Title: On the Right Track, Baby
Fandom: Justice League Cartoon
Rating: PG
Length: 600
Content notes: None
Author notes: Set after "Starcrossed". Meant to be Shayera/Wally, but can be read as gen.
Summary: Shayera is no longer really sure what she is. Luckily Wally is around to help.



“But what am I now?” She sighs one lunchtime. Food left half uneaten on her plate, arms crossed protectively over her stomach like that’s going to reverse time and make everything the much missed way it used to be, “I’m not a Thanagarian soldier, haven’t been for years. I’m not a proper member of the Justice League, no matter what you all say. I’m not really a hero, I’m probably not a villain. So… What? What am I?”

Wally gulps down a mouthful roughly the size of his head, stares at her with wide eyes. She loves those eyes, and only realized after she left. They’re so hopeful, so bright and optimistic and brave, that the world is a little brighter for their very presence, “you are a proper member of the Justice League, and a hero.”

“Wally-“

“No matter what you say,” Wally sniffs stubbornly, and keeps his eyes trained on her. Heh, it’s like he almost knows the effect they have, “you’ve made mistakes, sure, but that doesn’t take away all the good things about you. Nothing can do that.”

She suspects, looking into Wally’s eyes, that most people feel the same way under the weight of Wally’s optimism. Clark, John, Diana… Heck, even Bruce seems a little affected sometimes. You start wanting to be a better person, when Wally is around. You start thinking that maybe the darkness, the endless blood and pain, isn’t the way to go about things after all.

But she doesn’t say that, because that would be deliberately causing a distraction and she’s trying to be braver now. She only grits her teeth, firmly. Raises her shoulders and lets out a firm breath, “nothing?”

“Nope,” Wally, bless him, looks a little cowed but doesn’t back down. That’s the thing they could all learn, from Wally. No matter how scared he is, how embarrassed and awkward he’s made to feel, he doesn’t ever close himself off, “Nothing. Hey, even Bats has made mistakes! It’s part of being human- er, well, I mean alive. If we all lost everything that made us special every time we made a mistake, we’d be little better than zombies.”

“Hm,” she says. And chooses not to comment on the zombies, or the fact that Bruce probably has a hideously disapproving expression upon his face right now from where he’s doubtlessly listening in, “what am I then, Wally? What can I possibly be after betraying my friends, my people and everything I thought I knew about myself? What-?”

“Who,” Wally corrects her, and reaches across the table. Takes her hand between his, and squeezes until the pent up anxiety comes out of her in a rush of stinging air, “and you’re you, Shayera. You have red hair, and wings, and carry a mace around everywhere. You’re angry, and stubborn, and so down on yourself sometimes that it’s a miracle you don’t start burrowing your way through the earth. And… You’re smart. And funny, and brave, and kind, and always do the right thing in the end. You’re wonderful. And, honestly, you’re one of the best people that I know.”

She stares at him across the table for a long few seconds. Silent, blinking away an odd wetness in her eyes.

“…Shayera-?”

“Thank you, Wally,” she says, quietly, and turns her hands in his. Squeezes in return, trying to convey how grateful she is without the risk of the words freezing on her tongue, “thank you. If- if it helps, I think you’re pretty wonderful yourself.”

“Well, yeah,” Wally snorts, but holds on just the same.