knew he had heard the names of the senders before and got most of their addresses memorized by then too. Just in case he started to write them all down after a few months and was quite happy about this decision later on. He wouldn't have been able to return postcard number 4 else.

Nevertheless it got him quite confused when the same people continued to send Wallace's mail to his address. Shouldn't they know the correct address after a while?

He guessed that maybe they had very similar addresses and people tend to misspell something or get the numbers wrong. He checked his whole apartment block and even the closer neighborhood for someone named "West". But he only found an old Lady that had never heard of someone named Wally or Wallace or whatever.

Now, after half a year, Dick was really tempted to meet this Wally and find out what kind of guy he was. He didn't even know what he looked like, but this whole getting-to-know-someone-through-wrongly-delivered-mail-thingy really had gotten him. He was interested in this stranger…or was he even still a stranger? He knew a few things about him by now after all. What he didn't know however was Wally's correct address.

He already considered to simply ask Mary West about it. Just to deliver the mail to the correct address, of course! But in the end it didn't feel right. It felt like cheating. He would have to figure it out on his own or it wouldn't be the same.

And he had a feeling he would find out quite soon.

Just today he had received another postcard from this Artemis. She hadn't sent any other mail until now and again there was only her first name. He recognized the neat handwriting at once however. He probably had read the first postcard a hundred times…

Wally,

As you tend to not to reply to my texts – and I suppose you got your phone broken again, didn't you? – I want to remind you about the Christmas party with everyone. Connor said he'd punch you in the face if you don't show up again…and hey, I know you don't want to see me. I don't want to see you either. Do it for the others, okay?

19th December – 6 p.m.

Central City, the café next to the City Hall you like oh so much

Artemis

The postcard was much simpler this time. It pictured Wayne Enterprise and he was quite sure this card was for free – simply for advertisement.

Nevertheless it made him smile.

On top of that he now had the best possible opportunity to meet Wally. He would just take the 19th off and check every café close to Central's City Hall for a group of people his age celebrating an early Christmas. This couldn't be that difficult, could it?

Knowing his bad luck about situations like that it probably could.

To his own surprise it wasn't. There were only two cafés near the City Hall so he decided to just sit in one of them and wait for 6 p.m. He was about an hour early but just when he got his second coffee a blonde girl with a long ponytail and a dark skinned man with short white-blonde hair entered the shop. He could hear them talking to the waiter about a reservation for 6 p.m. and he couldn't hold back a grin. This had to be them! Maybe this girl even was Artemis….she totally looked like an Artemis.

The waiter led them to a big table in the back and they sat down – most likely waiting for their friends. And Wally.

He really hoped Wally would show up. Maybe this dark skinned man was already Wally…?

Should he get closer to them so he could eavesdrop? He wasn't interested in their conversations but how else would he find out their names?

If he was lucky they would call out to anyone new arriving and he could hear them without acting suspicious. He decided to stay where he was - for now - hoping there would be no need to move to a closer table.

Time passed and Dick drank coffee after coffee being 'very engrossed' in reading his book. Apparently he could hear them talking quite well and didn't need to worry about being caught at all.

Quite a few new people had shown up by now and he was right – the blonde girl was Artemis. The guy she arrived with was named Kaldur or something however. He was her boyfriend as far as he could tell.

This Megan and Connor he had heard about were present too. And a few other people whose names he already had forgotten. But the most important person was still missing.

As he noticed, Wally's friends were wondering where he was, too. He didn't understand everything they said but especially Artemis spoke up louder than necessary quite a lot. She sounded seriously annoyed when she proclaimed that yes, she had reminded him of their meeting, and that it wasn't her fault if he didn't show up.

Well, if she would have used the right address this might have been true.

It was already 7.30 p.m. and all his hopes of finally meeting Wally were gone when he detected a red-haired man outside the café. The man looked straight at the group of friends, as they laughed together and had a great time. He didn't look happy himself though.

Dick could just stare at the redhead and his heartbeat sped up, overly excited. This guy had to be Wally! Why else would he stand out there watching the group of friends?

He surely had to be Wally!

Suddenly the ginger registered Dick staring at him. He looked surprised, then startled and a bit embarrassed. He turned and already was about to run away when Dick got up and shook his arms eagerly to get probably-Wally's attention. The other really stopped in his movement and looked back at him – quite confused.

'Wait!' Dick mouthed – quickly turning around to make sure they didn't caught anyone else's attention. They didn't.

'Please, Wait!' he mouthed again but the ginger just shook his head slowly looking even more confused and started to walk away again. Dick huffed in annoyance and quickly packed his book. He ran up to the waiter and paid for his coffees – not even waiting for the change.

As he exited the café the redhead had already crossed the street. Dick ran after him almost getting hit by a car. But he couldn't care less.

The ginger had stopped when he heard the car honking and Dick could catch up to him.

He stopped in front of him, slightly out of breath. He looked the other straight in the eyes – astonishing green eyes as he saw now.

"You… you are Wally, right?" he asked carefully. He begged he was right. That he didn't just ran after a random stranger that happened to look through a widow at the wrong time. That he didn't misunderstand all this. That-

"Uhm…yes…?" was the confused reply and Dick's heart skipped a beat. He couldn't help the smile forming on his face or the happiness bobbing up inside him. Wally looked a bit scared by now so he tried to keep his excitement down.

"I have something for you," he started and smiling widely he handed the redhead the 3 postcards. He took them blinking in confusion while Dick continued to explain. "I got some of your mail over the last half a year. Most of it I could send back to whoever wrote it. But, well … not those three, obviously."

Wally looked back at him for a moment then he turned the postcards around and read them. The first two where Artemis' cards and he looked unnaturally emotionless while reading them. After the third card he smiled a little bit however. Dick always liked reading this card too. He maybe didn't know the sender, but the text just shouted out how much the writer cared and wanted Wally to smile and cheer up.

"Well, thanks…I guess", Wally finally replied and smiled at him politely. Dick gulped nervously. He wanted to keep this conversation going! He wanted to know more about Wally, wanted to be his friend, too!

"Sorry for those rude cards from Artemis. I really thought about not giving them to you…but it felt wrong to just keep them. They are yours after all…" he babbled on. It wasn't like him to just talk to someone he just met like that. But Wally didn't feel like a stranger. It felt way more like they had known each other since forever.

The ginger just laughed, looking seriously a bit amused and not at all confused or scared anymore.

"You can keep them if you want to," he said and offered the two postcards back. Dick took them slowly and very unsure but still kind of happy to be able to keep those cards.

"Are you sure? The picture on this one is really good."

But Wally just nodded.

"Yeah, it's better this way. I'd just trash them."

Slowly they started to walk on next to each other while Dick put his cards back into his bag.

"Trashing such a nice picture of Gotham, tsk. That really would have been a shame," Dick said, only half serious.

"Not considering who sent the postcard it's on…"

Wally smiled at him sideways, sounding way sadder than his face showed.

He nodded in return, understanding.

"She…she's your ex, right?"

The other just nodded as well.

They stayed quiet for a bit. Dick didn't want to pry any further. It was obvious anyways. Wally knew about her new boyfriend. He didn't want to see them together. He probably still wasn't over the whole break up. And most likely it was his reason to move to another city then her.

Suddenly Wally started to laugh quietly. He looked at him in confusion.

"You know. It's kinda funny and creepy at the same time how you know like everything about me and I don't even know your name," he explained cheerfully. Dick couldn't help a smile himself.

"I don't know everything about you. I didn't even know what you look like a few minutes ago!" he defended himself. Wally just laughed in return.

"But… I wouldn't mind knowing more about you," Dick continued more seriously, while smiling straight at the ginger.

"If that includes me getting to know you better, too," Wally replied in a half-hearted flirting attempt that made Dick laugh as well.

"Maybe," he said and laughed even louder as the other looked at him in an obviously fake sulking manner.

"I'm Dick. Dick Grayson."

He offered his hand and Wally took it without any hesitation and shook it.

All of a sudden he froze, stopping both of them from walking on.

"Wait," the ginger started, his eyes widening in surprise. "Dick, like, in short for Richard?"

Dick nodded slowly in return.

"Yeah, why?"

"I was getting some of your mail too, dude!"

First of all: Thank you for reading! :D

I just edited this story slightly (not plot-wise, only some typos and weird grammar) but I wanted to use it to finally write a small note!

I got way more feedback to this then I ever expected and it made me really, really happy, because I love this story and had lot's of fun writing it! ;/; Thank you so, so much for your comments and kudos! I highly appreciate it!

Secondary: Literally everyone asked for more. So I can proudly announce: There will be more! ;3

I actually just finished the sequel/sister story from Wally's POV. I will re-read it a few times now and a friend is betaing it too, so hopefully it is ready to be published soon! Just be a bit more patient with me, okay? I'm trying really hard to make this a good story, too!

Thank you again and read you soon! :D

Sara~