Disclaimer: I don't own Young Justice.

Missteps by RainySpade

Chapter One

It had been a few months since Roy and Kaldur had gotten the chance to work together; it hadn't been since Lex Luthor had "negotiated" the peace talks for Rhelasia. Ever since then Roy had gotten the crazy idea that he and Kaldur would make a really good team. The only issue was that no matter what he would say to the young Atlantean, Roy knew that Kaldur would turn him down to fulfill his responsibilities to the Justice League and their mini-mes before he would ever agree to leave the team. Roy knew better than to think that for an instant that the Justice League would keep Kaldur as leader of the Justice's Junior Squad.

Everyone with eyes could see that The Justice League was just waiting for Dick to gain the necessary experience to take over as leader. There was no doubt that one day the boy wonder would be leader but it should be just that, the League should wait until he had the ability to lead. Kaldur currently had his vote for best leader and nothing had changed his mind about that, including Kaldur's decision to not inform the team that there was a mole planted among them. Last he had heard there was an uproar in the cave about it and the distrust that Kaldur had for the team. The fact that there had been an issue about it proved that Kaldur was the best leader they could have at the moment.

Roy was currently on his way to the cave for a social visit. He wanted to see how his friend was doing and to see what the team was up to. The Security System's voice rang through the mountain as he entered. "B06. Red Arrow." He wished that they would freaking drop that B already. That was how the security system designated between the real members and the sidekicks. Well considering that he still wasn't really a member they could give him at least a different letter before his number.

Roy was dressed down in jeans and a tee-shirt. As his eyes adjusted to the darkness of the cave Roy slipped off his sunglasses and took in the copious amounts of blueprints and building specifications of what looked like a warehouse. On some of the screens there were maps of what must have been the areas around the building. He could recognize it as being one of the places out by the docks but other than that it really could have been any of them. He smirked a little as he took a mental head count. Then it occurred to him that it was Tuesday, and they were in the middle of October. "Hey, last time I checked...weren't, like, all of you enrolled in school? What are you doing here?" His eyebrow quirked as Kaldur stepped forward and took the conversation into his hands.

"Typically they would be, but the League has something that they need us to look into for them. They made a special case just for this mission." Kaldur hesitated and Roy knew that he wasn't going to tell him the details of the mission. Roy didn't think it was because Kaldur didn't want to though it seemed more like he was sworn to secrecy.

Roy shrugged as he cast his eyes over at the rest of the team that whispered in hushed voices. He could assume they were still setting their plans for the mission and frankly it wasn't any of Roy's business since he left the team. Or hey, they could be talking trash about him because he had left the team because they were getting a little too immature for him but he would assume they were planning for their safety. His eyes met with Kaldur's and he handed him a card with an address. "I just wanted to drop this by, I don't much care for babysitting but I wanted you to know where there was a safe place if anything happens."

He was probably over reacting but the uneasy feeling had been nagging Roy for a while now and he wanted to give Kaldur a get out of jail free card so to speak. Things were getting more and more dangerous for the mini-league as each day passed and he had a bad feeling about what the League was having their protégés doing. Roy looked over Kaldur's shoulder at Robin and Wally. They had been friends once and he couldn't blame them for being on the team. They were young and no matter who their mentor was they didn't have the experience to go off on their own like Roy had but he almost wished they would just to avoid what dangers the League was just seemingly let them walk into.

"You look like you have a lot on your mind." Kaldur's voice interrupted Roy's thoughts causing him to snap back to reality. Roy wasn't sure what to do with this uneasy feeling he was having. He thought about talking to the young Atlantean about the nagging feeling but he was certain that Kaldur would just say it was nothing. Sometimes Kaldur's greatest strength was his greatest weakness and undoubtedly it was Kaldur's faith in his team that was his greatest strength. His trust in the League was unwavering and Roy could see the problems that could cause.

"I'm alright, its nothing I can't handle." Roy stepped around Kaldur and took a closer looks at the plans of the building. "Where is this?" Sure he was curious but Roy didn't want all the details. If he had them he might do something as stupid as follow them to the warehouse and make sure that they took care of the League's dirty business without getting hurt. Roy didn't want the mini-League to think he was getting weak. Roy glanced over at the location map as Superboy and Artemis gave him a stiff look. He supposed his replacement was still mad about what he said, not that he cared. As for Superboy? Well he always looked like he had a stick up his-

"We are supposed to go to the docks. There were some suspicious activities reported there recently. It's not supposed to be anything we can't handle." Kaldur's voice was even and cool as it always was but Roy could hear the slight insecurity, but only cause he was looking for it. Roy trusted Kaldur but he didn't trust the rest of the team, the security was loose enough for Red Tornado to go rogue without anyone noticing. Roy just sighed as he ran his hand through his hair.

"It's not supposed to." Roy repeated back slowly as if turning it over in his head, "Now why doesn't that make me feel better?" His voice was even as he looked at the mismatched bunch and back to Kaldur, "Alright, fine, I'll shut it now." He waved his hands in front of his as a surrender he didn't want to fuss with the kids anymore. He slipped his sunglasses back on and headed for the door. It took him a split moment for Roy to notice that Kaldur was following him. Roy stopped and turned around taking into focus that they were now far enough away to avoid the others listening in.

"Do you doubt our ability as a team?" Roy couldn't tell if he heard agitation or hurt in Kaldur's voice but either was pretty scary to hear. Roy leaned back a little in surprise as he shook his head. His team wasn't the most reliable. They had some really huge faults and in the long run he was fairly certain that it would fall apart and it really wouldn't take that long. There were already pretty strong warning signs. The biggest was that Kaldur's faith was not reciprocated among the rest of the team.

"Team? Have you looked around? Kaldur, you don't have a team, you have a group of rebellious kids who have super powers." Roy knew the disbelief was splayed out on his face and the others could probably read him like an open book. Now that he thought about it the green one was probably reading his thoughts. "Look, I'm not going to point out everything they've done wrong but I'm just going to say that you may be their leader but they haven't kept their end of this little bargain." His voice was low. He wasn't really that angry, Roy just wanted to get his point across to Kaldur.

Kaldur shook his head a little and looked at the ground as if in shame, "That might be true but we haven't been a team for very long. You must give these things time Roy." Kaldur's lips formed a small smile, "We all know that you aren't the most patient of men, in fact I believe it's the reason you aren't on our team if I remember correctly." Kaldur had made a joke of the entire situation because Roy knew that if Kaldur admitted that his "team" was just a rag tag group that had more responsibilities and less risk as sidekicks than as the team they were now, that Kaldur would lose his trust in them and he would begin to realize that they had gone against his word too many times for him to truly lead them

He looked back at them and held out his hand to Roy. "Thank you for coming by to see me, and for giving me the address. If I ever need to call in that favor you owe me from Taipei, I'll be sure to show up on your doorstep my friend." Kaldur's eyes lit up a little and Roy just noticed how tired and spent Kaldur looked. It hit him that since their trip to the Bialyan Dessert that Kaldur probably hadn't gotten much rest and Roy felt almost felt guilty about coming here and getting on Kaldur's case about the insubordination and just flat out lack of care for their leader and ally's life.

Roy took his hand and shook it. "Even if you don't need to call in on that favor, if you ever just need a place to get away, that isn't Atlantis of course." That apparently had caught Kaldur's attention because he nodded as if seriously contemplating the idea of coming over and crashing for a while. Roy had heard Aquaman once talk about a girl that Kaldur liked back in Atlantis and Roy had to wonder why he spent so much time up here on the surface. Things had probably gone south but all he could do was speculate and that was no good, "I want to wish you good luck today."

Kaldur nodded his appreciation as Roy withdrew his hand and waved at the rest of the team. He certainly didn't trust them but that didn't mean that they were bad kids. He hoped nothing bad would happen to them tonight because the league was putting them in just as much danger. The only difference between them and Kaldur was that Kaldur would get the blame for whatever went wrong when it did. It really was a when and not an if when it came to playing with the sheer explosives that the Justice League was making these kids handle.

Roy didn't have time to babysit though, and he wasn't about to clean up the mess his mentors were about to make but frankly Kaldur shouldn't have had to either. Roy just wished he would see that his trust was not a two way street. The kids didn't really believe in him to be their leader , they just wanted someone they could push over and when it got down to it Kaldur wasn't a push over and he was going to stand up to his team. Roy just had to wait and he hated it when Kal was right.