I would love more than anything else to own Young Justice, but unfortunately the Copyright Laws are very unsympathetic to my plight. Curses!

Roy awoke to the sound of thunder to find Jade gone.

While not exactly uncommon, he was a bit surprised, and mildly disappointed. She usually stayed the night.

Getting up, he walked towards the kitchen for a glass of water. It wasn't like he'd be able to fall back asleep, what with all that racket...

A flash of lightning lit the room, revealing someone huddled on the couch. Roy wandered over with drowsy curiosity and discovered that Jade had not left after all.

"Jade? What're you doing? S'the middle of the night..."

She didn't respond, hugging her knees to her chest.

There was another crash of thunder and she nearly jumped, giving a small gasp.

Roy blinked, then sat down next to her. The idea of the infamous assassin Cheshire being afraid of a little thunder was somehow surreal.

"Not a fan of storms?"

Shaking her head, she hunched down further, moving closer to him at the next boom. Slightly at a loss, he patted her awkwardly on the back.

"I always hated nights like this."

Jade sounded different, so much younger and so very human, so far away from the creature who stalked the nights, grinning with a cat's face. Roy said nothing, indicating for her to go on.

"It seemed so horrible, like some kind of enormous unstoppable beast, signaling the end of the world. It scared me to death. Artie loved them, though.." She smiled, remembering. "Oh yes, stormy nights were her glory."

"Still are, I think. Kaldur mentioned something about an unhealthy fascination with storms..."

Jade gave a small shudder at the word 'storm', phobia apparently unforgotten. "it was always the one time she'd end up having to protect me. 'It's okay, sis. It won't hurt you.' The one enemy she was able to keep me safe from wasn't even real." Her smile turned slightly bitter, remembering less happy times. "I loved her for it, though."

Thunder raged again, lightning illuminating the sky. Jade gave a fearful little hiss, sounding more feline than ever.

Feeling somewhat idiotic, Roy put an arm around her. Yes, it was stupid and seemed more like something Wally would do with a pretty girl, but he wanted Jade to know she was safe. It appeared t work, Jade stiffening with surprise, then relaxing again.

Resigning himself to more idiocy and hoping silently that it would work, he started speaking. "Thunder won't come here. It's scared of me."

He felt her turn around to look at him and determinedly avoided her gaze, focusing on a point above her head.

"If it comes here I'll trap it in a jar and hide it and it'll stay there forever, stuck. Trust me, it won't come."

He changed his point of focus, staring just above Jade's ear. "I used to tell Rob and KF that. Back when they were still little enough to believe it."

He had been hoping she'd laugh or something, but she was silent. He could feel his face warming uncomfortably.

When she finally did speak, there was a smile in her voice. "It's too bad you were an only child. I bet you would have made a great older brother."

Roy breathed a half laugh, smiling back at her. "They are my little brothers. We aren't related by blood, but we might as well be."

"I like that." There was a wistful note in Jade's voice, revealing her to be brooding over something unsaid. He didn't push her, but Jade finally spit it out on her own.

"You should have been Artemis's big brother instead of me."

He blinked.

It was such a flat, earnest statement, made in all seriousness and tinged with more than a little self-loathing, and not at all what he had come to expect from Jade in the time that he'd grown to know her. A bit lost for a response, he voiced the first thought that came to his head. "There are some gender issues with that sentence."

Jade gave a snort that turned into actual laughter and whacked him jokingly, and the spell was broken. Whatever had dredged up the confessions and memories from deep where they had been buried was gone.

Normally someone- anyone, really- laughing at him irritated the hell out of Roy. Even Cheshire.

Especially Cheshire, actually.

But Jade... Jade, on the other hand, was different. Here, for some reason, he felt ridiculously pleased with himself, as though by making her laugh, he'd made some great accomplishment.

'Wow. I must be really tired.'

But somehow he couldn't bring himself to leave.

Roy woke up the next morning lying alone on the couch. Getting up with a tired groan, he headed to the bathroom to brush his teeth.

"Where the hell is the damn toothpa- what the..."

Catching sight of himself in the mirror, Roy gingerly poked at his forehead, which had been marked by a pair of poison-green lipsticked lips.

Poison-green, Cheshire's signature color.

Well, that answered where Jade was.

The doorbell rang, making him give a small start. With an air of resignation, Roy wiped the lipstick off, though he found he would have liked to have left it there.

"What is wrong with me?" He grumbled, walking to the door. The idiot visitor was till ringing the doorbell, making Roy think 'idiot' might actually be 'idiots'.

The second he unlocked the door, Wally and Robin tumbled in, confirming his suspicions.

"Don't you morons have school today?" Roy growled.

"It's Saturday, dipstick!" Wally told him, shoving Robin off his back.

"You should really get out more," Robin added, stretching.

"Seriously." To Roy's surprise, the numbskulls had not come alone. Artemis lounged in the doorway looking faintly uncomfortable either due to to being in Roy's apartment, or her lack of arrows. Due to the relationship between the two archers, probably both.

"So we haven't seen you in forever, and we're off duty today, so we decided to come visit and make sure you're still alive and everything." Robin jabbered on, grabbing Artemis's wrist and pulling her into the room, slamming the door behind her.

"You were bored, and Batman's cut off your sugar intake for the day." Roy translated, unimpressed.

"That's about it, yeah."

"You forgot the part where you kidnapped me from the archery range." Artemis scowled in Robin's direction. Unaffected, the little bird rolled his eyes behind his dark glasses. "Oh, please. You needed a break and you know it. You just won't admit it."

"I did not!"

"You had Wally's school ID photo pinned to the targets and yelling 'Ten points for between the eyes!'"

"Dude!" Wally shrieked, looking pale. Roy shook his head as the two started squabbling, Robin cackling maniacally all the while. "With you three around, I don't understand why The Cave still has a TV."

"Hey, what's this?" Robin grabbed Roy's arm and began inspecting his palm, which seemed to have something scribbled on it. Roy immediately recognized Jade's small, loopy, slightly sloppy scrawl and yanked his hand away in a mild panic.

"Don't just grab people! Bad manners, and all that crap!"

Robin gave a long suffering sigh. "Fine! Sorry! Can I read it now?"

"No!" Feeling extremely thankful that Rob had yet to hit his growth spurt, Roy made a fist and held it high above the boy's head. Unfortunately, Robin decided to take this as a challenge and began clambering up the redhead like a tree.

"For the last time Robin, I AM NOT A JUNGLE GYM. Wally, get the monkey off me!"

Wally removed the struggling thirteen-year-old with little to no difficulty, and then handed him to Artemis. Roy sighed with relief, then put his hand down. "Thanks, Wall-Man."

" 'Sorry I had to leave, thank you for protecting me from the thunder-"

"WALLY!" Roy yanked his hand away for a second time, this time spitting on it to smear the ink. Robin gagged. "Gross!"

" 'Protect you from the thunder'?" Wally repeated, unfazed. "Isn't that what you used to tell us when we were kids?"

"Huh?" Artemis looked confused.

"Back when we were younger, we used to be scared of storms," Robin explained. "Roy would tell us not to be scared, the storm was scared of him or something, and he'd protect us."

"Oh." Artemis's face seemed to close up slightly as she retreated into her thoughts. Remembering something- or perhaps someone- from a long time ago.

Noticing her lack of response, Robin added, "Wally was terrified, of course."

"Uh, I think not," Wally reminded his friend, tapping the boy on the head with his knuckles. "I remember you hiding under the bed every time you heard thunder. With a stuffed dog!"

"Ha," Artemis came out of her reverie, smirking slightly. "That'll be one to save for Zatanna!"

"Dude!"

The three dispersed into discussion, which mostly involved Wally and Artemis, for once combined, teasing the boy wonder over his crush on the magician girl.

"OKAY, ENOUGH, WE ARE GETTING OFF TOPIC!" Robin turned on his heel to face Roy, face more than a little red. "Who wrote on your hand?"

Damn Rob and his stupid persistence. "Nobody."

"It's bad to lie to children, Red." Artemis chastened him, one eyebrow slightly raised at his lack of cooperation.

"What she said. Beautiful people shouldn't lie, Roy!" Robin placed a hand over his heart dramatically. Wally furrowed his brow. "Hey... wasn't there a storm last night?"

There was a moment of silence wherein Robin and Wally stared at one another before turning to Roy, wearing identical troll-like grins.

"Guys, don't even start, I'm warning you-"

"No way."

"Did you have a girl over last night?"

"A girl?"

"A girl!"

"What's her name, Roy?"

"Yeah, what's her name, Roy?"

"Is she hot, Roy?"

"What you two doing last night, Roy? Playing Scrabble? Or something more fun?" Speedster and acrobat both cracked up at the last statement, the younger almost falling over laughing. Artemis shook her head, looking torn between disgust and amusement.

"I will kick you out of this apartment," Roy threatened.

Robin shook his head, laughing fit finally coming to a halt. "Nah, you won't. I know you won't. But seriously, girlfriend or hooker?"

"Neither," Roy replied as Artemis cuffed the kid over the head, hissing "Watch your mouth!" "And who taught you that word?"

"Ow! Artie, that actually hurt! Whaddaya mean, who? I live in Gotham."

"Oh. Right." His stomach gave a painful twinge, reminding him he hadn't had breakfast yet. "You guys eaten yet?"

"Yup!"

"Yeah, but I'm still hungry."

"...No."

There was a pause during which everyone turned to look at Artemis. She bit her lip, flushing faintly pink.

"Are you serious? You told me you'd been at the archery range since six this morning!" Robin exclaimed looking incredulous.

"I was."

"You three, kitchen. Go." Roy ordered, massaging his aching forehead. "Make sure she eats."

Artemis shot him a surprised look before Wally grabbed her arm and dragged her towards the kitchen. A few seconds later there was a large crash.

"Sorry!"

"Just get your Uncle to reimburse me," Roy began face palming repeatedly. Why had he thought it a good idea to let Wally in the kitchen? "For the food, too. Now I'm going to go and brush my damn teeth."

"Got it!"

Walking to the bathroom, Roy halted in the doorway and began to read the smudged blue words on his palm.

Sorry I had to leave without saying goodbye-

thank you for protecting me from the thunder. (=^・^=)

Please keep an eye on Artie. I know she acts like

she can take on the world alone, but she shouldn't

have to.

Back soon!

-J

P.S. You're out of milk.

Re-reading Jade's message, Roy felt a profound sense of relief that the three knuckleheads currently demolishing his kitchen hadn't found out about her. Mostly because he had no idea how to explain why he was allowing a deadly-assassin-with-a-possible-human-side to room with him from time to time and partly- just a small part, but still definitely there- because she was his secret.

His.

And for reasons he could not explain, he very much wanted to keep it that way.

Another crash from the kitchen jerked Roy out of his tangent.

"Baywatch, you idiot!"

THWACK.

"Ouch! Dammit Blondie, that hurt!"

"Good!"

"Uh, guys? I'm pretty sure that's flammable..."

"Do not call me that!"

"What, Blondie? What's wrong with that? Cat caught your tongue, Blondie?"

"Guys? It's burning."

WHAM.

"AURGH, WHAT THE HELL ARE YOU DOING? SHIT, THAT HURTS!"

"My name is ARTEMIS! Say it with me: AR-"

"BLOODY, BLOODY, HELL!"

"I always knew you were a Weasley... hey, guys, that fire I mentioned earlier? It's spreading."

"TE-!"

"I AM IN UNBELIEVABLE PAIN RIGHT NOW!"

"MIS!"

"SHIT, ROB, HELP!"

"I would, but I'm trying to stop the kitchen from burning down...doesn't Roy own a smoke alarm?"

"What've you learned, then?"

"That you're a complete psycho! Gawd, I think my arm bones are melting!"

"Guys? A little help please?"

"I'M a psycho?! I'm not the one who-"

"OI, MISTER AND MISSUS SEXUAL TENSION! WE HAVE STUFF ON FIRE, SO CAN YOU PLEASE PRETEND TO BE RESPONSIBLE ADULTS AND HELP ME?!"

"Oh, CRAP!"

"Water! We need water!"

"Oh crap, ohcrapohcrapohcrapOH CRAP I THINK IT'S GONNA BLOW!"

"Run!"

"Take cover!"

Shaking his head, Roy ran towards the incoming destruction of his kitchen, resigning himself to two little brothers the very personification of chaos- and now a little sister as well.