Hello, let me introduce you to the most thoughtful story I have ever written. I was extremely careful while writing this and tried very hard to keep every action, sentence, and word in sync with each other and the tone of the story. I think it has turned out beautifully and I hope you agree :)

Artemis sighed in contentment when she was pulled from her unconscious state. Her senses became sharper and she instantly melted into the sheets from the sensations. It was only a week ago that the archer had been sleeping in a metal cabin, the sheets stiff and the air shifting with the metallic tint of blood. Her skin had never stopped crawling from the sensation of someone watching her, and her mind could never be at ease. It was wretched. And she was glad to be home.

A smile spread across her face as the warm breaths of her boyfriend rolled across her chest, his face nestled into the crook of her neck and his wild hair brushing her jawline as she tilted her head. She became aware of the warm lump curled between her legs and used her knee to nudge it slightly.

Nelson huffed and shifted his paws before waking and uncurling himself. The pit bull checked to make sure that his mother was still where he'd left her before jumping down and padding to the kitchen for a snack.

The blonde was still drowsy, and she felt the pull of sleep creeping at the edges of her vision, but everything was too perfect. Artemis didn't want to miss a second of this wonderful paradise. The sun had filtered through the blinds and was leaving a harshly warm streak across her legs, but the heat was welcomed by the woman who'd just spent much too long hidden away from the sky. The noises of her and Wally's surrogate child chomping on his food in the kitchen was so domestic that she felt herself grinning as she turned her head to the side to glance at the bedside table. The clock told her it was already the middle of the day, but Palo Alto time hadn't kicked in yet for her. The jet lag from switching time zones coupled with the emotional and physical exhaustion from her three month endeavor had her body running on its own whims.

Her grey eyes watched Wally patiently, following the curve of his cheek and memorizing the flush from his warmth. He might have not had to deal with the time difference, but he was quick to follow in his girlfriend's sleep schedule. Artemis would fall asleep at odd hours as she tried to get back into the swing of her life, but she was secretly pleased to find that whenever she awoke, a ginger haired speedster would be latched to her, snoozing happily away. He and Nelson were ecstatic to have her home, and when Dick had come to visit a few days before, he made sure to let Artemis know that Wally was completely lost without her.

The archer drew her hand away from the speedster's shoulder in favor of petting back his unruly hair, pressing her nose into the free strands and remembering that yes, she had been lost without him as well. He mumbled a bit at her touch and turned his face to warm the other side, pressing his colder cheek into her breast with a pleasant smile. Artemis let out a small snort of laughter at his unconscious actions, but her face fell when his hair shifted, exposing the right side of his face.

The betrayal of Kaldur and Tigress had not gone over smoothly, as was expected, but the team (old and new) were there to help in the battle. Black Manta was furious with his son but Superboy and M'gann were quick to stand beside their regained teammate in arms. The new team took on the army of henchmen that were called fourth from the seas when the battle took place, and it required the participation of everyone to hold them off.

Slade, however, had his own targets. The villain had grown fond of Tigress, much to her annoyance, and was adamant on extracting revenge on her. So he had attacked the revealed blonde with all that he had. But by the time Slade had entered the fray, the tousle had far since begun and all the heroes were occupied with their charges.

All except Wally.

The redhead had scarcely left Artemis's side since her switch, so when Slade had attacked, it was only the two of them to take him down. The speedster had worked out a reckless strategy that kept her a fair distance away from the villain during battle, adamant on ensuring that the swordsman didn't get his chance at revenge. But his plan placed himself at close contact. Wally was faster, so he didn't get hit as often as Artemis might have; but when he did, the damage was harsh.

Artemis pressed a careful kiss to the dark bruise still marring her boyfriend's face, her mind's eye carefully reminding herself where each of his injuries were before she moved. She shifted slowly beneath his weight as best she could but his arms were wrapped securely around her torso and largely restricting her movement.

"Wally," She whispered, scratching his scalp to wake him up. The redhead's eyes fluttered and he tilted his head into her hand.

"Mmm Babe," The speedster chuckled before pressing a few kisses into the skin he was nestled against. His bright green eyes opened slowly and his gaze softened at the sight of his girlfriend's smile, "Morning,"

"It's actually like three in the afternoon," Artemis smirked.

Wally hummed the comment away, his fingers beginning to dance across the exposed flesh of her skin. Artemis shivered at his light touch and enjoyed watching his features transform into sly amusement.

The two lovers had already reacquainted themselves many times over in few days the archer had been home, but it wasn't nearly yet enough to make up for lost time. Artemis had new scars marred into her skin from her rough work, and Wally was intent on memorizing each and every one, just as he'd done before when they'd first become intimate.

The first day the blonde had returned was a hectic, blurred mess of limbs and need and hoarse voices of reassurance. Lingering fears that somehow, someway, they might be parted once more. Now, their fierce passion had simmered down into a bed of warm, smoldering coals as they continued to reconnect on every level possible. Every experience was shared, every feeling was explained, every fear calmed, and every plane of their bodies was reunited.

"Your skin is lighter," Wally noted, his eyes lazily scanning across her cheeks, a hint of sadness shimmering behind his eyes. She knew that he'd abhorred hearing all of her tales, learning how she had to live, but still he'd grit his teeth and told her to continue. They knew everything about each other before, and there would be no gaps in knowledge now. It was painful to hear of each other's grief, but they were two parts of a whole, and everything mattered.

"I've been away from my Sun," Artemis smiled sadly, her fingertips gingerly skimming across his forehead and pushing back his bangs to allow a clear palate for her lips to place a lingering kiss.

Wally made a noise that could only be qualified as a smothered whimper and he smoothly pulled Artemis on her side to face her, his arms tightening around her torso and pulling her flush against his chest. Their foreheads touched and the archer felt a lump forming in the back of her throat. She was overcome with a swelling of emotion in her chest when their eyes met and struck with the sense of the rawness of the moment.

There was nothing between them. No secrets, no missions, no rules, no clothes, and in some places not even air.

Wally opened his mouth slightly, words just hiding, twirling on the tip of his tongue, but he closed it again and instead pressed his lips against hers. The speedster had many thoughts on his mind, but he was never one with the gift of tact among speech. His words were often chosen spontaneously, and at the moment he could think of none appropriate. So he chose actions instead.

Artemis reciprocated the kiss immediately, her hands snaking around Wally's torso to lay her palms against his shoulder blades. She always loved that she could so easily feel the rippling muscles of his back crest beneath her fingertips as his hands explored. The redhead nipped her bottom lip and she felt that oh so very familiar tingle running down to her toes as her body spurred him on.

Wally chuckled when the archer sucked his lip into her mouth, the noise quickly turning into a moan as her tongue greeted it.

Their playful beginning was soon drawn into a thorough dance of tangling lips that left them breathless, and intensely unsatisfied.

The blonde quickly found one of her favorite places and set to work on inciting the speedster further, her teeth drawing across the shallow skin above his collarbone with deliberate tenderness. Wally tilted his head back and took a deep breath through is nose, his large hands shifting along her body, along skin that was as familiar to him as his own. Skin that he'd dreamed of every night for three months; skin that he'd worried about, for it was this great, most fragile armor that protected the love of his life.

Artemis could feel the withheld anguish seeping through the speedster's affectionate touches and longed to pull him farther into the bundle of passion that might possibly further ease his heartache. So she arched her chest out and he obediently found his focus, molding her breasts into his hands and massaging them until she melted beneath his touch. Her sighs flowing into the curve of his neck as she curled into his warm body, her desire freely growing into a longing and her pleasure partly stemming from the way she could tell his thoughts were drawn farther away from the torment of their parting.

Wally's concentration on his enticing actions diminished his thoughts even more so as his girlfriend's hand coasted down his abdomen to cup his stiff length. Both heroes were far beyond ready by this point. Their minds had been melded together into one coherent thought of completion once Artemis had returned, and it had only heightened the level of their passion through the days they'd spent coddling each other around the apartment, assuring themselves that the nightmare was over.

He sucked in a tight breath as Artemis stroked him slowly, each of her touches thoughtful and inflaming. Their eyes met and the archer felt a fresh surge of emotional thrill. Wally's bright green eyes were glinting with such a hurricane of amorous glints and sharp zeal that she thought she might fall in love with the redhead all over again.

Except that was impossible, she was too far gone as it was.

Wally effortlessly scooped the blonde into his grasp as he rolled himself atop of her, their smiles melding together in a searing kiss.

The kiss's spark waned as the speedster pressed his hips into Artemis's, his erection pressing assertively into the crook of the archer's leg and its enthusiasm coaxing her deeper into the waves of greed. She pushed herself off the bed and rocked her hips to create friction between them, her movements inciting a shallow gasp from her partner.

"Artemis," He groaned, his teeth gently seeking out attention to her neck.

The woman crooned back an intelligible response, marveling in how wonderful it was to hear her own name, and how savory it sounded spilling from her magnificent boyfriend's lips. Artemis murmured back his name once her breath had returned; a simple response to the question she knew he was asking. And he understood her just as well as she had him, his only action to reach for the nightstand and the needed protection lying innocently atop it.

They spoke often. Talking, whispering, bantering, yelling, and sometimes even singing; but it was all really unnecessary. Artemis needed no words to read her lover's face, and Wally needed no explanations when he could easily decipher her movements. They hand their own language, and was being used more than ever before in the past few days, the English language hadn't been broad enough to convey the rapture of emotions and thoughts the two lovers needed to share.

Artemis brushed nimble kisses along Wally's shoulder as he rolled on the protection, her hands massaging their way to rest once more on the deliciously hard contours of his back. Once he'd finished, one hand slipped behind the curve of her neck to urge her lips into another caress, the other sweeping lower, lower until it melded against the heat of her awaiting core. His touch was always warm and always heating the archer up in more ways than she had believed possible before knowing her lover so intimately.

His hand was wondrous, it always was, but it wasn't providing the intimate connection both heroes so desperately required. So the archer flitted her fingers down the length of Wally's back, a purr rising in the back of her throat as she felt his skin jump beneath her touch, his heavy breath rushing out as his excitement rose further. Her hands finally rested along his exquisitely muscled ass, her fingers squeezing and pulling his narrow hips towards her center.

Wally nipped her neck fondly as he pushed himself into her depths, enjoying the sigh of bliss that passed her lips as their bodies settled into the familiar feeling of each other. Her legs lifted up to wrap around him and pull him closer, the flame from their joining racing across their hearts and nestling into the locked embrace of their souls.

The redhead began moving slowly, his thrusts timed with the tender kisses the two were sharing, the touch of his lips lingering lightly across the edge of her smile before they met once more, and then again. Artemis's hips rocked to meet his pelvis with eager affection, her darkened grey eyes conveying the extent of her devotion. Wally moved his hands up to clasp the archer's at the sides of her head, pressing her palms into the mattress and using it as leverage to gain deeper and faster penetration.

"Wally," The blonde let out a lengthy gasp at the new sensations, his member filling her completely and leaving her in a greater burning need. Her eyes fluttered shut as she arched her back to accommodate his slightly accelerated pace, the speedster swiftly pressing kisses upon her eyelids.

"I love you Artemis," He whispered, his voice breathy from the continued exertion on his body and mind. Wally's head dropped to her shoulder, burying his face in her blonde locks and relishing in the luscious scent of spice and forest and Artemis. He tumbled briefly into the memories of the nights he'd curled up with various articles of her clothing in order to sleep better. But the redhead was rescued quickly by the lips of his stunning girlfriend, her attention to his jaw bringing him out of his revere.

"I love you too, Wally," She spoke against his skin, her chapped lips dragging across his stubble and her fingers tightening the grip on his hands.

The pace of their love-making continued at a torturously slow pace, but the dreamy motions kindled the flame to their flushed arousal. They moved in rhythm, each fulfilling thrust coupled with the aching removal that allowed them to persist onto the savory connection once more. The luscious passion swelled and the smoldering sensations pulled the two lovers easily along on their way to harmony.

Wally could tell his archer was close, he knew Artemis's body well, he'd traversed her landscapes many times over and worshiped her more times than he could count. The signs of her nearing bliss were easy for him to recognize; the way the muscles of her forehead tensed as her eyebrows knotted together, the way her hands began clenching and unclenching, and the way her trim legs began to hold him closer. Their eyes met and he understood that she had recognized the signs in him as well. Artemis had told him once, explaining how his skin begins to vibrate ever so slightly across his body, how his breaths become sharp and staggered and how the feel of his coming undone unfailingly pulled her into a state of profound elation.

And when Artemis let go and allowed herself to succumb to the pleasure, Wally was quick to follow. His knuckles turning white under the tension of his grip and his eyes closing as the gratification pulled him through to a state of rapture.

The feel of satisfaction and freedom was greater than the need for physical release. There was an unspoken sense of parting from the rest of the world between them, just as there was before their joining, a sense that had been growing in the past few days of their lives.

No longer would they allow anything to come between them.

No longer would they allow anyone to separate them.

And there was no need to speak of the necessity, both lovers were quite aware of this change.

Before Artemis left there was still a rift; a sense of duty to the world that could always pull them away from each other.

And as the two heroes settled back into the pillows, trading delicate kisses and affectionate words, the new way of life that had slowly etched itself into their linked hearts became concrete, an irreversible value that could never be erased.

Wally and Artemis were each other's home.

And nothing would part them again.

Please leave a review and let me know what you think.

Love, Veg