AN: Young Justice College AU where DC Comics and Marvel exist. All human, no powers. Everyone is a little out of character, fair warning. Everything is subjective. It's also hella meta.
Some foul language.
I'm also working on a much longer one shot, but thought of this and figured I'd post this first for starters.
Disclaimer: I don't own any of the DC property. I just put this story together.
Summary: Because of Artemis's intense training in Archery, she needs to keep her hands super moisturized. Wally's powerful sense of smell is really distracting.
Major Spitfire. Some Chalant. Super Fluffy.
—
Scents of Confidence
Happy Harbor; July 2nd, 13:28 EST
It's a slow Saturday. For the most part, it's a ghost town, save for the occasional shuffling from the back. Zatanna would usually have some tunes playing from her laptop at a reasonable volume while customers browse through the store, but today, she's catching up on Westworld on full blast. It pays to be the girlfriend of the owner's son.
"LOVE YOU, BABE!"
The shuffling stops for a second, "LOVE YOU TOO, ZEE!"
She looks up from the counter at the sound of the bell hung above the door and smiles as her best friend walks through.
She pauses her laptop, "Hey, 'Mis!"
"Hey, Zee!" Artemis glances at the screen and smirks, "Did you get to the part where Ford–."
"LALALALALA, NO SPOILERS! I'm catching up right now, you goob." Zatanna's hands are covering her ears.
Artemis surrenders, "Alright, alright. What do you have for me today?"
Looking through Artemis's pull file, Zatanna rattles off, "I've got Action Comics #958, Detective Comics #935, Wonder Woman #1 and The Flash #1."
"Excellent, gimme gimme." Artemis makes a grab for them.
Zatanna slides them across the counter. "They're really good, Rebirth is already leaps and bounds better than New 52."
Artemis scoffs, "Please. Everything's better than New 52. Remember Red Hood & The Outlaws?" At this, both Zatanna and Artemis shudder.
"Rebirth better treat Red Hood right, he deserves love!"
"FUCKING RIGHT, I DO!" Jason bursts out from the back room.
Artemis and Zatanna share a look and turn in his direction. "WE GET IT, YOU ARE RED HOOD."
Dick also pops out from the door beside his brother, "Back to work, bumgorf."
Jason reluctantly turns back to continue inventory and mumbles under his breath, "Bumgorf my ass, stupid k'norfka."
Dick smirks, "I think I hear Donna with the delivery truck."
Watching his brother pick up his pace, he walks up to the counter, puts his arm around his girlfriend, kisses her cheek and takes a look-see at her laptop. "Oh hey, did you get to the part where Ford–."
"OH MY GOODNESS, NO SPOILERS!" And puts her lips on his to silence his speech. Which totally turns a little spicer than a quick kiss.
Artemis turns away. "You guys are gross. I'll be scanning the stacks."
Dick faces her, but Zatanna moves her lips to his neck. "You're gonna have to fight Wally for that Flash #1! He's coming in today!"
Artemis has heard of Dick's best friend, the elusive Wally West, but she doesn't know him and has never had the pleasure of meeting him. Zatanna constantly says that he's "perfect for her," but she has her doubts.
She already has most of the back issues that are in the stacks, and even knows what's there and what isn't, but it never hurts to look through. Artemis feels like she should work here, but her intense Archery training schedule wouldn't allow it.
With the door open to the back room, all she can hear is Jason and Donna making out. Between them and Dick and Zee in the front, Artemis feels a little sandwiched between couples. She inserts her earphones, puts on some of her favourite jasmine scented lotion on her dry hands and starts digging.
Back at the front, the bell rings and the couple looks up from Zee's laptop to see Wally walk in. Zatanna pauses it while the two boys fist bump.
Wally takes a fleeting look at the laptop. "Awesome, did you get to the part where Ford–."
"HOLY POOP! What is with you people? No spoilers!"
Wally's eyes widen and he apologizes, "No harm, no foul, right?" He turns around to examine the new releases wall, and immediately notices what's not there. His eyes are on Dick. "You said you had it in stock."
"Had being the operative word." Dick's all chill.
"What happened?"
"It sold out, my dude. It's your own fault; I told you to sign up for a pull file." Dick watches his friend kick the ground and grumble about how he was going to do it but got busy with Track & Field, and decides to give him a little mercy. "There is one left in the store though; right now," at this, Wally perks up a considerable amount. "But you'll have to find it first."
Wally isn't up for his tricks and games right now and narrows his eyes, "Secrets don't make friends."
Zatanna steps in. "For once, Wally, I think you should do what Dick says. It'll be worth it."
He gives Zatanna a little eyebrow quirk, but he definitely trusts Zee more than he does Dick. He does the mature thing and sticks his tongue out at them and starts his mission.
Wally takes extra care to look everywhere so that he doesn't miss anything, even the ceiling. (Dick once taped the new Flash action figure up there because he's a cruel human.)
Halfway through the store, he smells it. It's faint, but it's there. Jasmine.. but where? The only reason he knows is because his Aunt Iris drinks jasmine tea and it reminds him of home. It gets stronger the deeper he travels into the store. When he reaches the edge of the stacks, it's everywhere.
He turns a few corners and discovers that the delicious scent is coming from a woman his age. And wow, what a woman. He's sure that he would remember a woman like her before. Soft, yet firm looking physique, with flowing, waist-length, blonde hair, rich mahogany eyes so deep, that as cheesy as it sounds, he could get lost in them. He notices her plump lips pucker while she scans a what? The Atom? Wow; a woman after his own heart! She closes the comic and adds it to the small pile in her left hand.
He can tell by her lack of movement that she hasn't noticed him yet and picks up the closest issue on the shelf to make it look like he isn't stalking her. But the scent is all encompassing and he can't focus. He slowly inches towards her and but he can tell that he's been caught; her posture stiffens but soon relaxes and she pays him no mind.
An idea, a really stupid idea, but an idea nonetheless, pops into his head and he has the decency to feel a little embarrassed. On the other hand, he figures he'll give it a shot because really, if he gets shut down, it will at least be a good story afterwards.
He inches even closer to her and he notes that she has earphones in and feels only slightly bad for disturbing her. She doesn't move though, so really, it's an invitation to be close (or at least he tells himself that). He waits until he's standing right next to her, basically rubbing shoulders, slowly reaches out and holds her hand in his.
He hears a thump from the front of the store, and he just knows that Dick fell out of his chair. Those peeping Toms. With his right hand, he subtly gives the finger to the security camera he knows is in the corner ceiling.
But to be quite honest, he doesn't regret it. Rapunzel's got the softest hand; he's savouring the feeling before she slaps him with it.
Yet, nothing. Minutes pass by and they're still holding hands. Looking at the same shelf, just holding hands. At one point, she even squeezes his hand and moves to clasp their hands together. Wally is genuinely surprised and after a couple more minutes he starts to wonder if he's actually in the Twilight Zone.
Another minute passes by and she finally makes more movement than just studying the rack of comics. With her left hand, she reaches up and takes her earphones out, turns to him and says, "Do you mind if we move to the next row?"
Sincerely dumbfounded, Wally just nods and mumbles, "Sure," and she's pulling him around another corner.
She's already tucked her earphones back in and Wally obviously won't be able to focus anymore, holding this girl's hand, so he's left to his thoughts. He's evidently been a good boy, always eats his vegetables, finishes his readings and assignments on time. There has to be a catch, right? Is he getting Punk'd? Dick and Zatanna better sleep with one eye open if they're behind this.
Artemis taps his shoulder and brings him out of his musings. "Could you pass me that Justice League Dark, please?" And points to the top shelf. He's at least half a head taller than her, so he snatches it with ease and hands it to her. She's about to stick her earphones back in when he decides to just go for it.
"Wait. Umm, hi."
She tucks the earbuds into her jean pocket and smiles at him, "Hi."
Wally rubs the back of his neck while the tips of his ears turn red. "Ahh, not to sound weird or ungrateful or whatever, because not that I don't like holding your hand, it actually feels really nice and warm, but why are you still holding my hand?"
Artemis raises an eyebrow at him. "Well, why did you grab it in the first place?"
His stomach sinks, "I was really hoping that that would be the one thing you wouldn't ask, but.. I thought you were cute. Beautiful, really. And to be quite honest now that I think about it, I would have been really upset with myself if I didn't at least try something. Holding your hand was the first thing that came to mind." And he whispers, "and you smell really good." He looks down and hopes she didn't catch that part.
"It's jasmine." Of course she'd hear that part. "My lotion; gotta stay moisturized, you know? Archery isn't so forgiving on my hands."
At this, he perks up. "Archery? Wow, that's pretty cool. Know any good lip balms? Track & Field isn't so forgiving on my lips." She's staring at him and he realizes that maybe he sounded a bit too forward? "That wasn't a line, I swear–."
"I would suggest Burt's Bees, but I prefer Blistex for the longer lasting effect." He's surprised she even answered and is even more surprised when she lets go of his hand and hands him her comics. He's about to ask what she's doing when she pulls out a tube of lip balm from her other pocket, grabs his face and proceeds to coat his lips.
Her close proximity and jasmine scent are enough to give him a cardiac arrest but he digs deep to stay calm. Up close, he can see everything. She's so beautiful.
Wally vaguely hears two thumps this time, and wow, he is very impressed that both Zee and Dick are as amazed as he is.
As she extracts herself from his breathing space and puts away her lip balm, she grabs his hand again and takes back her comics. She's pleased with how the afternoon is turning out. "I think you're cute too. Beautiful, really." And tosses him a little wink. "Also, for the record, I'm glad you did try something."
Wally can't help but feel like he's won 1st Place; he's on top of the world. Feeling a bit more confident, he faces her, "Can I look through your pile?"
Wordlessly, she hands him her comics again and because she knows he'll need both hands to look through them, she gives the palm she was holding a kiss before letting go completely.
He smiles at her while she looks through Injustice and sifts through her choices. Justice League Dark, Hellblazer, The Atom, and wow, most of the Rebirth issues that came out last Wednesday. He makes it to her last issue and stops dead in his tracks. Artemis notices that he's stopped moving.
"Are you okay?"
"Where did you find this?"
"Um, I didn't; Zatanna, the girl at the front, gave it to me from my pull file."
Wally's face drops a bit but really, he can't be mad because wow, beautiful, confident, comics, DC? The Flash?! He's already so lucky.
Artemis thinks back to earlier, puts the pieces together and smiles, "You can have it."
"What, no. It's yours." He's handing her comics back.
She takes the rest but leaves The Flash in his hands. "Take it, really. I'll just ask Dick to order me another one. It's not a big deal, really."
He looks at her and she's smiling at him and honestly, it's too much. He doesn't believe in a god, but someone's looking out for him and he's not going to let this moment pass by.
He grabs her comics, sets them on the shelf with his Flash, pulls her by the waist, and kisses her.
Artemis's eyes grow wide for a second, but she quickly mirrors his enthusiasm, throwing her arms around his neck and even jumping up and folding her legs around his waist. Wally wasn't expecting it but moves his arms under her legs to support her frame.
Applause and wolf calls can be heard all around them. They pull apart but Wally doesn't show signs of letting her go, so Artemis makes no move to get down.
They turn to their intruders and both exclaim: "Go away!"
Dick and Zee stand at one end of the row while Jason and Donna stand at the other.
Zee's the first to recover, "FINALLY!"
They watch as their friends meet them in the middle. They share a look when they see Jason and Donna handing Dick and Zatanna twenty dollar bills.
"Hey, do we get a piece of that?" Artemis is a little irked.
Dick steps up and claps a confused Wally, who is still holding Artemis up, on the back. "Wally, this is Artemis."
"Artemis, that clown's Wally." Donna gives Wally a fond smile.
"I figured." Artemis is a tad smug.
They stare at each other and Artemis can basically see the light bulbs going off in his head. Wally's only heard of Artemis Crock, Zatanna's best friend, and how she's "perfect for him" but he's never dreamed it would be true.
He looks at Dick, "Dude!"You'll have to find it first." You ass."
"Dang, West; that was ballsy. I don't think I'd ever grab a hot stranger's hand like that." Jason is positively giddy.
"But did you see his face when she didn't do anything? He was so shocked!" Dick imitates Wally's face and it sends the brothers over the edge. Jason's holding on to Dick, who is equally unbalanced.
Their laugher is enough to make Wally blush up to his hair line, but Artemis peppers his faces with kisses, so he figures he can brave the embarrassment.
"Alright, Alright, I think he's suffered enough. Care to cash us out, Zee?" Zatanna and Dick make their way to the front while Donna and Jason head for the back. Artemis turns to Wally. "Unless you're not done here?"
Gazing at her, he makes a quick decision, "Yeah, I'm good to go. You wanna grab a burger or something?"
"A burger sounds great; I'm starving!"
He lifts her higher on his waist and gives her one last peck before following Zee and Dick.