Disclaimer: I do not own 'Young Justice'

'Never Really Mine'

by Song Six

It was night and raining when he came knocking. Of course, I would never turn him away and send him home if he was willing to come in during this weather and this late.

Something must have happened. It could have had been about his father who he's told me would always be gone doing his job. He was always scared for him, but he never told me exactly what it is his dad did. It could have been about his insecurities about being the legacy to the Flash. Unlike Barry he couldn't vibrate through solid objects without getting a bloody nose, and he had to constantly eat to keep up with his metabolism. It could have been about a mission with Young Justice gone wrong. Those were the worst, because usually it was because he felt he failed the team or he got into a fight with a certain somebody.

No matter what it was, I usually had to wait until morning when he felt better for him to tell me. Until then all I could do was be concerned and just take care him as I always do.

He comes in soaking wet from head to toe, and he has not changed out of his uniform. I had already grabbed an extra pair of sweats and a t-shirt for him as soon as I heard his familiar light and clumsy knock on the door.

I hand him the clothes and he heads straight to the bathroom and changes quickly, but he takes his time to come out. He was probably looking in the mirror mentally preparing himself to face me – probably figuring out a fake smile or checking the level of puffiness around his eyes.

When he finally emerges from the bathroom he looks up at me and gives me a white smile. I knew better. I cup his face in my hands before wrapping my arms around his whole body into a hug.

I've already prepared two cups of ramen, a frozen pizza, a bowl of leftover spaghetti, and a plate of cookies with a hot chocolate for him. He sits down at the table and digs in, and I sit across just watching.

Once he's already polished off the last cookie I take him by the shoulders and lead him to the couch where I already popped in a Looney Toons DVD. We sit side by side bodies touching, but we do not cuddle or link anything of the sort.

Once in awhile I glance to the side, but my eyes don't linger too long. Hs mouth is turned down into a deep frown, and his skin is paler than usual. His usually bright green eyes looking so lost and so sad was something I couldn't really stand. Not on him. He was always loud, cheery, obnoxious. This kind of look just did not suit him.

Whenever I heard him sniff or I thought a tear would fall from his eye, I'd squeeze his shoulder. Anything, it was more of a reminder to him that I was right here than a way of comforting him. I knew he didn't like crying in front of me, and I normally didn't know how to react when he did.

As the hours go on he yawns and his breathing begins to slow. When his eyes are closed and his head is resting on my shoulder I gently take his body and lay it out on the couch as I get up to leave. He curls up immediately into a fetal position.

I carefully lift his head and slip a fluffy pillow from my bed underneath it. I've also taken my thickest comforter and laid it over his curled up body. For awhile, I just sit on the opposite end of the couch watching him. His face was expressionless and the edges of his eyes were still red. I want to do something, but if my gut feeling was right about what may have happened then at the same time I didn't.

I head off to my room to catch some rest myself. We may be together, but it would still be wrong for us to sleep together in the same bed considering the age difference.

When I close my eyes it feels like it's only been a minute. I didn't dream.

I feel myself fly into the air for a good two seconds before I get an earful of a "Good Morning sunshine!" and fly off the mattress. He seemed to have cheered up enough to jump onto my bed and yell at the top of his lungs.

"Damn! Do you think you could give a guy a warning?" I ask while rubbing my forehead from the impact of the wooden floor.

"Your clock could have prepared you, but I beat it by two minutes," he states matter of factly before dashing off leaving me with a raging headache and a screeching alarm to deal with.

When I've collected myself I walk into the living room to find him sitting on the floor eating cheerios watching early morning cartoons.

He turns his head and glares at me," geez Roy! Can't you get non-boring cereal like Lucky Charms or Frosted Flakes or Cocoa Puffs?"

"I'm sorry if my balanced diet does not consist of a bowl full of sugar coated sugar every morning," I bark back but he just sticks his tongue out at me and continues to watch the television.

I pour myself a bowl of cheerios and join him, but I sit behind him on the couch. I'd rather be watching the news for any reports on crimes or even about how traffic would be for me today, but I let the kid watch what he wanted. It was moment like these that reminded me of our different levels of maturity.

Here we have a lean, awkward looking, teen with floppy red hair munching on his breakfast messily sitting cross legged on the floor too close to the screen. Then we have me, a fully grown male with a clean cut and shave sitting on the furniture designed to keep you from using the ground. I was eating slowly and chewing with my mouth closed. You know, with actual manners?

When he finishes the last bite he tosses spoon, he better pick that up later, and drinks the milk out of the bowl.

"If you're going to buy cheerios, you should have gotten frosted cheerios," he comments as he gets up and joins me on the couch.

"Why?"

"Because the whole point of cheerios is to look forward to milk that tastes like melted ice cream in the end," he tells me like it's so obvious grinning like an idiot. His green eyes catch me off guard for a second. They were no longer sad, but were shining as they always should be.

"Or maybe the point is to have something to jump start your day," the kid blows a raspberry and then lays his head in my lap. I set the bowl down on the floor and run my fingers through his locks.

"Are you ready to tell me what happened last night?" I ask softly

His grin disappears and the sadness returns to his eyes. He closes them for a second before looking right into mine.

"I don't think I should tell you…"

"Why not?" for a second it looks like he's about to answer, but decides not to explain why he doesn't want to.

"Ok, so we're on one of our covert missions, and we were supposed to keep low and hide in the beams of this warehouse. But then…"

"You slipped, fell down, hurt yourself and revealed the team to the enemy?"

He narrows his eyes at me, "am I that predictable?"

I shrug my shoulders, "usually, keep going."

"I couldn't move because I ended up breaking a couple ribs," he pauses to lift his shirt and show me the bandages," so you-know-who jumps down with his grappling hook to save me while these guys are shooting at us nonstop. Miss Martian and Superboy go in to get in the way of the bullets while Artemis stays up on the beams to shoot from a distance…"

"And then?" he closes his eyes before he continues as if he were watching the scene from behind his lids

"All hell breaks lose. Artemis gets shot in the foot and she's falling, but Aqualad manages to catch her with his water. That allowed the goons he was fighting to escape. Superboy tries to go after them but their leader comes out of nowhere with a crowbar and starts trying to beat him to death. Then he lays me down and asks Miss Martian to care for me as he tries to go help Superboy and runs off. After that I blacked out and I don't know what happened. All I know is I wake up in a hospital bed and Batman's personal doctor, Dr. Thompkins, is taking care of me. Because, you know, it'd be strange for Wally West an average American teen to show up in Kid Flash's costume needing immediate care. "

"So you're upset because it was because of you the mission failed?" He opens his eyes and looks me in the eye before closing them again.

"No…the mission didn't fail. They managed to complete it after Miss Martian took me away…but…" he gulped slightly," when I woke up he came into my room really upset. At first, he just sat down and told me everything that happened after I blacked out. He said that Superboy was the only one who came out unharmed. That Artemis would be relieved from missions until her foot healed. That Aqualad faced a concussion. Miss Martian got really bruised up trying to help me escape for medical attention. I noticed he had a few bandages wrapped around his arms."

"Keep going…"

"Then he went from being concerned and upset to suddenly getting really pissed off. He tells me I broke multiple ribs, a broken shoulder, and one of the ribs tore into one of my lungs, and because of my super healing I could have really paid for it. That if I didn't act so carelessly like the idiot I was I'd be ok. And we got into a really bad argument about how superheroes shouldn't mess up as much as I do when people's lives are at stake all the time. I got really upset and just ran here…" Running around with broken ribs, why did you have to be so reckless?

I scratched my chin as I thought about the situation, "sounds like he was just really worried about you," I bite out. He just shakes his head

"Sounds more like he thinks I'm an idiot who always messes up the missions…" he says quietly and sadly. I knew he got into a fight with him. I knew it as soon as opened the door last night. The vibe, the look in his eye.

Had I been fifteen year old Speedy again I probably would tell him he doesn't need him and that he wasn't worth his time anyway. That he was just some big hotshot jerk who thinks he's all that just because he's the first side kick and what not. Then I would finally have him all to myself. But, I'm not the same immature, douchey teenager I used to be. So I tell him what he needs to hear and see.

"Look, he's only thirteen and just doesn't know how to really react when his best friend gets hurt. He only got mad at you because he really cares, but being his age he doesn't know how to express that concern properly. Don't worry about anything he said, because he doesn't really mean it. He cares about you, he is your best friend."

He opens his green eyes again and looks up at me, "I wish he knew how to react then…"

"Cut the kid some slack, when you were thirteen you acted like a total brat whenever you were an ass to me. Like that one time when you accidentally stepped on all my arrows and broke them during a mission with Flash and Green Arrow, I was really pissed and you didn't know how to act. So instead of apologizing you got pissed too." He blushes remembering the way he used to be, but then smiles.

He then sits up and hugs me tightly, "thanks Roy, you always know what to say."

"How bad could this fight possibly have been that you almost cried last night?" I smirk

Embarrassed he shoves me over," you don't understand! We've been getting into a lot of these sorts of fights lately and it's…well…you know…stressful…"

I press my mouth into a firm line and furrow my eyebrows. He must have saw the frustration in my face because he looks away guiltily.

"You should…probably talk to him…about these fights then…" the air is tense. But what can you do?

"Yeah…"

We sit there without saying anything for a while before I finally ask…

"So you guys fight a lot?"

"Yeah…" my chest hurts a bit. I want to just punch a wall or something because this was aggravating. They're fighting a lot for a reason. It meant he was growing up and that meant they would start to see something that wasn't there before. I knew how puberty worked, that's what happened between me and the kid here.

Sometimes I just wish the kid would be more mature and shove whatever he's probably been feeling lately away. But you can't expect a teenage boy his age to know how to give into a fulltime commitment. We're at two different stages of our lives.

"I know what you're going through right now, and all you can do is ride it out and see what happens," he nods but doesn't say anything," you should probably get back…actually you should call your Uncle. You really shouldn't have been running at the speed you usually do with broken ribs."

"No…I don't want Uncle Barry to know I left the hospital to here. I'll just run to the nearest teleporter to Happy Harbor."

"Don't push yourself too hard." He gets up and changes into his uniform. He does so hastily, and gives me a quick hug before heading out.

"Um…thanks for everything dude…" he says quietly before closing the door.

My heart sinks when he doesn't come back in apologizing like he usually does when he knows he's made it awkward between us. I guess these changes he's been having are getting stronger. I should have seen it coming. What could I expect from falling for someone younger?

At my age I knew how I felt, I knew what I wanted. He doesn't, he's too young to make final decisions.

I sit on my couch and bury my face in my hands. Suddenly my phone rings.

"Hello?"

"Hey Red Arrow, it's Robin. I was wondering if you knew where KF could be." He sounds frantic and genuinely concerned.

I decide to play stupid, "no I don't, why? What happened?"

There's a slight pause before he speaks, "well, we kind of got into a fight and he ran away, and he really shouldn't have because he was in the infirmary. We're…I-I'm really worried Roy. It's m-my fault h-he ran away." I could hear his voice cracking, both from puberty and worry.

I sign and the tugging in my chest is stronger. If Robin only knew. If only either of them really knew.

"Look Robin, I'm sure it's not your fault. He did call earlier and said something about heading to Mount Justice. So check there ok?"

"Thanks Roy, I'll talk to you later ok?" the phone clicks and I set it down.

It would have all been easier had I not fallen for my own best friend. But all I can do now is be the adult. Considering the age difference, it was ridiculous for me to ever believe it'd last longer than it already has now. I even sensed he would eventually fall for him. But that's ok. I've learned along the way that that was ok. Hopefully soon the two of them will open their own eyes.

With an ache in my chest I pick the phone up and dial a random number from my book, it rings two or three times before someone picks up," hey Supergirl, what are you doing tonight?"

I hear a giggle, and I smile.

Author's Note: Thanks for reading! and I would really appreciate reviews! Because it is a bit disheartening and not much of a motivator to write when no one says anything! Keep checking back for more oneshots of Kid Flash and Robin!