A/N This has been sitting on my desktop for a while, and thanks to my friend and beta reader the lovely Fairy Dell I finally decided to dust it off and post it! It's funny, this story started as something different and grew into something I wasn't expecting. Don't you love it when stories pull that on you? Anyways, you don't want to read my blatherings, you want the story! Set in Season 1 after Zatanna joins the Team, and I do not have any copyright or whatever because if I did…well let's just say Season 2 would have been very different.
"As an archer, shouldn't you know how to use a bow by now?" Wally snapped irritably at his blonde teammate.
"I do! How about you watch where you're running for once!" Artemis snarled in reply.
"Do we really have to sit here and listen to them keep going?" Zatanna asked, glancing idly at her nails.
"Think of it as a sort of initiation," Robin chuckled from his seat next to the young magician, Conner sitting on the other side of him and staring intently at the static television screen. "If you can survive those two arguing you can survive anything that gets thrown your way."
"I was there first! You shot at me on purpose!" Wally accused.
"Trust me, Flash Boy, if I was shooting at you on purpose I wouldn't have missed," Artemis smirked predatorily.
"Lousy initiation," Zee shook her head.
"We're working on coming up with a better one. But for now it's all we've got…"
"I agree with Zatanna," M'Gann spoke up as she floated in from the kitchen. "Their fighting has been occurring more often lately. And much more violent."
"They're not violent yet," Robin disagreed. "Artemis only has her bow right now. It's only really dangerous when she brings out the arrows."
"Cocky jerk!"
"Arrogant witch!"
"I take offense at that," Zee called over half-heartedly.
"Why doesn't he ever threaten her?" Conner wondered out loud. "She's not even a super, he could take her."
Zatanna and M'Gann got whiplash turning to glare at the Superboy while Robin shook his head sadly.
"Easy ladies, he's only a boy," the thirteen-year-old soothed his female friends before turning to the clone.
"Supey, what did the genomes teach you about chivalry?"
"It's dead?"
"True," Robin nodded before continuing. "But not in Wally's home. His aunt, not to mention his own mother, would kill him if they ever found out he tried to hit a girl. Who wasn't a supervillain," Robin amended. "Unless he was the one to start the fight with the villain. Then Aunt Iris would probably still try to maim him."
"You know, for someone so fast you sure can be slow!" Artemis shouted.
"Yeah well for someone so…so…" Wally trailed off.
"So what Wally? Finish that sentence, I dare you."
"So Wally can't hit Artemis because she's a girl?" Conner asked.
"Essentially, yes." Robin nodded.
"That's stupid. It's a double standard."
"Technically true. Does that mean you're going to hit M'Gann the next time you get upset with her? Or Artemis? Or Zatanna? Black Canary?"
"No!" Conner couldn't say the word fast enough, glancing at his girlfriend and the magician quickly in fear.
"Why?" Robin grinned cheekily.
Conner was quiet for a moment, considering his possible answers.
"Because they'd find a way to destroy me," he finally said truthfully.
"Exactly," Robin nodded.
"What? We would not!" M'Gann and Zatanna protested.
"Oh really?" Robin turned back to them. It didn't matter that he really liked Zatanna. The teenager was in full trolling mode at the moment and not even the black-haired angel could convince the Boy Wonder to depart from his first true love.
"Zatanna, if you found out that, oh let's say, for reasons not to be disclosed, Conner hit M'Gann. Hard enough to leave a bruise. What would you do?"
Zatanna opened her mouth to protest then promptly closed it, a frown crossing her face as she considered the question. Robin smirked triumphantly at her silence.
"Thought so. And M'Gann…let's say that Wally decided he'd had enough and slammed into Artemis at the speed of sound. What would you do to him?"
The Martian bit her lip and mumbled something that sounded vaguely like 'psychological torture'.
"I'm sorry what was that?" Robin cupped a hand around his ear, leaning forward. M'Gann smiled sheepishly.
"Psychological torture. I'd have him thinking he was a three-year-old ballerina by the time I was done with him," M'Gann looked embarrassed to be telling the truth.
"And then she'd give him to me. And then I'd give him to Black Canary. It'd just go on from there," Zatanna smirked slightly.
"So you see Supey?" Robin asked turning back to the clone. "While technically us guys not being allowed to hit girls is a double standard, but it's really for our own protection. We can claim that we don't hit girls because it's not the manly thing to do, and the girls can rest assured in the knowledge that if we did hit them their best friends would murder us in our sleep."
"After several days worth of physical and mental torture," Zatanna added.
"Don't scare Conner, Zatanna. He's only a few months old."