Flip-a-Coin
By: Threaded Needles
The cave was decorated in golden crepe paper and balloons. M'gann had spent all morning cooking and a card table was now lined with the various foods that she and Zatanna prepared. SuperBoy (after much coaxing) turned off the static on the T.V. and helped.
Robin had used his circus training to be able to flip oddly and hang streamers and balloons, putting them in oddly places and decorating it to his taste. Kalduir had spent the whole morning and afternoon cleaning, a broom in his hand while Black Canary and Red Tornado watched.
Finally, at three in the afternoon the portal began to spin. And just on time- SuperBoy had been afraid that he'd be sent to search for them. "Initializing. Kid Flash and Artemis. Access granted."
Seconds later Wally and Artemis appeared, Artemis blindfolded and being guided by Wally, who had his hands on her shoulders protectively. He stopped about half-way in the middle of the room and carefully began unknotting the blindfold.
"Where are we?" She asked.
Wally exhaled slowly, untieing it with nimble fingers. "The cave. And your blindfolded because M'gann... uh..."
"Bought a puppy!" She said from in the corner of the room, suddenly clasping her hand around her mouth and giggling.
"Yeah, she bought a puppy. Isn't that nice, and she wanted you to be able to see it."
Artemis stopped struggling so that Wally could finish untieing the blindfold. "Wait, why am I blindfolded, and your not?"
Wally began to sweat profusely. His best chance was to not get his hand stuck again and avoid the question. Yup, and that's what he did.
The last knot finally came undone and he took it away from her eyes to reveal the decorated cave. Her eyes were screwed shut, and she waited a second to open them. When she finally did, she saw what looked like an explosion of the party store- she couldn't help but grin.
There was a cake on the table surrounded by food and presents. The next thing she knew, M'gann was placing a party hat on her head claiming "that's what they wear in movies on Mars" and placing her in a chair.
M'gann flew around to the other side before pushing a present into her hands. "This one is from SuperBoy. He couldn't pick it out that well, so sorry if you-"
"Cool," she whispered, unfolding the last of the present to reveal pink cloth. A dozen arrows were wrapped in a bundle, all of them carved with her tips. "Thanks Connor."
M'gann smiled. "Okay, then this one is from Robin."
Artemis unwrapped it, a blue box with creepy weird smiley faces imprinted on it. Inside she had to tear open a cardboard box about the size of her hand. Inside of that was probably the nicest pair of earrings she had ever seen. Red rubies on a silver platform that had a black triangle jewel incrusted in the middle. "God, nobody's ever going to believe I'm poor. Thanks Robin."
"Oh, open mine next!" Zatanna said, pushing a smaller bag into her hands. The bag was bright orange with a 'YJ' symbol on it. She raised an eyebrow before plunging a hand into it. Tentatively she pulled out a few bottles of scented perfumes, bubble bath and lotion.
"Wow... this is superb Zatanna," She said, flipping open the lid to the lotion to smell it. Mangoes and peaches.
M'gann then excited placed a large box in front of her. "And this one is from me."
It was decorated gold with white lace around it. Artemis smiled before undoing the overly extravagant bow on the top. She slid the lid off and placed it on the ground. Inside of the box was a small puppy, licking at the corner of the box excitedly.
"Oh!" Artemis squeaked in suprise as the small animal jumped up onto her lap and began circling excitedly. "It's a husky!" she finally squealed, hugging it tightly.
"Yeah, I thought if Wolf wanted to him and puppy could play together. Right?" M'gann said, now back to floating around Artemis excitedly.
Artemis nodded, kissing the top of the dog's head. "I think we should name it. Right? Hm... how about..." She held the puppy up and looked at it's bright blue eyes. "Sapphire. Yup."
Suddenly, Robin did a weird jerking motion with his hand before grabbing Wally and pushing him forward so that he almost fell on top of Artemis. Robin then made a quick reeling motion that seemed like fishing until Zatanna nudged him in the ribs.
"Ah, um, Artemis-"
"Overridden. Lawrence Crock. A1243. Access granted."
Artemis stopped and looked at the portal where they all usually came in from. Or out. She stared at it as she watched a man appear, his body shaking off the golden streams that happened after the initializing.
"DAD! What are you..."
Artemis stopped herself, Sapphire still in her hands as the puppy lavished her hand with it's tongue. Wally stumbled backwards.
"Woah, this is your dad?" Wally asked, prodding the tall man in the shoulder with a finger. The man shoved him off from him before walking farther into the room.
"Artemis. It's been so long." He said softly, holding out his arms like he was expecting a hug. Artemis returned the favor by setting Sapphire down and pulling out her bow and quickly loading an arrow.
"Move any farther and I'll shoot, I swear it upon Wally's life."
Wally protested. "My life? What the hell about yours?"
Artemis snorted. "Too precious, now shut up."
Her dad interrupted them, running a hand through his golden hair and laughing. "Well, isn't my daughter getting some spirit into her! And look, you finally figured out how to use that bow!"
The fingers that were on her bow suddenly loosened, and she pulled it back, quivering. "Die in hell," she whispered under her breath.
He shot out, hitting her across the face. She fell out of her chair, and when she was finally back up, she was clutching the side of her face, tears stinging the side of her eyes, a large welt already forming.
"Art-" M'gann started.
Artemis pushed her away. "I'm going to my room. Sapphire can play with Wolf. Goodnight." She got up clumsily and stumbled down to her room. They kept them in case they had to crash overnight or if they needed something in an emergency.
Her's was painted green with a large dresser shoved in the corner and a twin sized bed jutting out from the side of where that was. She managed to make her way into the bathroom, where she slowly peeled her hand off the side of her face where it was sticky with tears.
A large welt had formed, bright red. She pushed her hair back and tried to stop the movement of her tears. It seemed nearly impossible.
A knock on the door brought her back to reality. Loudly she called: "Go away dad! I'm not interested in talking to you."
"...um, it's Wally."
That made her flip open the door with so much force that it nearly fell on it's hinges. "What?"
He shook his head. "I was just making sure you were okay. He hit you kinda hard..." he trailed off.
She choked back tears. "Kinda? Wally, I've been getting hit by him since I was three. By now it's mosquito bites."
He raised his hands defensively. "Okay, well, then I'll be on my way now, then."
Suddenly, she darted her hand out and caught him by the shoulder. It was something that she hadn't meant to do. "Stay with me? Please... because it's my birthday...?" She asked.
Shivering now she bent her head down. "I'm sorry. I'll just go to bed."
Now it was Wally's turn to catch her. "No, I'll stay. Can I come in?"
She nodded her head and guided him into the small room she had that was supposed to be able to pass off. She shrugged it off and then crawled on top of her covers, staring up at the ceiling. Wally hesitantly nudged on.
"So, what's with your dad all the sudden?" he asked, snuggling up close to her. She sighed.
"I don't know. He's so random sometimes."
He looked up at the ceiling. "And slapping you? What the hell was that about?" he asked angerily.
"He's trying to get a reaction out of me. He's also trying to see who's dumb enough to follow me."
Wally nodded. "Wait, like when we were in the desert for six months and you thought your dad put us out there for you to kill me?"
"Yup. Good old typical dad. Would've been just easier if I could've just killed you."
Wally shook his head. "Right here!"
She waved him down, climbing over on top of her pillows and then snuggling down into her blankets. "I'm going to sleep now. Goodnight Wall-bug."
He blinked, waited a moment and then crawled under the covers with her, wrapping his arms around the girl protectively. "'Night Arty."
XxXxMorningxXxX
Wally woke up first, glad to see that he had managed not to wake Artemis and been killed. He crawled out, then sleepily grouped for clothes to wear, pulling his shirt over his head as he went into the bathroom to change.
Once he was decent he went out to the den area where M'gann could usually be seen making breakfast with the help of Connor. He yawned when he walked in, Artemis's dog Sapphire yipping at his heels.
"Quiet Sapphire," he finally said, nudging the dog with a toe towards Wolf. He then watched as M'gann poured batter onto a gridle pan.
M'gann smiled, now flipping over the hot cake. "How was Artemis? Was she okay? I mean, it was her birthday yesterday."
Wally yawned again. "Yeah, she's fine. Well, now anyways."
M'gann stopped and watched the cake bake. "Hm, well I just hope that her father leaves soon. I don't think he does good with her."
"Did everybody sleep over last night?"
Connor nodded, placing a basket of assorted berries on the counter next to the hot cakes. "Yes. They felt it was necessary that they helped watch over Artemis last night."
Wally nodded. "That's nice. One question, where's her piece of shit father so I can beat him into a fucking pulp."
M'gann shrugged. "Unknown. Robin's trying to fix the portal so that he can't override it again."
"I'll go see how he's doing then," Wally said, walking out of the kitchen with Sapphire at his heels as he walked over to the portal. On the solid gray ground next to the portal was Robin, on his knees, a cord hooked up to his arm communicator.
Zatanna was next to him, pointing out a few things that the younger teen missed.
"'Morning Rob," Wally said, bending down next to the two. Zatanna giggled at his ruffled hair and then tapped a few times on Robin's communicator, bringing up a numeric keypad. "How are you?"
"Good, just reprogramming the portal. It's hard because I have to reset everybody's codes. And I mean, EVERYBODY'S!"
Robin slammed his communicator shut and got up to stretch. "You should wake Artemis, I'll go get Aqualad."
Zatanna nodded. "Yeah, I'll help M'gann and Connor finish cooking, see you guys in a bit."
Sapphire yipped once, circling around Wally before darting down the hall towards Artemis's back-up room. Then, sat there and scratched at the door to it.
Wally followed in suit, Robin branching off to a different section of hallway. Lightly he placed his palm to the door and pushed it open, Sapphire snarling.
"Artemis, it's time to wake u-"
He was surprised by how fast she was able to roll out of bed, grab her bow and arrow, load and put him at... gunpoint? He found it kinda hot to be honest.
"Tch, it's just you," She said, discarding the bow and arrow in a corner of her room. "Whatever, is breakfast ready?"
He nodded. He also made a mental note that she obviously remembered nothing from the previous night.
"You coming?" She asked, turning around.
"Yeah..." He said thickly.
She coughed. "Then stop standing there like a bump on a log, c'mon."
He made a new mental note. She did remember. She just wasn't going to show it.
A.N. Randomness apparently.
Well, not exactly what I was aiming for, but in the end it was Artemis X Wally, with Wally wanting to protect her.
It's sweet don't you agree?