Wally lay on the floor in a pool of his own blood and let himself heal. He felt the numerous gashes melt away as if they were never there. They might as well have been for all anyone knew. He felt bruises turn from black to yellow to back to the deathly pale hue of his normal skin colour .

He was lucky. Just before he had left mount justice, Megan had fed him a meal because she heard his stomach rumble loudly after a mission. At the time, he had been quite embarrassed, but now he was ever so grateful for the Martians never failing generosity and kindness, even if the sandwich had green fur sticking to its underside.

It was times like this that he wished that m'gann had asked why he was so hungry after only a short mission. He didn't really know the reason. He guessed he would just want to know whether she'd care.

Then again, he would have just shrugged and let the explanation be limited to 'I have a serious matabolism like he always did. And then he would have said something suggestive and flirty that the Martian probably wouldn't understand and then, he would have just sped off.

Same old KF.

But the real reason was stupid and had nothing to do with the team so there was no point in telling her anyway. The real reason why his stomach rumbled, why he had felt a little light headed all evening and why Robin looked at him curiously and asked if he was eating enough, was in fact because of the lack of food he had consumed that day.

The day before he had gotten his test results from school and had been dismayed to find a bright, bold, red C staring at him from the page mockingly.

A fucking C.

"A FUCKING C! THAT'S ALL YOU GOT? A FUCKING C?!"

Apparently his dad had the same reaction.

"WE RAISE YOU AND WE FEED YOU FOR FIFTEEN FUCKING YEARS AND ALL YOU GIVE AS THANKS IS A FUCKING C!"

"But d-dad I..."

"DO YOU KNOW HOW MUCH IT COSTS TO FEED YOU, YOU FREAK?! TOO FUCKING MUCH! JUST BECAUSE YOU'RE A FUCKING FREAK LIKE YOUR GODDAMNED FUCKING UNCLE !"

And Wally knew how much it cost to feed him, he knew how disgusting it was for him to eat like he did, he knew he was just a fucking freak and a waste of money. He really did. How could he not when his dad reminded him everyday. (His dad reminded him of it because he cared. Because he was worried that he wouldn't be able to feed him, right?)

His dad had never hit him. He had only reminded wally to do better even if he didn't have a very nice way of saying it. (Wally's dad cared right? Of course he did.)

And so he made a conscious decision to not eat as much as he usually did; to eat like a regular human-

To be normal, just in his eating habits so he didn't have to cause pain and strife in his family anymore.

So that's what he did;

He ate a normal amount of breakfast; one bowl of cereal instead of his usual three and a half. He ate a normal lunch; one tray of free benefit cafeteria food instead of going back for extras from the wide eyed dinner ladies. He ate one serving of his Mom's home made stew and his Dad actually smiled a little at the leftovers before finishing his meal. He was happy. He was normal for once just like his parents wanted.

That is, mostly normal.

A few minutes later his comm sounded. It was a mission from batman.

Just the perfect thing to shatter his momentary normalcy.

"Hey KF meet up at the cave. Bats has got a small mission for the team. I'm officially whelmed. He's babying us again." Came the unimpressed voice of Robin.

"Yea that totally sucks. I'll be there in a sec though. I'm kinda in the middle of something right now." He mumbled.

He wasn't really, but he didn't want to ruin his dad's unusual happy mood.

"Was that your team of freaks?"

Too late.

"Y-yes sir"

"Well go on then, you have to keep up appearances."

"T-thank you s-sir"

Curse his stutter.

And so he got up and left, rather shakily at that, suddenly feeling the void of not eating like he should. He ran upstairs to get his suit and then walked slowly downstairs remembering the rule about no powers in the house.

Shit.

He was going to be so late.

He got to the zeta beam slightly out of breath and dizzy but just shrugged it off. At least it was only going to be a small mission.

"Kid Flash B03" rang the voice that sounded strangely like Artemis.

"About time baby flash"

Speak of the devil.

"What took so long? Did you forget to change your nappy?"

"I'm never gonna live that off am I? The one time I ask for help with crime fighting in central you just had to meet trickster!"

"Lucky me."

"Y'know, the reason I was late is because I actually have a life outside of the team. Unlike you."

And he did have a life, just not as normal as his dad wanted it to be.

"Really! You could have fooled me baby flash. I thought you speedsters just sat inside and did nothing all day."

She replied with snark.

"It's kid flash Arty. it's like you have the memory of a goldfish. We keep having to remind you of things every 5 seconds. "

"Don't call me Arty kid baby and for your information I think baby suits you fine. And by the way, that's a myth. Goldfishes have a longer memory than five seconds. If you're gonna call me something, do the research first."

He gave her a glare and sped off to find Robin.

He eventually found him in the debriefing room messing with the cave's wires or whatever it seemed he was doing.

"Hey kf" He said without turning.

"How do you do that man? You're like a mini bat ninja!"

"No. It's just that when you enter a room you produce such an awful smell that it's hard not to notice you."

"Har har"

Robin then turned around dusting his hands off and looked at kf . He narrowed his eyes and looked wally up and down.

"Batman's gonna give us a mission soon so you might as well get ready sooner rather than later"

"Roger that" He said in mock seriousness. "Private speedster reporting for duty!"

With that, Wally saluted and sped off to his room to put on his goggles and his neon yellow suit. He immediately regretted speeding because his head began to spin as soon as he was actually suited up.

As he turned to walk out he saw Robin leaning across his doorframe.

"What is this, stalk a speedster day?" He chuckled.

"No" Robin dead-panned.

"Okay then... can I get past?"

"..."He narrowed his eyes.

"Robin, dude?"

"Wally, have you been eating enough?"

The silence that ensued was palpable and was drowning wally.

"...Yes..."

'Shit! I'm so bad at lying.' he panicked.

"Just wondering."

"Okay...?"

Had he got away with it?

"C'mon, Batman's gonna be here soon"

And Robin walked off leaving a thoroughly confused kid flash behind him.

"Well that was officially whelming"

And then wally followed after it the mission room.

"Hey wally!"greeted m'gann.

"Hey green cheeks, lookin as sweet as ever I see"

He wiggled his eyebrows suggestively.

M'gann smiled at him politely.

"Shut up wally" said a monotone superboy walking over.

"WALLY" shouted an annoyed archer giving him a punch.

"What are you jealous arty?"He parried.

"W-wha... of w-what?"

"Of my obvious sexyness."He grinned widely.

"Sh-shut it baby flash." She stuttered.

"Best. Come back. Ever Arty."

"Don't. Call me Arty." She said punching him on the shoulder.

Everyone else just ignored what they thought was very obvious, crude flirting. Robin hid a smirk. He had bet Superboy that they would get together before new year's. The way things were going he was sure he'd get the ten dollars.

"Focus. Batman shall be arriving any minute now"

Trust aqua lad to diffuse an awkward situation perfectly.

But it wasn't everyday you got to get a mission from Batman in person.

Wally pouted and inwardly told himself to try really hard to annoy Batman. The annoying ninja. Like father like son.

He always felt oddly proud of himself if he was able to get emotion out of bats. Even the joker couldn't do it, and he was absolutely bananas.

Not that that had anything to do with annoying people.

He wasn't bananas was he?

Then again, for all he knew, he probably was.

What a funny thought though... to be bananas. He wondered what the joker thought when he hurt someone. He wondered what his dad thought when he hurt him with his words. No. He would not think about that now. Definitely not with M'gann in close range.

"are you okay Wally?" Said Superboy. "Your heart rate's increasing."

"Huh? Yeh I'm fine. Just thinking."

"Ooo that sounds painful."

"Shut up Arty"

"Batman 02" rang the Artemis voiced zeta beam from the other room.

Batman walked into the room.

"Team, as you know I have a mission for you."

He brought up the holographic screens.

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How they had managed to get such an easy mission mystified wally. After weeks and weeks and weeks of recon, and half of them failures, they had managed to get something simple.

Its probably because Batman was getting fed up of them messing up recon missions.

Well, really it was him messing up the recon missions. Same thing really.

He yawned, slumping back into his chair in the bioship. The flexible material binding him to the chair flexed to accommodate him.

There was a comfortable silence in the bioship. They were all tired after all the late nights they'd been suffering from recently.

Artemis was drifting off on the other side of the ship and superboy looked like he was trying to keep himself awake by having a staring contest with the wall.

Robin was in the front not even showing a hint of drowsiness but there was no way he couldn't be even if he was a mini bat.

M'gann seemed fine too. She looked content with just steering the ship but it was probably just the ship keeping her awake for the journey.

She docked them into the mountain and they dragged themselves off like zombies, yawning, stumbling and in some serious need of sleep or caffeine.

Probably caffeine for Robin.

And for the rest that were more human (or not human for the aliens in their midst) sleep was going to be sorely missed if it didn't occur soon.

It was then that a wave of nausea hit wally and he decided that it was probable time to give up his experiment.

He walked slowly and dizzily to the kitchen where a humming m'gann was making two hot chocolates. One for her and the other, presumably for Superboy.

To be honest wally had kinda known about their relationship before he was told and he was secretly happy for them, although he wouldn't tell anyone else that. Ever.

His charade of flirting with m'gann worked well for him. It relaxed him into the team dynamics and he meant it in more of a friendly way anyway. M'gann was like a sister to him now. He really wasn't interested in anything romantically related.

His stomach gave a humongous feral growl and he blushed.

M'gann turned around and looked, surprised, at wally. Her face softened when she saw who it was. Since the tornado incident they had all been a bit more wary of intruders.

"Oh hello wally. You must be hungry. I'll get you something to eat."

"Thanks megalicious! I see your cookings improving."he said, never to missing an opportunity to flirt.

"Yep!"she said smiling" when I first came here earth food was just really strange but I think I've got the hang of it now."

She flew a massive sandwich in front of him.

There you go wally. Eat up."

"Thanks greencheeks" he said yawning under his breath.

"I'm going to bed now" she said "you should get going soon too. You've got school tomorrow, right? Anyway, get some sleep."

She floated out the room with the two mugs and a huge yawn could be heard from down the corridor.

Wally smiled and scoffed down his sandwich and drank a glass of water.

He also did the dishes in way of thanks for the meal.

He suddenly felt soooo much better than before,

But tired. Very tired.

He dragged himself to the zetabeam and stepped out to his trashy street. There were glass bottles everywhere and the smell of cigarette smoke clung like a blanket. When he finally reached his house he could already hear the raised voices of his mum and dad. This was becoming a common occurrence:

Go on a mission,

Come back to his trashy, shitty house,

Listen to his parent's arguments,

Get shouted at by his dad (who was only shouting because he cared about his safety, right?)

Go up to his room and sleep (and not cry, he did NOT cry)

It was a routine that was becoming increasingly hard to break.

Only this time, it was slightly different. His fathers voice had a slight slurred tone to it and his mother seemed afraid, too afraid.

He could smell the alcohol and he suddenly felt an anxiety that dropped into the pit of his stomach like a heavy stone.

He gripped the door handle with more force than necessary,

And entered.

There was a sudden bang, and then,

Silence...

That suddenly scared wally a lot more than the shouting.

And maybe you can guess what happened next.

Or maybe you can't.

"Boy, is th't yuu!

He had a slight slur in his voice.

Alcohol.

Wally didn't respond.

"BOY!"

He froze

"WALLACE!"

"Yeh, dad it's me." He whimpered.

"C'mere, now, d'mit, NOW."

He walked slowly, carefully to the living room the only sound being his thudding footsteps and the occasional clink of class and the liquor inside them sloshing drunkenly.

Wally reached the doorway and noticed the empty bottles on the floor along with the cans. It was like a party had come and gone in his own house without him even noticing.

His heart beat in his ears and his blood rushed around his body trying to deny what he was seeing with his own eyes.

He rounded the doorway slowly and his eyes widened in fear.

Oh god no.

His mum,

His mother.

Was on the floor sobbing silently in his father's lap. There was a bruise on her eye and her cheek, her cheek was bleeding along with her lip. She was scared, pleading, crying. Scared. His mum shouldn't be scared of his father.

Sure he shouted a little but he had never hit her,

And that's when it dawned on him.

He hadn't hit her till now.

He was smoothing her hair down clumsily, clearly intoxicated and wally wondered why, why, was he doing that when it was him who hit her.

" 'ss y'rr falt y'know. Yuu ddid th's. Ss'yrr fult i h'd t' hit'r"

He wasn't making sense.

His words came out as a jumbled mess that wally didn't even try to understand.

Wally was too horrified to try anyway.

His mother was looking at him with pleading eyes and wally wasn't sure if she was telling him to run away or help her.

Suddenly Rudolph stood up placing his mother to the side like an object.

Wally was frozen to the spot.

He walked over sluggishly to wally and wally could smell the alcohol on his breath.

Wally was afraid.

Afraid of his own father.

Suddenly, Rudolph threw a punch at his stomach. Wally, winded, crumpled to the ground. His father kicked him and kicked him again and again and again till no part of his body was left out on the pain.

At this point he was crying and pleading for it to stop. The pain was too much.

Rudolph didn't listen.

The abuse went on and on and on untill wally was a barely recognisable pile of bloody skin and bones.

Then Rudolph left.

He could hear him dragging himself up the stairs to his bedroom.

His mum crawled over to the sobbing wally and gently hugged him and stroked his hair gingerly. She slowly uncurled him from his ball and soothed him whispering that it would be alright.

"MARY!"

Came a voice from upstairs.

"I'm sorry baby, so sorry. Be strong for me." His mother whispered.

Then she went upstairs to find Rudolph before he did something worse.

Wally lay on the floor in a pool of his own blood and let himself heal. He felt the numerous gashes melt away as if they were never there. They might as well have been for all anyone knew. He felt bruises turn from black to yellow to back to the deathly pale hue of his normal skin colour .

And he just lay there, sobbing.