Title: Superman Socks
Summary: Wally gets a little too serious and Artemis runs to the only person who knows him better than her. Traught friendship & Spitfire
Complete: 11/10/14

"Hey... Robin?" The youngest hero grunted to acknowledge the archer across from him. He was typing a report for Kaldur that Batman demanded be in that night; he was so caught up, he didn't notice the tense stature of his best hero-girl-friend in front of him. "Can I talk to you for a minute?" the second time she spoke, the worried strain in her voice grabbed his attention.

Her shoulders and jaw were tense and her eyes were darting side to side as if she were expecting assassins from the League of Shadows to descend on them at any second. Obviously, this concerned the resident Bat, making him tense as well—of course, not as visually. Artemis was among the more serious of their teammates, but she rarely worried. He scanned all around him from under his sunglasses before quickly saved the file and shut off the laptop in front of him and turning his attention to the girl across from him.

"Of course, 'Mis," he answered good-naturedly. "What can the Boy Wonder do for you?"

"Have you... talked to Wally?" the brunettes right eyebrow cocked up in wonder before his eyes narrowed suspiciously. A quick glance to Artemis clenched fist worried the boy even more. Clasped tightly in her hands was two of Wally's favorite pair of socks—the dorky ones with the Flash and Superman symbols all over them.

"Not today..." he quickly glanced at his watch—Wally wasn't due at the Mountain for their movie night for another hour. "What's wrong?"

"He..." she broke eye contact and started looking absently around the kitchen—at anything but the other Gothamite. Robin clacked his teeth together in irritation, but Artemis didn't notice. "Has Wally talked about... us? To you I mean?"

Robin scoffed as if that was the stupidest question he had ever heard.

"You do know that I'm his best friend, right?" he tried to joke, but the seriousness of his teammate continued to gnaw at the back of his mind. Was something wrong with Wally?

"That's why I asked," she bit out, glaring at the shorter hero. "Look," she shoved her hands forward, displaying the socks Dick had already noticed, cleaned and folded, despite being wrinkled almost unrecognizably by her grip.

"They're Kid Dork's socks," he played along.

"Yeah, and he left them in my apartment." Dick stared at her, as if expecting her to finish her point. She never did.

"And...?" he egged on, flicking his wrist impatiently.

"My apartment, where I live, and he doesn't." Dick still didn't seem to understand her point and she sighed in annoyance. "Do you think he's... you know... trying to hint at something?"

"Like what?" he asked, baffled.

"Well... you know how he is, all clingy and shit," she blurted out and gestured wildly. "We've only been dating for like a year and—" she paused, "seeing each other for 2 months and he's leaving his socks at my house."

Artemis was not expecting the bat to burst into hysterical laughter—and not his usual cackle that echoed eerily through any space and sent nervous shivers down the spine of anyone that could hear it—full blown, unadulterated, jovial laughter.

"What is your problem!?" she questioned, turning more red than the Flash's costume. "I'm serious Rob! Do you think he's trying to not-so-subtly hint at something? Because I am so not ready for him to 'have a drawer' at my place. He's only spent the night twice and both times he's left—"

"'Mis," the bat breathed out, finally gaining his composure, but still sporadically giggling, "if you think Kid Mouth leaving his Superman socks at your house means something, Wally and I have been married for years," he assured. "I have a drawer with like 5 full sets of his clothes at my place because he just leaves some piece of clothing whenever he comes over."

Artemis blushed again—this time at her own foolishness. Of course someone with the attention span of a gnat would forget his stuff everywhere. How often had they found his t-shirts in the gym he had stripped during training or his boxers on the knob of the washroom? Now that she thought about it, didn't Flash leave his grocery lists and one of his cowls here once?

To hide her embarrassment, the blonde crossed her arms and 'tsk'ed "Do all Speedsters leave their crap around other people's homes? It's like they're marking their territory or something."

Robin cackled.

"No kidding! Flash has a sweater at the bat-cave from this one time he was in Gotham while visiting the Bats secret id," Robin agreed. "They ended up going against Freeze and gave his civvy-sweater to Batman to help warm him up after he got hit and just never bothered to take it back."

Artemis scoffed at the thought, but couldn't help but feel better.

She loved Wally, don't get her wrong, but she wasn't ready for him to move in—not while she was still fighting her father.

"Trust me: He's a clingy dork and he's serious about you, but you're 16 years old—I don't think he's ready to 'have a drawer' yet," he soothed, moving around the island and patting her shoulder to comfort her. He grabbed the Superman socks from Artemis and examined them flippantly before snickering and waving them in Artemis' face. "Sixteen and leaving his Superman socks at his girlfriends'."

Artemis laughed with him, a great weight taken off her shoulders.

"What do I see in him?"

"Hey Rob~ ready for movie night!" the ginger declared, suddenly appearing in the kitchen as the computer declared his arrival. "And what does who see in who?" he asked with his head cocked to the side as his teammates recovered from the gust of wind that always accompanied his super-speed stops.

"You're late," Robin grumped, shoving the socks into the baffled teens' arms and walking past him. "'Mis is joining us!"

Flabbergasted, Wally stared into his arms before blushing at the sight of his socks.

"Wh-where did you get these!?" he called after his best friend.

"My place, Kid Clingy," she teased, dropping the Flash patterned material into his hand as she passed him. "We're watching my pick."

"Ah..." he perked up as that statement caught up with his brain. "Wait! Arte! It's my turn!"

"Not now it isn't!" Robins trade-mark cackle followed her voice through the mountain. "You're late!" Wally glanced quickly at the clock on the wall, before following them with a betrayed noise.

"I'm 55 minutes early!"

9/12 for this year! 3 moooooar to my goooooaaaaaaal~