A/N:...I should be writing other stuff, but I couldn't help it...JASON AND ARTEMIS WOULD BE PERFECT TOGETHER, OKAY? Please review!

Pre-Death

"…so how about it Lawrence? Wanna go get a drink?" Artemis peeks up from her math homework to see that Mr. Todd, or Willy as her Dad calls him.

Artemis was sitting at the table working on some of her math homework, for Mr. Gobelle her third grade math teacher, that was due yesterday and she had just happened to forget about. She watches as her Dad scratches his head and turns to look back at Artemis. "What do you say, baby girl? Will you be fine for the night? I made you macaroni and it's in the fridge. You just have to heat it up in the microwave."

Artemis nods, "Yeah, Dad, I should be fine."

He smiles and puts on his baseball cap that was hanging on the coat rack next to the door. "Atta girl. Remember to call me if anything happens."

Mr. Todd stops her Dad before he can walk out the door, "Can I leave Jason here? I know Jade used to be the one that would always watch them and I'm sorry about her leaving, but do you think Artemis can watch Jason. Catherine's not…doing well."

Her Dad nods, "Yeah, Artemis should be fine with Jason staying, right?" he glances over his shoulder to look at her.

"Yep."

"Lets go bring him over and then get out of here," her Dad pats Mr. Todd on the back and they leave.

The next thing she knows is that she's sitting on the kitchen table nose to nose, staring at Jason Todd. "You're bigger than I remember," he says.

Artemis huffs out in protest, "You shouldn't say that to a lady."

"Well, I can't help if it's true."

"Jerk."

"Am not."

"Has your dad even taught you how to talk girls?"

"I'm in first grade."

"Doesn't matter."

"Girls are weird."

"Do you want macaroni? I'm hungry."

"Sure, do you have an ketchup, 'Mis?"

"Why?"

"To put in my macaroni."

"And you say that girls are weird…"

Artemis nearly snorts out a laugh when she sees the new Robin. It wasn't that he was short or funny looking or anything. It was the fact that she knew him. She would recognize the kid from anywhere, even if he were wearing a domino mask. The original Robin—Nightwing now—is introducing Robin—the new one—to the team. Nightwing—she was still unaware of his real name—seemed awkward as he introduced the Team to Robin. He kept his hand on the boy's shoulder in a protective fashion, but he didn't seem to know how to interact with the boy otherwise.

She doesn't know for sure, but it seems like Robin—the new one—is staring at her. It becomes more apparent as his grin grows. He bursts out laughing and Artemis joins in. The whole team around them is confused, but she doesn't care. This is just too—ironic, maybe?

"Your Robin now?" she laughs.

"Whatever, Crock. What are you supposed to be—the Green Whore?" he chokes out between laughs.

Nightwing's brows knit together. "You two know each other?" he asks.

Robin smirks, "Oh we know each other," he does a little suggestive eyebrow dance at Artemis.

She snorts, "Whatever you're implying is not true."

"Whatever, Crockpot."

"Toddler," she throws back before even realizing that she was basically comprising the new Robin's identity just to be able to make a hit at his self esteem.

She sees the white's of Nightwing's masks widen. Oh, she was going to get it later. "We used to be neighbors before someone went all rebel loner," she smirks even though she knows that she might be going into a bit of a sore subject for him—she didn't know how sore because she hasn't seen him since before.

"I didn't want stay in an empty house," he shrugs, his tone still slightly mocking.

"You could have stayed with us."

At that he laughs again. "Uh huh. Stay with you? And your father? Ha, I got enough of that mob stuff from my own Dad. I don't need someone training me to become an assassin," he jokes, completely ignoring every boundary. The Team is almost in shock. Artemis doesn't really joke about her family, but here she was, joking with Robin—the new one.

"Please, you would have enjoyed it."

"Uh huh, is your mom back?" he asks.

The Team just watches on as the two converses. The two who were usually not that open about anything were suddenly shouting to each other about everything. "Yeah, but she's permanently in a wheel chair. Dad's gone, for like, ever."

"Remember that one time he took us to the fair out of town?"

"Agh! That was amazing. Stop trying to make me like my dad."

"Oh please. You were daddy's little girl."

"Shut it, Todd, but seriously, why didn't you stay with us?"

"Having to spend time with you? No. That alone is a major turnoff."

"Uh huh, and how old are you—eleven?

"Thirteen."

She snorts so hard that it hurts her nose, "Baby."

"No."

"You're just a little baby."

"I'm going to bite you."

"Baby bite."

He walks up to her like he's about to punch her, but instead he throws his arms around her. "Artemis," he mumbles.

Her heart stings a bit. He's been through so much, why wasn't she there? His parents are dead. She should have foreseen him running away; she should have been able to stop them. "Jay—" she says and ruffles his hair a bit. She knows that now that the entire Team is confused beyond belief at what they were seeing—especially Nightwing. The boy that had been so stubborn and hard was hugging someone. The boy had a past that he didn't know about. She paused before adding in the final part. "—Bird." She finishes.

"Jaybird."

Artemis stuffs her face deeper into the pillow when she hears the scratching at the window. She had actually told Ollie that she didn't want to go on patrol tonight because she's just so tired. She refused to go on patrol. That tells you something.

The knocking on the window continues until Artemis is about ready to grab her bow from underneath her bed and shoot whatever cat is making all that noise.

She opens her window only to be nose to nose with Jason Todd. "Jason…?" she groans and her voice just sounds so rough, so unused. Words almost don't come out of her mouth when she first tries to talk.

Without saying anything he comes in the room and sits on Jade's bed. Artemis goes and flips on her lamp, so she can see him better. He's leaning against the wall with his arms crossed. His eyes are puffing from what assumingly must be him crying. "Have you been…" she trails off realizing that even if she asked, she'd just be met with a hard-assed answer from the other. She decides that it's better to take a shot in the dark. "Fight with Bruce?" she asks.

The way he looks at her—it did better than his words could have conveyed. Yes. He waits awhile before finally answering her, "He always compares me the Dick, you know? Dick was—is perfect and I just don't know how to measure up to him? Bruce is always saying how 'Dick would have done this better' or 'Dick would have not missed that last guard'. I—it—it's—never mind…But you get what I mean? I'm always being compared to someone who's perfect. How do I…" he trails off and digs his face into his arms.

Artemis wants to make the allusion and say that her dad also always compared her to her sister. That everything in the assassin world came so easily to Jade. That her dad always brought that up. That Artemis was not her sister.

She doesn't make the comparison, though, because that's not what Jason needs. What he needs is comfort.

She walks over to Jason and sits next to him and puts her arms around him. He leans into her touch and lets out a small sob. "Jay…there's more isn't there?"

He doesn't say anything at first, but she notices how still and rigid he had gotten in her arms. "'Mis, I haven't' had a family in so long that I don't know what to do when I fail them. To let them down. It—it's almost worse than not having a family… Bruce does so much for me, and all he wants me to do is be Dick, but I don't know how to do that Artemis. How do I do that Artemis?" he asks.

Artemis just cradles him to her chest and strokes his hair. She lets the words sink in before thinking of a response. "Jay, you don't have to be Dick—"

"But that's what Bruce wants. That's what Batman wants."

"Let him adjust to you—he worked with Dick for so long that it's weird switching to someone new."

"But Dick is perfect. He's the golden child. Bruce doesn't want someone new—he just wants Dick back. It's hard, Artemis…Bruce gives me so much, but I can give him what he wants…"

"Jason…" she mutters and holds onto him tighter. She can feel his angst and pain and just holds onto him. It seems like nothing she says can help him through this. He's just too caught up. He's just too stuck in the shadow of Dick.

At one point they both start to drift and fall asleep. Jason is asleep first and before Artemis can also follow him, she lays them both down on the bed. He instantly cuddles up to her side and digs his face into the crook of her neck. She sighs, knowing that she should call Bruce or maybe Dick.

Instead, she curls up into his hold oblivious to the fact that Dick had been watching them the entire time.

It became a natural occurrence on missions for Artemis and Jason to team up together. Nothing was really announced, they weren't paired together by Kaldur—it just kinda just happens.

Neither of them complain, though.

They reach a balance between Jason's more brutal acrobatics and Artemis' long distance archery and close distance fighting. They're almost always shoulder-to-shoulder in fire fights.

She holds off a couple more guards as Jason exams a Titan contained. They had been sent by Batman to investigate another one of Bane's islands. There had been rumors that he was supplying Titan to multiple sources around the country—initially creating an army of Titan mutants.

There had been five Titan containers around the island, so the Team split up. Jason took the opportunity to claim Artemis as his partner the first chance he had. The boy was just a teensy bit possessive of the archer. "Artemis?" Jason calls over the obvious commotion that was going on a couple feet behind him.

She hops a couple feet back so she's pressing up against his back. She releases a couple more trick arrows in hopes of causing the men to retreat. "Yeah Jaybird?"

"The place is going to blow in about five minutes, Arty. This was all a ruse to get us here," he explains as he continues to type away at the screen.

"And the reason why you haven't told the rest of team is because…?"

"How would I…oh yeah…the mental link."

He quickly alerts the rest of the Team before they make a dash for the exit. She leads him through the twisting corridors. "I'm glad you memorized the way out," he remarks stumbling a few feet behind her.

"Why am I not excited to hear the rest of what you're about to say…"

"I was just a bit distracted, if you know what I mean."

"We're about to get blown up and you're flirting?"

"…so?"

"I hope you know, if you trip, I'm leaving you."

"Really cause if you were to trip, I would be right beside you."

"That's really sweet, but we're about to die, and I like not dying."

"That's a good thing to like."

"I know right?"

"You know what I'd like…"

"I swear to God, if you continue, I will castrate you."

"Insomnia?" she asks Jason when she comes into the TV room of the cave to find him carelessly watching a documentary about meerkats. She flops herself down next to him and props her legs up on the coffee table.

His eyes slowly make their way to stare at her. He looks exhausted—more so than usual. "Just a bit," he yawns and stretches his arms out. He ends up hitting Artemis in the face. He turns to her and smirks, "Oops." His face is slightly illuminated by the TV and she can't help, but think in the year he had grown so much. He wasn't like Dick—forced to be a midget until the prime age of sixteen. No, Jason had managed to break the tiny Robin curse and by the age of fourteen was easily taller than Artemis. He was still awkwardly lanky, but he was going to end up filling out eventually.

Look at how Dick turned out.

"Why are you up?" he asks her.

She shrugs, "I think that someone switched my sleepy time tea with something that has way too much caffeine. I can't fall asleep."

He snorts, "Are you sure you just didn't want to spend time with me?" he gives her that sloppy smirk that he's adopted and thinks that just swoons the girls all the time.

She doesn't want to admit it—but it kinda does.

Not only had he grown taller in the past year, but also he had lost the baby fat that had always defined his face as absolutely adorable. Now his face was all angular. Artemis missed the baby fat.

"Aren't you supposed to be in college or something? Or did you already fail out?"

She rolls her eyes and snorts when a meerkats on screen starts to take on a rattlesnake. God, that rodent was stupid. "Totally failed out. You know, it takes skill to fail out before you even go there."

"Been there, done that."

She turns to look at him, "I hate it when I don't know if you're telling the truth or not."

If it was even possible his smirk got even wider—and cockier. "That's what they all say Arty-baby."

"And who is this all?" Artemis crosses her arms and turns around on the couch until she could stare at the boy.

He shrugs, "The usual, you know? Jealous?"

Artemis snorts, "Please." She leans against the back of the couch and props her legs up on Jason's lap. He smirks, but doesn't say anything and watches the documentary some more.

Who knew meerkats could be so interesting?

"So you're moving in with Wally?" he finally asks.

Artemis looks up to see his smirk wasn't present on his face anymore. His face finally looked more characteristic for the time of night. "Well, yeah, we are dating and that just tends to happen."

She watches, as his face remains emotionless—showing his true bat colors. "You know, I don't think red heads would really look good with you," he comments nonchalantly.

"Oh, and what would look good, Jaybird?" she can't help the smirk that's creeping onto her face.

"Maybe someone with dark hair and blue eyes…" he starts playing with the socks that are on her feet.

"Are you trying to set me up with your brother?"

He instantly snaps his head up to stare at Artemis wide-eyed, "No, I meant…" he trails off and settles back into the couch and tries to pay attention to the movie.

"You know, green looks good on you."

"What doesn't look good on me?"

"Hey, mum, I'm home for the holiday—oh, hey Jaybird," she smiled at him before hanging her winter coat up on the hook on the wall. She also threw her bag to the side of the doorway before fully coming in.

She notices immediately that the atmosphere isn't really what she was expecting. The table is covered in papers, notebooks, and photographs—there's a huge box in the center of the table that seems to be the source of all of the clutter. "What's this?" she asks picking up a paper. She snorts once she realizes what's on it, "You went to a Catholic school—wait, you failed first grade English?"

She looks up at her before looking back down at the paper in his hand, not even answering her. That wasn't like him. Not at all. She turns to her mom, "What's all this?"

Her mom tears her attention away from a paper she was reading to look up at Artemis, "I completely forgot that when Willis and Catherine died, that the landlord gave me a box of some of their most personal belonging to give to Jason if he ever came back after he ran away," her mom answered.

Artemis nods and stands behind Jason and places a hand on his shoulder before leaning down to see what he's looking at. She gently presses her cheek to his to read the paper. "What's this?"

"What does it look like," he mumbles.

She quickly reads over the paper, "Um, your birth certificate?"

"No shit, but look what's on it."

"You have O positive blood?"

Jason turns so he could glare at Artemis, "No—well yes, but look at my Mom. My Mom's name is Catherine…the sheet says that her name starts with an 'S'," he explains.

Finally, Artemis was getting it. "You mean that Catherine wasn't really your mom?"

He shook his head and bit his lip, "She's my mom. She raised me, but this chick, whoever she is…well. She's probably alive. My mom might be alive," he explains with a giddy grin on his face. "My mom might be alive."

"Have you figured out how you're going to find her?" she asks and sits down on the chair next to him.

"My Dad had an address book. There are three women in the book that their names start with 's'. I'm going to find them and ask them."

"You do realize that they might be dead or that they might not want a child?"

"I don't care. Artemis, I have a mother, and you know what? I don't care if she considers me the worst mistake of her life. She could be alive," he explains and gets up from the table.

"And you're gonna find her?"

"I'll do whatever it takes."

Artemis didn't find out that Jason died until two months afterwards.