for all the things my hands have held (the best by far is you)
A/N: So this is my first Young Justice fic and I thought, hey why not some non-hero!au spitfire because they're kinda cool either way. Rated for the language and slight inappropriate sexual humor. Also, the title comes from the song Cecilia and the Satellite by Andrew McMahon in the Wilderness. I don't anything, all rights reserved to their respective owners. Enjoy! :)
"What is this shit."
No one really asks to have Wally as a study partner, regardless how brilliant he is with the science stuff because 1) he is a class-A douche, and 2) because he just whines a lot in the most unforgiving way.
And he knows it too, but a part of him just can't help but complain about how everything else pretty much sucks and this goddamn public school isn't providing them enough even while their parents pay their taxes on time (if Artemis gets a dime for every time he opens his mouth, she'll be a filthy millionaire).
But never enough duct tapes in the world to keep him from protesting about the fucked up education system and how it is so not that important to get into a prestigious university.
"Can we please just finish?"
Artemis takes the biology book and pretends to stuff it into his mouth. "Do you ever stop whining?"
He shrugs, resisting and putting his hands up. "Pardon me woman but I do more than just whine. I may enjoy the comforts of releasing my frustrations most about our school's overly pathetic and unjust teaching methods, I still have other hobbies which includes – and of course, you're not paying attention to me anymore."
She continues to ignore him, so he pokes her ribs and leans over her shoulder as she opens a new message from Zatanna: 'DICK SAT WITH ME AT LUNCH TODAY!' in all capital letters and exclamation marks, as if to attest how strong and real enough it is to be not just another rumor.
Artemis rolls her eyes when she realizes he's been looming over, observing the text message while grinning, "Well, this is interesting."
He picks up her phone as she lies back on her bed, waits for another response from her, and quickly browses through the rest of the thread where it's all Dick this, Dick that, and omg Artemis did you see him play soccer yesterday? He's so hot before Artemis kicks his knee lightly.
"What's so interesting?"
"Zatanna likes him, then?"
She sits up again and shakes her head, swiping her phone out of his hands. "God, you're slow."
"But Dick tells me Tan's just been giving him all the wrong signs or something."
A little surprise, Artemis tilts her head in wonder. "Dick likes her too?"
"God, you're slow," he smirks pompously, Artemis frowning and throwing the fat-ass textbook at him without any more constraint. It hits his leg but he doesn't mind the little pain – Artemis's irritation has always been a quick resolve, he reckons.
-x-
The usual menu at lunch is being served today except there's hot beef dumpling for side dishes and he strongly believes he's allergic to it but decides to have two buns and have it in a paper bag before ordering a meal. Before he knows it, Dick stands right beside him, looking shittier than ever, and Wally slightly knocks a can of straws at the counter at the way his friend's eyes droop.
"Look what the love bug dragged in."
"This is not the time for that, Wallace," he says, perking up when a dark-haired cutie alleged to have been crushing on Grayson via Artemis' text messages, passes by. When she is out of earshot, Dick leans back and whispers, "I am going to sit with Zatanna for lunch today. Again."
"Oh, but don't you like her Master Richard?" asks Wally impersonating a certain friend's butler, as he continues chewing on an apple.
"That's exactly why this is getting way more difficult than I thought it should be." He reveals their current status, as though letting his friend know how far he's stood or how much he's held her hand or how he is slowly going to fuck things up if he does not ask her out properly at the soonest possible time.
Wally smiles, surveying the cafeteria before spotting Artemis, and of course the girl Dick's going insane for months now, the Zatanna Zatara. It's all at the same time funny and irritating. "Dude, chill. It's just a girl. You totally got this. Just sit with her and everything is going to be fine."
"If I sit with her alone one more time and watch her make eye signals with Artemis of how miserably dressed I am, I am seriously going to pee my pants." Dick says, already pulling Wally's shirt as they make it to their table.
Wally locates himself next to Artemis, slipping into the seat and opening his bag of dumplings. He hands her both since he knows she just kind of likes them more than anyone else. His hair is still a little soak from a basketball game with Kaldur and the others, slightly dabbed a bit of his perfume which Artemis is allergic to and has multiple times tried draining it on their sink when she was at his place. Dick on the other hand sits across him quietly, gently even, and Wally notices how Zatanna's full attention falls on Grayson completely at once.
Artemis then groans. "God, why."
Wally notices it's him she's been referring to, metaphorical daggers in forms of a glare. "What? I haven't even said anything!"
"Oh go to hell," Artemis mutters, rolling her eyes.
"I believe that's just your way of saying thank you for the dumplings, Wally, they're my absolute fave," he adds, hitting her leg and motioning at the pair in front of them, being all lovey dovey unstoppably (hey, that rhymes, way to go Wally). He's laughing at something Zatanna whispers that doesn't sound too funny, Wally's observing their fingers brushing against each other under the table, Dick's right leg almost crossing Zatanna's left.
Before finishing her dumplings, Artemis nudges him instantly, standing up and saying, "Well, Wally and I have a test to study for. And uhm, I guess we'll see you guys later?"
"Wait, what te –" Before he knows it, he's dragged out of his seat by the ever notorious Artemis Crock, his meal barely touched as he leaves and sees his friend advances by giving Zatanna a juice box.
-x-
Apparently there is so much of Dick and Zatanna now, that Artemis sometimes gags at the sight of them and Wally just laughs as he nudges her arm when they stroll the mall one afternoon after dance practice, together with the overly displayed affection shared by two of their closest friends.
Wally snickers. "I bet they forget we're actually still here."
"You know what's worse than banana frappe?" Artemis starts, finishing her drink and throwing it in the nearest trashbin. Walking ahead but still behind the two lovebirds, she motions at the tipsy-looking Zatanna in front (who isn't really drunk, she's just unstable from giggling at some cheap joke Dick said) like it's an all-end magic trick, and the boy beside her holding back a blush so hard to un-see. They apparently still don't notice Wally and Artemis have been tagging along to this supposed group hangout.
Wally shakes his head. "You're just being mean, you know that?"
"I'm being realistic, come on," she adds. "They're disgusting and embarrassing and really gross."
"We need to work on that vocabulary of yours."
Artemis rolls her eyes. "Right. Says the douche who can't even recognize his own handwriting."
-x-
Mondays are never wonderful for seniors because tonight they're sitting on the kitchen top, Wally's pre-calc book wide open and chocolate chip cookies upon Artemis's request to their side. "Thanks, Mrs. West!" she says in the sweetest voice it makes Wally sick because how fake can one girl be, no one in campus can top off Crock's.
About to leave, Mrs. West seems distracted by a thought eventually spilling out the next minute.
"Wally's not dating anyone, right?"
Artemis looks back at Wally across her, wide-eyed at the instant question from his mom and he feebly shakes his head, eye contact signaling Artemis to not say anymore jokes about anything regarding his amorous adventures with no one in particular.
She smiles back. "No one seems that desperate enough I guess, Mrs. West. Not that I know any. Why'd you ask?" Artemis receives a kick on her knees from below and she just winces but maintains the smile.
The older woman chuckles, shaking her head. "Oh, I found two condoms in his wallet, and apparently one was already -"
"THANK YOU MOTHER, WE HAVE A BIG EXAM ON LIMITS TOMORROW!"
His mother, trying to suppress the giggles, pats Artemis's head before giving Wally one squeeze of a half-embrace out of his rage, and then she exits to the living room where she adds, "Stay for dinner if you can, Artemis. We'd love to have you around as often."
Artemis twirls around her seat, still dying from the enormous amount of hilarity as Wally continues scrawling down his graphs, considerably turning red as he grits his teeth. She bites her lips before saying anything else.
"So, who's the lucky –"
"Okay shut up, they weren't mine."
"I know because you're never gonna use them."
Wally looks fuming, breaks the tip of his pencil. "Excuse you, I do too. I mean, I will, in the future."
"Alright," Artemis knows when Wally lies; it just makes him like Pinocchio for some reason, except instead of a growing nose, his eyes would avert hers and his ears turn as red as his hair, and he just sweats a lot when he doesn't tell the truth. "With who? Any girl in particular I should know of?"
"Is my sex life any of your business?"
"No, it's the condoms I'm wondering about," she bursts into another round of laughter. "I mean, I'd understand if you have them in your wallet, because you never know where you end up drunk again and I have to drag you out of there. Again. So yeah, better be safe than sorry. But an open wrapper? I mean, you've seriously done it?"
"I told you. They weren't mine," he shakes his head, still panicking. "Technically. Okay. They were."
Artemis pretends to gasp. "Oh so who? Wait, wait, do I know her? Him, perhaps? I mean, you always practically hang out with the freakiest group of boys in school anyway so you must have done it with one of them –"
"I hang out with you more and practically always," Wally cuts her off, blushing. "And no, I didn't do it. The condoms were mine, however. Roy tells me it's always safer to bring them just in case I feel… a little weird. It was Kaldur's birthday the other week. And he's still a freaking virgin. So –"
"So you've done it with him?"
Wally thumps her forehead when she gets too near him in her interest to know about another juicy gossip. It's making his heart beat utterly fast, and he isn't too sure if it's because it's one of the most embarrassing moments of his life retold, but because of the fact that Artemis Crock's listening to every breath he's taking at the moment. Maybe both. Maybe just the latter.
"No! Geez, girls who jump around in pigtails make me horny, you know that!" He blurts out of frustration. "We inserted the unused – note, unused! – condom in his French book. He has this hot foreign tutor who he says he's been wanting to score a date. So I guess during study time, when the girl opened the book –"
"Happy birthday Kaldur'ahm!" Artemis claps her hands, still disbelieving what she's heard but at the same time, nodding. "Someone got it with the French, eh?"
Wally grins coyly, staring at her as she works on the f of x. "Hm, looks like someone's happy they confirmed my sexual orientation."
Not looking up as she measures her graphs, Artemis snorts. "I really don't care about your sexual orientation to be quite honest, I just wanted to know who you're sleeping with and want to know why they exactly want to sleep with you. I mean, just look at you."
He smirks, flexing his arms and brushing his hair up. "I know. God knew exactly how to create a walking perfection."
"Yeah, definitely not the ass who brings condoms everyday even though no girl would ever want to date him."
He tries to dismiss the story but she somehow manages to bring it up in the next hour while waiting for dinner. Somehow being bullied by the girl who's practically the queen bee in bullying the hell out of him doesn't seem that awful. He learns how to filter through the rest of the unnecessary comments Artemis throws at him, which is also in a bit, enjoyable. It's not lonesome, studying that is – even if it also means a twenty-page script consisting an endless banter of Taylor Swift's latest album.
"Zatanna texted you, by the way." Wally says, going through her phone once more.
"What'd she say?"
"Aw, someone's getting it alright!"
She raises her eyebrows at his reaction, as he slides her phone back to her.
"What are you talking about?" She scrolls through the text only, to find Zatanna's all caps DICK ASKED ME OUT I JUST ! WE CAN BE BOYFRIEND-GIRLFRIEN NOW OMG OMG! and it takes forever to register in her head, until she types out congratulations even though Artemis isn't sure it's something of an achievement considering they both already like each other, and they've been heading in that direction anyway since the start of the year.
"Well, they won't publicly display affection that much now, right?" Artemis wonders, looking at Wally for some kind of assurance he just isn't sure he can give. "No more pretends or play hard to get or… something teenagers do to get the D."
"Seriously, you still call it 'the D'? You can shout Dick's name near a church and can't say D as in the pe-"
"Do you want me to add more condoms to prove how they'll just all eventually expire because you're never gonna use your D?"
Wally calmly settles and looks at her, trying to read her mind every time she makes that face. Too deep, too poetic, too uncharacteristically Artemis.
"The D's d. Heh, and I thought you were bad with alliterations," he mutters. When there is nothing but silence later, Wally asks, "So what now?"
"Nothing," she shrugs, which meant it isn't just nothing. Wally senses a long drama over the phone tonight. Must be a short confession of how Artemis has feelings for Dick, or Zatanna doesn't really like Dick she's just using him to get to someone else – that sort, and he's going to be waiting for the eventual punch line.
"I just find Zatanna to be… well, you know, good at this whole relationship thing. Whatever."
"Hey kids, dinner's ready," Mrs. Kim knocks and leaves just as fast.
He doesn't dwell on the subject anymore and Wally can tell she's kinda happy he drops it entirely in the next weeks with homecoming around the corner.
-x-
He doesn't hear the next dumbest statement ever until he meets up Dick over the weekend to play basketball. He hears the question the second time around, and it just gets even dumber every time that he throws the ball across the field and let it settle.
"You just have to!" Dick passes the ball, his mark so off the ball veers out of the field. "I can't do this on my own. I like her too much to end up being awkward again," Dick says, wiping off his sweat.
"She's gonna dump your ass with that throw," Wally berates, jogging to pick out the ball. When he comes back Dick's sitting on the ground, still agitated.
"I don't know what to do."
"You can start with 'don't be a pussy' as an everyday mantra," Wally adds, lying down on the grass next to him.
"I think it'd just be more comfortable if we went on a double date or something," Dick suggests.
He grabs some dirt and throws it at Dick who receives it coolly. He seems too distracted to care, to uncaring to be even distracted by anything else.
"Listen lover boy. Let me emphasize the fact that double date means going in pairs. Tagging along to your next date isn't a double date. It's just me third-wheeling. And no, I just can't be around couples that much who'll eventually leave me out."
"Take Artemis with you, duh."
Wally snorts. "There goes the joke of the century. Date? Artemis? Do you hear yourself?"
"You guys are inseparable, you know each other more than anyone else, heck, more than we even know ourselves," Dick reasons out. "Who'd make the more perfect pair than you and Zatanna's best-est girl friend ever?"
"Dude you're sounding like her already, just stop," Wally groans. "She's Artemis! She's sarcastic and obnoxious and like, we know each other too much. That kinda ruins the whole point of going on a date with someone since you've practically shared your whole entire life with them. There's nothing else to share."
Dick chuckles. "There's nothing wrong with that? Come on, just do it. It'll be like old times."
"Except it won't be," Wally defends, glowering or pouting but he decides to just do both. "You'll be holding hands with Zatanna and I'll be stuck enduring Artemis's loathing for my shoes."
"Please?"
Sighing, Wally sits upright. "You're paying for everything, and I mean everything. Anything Artemis and I decide to order, you're going to cough up the dough. Deal?" And they both shake on it because that's how you civilly close deals, neither one even in the slightest bit as happy because Dick might be asking a little extra cash from Bruce after his savings ran out yesterday, and Wally's just signed a lease to hell.
He snatches the ball from him and they start playing another round of free throws that afternoon.
-x-
It's Saturday already the following week, and Dick drives them to Artemis' house where the princesses are staying, waiting patiently (or in Artemis's case, dreadfully) for their prince charming to sweep them off the feet of boredom and out the treacherous ordeals of teenage life.
He can't help himself from frowning. "So the movies, huh?"
"Yup."
"The first moves always happen at movies," Wally says matter-of-factly. "You're so cliché, man."
"See, stick with me Wally, and you'll learn all the things you need to in getting a date."
He sighs, shaking his head as he turns to Artemis's street. They pull up, the engine dies, and the two men slowly walk in the hippest dashing clothes ever, it's doubtful to the point that they could actually be this handsome if they just committed to it at an everyday basis.
Dick tries to ring the bell, but pulls back, bites his finger. "I can't do it."
Wally pokes the bell without hesitation, then buries his hands down his pocket. "Right, Dick. I'll learn so much about getting a date when you're around."
It resounds inside the house, Wally even overhearing Artemis' cry of wanting to just stay at home instead before hearing another loud thump on the solid wooden floor and he assumes it's Artemis' lazy ass falling off. He internally laughs at that.
Wally notices Dick's collar and fixes it, clicking his tongue in annoyance. Before he knows it, the door is open and there's an audible sigh.
"Look who's all dressed up today."
He turns at her voice and he swears and breathes he's never seen Artemis Crock in this light in a long while since middle school's choir for the midyear talent show. She used to sing, before she decided she wants to dance more, and it's something Wally has always admired because she's something else altogether, like an angel, her voice, that is. Her appearance at that very second proves it, in her mint green dress and loose pigtails. Fucking pigtails of all things she can do with her hair.
Dick brushes past the two of them, falling into Zatanna's arms and whispering I-miss-you's even though it has to be the loudest noise in the room because Artemis and Wally have both fallen silent. The blonde shifts uncomfortably, pulling her dress up because she's wearing strapless, and it won't stay still unless she does too.
They both clear their throats in an attempt to strike a conversation, an impression that this has got to be one of the worst ideas Grayson has thought of. She moves past him, to the porch steps, pulling Wally by the sleeve. "Hey you guys, I'm hungry."
Wally follows her, bumps her hip and whispers, "You clean up good."
"That's a rude comment and you know that and yet you still stay it," she looks at him, smiling but obviously irritated.
Wally rolls his eyes, and he is unmistakably nothing but an asshole because he doesn't even open the car door for her. She takes shotgun while Wally is behind the wheel, both end up bickering over which radio station to play while their two friends play perfect couple in the back, and then eventually fight over the arm rest during the movies while Dick has his arm around Zatanna and whispers to her every other minute or so about something that is most definitely not movie-related.
They're back, ahead of schedule, ahead of the lovebirds because Artemis's feet are sore and Wally can't third-wheel just as much as he can stomach the 'Babe, let me get that for you!' while Dick and Zatanna go walking. She falls on the couch with Wally across her.
"Well, that was fun huh?" She manages after inhaling deep, sarcasm lingered in every word. "They're so touchy. It's nauseating."
He pulls the single seater closer, sits back and props his legs on Artemis's lap. She pushes them away but he does it again and he wins because she's too exhausted to spend more energy on it.
"You're just jealous."
She snorts, then laughs. "Please. I don't need sweaty hands to hold."
Wally shrugs, shaking his head at her. He stands up suddenly and flips his hair out of his eyes before grabbing her hand, massaging her fingers as he holds it. "Not everyone's hands are sweaty, you know," and then his hands are gone, and he's laughing. "But whatever. I'm gonna go pick up Dick, it's getting late. See you tomorrow, cranky."
His hands tingle after he leaves her, closing the door behind him and smiling. It's a strange thought but for some reason Wally ends up thinking about it for the rest of the day (not that there's anyone in the world he's going to tell about it, either). It'll probably just go away when he goes to sleep. Nothing big.
-x-
How wrong he is, though. In fact, it's had him quite occupied for the rest of the week. He understands that it's weird why he's so concerned about holding hands with Artemis now since he's practically done that countless of times beforehand, even carrying her on his back when they were kids. He tries to avoid their usual table for lunch, because he does not want a double date scenario again just by sitting next to the girl who's been invading his thoughts a little too much for comfort.
Wally ends up sitting with his other friends, who seem to have been having an intense debate over the latest episode of Game of Thrones.
"Look, if Jon Snow is dead," one of them starts, "the whole series becomes pointless. He does not even die in the book."
"Yeah, like you read the book."
"I'm more concerned about Arya. Seriously. Anyone else?"
"Yo," squeaks Wally, putting his tray down the table. The others look at him without care and continue on with the dispute as he takes a bite of his apple, setting aside nonetheless two dumplings in a paper bag.
Another five minutes later someone looms over and takes the paper bag. "These are mine I believe," and then she finds her seat across him. Everyone on the table suddenly shuts their mouth as some sort of human deity decides to share lunch with them. When Artemis realizes all their eyes are on her, she stares back at them and let her mouth hang. "What?"
"They've never seen an Artemis before."
"Yeah, what are you? Wally's girlfriend?"
"Jason, that's gross." Wally fires his fries at the guy at the end of the table.
She takes a bite of her sandwich, ignoring them. When none of them avert their eyes, she clears her throat. "And so, it comes to this sad day, where I am sitting with you and your lame ass friends at lunch."
Wally threatens her with his fork, attempting to at least, since she'd be the last one to feel any threat from him anyway. "Don't think this is going to be an everyday thing."
"Like I would want that." She holds up her hands in defense, when the guy sitting next to her bumps her slightly, headphones in his ears and oblivious to her personal space.
Wally sighs. "That's Roy. He's kind of an asshole, ignore him."
"I can hear you, fucker," this dude says and turns to them, attention now out of music. "Am I required to socialize with her? Who is this?"
Recognizing him from anywhere, Artemis's lips twist in annoyance. "Artemis. I go to the same dance academy as Wally. And you've been sleeping with my sister, if my memory serves me right."
"Oh my god Arte, what did I tell you about that list?" Wally pretends to put on his angry-voice, and it pleases him how Artemis seems to get it at once.
She gasps. "What list?"
"That one where you keep a tab on who's banging who."
"Well, Mr. Harper was in my sister's dorm the day I visited her at uni so yes, perhaps I should burn that list soon." The two both gaze at Roy, waiting for him to dump his lunch on both of them.
When the recognition flickers in his eyes, Roy turns away, smirking in his own chagrin and shaking his head as he takes a seat next to her. The other boys look up and he chides them to mind their own business.
"So Artemis… you're Wally's girlfriend?"
"God, why does everyone think I'm your girl, what have you been telling them?" Artemis almost shouts at the boy across her, and Wally shakes his head defensively, at the same time kicking Roy below the table.
"Are you the girl Wally's reserving his entire con –"
The guy behind Jason slaps his back, stopping him. "And I thought I was the rude one." He looks at Artemis, with his big eyes and a smile that will make babies squeal that she can bet on. And he's tall, she's come to realize. "I'm Conner. Conner Kent."
"Complete whore, ignore him too," Wally leans across to say it, then goes back to scrolling through his text messages as casual as he can since all of his friends are deliberately this horrible around other people outside their clique.
"I am not!"
The one to Wally's left smiles cleanly and fixes his collar before holding out his hand. "My friends just enjoy being inappropriate. I'm Kaldur'ahm, by the way. Call me, Kal. It's nice to meet you, Artemis"
Artemis represses her snicker before receiving a glare from Wally. "Hey, Kaldur!" She's hesitant in shaking his hand but does it out of respect from that entire happy birthday prank from the rest of them guys.
Roy snorts and whispers something under his breath, of which only Conner hears and starts laughing about, and Artemis could not have regretted this more. She props over to Wally, whispering, "Why do you sit with these people?"
Wally shrugs. "Unlike girls, we don't have a dress code of wearing pink on Wednesdays."
"Mean Girls reference." Both of them say at once, before Artemis wildly shakes her head. "Well, still, they're freaks–"
"They're fun. Roy lives next to me, Conner has access to all the big parties, Jason's got nobody to sit with after Dick started dating, so we took him in and Kaldur is running for class president this year. It gives you power in politics, you know? So it's all good."
Wally kicks her again under the table, making a face. He opens his mouth, probably to say something regarding his friends, when Roy turns to them from his bickering with Conner, and smirks. "You guys are so totally dating, I'm not blind."
Conner makes a move to hit him again when Roy points under the table, obviously convinced of his theory. "They're even playing footsies. I mean look at them! His foot is right in between hers," and the rest of them, even Kaldur, looks down underneath the table to see their legs interlocked, only because Wally's legs are endless and Artemis was planning on kicking him right back.
"Are you guys really dating?"
"What?! No, we're not dating! Why can't they stop asking me that?" She picks up her lunch tray, assaulting Wally's shins again. "This is stupid, I'm leaving."
She exits the cafeteria so it worries Wally where she'll be heading since all her afternoon classes are cancelled for that band thing. The dance studio, maybe? Hopefully not far, either way.
"Dude aren't you gonna go after her? Your girlfriend just walked out on you."
He throws a banana peel at Jason's face and decides he would want to finish his meal before he chooses to chase girls with short tempers.
-x-
"Hey, you know what's worse than the educational system?" Artemis starts one lunch time a few weeks after sitting with Wally's lame ass friends and Zatanna and Dick's PDA.
He chews on his kimchi, then looks up. "Other than my grade in English? Wait, wait, Dick's shitty puns?"
She smirks aptly. "Fucking homecoming, that's what's worse." Artemis waves around twenty pieces of flyers in her hand then puts it in front of her. "Are they not concerned about saving trees instead by not printing half of this shit? Like who would even go to this insanely hormonal-driven parties?"
"Why, what's the theme? Slutty Halloween?"
Artemis chokes. "Masquerade! I mean, how does that work? Like aren't singles invited?"
"I don't have all the answers young Padawan, ask the homecoming committee!"
"And talk to those stuck up bitches like they're on top of the world? Pft, a bunch of plastics."
Wally chuckles. "Mean Girls reference?"
"Focus Wally," Artemis responds. "There is no way in hell that I am dressing up for some stupid masquerade event. I don't even look good in dresses, seriously."
"So you're really not going?"
She folds her arms. "Duh."
He tries to hide a sigh but she catches it and waits for him to say something else, expecting that is to say something else but he just loses his grip on words, ending up with, "Even if someone asked you?"
Wally tries to see her eyes glimmering at the question, almost hoping but at the same time already rejecting the very thought that anyone would so does she even have choice, of course she'll say no, she won't attend. It's not the party's the problem, nor the clothes, nor the people – Artemis's just waiting for someone to come up and ask her out but that's just Wally's observation and he likes to decode Artemis' infrequent silence in the most oblivious manner in the best way he can. It gets on his good side for some reason.
"I'm pretty sure no one would bother," she replies, grabbing the paper bag full of dumplings from Wally's tray. "Besides I've got better things to do than go out of my way just to have a boy tell me I look gorgeous. Tell me something I don't know."
He smirks, opening the paper bag for her, and then handing her the dumpling. She looks up expectantly, locks gazes and eventually lowers her head.
Wally snorts. "I know right?"
She smiles and gets to class afterwards. Wally blushes at what he just said and it's hurting his head that he's stopped trying to disagree with her or bring her ideals down. That's not how things work, not between the two of them at least, but he lets it slip, this time, because it's this type of things that makes him completely wonder how things have truly changed yet at the same time, they're still right where they started.
-x-
The only class that Wally has where there's no Artemis is English and he shares this one with Dick. Today the teacher's out but they're stuck in their room reading some important literature they all pretend to have understood or else they'll fail the rest of the year.
"Dude."
Dick's on his phone, fingers quick as he types his message with heart emoticons at the end. "Yeah?"
"Dick."
"Yeah I'm listening, what?"
Wally swipes the other boy's phone immediately and puts it inside his backpack, too far of an arm reach for Dick. He smirks while his friend grimaces and pays finally the attention he's been needing.
"What? She's going to call in five minutes, this better be important."
Wally raises both of his hands. "Look man, I'm just… I really need to talk to you. About a girl."
"Hey wait is this about that one party you guys went and didn't invite me over?" Dick wonders. "But I guess it was fine because it was our monthsary and I just can't miss our eighth week of being together."
"You know you're lucky I tolerate all the shit you say," Wally replies. "Dude, can we talk about Artemis?"
"What about… oh man, don't tell me you're – "
Wally clicks his tongue, annoyed. "No, no. It's not that. Well, if I think what you think is that, then maybe it is."
"You're finally getting it, aren't you?"
"The what?" His eyes widen.
"The more than friends thing?" Dick laughs, patting his back. "Zatanna and I have been betting on who is going first and apparently I win."
"Wait, you guys had a bet about us? And I thought I was an asshole."
His friend shakes his head. "It's kinda inevitable, anyway. The chemistry between you is just too real to not miss. And you don't need dates to get to know each other. You're so comfortable around each other it's amazing how you two survived those years without developing any romance in between. You know, she could be your Zatanna."
Dick says it rather casually as he steals away his phone from behind Wally's backpack. The last time Wally has considered Dick Grayson's twisted little ideas, a fire broke out uptown Gotham and Wally's parents' only option then was grounding him for a month.
But he thinks about it, I mean, you know, maybe that could work.
Except this is Artemis, and she's always proven how things just don't exactly go the way you want them to be.
"Yeah, but Artemis doesn't like to call every fifteen minutes, if that's what you're saying," Wally continues to ignore Dick throwing pet names. He still can't understand a single thing about Hamlet.
-x-
It's the first time he's been over after hellish moments maintaining Zatanna and Dick's relationship afloat (because really, once your friends are going out on dates, you become their personal assistant, addressing not only physical and financial requirements but also emotional supporters). He's never shared how he truly finds Artemis' room quite adorable and it's silent now because both refuse to talk about anything. That until her phone rings and they stare at each other for one brief moment before Artemis picks up and finds Zatanna on the other line.
"HE ASKED ME TO HOMECOMING!"
Wally's unable to hide a beam, overhearing the girl and Artemis just slouches back in disdain, because really it's pathetic: what to wear, where to go, how to match, what's for dinner, how to do her hair, all the useless questions that come along with attending preppy school events. Zatanna only hangs up after an hour of her own advice, of which Artemis has barely spoken ten words and Zatanna has satisfied herself.
"She knows how to wear out an ear."
"She must be just nervous and freaking out," Wally says. "Why do you look so annoyed? Aren't you happy for her?"
He rolls his chair up next to the bed, elbows propping as he stares at her, her hair falling down the side of the bed. She meets his eyes. "I don't know. Everyone talks about homecoming too much – they don't have to rub it in that I can't go because I have no one."
She looks delicate, like a hapless baby chick out of her mother's nest or out of an incubator. The glow-in-the-dark sticker collection on the ceiling illuminates her cheekbones the most, and he's just realized it's getting dark already, too dark for reading but I guess they merely procrastinated every time they end up in her room to study.
"If you're that worried, we could always go together," he says and he just receives a blow on the arm, unable to hide that this time it actually did hurt.
"Woman, are you on steroids?"
"Is that any way to ask a girl to homecoming, asshole?" He's taken aback but she scoffs and he turns a little red because he might as well say everything else he's going to end up regretting. "Besides, I don't even want to go. Just drop it."
-x-
Artemis doesn't go, but Wally does. With no one apparently. Megan, oh lovely lovely Megan, has turned him down for resident fuckboy Conner Kent, but that's just how life is, Wally thinks.
Artemis volunteers for the plastic committee, eventually being the one behind the camera, taking homecoming shots of every attendee and their dates, professing endless love of a lifetime even though she's betting they'll totally be gone in the summer or in the first year of college. Wally ultimately just lands a spot right behind her, telling her at which angle is ideal, holding her hand as she presses buttons of the Nikon (Kaldur comes with his girlfriend and previously tutor, but she doesn't try to kid about their backstory while Wally stands behind her). When Roy appears with Jade, Artemis barely offers a nod to her sister before her cheeks are stroked all too familiarly. She reminds Jade about her midterms are going to kill her in the coming weeks and what's she doing in a high school homecoming, only to be responded with a chuckle.
"Baby sis, have you ever thought about getting a life?"
"Have you ever thought about dating guys your age?"
Finally Dick and Zatanna stand in front of them, Wally's yelling Dick to just put an arm around the girl and Artemis feels so much pride in getting Zatanna this once in a lifetime opportunity of dating her ultimate crush since middle school.
Wally and Artemis don't stay for too long, slow dances and alcoholic cocktails emerge in midway so perhaps it's time to leave when you aren't really buying this sappy nightmare.
"You sure you don't want to dance? At least once?"
"I've had enough dancing earlier at the studio, thank you very much," Artemis tells him and he drives her home afterwards, getting all the pictures printed and hanged to dry inside her bedroom. Wally drops on her bed first, Artemis pushing him over so she can have more room and she raises Dick and Zatanna's photo.
"They look so cute together." Wally laughs at her some more.
"What?"
"You were always so bitter about their relationship."
"I was not!"
Wally shrugs, turning to look at her with a smile playing on his lips. "Seemed like that to me."
"No, not really," Artemis turns over to the side, so they end up looking straight at each other. Too close, Wally swallows. Too close. He thinks he whispered beautiful right at her but thanks the heavens his mouth is closed. "I just found it weird. I mean, they've known each other for the longest time. Dating a friend is just… you know, weird."
His gaze doesn't falter, but a smile is long gone. He stares far deeper, running deep into Artemis – still constantly trying to read her and she blinks looking away. "So you just find it weird when friends date?"
"Pretty much. Why?"
"Just wondering," he shrugs, looking again at the galaxy ceiling they made when they were kids. "It was just a question." Which really wasn't. Wally wish she stops waiting on him to say things, she knows very well his actions are impulsive and his words are a slur when he's got butterflies in his stomach. He inhales deep, and then turns around to look at her as she starts: "I don't –"
"Do you –"
They don't exactly know how they end up speaking both at the same time and hardly even making sense because the other refuses to finish. She bites her lips in hesitation and Wally waits. Waits, until she starts talking again. She doesn't, so maybe that's his cue.
"I don't think friends dating is all that bad," he finally decides.
"I never said it was a bad thing, I just think it's kind of weird –"
Wally adds at once, "– which basically means it's a bad thing–"
"– but I never said I wouldn't do it."
And so that's how it goes, him looking over her and she greatly takes the leap of looking back and he wonders at this awfully not so safe distance could she hear his heart making those unnecessary clumsy somersault beats that they will never dance to together? It's not exactly a bad thing, in fact he kinda likes it. He likes to think she does too.
"So you think it's possible?"
They both smile, her boyish grin and his overly stupid one. He just loves her even in the smallest of grandeurs.
-x-
It's in biology and they take the lab desks at the back for the first time in the whole year. He's taking down lecture notes, again outside his margins when the room eventually shakes and the skies outside turn gray, rain heavily crashing on the streets and the field.
His shivering and sweating at the same time, unable to look away from the window outside, his legs bouncing up and down from the under the table, his fist clenched, and he bites his lips as he shuts his eyes. His fear of lightning has always been quite inherent ever since his Uncle Barry told him a story about getting struck. A stupid phobia Artemis often tells him. He remembers crawling into Artemis's duvet and mat when it pours way back in kindergarten. She always gives him a hand to hold and sometimes old habits die hard: years after he finds the same hand, squeezing him in the most comforting manner. He goes back to listening to the lecture.
-x-
For some reason they end up at the movies a lot of times and it just becomes almost inconvenient when Wally's not with Artemis so he lets her drag him into finding a seat in the back of the movie theater, fighting once more about the armrest but settles when the show starts.
She eventually groans midway through the movie. "What the hell are we watching."
"I don't know, some horror movie? The girl that invited me is crazy about this shit."
"She's such a weirdo."
He feels her fist connects with his chest, but lets her arm fall on to his armrest, leaning over to his side every time some oldie appeared in the screen and surprising the rest of the watchers. Wally's dumb because he can't quite get it and it's when Artemis starts screaming out of boredom does he finally reach out for her hand and take her into his arms.
It feels just about right.
-x-
It's dance practice at the studio but they end up studying for the first wave of exams heading their way. It's funny because she's in her tights and leotards while he's wearing loose almost-pajama pants and they've seen each other in way worse clothes but for some reason they cannot manage to look at each other properly, shyly reading through their biology textbooks from across the room, both their backs mirror to mirror, them facing each other.
Her phone vibrates across the floor and it's Zatanna again, telling Artemis about their date at the amusement park.
"OMIGOD, LIKE HE TOTALLY HELD MY HAND WHEN WE WENT UP THE OCTOPUS AND… I JUST WOW I WISH YOU WERE HERE!" She's set the call on speaker so Wally gets to hear it too.
She rolls her eyes, setting them at Wally. "Yeah, we wish we could be there too. Have fun kids. Bye!"
She's just glad she doesn't have to spend another second witnessing it. Listening to it becomes a tedious chore enough, maybe because it's becoming too sweet for her own good. They fall silent again after that, until Artemis sighs.
"I wonder what they talk about when they're alone."
He looks up from his book, snorting at that. "It's probably rainbows and shit." She chuckles lightly before pensively forgetting that she still needs to read chapter 3 of the circulatory system. "Dick's such a baby, you know. He touches a condom and he's like, "Wow fuck, how do I use this?" He's that stupid."
Artemis giggles and Wally's eyebrows are raised.
"What?" He goes to her side, taking his big book with him and sits beside her. "Don't tell me you're like that too."
"Like what? I wasn't even laughing about that, asshole."
He scoffs, rolling his eyes as he props his legs up. "Yeah, alright. I bet you and Zatanna still talk about like, I don't know, holding hands with boys or something."
"We're not fetuses, you know." She hits his leg, turning to the Biology textbook even though she forgets exactly what they were supposed to be even studying about anymore. "Zatanna's already had one boyfriend before and she's kissed about two more, we don't need to talk about whether we can get someone to hold our hands, asshole. Ten bucks you and Dick only ever talk about is sex and how many girls you've gotten laid."
"And how many girls do you think I've already gotten laid?"
Artemis laughs, as if waiting for this exact day to give her best response yet. "Zero, of course!"
Wally snorts again, facing her once more. "And what, like have you never kissed before –"
Artemis's eyes widen and Wally's follow in suit and before they know it, Jaime Reyes enters in the doorway, swaying his towel over to the other side and taking off his earphones as the two other people break apart. Wally turns red at the memory, picking his book up and doesn't bother to give back her highlighters.
"I… I… I think I should go." He stutters, getting up and not looking back.
"Yeah, see you tomorrow."
He nods at her slightly and is out the door in the next second, and Wally has to stop himself from commenting anymore about how she looks even stupider with her hair down while studying in dance clothes and those huge thighs or her sweaty loose blouse. And he still doesn't want to say it, but he hates her for remembering such a memory he has never ever tried to bring up until that very minute. He's still red when he meets the rain outside, and his car is a block away. He can't make a run for it when the thunder rolls and the lightning flashes.
It's not something he can quite overcome yet as a seventeen-year-old.
-x-
(Right after middle school, dance camp auditions come up and Wally successfully makes it to top one while Artemis fails because they all say she can't capture the right look and she isn't as graceful like the rest of the girls all blooming thanks to puberty.
His first kiss has been hers too, the universe never decided to tell anyone. Because she's been crying in the backyard and the world still didn't believe she's good enough.
"I still like you, you know."
Wally's hideous hair and nervous laughter makes Artemis think a little, but not too long when his lips connect with hers, the way they make her want more. It's rather simple, stolen, just a feeble attempt at comforting her.
They don't share another one after that, because Artemis ends up forgetting and Wally decides it's always better to move on from little slip ups and tiny mistakes.
Except, he's realized after a long time, perhaps they aren't at all that.)
-x-
A little drenched Wally backs away from the sidewalk; it's past twilight now, backpack worn on both shoulders. Entering the dance studio once more, he whimpers every time the thunder growls and he feels the whole building is shaking with him, the walls closing in on him. He winces, cringes, lets out a small cry of fear. Crouching, he sits and covers his ears at a corner, eyes shut but the lightning still manages to reflect behind his lids and it frightens him more.
"Hey! Hey! I'm here, hey!"
Her voice is barely heard but he focuses on that, focuses on the arms suddenly wrapped around his waist as she closes him in a strong comforting embrace. "There, there, it's not going to hurt you. You're not wearing an underwired bra."
He laughs, in tears, embarrassed. "God, Artemis."
"They say lightning will hit you if you wear an underwired bra," Artemis responds, looking at him now and waiting for him to stop shaking.
"Are… are you wearing one because if you get hit, then I'll get hit with you since we're kinda hugging and –"
"No, but you're not supposed to know that," she mutters. "Besides you don't ask girls that, you dick."
"Someone's learning how to say the D word well," he teases, but eventually loses it again when the thunder roars at them and he's burying himself in Artemis's arms. They're quite strong, he's realized, and he's just lucky. The light flickers until they're totally out and he trembles even further, sitting down now on the floor, cowering.
"Shit, it's getting stronger! Shit."
"Dude, relax it's just power outage."
"Fuck, I can't take this anymore. Fuck."
"Wally!"
"Fucking shit, what do you want? God. What? Make it stop."
"Do you still like me?"
There is a silence, finally, and he tenses when he sees her eye to eye. "What type of fucking question is that when I'm hyperventilating?"
Artemis pushes on. "Just answer me!"
Wally shakes his head. "The fucking hell is wrong with you–"
"Yes or no, dammit!"
"YES OF COURSE YES, I STILL LIKE YOU. I never stopped liking you," he spits it out, seeing her frown even some more, eyes already watery at the answer. "Happy now?"
"No, you asshole." Before Wally knows it, Artemis reaches over him and finds his lips in the darkness, and he pulls her closer, easily finding out now that it's surprisingly easy to kiss her this much and this big and this worth it that his heart races, and she can feel Artemis' shaky breathing too. For some reason who needs dates, when they've already known each other for as long as they can remember, and now it feels like they do. They know which ear is ticklish and which hand is abrasive.
(And they both know, for some reason, it should've been like this all along.)