AN: This has Wonderbeetle in it. And Spanish. :P Oh, and Impulse!
Disclaimer: Obviously.
"Hey, Cassie!"
Cassie Sandsmark, alias Wondergirl, had just returned to Mount Justice after surviving one hell of a mission. Since she was cranky and disappointed and just wanted to wash the failure away, any person in his right mind would have given the girl a wide berth until she had at least debriefed Nightwing. And gotten a shower. And slept it off.
Clearly, Blue Beetle was not in his right mind. Yelling "hey!" at her like they were all buddy-buddy.
She almost blew past the blue-armored hero without shooting him a glare, but thought better of it. Souring her expression and diverting so she could stand grill-to-grill with Blue Beetle, glare in place and inducing the correct reaction from the one to whom it was directed, Cassie got straight to business.
"Whadda ya want, Blue?"
"Uh, first of all that is a lovely face you're making," Blue Beetle commented, stepping back. Cassie continued to make that lovely face at him.
"Aw, c'mon, Blue! She's always making a lovely face!" Impulse interjected. "Rain or shine!"
Cassie ruffled the littlest speedster's hair. "Thanks, buddy! At least someone here knows how to read a room." Tapping Blue Beetle's arm, she asked, "What did you wanna say anyway?"
Blue Beetle smirked, an expression that rarely alighted his features. He was usually so meek, but- just Cassie's luck- she had caught him on one of his high days. Or, rather, one of his high-on-himself days.
"Just a little something in my native language," the young latino chirped.
"... Fine. Lay it on me so I can go get a shower."
"A'ight, rubia..."
At that moment of truth Blue Beetle's personal Jiminy Cricket finally decided to pipe up. "Jaime Reyes," it droned, "Cease this foolish action or you will anger the female."
"Too late now..." Jaime mumbled to the scarab.
"That is obvious."
Yes, they both knew that Jaime had already dug his own grave by poking the angry, angry bear with a stick- the stick of impromptu and unwarranted conversation between two kinda friends. Blue Beetle and Wondergirl couldn't quite file their relationship under "Friendship", nor quite under "Acquaintance". Perhaps "Business" would be the proper category?
'Might as well throw caution to the wind!' the human component of Blue Beetle prodded. Surely he'd already dug his own grave; might as well toss himself face-first into it!
"Wait-"
"¡Te quiero!" the human ignored the scarab completely and said it anyway. Carpe Diem! Yep, he'd said it; he'd done it; he'd told her how he felt, as the song goes.
"The female will skin you alive, Jaime Reyes." the scarab stated unsympathetically.
Jaime hissed through clenched teeth, "Thank you for that bright and shiny-"
Impulse popped up in front of Blue Beetle, indignant. "I thought we'd agreed on what you'd say!" he leaned in close to whisper, "'Te amo,' remember?"
"That is... a loose translation of what I wanted to say."
Impulse snorted. "It's a perfect translation, Blue. Now do you have the guts to say it?"
"I did say it!"
"In spite of reason."
"Yeah right!"
"Shut up!" Blue Beetle yelled, more to the scarab than to Impulse.
Cassie forced her way between the quarreling buddies, which wasn't hard since she could've thrown them both to opposite sides of the room just as easily as she had separated them.
"You..." she stopped give her Spanish to English translation a second mental check. "want me?"
Jaime paled beneath Blue Beetle's armor. She was so gonna take that the wrong way.
"ENEMY THREAT DETECTED."
He'd only just begun flailing his arms and stuttering an explanation/apology when Cassie inquired in her scary calm voice, "Wanted for what, Blue?"
"That isn't what I meant! Since I speak informal Spanish instead of formal Spanish sometimes, some of the things I say with the informal Spanish can be misunderstood when the person I'm talking to doesn't know that I'm speaking loosely!"
Miraculously, gracias de Dios, that seemed to calm her. Well, if red-faced and sneering was Cassie's new calm.
"Oh?" she mocked, "Then what were you trying to say?"
"Tell the one you call 'Cassie' that you were delirious when making the exclamation: '¡Te quiero!'"
"I'm not gonna lie!"
"Good call, Beetle," Cassie bit, "'cause, I'm not gonna lie, if I ever catch you lying to me I'll make you wish you were dead."
"I thought you'd literally kill him if you ever caught him lying, or anyone lying," Impulse thought aloud. She'd threatened every member of the team that way, and Impulse knew Cassie as a woman of her word.
"No, I'd keep him alive so he could feel the sweet justice I'd be dishing out."
Impulse shook his head sympathetically, as if his hermano's death by Cassie's hand would come swift and soon. "So not crash."
"Okay," Blue Beetle reentered the conversation. "We- I mean I have decided that I should explain myself."
Impulse gave him a funny look. Old time vernacular could be so weird sometimes with its intonation! "Okay, dude. You do that."
"Okay. 'Te quiero' means 'I like you a lot in a romantic way.' Sorta like saying, "I love you dearly.' And I know that 'quiero' usually translates to 'I want', but that isn't what I meant, Cassie. You aren't-"
"What brought all this on?"
"... ¿Qué?"
Cassie's expression was unreadable to Jaime, but the scarab analyzed and catalogued every twitch of her face and shift of her body. She was surprised, obviously, and flattered. Red covered her face like it had when she was angry (Jaime would surely misinterpret that), but now the upper part of her neck was the same hue, indicating a pleasure drawn from Jaime's words. Defensive as her stance appeared, it crumbled as the scarab studied it. Her back was stiff as a board, her eyes were fixed on the wall and not on Jaime, and her center mass was askew.
"The Wondergirl is unsettled. Activating plasma cannon."
"Violence won't solve this!" Jaime hissed, clamping down on his arm as his armor readied itself for battle. "It'll just piss her off..."
"Suggestion-"
"I'm just gonna pretend like we never talked about this, okay?" Cassie droned. "It's all just too weird."
Impulse jumped in front of her after she pushed past Blue Beetle. "Woah! That's it? He works up to it, he says it, and you just-"
"I know," Cassie grumbled without slowing down.
Blue Beetle grabbed Impulse by the shoulder, watching passively as Cassie disappeared into her room. "Let her go. She's probably exhausted."
"Yeah, but she can't just brush you off like that! You said you loved her!"
"Sometimes that doesn't mean anything," Blue Beetle said with shrug. "Lots of people say 'I love you' and don't mean it, so I understand why Cassie's being so... careful."
Impulse stopped to dissect what he'd just heard, and agreed. "Yeah, but you'll get through to her, Blue."
"Think so?"
"Sí. You're an honest guy, so when you say 'I love you, sweetheart!' you mean it. She'll see the light or the writing on the wall or whatever."
"That's hopeful."
"I am hopeful. Since the Reach is gone, I'm hopeful for everyone," Impulse stated earnestly.
AN: Not very fluffy but... whatever. I don't see Cassie as a person who'd hide her feelings for some guy until HE made the first move. And then if someone who wasn't even on her radar would say "I love you truly" she'd kinda... react awkwardly.
Anyway, this one shot is okay, I guess. Nothing I ever do is good enough for me, but if you like it then leave me a review. I love reading 'em!