While Artemis didn't know Robin's identity, it was fun to get to know him better; to put little pieces of the puzzle together. His small quirks, habits, opinions on things...
She was no detective, so didn't expect to figure his identity out from her observations. But that wasn't the goal.
It just came down to Artemis wanting to know him better.
And this happened from spending time around him, noticing the little things.
She found out the most whenever Wally was around; he knew Robin the best, so she was able to find out a lot about the elusive bird via the speedster. Robin also seemed to be the most comfortable, and off guard around Wally, so casual conversation became much more informative.
Plus, Wally spoke with no hesitation, or verbal filter.
This was the reason Artemis knew what she did about Robin's great-grandmother.
Robin and Wally were sitting on one of the couches, scrolling through Robin's phone. He handed the device to Wally, who looked at it for two seconds before exclaiming, "Dude, your great-grandmother was HOT!"
It was also obvious that when he wanted to, Robin could be unbelievably immature.
They had just won a fight, and henchmen were scattered across the warehouse, unconscious.
As she put her withdrawn arrow away, Artemis noticed Wally practically suffocating from stifled laughter. Following his line of sight, she looked at the henchmen...
Who's faces had marker on them, with stuff like 'i luv unicorns', 'kiss me im irish', 'xoxo', or 'barbie girl' written on them. One henchman even had round glasses and a lighting bolt scar scribbled onto his face. Robin, who was incredibly smug, put a cap back on his black marker.
He's a Disney kid, as far as she could tell.
Once Artemis picked up on this, she'd actually realized how often Robin made Disney movie references. And of course, there was that one day, with his 'Wall-E' the robot voice.
He'd made voice impersonations of the cute robot every time Wally was present. His incessant variations of "wAAALLyy" were hysterical, and he was able to find 27 different ways to say the name. The speedster was ready to strangle him by the end of the day.
However, the best part of this had been when it was revealed that Wally's ringtone had been changed to Robin's most exaggerated version...which went off during training with Black Canary.
What came as a shock to her was that Robin was ESL; meaning English was not his first language.
Robin and Wally were sitting at the kitchen table, textbooks sprawled on the surface as they worked on homework. Artemis had been procrastinating via youtube when she accidentally overheard their conversation.
"What are you working on?" Wally asked, pulling a notebook towards himself.
"Chemistry." Robin mumbled as he made notes.
"What do you have done?" Wally replied.
"Uh, French, Math, Psychology, Social Studies. Did the easiest ones first."
"Huh." Wally said, as he obviously tried to not laugh. After Chemistry, it just left English. "Man, what did the English language ever do to you.' the redhead muttered, amused.
"Let's just say it was a sonnavabitch to learn, and leave it at that." Robin replied as he kept taking notes, eyes never leaving his textbook.
Robin's mother had either left, or was dead...somehow, she was gone.
The team had been hanging at Bibbo's after a successful mission (nothing had been blown up), and the radio was playing classic pop. Artemis was actually have a fun time, especially since Robin and Wally had stopped kicking
each other underneath the table. She'd easily ended that by accusing them of playing 'footsie on steroids'.
Wally and Robin were on their way to the counter to pick up the second round of milkshakes, when Artemis heard Robin suddenly go, "My mom used to love this song,' to Wally. Which implied that she was gone.
Paying attention to the song, it turned out to be 'Mamma Mia'' by ABBA. Wally looked very uncomfortable, and was staring hard at Robin; he looked as if he was trying to read his best friend. As Robin picked up the tray of milkshakes and made his way back to their booth, Wally lingered at the counter, speaking to the cashier.
When the redhead came back, M'gann suddenly said, "Hey, they changed the music!"
"Why'd you ask them to change the station?" Connor asked...right. Superhearing.
"I was getting tired of that station, " Wally replied, poking a straw in his milkshake, avoiding Robin's gaze.
He was totally rich.
"When's Robin going to get here?" Connor asked, crossing his arms expectantly. Earlier that day, the 13 year old had demanded that there be pillow forts constructed by the time he arrived for the movie in the evening, so the kryptonian expected him to be there to appreciate their efforts.
"Let me call him again." Wally replied, frowning. At around the second ring, Robin picked up.
"Dude, you said you'd be here!" Wally said into the phone.
"Aw come on!" he exclaimed, then moved into the kitchen.
"You have got to be kidding me," she heard before Waly lowered his voice, and Artemis couldn't hear any more.
"What is he saying?" she asked Connor, who sighed.
"Wally just said, 'Let me get this straight.'" the clone listened for a minute before revealing the next part of the conversation, "So you took the Ferrari out for a spin, eluded the cops, then got busted, and never once thought about having your wingman ride shotgun?""
Him and Wally had their annoying little inside jokes.
Sometimes, all it ever took was a few words.
"C'mon, Rob!" Wally reprimanded, getting agitated at the 13 year old.
"What?" Robin innocently replied.
"Stop it." Wally told him.
"Stop what, this?" Robin asked, then cracked his fingers, one by one. Wally cringed at every 'pop' of the joints.
"Yes, that! You dick." Wally responded, and they both dissolved into giggles. But apparently, according to Robin, guys don't giggle. Even though those two did.
The amount of humor they found in Wally's comment was way beyond the quality of the joke, so it was definitely another inside joke.
Very inside.
Artemis had never seen anyone able to make Robin laugh like Wally could. It was ridiculous. When those two were together in a room, they could find a sneeze to be hysterical.
The hardest Artemis had ever seen Robin laugh was when Wally supersped into the living room, went, "Beep Beep" like Roadrunner from Looney Tunes, and the next moment left the way he came.
Eventually, Artemis went to get Kaldur to try and calm the acrobat down; he just wouldn't stop laughing.
Wally knew Robin's secret ID. Or, at least, had seen his eyes. Just because you've seen a person's eyes doesn't mean you figure out their name; it was possible that Wally knew what Robin looked like without the sunglasses, and just never bothered to put a name to the face. After all, his secret identity would still be intact that way.
Just last week, Wally had knocked Robin's sunglasses off when running into the kitchen; M'gann had told her about it. Apparently Wally had run straight into Robin, who had been carrying a box of cereal around with him and snacking on it.
The impact had sent them both tumbling to the ground, with Wally sprawled on top of Robin.
Groaning, Robin shoved Wally off, then smacked the top of his head. Rubbing his head, Wally had thrown Robin a dirty look when he suddenly said, "Dude, shades!"
"Nobody come into the kitchen!" Robin yelled into the living room, where M'gann and Kaldur were getting up to check on the two in the kitchen after hearing the commotion.
According to M'gann, they'd forbidden entry to the kitchen for 5 minutes while the two of them searched for the missing sunglasses. Standing outside the kitchen entrance waiting for permission to enter, she'd heard comments such as, "Wish you didn't have to wear those shades all the time.", "Where the heck are they?" "What about your back-up pairs?" "Those were my back-up's back-up's back-up pair!" "Hey, they were under the fridge!","I can put my own sunglasses on, Wally.", etc
Robin was as close to Roy as he was to Wally. This was new information.
The zeta tube announced Robin's arrival, and a minute later he walked through the living room. Usually, seeing him wearing a hoodie or jacket too loose on him wasn't surprising; he was always stealing Wally's shirts and hoodies. Apparently, Robin did this to people he was really close to, but so far Artemis had only seen it happen to Wally.
But when she saw him wearing a worn, faded red jacket that really was several sizes too big, she couldn't help but stare. Robin went down the hallway to the bedrooms, disappearing from view. Once he was gone, Wally started laughing. Artemis gave him a questioning look.
"I'm just glad he's stealing Roy's clothes for a change." Wally explained, amused.
Apparently, Robin and Wally weren't a couple...
M'gann was flipping through the channels on the TV, when she paused at the sports channel; the cheerleaders' routine was being shown, an interest to the martian girl. The squad finished their routine, and the crowd applauded, as did M'gann. However, instead of changing the channel again, M'gann left it on. Artemis was scrolling on her phone when M'gann asked, "What are they doing?"
Artemis looked up, to see a girl and guy in a liplock. Huh.
"At sporting events, they do this thing where couples - " Artemis started to explain, but then jumped to her feet and shouted loud enough for everyone in the Cave to hear, "WALLY AND ROBIN ARE ON THE KISS CAM!"
But that's a story for another time.
Shoutout to a-girl-a-computer-and-a-fandom - Booyah! I love that you got the 'I like your shoelaces' reference, your response had me in fits of giggles. I'll follow you on tumblr sometime :)
I'm quite fond of my shoelaces too. lol.
You know, I'm really concerned that I'm gonna be like, 40, and still writing yj fanfic.
And waiting for season 3.
Our poor fandom. Sherlock has more seasons.