The Team sat in the cave, sitting on the couch, everyone focused on the television. They had just finished up a hard days worth of training with Black Canary. As usual, Robin, Superboy, Kaldur, and Artemis were all her favorite, while Wally and M'gann were told as usual to train harder.
It was a few day until thanksgiving and everyone had plans.
"So Wally," M'gann said excitedly, "what are you doing for thanksgiving?"
"The usual, spending it with the family," he replied. He looked over to Artemis and said, "What are your plans Arty?"
She looked at him with an annoyed expression and replied, "Nothing. My mom is going out of the country to see her family in Vietnam. I decided not to go since had had a lot of school work to do." She decided to ignore the Arty comment since he knew how much it bugged her.
Everyone gave her a worried look. They were all thinking the same thing. Wally was the first person to say the same thing the were all thinking by saying, "Your going to be alone on thanksgiving? Doing homework?"
She shrugged her shoulders and said, "So."
He was about to fly out of his seat with anger. But instead he said, "So you can't be alone on thanksgiving. It's probably against the law."
She was confused on why it was such a big deal that she was going to be alone. "First off, it's not against the law. And second, I never really celebrated it in my life."
Zatanna walked over to where she was sitting and took the seat next to her. She looked at her and said, "Why don't you join us here at the cave. Me, M'gann, and Superboy are all celebrating it together. You won;t be the only person there that is celebrating it for the first time."
Before Artemis could even respond, Wally stood up and said, "Nope." Artemis gave him a confused look and just stared at him. "She will be joining my family and I. She will have a proper first thanksgiving by being surrounded by family. Even though she isn't part of our family, my mom will make her one once she meet her."
Artemis was really nervous about this. She would be intruding on someone thanksgiving. "Wally I couldn't do that. This is a holiday to spend with your family."
He shrugged his shoulders and said, "So. They would love to meet someone else from the Team. And, this would makes it easier for us. Now we won't have uneven teams when we play Pictionary. That settles it, your joining us. Pick you up at 10. We like to eat a thanksgiving lunch and spend the rest of the day playing games, watching the football game, playing football and all the fun things." Before she could reply, he sped out of the room and went home to tell his mom that she is going to have to cook for an extra mouth on thanksgiving.
Artemis just at there with a shocked expression on her face. Everyone turned to her for a comment. She looked at them and said, I guess I am joining Wally for thanksgiving."
M'gann got a huge smile on her face and said, "This means he likes you. After thanksgiving, you guys will be dating."
Everyone looked at M'gann and began to laugh. Artemis looked at her and said, "Yeah, once we do, all the villains in the world will see the error in there ways and turn themselves in."
Thanksgiving
Artemis was in her room at the cave finishing getting around so she could join the West family thanksgiving. She decided to stay in the cave until her mother got back since she spent most of her time there anyway. The only reason she ever went home was to take care of her mother.
She texted Wally last night on hat she should wear and he told her her normal outfit was fine. So she got out her boot, skinny jeans, tube top, and jacket out of the closet and got ready. Her hair was problem though. She spent nearly 30 minutes getting ready. She decided that getting it into a braid was impossible and settled for the normal ponytail.
When she was putting a watch on her wrist, she felt a gust of wind blow into her room, followed by, "You better be ready or else you can spend thanksgiving starving and doing homework."
She turned around and saw Wally leaning against her door wearing a black button up dress shirt and a pair of black jeans. He also a had air of nice black sneakers on his feet, probably so he doesn't have to run around in painful dress shoes.
Oh my god he's hot, thought to herself. Why did you just think that. This is Wally. He probably tried to wear some stupid rock band tee-shirt so his mom had to dress him.
He caught her staring at him and said, "You like. I went out yesterday and bought it I thought it would look nice.
You were right about that. Shut up! She turned around and picked up her lucky ring and said, "Wow, don't get a big head." She put her ring on and turned back around. "Let's go."
They walked to the zeta tubes and Wally punched in the destination. They both stepped into together, and regretted it when they arrived. Apparently the closest zeta tube to Wally's house was a porta-potty in an old construction site. They both fought their way out and started to walk towards his house.
After about 2 minutes of walking, Wally picked Artemis up bridal style. Before he could take off, Artemis looked at him and said, "What are you doing?!"
He looked down at her and said, "This is taking too long. I'll just run us their. Hold on."
Before she could object, he took off and was running so fast everything as a blur around her. After about 10 seconds of that uneasy feeling, they skid to a stop in front of a large 2 story house. Artemis was not surprised that this house belonged to Wally. That was one reason she laughed when M'gann said they would get together. He lives in a large house in the suburbs, she lives in the slum of the most dangerous city in the U.S..
They walked up to the front door, where Waly opened it for her. Once she was inside, he closed it behind her. She stood there, in front of the door, listening to the faint voices from what she could only guess was the kitchen. Wally ushered her towards the direction, which she reluctantly followed.
When they got to the kitchen, even fell silent. Wally said, "Everyone, I would like you to meet Artemis. Artemis, this is my mom Mary, dad, Rudolph, Aunt Iris, Uncle Barry, you already know him, then Jay, and Joan."
Everyone immediately walked up to her and shook her hand. They gave her the biggest smiles. His mom told her, "You look so lovely. Wally never told me he had such a beautiful girlfriend."
Wally immediately ran up with a panicked expression and said, "We aren't dating."
His mom started laughing and said, "I know. I was just giving you a hard time." She turned to Artemis and said, "Artemis, I hope you don't mind if you help me and Joan set the table."
Artemis looked over to the woman and said, "I would be happy to." Artemis grabbed the napkins and silverware off the counter and followed the women into the dining room.
She walked into the dining room and was stunned. There was a giant cherry oak table in the center of the room along with a matching hutch against one of the walls filled with fine china.
Mary told her that she was in charge of folding the napkins and putting the silverware in top. All she had to do was fold the napkin vertically, then line the silverware in order; fork, spoon, then knife.
Joan looked over to Artemis and said, "So Artemis, I love that name."
Artemis looked over to the sweet old lady and said, "Thank you. Everyone one finds it ironic since Artemis is the greek goddess of the hunt and I'm am Green Arrow's sidekick."
Joan kept placing the plates and bowls around the table and said, "So what made you decide to become a hero?"
Artemis panicked and decided the truth was the best answer. (A/N: In this AU, the Team already knows her past when she joins.) She continued her work and said, "Well, my parents were supervillains." That was the exact moment when Wally's mom entered the room. "My dad trained me and my sister to join my parents in the League of Shadows when I grew up. He taught me how to fight, use a bow and arrows, everything. One night, my parents went out on a simple robbery. It went south fast. My mom ended up shot in the back and was paralyzed from the waist down. Since she was paralyzed, she couldn't run away so she was arrested. My sister was so angry that my dad left her their and she wasn't going to spend the rest of her life stuck with him, so she ran away. I was left by myself with my dad, so he trained me non-stop. He made me so mad one night that I went out for a while. While I was out, I saw a group of thugs robbing some woman with a baby. I decided to help them. I fought them off easily and they ran away. The woman thanked me When I saw the look in her eyes and the joy that her and child were safe, because of me, I decided to become a hero."
She looked at the woman to make sure that they hadn't fallen on the floor from a heart attack. Instead she saw them staring at her with smiles on their faces. Mary walked over and put a hand on her shoulder and said, "I am proud of you. I happy that you would follow a life of good even though you entire family was criminals."
She gave her a smile and said, "Not all my family are criminals now. My mom gave it up once she was released from prison and is now rising me."
After there little chat, the turkey had finished so everyone sat down to eat. The three speedsters were the first to get food, so everyone else was stuck with the scraps. After they ate, they all played a game of football in the back yard. It was guys against girls, and the girls lost. Since the guys had three speedsters, all Wally's dad had to do was pass the ball to anyone on his team and they got a touchdown. After football was Pictionary. Guys against girls again, but this time the girls won.
It wasn't 8 PM until Artemis left. When she did, Mary gave her a paper cup full of hot chocolate for the road. Wally decided to walk her back to the zeta tube. They walked instead of having Wally run her there since it was so cold and she would probably die of hypothermia before they arrived.
When they got to the zeta tube, Artemis turned to Wally and said, "Thank you so much. I had a lot of fun. My favorite part of the night had to be when your mom told me about your embarrassing moment last week when you didn't have a towel when you got out of the shower."
He laughed then said, "I am glad that you are happy about my traumatizing moment."
She laughed and said, "Really, thank you. No one has ever been so generous to invite me over for thanksgiving."
He smiled at her and said, "I would do it again in a heart beat."
They smiled at each other again. Then, almost like a magnetic force, they were pulled closer to eachother. There lips crashed together and stayed there. Wallys hands found a spot on her hips, and Artemis' arms wound themselves around his neck, She was careful though not to spill hot chocolate down his back. Wally tongue licked her bottom for entrance to which she agreed. Thier tongues battled for dominance, while exploring the crevices of each others mouths.
They broke apart 5 minutes later and stared at one another. They looked at each other, and in unison said, "Wow." They then went back to their activities.