A/N: This was basically just an experiment to toy around with present tense (wonderful for feelings, not so much for storytelling), reported speech (not really my thing) and very, very compressed descriptions (not particularly my thing, but I like it). Turned out decent, I think.
Also, I know I'm supposed to be updating League of What The Hell They Turned Into Children, but I just like very very angsty Young Justice oneshots.
After Wally's death, Artemis and Bart become close. Before, they'd barely met and that was mostly at Flash family dinners, but now they hang out with each other at least once a week, eating ice cream and laughing about the latest Team mission and looking at the clouds when they picnic out in the park. It's like the void left behind by Wally sucked them both together, the gaping wound fusing together in a sort of not-healing. They always carefully avoid the topic of what happened at the North Pole, talking about weapons (mostly Artemis), comic books (mostly Bart) and sometimes Wally when he was alive.
Bart hadn't known Wally before he came to the past, all he knows about the original Kid Flash's childhood are the forbidden tapes he'd watched after escaping. Artemis is more than happy to fill him in with his antics, the period when he kept shamelessly flirting with M'gann even though she was already with Conner, the time he transported a heart through the country on his birthday none the less, or when he kept denying magic exists despite having been trapped in Doctor Fate's helmet. They both laugh on the last one, earning a comment from Aqualad on the definition of stealth. Bart grins as he lays back at the edge of the building, contuniung the stakeout in whispered jokes and swapped stories.
The Team notices them getting closer together. They don't say anything, happy that they're not drowning in grief anymore. Sometimes, when the youngsters hang out, sprawling on the couch in a heap of feet, torsos, hands and heads, shifting around to find a position comfortable for everyone, one of them asks if he knew Artemis in the future. Bart just shakes his head lazily, replying that he hadn't met any current superheroes in the past. They had all retired, he lies. He had met her niece, however. She was crash, he says. A true superhero. He fails to mention she died protecting him and the halfway-done time machine from the Reach. When he closes his eyes, he still sees the plasma beam tearing her to molten shreds and the cruel grin of Blue Beetle. Jaime laughs at one of Cassie's jokes and Bart fights back the urge to flinch. Artemis just watches the children with a light smile.
It happens on what should have been the most ordinary Tuesday ever. Bart has invited himself to her apartment, again, claiming Jaime is on a family vacation, so he's forced to hang out with his sister instead. She rolls her eyes fondly at the nickname, but doesn't object, instead mock-fusses around poor little Bart who's stuck with the evil Tigress. He just laughs and speeds off into the kitchen. Artemis skahes her head with a sigh and resumes writing an essay for the university, her mind so immersed in the task she almost forgets the speedster's presence. When there's a loud clattering, her head whips up and she closes the lid of the laptop, heading to the kitchen. Bart's in his Kid Flash costume and his head is in the fridge, looking for the brownies she's made for herself, and as he straightens up with the plate in his hands, the dusk light making everything monochrome, she forgets for a second.
"Those are my cookies! Hands off, Wally!" she half-yells without any real anger, and Kid Flash - not hers, the new - freezes. Artemis now knows what it's like to be a speedster, watching in slow motion as the plate slips out of his hands, gravity carrying it towards the ground a millimeter per eternity. Wally is dead, he ceased, this is not him, her mind screams as her. She barely hears the plate shattering into a million pieces, just like her heart as reality catches up to her, the hair russet not fire-red, the frame small not muscular, the eyes pale green not emerald, wide open and filled to the brim with tears. Bart's, not Wally's, entire frame is trembling, the half-fused wound tearing open and bleeding them both to death with a single word.
"I'm-I'm sorry," Bart chokes, her heart wasn't the only one breaking, and half of Artemis wants to scream at him for not being Wally, the other half wants to hug him forever. She hesitates for a millisecond, and this is enough to make up Bart's mind. She feels more than hears the gust of wind zooming beside her, and he's gone. She stares in grief and guilt, calling out way too late. Slowly, mechanically she sweeps up the shards, if cleaning up their hearts was so easy, throwing out the brownies on the floor. Then she just sits on the floor, feeling numb and almost wishing back the flood of emotions.
She doesn't know how much later does she make up her mind. She knows exactly where Bart would be, and she goes to the Watchtower. It's well into the night already, so the space station is empty save for the two of them. As she predicted, the boy is in the memorial garden, sitting in front of Wally's memorial and hugging his pulled up knees. He's still wearing the Kid Flash costume, staring straight ahead, not even noticing Artemis sneaking up on him. Bart flinches as she sits down beside him. A beat of silence follows.
"I'm sorry," Bart says quietly, his voice thick with tears still running down his face. Artemis feels a pang in her chest, and before her mind processes her movements, she puts an arm around Bart's shoulders, pulling him close. He freezes for a second.
"I was the one who forgot," Artemis murmurs solemnly, her own eyes getting blurry. "It was so easy not to remember, with you in his costume, in his house, doing what he always does, you even look similar to him..." She abruptly stops as she feels the boy trembling as he starts to curl up on himself, physically flinching at each point she's making. I'm so stupid, she thinks back to her words. Bart looks ready to bolt again, so she tightens her arm around his shoulders. "I'm sorry." The boy lets out a dark laugh that sends shivers up her spine. She's never heard him laughing like this.
"Why? I'm the one impersonating him, parading around in his clothes, with his team, with his friends... with her girlfriend." Now she feels like each point stabs him in the heart and wordlessly, she reaches with her other arm, wrapping it around the boy who accepts it, returning the embrace. It says everything she cannot, and what he cannot. Forgiveness, healing, friendship, a new start. She doesn't remember when she starts crying, only notices it after seeing the crystal droplets land in a mop of brown, not red, hair. The front of her shirt is damp too.
After a while, she speaks up again.
"Come, let's go. I'll bake a new batch of brownies for us." Bart just nods in agreement, and they leave together, holding hands like siblings. Once down on Earth, Bart speeds off and Artemis thinks that he too left her, until a minute later he returns in civilian clothes and smiles at her sheepishly, embarrassed and guilty and almost afraid. Artemis just nods at him and his expression dissolves into a genuine smile. She ends up making several batches of cookies and Bart helps her, chatting in the meanwhile and the warmth of familiarity slowly returns, making the house home.
When he sees Bart during a mission debrief three weeks later, her mind does a double-take. The sleeves of his costume, along with the neck, are red now, with a pair of yellow gloves, and the shade is different too, a darker crimson. He switched out the goggles in favour of a red-tinted visor. He no longer looks like Wally while still remaining Kid Flash. The other Team members seem to be used to the new costume, but she can't stop staring. He notices it, turning around and spreading her arms in a "how do I look?" motion. She fights back the tears and just smiles at him, meeting his excited grin. Then they turn their attention back to Aqualad, who assigns them both to the Alpha squad.
During the mission, she whispers a thank you to him and he just nods back.