A/N: Dedicated to EnderMoon, because my love for you and all the support you've given me transcends the need for sleep. Please accept this story as a token of my never-ending appreciation of the wonderful person that you are. I hope this fulfills the request prompt.
Summary: Takes place prior to Chapter 3 of "You'd Be North."
Disclaimer: This would be a reality if I owned Young Justice. Sadly, I don't.
Welcome to the Central County Fair
The banner fluttered slightly in the breeze, proclaiming "Welcome to the Central County Fair!" to all passerbys. He looked forward to this day every year, mouth already watering in anticipation of the sumptuous junk food. He could practically taste the fried turkey legs, the funnel cake, the cotton candy—
"So, this is it?" came an unimpressed voice to his left.
Wally glanced over at his companion, brought back to reality by the events leading up to his current predicament.
Flashback:
He had gone to Mount Justice last week to seek out his best friend. Usually he and Robin would attend the county fair each year, eating food, meandering through booths, and going on every ride until they were sick. This was followed by a sleepover at Wally's house where they proceeded to have a zombie movie marathon until the wee hours of the morning.
It was tradition. An unmovable, unyielding, rigidly established ritual.
Which may have been why the speedster stood in shock, unable to utter a single word, when Robin simply said, "I can't."
Eventually, Wally recovered his ability to annunciate. "WHAT? Dude, why not? It's tradition!"
"I know," Robin sighed, pinching the bridge of his nose, allowing Wally a glimpse of blue between the cracks of his sunglasses. "But Bats has us teaming up to do the dynamic duo thing that night."
Wally could hear the underlying meaning: Dick and Bruce were expected to make an appearance at some function or another that day, most likely in Gotham.
"Couldn't he just make up some excuse for you? Doesn't he realize you're going to miss it?" Wally demanded, already knowing what Robin was going to say.
"Yeah, like that's going to make a difference," Robin shook his head. He felt horrible enough for having to cancel on Wally without his best friend being overly dramatic. "Dude, why don't you just invite someone else to go with you? I bet the team would like that."
Wally was about to retort, but the idea of spending a day with M'gann (or any of the other members, really, but mostly M'gann) didn't seem so awful.
"I guess…that could be fun," Wally agreed, careful to not look too elated at the prospect.
Robin rolled his eyes. "Oh, just go find her and ask her already."
Wally sped off before the boy wonder could blink. "I meant Artemis, you know," he mumbled to the empty air before wandering out of his room toward the docking bay.
"Heeeeey Megalicious," Wally greeted the martian, leaning over the kitchen counter, flashing a flirtatious grin. "How would you like to come with me to Central's county fair next Friday after school?"
"Next Friday?" she questioned, looking as though she was trying to remember something. "Oh!" she hit her head in her best 'Hello Megan!' impression. "I'm sorry, Wally, but I can't. Conner and I are meeting up with several people from school to work on a group project. I'm sorry."
"S'all good, green cheeks," he smiled, trying not to let his disappointment show through. "Hey, do you know where Kaldur went?"
"I think he's in the debriefing room reviewing our last assignment," she informed Wally, flipping another page in her cookbook.
"Thanks!" he hollered right before he zoomed off again.
"Hey! Kaldur!"
The Atlantian turned around only to find Wally standing right in front of him.
"Hello, Wally," he replied, raising an eyebrow at the speedster's enthused countenance.
"Are you busy next Friday?" Wally asked, not bothering with small talk. "Central's having their annual county fair, and I thought you might like to go."
"I am sorry, my friend. But I have to be in Atlantis," Kaldur apologized. "My king and queen are preparing a banquet to celebrate the coming of their future child, and I must be in attendance."
"Oh," Wally replied, not sure how exactly to respond to that bit of news. "Well, good luck with that, I guess."
Ignoring Kaldur's pitying expression, Wally slowly meandered his way back to his room, trying not to feel dejected at the prospect of missing out on the fair.
He was so lost in thought that he almost missed the faint sounds of fists and feet meeting a punching bag as he passed the gym.
Wally backtracked, finding Artemis beating the living crap out of Superboy's favorite dummy. He was about to make a snarky comment when the idea hit him: surely spending a day with Artemis at the fair was better than not going at all?
So he caught her attention, rushing out the invitation before the logical part of his brain could catch up with the words flying out of his mouth. He only hoped she wasn't busy like the others.
As a matter of fact, she was free that afternoon and would meet him at the zeta tube in Central City at three next Friday. Her parting words were: "But if this is some kind of joke, I swear on Batman's utility belt that I will find you and eviscerate all your internal organs before feeding them to Wolf."
End of Flashback.
And that's how he found himself standing outside the fairgrounds, trying to ignore the dubious look splashed across Artemis's face.
"It's a lot more fun than you think," he bristled, walking over to the admissions box and purchasing two tickets. "The food itself makes the trip worth it."
Artemis rolled her eyes but followed him into the grounds, trying not to look too eager. The truth was she had never been to one of these events before, and she had absolutely no idea what to expect. Unlike Wally, who seemed to make the trek to these stomping grounds faithfully year after year.
She was honestly surprised at his attempted civility when he asked her what she'd like to do first. And she was still racking her brain for an answer, trying to recall the last movie M'gann had made her watch that involved going to a carnival, when Wally broke her thoughts.
"Uhh…Artemis?" he inquired tentatively, looking at her with that annoyingly adorable puzzled expression, his freckles standing out in the afternoon light.
"I—" she was running out of ideas. "Why don't you pick, since you come every year and know what sort of things there are to do?"
His puzzlement was replaced with suspicion. "All county fairs are pretty much the same. Don't you have a favorite thing you like to do?" She was really straining his patience to try to be nice.
"Well…" She dug the toe of her boot into the dirt below.
It became apparent that Artemis had no idea what she wanted in life when a thought struck him. "You've never been to a fair, have you?"
She crossed her arms defensively, shooting him a withering glare. "I've been to a theme park before." Her eyes were back on the ground. "They're practically the same, right?"
Wally stood there in stunned silence, watching as she directed her defiant glare back at his face. "You…never…but the food!" he exclaimed, the outburst wiping away any hostile traces left on her visage.
Without waiting for her to respond, Wally grabbed her wrist and pulled her to the nearest food stand, buying two barbecued turkey legs and passing one to her. "You have to start with these," he said, taking a bite right into the meat.
"I can't eat all of this," she exclaimed.
"Just try it, and I'll finish whatever you can't," he shrugged, already halfway done with his own leg.
It became routine. The duo walked among the various exhibits and displays, always with some form of food in their hands. They looked at the state's largest vegetables exhibit while munching on funnel cake, went through a display of natural resources while eating roasted corn, split a cotton candy treat while looking at mounted specimens of wildlife, and nibbled away at a pair of caramel apples while perusing cubicles displaying various wares and trinkets for sale.
Whatever Artemis couldn't finish, she simply handed over to Wally who was happy to do the job for her.
Except for the apple. He reached for her caramel apple, having inhaled his within minutes, and she had to dart out of reach of his arm, a sly grin twitching the ends of her mouth upwards.
"Not this time, Wally," she taunted, taking a rather large bite of the sweet delicatessen. He chased her at leisurely jog all the way to the petting zoo, laughing and shouting "Just one bite!" before she had a chance to stop and finish it off.
The speedster pretended to pout as they admired a cluster of ducklings, but the sight of Artemis smiling and cooing to a pair of baby goats melted that pretense almost immediately.
When he was certain she wasn't looking, Wally whipped out his phone and snapped a picture. He was still admiring her soft gaze in the photo when she stood up beside him.
"Someone text you?" she inquired. Wally saved the picture and quickly cleared the screen.
"Just Rob," he shrugged, tucking the electronic device into his back pocket. "He usually comes to this with me every year."
"I guess I'm not much of a Robin replacement," Artemis muttered, but Wally still detected the frigid tone in her comment.
"Naw, you're alright, Arty," he told her, delighting in the way she tried not to look too pleased with the subtle compliment. "Hey! Look!"
He was tugging on her wrist again, pulling her up to a brightly colored tent before coming to a stop.
"You're joking," she deadpanned, not at all amused by the poster with the words "FACE PAINTING" scrawled across the canvass.
"Nope," his grin was pronounced. "You've never been to a fair before, and I'm going to make sure we do everything you've been missing out on." He pushed her down into a chair in front of one of the clowns with a paint palette in hand. "Let me know if I need to hold her down."
Fifteen minutes later, both teens walked out of the booth with matching cat faces: hers a lioness, his a tiger.
"How's your stomach?" he asked suddenly. She met his eyes, which were sparkling with unadulterated delight as though he just had the greatest epiphany in the world and was about to divulge it to her.
Her stomach had been just fine until he gave her that look. Now it was filled with a tumultuous storm of hornets. Her heart leaped to her throat for good measure.
"Okay?" she squeaked out before clearing her throat. "It's fine, why?" she managed to reply in a more normal tone.
"Let's go on some of the rides," he suggested, unable to contain his excitement and latching on to her arm again as he towed her to the nearest vomit-inducing ride he could find. They ran back in line two more times before moving on to something else.
And they continued to go on ride after ride as the sun dragged itself along the skyline toward its bedtime destination. Artemis didn't realize it until they paused in front of a game booth, but his hand had somehow made its way from her wrist to her fingers, clasping them gently, swinging their arms as he munched on his third ream of cotton candy. She wondered if he realized what he was doing.
His focus was currently on one of the stuffed animals dangling precariously from strings under a canopy: a dark green alligator that was half as tall as he was.
Before he could register what was happening, Artemis had released his hand and put down the money to play a round. It was a dart game with balloons surrounding a target. The worker set down a handful of darts when Wally finally came to.
"What are you doing?" he whispered between mouthfuls of the sugary dessert.
"Just watch," she winked, carefully picking up a dart. She rolled it in her fingers before raising it up and flicking it expertly into the board with a resounding thud and a satisfying pop of a balloon. Five darts were given. Five darts found their mark in the center of the target.
"Well, that's quite some gal you've got there, son," the man informed Wally. Wally didn't have time to refute the fact before the worker asked which prize Artemis wanted. She pointed it out and triumphantly shoved the alligator into Wally's chest.
"Here," Artemis grinned in satisfaction at the dumbstruck expression flitting across his features.
"What's this for?" he asked, mystified by the gesture.
Artemis tossed her hair over her shoulder in what she hoped was an extremely nonchalant manner. "Oh, you know, for this." She made a vague waving gesture at their surroundings with her hand.
"For bringing you to the fortune-telling booth?"
She turned her gaze sharply and saw a rickety enclosed booth manned by an older woman draped with so many scarves and shawls that she could have been a gypsy mummy. She glared back at Wally, whose cheeky grin let her know that he knew exactly what she meant and was totally trolling her. She rolled her eyes.
"Just kidding," he clasped her wrist and towed her onward before she could get too angry with him.
He stopped in front of another booth where participants were handed a plastic dart gun and were required to shoot at targets that randomly popped up.
"I rock this game every year," the speedster smugly informed the archer, handing over the required change to play a round.
Artemis did her best not to act impressed, adding a few disapproving "tsks" for good measure. He was totally cheating by using his heightened reflexes to locate and shoot every target.
Her disapproving façade fell apart when he selected a small, soft red bear and handed it to her. "I was good at this even before my super days," he whispered, winking as she gently accepted the stuffed animal. "Now Arty the Alligator has a friend."
"Arty the Alligator?"
He shrugged. "Seemed appropriate."
"So," she coughed, hoping the darkness was enough to conceal the rosy hue making its way to her cheeks, "What next?"
Wally double-blinked as though snapping out of a sudden reverie. "Huh? Oh, right…" He glanced around, noting how several sections of the fair were already beginning to close. After a brief survey, Wally saw that the ferris wheel was still running.
"Let's go ride that before leaving. It has the best view in the entire place," he nodded toward the giant circle slowly rotating through the inky sky.
She allowed him to lead her to the diminishing line winding up to the wheel. After a bit of shuffling, they squeezed into a seat, setting their stuffed animals between them as the safety bar locked across their laps.
The ride moved at an almost dream-like pace, its multicolored lights flashing brilliant patterns over the darkened ground below. Around and around they traveled, marveling at the view not only of the fairgrounds, but of the surrounding city. Eventually, it was time for the current occupants to disembark, and Wally and Artemis's bench stopped momentarily at the top of the ride.
"It's beautiful, isn't it?" Wally murmured softly.
"Yeah," came Artemis's hushed reply, basking in the serenity of the scene engulfing them.
"Bet you wish Gotham was this awesome." She could hear the smirk in his words even if she couldn't see it.
"Gotham is way better," she scoffed, pausing a moment before adding, "But I guess this is nice too."
They lurched forward before stopping again, allowing another group to disembark. Artemis continued to drink in the view, but Wally turned to observe her reactions, wondering what she made of this whole ordeal. She seemed to have enjoyed herself, but sometimes it was hard to gauge what sort of thoughts were passing through her head.
Eventually, it was the superhero duo's turn to get off the wheel, and they made sure to collect Arty the Alligator and the red bear before exiting the enclosure. The teens ambled toward the front gate in silence when Wally spotted one last thing he was absolutely certain they had to do before leaving.
"Quick, Artemis!" He pulled her to the photo booth, looking at her expectantly.
"You've got to be joking," she hissed, placing her hand on her cocked hip in her customary challenging pose. "I'm not giving you blackmail material. No. Way."
He knew better than to mention the photo with her and the goats. "Look, this is a traditional thing to do at a county fair. And there are two strips, so we each get one," he told her. "The blackmail could go both ways."
She seemed to consider his proposal, torn between avoiding anything that could incriminate her and genuinely wanting a photo to remember this day. Wally scrutinized the minute facial twitches indicating her uncertainty, and he tried not to dance in triumph when she seemed to finally give in.
"I had better not ever find your copy in a public location," she threatened before sliding behind the curtain into the booth. Wally danced a jig before sliding in after her.
"Okay, we get four shots," he told her, pushing a few buttons to start the timer. "I think our first picture should be of our angry faces, since you're so good at it."
"Am not!" she argued.
"Yeah! Just like that!" he grinned before turning to the camera lens. "And go!"
FLASH. CLICK.
"Now let's make stupid faces, since you're so good at it," she taunted him. He stuck his tongue out at her, making her laugh. "Yeah, just like that." They turned to the camera, putting their hands behind the other's head to enhance the childishness of the pose.
FLASH. CLICK.
"Let's do a shocked face next," Wally told her.
"Isn't that just like the stupid face?" she inquired, readjusting her hair.
"You have a better idea?"
She didn't.
FLASH. CLICK.
"Last one," he informed her, as though she didn't already know. "What do you want to do?" He adjusted the stuffed alligator between them, giving Artemis an idea.
"Hold this up here," she moved the alligator into the shot. Then she took her red bear and pushed its nose into the alligator's. It looked like they were kissing.
FLASH. CLICK.
The two teens slid back outside, waiting for their pictures to print. A few minutes later, the duo stood under a streetlamp, looking at the results.
The first one was incredibly funny despite the fact that they were supposed to be angry. Wally looked like he was yelling profanities. Artemis looked like she usually did when Wally swiped something of hers at Mount Justice. It might have been terrifying if their faces weren't painted to look like jungle cats.
Wally actually doubled over laughing at the stupid face pose. Artemis had crossed her eyes and puffed out her cheeks while simultaneously giving Wally moose horns. Wally had stuck out his tongue, rolled his eyes, and mussed Artemis's pony tail until it stuck out at odd angles, topping it with bunny ears.
Artemis giggled slightly at the third picture. Both of their eyes were widened, and their jaws had dropped, giving off an appearance of two kids that had been told they had just won the lottery. Or free ice cream for life.
But while Artemis simply "awww-ed" over the last photo, admiring the cuteness of their stuffed animals, Wally froze, not quite sure what to make of it.
He saw the archer's soft gaze, looking down at the two prizes locked in an unmistakable smooch. She was actually smiling, though it was subtle, and you could really only tell by the crinkle in the corners of her eyes.
But his expression in the picture baffled him. He was watching Artemis, not the animals, with a look he had often seen his Uncle Barry give his Aunt Iris when she wasn't paying attention. It was a tender smile that he had no time to ponder as Artemis was already demanding his attention once more.
"Happy now, Kid?" she asked, trying to sound annoyed and failing.
"I think so," he riposted, pushing his thoughts about the photo to the dark recesses of his subconscious and allowing the obnoxious fifteen-year-old persona to resurface. "You done admiring me in the pictures?"
"You wish," she retorted, happy just to be bantering with him as he made such an excellent partner for swapping insults.
"Come on, let's make like a banana and split."
"Seriously?" She rolled her eyes.
"Absolutely," he replied, leading her by the crook of her elbow through the crowd and back out of the front gate.
They walked about half a mile before the crowd thinned enough for Wally to discretely pull her behind a building, sweep her into his arms, and whisk her away at super speed before she had time to protest.
When he did finally set her down, the first thing Artemis noticed was that she was not back at the Central City zeta tube. In fact, the neighborhood resembled a picturesque suburban street characteristic of those ridiculous television shows M'gann was so fond of.
"What are you doing?" she demanded, suspicion creeping into her voice. "Why didn't you take me back to the zeta tube?"
Wally shuffled from foot to foot, and Artemis recognized this pacing as a patent display of nervousness.
"Wally?"
"RobinandI...usuallywatchzombiemoviesnow," he rushed out, hoping it would save him from the embarrassment of what he was actually going to ask.
"Excuse me?" Her expression was puzzled, not hostile, and Wally took that as encouragement to continue.
"Robin and I…We usually have a zombie movie marathon after leaving the fair," he mumbled, still not making eye contact.
"So?" She probed, still unsure why he was telling her this. She wasn't Rob—Oh. "Are you inviting me…to come watch movies with you?"
Wally looked sheepishly at the pavement, his shoes scraping roughly against the concrete. "Yeah."
Thousands of thoughts came and left her brain, each screaming an idea, a response, a plan of action. But the one that was victorious left the archer stunned.
"Okay."
It left her mouth before she could even contemplate its consequence.
But it caused Wally to finally make eye contact with her, and she couldn't retract it after seeing the hopeful expression cross his face. "Really?"
"Look, are you going to invite me in or not?" Artemis tossed her hands up in frustration.
"Oh—yeah. Sorry! Come inside." Words rushed out of his mouth in a haphazard fashion as he led her up the driveway and unlocked the front door. "My aunt's out of town on a business trip, and I think Uncle Barry had monitor duty tonight…"
She followed him inside as he continued to jabber on about his aunt's job, kicking off her shoes at the door and stacking them next to his. Her red bear was placed on the armchair as she fished her cellphone out of her back pocket.
Artemis had just sent a text to her mother to inform the older woman about the change in plans when Wally vanished and returned, wearing loose basketball shorts and a t-shirt and bearing a stack of zombie flicks and a bag of chips. His face had been scrubbed clean of the face paint.
"Do you want popcorn or anything?" he queried, setting the chips on the coffee table and flipping through the DVDs, finally settling on one and placing it in the player.
"I'm so stuffed," she flopped on the couch. "I don't think I could eat anything else for a week."
"But it was all delicious, right?" He demanded, flopping on the sofa next to her. She shoved him over, and he (correctly) interpreted that as a yes.
Wally fiddled around with the remote, tuning the TV to the correct channel and starting the movie. They were halfway through the previews when he chanced a glance at his companion. She was sitting with her knees pulled under her chin, arms wrapped around her long legs.
"Are you comfortable?" he tentatively questioned.
"Yeah, why wouldn't I be?" she demanded.
Wally shrugged. "I dunno. You don't look very comfortable."
"I'm fine," she grit out.
He continued to stare at her until she finally turned back to face him. "What?"
"Do you want to borrow some sweats or something?" He blurted out, not pausing to consider the ramifications of the offer.
She rolled her eyes and sighed exasperatedly. Wally (again, correctly) interpreted this as her giving him the go ahead, zipped off and returned moments later with a pair of his aunt's sweatpants and one of his old t-shirts.
"I'll pause the movie until you get back," he told her. "Bathroom is the second door on your left down the hall. Washcloths are in the second drawer if you want to wash your face."
"Don't bother stopping it. I've seen this one before," she informed him before taking off in the direction of the wash room.
As a matter of fact, Artemis had seen the first two movies he put on, causing his estimation of her to rise considerably. Somewhere between one in the morning and the third movie, Wally brought out a large quilt and several pillows. Artemis hogged the quilt but decided that Wally's shoulder was a much better pillow than the one on the other side of the sofa.
It was sometime during the battle scene of the fourth movie when Artemis spoke again, drowsiness lining her raspy voice.
"Wally?" she mumbled, clutching the quilt tighter as her eyes drooped closed.
"Yeah?" He peered at the blonde now snuggled under his arm, leaching away the warmth he gave off from his naturally high body temperature.
"I had…a good time today. So thanks, I guess."
Wally didn't fight the smile that made its way to his lips, the same smile he had given her in the photo.
"Me too, Beautiful," he yawned, stroking her hair as she succumbed to the clutches of sleep. "Me too."
A/N: This was posted in somewhat of a rush, so forgive the typos. Huzzah for revisiting the "You'd Be North" universe! *throws confetti* I hope you enjoyed it!