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It started like this: one moment they were crouching in the bushes waiting for Aqualad’s “all clear” the next minute Artemis had Kid Flash’s tongue down her throat.
To be fair, she probably shouldn’t say it like that because that made it sounds like it was something horrible that she wasn’t enjoying when truthfully she was feeling pretty freaking good. Which was weird in itself when she thought about it, because on her list of things that Kid Flash did well (1. Being fast, 2. Eating, 3. ??) kissing was not something Artemis expected him to excel at. It wasn’t something she thought about at all before this.
(Okay, okay, maybe a little. A little!)
But back to the bushes:
They were waiting for Aqualad to give them the signal. The mission Batman sent them on was simple: find and monitor the home base of Johnny Sorrow. Surveillance only. Batman had been very clear on that point, the League would take care of the rest, blah, blah, Artemis usually just left the details to Robin and Kaldur.
“How much longer, do you think?” Kid Flash asked around a mouthful of banana.
Artemis briefly boggled over where he even kept all his snacks, but that was something she had given up on a long time ago.
She shrugged and tried to make out movement, but there was still no sign of anything or anyone. She would never admit it to Wally, but she was starting to get a little bored herself.
“I’m bored,” Wally whined.
“Be quiet,” Artemis said. She could see Wally rolling his eyes even through his goggles and the darkness. “You’ll get us caught.”
He shoved the rest of the banana into his mouth and tossed the peel over his shoulder, before turning his gaze back to the horizon they were watching. She saw him flick his goggles turning on the night vision.
They were quiet.
“I wouldn’t get us caught,” he mumbled under his breath after a moment, and Artemis knew he wasn’t even really talking talking to her, just sulking. Still, she couldn’t let the comment slide, even though she knew she should.
“You would,” she said. “You don’t know the definition of discrete. Your uniform is bright yellow for crying out loud.”
“Um, it’s camouflage,” he said jabbing his chest. It immediately changed to bright yellow, and Artemis cringed. They stood out like a sore thumb, like a bull’s eye.
“Wally,” she hissed.
He made an ‘oh shit’ face and quickly switched back to stealth mode. “Oops?”
She groaned. “That’s exactly what I’m talking about. You’re so careless and obvious, it’s ridiculous.”
“Your face is ridiculous.”
“Good one,” she said.
“Well look at your hair.”
“My hair?”
“It’s just as bright as my yellow outfit, and I don’t see you covering it up.”
“You want me to cover my hair?” That was going a bit too far, even for Wally. She loved her hair. It was great hair.
“I’m just saying, if you were as concerned with camouflage as you say you are then you’d do something about that target on the top of your head.”
Artemis sputtered. “That’s absurd,” she said. “I’m not going to cover my hair, just because you’re jealous that you can’t wear your yellow duds.”
“It’s not about that!” he said.
She turned, finally looking away from the horizon. “What is it about?” she asked.
Now it was his turn to be a loss for words. “It’s about--it’s your--you--”
Finally he threw up his hands in frustration, and she smirked at him arms folded across her chest. She opened her mouth to say something, not sure herself what exactly, but before she could, he was reaching out impossibly fast even without his powers. One hand landed on her elbow, drawing her to him, the other circled around behind her back, and the next thing she knew his mouth was sealed to hers.
Without meaning to, she let out a tiny gasp. His lips moved against hers, and his arms slid around her back pulling him flush against his body. It was a nice body, she privately allowed herself to acknowledge, her hands wandering up and over his shoulders and back. There was one thing she could say in favour of his uniform: it left very little to the imagination.
He let out a small groan in the back of his throat, and she had to admit it was kind of the hottest thing she had ever heard. Not that she’d ever admit that to Wally. Or anyone else. Not even on pain of death. But then his hands were sliding up her back, and his tongue traced along her bottom lip, and she honest to god felt her knees get a little weak.
Artemis! Kid Flash! Aqualad’s voice sounded loud in her head, and the two of them immediately sprung apart. She had to remind herself that he wasn’t here. He couldn’t see them.
Yes? she asked.
We have to move. Now! Robin’s been spotted. Meet at the Bioship.
You got it, boss. Even in her head Wally sounded like a cocky bastard.
He grinned at her, and she would swear she saw a hint of shyness on his usually confident face. “Sorry about this,” he whispered in her ear.
Before she had the chance to ask, sorry about what? he had an arm tucked under her knees and another around her shoulders and the two of them were moving fast.
The night air whizzed by them and she told herself that was why her heart was pounding.
(That should have been the end.)
two.
The next night the entire team was spending time at Mount Justice. Batman said some team building would be good for them, but he said it with a snarl so Artemis was pretty sure someone else (Black Canary most likely, but possibly Green Arrow) had forced the idea on him.
It wasn’t like it was a hardship, spending time with her team. Robin brought over a bunch of game consoles, and even she had to admit their headquarters had a pretty sweet entertainment centre. (“Don’t tell Batman we used these screens to play video games,” Robin said. “He would not approve.”)
M’gann cooked for them, and it wasn’t even burnt. She was getting a lot better, and Artemis told her so. M’gann smiled at her, and clutched Artemis’ hand gratefully. Superboy hovered anxiously in the background, and Artemis felt it click in her mind. So that’s what it’s like, she thought. It’s like that.
She tried very hard to squash down her jealousy. It wasn’t even so much that Artemis wanted to date Superboy--boy was fine and all but boy did he come with baggage, so it wasn’t that she wanted him for herself, she got over that pretty quick when it became clear what was going on between him and M’gann, but she wanted.
She wanted something.
Superboy hovered at M’gann’s elbow, and Artemis slipped quietly back into the kitchen out of sight.
The door closed behind her, she took a deep breath and counted to ten. When she opened her eyes Wally was bent over the fridge rummaging through it, as if they hadn’t just eaten.
“Don’t tell me you’re hungry again,” she said.
Wally startled at the sound of her voice, and banged his head against the door.
“Owww,” he said, and she rolled her eyes. He rubbed the back of his head with his hand. He was holding an apple and some cheese strings in his other hand.
“You are eating,” she said, walking across the kitchen, and hopping up on the counter next to him her feet dangling down between them. She kicked them back and forth absently.
He shrugged around a mouthful of apple. “I’m always hungry.” He said it with such a straightforward simplicity Artemis knew he wasn’t exaggerating.
“Fast metabolism, huh?” she asked and grabbed one of his cheese strings.
He nodded, and only looked slightly peeved at her stealing his snack. He probably would have been more annoyed had they not been standing two feet away from the fridge.
“What’s your excuse?” he asked when she started to nibble on the food.
“Just something to do,” she said.
“Excuse you,” he said. “Food is never just something to do. It’s serious business.”
She rolled her eyes and turned her concentration back to her snack. By the time she had finished Wally had consumed two apples, three cheese strings, and entire sleeve of oreos. She was actually kind of impressed.
“What?” he asked when he caught her staring at him.
“Nothing,” she said.
“I have to eat a lot,” he said defensively.
“I didn’t say anything.”
“You had a look.”
“I did not have a look, Wally, god.”
He eyed her suspiciously. “You had a look. A judging look.”
She threw up her hands. “Whatever.”
His fingers twitched and Artemis just knew he wanted to go back into the fridge but probably wouldn’t while she was standing there. The two of them sat in silence like this was the world’s most ridiculous showdown until she finally hopped off the counter and went into the fridge herself, tossing him another apple and some pudding cups.
He took three bites of his apple and ripped off the lid of the pudding cup. Artemis watched him, fascinated.
“It must cost your mom a fortune to keep you properly fed,” she marvelled, and grabbed some pudding for herself. She wasn’t actually hungry, but it was pudding, and the good kind her mom would never buy--could never afford to buy--so she wasn’t going to turn it down. She hopped back up on the counter.
He actually looked a little bit guilty at that, and Artemis felt a little bad that she had maybe struck a nerve. He didn’t say anything though, which was a little weird for Wally.
Okay, a lot weird.
Finally he finished his snack and leaned back against the edge where she was sitting. She could feel his shoulder pressed against her thigh, and part of her wanted to move away so he wasn’t touching her, but she didn’t.
“Sorry,” she mumbled.
He shrugged. “Forget it.” His head was bowed forward leaving the back of his neck exposed. It was fucked up that she could think of at least six different ways of killing him from this vantage point, even more so that she knew her dad would be proud of that. Instead, she focused on the way his hair curled at the nape. It made her want to reach forward and run her fingers through it.
Instead, she sat on her hands.
Wally turned to face her. With her sitting on the counter he was forced to look up at her, and she couldn’t help noticing the set line of his jaw. What’s wrong with you? she mentally scolded herself. This is Wally. She was just feeling jealous and lonely and confused after last night. It didn’t help that there was suddenly an awkward tension between them, like neither one knew what to say. Between the two of them they always had something to say.
“I... wasn’t judging you,” she finally settled on.
He reached out and grabbed her hands from where they were tucked underneath her legs, tugging her off the counter. With them both on her feet he was taller than her, and suddenly she felt very enclosed with the counter behind her. He stepped forward, which she thought was frankly a bold move, considering her propensity to lash out at others, and placed his hands on the counter beside her, effectively boxing her in.
“Wally...” she said, and brought her hands up, to pull him closer or push him away, she wasn’t sure.
She never found out. He leaned down, and her hands settled on his shoulders. Her thumbs stroked his collar bone, and the next thing she knew he was kissing her. She could taste the chocolate pudding he had just ate, and when she wrapped her arms around his neck he did that little groan thing in the back of his throat. She wanted to make him do that again.
His hands settled firmly on her hips, and she licked inside his mouth trying to get closer. He stroked the exposed skin at her waist and she shuddered.
He stumbled against her, and they broke apart. Superboy’s weird robotic ball had bumped into them.
“What the...?” she asked.
“Hey, KF!” Robin’s voice called a second before the kitchen door swung open. And thank god for super speed because when Robin sauntered into the room, Wally was an appropriate distance away from her, though his cheeks still were flushed. She raised a hand to her lips, and caught the way his eyes darted to her mouth and then quickly away.
“Aw man,” Robin complained. “Don’t tell me you ate all the pudding again.”
Wally shrugged.
(She should have known she was in trouble then.)
three.
Artemis crouched behind a boulder. Merlyn and a team of goons were shooting arrows at them. “Just once, I’d like a mission to go according to plan,” she bit out, before standing briefly to shoot a couple arrows in quick succession.
She had a hunch that Batman sent them on these difficult missions on purpose in order to weed out the weakest link. It definitely wouldn’t be her.
“But where’s the fun in that?” Robin asked as he did a couple handsprings to avoid getting shot. He laughed manically, and not for the first time Artemis thought that he was probably a little bit mental.
Superboy launched himself past her, reaching the stronghold of villains in one single jump. She watched amazed as multiple arrows bounced off his chest, and others veer off course. She looked behind her to see M’gann shielding him, and wished she could have some kind of super power. She shot three goons down in rapid fire. Not that she wasn’t completely bad ass, mind you.
Because she was. Completely bad ass.
Behind her, Kaldur was battling with one of Merlyn’s henchmen who seemed to have a rudimentary understanding of sorcery. Nothing up to Aqualad’s level, of course, but he was still making things interesting.
Kid Flash was a dark blur as he raced around the battleground taking out one sidekick, and the next.
She stood again briefly and fired three more arrows. Each one hit their mark, and she heard muffled shrieks and groans and the men fell out of sight.
Just as she was about to dodge behind cover, she caught a streak of movement out of the corner of her eye.
The arrow seemed glide across the night sky, as if in slow motion. Kid Flash was knocked impossibly fast off of his feet, and then he too soared in a perfect arc before hitting the ground with a thump.
“No!” she screamed, her feet turning of their own accord to where she had lost sight of Wally.
A hand grabbed her elbow and yanked her back down behind the boulder. “What are you doing?” Robin hissed.
“Wally--!” she started to rise, and he pulled her down again.
“Not until we complete the mission,” he said, and she recoiled back horrified.
“What?” she hissed. “I don’t know if you missed it, but Wally was shot,” she said.
“And unless you want to get yourself shot you better get your head back in the game.”
Artemis stared at him in disbelief until she noticed the tension behind his eyes. She nodded, and grabbed three more arrows out of her quiver.
“Besides,” Robin said. “Fast metabolism.”
Almost without even looking, she took out two more goons. Robin threw several baterangs, and the two of them ducked behind the rock as they exploded. Aqualad finally managed to incapacitate his opponent, she saw him fall out of the corner of her eye, and Superboy and Miss M took care of the final few. Merlyn went down by an arrow from her bow.
There was no movement from where Kid Flash had fallen.
There was only slight movement in the bushes, but she trusted Robin to hog tie the rest of the bad guys. Without looking back she rushed in the direction she had seen him fall.
“Wally?” she called when she thought she was close.
He was lying on the ground, and arrow still sticking out of her shoulder. She felt her stomach drop out beneath her, and she knees went weak. No, she thought, locking them in place and forcing herself to put one foot in front of the other. No.
“Over here,” Wally groaned, and she let out the breath she hadn’t realised she was holding, and ran to his side, quickly dropping to her knees next to him.
“Son of a bitch, this hurts like a motherfucker,” he gasped when she was finally beside him. The arrow was high on his shoulder, closer to his collar bone than any vital spots, and she exhaled again. He was fine.
“You’re fine,” she said. “Stop complaining.”
“Next time you have an arrow in your shoulder, we’ll see how sunny you’re feeling,” he said.
“Hold still,” she commanded leaning over him. She place one hand gently but firmly on his chest below the arrow and wrapped her other hand around the base of the arrow, pulling in one sure motion. Just like dad taught her.
He let out a long groan while the arrow came out, and she quickly pressed both of her hands against the wound applying pressure.
“Warn a guy, jeez,” he said.
“You’re okay,” Artemis told him, looking down at his face for the first time. His mouth was pursed in a straight line and his eyebrows were furrowed. She wanted to smooth out those lines, but the gaping flesh wound in his shoulder probably took precedence.
“No I am fucking not,” he said, and she knew he’d definitely be okay if he was complaining this much. She tried not to smile.
“Okay, okay, let me take a look.” She pulled back her hands and looked down where he was shot. It wasn’t pretty, but the bleeding had already stopped (that was a fast metabolism), and she thought he could probably stand if she put a bandage on it.
She pulled off her gloves, balling one up and pressing it against his shoulder. She pressed the other one on top of it and told him to hold it there, before helping him to his feet. Quickly, she patted him down, checking for any other injuries, but besides his shoulder he seemed to be fine.
“If you wanted to cop a feel, you could have just asked,” he quipped.
She punched him in his other shoulder, and wrapped an arm around his neck pulling him down for a quick, hard kiss. His good arm was still pressing the bandage to the wound, but his injured arm came to rest lightly around her waist. He was solid and sure and alive against her, his breath hot against her face.
“Don’t you fucking do that again,” she said.
“Yes ma’am,” he said, and she didn’t even chide him for it.
He put his arm around her shoulders and they walked back to the others together.
“Uh, you can keep those gloves,” she said. “Now that you’ve bled all over them.”
“Cool,” Wally said. “Souvenir.”
(Three times was not a pattern.)
four.
Artemis was doing her homework in the library at Mount Justice (on most days Artemis thought it was pretty cool that she was a superhero, but when she got to hang out in her own private library that was shared by the entire Justice League she thought it was extra fucking cool). The team had a training session later that night, and rather than go home between school and superhero practice she had decided to come here and get some things done. Or try and get some things done.
Robin had been in earlier and kept asking her a lot of weirdly specific questions about Gotham Academy, how she liked it there, what she thought of her teachers, her classes, the other students. Finally she just yelled at him to leave her alone, and he had run out cackling wildly.
He was a strange boy.
Wally sauntered in a short time after carrying a large bag of potato chips and two sandwiches under his arm. If it were anyone else she would have thanked them for bringing her something to eat, but because it was Wally all that food was just for him. She rolled her eyes, and he sat down at one of the chairs at her table, and began munching away at his food.
She marvelled that someone could have two stages to completely at odds with each other. With Wally it was always movement and rest. Supersonic speed, or total sloth. He kicked his feet up onto the table, and she shot him a look, eyebrow raised. He either didn’t notice or didn’t care to respond.
She turned back to her work. Or tried to, anyway. His constant munching wasn’t helping any, and her stomach hadn’t stopped rumbling for the last five minutes. She eyed his chips hungrily, until Wally turned the bag towards her without a word. She took a handful, and he smiled at her.
“What’s up?” she asked.
“Nothing,” he said with a shrug.
She turned back to her books, and they worked quietly side by side. Artemis worked, anyway. Wally ate his food, but he wasn’t pestering her for a change so she didn’t say anything. It wasn’t that she liked her company, or anything, but the library was a public place for all of them. She couldn’t just tell him to leave. Especially when he wasn’t doing anything.
“Don’t you have homework?” she asked.
“Nah,” he said.
She raised an eyebrow. “Okay, okay, yes I do,” he said. “Sheesh, who are you, my mom?”
“Whatever. What do I care. Do your work or don’t. I have to find a book.”
She pushed back from the table and walked through the stacks looking for the right one. She pulled it off the shelf, and felt a faint rustling behind her. She turned and practically crashed right into Wally.
“Hey,” she said.
He put his hands on her shoulders, steadying her. “Sorry,” he said.
“What’s the matter with you?” she asked.
“Nothing,” he said defensively, crossing his arms over his chest.
She took a step forward, but he didn’t move. He stood their staring at her. “What?” she asked, and brought a hand to her hair, suddenly self conscious under his gaze.
“Nothing,” he said. “Nothing.”
“Do you want to move out of my way?” she asked.
He stepped aside, and she walked down the aisle, shaking her head. People were weird today.
At the end of the row she felt the telltale rustle, and then Wally’s hand grabbing hers.
“What?” she asked turning to face him.
He curled his hands around her elbows and pulled her close, leaning down to kiss her. She had a moment to react, and she knew she could have pulled away, could have stopped this, but she didn’t.
His mouth met hers, and his arms slid around behind her, holding her steady against his body. She was so close she could feel his heart beating in his chest and wondered if she was the reason it was beating so fast, or if it was a side effect of his abilities.
His hands moved up her arms to cup her face, and she didn’t think about anything else except the way his mouth felt on hers.
They kissed like for what felt like a long time, she lost track. It wasn’t until they heard a throat clearing and a cough behind them that they pulled apart.
“Speed--” Wally’s voice cracked. “Red Arrow,” he said, and it sounded about an octave lower. She had to try really hard not to smile at that, and the fact that she could see a blush creeping up his neck and cheeks.
“Don’t let me interrupt,” Red Arrow deadpanned, an eyebrow raised at the two of them.
Wally looked uncomfortable, and shifted back and forth on his feet. The blush had reached all the way to his ears.
Artemis raised her own eyebrow at Red Arrow and didn’t look away.
“Huh,” he said, and continued to stare at her. Out of the corner of her eye she could see Wally looking back and forth between the two of them. “Black Canary is waiting for you in the training bay,” he finally said.
Wally seemed relieved at the chance to escape, and hurried out of the library. She took her time gathering her books, and walked calmly out. When she passed Red Arrow he nodded at her.
She raised her chin.
(She hadn’t done anything wrong.)
five.
“Wally?”
He turned and Artemis saw that it was the Kid Flash. What he was doing at her school was a completely different question. There was a flash of movement, and whoever it was he had been talking to a moment earlier was gone.
“What are you doing here?” she asked.
Wally turned around comically looking for his friend. “I hate it when he does that,” he muttered under his breath.
“What?” she asked.
He shook his head. “Nothing,” he said. “I was just meeting someone. Nevermind.”
She shrugged.
Suddenly, he seemed to notice the uniform, and a slow smile spread over his face as his eyes slid down to her skirt, and then her knee high socks.
She tugged on her hemline, wishing for extra inches. “Shut up,” she said.
He held up his hands. “I didn’t say anything.”
“You were thinking it,” she said. “Loudly.”
His eyes flickered down to her skirt again, and she punched him in the arm. Hard.
“Ow,” he complained.
“Eyes up here,” she said gesturing to her face.
His ears turned pink, and that was actually pretty cute. “Sorry.”
"I'm heading over to HQ," Artemis said after a moment. "Did you want to come with me?"
He did turned around comically in a couple of quick circles, she assumed looking for his friend. She watched him with her hands on her hips, and tried not to smile.
After a moment he shrugged. "Sure," he said. "I guess I'm on my own."
She shrugged her backpack higher up on her shoulder, and the two of them set off together. Gotham was a different place during the day, and Artemis had never felt ill at ease. She supposed it helped that she could kick anyone's ass who even thought about taking her on.
Wally shoved his hands in his pockets and the two of them made their way down the street. "So, uh, did you want me to carry your bag?" he asked.
She looked at him. "No?" she said. "What the hell?"
He rubbed the back of his head. "I don't know?" he said.
She continued to stare at him, and she was sure that if he could use his super speed to escape her right now he probably would.
"You're being weird," she said.
He shrugged. "Sorry, I was just trying to be nice. "
She felt bad. "Well, thanks I guess. But I can carry my own bag."
He nodded and they walked on in silence.
When they reached the old phone booth that she used as the entrance to Mount Justice, Wally looked furtively over his shoulder, as if he was expecting someone to be following him.
"Don't worry," Artemis told him. "I think phone booths are practically invisible these days. People look straight by them."
He nodded but he wasn't really listening.
"What's wrong with you today?" she asked. "Normally I can’t get you to shut up, and now it's like you can't string two words together."
He laughed. "Yeah…"
"What?"
"Artemis." He turned to face her and grabbed her hand.
She stared down at the joined fingers, neither one of them said anything.
"Wally," she said. "I--" It wasn't a conscious decision, but she realised she had been avoiding this. Avoiding having to talk about what had been going on between them. She could tell herself as much as she liked that it didn't mean anything, but it did.
"I like you," he said. "You make me so angry sometimes I want to lose my mind, but I like you."
She laughed. It was maybe the nicest thing anyone had ever said about her.
"Do you think…" he trailed off. "Do you think you like me too?"
He looked so earnest and unsure, and completely unlike himself, she felt a surge of affection for him. She smiled despite herself. "I might," she admitted.
Wally opened his mouth to say something, but she couldn't let him ruin the moment. She was feeling too happy. Instead, she reached out and wrapped her arms around his neck, pulling him down for a kiss. His hands went to the small of her back, and she could feel them flat and sure on her. She pressed closer to him, and smiled against his lips.
"Hey guys."
They both froze, and she knew Wally wasn't the only one wishing he could use his speed right about now. She pressed her face to his chest and wished they could both disappear. Or better yet she wished the ground would open up and swallow a certain annoying, good for nothing, shit disturbing--
"Hey Rob." Wally's greeting cut off her internal monologue, just when she had been picking up steam. "What are you doing here?" he bit out.
Robin chuckled, and Artemis felt quite certain she had never wanted to punch someone in the face more than this moment.
"Don't mind me," he said with a grin. "Just confirming a suspicion."
Before either of them could respond he disappeared into the phone booth, his creepy laugh echoing behind him.
"I'm going to kill him," Wally said.
She couldn't help it. She laughed, her face still pressed into his chest. His arms were still around her back, and she slid her own around him. "Bad timing," she said.
Wally didn't reply, but his shoulders were still tense.
"Hey," she said, looking up at him. "It's okay."
He relaxed against her, but his face was still red. "You obviously don't know Robin as well as you think you do."
She had to admit he probably had a point.