Words: 3,712
Disclaimer: YO I STILL CAN'T BELIEVE WE MANAGED TO BRING YOUNG JUSTICE BACK!
Notes: My super late YJ Fic Exchange story for Tumblr user wallyrudolphtherednosedspeedster, I'm so sorry it's late beyond the original agreed upon deadline but I promised to myself that I'd give you something more than 400 words, it being a Christmas gift and all! The quality of the story below is not to my preferred standards, I think, but a good start to getting back into the grind. Please enjoy and belated Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year to you all! Here's to Young Justice Season 3!
would it still be christmas without you
There's really nothing worse than losing your girlfriend's Christmas present a few days before Christmas.
– Actually, no. No, wait.
There is most definitely something worse than losing your girlfriend's Christmas present (which, by the way, took you an entire two weeks to come up with, and another week and a half to track down) less than a week before Christmas, and that is this: if you do all of the above an hour before you're meant to give it to her.
Let's rewind.
o-o-o
Wally West is 19 years old and too young to die at the hands of an irate girlfriend.
He zips back and forth, in and out of rooms, up and down the stairs looking for the present, all the while completely ignoring his mother's rule of Under No Circumstances Are You Permitted To Use Your Superspeed In My House.
"This is so stupid," Wally mutters in frustration, dashing from his room to the bathroom in the hallway, hoping that the present had somehow managed to make its way from the closet of his room to some hidden corner of the bathroom. Maybe his mom moved it? (Why would she move it to the bathroom?)
"Wally," he hears his dad's voice call out from inside his study.
"Are you alright out there?"
"I'm fine, Dad," Wally leans out of the bathroom to reply to his father before stepping back into the bathroom and scanning the space quickly. "Damn!"
"Language, Wally," his dad's voice calls again with little to no bite in his tone. In the back of his mind, Wally rolls his eyes. How many times has he heard his dad swear badly enough to earn himself a timeout on the porch? (So many.)
"Dad, have you seen Artemis's present?" Wally asks, speeding into his father's study and completely ignoring the language comment. His dad frowns at him at the mention of the present.
"Have you checked your closet?" he says slowly, and Wally shakes his head in slight annoyance before glancing at his watch.
"Already did, and pretty much scoured the entire house too," he says, running both of his hands through his hair in irritation before resting them on the back of his neck, his eyes darting all over the place in mild stress.
"Aw, man, what am I gonna do, Artemis is gonna kill me!"
"Artemis isn't going to 'kill' you, kiddo, she's just going to be … a little disappointed, that's all," his dad starts.
"Thanks, Dad, appreciate the pep talk, but she really will kill me, and we both know that she actually can so my best chance of seeing you guys for Christmas this year is finding that dumb d–"
Wally stops talking abruptly at the sound of a series of short, excited barks from the kitchen downstairs. He and his dad look at each other for a split second before Wally zips down to the kitchen, fast enough to rip the hanging photo frames off their hooks to clatter to the floor and leaving a mess in his wake.
His dad sighs and bends down to pick the photo frames up one by one.
"Scoured the entire house, huh?" he mutters to himself, shaking his head in amusement.
o-o-o
Wally West is 19 years old and has his last date of the year with his girlfriend in less than 19 minutes. Boy, does he love irony.
He finds her Christmas present prancing around the backyard, poking around the bushes and rustling his mom's lovingly placed Christmas lights. The little puppy is enjoying the cold and crisp winter air and wagging his tail, panting and running around like he hadn't seen the sun just a few hours ago. Bless her heart but Wally's mom wanted to let the dumb dog stretch its legs for a little bit before Wally brought him over to Gotham City to give to Artemis.
He hasn't name the little guy yet. He'll leave that for Artemis to decide. (In the meantime, he's been referring to him as Artemis Jr. He thinks it's cute. His mom and dad agree that Artemis should probably choose a name.)
Wally carefully puts Artemis Jr into a small dog carrier bag that's packed with a few select treats his mom probably-definitely snuck in while he wasn't looking and has a special strap to fix to his back for extra stability during super-speed travel.
Kid Flash has never had a canine sidekick before, so this is a little exciting. Wally's mind runs away from him for a second and he wonders: if Artemis Jr were Kid Flash's trusty sidekick, what would he be called? Flash Dog? Dash? Bullet? Speedo? (Definitely not that last one.) Artemis would know what to call him.
He's ready to sprint to his date to talk to Artemis about this exact topic when his mom's arm shoots out and blocks the open doorway, forcing him to screech to a halt.
She asks him to run her an errand and pick up some butter 'real quick' ("Ha ha, you're hilarious, Mom.") because she knows he can and doesn't get to use the excuse "I can't, Mom, I don't have time!" but he tries it anyway.
"I can't, Mom, I don't have time!"
In response, she gives him a loving smile but places her palm on his cheek in a gesture that's simultaneously gentle and intimidating.
"Sweetheart, if you can break the sound barrier in your sneakers, you can run and get me some butter from the grocery store." She says this in a tone that's sweet and patient on the outside but steely and ice-cold underneath. She also has her No Dicking Around Face on (that's what Wally calls it, not her) so he knows he's got no say in this.
He refrains from actually telling her this, but Wally really thinks she and Artemis need to stop hanging out so much.
o-o-o
He avoids looking at his phone and hopes to God that Mariah Carey's "All I Want For Christmas" (his current ringtone, chosen for the festivities) doesn't blast from it in the next fifteen minutes. After he gets his mom's stupid stick of butter, he shrugs Artemis Jr in the dog bag over his shoulders again, straps the bag tightly to his back, and bursts out of the house after calling out a quick "bye!" and beginning his sprint towards Gotham.
Less than a minute of running later, Mariah starts singing.
"Aw, no, now what!"
Wally veers around a suspicious patch of ice on the road and reaches up to tap the side of his goggles to answer his phone.
"You've got KF," he grumbles.
"Are you sure?" the voice on the other end laughs quickly. "'Cause it sounds more like I've got the Grinch."
"Put a sock in it, Rob, what do you want? This isn't the best time right now!" Wally says, spotting a crowd of children building snowmen in the distance and detouring around the block to avoid them.
"I know, I know," Dick says, and he actually sounds a little apologetic. "But you've got fourteen minutes left until your thing with Artemis and Artemis Jr, and that's plenty of time to take care of a crook at the Upper East Side."
Wally's silent for about two seconds.
"Dude."
"Pretty please?"
"No way! I am too young to die at the hands of my own girlfriend," Wally swerves on the road just in time to avoid a young couple bringing in armloads of what appears to be giant Christmas presents.
"Oh, come on, Wally, don't be such a drama queen."
"Rob! Just because Artemis and I are trying out this part-time hero trial thing with the team doesn't mean we're automatically put on clean up crew! Come on, man, it's Christmas!"
"Exactly! It's Christmas," Dick agrees wholeheartedly. "So do us a solid for the season and send this guy back home to his mother or something."
Wally groans but quickly checks his watch, rustling the bag a little bit, eliciting a soft whine from Artemis Jr.
"You're the closest guy we've got right now, Wallman," Dick says. Wally rolls his eyes. What does it matter? A call from Rob, who's on-duty at the cave on a Saturday, means a direct order from Batman himself. Even if he were the furthest from the Upper East Side right now, if Batman told him to go catch a crook, Kid Flash would have to go catch the crook.
"I'll go, jeez," Wally mumbles, already turning a different corner to circle back towards the Upper East Side of Central City. He's got about eleven different ways to beat up the criminal but no ideas about what to say to Artemis if he's late. This guy better be worth it.
o-o-o
The crook's a bit of a loser, to be perfectly honest.
When Wally arrives at the location of the crime, he kind of pauses for a second and wonders who in their right mind would try to rob a shabby, run-down but quirky old guitar store a few days before Christmas. Then he realises no bad guy is ever really in their right mind and dashes in to do his hero thing.
The crook is obviously some poor kid who's just dropped out of college and is kinda-sorta taking out all of his frustrations on society, the guitar store that wouldn't hire him, and subconsciously, his mother probably (Wally's been watching a lot of Criminal Minds and has a lot of theories about the psychological workings of criminals these days but never mind that). To put it simply, Wally's a little miffed that he was diverted from his journey for this, but it's easy enough to knock the kid out (he wouldn't listen!) and drop him off at the police station with a haphazardly written note about the details of the crime and a scrawny Merry Christmas! - ︎ scribbled on the back of a guitar receipt.
He doesn't have the heart to leave the ransacked store as messed up as it is before taking the college kid to the police station, so Wally takes an extra few seconds to string the lights back up, righten the obscenely rock and roll-themed Christmas tree, and rearrange the abundance of other ornaments and decorations before giving the overwhelmed cashier a salute, wishing her a Merry Christmas, and sprinting out the door.
Job done, he checks his watch as he starts his run.
Eleven minutes.
o-o-o
Eleven minutes is more than enough time for someone like Wally to get from one city to another, despite being on the other end of Central City. He should've gotten to the pub in under two minutes. What he hadn't accounted for was little Kevin Yu and his dumb cat.
Right before he crosses the border into Gotham, he catches the faint crying of a little boy and dammit (really, damn his noble and pure heart), of course he has to stop and make sure everything's alright.
The little Taiwanese boy (Kevin) has this fat gray American Shorthair that's somehow managed to climb to a high branch of a tree in front of Kevin's house. Wally doesn't ask how it got there. He doesn't need to know. All he knows is that the stupid cat takes about ten minutes to come down from the stupid tree, scares the poor pup in the bag on his back, and the worst part of it all isn't even that he's officially late for his date with Artemis. It's that after ten minutes of pleading and begging and borderline shouting at the damn feline, it finally comes down all on its own the second he gives up and sits down on the ice cold grass.
"Perfect! Problem solved. See ya, kid!" Wally doesn't spare Kevin Yu and the fat gray American Shorthair another second and disappears from his position on the grass in a burst of cold air and urgency.
o-o-o
Artemis Crock is 19 years old and super ready to hit the beach in Vietnam and soak up some sun in Saigon. She is so sick of Gotham winters, but more than that, all she really wants right now is to spend some quality time with her dork faced speedster, wherever he is.
She's just arrived at her and Wally's favorite pub and checks her watch. Right on time.
Artemis checks that Wally's Christmas gift (two tickets to see Yellowcard one last time in San Diego in March) is tucked safely in her bag before pushing the door open and heading for their usual spot (yes, they have a usual spot, they're that kind of couple). She nods a greeting toward Weird Dave, one of the staff members of the pub who has a pretty obvious and pretty weird crush-slash-obsession with her, but he's never been anything but extremely polite and kind to her so she's always tried to be at least civil to him. Wally hates Weird Dave.
He gives me bad vibes.
The thought of Wally makes Artemis snort and she takes a seat, setting her bag next to her. She spends a few moments taking in the Christmas decor of the pub and the cozy atmosphere that she and Wally fell in love with instantly. She recognizes Nat King Cole crooning softly in the background along with a recording of a crackling fireplace. There's a tree in the corner of the room decorated almost to perfection with a star perched on the top, fake snow and an assortment of ornaments hanging from the branches at appropriate areas. The place looks absolutely amazing for the holiday and Artemis is suddenly immensely glad Wally had insisted on one more date before she and her mom left for Vietnam.
She's about to choose what she wants to order when she hears a slight commotion from the entrance of the pub. She cranes her neck to get a better look and witnesses Wally of all people stumbling into the pub, followed by an irritated and grumbling Weird Dave, who's holding a broom looking like he's ready to practice a few swings on a certain redhead.
"Could you not track dirt into this place every time you come by, West?"
"Shut up, Dave!"
Artemis raises her eyebrows in curiosity and confusion (more confusion) and watches as Wally whisks past Weird Dave and automatically heads to their table, leaving a small trail of dirt and snow behind him. Behind him, Weird Dave mutters a curse but forfeits for the time-being and resumes cleaning up Wally's mess.
Meanwhile, Wally starts apologizing before his butt even hits the seat.
"Babe, I'm sorry, you wouldn't believe the morning I've had, I could tell you at least four stories about everything that could've gone wrong that did go wrong, like, can you believe Dick had the balls to call me on a Saturday to do a job, like what are we, clean up crew? And wait 'til you hear about Kevin and his stupid fat cat, oh my God, it was all I could do to even get here and now Weird Dave is being weird again just 'cause you're looking gorgeous and A+ as usual, honestly, babe, we really need to do something about him–"
"Wally. Just. Stop for a second."
Wally pauses and blinks.
"Right. Right, you're right. But I am sorry. I wanted to be here first," he says, rubbing the side of his face with one hand and reaching over the table and holding onto hers with the other.
"You're not even a minute late," Artemis says, smiling slightly. "So don't worry about it."
Wally peeks up at her from behind his hand.
"You're the best, you know that?" Artemis tries to resist the warmth that rises to her cheeks but it still erupts in a soft flush, so she rolls her eyes to counteract it.
"You remind me pretty frequently," she says, gripping his fingers.
"Not enough," Wally argues with a slight shake of his head. Artemis swallows at the adoring look in his eyes. They've been together for four years and the fact that he's still so clearly head over heels for her never fails to astound her.
"Alright already, I get it, we love each other, moving on," she jokes. "Now why is your suit sticking out of your bag?"
"Oh, shit," Wally reaches behind and gently arranges the yellow and red cloth deeper into the duffel bag.
"Also, what's up with the bag? It looks new."
Wally's silent for a moment, contemplating whether he should bring Artemis Jr out now and reveal the Christmas present or to save it for after or during the date.
"Also, why is the bag whining?" Artemis asks. "Wally, do – do you have an animal in there?"
A slight frown grows on Artemis's face and now she just looks downright worried.
Wally laughs weakly and decides to just go for it. He brings the bag onto his lap and zips it open, angling the bag so she can see the little guy clearly.
"Merry Christmas?"
Artemis Crock is 19 years old and has wanted a dog for 14 of those years, ever since her first encounter with a perky and friendly golden retriever on her way home from school. Wally's known this for four years now. He watches her eyes slowly widen and carefully studies her expression change from shock to disbelief to confusion to more disbelief. Her eyes are fixed on Artemis Jr for the longest moment and Wally starts to worry whether he made the right call. Then she turns her eyes towards him and his heart jumps into his throat. She's tearing up a little.
"Is he–"
"West, is that a dog? Didn't you read the sign, we don't allow animals in here!" Weird Dave's weird voice suddenly pipes in and Wally witnesses something crack in Artemis's expression before she whirls around and hisses at Weird Dave.
"Shut up, Dave!"
o-o-o
There's nothing better than spending the afternoon at a cute little hole-in-the-wall cafe after getting kicked out of your and your girlfriend's favorite pub. Obviously it would be better if you weren't kicked out in the first place, but this cafe's just as cozy, if not a little smaller, with a tasteful selection of fairy lights and Christmas lights dotting the establishment and an array of snowflakes and other Christmas decorations to add to the small and simple Christmas tree by the front door. The best part is, this place loves animals.
Artemis renames her Christmas present, not even hesitating after Wally introduces the pup to her as Artemis Jr. She doesn't even blink an eye when Wally questions her name choice.
What the heck kind of name is Brucely?
What the heck kind of name is Wally?
…Touché.
And of course, it would be better if your girlfriend was actually able to spend the Christmas holidays with you, but she and her mom deserve a holiday away from the grey and grim grasp of the city and instead in the glorious warm embrace of Southeast Asia.
"And I'll be back in no time," Artemis leans over and plants a firm kiss on Wally's jaw. "So just hang in there for a week or so."
"Oh, please, you make it sound like I can't live without you near me at all times," Wally says, putting a hand on Artemis's thigh to keep her from moving away and playing with the concert tickets on the table top. She gives him an unimpressed look.
"Babe, the entire team knows that it's true," she says with a slight smirk, and Wally breaks into a grin. He snakes an arm around her waist and tugs her closer, giving her a real kiss and getting a taste of her gingerbread latte. Mixed in with the peppermint in the hot chocolate he ordered, Wally feels like no amount of eggnog or candy canes or gingerbread men will ever come close to tasting as close to Christmas as this.
He mumbles a sweet Merry Christmas into the corner of Artemis's lips and she kisses him back in response, and they start laughing when Brucely breaks them up, bouncing into Wally's lap and licking their chins to get a taste of Christmas, too.
o-o-o
Wally West and Artemis Crock are 19 years old and too young to start growing up, but old enough to adopt a three month old puppy to love and nourish and spoil. Wally would prefer to spend the holidays with his best girl, but he and Brucely will still be around when she gets back.
Plus. There's always next Christmas.
fin
Notes: As sloppy as this is, I'd like to thank Tumblr user icanhearyouglaring for arranging and managing the entire Fic Exchange, for being a great admin by being patient with me and my inability to stick to deadlines, and for forcing me to get back into writing! I needed it. Hope you guys enjoyed this, I'll work harder to do my fav speedster and archer some justice (lol), I promise!