Thunderbird (Birdflash soulmate AU; hanahaki)

Bloom

Dick woke up to the med bay area of the Batcave. The room wasn't as stark and suffocating as a hospital and wasn't as big as the medbays in the watchtower or the mountain. He found an array of people around his bed. Tim and Damian were sitting in a corner of the room. Jason was reading a book in a chair next to Dick's bed. And a ball of red hair was buried into the sheets next to Dick's hand.

Jason noticed him first.

"You're awake! Fucking hell, Dick, we thought we lost you. You were barely breathing. You didn't tell us it was so bad."

"I didn't want you to worry, I guess," Dick tried to shrug but winced in pain instead. "Turns out I'm worse at taking care of myself than I thought."

Dick's eyes fell back onto the head of red hair whose own hand was also clinging to his arm. "Jason, did you guys tell-"

"We wanted to. We almost did. But...no. He doesn't know."

Dick let out a breath. "Thanks, that means a lot to me."

Then Damian and Tim stirred and Dick regretted not taking a picture when the two were snuggled together like actual brothers. But the two rushed forward to Dick, with Tim tripping over Wally in the process.

Damian began scolding Dick in his own way of showing that Dick had scared and worried him while Tim checked all of Dick's vitals and informed Batman that his son was awake again. Wally stirred as well.

It took a second or two for Wally to fully wake up and look at Dick's pale face with a small frown. "Why didn't you tell me you had hanahaki? I could've helped you."

Dick involuntarily let out a bitter snort before softening and saying, "I didn't want to worry you. And no, you really couldn't have helped. Plus, I didn't want to bother you and Artemis."

"Dude, those have nothing to do with each other," Wally protested. Everyone in the room gave Wally a look that the redhead didn't understand. "What?"

Bruce then stalked into the room shot a quick glare at Wally, who quickly began withering under the gaze of four batglares and one blank stare from his bedridden best friend.

"Everyone out, I'm going to speak to Dick privately."

Everyone shuffled out.

"Why are you all angry at me?" Wally asked defensively when Dick's brothers all continued to give him minatory glares.

"Really? Why are we angry at you? Are you fucking kidding me?" Jason growled, jabbing a thumb at Wally. Damian turned on his heel and stalked away, clearly leaving the Wally scolding to Jason and Tim.

"You're his best friend, Wally, but you left him for your girlfriend when everything hit the fan. You were so invested in your happy little life that you never noticed Dick was dying until it's nearly too late," Tim said calmly, in a form of cold fury. Wally shrunk in on himself.

"I mean have you seen him? He's barely getting enough sleep, he's barely got time to socialize. For fuck's sake, he had a shitting Kid Flash plush he keeps in his room 'cause you're not there!"

Wally swallowed. "How long?"

"Excuse me?"

"How long has he had hanahaki?" How long have I been a terrible friend?

"We don't know, ask Dick." Then Tim grabbed Jason's arm and dragged the older boy away, leaving Wally to his thoughts.

Dick was always there for him, opening his door for whenever Artemis and he had an argument. Dick rarely unloaded his troubles onto Wally. And Wally, suddenly realizing how ungrateful he'd been, just took and took and took and never gave back. And despite everything, Dick greeted him with smiles and hugs. Dick always knew what to say, always had his back, never complained when Wally dropped by unannounced or ate all his food. Then Wally would waltz away after getting what he wanted and never stay to check how Dick was holding up. It really hit how shitty of a friend he'd been the past few years. How selfish Wally had gotten with their friendship.