ic contact

[asterbatics]

 

"Your call has been forwarded to an automatic message system.
ROBIN is currently unavailable.
Please leave your message after the beep—"

BEEP!

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video.

[asterbatics]

[ it hurts, because rob sees kf's face and wants to be happy. it hurts, because he sees his face and thinks thank god and okay good and things will get better before he really, really looks. he thinks all of this, all at once, right up until the point his eyes connect with his head and suddenly it all just hurts. because kf? kf isn't doing too hot - that much is easy enough to read. there is a scared, hollow look to him that rob hasn't seen in a long time, hasn't seen in months, and it curls hot and dark in his gut.

where, where he needs a place, needs a direction, needs to already be there and make this better because kf is back and looking like he's come back from dying, from something worse. rob's head is reeling with everything that could have happened, everything that he once again failed to protect his team from, but he pushes it all away. another time, he'll worry about it later. later, once he's figure out what is wrong. later, once he's made this better.

because kf, ten months or no, is still is best friend.

outside block five and robin is on the move, no more than ten minutes away as he flies between buildings, nearly trips as he comes sliding to the ground. ] Stay. There. [ and then he cuts the feed, running faster than he has in a long time, legs and chest screaming at him for the exertion. but he doesn't care, he can't care, because a few minutes later he turns the corner and is outside block five, eyes wide as he looks around for the yellow, the flsh of red. ]

Kf?! [ he tries to hold back the slight panic, masks it by the volume of his voice. he needs to find him first, figure out the rest later. wally first. wally first. ]

action.

[chemistryinmotion]

[ wally slumps against the wall of block five after rob cuts the feed, more emotionally exhausted than physically, but it's still a bit of both. the last thing he remembers is going all in, risking it all on one last mission — emphasis on last. rob knew it from the beginning, but of course wally had been ever the optimist and for what? he'd just been deluding himself into thinking they could actually make a difference against an enemy that literally vaporized everyone he ever knew and ever loved. they couldn't win, and rob knew that. ]

[ he thinks he actually understands what the borg meant when they said resistance is futile. but even if they hadn't resisted, they would have ended up just like artemis, just like kaldur and conner and everyone else — just as dead and gone. instead, they went out in a blaze of glory, knowing damn well they weren't going to make it out alive — and that's all wally can see behind his eyelids. it's all he can feel every time he lets his mind wander, the heat searing his skin from his bones, every cell in his body on fire. ]

[ but he sees rob, too, can feel the warmth of his hand clasped around his own, the last lifeline in a cloud of smoke and flame, and it's enough. it's all he's ever really needed; in his final moments, there isn't anything else he'd rather have but rob right next to him, hands gripped tight so they don't lose each other when there's nothing left but emptiness and whatever lies beyond. wally knows haven isn't the afterlife, but it's after his life now, even though part of him still questions how he can be dead and still have a future with the rest of the team. it doesn't make sense; there was no possible way they would have ever made it out of that mothership alive. even with an infinite number of alternate timelines, wally's fairly sure that would've been the only possible outcome. ]

[ it's rob's voice that jolts him out of his thoughts and he's on his feet faster than a speeding bullet. (okay, probably not actually that fast, but the point remains.) it's instinct, calling out rob's name, there's no second thought or even really a first thought, it's just a reflex to hearing his own name, the way rob sounds panicked — and, if wally's being honest, he's a little panicked, too. ] Rob! [ he even doesn't care that his voice cracks, because rob is close, so close, and he doesn't even have to speed to get to him, he just breaks out into a normal run and barrels into his best friend, arms wrapped tight around rob's shoulders. he sniffs in an attempt to hold back his tears, but it's a futile effort. his voice sounds choked when he finally manages a few words while attempting to laugh at how pathetic he's being. ] Hey, dude.