August 12th, six years old.

I maybe kinda like the way you smile; much more than the way you cry.

Artemis, hair pulled back into a long ponytail and trusty teddy (Sir Ellington) in hand, stumbled out the back door. It was a smaller house that they'd just moved into, with about two feet between itself and the neighbors, and it seemed tiny when her parents fought.

The shouting polluted the air, almost suffocating her. Jade was of no comfort - she'd slipped out the window hours ago to go commit petty crimes with her friends. Nobody was ever there to comfort her, really. Her father was distant at best, with only a few glimmering moments of affection. He seemed to like limiting those to be biannually, but it was also probably because of the fact she never saw him. He tended to spend the most time with Jade, training her for the criminal life they'd all end up leading.

And her mother... She tried. But, for reasons Artemis had yet to understand, or really recognize, she struggled with the precarious balance of the aspects of her life.

Artemis crumpled down underneath the oak tree at the edge of their yard, tears pouring down her face. As young as she was, she still hated the fact that she'd cry. It was weak, and she was sure her father would bring it up if he could see her now. So she buried her face into Sir Ellington's plush coat, sniffling.

"Hi."

She hurried to tear herself from her teddy, trying to be inconspicuous in using it to wipe away her tears in the process. It failed. A lot. "Who are you?" she managed to blurt out, perhaps a little angry with him for catching her like this.

"Wally. I live there," he said matter-of-factly, pointing a finger to the house next door. She followed the direction with her head, turning back towards him when he didn't say anything else. He had his eyebrows raised to his pile of very bright, very messy hair, staring at her expectantly.

"Artemis," she grunted, sniffing. He smiled, plopping down right next to her like he was invited to do so. Which he very much wasn't. Still, he was warm, and she was beginning to realize how chilly it was outside. So she scooted over, giving him some room to sit, and proceeded to introduce him to Sir Ellington.

July 3rd, ten years old.

The fireworks up there are nothing compared to those you light in me.

Jade was gone, a runaway at thirteen, but it'd been a year since then and Artemis had learned to get over it. She'd learned to get over a lot of things these past few years. Like the fact that she more or less lived alone at the moment. So she sat on her front porch steps, listening to the neighborhood birds and flipping her way steadily through a short novel. She sighed, setting her chin in her palm and taking a break to stare thoughtfully across the street.

She let her mind wander, traipsing between topics and wondering if there was anything else she could do that day to fill her time. And then, you know, there was a football in her face. After smacking her square in her temple, it ended up bouncing a few feet away - a solid ricochet. The book went flying to the ground as she jumped up, turning accusingly towards her neighbor.

There he stood, snickering into his hand, leaning against his raven-haired friend as he lost balance to laughing. Despite a small smirk, as least Richard looked rightfully apologetic. But Wally… Artemis snarled, bending over to pick up the football, hurling it hard at the red-haired freak of a neighbor she was cursed with. It hit him right in the gut, knocking the air out of his laughter and sending him doubling over.

By the next day, Artemis hadn't heard anything about the whole football thing from any adults, so she figured Wally at least had the decency not to tattle. For once. He had a few redeeming qualities, she supposed, and his rare moments of decency. Overall, though, he was a smug little pain in the rear. She figured that she even hated him.

It was getting dark, and she was swinging her legs from a branch of the oak tree, watching the stars and listening to faint music from some ratty earphones. She stole them a few years ago from a gas station the next town over, when Jade was still here and she was an aisle down with a soda in her coat. A block away, the high school held a huge party over their soccer fields, where the upperclassmen brought fireworks to light off near ten o'clock.

There was a rustle, and a thump, and a very distinct "Ow."

An eyebrow raised, she leaned over to see Wally sprawled out across the ground. "Need help?" she drawled, sitting back up to watch back over the sky. She missed his eye roll.

"No," he grumbled, getting back up and scrambling to reach her branch. She scooted further out the branch so he had room next to the trunk to sit by her. He sighed, relaxing against the tree.

She glanced at him from the corner of her eye, but he'd closed his eyes and was content to just sit there next to her. After a minute or two, she wordlessly offered him a bud, and he took it, sharing her music. It wasn't his favorite stuff, but he didn't dislike it.

So, yeah, a redeeming quality. And maybe he wasn't the actual worst person to spend time with. His eyes were closed again, and he was swaying just slightly, almost imperceptibly, to the rhythm. She couldn't stop a grin, and she looked back up at the stars. Moments like these were nice, she thought.

"My stomach still hurts," he complained finally, and she rolled her eyes. Moment ruined.

"It'll hurt more if I shove you out the tree."

A frown, and she smirked haughtily. "Harpy."

"Original."

His scowl was almost ugly now, twisting his face in some unpleasant look of pain, and she almost laughed at him. But as she made to taunt him, the first of the fireworks went off, and she roughly pulled the earbuds out of each of their ears. "Hey!"

She shushed him, sticking her hand in his face without looking away from the display. His exasperation was so dramatic that she could see it even as she looked straight ahead. Such a child.

But they pointed to the ones they liked best, and giggled when the smiley face was upside down, and Artemis was having fun. She didn't have a lot of friends at that point, and she'd never consider Wally to be one of them, but being alone all the time didn't feel very nice. And spending time, watching fireworks with the stupid kid next door? Well, it wasn't so lonely.

February 14th, fourteen years old.

Valentines are nice to read, but I'd rather look at you.

"Yeah, okay Wally. If you say so."

Artemis woke up that day with a reluctant, but true smile on her face. Valentine's day, the sorriest excuse of a holiday. But her mom was back now, and Artemis made her some Pho for breakfast before leaving for school, and when she opened her backpack first period to take out her homework, she found a little tuboware of Thach Rau Cau.

She stopped thieving, as her mom had stopped all of her criminal activity, and she was excited for a fresh start. Freshman year was stupid, and so was Valentine's, but she was taking it in stride, mom by her side, and things were looking up.

Things like Wally West, because he was short.

"I do say so, because it'll happen. Megan totally wants to be my valentine."

What was more aggravating than his blind confidence was definitely the fact that it got to her. Because he was insignificant, a person who was just there, and she never let anyone else get on her nerves like Wally did.

So what the heck?

She scoffed and rolled her eyes, slapping the little paper heart down in front of him. "FIne, whatever. That'll be five dollars."

And yeah, she wasn't entirely sure how she ended up sitting at a table in the cafeteria during half of the lunch periods to sell valentines flowers, but here she was and it got her out of French so that was something. But she was also the one tasked with handing all the flowers and hearts out during last period, and she was sure that she didn't remember signing up for any of this.

He fished around in his pocket before pulling out an awkward wad of small bills, disentangling a five and almost throwing it at her. She watched him fill out the heart with pursed lips, smoothing out the bill at the same time. He paused, glancing up at her for a second with squinted eyes. "What?"

"I want a second one, think I'll send it to Ms. Prince and say it's from Wayne."

She rolled her eyes again at his request, but indulged him. When he was done, she grabbed the hearts and tucked them into the box by her left hand, shooing him away so she could attend to the other sorry souls looking to buy flowers.

When she handed the flowers out, she was more than surprised to be setting aside a white carnation for herself. And it wasn't until she got home that she realized there wasn't a heart for Ms. Prince.

March 17th, sixteen years old.

Lucky to have met you, Study Buddy.

Artemis never felt particularly lucky, so she was kind of bitter about the whole 'Irish luck' thing and the fact that she wasn't Irish. At all. On Saint Patties, though, it was usually the pinching that irked her to no end.

She didn't know where the tradition came from, she probably never would, but she was about ready to slap the next person that did it to her. Oh hey, that person was Wally. So that worked out.

"Ow, what gives Harpy?"

"Don't touch me," she sniffed, tugging on the gold beads around his neck. "You look stupid." It wasn't a lie. Even though he'd hit a growth spurt and, technically, was fairly good lookingish (and maybe she was in denial but she would die before admitting that, yeah, he looked pretty good), he was the dorkiest thing on the planet. Today he was parading around in all green and gold, topped with beaded necklaces and a cheesy top hat.

"Well you're not wearing green," he accused, like it was some sort of sin. Which, maybe it was, because the one day she decides to wear something that isn't green, because she wears it almost every day, it's the day she's actually bound by peer pressure to wear green. Probably because she isn't Irish. That's how that stuff seems to work.

Artemis sneered, making to walk away, but he reached out and stopped her by gripping her arm, just above the elbow. He was warm, and she knew he always was, but a pleasant heat spread from where he was holding her and it made her shiver against the cooler air. "Wally?" she asked, when all he did was stare down at her.

"Oh," he seemed sheepish, almost confused that he hadn't said anything yet. "I was just wondering if you wanted to be my partner in Lit."

Weird. "Um, sure?"

All of a sudden he'd released her, backing away and shooting her finger guns. "Thanks, see you third period!" And he turned and jogged away, leaving Artemis rightly stunned.

Of course, he hadn't done the homework. Which was very likely the only reason he'd asked to be her partner, because she was always very thorough in hers. That, and he knew that she hated tattles, so while she would give him an earful and a half for this, she wouldn't go to the teacher. "Honestly, Wally, do you even take notes?"

He blinked, as if 'notes' was a word he'd never heard before. She groaned, leaning over to explain how Wordsworth was an old romanticist, and underlining passages in his poetry packet as she went along. She noticed somewhere along the way that when she moved in, he didn't shy away.

With the attention span of literal dirt, Wally managed to waste away the entire work period, and they were left with the remainder of the assignment as homework. It was a good thing they were neighbors, because otherwise, Artemis would feel obliged in no way to meet with him after school. Especially since this was cutting into her time at the archery range.

But he had an hour of track workouts after school, so she'd managed to slide in for just a while, at least.

They were sat on her bed, door shut because even though he was a boy and 'ew boys keep the door open young lady,' he had been a friend-acquaintance-thing for a while there and her mom really didn't even care at this point. In any case, Paula would probably fall out of her wheelchair if anything other than insults were traded between their mouths right now.

Though, Artemis suspected her mom was secretly their biggest shipper, and perhaps this was all a ploy to get them together. She wondered if she could be casual about getting up and opening the door.

Hmm.

"Artemis?"

She blinked, glancing over to see Wally sprawled on his stomach, packet open in his hands. Before coming over, he'd changed into some comfy sweats and a ratty shirt, and she wasn't sure how to feel about the level of comfort he felt he could have around her. He was staring at her expectantly, and she felt a mild flush spread over her cheeks at letting herself drift in thought. Also, his shirt was hanging loose and she could see the lines of his collarbone, which was annoying and distracting. "Where did we leave off?"

"Um. Something about a reaper. And sand."

She rolled her eyes, preparing for the longest night of poetry in her life. She scooted next to him, pulling out their assignment sheet, and began filling out the questions as she discussed them with him. Although incredibly behind, from his lack of homework and general distraction, he kept up a good discussion with her, and she found herself pleased with the way he could banter ideas about Wordsworth's points with her.

It was hard, sometimes, to find people who weren't so vanilla about stating their opinion. She liked that Wally had a strong voice, because the competition validated the fact that her opinions were both her own, and that they could make others think.

Long after the assignment was done and shoved away, they sat there just talking. Mostly arguing, but talking nevertheless. She had ended up on the floor by the foot of her bed, Wally laying so that his head hung off the side next to hers. Artemis looked over in the middle of a debate on the uses of rulers as weapons, and noticed how alarmingly close he was.

He noticed the halt in her argument and looked at her as well, and she felt annoyingly trapped by the green of his eyes, like she was locked in place and couldn't move. A million freckles painted his face, if she had dared to count them all, and she almost wanted to reach out and cover them up, so she could slide her fingers away and reveal them one by one.

But he'd pulled himself up and ended up standing by the door before she realized what happened, and was saying something about 'thanks for helping' or whatever. She stood up as well, walking over so she could lead him down through the house. Obviously, he'd been there enough times to know where he was going, but she had something else to say. They were silent all the way to his front doorstep, then she held his arm, keeping him in place.

His brows were raised expectantly, and she couldn't help but think she saw a glimmer of… something in his eyes, and while she didn't know what he wanted her to say just then, she was pretty sure it wasn't what she wanted to. "Artemis?" She wet her lips and looked up at him, smiling just slightly.

Then she pinched him, right in the side, and started to back away. "You aren't wearing any green," she announced, hopping down his steps and swinging in through her door. She glanced out the entry way window, watching him stand there, confused, before he smiled something warm and made his way inside.

December 21st, seventeen years old.

Mistletoe kisses and possibly burnt cookies, I gift you with all the blame.

The Christmas party Megan threw was pretty great, because while the whole friend group was close, their ages were a significant barrier, and they never really saw each other that often. They'd only had the chance to bond when, years ago, they'd all taken part in a police force internship. It accepted all students junior high and up, which is how Richard in eighth grade all the way to the three in senior year of high school wound up working together.

After that, though, it was rare for the group to find themselves all together.

There was another girl there too, who Artemis had actually met once before last year. Apparently she was good friends with Megan and Richard, separately, but went to a different school, so Artemis never saw her. She was pretty great actually, mischievous in all the right ways. Zatanna, was that her name?

Although, now that she thinks about it, it was probably actually Zatanna that put her here, not Megan like she'd immediately assumed. Perhaps teamwork, because they were the most adamant that she was bound by tradition to kiss Wally West right now. Under the mistletoe. Like a couple of nerds.

His lips were pursed in thought, and he wasn't quite looking in her eyes but it was somewhere close to there. All of her so-called-friends were standing around, chanting and cheering, and it was actually the stupidest thing. So she went ahead and gripped his stupid rudolph sweater and pulled.

Her intentions were to bruise his lips with a quick kiss, but it just felt so nice right where she was. It was a little awkward, because she hadn't angled her head enough and their noses were kind of smushed, but he tasted like peppermint and cinnamon and it was a weird combination but hey, it was strong and she liked it. She felt him shift under her hands, under her lips, and he was moving his mouth against hers. Fire pooled in her stomach, reaching up to lick at her lungs in the most pleasant way.

Artemis managed to drag herself away, almost groaning with the way he trailed after her for a moment. She'd left his lips red and puffy, eyes heavy and intense when they stared down at her. Mm, but she wanted more. She was tempted, and almost bounced back up to take his mouth once again, when she remembered that there was an entire room of people around them.

So she cleared her throat, and ducked under the arm he'd put on the door frame behind her - which, when had that happened? - so she could go check on the cookies, as she'd intended to do when she'd gotten caught up in the whole mistletoe business.

December 25th, seventeen years old.

The best present this year is you, m'dear. And your dorky face.

It was three minutes after midnight, and officially Christmas, and Artemis was sitting cross legged in Wally's desk chair. She'd snuck in through the window, because where her mother didn't mind them tucking away in one room or the other, his parents were always a firm no.

She knew it wasn't because they didn't trust her, because they liked her. Not as much as Paula liked Wally, but that was a difficult affection to beat. If anything, she was sure it was their son they didn't trust. Rightfully, really.

He was a mess of a teenage boy.

In her hands was a small box, wrapped in the dorkiest Santa themed paper. His hands held onto a larger box, clad in simple green with a dark red bow. She bit her lip - they'd been sitting there staring at each other for a solid three minutes. "You go first," she suggested, and he nodded slowly.

He was slow to tear the seams of the wrapping, even putting care into keeping the bow in tact to he could wrap the ribbon around his head like some bizarre crown. A small laugh bubbled past her lips, and he grinned winningly at her. He finally shed all the paper, tossing it to the side so he could slip the lid off of the box. The present wasn't anything special, something she'd gotten to months ago and tucked away. He pulled it out, a yellow track jersey, with red and white lettering. On the front was a bold lightning bolt, because he was easily the fastest runner their school had seen.

The back boasted two zeroes, because he was a nerd and not cool enough for an actual number, and the dorky nickname he insisted on being called. Wall-man. As boring as it actually was to get a shirt for Christmas, his face lit up extraordinarily. His smile was huge, and it made her smile too because he looked absolutely ridiculous.

"Awesome," he murmured, rushing to pull it over his head, even though he was already wearing a bulky sweatshirt. He managed to skew the ribbon, too, pulling it halfway down his face. When he was done, he sat there grinning at her, and she burst out laughing, pulling out her phone to take a picture.

"You're ridiculous, Wally," she told him, and he didn't seem offended in the least.

Instead, he bounced slightly in place and gestured towards her. "Your turn."

She slid her slim fingers across the creases in the wrapping, not taking nearly as much time as him to get to the box and open it. Inside was a neatly folded piece of black leather, and she lifted it out to find it was an archer's glove. On the back of it was a bright green arrow, stylized like her team's logo, and a small cursive word against the side of the logo. She looked closer to see it was her name.

"Try it on," he urged excitedly, and she rolled her eyes. The inside of the glove was comfy against her fingers, and the leather was perfectly flexible.

"Where the heck did you get this, Wally?"

"It's a secret." He winked, wiggling his fingers in front of him in some sort of third grader pretending to cast a spell. He was such an idiot.

But they'd been trading gifts like this for a while now, and as simple as they seemed, they were always heartfelt. And for some reason, they jumped a million hoops to get them for each other. She also had no idea when he would have managed to grab her glove size, but he would probably wonder how she got his jersey size if she brought it up. So she didn't.

Artemis took the glove off, setting it carefully back in the box and putting that on the desk. She stood up, walking over to him, and cast her arms around his shoulders in an awkward hug, because he was still sitting cross legged in the middle of the bed, and she had to kneel in front of him to reach him. But he made it easier, shifting onto his knees as well and pulling her closer against his front.

"Wally?"

"Yeah, let's not talk," he suggested, letting her go with one hand so that he could cup her cheek and guide her mouth to his. She hummed, mumbling against his lips.

"Okay."