all little boys
May. 29th, 2011 05:09 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
loracarolI've decided to compile a fill I've been creating for the ![[livejournal.com profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/external/lj-community.gif)
yj_anon_meme, and it was this: "Once upon a time, Wally's name was Peter Pan". I hope you enjoy it! <3
Chapter One
All little boys have to grow up.
Except one.
Always and forever except one.
At least, that was the plan.
After all, being a grown up meant you were old and boring and a pirate.
Even after Wendy and most of the Lost Boys left Neverland (how could they do that to him?), growing up was something wrong.
But not growing up meant being all alone. The mothers were getting more crafty, and more and more children that would have fallen out of their prams and joined Peter in Neverland were being held in, strapped in, and Peter was… Well, he was getting lonely. A little bit.
There was always Hook, though. Hook was constant and always.
Until one day he just wasn’t.
Peter searched all over the island for Hook, but Hook wasn’t there, nor was his ship.
After two weeks of boredom, the ship sailed into the bay and dropped anchor. The crew moved lazily to the deck, most of them stretching and congratulating each other. Peter moved in closer as Captain Hook strolled on deck. Gone was the usual air among the crew of fear when their captain was there, but instead a kind of lazy understanding enveloped the whole boat.
“Ay Hook! Where have you been?” asked Peter, swooping in low, and pulling his dagger out for a fight. But Captain Hook just flicked a lazy eye over the boy and inspected his nails.
“I wasn’t here Pan. I was gone.”
“Gone where? Tell me!” Peter said, dancing in the air in anticipation. “Tell me what you were doing!”
“What do you think boys? Should I tell him?” Captain Hook said, smiling lazily.
“I don’t think so Captain” said Smee. “He’s only a boy.”
“That’s true.” Captain Hook said, polishing his hook with a handkerchief he pulled out of his breast pocket.
“I’m not only a boy!”
“You are only a child. You had a chance to grow, but you didn’t take it. It would not be good form for me to tell you what I did.”
“Tell me, or I’ll tear your sail to shreds!” Peter threatened, flying up to the sail and brandishing his knife to make certain the pirates would see the threat.
Now, normally a slice or two would be no problem to Captain James Hook. However, the amount of damage Peter was threatening to do would dissipate the good mood the crew had and destroy any chance of Hook getting them all to keep following him after their last disaster of a fight against the boy.
“We were loving” he said, finally. “Love is only for those who grow up, though. Not for the likes of you.”
“That's not true! Wendy loved me! Tiger Lily loves me!”
“And look where they both are, Wendy left you to go back to England to grow up, and Tiger Lily has not looked at you since then. You have no followers, no people, you’re all alone and just a boy. I don’t have time for you right now.”
“Fight me!” Peter said, rushing at hook with his knife in hand. Hook sidestepped, and in a fluid motion, he had Peter against the deck with Hook’s sword at his throat.
“I have no time for you right now boy. Go back to your home and your little pixie friend.”
Shaking with anger and something akin to grief, Peter backed away from Hook and tried to think of a happy thought to get him launched in the air.
Back home was… Was lonely. Back at the tree, it was boring. There were no lost boys, no Wendy-mothers or anyone. And if even Hook was going to ignore him… “If I go into the real world, and grow up a little, will you tell me what you mean?” (Will you not ignore me? Will you acknowledge that I’m here?)
“Go Pan. Go grow up- if you dare. And we’ll see then. Maybe then you’ll be a more worthy opponent. It will be our deal.” Hook said, smiling a black cat smile. Peter gave a smile of his own at that, and launched himself into the air with a crow.
“Our deal.”
“Remember, you can’t fly around there, they won’t like it. It’s cheating.”
“Promise. I’ll fly to come back when our deal is done.”
“Than you’ll need this” Captain Hook reached into his coat and pulled out a little bag filled with fairy dust. He had planned on using it to fight Pan, but this was better.
A Neverland without Peter Pan at all? Wonderful.
He threw the bag to Peter, the dust all he had managed to collect from Tinkerbell in her jealous rage over Wendy.
Peter caught it, and tucked it into his shirt, and left.
~~~~~
Flying through the trees, Peter went back to his hollow tree. “Tink- Tink! I’m leaving now, and you can’t come, okay?”
The tinkling bells of her voice sounded sad. And because fairies can only feel one emotion at a time, it was very sad.
“I need to grow up some Tink. Hook dared me to. Maybe I’ll see Wendy! And I can learn about the ‘Love’ Captain Hook told me about! But you can’t come Tink, you need to stay here, and come get me before I’m too old!”
Tink’s bells were sad, and her light glowed blue as she flew away from Peter, and into the night, leaving Peter alone.
Peter rolled his eyes, and grabbing the kiss Wendy had given him, he flew back to the world.
~~~~~
The funny thing about Neverland is that time runs a little bit differently. What had only been two weeks since Captain Hook left was more like fifty years, and the time between Wendy and the lost boys leaving and Captain Hook leaving was longer still. By the time Peter got to Earth, so much time had passed that Wendy Moira Angela Darling had written a highly successful book about Peter Pan, and lived a long and happy life before dying of old age. Trying to find the old world in the new, Peter got himself mixed up, and landed somewhere he had never been before. But there was a house, and inside the house was a Mother, reading out loud the tales of Peter Pan, but it wasn’t Wendy.
The mother saw Peter in the window, and shrieked as Peter ran away. Where was Wendy? Where? He kept running, trying not to fly (that would be cheating!) and he ran into a man.
“Who do we have here?” He asked, putting one hand on Peter’s shoulder.
“Peter Pan. Where’s Wendy? What have you done to her?”
“Relax kid, the man said, green eyes matching Peter’s own. “Who are you?”
“Peter Pan. Where is Wendy?”
~~~~~
The man was Barry, and he worked with the cops. The police. Peter tried to stick to his story, that he was Peter! But the world was so dark and he felt so little surrounded by adults instead of leading a troupe of children.
So young…
Peter felt like he was suffocating as he felt his connection to Neverland snap and stretch the longer he stayed in the real world. He would have (should have) gone back to Neverland, but he had agreed to Hook’s deal, and he never backed down. No one could find his parents (he didn’t have any), and finally the man (Barry) introduced him (Peter! He was Peter Pan!) to his girlfriend’s brother and brother’s wife. They were willing to adopt him (but he already had a mother, Wendy. Why couldn’t they see that?)
“Hello sweetheart, we’d like to adopt you, if that’s alright.”
“I already have a mother.” He said petulantly.
“We can’t find her. Would you mind staying with us until we do?”
“Do I have to?”
“No. But we’d like you to.”
“You can’t call me Peter. Only Wendy can.”
The woman and her husband looked at each other. “Welcome to the family… Wallace.”
“It’s only until Wendy comes and gets me. Only ‘til than.” He said, but he went with them.
~~~~~
Wendy never came for him.
Chapter Two
Most little boys, as they get older, lose their memories of their childhood. Sometimes it’s because the mother comes in and while tidying up, they hide those memories so children do not dwell on the past, and sometimes and sometimes it was just the plain old forgetfulness of a child, wanting to learn and explore more so past memories were shoved to the side, but however it happened, it never happened to Peter. Instead Peter’s memories of Neverland stayed as bright and crisp and new as they had before.
He just hid them away.
His perfect memories of Neverland were collected and hidden behind a door so that once-Peter and now-Wally would actually grow up. Whatever he actually did remember of Neverland being only the dreams of memories.
But he never did completely forget the bet he had made, and when he was still young, he saw people like Superman and he would think, “Captain Hook was wrong about flying”, but the thought would be gone so fast he wouldn’t be able to grasp it. He did remember about Love, though, and as soon as he was able to, he looked it up.
What he found… Confused him.
According to the book he found, love wasn’t real. Love was just an illusion based on buy-oh-loj-ee-call eem-pul-ses. It was all fake. The Love that Hook and his men talked about was just chemical reactions and his body betraying him.
Science had explained “Love” to him, something that even Captain Hook hadn’t been able to. What else could science explain? Science could explain growing up, family, friendship, what things worked. And the Peter Pan inside the boy devoured the knowledge. It was just the newest kind of game, for him to learn more and more, so that when he went back to Neverland, he would be more grown up and knowledgeable than Hook.
And then he had a brilliant idea.
After all, if science could explain everything; love, lust, flight, the canons Hook used for fighting, machines, ships, why a man could run at super-speed, friendship, everything… Well, maybe it could explain magic as well.
And if magic was really science, did magic really exist…?
In the simple, childish way of Peter Pan, he decided it did not, and because he was stubborn, that was that.
Even fairies could be explained with science rather than magic, and so science became the new magic to Wally, as he learned all he could about everything he could.
~~~~~
Time continued to move on, and Barry later married Aunt Iris, Wally being the ring bearer at their wedding. No one besides the West’s and the (newly bound) Allen’s seemed to realize that Wally wasn’t actually biologically Mary and Rudolph’s son. With Rudolph West and Iris West-Allen, that was alright, since they were the only ones either of them had. But with Mary?
Well, maybe that was alright to, since most of Mary’s family wasn’t actually at the wedding.
Wally was still annoyed, though, when people assumed he was Mary and Rudolph’s son. He wasn’t. He was Wendy’s. But no one believed him when he said that, so he just smiled and nodded.
There were several people at the wedding, though, who look pretty familiar to Wally, so he watched them carefully. One of them was… Oliver Queen? Why was he at the wedding of a small city forensic scientist?
It was as Wally looked over the other guest’s, that he realized It.
Oliver Queen wasn’t at the wedding.
Green Arrow was.
That reporter from Metropolis? He could only be Superman. (The build! And the color of his eyes when he took off his glasses to wipe manly tears away!). Hal Jordan, aka Earth’s Green Lantern was there as well, and the woman with the black hair and silver bracelets (no, wrist bands), could only be Wonder Woman. There were other guests there too, but those were… Well, those were… They had to be…
Or, at least, that’s what it looked like. Maybe the reporter’s eye color was just a coincidence, after all- when he put his glasses on, his eyes were a duller shade. The other guy could just be another military man, with a similar build, hair color, and style preferred by those ex-military. “Wonder Woman” could just be a Wonder Woman fan, who liked the way the bracelet’s fit. It was hard to tell, since the woman’s hair was up, and she was wearing a dress instead of the form-fitting outfit so favored by the Amazonian princess.
And Oliver Queen could just be a guy… Who just so happened to look like Green Arrow… And have the same facial hair- scratch that. Out of everyone, Oliver Queen was Green Arrow, that Wally was sure of.
But, if they were all who Wally thought, why were they at his uncle’s wedding?
Chapter Three
Figuring out why Oliver Queen was at Barry’s wedding was surprisingly easy. Wally had tried to think of a way he could trick the info out of Barry, like the time when he had mimicked Hook’s voice and tricked Smee into releasing Tiger Lily. Instead he asked outright one day, while Barry watched him for his parents. Going out to buy some shelving equipment for the newlyweds new house, Wally dropped his little question.
“Why was Green Arrow at your wedding?”
“You recognized him that easily? Smart kid.”
“Yeah. Why was he at your wedding?”
“I work in forensics with the cops, so I’m friends with the Flash, and he decided to introduce me to Green Arrow, and he’s cool, so he came to my wedding.”
“I didn’t see the Flash there, though…”
“Of course not, he was probably going too fast for you to see him.”
That answer did not really make Wally feel any better, unsettling him for reasons he couldn’t really explain.
“Were there other heroes there?”
“Why would you ask?”
“Well, there was one guy who started crying, and when he took off his glasses, he looked like Superman. And there was a woman who looked like Wonder Woman. It was weird.”
Barry snorted, and there was a moment of weird humming, then “Superman didn’t come to my wedding. Neither did Wonder Woman… That would have been a little too much for a small city forensics guy like me.”
“Right. Can we get ice cream now?” Wally asked, dragging his uncle to the shop. Barry was lying. Wally knew it, knew it so much because pirates lied and pirates were adults so all adults lied. It was a silo-ghism, like in the weird book he had found with the people who died. Why would it say that they died, anyway? Didn’t that ruin the book? And what was the deal with that Hamlet guy anyway, it didn’t make sense…
But, the book had been in his “parent’s” bookshelf, which meant it was forbidden… Which meant Wally had taken it to read as soon as he could. A
nd from what he could tell, silo-ghisms meant he was right about all adults being lying liars who lied. Which meant that Superman and Wonder Woman had been at Barry’s wedding.
“Can I meet the Flash!” He said, all child-like enthusiasm and smiles.
“I don’t see why not.” Barry said, paying for the ice-creams. Both of them got chocolate.
Chapter Four
Several weeks went by before Wally could actually meet the Flash. Barry had taken a vacation, and the League was dealing with an intergalactic threat that was trying to destroy the universe. Or something like that. During that time, Wally quietly turned eleven- but he didn’t really look any older than he had the year before.
Wally finally got to meet the Flash on a Tuesday afternoon that Barry was ~conveniently~ running errands and unavailable. The Flash smiled, and ruffled Wally’s hair affectionately, kneeling down so as to better talk to the boy face to face.
Wally looked at the Flash, at the hero of Central City who had so deigned to visit him. The white lenses of the cowl hid a lot, but despite that all, Wally could still see the Flash’s eyes though the white mesh.
The eyes were green, matchingWally Peter’s own.
All adults lied.
Peter grinned up at the liar, and opened his wide. “Hi Flash!” He said, “I’m your biggest fan!”
Over the next two weeks, the Flash met Wally/Peter as often as he could. Barry always had an excuse for those times, something Peter kept track of. There was one niggling question, still, though.
How had Barry gotten his powers? Wally could understand Superman and Wonder Woman and Martian Manhunter being from somewhere else (after all, Peter was, and Peter could fly too), and Batman was, well, Batman but Barry was human, wasn’t he? Human and boring.
“How did you become the Flash?” He asked one day, looking up with wide eyes at the Flash. He had learned this lesson a long time ago; when in doubt, look cute. It always worked against the Flash and Barry when Peter wanted something.
“Can you keep a secret?” the Flash asked, handing Peter a chocolate ice cream bar he had had with him. (Wally hadn’t ever told the Flash that he liked chocolate best. Wally supposed that Barry could have said something, but Peter had just laughed at that).
“Of course!” He said, and he could and would. Forever and always.
“I got hit by lightning.” Peter frowned. From what he had read, that shouldn’t have done anything like that… It was impossible, and he said so petulantly.
“Knew you were a smart kid” the Flash said, ruffling his hair again. “I was at my work, and the lightning hit me and a bunch of chemicals together. Weird, huh?”
“That still doesn’t make any sense” Wally said, while Peter plotted. “what chemicals would do that? It’s not logical.”
“Kid, as you grow up, you need to learn that things aren’t always logical like you want them to be.” The Flash said, but it still didn’t make sense.
“What could do that, though?” Wally asked, frowning in concentration.
“I don’t know, Batman probably does, though. He knows everything.”
“Is he a meta?” Wally asked. This was new information! “Doesn’t he have a sidekick now? Are they a meta too?”
“Nope. He’s just Batman.”
“That still doesn’t make sense.”
“Hate to break it to you kid, but, as a general rule, life doesn’t make sense. The best we can do is live life as it happens, make the best of every situation.”
~~~~~
That night, Peter had a plan.
He was going to be a superhero.
He missed flying, but being able to run really really fast like the Flash would be a new adventure.
That night after bed time Peter carefully made a pillow silhouette of himself on his bed, and slipped out of his window. Closing his eyes, he concentrated, and because he still wasn’t too old that he forgot how to fly without pixie dust, he was up in the air in no time.
Flying was… Just as fun as Peter remembered, if not even better. For a moment Wally was worried that Peter was breaking his bond with Hook, but Peter reminded him that Hook was a liar who said no one flew, and Superman did so Peter could, and it was alright. Flying east towards Gotham was fun, but it was over too quickly. Flying was always over too quickly for Peter who could fly pretty fast when he wanted to.
Landing in Gotham shortly after sunset was an interesting experience. Wally and Peter had both heard stories about the city, and while Peter thought that it sounded like fun, Wally was a little less enthusiastic.
Gotham was all shadows, and Peter’s own shadow longed to join them, pulling away from it’s master. Peter reeled his shadow in, promising that he would soon be allowed to run and play with the master of shadows himself, Batman.
Chapter Five
Ducking into the alleys and darkness was Peter’s only plan for finding Batman without being on the losing side of a fight. (Not that Peter would actually lose, though. He couldn’t.)
There were darker shadows in Gotham, places where the shadows had shadows, and where invisible eyes gleamed at humanity as they walked by. The shadows loved Batman. Batman was the one who chased the humans who did dirtybadwrong human things to Gotham, and those who lived there. They hissed at Peter’s probing questions, why did he need to know about Batman? He was an Outsider, and worse of all (worse like the man from Metropolis), he wasn’t even from Earth except from maybe a long time ago. Maybe.
But they answered the questions, eventually. Peter had a way with words that could get into brains, and convince them to leave their parents, or pixie hollow. It was the same way with words that convinces the Lost Boys to follow him against the pirates again and again (Until Wendy with her soft words and- no- Wendy could never do anything wrong. She was Wendy, perfect always). They told him how the Master of Shadows had a cave where he lived with the bats, and his new ward (who they weren’t sure they approved of yet).
Flying like a bat out of hell, Peter made sure to slow down tremendously on his way to the cavern. The shadows had been very emphatic about that, after a time. Peter had flown right past Batman foiling a bank robbery, but he didn’t think that that really meant anything. He wasn’t even sure what he would do when he got to the cave. Batman surely didn't have the chemical composition of what changed Barry’s life just hanging around the cave. That would have been crazy. (And a guy who dresses up like a bat to fight crime wasn’t?)
Peter made sure to slide carefully through the entrance, fluid like a cat and sticking to the roof. If bats flew in and out every night, there must have been some leniency in the censors.
Peter was hidden at the top of the cave and in a shadow when he heard a clicking noise from below him. At the bottom of the cave was an older man holding a rifle and aiming the barrel uncomfortably close to Peter’s head.
“Master Batman does not approve of visitors” he said in a posh British accent.
“I thought that the Bats didn’t like guns either, but you’ve got one.” Peter said, throwing his voice so it seemed like he had come from the other side of the ceiling. The man took the bait- but just barely. Instead of assuming that Peter really was that far away, he assumed (correctly) that Peter was throwing his voice. He just severly underestimated Peter’s range.
“Master Batman has given me the right to base my choice of offensive systems on my own discretion. And you are whom?”
“Peter Pan, of course!” Peter said, flying silently to a separate part of the ceiling. “I’m the boy who will never grow, the child who will live forever! I’m the son of Neverland, and friend to fairies, mermaids and Indians. I fight the pirates, and the adults, and I need something from you.”
“What is it that you want?” the man said, re-aiming the gun. There was a trigger-pulling motion, and a small dart flew by Peter’s head.
“Hey! That wasn’t very nice!” Peter said in shock.
“Why ever not?”
“I could have fallen!”
“I assure you that I would have caught you. What is it that you want?”
“I want to stuff about what happened to Barry Allen that made him the Flash. What chemicals he used, and how much. I want that information, and I want it now.”
“I’m afraid that I cannot do that.” The man said.
“Why not? Was Barry lying when he said that Batman would have the answers?”
“Yes, he was. Batman does not have this answer.”
“Now you’re lying! I knew that all adults lied, I knew it! Barry says that Batman knows everything, and he’s less of a liar than you!”
There was a movement at the top of the main staircase, and then Robin was looking sleepily at Alfred from the top of the stairs. “Alfred, is everything alright?” He asked, sleepy nine-year-old eyes already widening at the call to adventure.
“Everything is alright.” Alfred said to the child. The gun was nowhere to be seen, and he appeared as though he was merely tidying up the cave. The boy nodded, disappointment etched on his features as he trudged back up to bed. The boy was wearing a mask.
Peter watched him go, a plan forming in his head. The words forming as Robin left the cave were angry, but true. (At least, he saw them as such).
“He should join me in Neverland” he said nonchalantly. “In fact, I think I’m going to go get him now.”
“He would never leave with you.” Alfred said, but Robin was young, still, and in Peter’s experience, all young children had something you could use convince them to do things.
“Even if he thinks it’s just a dream? Even if he doesn’t realize that he shouldn’t? Even if I take him without giving him a choice?” There was a pause, and than the next time he spoke, Peter’s voice had an almost wistful quality about it “It is getting awfully lonely in Neverland…”
“Can you watch him forever?” Peter asked the older man. “Can you lock him up, and make sure that he’ll never be taken? Can you trap him in this house when he’s Batman’s sidekick?
“You don’t think much of me, but I am Peter Pan. I am the one who has collected all the lost boys for years before you were ever born, and will continue to collect them after you are gone.
“You think you can hide Robin from me, don’t you? That you can protect him from me? But what is the price going to be? One way lasts years, and costs more and more every day. The other is just giving me the information I want.
“Why do you have to be so stupid?”
“Do you think that I’m kidding? That this is a joke? It’s not, I’m serious. What would happen to your Batman if his ward suddenly vanished, huh? If Batman didn’t find him for years, and by than, Robin doesn’t remember anything, but will fight tooth and nail to stay away?
“What would Batman do if Robin just vanished, and Batman never saw him again?”
“Master Batman would find him again.” That was a surety, Batman wouldn’t rest until he found Robin. Couldn’t rest.
“Maybe. Maybe not.” Peter said mockingly. “Is it worth it?”
And it wasn’t.
Even if there was a 99% chance that Peter wouldn’t be able to take Master Richard, or that Master Bruce would be able to get him back if he did, there would still be that 1% chance.
And than 1% chance was inexcusable.
Alfred had watched Bruce Wayne from the day of his birth to Martha and Thomas Wayne, up until his death in the alleyway with his parents. He had watched the dead man try and live vicariously through being Batman, tried to watch Bruce for a regeneration, a rebirth with Batman, and failing. He had seen the Batman had really become reborn when Master Richard had entered the picture. It was in the small things, the way that Master Bruce lightened up around the young boy, the way he smiled when he thought no one could see. His actions, the way he tried his hardest to protect the boy from what he truly though would harm him, though still exposing the boy to more than what people normally would have thought possible.
It was- they were a family, and if that was broken in any way, Alfred feared that Master Bruce himself would break.
After all, he was only human. And human’s were fragile and strong things.
“You just want the print outs, nothing more, correct?” He said, back ramrod straight still.
“Yep. And you can put them outside of the cave. Any attempt to make this into a trap, and I take Robin.”
“How will you know?”
“I have eyes and ears everywhere. Don’t you know that the stories say I have a fairy named Tinkerbell with me? It’s like you don’t know anything.” Peter had, of course, conveniently forgotten that Tink wasn’t actually with him at that moment, but Alred didn’t know that.
“And if I said that I did not believe?”
“It wouldn’t just be me looking to take Robin away. The fae can be harsh, and murdering one of theirs out of malice is a grave offence. Besides, you can’t aim your words. Stupid. You’d be a murderer of an innocent. What would Batman or Robin say to that?”
With that ominous proclamation, Alfred gravely went to the computers and started printed sheets and sheets of paper out. After all were printed, he and Peter carefully left the cave, Alfred placing the papers on the ground and walking back inside still with an air of gravity that Peter vowed to master someday.
Grabbing the papers, Peter went back home to revel in his victory.
And get some sleep.
After all, he was a growing boy.
Chapter Six
The next day Wally took the papers, and copied all the useful information into a small (Flash) notebook his uncle had given him for his birthday. The names of the chemicals were easy, he just copied them into the notebook. Granted, some of the equations were a little trickier, trying to work out how much of everything Wally would need to do the experiment at his size compared to his uncle’s, and he didn’t understand all of the terms used in the notes, but he’d make do.
Everything copied into his notebook, Wally went to call his Uncle and see if Wally could visit the forensics lab after school that day.
~~~~~
That day after school, Barry Allen met Wally and Peter at the ice cream shop after school was out.
“I thought you weren’t interested in my job, Wally.” Barry said, twirling the cherry from the top of his sundae idly around in his hand.
“Yeah, well, I was watching CSI and I realized that that’s what you do, and it looked cool. So.”
“Geez kid, how old are you?”
“Old enough to watch CSI. And I’m not your kid. Ever.”
“Fine, fine. You grow up so fast, though.”
“So, could I come to your work?”
“Sure, why not. You know that they’re not really like on TV, though. Right?”
“I’m not stupid.”
“Didn’t say you were” Barry said, and he reached over and ruffled Wally’s hair with a grin. “Never said you were, and I doubt I ever will.”
~~~~~
Meanwhile Alfred quietly kept on eye on the surveillance cameras Batman had installed around Central City. After all, if the child (Peter) had had enough contact with Master Barry that he was sending the kid to the Batcave, chances were that the kid lived in Central- the Flash’s home base.
So Alfred watched as Barry West played loving uncle to his nephew, and he waited.
With Master Bruce off playing Batman all the time, it was something he had gotten quite used to.
~~~~~
Wally was genuinely excited to see the inside of the crime lab, while Peter was just bored. Working in the crime lab was stuff for grown-ups and boring.
Green eyes open wide at everything, Peter watched carefully for the spy-eyes, and the noise-traps that pervaded the world. They would be impossible to get through, probably, even for Peter.
Unless he had help. And a distraction.
So instead, Wally decided to focus on listening to Barry talk about his job. It was actually kind of… Cool.
~~~~~
The distraction came by way of a rogue attack after an anonymous tipster had left a note at Harry’s bar about several hundred’s of thousands of dollars in unmarked bills confiscated from a drug-runner, all with mixed serials, (so no tracking) ending up at the forensics lab.
It was too good to be true.
But it actually, really wasn’t. (Granted, the money had come from a normally Gotham-dealing drug-runner, but he had just woken up one day, money gone and in Central as though it had grown wings and flown away).
The recon done by Mirror Master testified to that, as he, Captain Cold, and Captain Boomerang decided to try and work together on that heist- with so much at stake, there was too much to go wrong with just one man.
Besides, the Rogues? They had a code about those sorts of things.
When the rogue’s decided to (finally) go after the cash, Peter was there, waiting. When they disabled the alarm system and the cameras, Peter slipped in a window. While they searched for the cash, Peter found the chemicals he needed, and put them in a back-pack he had stashed on the roof. And, when he was done, he ran.
~~~~~
Setting up the lab equipment was tricky as neither Peter nor Wally had ever really tried to do anything of the sort before. Plus there was the lightning factor. Wally did not want to wait for a random lightning storm just “happen”, so he did what any young deviant needing lightning would do.
One of the bags of cash that had mysteriously vanished from Gotham had not ended up in the forensics lab. Instead Wally had hidden it at the top of a tree where no one would find it.
Weather Wizard received a note for him at the bar the next day. It read:
“Dear Weather Wizard.
If there is a lot of lightning at Central Field all tomorrow, I will pay you.”
Harry had another envelope, and he slid it to Mark. Inside was a $100 bill, plus a promise to have more where that came from.
“I got twice just to make sure you got this. It’s legit” Harry said. And Mark, who was pissed at not being invited to the Forensics Lab Heist, decided to take the job.
~~~~~
The weather at Central Field was abysmal as Peter deciphered the notes he had taken, and carefully measured and mixed the chemicals he had stolen. Than came the hard part. Waiting.
Lightning crackled in the air around him, but not a single bolt came close enough until- there! The lightning surged through the liquids, and Wally was hit and everything grew fuzzy….
~~~~~
Flash (Barry) was standing over him, and his voice sounded far away, so whatever he was saying got lost in the wind. Barry kept yelling, but Wally wanted to sleep.
The world went black, as the last thing Wally remembered was Barry holding him tight, and running like his life depended on it.
Chapter Seven
All Peter and Wally could see was black.
“Holy shit kid, what the hell were you thinking?”
‘I’m not your kid’
“That was the stupidest thing you’ve ever done!”
‘I’m not stupid!’
“Just don't die on me, okay? Promise me you won’t die.”
‘Why are you so scared? I’m not. Death’s just the next great adventure.’
Hooked up to the hospital equipment, Wally could hear Barry’s pacing, and they way he, and everyone sounded… Worried? About him? And the worry felt real in a way nothing had before. Not even Peter’s Wendy.
That was when Wally decided that he and Peter had to have A Talk.
It was actually rather easy given that both were trapped in the unconscious physical shell that made up their body. Wally knew where he would find Peter, it was where Peter always went when he was bored, the Neverspace in their brain. Finding the door open, Wally sighed, and stepped through.
Neverland in his memories was as strong and vibrant as ever and always. The trees were just as green, the sky just as blue, and the rainbow just as vibrant. Peter was somewhere in the trees playing flute leading the memories of the Lost Boys onold new adventures. The flute stopped and the Lost Boys vanished when Peter saw Wally.
“What are you doing here?” He asked, and he had a good reason for questioning. Wally didn’t like the Neverspace. Neverland was too full of things that didn’t fit in the definition of sciences that he and Peter had decided on long ago.
“We need to talk before we wake up.” Wally said, shutting the door behind him. With a soft “swoosh” (because all cool doors made “swooshing” sounds), the doorway melted away, and Neverland was all around them.
“What about? Are you going to stay here with me for a little? We could go fight the pirates! Or look or buried treasure! Or we could—”
“No. That’s not why I’m here.” Peter deflated, before sighing and sitting in midair. “What do you want?”
“I think…” And here was the hardest thing to say, “I think that you should stay in here when we—when I—wake up.”
“No.” Peter said, crossing his arms over his chest.
“Why not?” Wally asked, sounding genuinely puzzled about it.
“Because it’s boring here.” For a moment the world seemed to dim and fade into shades of gray, but it grew bright again as Peter was distracted by a passing Never-bird.
“How could it be boring? You have the whole world at your fingertips, with anything you want. But I—we need to grow up to win Captain Hook’s bet, and I can’t with you always there!” Wally wanted, no needed to grow up, but having Peter around was making it harder. Wally had seen it as everytime he’d try to grow up some Peter would shove in and take over… Like stealing the books for their parents' shelves.
“I don’t want to, and you can’t make me do anything I don’t want to. Besides, you’re forgetting that you are me, we can’t separate!” Peter had flown in close to Wally’s face, and the two of them looked eye to eye, mirror images of the other.
“You’re wrong!” Wally cried out, fists forming at his sides. “I’m not you, you’re not me! And I want to grow up! I want to learn about science, and driving, and growing up! But you’re always there, like this stupid plan of yours to try and make us like the Flash! Like Uncle Barry…”
“So it’s ‘Uncle’ Barry to you then, huh?” Peter said, crowding in on Wally even more. “What about all adults being liars? What about all adults being like Captain Hook, huh?”
“Uncle Barry is nothing like Captain Hook, and neither are a lot of the adults who are here! This is why you need to go away!” Wally realized that he was shaking and tried to calm down. Adults were calm, kids got irrationally angry. He just needed to calm down.
“I’m not going to stay here, and that’s final!” Peter yelled, shoving Wally to the ground. Desperately Wally looked around at the Neverspace, and at the storm clouds rapidly growing in the sky as Peter continued. “Get the door back now, we’re leaving!”
“What about… What about the treasure hunt you were going to have with the Lost Boys? To find the missing treasure of… Of… Of… Sir Francis Drake? And of Captain Kidd?” Wally asked, hoping that it would work. The sun started to shine again as Peter’s own imagination began to change the Neverspace. In an instant, Toodles was at Peter’s side, trying to drag him away, and chattering excitedly about the map they had found. It was only a dream, based on a memory, but that didn’t make fake.
With a glad sigh, Wally tried to imagine a door in the Neverspace. His imagination wasn’t as good as Peter’s, Wally having relied on Peter for most of his life to do all the imagining for him, but it was decent, and soon there was a door there for Wally to step through.
As soon as Wally stepped through the door, and the door was shut, the memories of Neverland faded like old photographs. Before, Wally had had Peter there to remind him of Neverland, even when he didn’t want to be, but with both Peter and Neverland hidden behind the door… There was no reason for Wally to remember.
~~~~~
Wally woke up to a steady beeping, and Uncle Barry in a chair next to his bed. As he realized that, the beeping began to increase, and Uncle Barry woke up, alarmed.
“Kid- kid- slow down, it’s okay, I’ve got you, you’re here and you’re safe. Shhh….” As Wally calmed down, Uncle Barry smiled crookedly. “You’ve given us all a real good scare. Stupid kid. I was… I was really worried about you, so were your parents, and your Aunt. What the hell were you thinking?”
“Where’s my parents?” Wally asked, ignoring the question. To be honest, he wasn’t really even sure what he had been thinking, and the memories were all shades of fuzzy.
“We’re at one of the Justice League’s secret posts, it’s one of the only places with a hospital set up for a speedster, so they couldn’t come. At least, not until Batman has finished running another background check. Don’t worry, they’ll be here as soon as possible.”
“Batman’s running a background check on them when I'm in the hospital? He sounds mean…”
“Trust me kid, he used to be worse. A lot worse.”
That was when a major point in Uncle Barry’s speech leapt up (metaphorically speaking), and smack Wally across the face.
“I’m a… Speedster?” He asked, shocked.
“Yep. Congratulations, kiddo. I don’t know what you were thinking, but that’s what happened.”
“I don’t know either… Does this mean I can be your sidekick, like Robin is to Batman?”
“We’ll talk about it when you’re out of the hospital, but for now let’s get you some food, and more rest, okay kid?”
“That would be *yawn* nice, *yawn* but I think the *yawn* food should wait… I’m sleepy.”
“’kay kid, but you’re gonna be really hungry when you wake up, I promise you that.”
“I think I wanna be Kid Flash if I'm you're sidekick, okay...?” Wally asked as he drifted off to sleep again.
After Wally became Kid Flash, things were pretty much normal. Granted, things were not actually normal- after all, he was a speedster, and he was the Flash’s sidekick, but other than those tiny details… Life was normal. Get up, go to school, fight the bad guys, meet other sidekicks, normal.
Especially after he had a chance to meet Robin and Roy. Robin was a little bit younger than him, but he was so cool, and he was Batman’s sidekick! (He wondered why part of him shuddered a little when he thought about that, having no memory of Peter’s expedition to the Batcave after Peter had been sealed away). Even Alfred was cool! Even though he had this habit of search Wally’s face for something whenever he met.
Whatever he was looking for, he never found it, and eventually Wally was a welcome at the Batcave o have cookies with Robin.
And Roy! Roy was like, the coolest big brother ever. He was really gruff, but he was cool with the younger kids hanging out with him, and he shot with a bow and arrow (something that should have seemed vaguely familiar to Wally, but he had literally no memory of such things).
Of course, when Kaldur showed up, he was also really cool, but by then Wally had grown out of the ‘hopelessly fanboying’ stage of his life, and Kaldur didn’t get to know what it was like to have a fanboy.
Life was… Actually really freaking normal. Like, almost boring normal. Even when Kaldur, Robin and Wally had broken into Cadmus labs… It had been normal.
The first time the door started to reopen was when Miss Martian had tried to talk with the team (such as it was) mind to mind. Her mental voice brushing against his mental space brushed by the door and reminded Wally that it was there- though just barely. He forgot about it soon enough, but the knowledge of its existence was enough to bring him the memory of memories as though seeing the reflection of an image through a stained glass window.
He was even able to say his irrational hatred of the blonde archer as normal, given that she had replaced Roy, ignoring the part of his brain that didn’t like the blonde hair she had, as it reminded him of another (another what? He couldn’t remember) who had had blonde hair, and had tried to hurt someone he had cared for. (Hadn’t he? Something about a kiss, and a button, but it was all lost now.)
Working with the team was cool, and part of seemed familiar, like he had done it before.
It was… Nice. He just wished that the others would stop with their blathering about magic. He wasn’t sure why he was so sure magic didn’t exist, but he was. And then they had to go and save Kent Nelson. Part of him knew that there was enough empirical evidence to prove that magic existed, but he literally could not make himself believe it was real. Even as Doctor Fate was using his body, and Kent Nelson was talking with him, he couldn’t connect the bit of his brain that talked about magic, and the bit that believed in things.
Afterwards it was just so easy to lie to himself, and to say that magic wasn’t real. Easier than trying to figure out why he didn’t (couldn’t) believe, at any rate.
He tried to forget, to focus on other things.
And forget he did! Six months of forgetting, in fact. Enough time to forget the brush of the memory of the memory of blonde and the feeling that came when everyone was together.
And Artemis wasn’t that bad, right?
Getting his memories back, though… Oh…
(There was a door in his mind, and it was swinging open now, as M’gann ran through his brain and tried to make him remember. He didn’t remember what was behind the door, but it was no longer hiding. It was no longer locked. It was no longer closed.)
But the door needed stimuli to entice Wally back.
Too many things happened in the next month. Too many horrible wonderful frightening things happened. Red Tornado and a mole, and Zatanna and everything.
And then the goddamn training simulation. Everyone was dying, and he didn’t care.
At first it was sad, but they decided to try and put it all behind them. After all, Halloween was coming up, and it was time for a party. For anything to forget about the way everyone had died, to forget about the end of the team.
To forget that there was a door in his brain that was opened wide, just waiting. Waiting for something in the real world to convince Peter to come out of the Neverspace. Waiting for Peter to realize that there was a door, and there was a whole new world for him to explore.
Waiting.
yj_anon_meme, and it was this: "Once upon a time, Wally's name was Peter Pan". I hope you enjoy it! <3Chapter One
All little boys have to grow up.
Except one.
Always and forever except one.
At least, that was the plan.
After all, being a grown up meant you were old and boring and a pirate.
Even after Wendy and most of the Lost Boys left Neverland (how could they do that to him?), growing up was something wrong.
But not growing up meant being all alone. The mothers were getting more crafty, and more and more children that would have fallen out of their prams and joined Peter in Neverland were being held in, strapped in, and Peter was… Well, he was getting lonely. A little bit.
There was always Hook, though. Hook was constant and always.
Until one day he just wasn’t.
Peter searched all over the island for Hook, but Hook wasn’t there, nor was his ship.
After two weeks of boredom, the ship sailed into the bay and dropped anchor. The crew moved lazily to the deck, most of them stretching and congratulating each other. Peter moved in closer as Captain Hook strolled on deck. Gone was the usual air among the crew of fear when their captain was there, but instead a kind of lazy understanding enveloped the whole boat.
“Ay Hook! Where have you been?” asked Peter, swooping in low, and pulling his dagger out for a fight. But Captain Hook just flicked a lazy eye over the boy and inspected his nails.
“I wasn’t here Pan. I was gone.”
“Gone where? Tell me!” Peter said, dancing in the air in anticipation. “Tell me what you were doing!”
“What do you think boys? Should I tell him?” Captain Hook said, smiling lazily.
“I don’t think so Captain” said Smee. “He’s only a boy.”
“That’s true.” Captain Hook said, polishing his hook with a handkerchief he pulled out of his breast pocket.
“I’m not only a boy!”
“You are only a child. You had a chance to grow, but you didn’t take it. It would not be good form for me to tell you what I did.”
“Tell me, or I’ll tear your sail to shreds!” Peter threatened, flying up to the sail and brandishing his knife to make certain the pirates would see the threat.
Now, normally a slice or two would be no problem to Captain James Hook. However, the amount of damage Peter was threatening to do would dissipate the good mood the crew had and destroy any chance of Hook getting them all to keep following him after their last disaster of a fight against the boy.
“We were loving” he said, finally. “Love is only for those who grow up, though. Not for the likes of you.”
“That's not true! Wendy loved me! Tiger Lily loves me!”
“And look where they both are, Wendy left you to go back to England to grow up, and Tiger Lily has not looked at you since then. You have no followers, no people, you’re all alone and just a boy. I don’t have time for you right now.”
“Fight me!” Peter said, rushing at hook with his knife in hand. Hook sidestepped, and in a fluid motion, he had Peter against the deck with Hook’s sword at his throat.
“I have no time for you right now boy. Go back to your home and your little pixie friend.”
Shaking with anger and something akin to grief, Peter backed away from Hook and tried to think of a happy thought to get him launched in the air.
Back home was… Was lonely. Back at the tree, it was boring. There were no lost boys, no Wendy-mothers or anyone. And if even Hook was going to ignore him… “If I go into the real world, and grow up a little, will you tell me what you mean?” (Will you not ignore me? Will you acknowledge that I’m here?)
“Go Pan. Go grow up- if you dare. And we’ll see then. Maybe then you’ll be a more worthy opponent. It will be our deal.” Hook said, smiling a black cat smile. Peter gave a smile of his own at that, and launched himself into the air with a crow.
“Our deal.”
“Remember, you can’t fly around there, they won’t like it. It’s cheating.”
“Promise. I’ll fly to come back when our deal is done.”
“Than you’ll need this” Captain Hook reached into his coat and pulled out a little bag filled with fairy dust. He had planned on using it to fight Pan, but this was better.
A Neverland without Peter Pan at all? Wonderful.
He threw the bag to Peter, the dust all he had managed to collect from Tinkerbell in her jealous rage over Wendy.
Peter caught it, and tucked it into his shirt, and left.
~~~~~
Flying through the trees, Peter went back to his hollow tree. “Tink- Tink! I’m leaving now, and you can’t come, okay?”
The tinkling bells of her voice sounded sad. And because fairies can only feel one emotion at a time, it was very sad.
“I need to grow up some Tink. Hook dared me to. Maybe I’ll see Wendy! And I can learn about the ‘Love’ Captain Hook told me about! But you can’t come Tink, you need to stay here, and come get me before I’m too old!”
Tink’s bells were sad, and her light glowed blue as she flew away from Peter, and into the night, leaving Peter alone.
Peter rolled his eyes, and grabbing the kiss Wendy had given him, he flew back to the world.
~~~~~
The funny thing about Neverland is that time runs a little bit differently. What had only been two weeks since Captain Hook left was more like fifty years, and the time between Wendy and the lost boys leaving and Captain Hook leaving was longer still. By the time Peter got to Earth, so much time had passed that Wendy Moira Angela Darling had written a highly successful book about Peter Pan, and lived a long and happy life before dying of old age. Trying to find the old world in the new, Peter got himself mixed up, and landed somewhere he had never been before. But there was a house, and inside the house was a Mother, reading out loud the tales of Peter Pan, but it wasn’t Wendy.
The mother saw Peter in the window, and shrieked as Peter ran away. Where was Wendy? Where? He kept running, trying not to fly (that would be cheating!) and he ran into a man.
“Who do we have here?” He asked, putting one hand on Peter’s shoulder.
“Peter Pan. Where’s Wendy? What have you done to her?”
“Relax kid, the man said, green eyes matching Peter’s own. “Who are you?”
“Peter Pan. Where is Wendy?”
~~~~~
The man was Barry, and he worked with the cops. The police. Peter tried to stick to his story, that he was Peter! But the world was so dark and he felt so little surrounded by adults instead of leading a troupe of children.
So young…
Peter felt like he was suffocating as he felt his connection to Neverland snap and stretch the longer he stayed in the real world. He would have (should have) gone back to Neverland, but he had agreed to Hook’s deal, and he never backed down. No one could find his parents (he didn’t have any), and finally the man (Barry) introduced him (Peter! He was Peter Pan!) to his girlfriend’s brother and brother’s wife. They were willing to adopt him (but he already had a mother, Wendy. Why couldn’t they see that?)
“Hello sweetheart, we’d like to adopt you, if that’s alright.”
“I already have a mother.” He said petulantly.
“We can’t find her. Would you mind staying with us until we do?”
“Do I have to?”
“No. But we’d like you to.”
“You can’t call me Peter. Only Wendy can.”
The woman and her husband looked at each other. “Welcome to the family… Wallace.”
“It’s only until Wendy comes and gets me. Only ‘til than.” He said, but he went with them.
~~~~~
Wendy never came for him.
Chapter Two
Most little boys, as they get older, lose their memories of their childhood. Sometimes it’s because the mother comes in and while tidying up, they hide those memories so children do not dwell on the past, and sometimes and sometimes it was just the plain old forgetfulness of a child, wanting to learn and explore more so past memories were shoved to the side, but however it happened, it never happened to Peter. Instead Peter’s memories of Neverland stayed as bright and crisp and new as they had before.
He just hid them away.
His perfect memories of Neverland were collected and hidden behind a door so that once-Peter and now-Wally would actually grow up. Whatever he actually did remember of Neverland being only the dreams of memories.
But he never did completely forget the bet he had made, and when he was still young, he saw people like Superman and he would think, “Captain Hook was wrong about flying”, but the thought would be gone so fast he wouldn’t be able to grasp it. He did remember about Love, though, and as soon as he was able to, he looked it up.
What he found… Confused him.
According to the book he found, love wasn’t real. Love was just an illusion based on buy-oh-loj-ee-call eem-pul-ses. It was all fake. The Love that Hook and his men talked about was just chemical reactions and his body betraying him.
Science had explained “Love” to him, something that even Captain Hook hadn’t been able to. What else could science explain? Science could explain growing up, family, friendship, what things worked. And the Peter Pan inside the boy devoured the knowledge. It was just the newest kind of game, for him to learn more and more, so that when he went back to Neverland, he would be more grown up and knowledgeable than Hook.
And then he had a brilliant idea.
After all, if science could explain everything; love, lust, flight, the canons Hook used for fighting, machines, ships, why a man could run at super-speed, friendship, everything… Well, maybe it could explain magic as well.
And if magic was really science, did magic really exist…?
In the simple, childish way of Peter Pan, he decided it did not, and because he was stubborn, that was that.
Even fairies could be explained with science rather than magic, and so science became the new magic to Wally, as he learned all he could about everything he could.
~~~~~
Time continued to move on, and Barry later married Aunt Iris, Wally being the ring bearer at their wedding. No one besides the West’s and the (newly bound) Allen’s seemed to realize that Wally wasn’t actually biologically Mary and Rudolph’s son. With Rudolph West and Iris West-Allen, that was alright, since they were the only ones either of them had. But with Mary?
Well, maybe that was alright to, since most of Mary’s family wasn’t actually at the wedding.
Wally was still annoyed, though, when people assumed he was Mary and Rudolph’s son. He wasn’t. He was Wendy’s. But no one believed him when he said that, so he just smiled and nodded.
There were several people at the wedding, though, who look pretty familiar to Wally, so he watched them carefully. One of them was… Oliver Queen? Why was he at the wedding of a small city forensic scientist?
It was as Wally looked over the other guest’s, that he realized It.
Oliver Queen wasn’t at the wedding.
Green Arrow was.
That reporter from Metropolis? He could only be Superman. (The build! And the color of his eyes when he took off his glasses to wipe manly tears away!). Hal Jordan, aka Earth’s Green Lantern was there as well, and the woman with the black hair and silver bracelets (no, wrist bands), could only be Wonder Woman. There were other guests there too, but those were… Well, those were… They had to be…
Or, at least, that’s what it looked like. Maybe the reporter’s eye color was just a coincidence, after all- when he put his glasses on, his eyes were a duller shade. The other guy could just be another military man, with a similar build, hair color, and style preferred by those ex-military. “Wonder Woman” could just be a Wonder Woman fan, who liked the way the bracelet’s fit. It was hard to tell, since the woman’s hair was up, and she was wearing a dress instead of the form-fitting outfit so favored by the Amazonian princess.
And Oliver Queen could just be a guy… Who just so happened to look like Green Arrow… And have the same facial hair- scratch that. Out of everyone, Oliver Queen was Green Arrow, that Wally was sure of.
But, if they were all who Wally thought, why were they at his uncle’s wedding?
Chapter Three
Figuring out why Oliver Queen was at Barry’s wedding was surprisingly easy. Wally had tried to think of a way he could trick the info out of Barry, like the time when he had mimicked Hook’s voice and tricked Smee into releasing Tiger Lily. Instead he asked outright one day, while Barry watched him for his parents. Going out to buy some shelving equipment for the newlyweds new house, Wally dropped his little question.
“Why was Green Arrow at your wedding?”
“You recognized him that easily? Smart kid.”
“Yeah. Why was he at your wedding?”
“I work in forensics with the cops, so I’m friends with the Flash, and he decided to introduce me to Green Arrow, and he’s cool, so he came to my wedding.”
“I didn’t see the Flash there, though…”
“Of course not, he was probably going too fast for you to see him.”
That answer did not really make Wally feel any better, unsettling him for reasons he couldn’t really explain.
“Were there other heroes there?”
“Why would you ask?”
“Well, there was one guy who started crying, and when he took off his glasses, he looked like Superman. And there was a woman who looked like Wonder Woman. It was weird.”
Barry snorted, and there was a moment of weird humming, then “Superman didn’t come to my wedding. Neither did Wonder Woman… That would have been a little too much for a small city forensics guy like me.”
“Right. Can we get ice cream now?” Wally asked, dragging his uncle to the shop. Barry was lying. Wally knew it, knew it so much because pirates lied and pirates were adults so all adults lied. It was a silo-ghism, like in the weird book he had found with the people who died. Why would it say that they died, anyway? Didn’t that ruin the book? And what was the deal with that Hamlet guy anyway, it didn’t make sense…
But, the book had been in his “parent’s” bookshelf, which meant it was forbidden… Which meant Wally had taken it to read as soon as he could. A
nd from what he could tell, silo-ghisms meant he was right about all adults being lying liars who lied. Which meant that Superman and Wonder Woman had been at Barry’s wedding.
“Can I meet the Flash!” He said, all child-like enthusiasm and smiles.
“I don’t see why not.” Barry said, paying for the ice-creams. Both of them got chocolate.
Chapter Four
Several weeks went by before Wally could actually meet the Flash. Barry had taken a vacation, and the League was dealing with an intergalactic threat that was trying to destroy the universe. Or something like that. During that time, Wally quietly turned eleven- but he didn’t really look any older than he had the year before.
Wally finally got to meet the Flash on a Tuesday afternoon that Barry was ~conveniently~ running errands and unavailable. The Flash smiled, and ruffled Wally’s hair affectionately, kneeling down so as to better talk to the boy face to face.
Wally looked at the Flash, at the hero of Central City who had so deigned to visit him. The white lenses of the cowl hid a lot, but despite that all, Wally could still see the Flash’s eyes though the white mesh.
The eyes were green, matching
All adults lied.
Peter grinned up at the liar, and opened his wide. “Hi Flash!” He said, “I’m your biggest fan!”
Over the next two weeks, the Flash met Wally/Peter as often as he could. Barry always had an excuse for those times, something Peter kept track of. There was one niggling question, still, though.
How had Barry gotten his powers? Wally could understand Superman and Wonder Woman and Martian Manhunter being from somewhere else (after all, Peter was, and Peter could fly too), and Batman was, well, Batman but Barry was human, wasn’t he? Human and boring.
“How did you become the Flash?” He asked one day, looking up with wide eyes at the Flash. He had learned this lesson a long time ago; when in doubt, look cute. It always worked against the Flash and Barry when Peter wanted something.
“Can you keep a secret?” the Flash asked, handing Peter a chocolate ice cream bar he had had with him. (Wally hadn’t ever told the Flash that he liked chocolate best. Wally supposed that Barry could have said something, but Peter had just laughed at that).
“Of course!” He said, and he could and would. Forever and always.
“I got hit by lightning.” Peter frowned. From what he had read, that shouldn’t have done anything like that… It was impossible, and he said so petulantly.
“Knew you were a smart kid” the Flash said, ruffling his hair again. “I was at my work, and the lightning hit me and a bunch of chemicals together. Weird, huh?”
“That still doesn’t make any sense” Wally said, while Peter plotted. “what chemicals would do that? It’s not logical.”
“Kid, as you grow up, you need to learn that things aren’t always logical like you want them to be.” The Flash said, but it still didn’t make sense.
“What could do that, though?” Wally asked, frowning in concentration.
“I don’t know, Batman probably does, though. He knows everything.”
“Is he a meta?” Wally asked. This was new information! “Doesn’t he have a sidekick now? Are they a meta too?”
“Nope. He’s just Batman.”
“That still doesn’t make sense.”
“Hate to break it to you kid, but, as a general rule, life doesn’t make sense. The best we can do is live life as it happens, make the best of every situation.”
~~~~~
That night, Peter had a plan.
He was going to be a superhero.
He missed flying, but being able to run really really fast like the Flash would be a new adventure.
That night after bed time Peter carefully made a pillow silhouette of himself on his bed, and slipped out of his window. Closing his eyes, he concentrated, and because he still wasn’t too old that he forgot how to fly without pixie dust, he was up in the air in no time.
Flying was… Just as fun as Peter remembered, if not even better. For a moment Wally was worried that Peter was breaking his bond with Hook, but Peter reminded him that Hook was a liar who said no one flew, and Superman did so Peter could, and it was alright. Flying east towards Gotham was fun, but it was over too quickly. Flying was always over too quickly for Peter who could fly pretty fast when he wanted to.
Landing in Gotham shortly after sunset was an interesting experience. Wally and Peter had both heard stories about the city, and while Peter thought that it sounded like fun, Wally was a little less enthusiastic.
Gotham was all shadows, and Peter’s own shadow longed to join them, pulling away from it’s master. Peter reeled his shadow in, promising that he would soon be allowed to run and play with the master of shadows himself, Batman.
Chapter Five
Ducking into the alleys and darkness was Peter’s only plan for finding Batman without being on the losing side of a fight. (Not that Peter would actually lose, though. He couldn’t.)
There were darker shadows in Gotham, places where the shadows had shadows, and where invisible eyes gleamed at humanity as they walked by. The shadows loved Batman. Batman was the one who chased the humans who did dirtybadwrong human things to Gotham, and those who lived there. They hissed at Peter’s probing questions, why did he need to know about Batman? He was an Outsider, and worse of all (worse like the man from Metropolis), he wasn’t even from Earth except from maybe a long time ago. Maybe.
But they answered the questions, eventually. Peter had a way with words that could get into brains, and convince them to leave their parents, or pixie hollow. It was the same way with words that convinces the Lost Boys to follow him against the pirates again and again (Until Wendy with her soft words and- no- Wendy could never do anything wrong. She was Wendy, perfect always). They told him how the Master of Shadows had a cave where he lived with the bats, and his new ward (who they weren’t sure they approved of yet).
Flying like a bat out of hell, Peter made sure to slow down tremendously on his way to the cavern. The shadows had been very emphatic about that, after a time. Peter had flown right past Batman foiling a bank robbery, but he didn’t think that that really meant anything. He wasn’t even sure what he would do when he got to the cave. Batman surely didn't have the chemical composition of what changed Barry’s life just hanging around the cave. That would have been crazy. (And a guy who dresses up like a bat to fight crime wasn’t?)
Peter made sure to slide carefully through the entrance, fluid like a cat and sticking to the roof. If bats flew in and out every night, there must have been some leniency in the censors.
Peter was hidden at the top of the cave and in a shadow when he heard a clicking noise from below him. At the bottom of the cave was an older man holding a rifle and aiming the barrel uncomfortably close to Peter’s head.
“Master Batman does not approve of visitors” he said in a posh British accent.
“I thought that the Bats didn’t like guns either, but you’ve got one.” Peter said, throwing his voice so it seemed like he had come from the other side of the ceiling. The man took the bait- but just barely. Instead of assuming that Peter really was that far away, he assumed (correctly) that Peter was throwing his voice. He just severly underestimated Peter’s range.
“Master Batman has given me the right to base my choice of offensive systems on my own discretion. And you are whom?”
“Peter Pan, of course!” Peter said, flying silently to a separate part of the ceiling. “I’m the boy who will never grow, the child who will live forever! I’m the son of Neverland, and friend to fairies, mermaids and Indians. I fight the pirates, and the adults, and I need something from you.”
“What is it that you want?” the man said, re-aiming the gun. There was a trigger-pulling motion, and a small dart flew by Peter’s head.
“Hey! That wasn’t very nice!” Peter said in shock.
“Why ever not?”
“I could have fallen!”
“I assure you that I would have caught you. What is it that you want?”
“I want to stuff about what happened to Barry Allen that made him the Flash. What chemicals he used, and how much. I want that information, and I want it now.”
“I’m afraid that I cannot do that.” The man said.
“Why not? Was Barry lying when he said that Batman would have the answers?”
“Yes, he was. Batman does not have this answer.”
“Now you’re lying! I knew that all adults lied, I knew it! Barry says that Batman knows everything, and he’s less of a liar than you!”
There was a movement at the top of the main staircase, and then Robin was looking sleepily at Alfred from the top of the stairs. “Alfred, is everything alright?” He asked, sleepy nine-year-old eyes already widening at the call to adventure.
“Everything is alright.” Alfred said to the child. The gun was nowhere to be seen, and he appeared as though he was merely tidying up the cave. The boy nodded, disappointment etched on his features as he trudged back up to bed. The boy was wearing a mask.
Peter watched him go, a plan forming in his head. The words forming as Robin left the cave were angry, but true. (At least, he saw them as such).
“He should join me in Neverland” he said nonchalantly. “In fact, I think I’m going to go get him now.”
“He would never leave with you.” Alfred said, but Robin was young, still, and in Peter’s experience, all young children had something you could use convince them to do things.
“Even if he thinks it’s just a dream? Even if he doesn’t realize that he shouldn’t? Even if I take him without giving him a choice?” There was a pause, and than the next time he spoke, Peter’s voice had an almost wistful quality about it “It is getting awfully lonely in Neverland…”
“Can you watch him forever?” Peter asked the older man. “Can you lock him up, and make sure that he’ll never be taken? Can you trap him in this house when he’s Batman’s sidekick?
“You don’t think much of me, but I am Peter Pan. I am the one who has collected all the lost boys for years before you were ever born, and will continue to collect them after you are gone.
“You think you can hide Robin from me, don’t you? That you can protect him from me? But what is the price going to be? One way lasts years, and costs more and more every day. The other is just giving me the information I want.
“Why do you have to be so stupid?”
“Do you think that I’m kidding? That this is a joke? It’s not, I’m serious. What would happen to your Batman if his ward suddenly vanished, huh? If Batman didn’t find him for years, and by than, Robin doesn’t remember anything, but will fight tooth and nail to stay away?
“What would Batman do if Robin just vanished, and Batman never saw him again?”
“Master Batman would find him again.” That was a surety, Batman wouldn’t rest until he found Robin. Couldn’t rest.
“Maybe. Maybe not.” Peter said mockingly. “Is it worth it?”
And it wasn’t.
Even if there was a 99% chance that Peter wouldn’t be able to take Master Richard, or that Master Bruce would be able to get him back if he did, there would still be that 1% chance.
And than 1% chance was inexcusable.
Alfred had watched Bruce Wayne from the day of his birth to Martha and Thomas Wayne, up until his death in the alleyway with his parents. He had watched the dead man try and live vicariously through being Batman, tried to watch Bruce for a regeneration, a rebirth with Batman, and failing. He had seen the Batman had really become reborn when Master Richard had entered the picture. It was in the small things, the way that Master Bruce lightened up around the young boy, the way he smiled when he thought no one could see. His actions, the way he tried his hardest to protect the boy from what he truly though would harm him, though still exposing the boy to more than what people normally would have thought possible.
It was- they were a family, and if that was broken in any way, Alfred feared that Master Bruce himself would break.
After all, he was only human. And human’s were fragile and strong things.
“You just want the print outs, nothing more, correct?” He said, back ramrod straight still.
“Yep. And you can put them outside of the cave. Any attempt to make this into a trap, and I take Robin.”
“How will you know?”
“I have eyes and ears everywhere. Don’t you know that the stories say I have a fairy named Tinkerbell with me? It’s like you don’t know anything.” Peter had, of course, conveniently forgotten that Tink wasn’t actually with him at that moment, but Alred didn’t know that.
“And if I said that I did not believe?”
“It wouldn’t just be me looking to take Robin away. The fae can be harsh, and murdering one of theirs out of malice is a grave offence. Besides, you can’t aim your words. Stupid. You’d be a murderer of an innocent. What would Batman or Robin say to that?”
With that ominous proclamation, Alfred gravely went to the computers and started printed sheets and sheets of paper out. After all were printed, he and Peter carefully left the cave, Alfred placing the papers on the ground and walking back inside still with an air of gravity that Peter vowed to master someday.
Grabbing the papers, Peter went back home to revel in his victory.
And get some sleep.
After all, he was a growing boy.
Chapter Six
The next day Wally took the papers, and copied all the useful information into a small (Flash) notebook his uncle had given him for his birthday. The names of the chemicals were easy, he just copied them into the notebook. Granted, some of the equations were a little trickier, trying to work out how much of everything Wally would need to do the experiment at his size compared to his uncle’s, and he didn’t understand all of the terms used in the notes, but he’d make do.
Everything copied into his notebook, Wally went to call his Uncle and see if Wally could visit the forensics lab after school that day.
~~~~~
That day after school, Barry Allen met Wally and Peter at the ice cream shop after school was out.
“I thought you weren’t interested in my job, Wally.” Barry said, twirling the cherry from the top of his sundae idly around in his hand.
“Yeah, well, I was watching CSI and I realized that that’s what you do, and it looked cool. So.”
“Geez kid, how old are you?”
“Old enough to watch CSI. And I’m not your kid. Ever.”
“Fine, fine. You grow up so fast, though.”
“So, could I come to your work?”
“Sure, why not. You know that they’re not really like on TV, though. Right?”
“I’m not stupid.”
“Didn’t say you were” Barry said, and he reached over and ruffled Wally’s hair with a grin. “Never said you were, and I doubt I ever will.”
~~~~~
Meanwhile Alfred quietly kept on eye on the surveillance cameras Batman had installed around Central City. After all, if the child (Peter) had had enough contact with Master Barry that he was sending the kid to the Batcave, chances were that the kid lived in Central- the Flash’s home base.
So Alfred watched as Barry West played loving uncle to his nephew, and he waited.
With Master Bruce off playing Batman all the time, it was something he had gotten quite used to.
~~~~~
Wally was genuinely excited to see the inside of the crime lab, while Peter was just bored. Working in the crime lab was stuff for grown-ups and boring.
Green eyes open wide at everything, Peter watched carefully for the spy-eyes, and the noise-traps that pervaded the world. They would be impossible to get through, probably, even for Peter.
Unless he had help. And a distraction.
So instead, Wally decided to focus on listening to Barry talk about his job. It was actually kind of… Cool.
~~~~~
The distraction came by way of a rogue attack after an anonymous tipster had left a note at Harry’s bar about several hundred’s of thousands of dollars in unmarked bills confiscated from a drug-runner, all with mixed serials, (so no tracking) ending up at the forensics lab.
It was too good to be true.
But it actually, really wasn’t. (Granted, the money had come from a normally Gotham-dealing drug-runner, but he had just woken up one day, money gone and in Central as though it had grown wings and flown away).
The recon done by Mirror Master testified to that, as he, Captain Cold, and Captain Boomerang decided to try and work together on that heist- with so much at stake, there was too much to go wrong with just one man.
Besides, the Rogues? They had a code about those sorts of things.
When the rogue’s decided to (finally) go after the cash, Peter was there, waiting. When they disabled the alarm system and the cameras, Peter slipped in a window. While they searched for the cash, Peter found the chemicals he needed, and put them in a back-pack he had stashed on the roof. And, when he was done, he ran.
~~~~~
Setting up the lab equipment was tricky as neither Peter nor Wally had ever really tried to do anything of the sort before. Plus there was the lightning factor. Wally did not want to wait for a random lightning storm just “happen”, so he did what any young deviant needing lightning would do.
One of the bags of cash that had mysteriously vanished from Gotham had not ended up in the forensics lab. Instead Wally had hidden it at the top of a tree where no one would find it.
Weather Wizard received a note for him at the bar the next day. It read:
“Dear Weather Wizard.
If there is a lot of lightning at Central Field all tomorrow, I will pay you.”
Harry had another envelope, and he slid it to Mark. Inside was a $100 bill, plus a promise to have more where that came from.
“I got twice just to make sure you got this. It’s legit” Harry said. And Mark, who was pissed at not being invited to the Forensics Lab Heist, decided to take the job.
~~~~~
The weather at Central Field was abysmal as Peter deciphered the notes he had taken, and carefully measured and mixed the chemicals he had stolen. Than came the hard part. Waiting.
Lightning crackled in the air around him, but not a single bolt came close enough until- there! The lightning surged through the liquids, and Wally was hit and everything grew fuzzy….
~~~~~
Flash (Barry) was standing over him, and his voice sounded far away, so whatever he was saying got lost in the wind. Barry kept yelling, but Wally wanted to sleep.
The world went black, as the last thing Wally remembered was Barry holding him tight, and running like his life depended on it.
Chapter Seven
All Peter and Wally could see was black.
“Holy shit kid, what the hell were you thinking?”
‘I’m not your kid’
“That was the stupidest thing you’ve ever done!”
‘I’m not stupid!’
“Just don't die on me, okay? Promise me you won’t die.”
‘Why are you so scared? I’m not. Death’s just the next great adventure.’
Hooked up to the hospital equipment, Wally could hear Barry’s pacing, and they way he, and everyone sounded… Worried? About him? And the worry felt real in a way nothing had before. Not even Peter’s Wendy.
That was when Wally decided that he and Peter had to have A Talk.
It was actually rather easy given that both were trapped in the unconscious physical shell that made up their body. Wally knew where he would find Peter, it was where Peter always went when he was bored, the Neverspace in their brain. Finding the door open, Wally sighed, and stepped through.
Neverland in his memories was as strong and vibrant as ever and always. The trees were just as green, the sky just as blue, and the rainbow just as vibrant. Peter was somewhere in the trees playing flute leading the memories of the Lost Boys on
“What are you doing here?” He asked, and he had a good reason for questioning. Wally didn’t like the Neverspace. Neverland was too full of things that didn’t fit in the definition of sciences that he and Peter had decided on long ago.
“We need to talk before we wake up.” Wally said, shutting the door behind him. With a soft “swoosh” (because all cool doors made “swooshing” sounds), the doorway melted away, and Neverland was all around them.
“What about? Are you going to stay here with me for a little? We could go fight the pirates! Or look or buried treasure! Or we could—”
“No. That’s not why I’m here.” Peter deflated, before sighing and sitting in midair. “What do you want?”
“I think…” And here was the hardest thing to say, “I think that you should stay in here when we—when I—wake up.”
“No.” Peter said, crossing his arms over his chest.
“Why not?” Wally asked, sounding genuinely puzzled about it.
“Because it’s boring here.” For a moment the world seemed to dim and fade into shades of gray, but it grew bright again as Peter was distracted by a passing Never-bird.
“How could it be boring? You have the whole world at your fingertips, with anything you want. But I—we need to grow up to win Captain Hook’s bet, and I can’t with you always there!” Wally wanted, no needed to grow up, but having Peter around was making it harder. Wally had seen it as everytime he’d try to grow up some Peter would shove in and take over… Like stealing the books for their parents' shelves.
“I don’t want to, and you can’t make me do anything I don’t want to. Besides, you’re forgetting that you are me, we can’t separate!” Peter had flown in close to Wally’s face, and the two of them looked eye to eye, mirror images of the other.
“You’re wrong!” Wally cried out, fists forming at his sides. “I’m not you, you’re not me! And I want to grow up! I want to learn about science, and driving, and growing up! But you’re always there, like this stupid plan of yours to try and make us like the Flash! Like Uncle Barry…”
“So it’s ‘Uncle’ Barry to you then, huh?” Peter said, crowding in on Wally even more. “What about all adults being liars? What about all adults being like Captain Hook, huh?”
“Uncle Barry is nothing like Captain Hook, and neither are a lot of the adults who are here! This is why you need to go away!” Wally realized that he was shaking and tried to calm down. Adults were calm, kids got irrationally angry. He just needed to calm down.
“I’m not going to stay here, and that’s final!” Peter yelled, shoving Wally to the ground. Desperately Wally looked around at the Neverspace, and at the storm clouds rapidly growing in the sky as Peter continued. “Get the door back now, we’re leaving!”
“What about… What about the treasure hunt you were going to have with the Lost Boys? To find the missing treasure of… Of… Of… Sir Francis Drake? And of Captain Kidd?” Wally asked, hoping that it would work. The sun started to shine again as Peter’s own imagination began to change the Neverspace. In an instant, Toodles was at Peter’s side, trying to drag him away, and chattering excitedly about the map they had found. It was only a dream, based on a memory, but that didn’t make fake.
With a glad sigh, Wally tried to imagine a door in the Neverspace. His imagination wasn’t as good as Peter’s, Wally having relied on Peter for most of his life to do all the imagining for him, but it was decent, and soon there was a door there for Wally to step through.
As soon as Wally stepped through the door, and the door was shut, the memories of Neverland faded like old photographs. Before, Wally had had Peter there to remind him of Neverland, even when he didn’t want to be, but with both Peter and Neverland hidden behind the door… There was no reason for Wally to remember.
~~~~~
Wally woke up to a steady beeping, and Uncle Barry in a chair next to his bed. As he realized that, the beeping began to increase, and Uncle Barry woke up, alarmed.
“Kid- kid- slow down, it’s okay, I’ve got you, you’re here and you’re safe. Shhh….” As Wally calmed down, Uncle Barry smiled crookedly. “You’ve given us all a real good scare. Stupid kid. I was… I was really worried about you, so were your parents, and your Aunt. What the hell were you thinking?”
“Where’s my parents?” Wally asked, ignoring the question. To be honest, he wasn’t really even sure what he had been thinking, and the memories were all shades of fuzzy.
“We’re at one of the Justice League’s secret posts, it’s one of the only places with a hospital set up for a speedster, so they couldn’t come. At least, not until Batman has finished running another background check. Don’t worry, they’ll be here as soon as possible.”
“Batman’s running a background check on them when I'm in the hospital? He sounds mean…”
“Trust me kid, he used to be worse. A lot worse.”
That was when a major point in Uncle Barry’s speech leapt up (metaphorically speaking), and smack Wally across the face.
“I’m a… Speedster?” He asked, shocked.
“Yep. Congratulations, kiddo. I don’t know what you were thinking, but that’s what happened.”
“I don’t know either… Does this mean I can be your sidekick, like Robin is to Batman?”
“We’ll talk about it when you’re out of the hospital, but for now let’s get you some food, and more rest, okay kid?”
“That would be *yawn* nice, *yawn* but I think the *yawn* food should wait… I’m sleepy.”
“’kay kid, but you’re gonna be really hungry when you wake up, I promise you that.”
“I think I wanna be Kid Flash if I'm you're sidekick, okay...?” Wally asked as he drifted off to sleep again.
After Wally became Kid Flash, things were pretty much normal. Granted, things were not actually normal- after all, he was a speedster, and he was the Flash’s sidekick, but other than those tiny details… Life was normal. Get up, go to school, fight the bad guys, meet other sidekicks, normal.
Especially after he had a chance to meet Robin and Roy. Robin was a little bit younger than him, but he was so cool, and he was Batman’s sidekick! (He wondered why part of him shuddered a little when he thought about that, having no memory of Peter’s expedition to the Batcave after Peter had been sealed away). Even Alfred was cool! Even though he had this habit of search Wally’s face for something whenever he met.
Whatever he was looking for, he never found it, and eventually Wally was a welcome at the Batcave o have cookies with Robin.
And Roy! Roy was like, the coolest big brother ever. He was really gruff, but he was cool with the younger kids hanging out with him, and he shot with a bow and arrow (something that should have seemed vaguely familiar to Wally, but he had literally no memory of such things).
Of course, when Kaldur showed up, he was also really cool, but by then Wally had grown out of the ‘hopelessly fanboying’ stage of his life, and Kaldur didn’t get to know what it was like to have a fanboy.
Life was… Actually really freaking normal. Like, almost boring normal. Even when Kaldur, Robin and Wally had broken into Cadmus labs… It had been normal.
The first time the door started to reopen was when Miss Martian had tried to talk with the team (such as it was) mind to mind. Her mental voice brushing against his mental space brushed by the door and reminded Wally that it was there- though just barely. He forgot about it soon enough, but the knowledge of its existence was enough to bring him the memory of memories as though seeing the reflection of an image through a stained glass window.
He was even able to say his irrational hatred of the blonde archer as normal, given that she had replaced Roy, ignoring the part of his brain that didn’t like the blonde hair she had, as it reminded him of another (another what? He couldn’t remember) who had had blonde hair, and had tried to hurt someone he had cared for. (Hadn’t he? Something about a kiss, and a button, but it was all lost now.)
Working with the team was cool, and part of seemed familiar, like he had done it before.
It was… Nice. He just wished that the others would stop with their blathering about magic. He wasn’t sure why he was so sure magic didn’t exist, but he was. And then they had to go and save Kent Nelson. Part of him knew that there was enough empirical evidence to prove that magic existed, but he literally could not make himself believe it was real. Even as Doctor Fate was using his body, and Kent Nelson was talking with him, he couldn’t connect the bit of his brain that talked about magic, and the bit that believed in things.
Afterwards it was just so easy to lie to himself, and to say that magic wasn’t real. Easier than trying to figure out why he didn’t (couldn’t) believe, at any rate.
He tried to forget, to focus on other things.
And forget he did! Six months of forgetting, in fact. Enough time to forget the brush of the memory of the memory of blonde and the feeling that came when everyone was together.
And Artemis wasn’t that bad, right?
Getting his memories back, though… Oh…
(There was a door in his mind, and it was swinging open now, as M’gann ran through his brain and tried to make him remember. He didn’t remember what was behind the door, but it was no longer hiding. It was no longer locked. It was no longer closed.)
But the door needed stimuli to entice Wally back.
Too many things happened in the next month. Too many horrible wonderful frightening things happened. Red Tornado and a mole, and Zatanna and everything.
And then the goddamn training simulation. Everyone was dying, and he didn’t care.
At first it was sad, but they decided to try and put it all behind them. After all, Halloween was coming up, and it was time for a party. For anything to forget about the way everyone had died, to forget about the end of the team.
To forget that there was a door in his brain that was opened wide, just waiting. Waiting for something in the real world to convince Peter to come out of the Neverspace. Waiting for Peter to realize that there was a door, and there was a whole new world for him to explore.
Waiting.
![[identity profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/openid.png){kind=small}
(no subject)
Date: 2011-05-30 02:44 am (UTC)But anyways, I reallyreallyreally love this, and that's not just because I have a ginormous love of all things Peter Pan.
(no subject)
Date: 2011-05-30 03:07 am (UTC)Hello friend~ <3
I'm glad you're enjoying it! I finally decided to try and compile my fics here... And now I can't remember what all I've done, so this was the first one. <3