A/N: Hey, guys! I'm sort of new to this area of fanfiction, but I am a huge fan of Young Justice, and SuperMartian, so I apologize in advance if this is too OOC. Hope you like it, though!
Disclaimer: I don't own Young Justice!
It was cold. Megan was lying face down in something wet and cold. It took her a moment to realize that it was snow. The young Martian was rather surprised. She had known that the flaky, white stuff that fell from the sky in freezing cold weather was supposed to be icy cold, but not like this. And, well, to be frank, who could blame her? She was from Mars. They didn't exactly have snow there.
The red haired girl groaned as she pulled herself up on her arms and looked at her surroundings. For a moment, all she could see was white, but slowly, a dark shape came into focus a few feet away.
"Superboy!" she cried and crawled slowly over to her companion. He was trying to get up as well. "Are you hurt?" the Martian inquired as she tried to help him get up.
"No," he breathed, lifting his head to squint at the girl. He didn't seem to notice the cold, or, if he did, didn't show it. "What happened?"
"I don't know. The last thing I remember is Batman giving us a mission somewhere in Alaska – Hello, Megan!" she suddenly cried as they both stood up, "We've got to stop The Shadows here in Alaska!"
"Then what are we doing in the middle of nowhere?" Conner pointed out, gesturing at the seemingly endless blizzard that continued to rage around them, "I don't see Cheshire, or any of the other Shadows here."
"You have a point," Megan agreed begrudgingly, "Maybe I can summon the others telepathically." A few seconds of silence passed as the young Martian tried to reach her fellow team members. "Nothing," she finally announced, glaring down at the snow, "They must be out of my range."
"We'll figure something out," the clone promised, crossing his arms on his chest, "Right now we need to find a cave or some other form of shelter. If we don't get out of the cold soon, we'll freeze to death."
"You're right, again," she agreed, adding the last part hastily, "Let's go." The girl tried to rise up into the air, but only got about seven feet of the ground before she tumbled back down, straight into Superboy's arms.
"Oof!" she cried as she fell and moments later found herself staring into the penetrating blue eyes of her crush.
"Maybe we should just walk," he suggested, already taking slow, cautious steps through the snow, which reached almost to his knees.
"Good idea," Megan said, and attempted to climb out of Conner's arms. Instead of letting her, though, the clone's arms merely tightened around the Martian, keeping her from escaping. She looked up to stare at him questioningly.
"You can't fly," he said, stating the obvious, "And if you can't fly, then just walking could over-exert you."
"But I'm freezing," the red head argued, "The exercise will warm me up."
"Not in this weather," Conner smirked.
"Seriously," Megan told him, knowing that by now she must be blushing furiously, "I'll be fine. I have a better chance of not freezing to death if I move. Also, carrying me is only gonna slow you down, and then we'll both freeze, and that's already a problem since neither of us is exactly properly dressed for Iceland. I mean, Alaska. Hello, Megan! I really should equip the ship with some winter gear or something-"
"You seem pretty warm to me," the boy interrupted quietly. She was babbling by now. He'd never tell it to her, though, but he liked it when she started babbling on and on like that. It was…cute. He loved it even more when she blushed like she was doing now and tried to hide it from him. The clone knew it meant that she was embarrassed, but, honestly, he couldn't fathom the reason why. He'd have to ask Kandur about that later.
"Aren't you cold?" Megan finally asked. She wasn't blushing anymore, but, as soon as her eyes flitted down to his chest, the girl's cheeks flared up a brilliant scarlet again. Conner frowned as that unfathomable blush appeared again, and for a moment, forgot to answer his friend's question. He was cold, it was true, but he was still wearing the jacket he always wore to school, so that provided at least some warmth. Also, the Martian in his arms, who seemed to be heating more and more by the minute, was doing a considerable job at warming the young hero.
"Only a little," he finally admitted with a shrug and all of a sudden stopped in his tracks.
"What is it?" the girl asked, instinctively clutching the boy's shirt and looking around for potential enemies.
"Do you see that?" he asked, nudging his chin in the general direction of what just looked like a large black blob to Megan.
"No," she admitted, shaking her head slightly, "What is it?"
"I think it's a cave," Conner muttered, before taking off at top speed to the thing. The Martian bobbed up and down in his arms and it was all she could do to hold on for dear life and not fall into the white powder that covered the ground in a blanket that was who knew how thick.
Superboy wasn't mistaken. The black blob really was a cave! It was almost the size of a child's bedroom, and a fallen log lay in the far corner.
"Um, Conner?" Megan asked uncertainly, "Did you see any trees around here?"
"Yes, didn't you?" he asked with a frown. The red head rolled her eyes.
"Some of us don't have snow-vision, you know," she reminded him. The teen merely smirked at the girl as he set her down on the floor of the cave and went to break the log into pieces to be used for a fire.
"Snow vision?" he repeated incredulously, his back turned to the Martian.
"Yes, snow vision," the red head confirmed, a small smile on her lips as she curled up into a ball, "The ability to see anything in a blizzard when others can't see more than a few inches in front of them."
Conner chuckled as he gathered a few fallen stones and set them in a circle not too far from the girl, but not close enough to the mouth of the cave for the wind to blow the would-be fire out. He set the pieces of wood in a heap in the middle of the circle, and set to work on building the fire by rubbing two sticks together. Once the sparks didn't immediately catch, he grew frustrated and accidentally snapped the pieces of wood in two. Megan's eyes widened as she watched for the tell-tale signs of Superboy losing control. His hands balled up into fists, teeth clenched, his whole frame shuddered violently.
"Conner!" the Martian cried, immediately reaching forward and grabbing the blue-eyed boy's wrists in her relatively small hands. At the contact, the clone immediately let out a breath that neither one had known he was holding, and visibly relaxed. "Calm down," the girl coasted gently, "It's just a couple of twigs. Here, let me." She quickly picked up two more pieces of wood, and, in no time at all, had a fire going.
"See?" Megan said gently, "Nothing to get worked up about." The young hero stared at the flames in awe, and Megan was reminded of the nights the two of them spent together at the Cave, when he sat there, watching a TV that had no signal, and she stood at the counter making dinner, which usually ended up being ruined. Megan had learned not to disturb the clone when he was staring at that screen, although she hated those periods of silence between them. Hated them with a passion. She didn't want tonight to be that same way. Her mind had already conjured up a scenario with the two of them trapped together in a cave in the middle of a raging storm, with each other as their only source of warmth, and it seemed like such a shame to let herself down.
No, Megan, she told herself sternly as she watched her friend staring at the fire she had just built, Not this time.
"Are you alright?" she asked quietly, putting a gentle hand on his shoulder.
"Yes," Conner answered, bringing himself out of whatever reverie it was that he had been in, and turning halfway to face her, "Are you warmer now?"
"A little," she lied, and, as if though to give herself away purposefully, shivered in the unwelcome breeze. A smile flitted across Conner's face again and he removed his jacket and set it around her shoulders, enveloping her in both its warmth, and his scent. Before she could start to enjoy the gift fully, though, out of the corner of her eye, the girl caught her friend's hunched over figure, shivering ever so slightly in the cold.
"No, I can't," she said, shrugging out of the jacket, even though it was probably the last thing she wanted to do at the moment, "You're shivering. Who knows what'll happen to you when that fire dies out!"
"And what about you?" Conner snapped back, turning towards her again, his sapphire-blue eyes so piercing that it seemed like they could burn right through her, "Won't you freeze?"
"I'll be fine," Megan promised dismissively, shaking the jacket back and forth in front of his face slightly, "Come on, take it."
Conner seemed to consider it for a moment before taking the black jacket out of his friend's hand. A pleased smile spread across the Martian's face, until she noticed that he wasn't going to wear the jacket. Instead, the madman placed it over the fire, just barely out of harm's way, but so that the flames could still lick the black fabric.
"What are you doing!" she cried, immediately on the balls of her feet, her eyes wide in horror as she watched the scene unfold.
"Either take the jacket, or neither of us wears it," he said with a shrug, knowing full well that he had the girl beat. Megan narrowed her eyes at the smirking raven-haired teen and sighed.
"You said I had to take it," she snapped, grabbing the jacket and laying it carefully down on the cave floor, "You never said I had to wear it." And with that she plopped down on top of the fabric, crossed her arms on her chest, and turned her nose up in the air theatrically.
"Then why not just let it burn?" the clone asked in a confused voice.
"Because," she said stubbornly, "What would you wear to school on Monday to cover up the S?"
"I have at least four more like that," he said quietly, his gaze trained on the flames again. Catching the red head's eye, though, he hastened to add, "This was my favorite one, though."
With a satisfied smile the Martian turned her head away and back to the storm outside. The cold, though, soon became unbearable, even around the fire. It felt as cold as the inside of a refrigerator times ten. Megan could now imagine what the vegetables felt like in the freezer. The difference was that they were probably used to the cold, while she spent most of her time in a warm, sunny climate, or a building with central heating.
"H-H-Have you tr-tri-tried to con-n-n-tact-t-t the o-others?" Megan asked through chattering teeth, curled up into a tiny ball again. Of the two of them, she was the one who was closest to the entrance of the cave, and, therefore, got more of the wind.
"Of course," Conner said, his eyes now soft and almost pleading. He could see how freezing cold the young girl was, and wanted nothing more than to be able to help her, but she was just so stubborn! Almost as stubborn as him, in fact. "Comm. links are down. Probably the weather."
"Proba-ba-ba-bably," she stuttered.
There was a moment's silence again as both of them were lot in their own thoughts. For once, it was Conner who broke it.
"Megan, please," he begged, "You'll freeze to death."
"I'm f-f-f- Hey!" she cried, not getting to finish her sentence, as the teen had picked her up in his strong arms and carried her as far away from the mouth of the cave as he could without taking her to the extremely narrow end, which would have been perfect, now he realized, if he had only thought to build a fire a little further inside. The clone set her down unceremoniously on the ground, and returned moments later with the jacket, covering her with it like a blanket.
"Conner, what are you-!" Again, the young Martian cut her protest off, since she realized that any attempt to get out of her current situation would be both fruitless and stupid. Conner was now holding the girl tightly in his arms, keeping her from getting out of the jacket. Whether he knew it or not, this was heaven for the red head. She remembered what it had been like in the desert when the two of them had almost kissed. How his strong arms had been wrapped around her so tightly, so securely, assuring the girl that no harm would ever come to her, that he would always be there to keep her safe. This was what it was like now that she had stopped struggling: a gentle, sweet embrace from someone she cared about, and who cared about her.
The super powered teen had noticed her change in demeanor, as well. He had noticed the minute she had stopped struggling, the second she sank into his arms.
"You know," she said in a quiet voice, "Theoretically, we don't even need the jacket."
"How so?" Conner asked, a small smile on his mouth. He liked having her trapped in his arms, and he never wanted to let her go. As long as she kept up her musings, that meant that she would stay there, so he was willing to indulge her, even though he was absolutely sure there was no way he would let her take off that jacket unless they were safely back at the Cave, or possibly in another warmer location.
"It's survival 101," Megan continued, "We can share our body heat. That way neither of us has to freeze."
Or, maybe not. She was right, after all.
"So you're telling me that this whole argument has been pointless?" the clone asked in disbelief, shifting the girl so that he could look into her eyes.
"Basically, yes," she admitted, "Ugh! Hello, Megan! We could've avoided this whole thing!"
Conner rolled his eyes and pulled the jacket away from her shoulders. A smile immediately appeared on Megan's face as she felt his skin on hers, his arms so tightly wound around her… The girl sighed in absolute contempt. Who knew a cave in the middle of a blizzard would be so, well, magical?
Conner didn't take his eyes off the beautiful red head tucked so neatly into his chest. No, it was more like he couldn't take his eyes off her. It seemed like any moment now she might disappear, like this was all a wonderful dream, a dream that he was afraid to wake up from. His arms immediately tightened around her, assuring him that she was still there, and had not vanished.
"Conner?" Megan's unsure voice rang loud and clear in the clone's ears, even though her head was buried in his chest, "Are you sure you're alright?" She lifted her head to look up at him, her eyes boring into his sapphire blue ones. She couldn't guess his train of thought, and knew eavesdropping on his mind would be rude, but the Martian desperately wanted to know what her companion was thinking. He wasn't alright, no matter what he told her. He never was.
"Yes, I'm sure," he hastened to assure her, rubbing soothing circles into her back.
The Martian didn't need telepathy to know he was lying. She propped herself up on her arms so that she was only slightly below eye-level of the raven-haired teen.
"Do you want to talk about it?" the red head asked, and her gaze oh-so-innocently strayed to his lips for just a second, but that second was all Conner needed to know what was on the young girl's mind. He didn't know that she liked him, and he still wasn't sure that she did. He had been thinking about their almost-kiss in the desert ever since they had gotten back to the Cave, only, how exactly do you bring that up? Now she was giving him a chance to tell her, but he knew she had other things in mind, other ways for them to put their lips to good use.
It had only taken him a few milliseconds to think all of this through, so Megan was completely caught off-guard when his mouth came crashing down on hers. With only a moment's hesitation, she kissed him back. This was after all, what she had wanted for the past, oh, four months, give or take, and now that she had the chance, there was no way she was passing it up.
The kiss was passionate, but at the same time sweet. Somehow, Megan's hands found their way into Conner's hair, playing with it to her heart's content, and Conner's hands fisted and balled up the material on the back of the Martian's shirt. Both teens could almost literally feel the sparks fly, and neither one wanted this little moment to end. But everything has to come to an end sometime, and all too soon, they had to break apart for air.
"What was that for?" Megan croaked, blushing again as she turned her head away to look at the opposite wall of the cavern.
"Just something I wanted to try out," Conner murmured, not looking at her either.
"Oh," Megan breathed, turning shyly back to him at the same time as the clone turned back to face her, "I'm glad you did."
He smiled at her and lay back on the floor of the cave, pulling her with him.
"I am too," he admitted, tucking her back into his chest, "Now, go to sleep. We still need to figure out what how to get home."
Suddenly feeling bold, Megan swung a leg over the raven-haired boy so that she was straddling him. Somehow she had the feeling that he wouldn't mind. She pinned his shoulders to the ground and smiled devilishly.
"You know, I don't think we're gonna freeze to death, and our friends are probably looking for us," Megan said, removing one hand from Superboy's shoulder and starting to trace aimless patterns on his chest. There was a playful smile on his face as he looked into her eyes.
"I think you're right," he said and with his free hand crushed her down against him again. Megan smiled as her other hand fell from Conner's shoulder and to the floor, and then quickly moved to his hair again. Conner's other hand moved to fist in her hair and he dragged her down to meet his lips in another searing kiss.
A/N: Hope you guys liked it! R&R please!
