Perfect Lies and Dirty Little Secrets
This was not meant to have any pairings romantically, but view it as you like.
"Are you sure you want to do this?" Green Arrow's eyes- or Ollie's eyes as her mentor was in his civies eyes bore in to his new protégé.
Artemis found her self nodding. "Ollie, they deserve to know who I am. They will find out eventually, it's the type of secret that will get out. Better me than my sister or dad to tell them."
The blonde man sighed and ran a hand through his hair. "I know kid, its just hard. Not like they're going to take it easy and I don't want you to get hurt." The younger of the two blonde's eyes filled with tears. Oliver Queen suddenly became fluster. "Shit. Kid, what did I say, I'm sorry."
The girl looked at him with slate grey eyes tinged with tears. "Ollie, you didn't say the wrong thing, you just said the right thing." She wrapped her arms to give the archer to hug her mentor, her teacher, her friend. Artemis hugged the most father like man in her life to give her strength. She was going to need it.
Artemis walked out of the zeta beam in the cave with her head held high. She swept her eyes around the cave's living room area. Aqualad had a small recliner chair to himself. Superboy, Megan, and Kidflash were seated in the biggest couch. She felt slightly silly as she saw the clone's pale pinky intertwined with the green girl's. It was so obvious. Robin and Zatanna were sitting in the love seat and Red Arrow was leaning against the stone wall. She was slightly surprised to see Zatanna there, and even more to see Red Arrow, but she guessed that her friend needed to know too, so she didn't say anything about Zatanna. Red Arrow was going to get his ass kicked out of here if he said even one thing out of line.
All eyes fell on the blonde archer as she walked towards her team. Heels clacked along the stone surface in the silence of the room. Artemis kept her eyes adverted from the questing looks of her friends ash she stepped next to the TV. She was looking for the right words to start off her confession when Robin spoke up.
"Artemis." She adjusted her head so her grey eyes met his mask. "You don't have to do this. Some secrets, well they don't have to be shared. Even with your friends." The boy wonder spoke as if he knew what he was talking about, something deeper than just a secret identity. He probably did, knowing how incredibly mature he was for thirteen.
She tore her eyes away form the mask the covered her youngest teammate's eyes, bore addressing him and the rest of her team. "That may be true, but this type of secret…" she bit her lip, trying to find the right words. "It's going to get out. And I'd rather tell you than you guys finding out by yourselves." She took a deep breath before continuing. "To begin with, Green Arrow" she closed her eyes, because she couldn't bear to see their faces. "He's not my uncle." The archer waited, her breath baited. She peeked open one eye to see there expressions. Red Arrow seemed to be smug, that little bastard.
Robin was emotionless. Zatanna was biting her lip, eyes forlorn. Megan had tears in her eyes and her hands covering her mouth. Kid Flash's mouth was gaping like a fish, and he looked as if he was praying her to be joking. Super Boy was looking at the floor, hands balled into fists. Aqualad's moon colored eyes were unfocused. No one said anything though, and the eyes that remain on her urged her to keep going. "My mother is a reformed assassin. She went to jail, and my older sister left because of my father. Soon after my mom came back from jail she had her bottom half paralyzed by my father."
Megan gasped slightly. "Artemis who was your father?" her voice was cautious.
The blonde archer looked at the speedster to answer her friend's question. "Wally, when I first joined this team you asked me how I knew what the League of Shadows was like." The red haired boy started to shake his head as if he didn't want to know but she continued, eyes starring at the ground. "My father, that bastard" she spit out the word like it was on of her sister's poisons on her tongue. "Is Sports Master. My sister is Cheshire. I got my skills by training with the League of Shadows. I left when he wanted me to kill an innocent child."
Artemis couldn't keep the tears out of her eyes, no matter how hard she squeezed. She dug her fingernails in her palms, trying to find a distraction. She expected to hear yelling, accusations, anything. But the room was dead silent.
They sat in silence till Super Boy broke it. "You." The words were white hot in anger, and she visibly flinched. "You. You're the mole." His tone was soft at first, still having his white hot tone, but than became louder. "YOU ARE THE MOLE."
Wally glared at her. "How could you. I-we trusted you."
Red Arrow snarled. "I knew it. We shouldn't have trusted a rat."
Megan was openly crying now, tears riding her cheeks.
Zatanna was quite. She looked at her new friend with wary eyes.
Kauldur had his lips pursed, as if trying to decide if this was true or not.
Robin met her eyes. He saw the silent plea in them and quieted the accusations of Conner, Wally, and Red Arrow. "Artemis may be the mole, and she may not be." He gave her a look of bitter sweet sorrow, like one that a brother would give his sister. "Let her explain herself."
The room quieted again and she looked at Super Boy, directly answering his question. "I was never a mole. I never told the Shadows any information on this team, or my team mates. I risk my life just by being a hero. Sports Master won't forget who I am, neither will Cheshire. And I know the former will not hesitate to kill me the next time I see him."
For the first time, her leader spoke up. "So you could have been the person he was talking about, a traitor in out midst."
She nodded, and her dark grey eyes met with his light silver ones. "He would try to get my new team to turn against me."
Aqualad nodded, before addressing the team. "I believe that she speaks the truth."
Artemis left before the team could ask any more questions. She needed to be alone.
Artemis had been in her room when she heard a knock on the door. She smelled warm chocolate chip cookies, and figured it was Megan. The blonde archer had been listening to music, mostly by One Republic and Neon Trees. The teen had found a sanctuary in music at a very young age, so it made sense to listen to the songs she loved most in her time of need.
When she opened the door however, she was not greeted by her Martian friend but by the last person she expected to see.
"Hey. Umm can I come in?" She glared at Red Arrow, who was holding a plate of freshly baked cookies in one hand and two glasses of milk in the other hand. Despite her hatred for the red haired archer, she stepped to the side and let him in. She liked cookies.
He stepped in and set the glasses of milk and the plate on her bed side table that she used when she stayed a Mount Justice. She grabbed one glass of milk and he got the other one and pulled up a chair from her desk.
After munching on a cookie (or two) she put down her now empty glass of milk and eyed the man sitting across from her.
"Why are you here?" she asked, genially curious.
He set down his empty glass before giving her a cheeky smile. "Well when a man and a woman love each other very much-."
The girl in turn groaned. "No you dummy, I mean why are you here. In my room. You hated me just a few hours ago."
He shrugged, the smile replaced by a deep frown before he answered. "I dunno. I guess I just needed to apologize. You don't deserve that kind of treatment, no matter who you are. And the team, well they love you. After you left they got mad at me, because I drove you away. I felt bad because I realized that you had finally found a family that loved you and then I come along and made them hate you. Sorry, I guess." The end of his talk was met by a hug from Artemis. She wasn't the hugger type, but it had seemed like the right thing to do.
"This is really awkward isn't it?" she asked after a few moments.
"Yeah"
She let go of him, and pulled back aware that her whole face was beet red. After a few moments he chuckled.
"And to believe that I thought that you had an arrow up your ass when I first met you."
She giggled. "That's what I thought about you."
He threw back his head to laugh, and after a few moments she joined him.
It was then, she realized laughing with a man she previously hated, that everything was going to be alright.
And it was.
A/N: Eh this was just an idea I got in my head a few days ago and had to write it. Not my best work, but what eve.
Also, a bit of shameless self promotion: Check out my other stories, especially Proud and leave a review if you liked this story.
Reviews?