The air rushed past him as if he were cutting through it with his body, and the sound of it made it hard to hear anything except the pounding of his feet against the pavement and his own ragged breathing. The whole surrounding area was empty, and he had nothing to lose. He just needed a little burst of freedom to clear his mind, and that moment was as good a chance as any.     Sometime between one foot fall and another, the runner came to a skidding stop. Panting, his eyes widened in realization.                                    'I...I think I understand...'     He thought of his best friend; the one person in the world that he really knew, but had lately found himself very unsure of. All of their actions around one another had felt very...carefully measured. Everything he thought he knew with all the certainty in the world suddenly felt like the biggest mystery, and he hadn't been able to put his finger on why.                                         'I have to see him.'     His best friend's house was far, but he didn't have time to comprehend the idea of transportation before he broke into a dead run once again. Why ask for a ride or take the bus at all when you can just run? Pure exhilaration and freedom, and time to clear your mind. He really, truly understood, and it was time to make everything right. The runner couldn't worry about how what he had to say would be received. He just knew he needed to say it.       'I thought I understood everything about him, but I was dead wrong. There was   something I never understood. And now that I get it...this rush, this            head-clearing ecstasy. And beyond that...it makes me feel close to him. I never understood why he ran. Until now.'     The runner suddenly found himself stopped in front of a door. He mustered up just enough strength to weakly ring the doorbell. By the time the one person he wanted to see opened the door and stepped forward, he had already hit the ground.     Dick coughed and sputtered, taking in large gulps of air. He felt like his lungs were going to explode, and his body was on fire. His usually pale face was red, his brilliant blue eyes showing just a little over the top of his dark sunglasses.     "Rob?! ROB!" Wally bent down beside his friend, concerned. "What...why...how?! What are you doing here? ....DID YOU RUN?"     Dick nodded, gulping down some more air, trying to douse the fire that was ripping through his body. "It clears your head, right? When you do it things start to make sense, and you feel free. When you run...you feel the aster. Right?"     Wally scoffed, "Yeah, but so what?! You running that far is a death sentence, Rob. Not trying to diss you or anything but...you can't run nearly as fast or as far as I can. Why would you even try that?!"     "Because I needed to understand. You're just about the most derstandable person in the world to me lately, and I need to understand everything about you before I can say-" He began coughing again, almost wretching. Agonizing pain attacked him in several forms and wracked his thin, muscular body. Despite that pain, he was on a mission.     "C'mon Rob, let's get you inside, we can talk about this later. Let's get you some wa-"                                            "I love you"