Fandom: Young Justice
Story Title: "Take Me Home"
Summary: Things like this don't happen to freckled white boys from Kansas. /Or, Young Justice is actually a boy band.
Character/Relationship(s): Wally West/Artemis Crock, Conner Kent/M'gann M'orzz, M'gann M'orzz/La'gann, Dick Grayson, Kaldur'ahm, Zatanna Zatara, Gordon Goffery,
Rating: T
Warnings: Language, sexual content, homophobia/homophobic language, boys being boys
Story Word Count: 5000+ (so far)
Disclaimer: I don't own anything recognizable.
Notes: Look, a VA from this show is JMac, someone had to do it. Many thanks to Libby for the beta, I literally couldn't have done this without her. (Also formating on FFN is ugly so I'll be posting this on AO3, LJ, and tumblr too.)
Take Me Home
Chapter One
There's a part of Wally that will never get used to this, no matter how many times they've all done this before. His heart always pounds, his eyes not entirely used to the darkness, and he can hear the dull screaming in his ears, in spite of his ear piece.
From his position in the back of the stage, he can faintly see the outlines of his band mates as he counts to ten, knowing that once he hits the final number the lights would flash on and Kal's solo would be first, followed by Conner's, and then his before they all started harmonizing together.
...nine, ten.
The lights flash, partially blinding Wally as he listens to Kal sing his lyrics perfectly as the screaming intensifies.
This is it.
.
The show goes by quickly, but then they always do, and then there's nothing left but long weeks of touring and interviews and traveling in front of them. They always start in Los Angeles, which is where they all lived, before finishing the American tour in New York City. First America, and then the world.
Wally can hardly wait.
But first, sleep.
He yawns into his palm as he walks off the stage, knowing that he completely reeks. Moisture makes his shirt stick to him in awkward places, but a hot shower is awaiting him at home before they have to take off in the company jet.
A few of the tech and crew people tell him good-night, and he doesn't envy them at all. He can see Kal helping them out, and thinks about offering as well before realizing that he had almost a full year left to offer his services.
He finds Conner standing in the corner of the stage, just staring. "Hey man, what are you..." he trails off once he follows Conner's gaze. He's watching Megan and one of the tech guys that Wally's pretty sure is new, as they flirt, lifting things off the stage in between kisses.
"Aren't you going to go home?" Wally asks instead, changing the topic like he doesn't know that they had recently broken up, and that Conner currently looked like a guy whose heart was being torn up in a blender at full speed.
That does the trick, startling Conner out of his funk. "Yeah. I need to feed Wolf and make sure that Jaime knows what he needs to do before we go and...yeah." Conner rubs the back of his neck, looking at the ground before walking off, muttering to himself.
He finds Dick talking to a girl in the corner. She's obviously not a fan—by now, Wally can spot those an hour away—but instead someone that has a job to do. "Come on, Boy Wonder," he tells Dick, grabbing him by the shoulder and taking him with him. "Let's share a cab home."
Dick just grins at the girl over his shoulder before continuing on with Wally. "That was a good one, yeah?" he asks, and Wally grunts in agreement.
He doesn't want to think about the fact that after this, there will be no going home without one another. The security guards need everyone at the same place at the same time so that they don't get attacked, but the stadium in L.A. has a secret entrance that helps them get to go home without being attacked by fans.
"Last time to sleep in our own beds before it all begins," Wally says, already feeling homesick for the apartment that he had recently bought with the earnings on Young Justice's first album, Secrets and Lies.
"Yeah, but that's the best part," Dick says, grinning again, and Wally knows that he will never understand how Dick recovers so fast from late night concerts. Out of all of them, he's always the one that brings up going out at night, even after performing for five or six hours.
"See you bright and early tomorrow," Wally tells him as they stop at Dick's place before continuing on the ride home.
.
Q & AWITH YOUNG JUSTICE
Zatanna Zatara here, and I managed to grab a quick interview with the boys before they left on their Invasion tour. They'll be here in the US until March, so get ready girls! They'll be coming to a venue near you very soon.
ZZ: What would you say is the biggest difference with this tour versus the last one?
DG: You mean, besides the music?
KD: Well, it is a lot bigger. For one thing, we have more fans now, and so there will be more stops and less rests in between, which we are all more than ready for.
WW: And there's a lot more lights and effects and things. We won't be dancing—
CK: Definitely not.
WW: -but we won't be doing the same ol' same ol' either.
ZZ: How do you guys cope with all the crazy traveling and being up all hours and the stress?
CK: I punch things. Punching bags are really relaxing.
DG: Wally here just eats like a pregnant lady.
WW: Hey!
DG: And Kal meditates and does yoga.
KD: I do. It is what keeps me calm and centered and able to not just poison all of the boys' drinks to get a good night's rest.
WW: Dick over here does flips and s*** all around the tour bus whenever he feels the need since he can't drink legally in the states like the rest of us.
ZZ: Well I can definitely see why you'd need to mediate, Kal! But one last question before I let you boys go. I've gotten mail from several girls asking the same thing: What's something that you look for in a significant other?
WW: My stomach would like someone that could cook. When they say that the way to a man's heart is through his stomach, they're right!
DG: I don't know. I think I'll know it when I see it, though.
CK: Someone willing to put up with all the stuff that goes on in my life.
KD: I have the same sentiments as Dick. No one really knows the answer until they see that person for themselves.
Wally reads the article twice before ripping out the page and putting it on the box that he always brought along on tours. He had an identical one at his apartment, and an even bigger one to put them both in when they became full.
"I don't get why you do that," Conner says, looking up from the TV. "You were there when we were getting interviewed, why would you want to go through it again?"
"When we're old and gray and fat," Wally started, ignoring Dick's "Speak for yourself," comment, "and this is nothing but a memory, I want to remember everything. Plus it's one of Zee's articles, and those are always good."
Dick kicked the back of his seat. "Oh, get over yourself. You just like looking at the pictures of yourself."
"That too. I look damn good in every one."
"I was the one that won the best looking poll, remember?" Kal pipes up from the corner, smirking in that mild way of his, and they all start laughing.
"Clearly Seventeen readers don't know what they're talking about."
"Dick, you guys were in a tie for weeks before Kal finally pulled through."
"Don't be bitter, Wallman. Just because you were last place..."
"Technically I was only behind Conner by five percent, so it doesn't matter. I'm still up there. It's the freckles."
"And the no soul thing too, probably," Conner adds, which makes them laugh again.
"Just because I'm a ginger and you're a bottle blonde, Conner. That's why we were left behind."
"Sure it was," Dick says, and then they're quiet, watching the zombies on the television screen get blown up again.
Once again it occurs to Wally how surreal this is—how there was a poll on the internet that rated their attractiveness, that their faces are all over magazines and blogs, how their every move is scrutinized. He loves it, but hates it all at the same time.
When he signed up for the Factorhe hadn't expected all of this. He hadn't expected to meet the three best friends that he'd ever had, and he certainly hadn't expected all of the fame. He had been just a skinny white boy from Kansas with a dream, but now he's an international popstar, one fourth of one of the most popular bands in the whole world.
He has eight million followers on Twitter, for Christ's sake.
Thinking of said followers gets him thinking, so he takes a quick picture of the rest of the guys, all watching the movie on the other side of him, and adds a quick comment 'just hanging w/ the boys!' before pressing send.
"Please tell me that's not going on Twitter," Conner grumbles.
"Going, going, gone, bud," Wally says. It takes a few seconds, but then there are retweets and replies coming out of the wazoo.
Wallys.GIRL You're all so cute!1
hollaback when r u and dick coming out
almostlibby Why are none of you shirtless?
yjismylifeAhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh!
He shuts off his Twitter app before he can see anything else.
"Five bucks says that guy is going to die," Dick says, gesturing to the screen. He is also, incidentally, the guy with the biggest gun.
"Not a chance."
"Oh, you're soon."
.
There's always a lull in between getting ready for a show and actually performing in one, and that's when Wally gets the most jitters. Once he hits the vocal warm ups he's okay again, having done this what feels like a million times, but he can never get rid of the feeling that he's going to screw everything all up.
"Where's Roy?" he asks Dick after throwing all of their stuff in the room they share together on the bus. Talking to their bodyguard always helped take the edge off things, if only because Roy was always so unimpressed by all of them after staying with them one night. He had spent the time watching scary movies and listening to all of them scream. He ended up being one of the guys too, even if he was being paid for it.
"Don't you know? He quit."
"Roy quit? What the fuck?"
"Yeah. Kal told me that he went to 'find himself' or something like that. Evidently there was some hat throwing too."
"Hat throwing? Jesus, he was always a bigger diva than all of us put together. So what are we going to do, then?"
"I think his replacement is coming tonight. We're going to meet her before the show."
"Her? Seriously? Our new bodyguard's a girl?"
"You're a pig, you know that? A complete pig."
"I'm just saying..." Wally trails off, not knowing exactly where he wants to take that particular thought.
"Just saying that you're a pig? Yeah. But anyway, Bruce says that she's really good and I believe him more than I believe sexist ideals. Gordon wouldn't have let them hire her if she wasn't any good. Besides, it's better than no one at all."
Wally cringes, just thinking about the more interesting fans that they've seen over the year. Like the one that stood outside their hotel rooms in New York City in the middle of winter in just her underwear, trying to get them to look at her. Or the ones that waited in the trash cans by their recording studios and had leaped out at them, demanding autographs. Those had been the times when Roy had gone into full on attack mode. Or in the case of the frozen girl, offered a Young Justice sweatshirt and a cab ride home before getting the cops involved.
"I guess. Whatever. This should be interesting."
.
Kaldur sends everyone a text, telling them to come to the lobby of the venue, so they all come at once. Evidently the paparazzi haven't been tipped off that they're staying here yet, because there isn't anyone lining the windows which is a relief. As much as they joke about Wally being a fame whore, the paps get to all of them.
Conner is the worst about it, but Kal always manages to get him in control before he can do something stupid and get arrested, or worse, get an angry picture in a magazine or on the internet. Megan helped too, but she isn't exactly an option anymore.
Everyone's already down there when Wally greets them with a, "Don't worry, you can start the par-tay now," before falling flat on his face, tripping over his shoe lace. Great.
Dick and Conner laugh, but Kaldur doesn't. There's a girl, not a fan, standing a little off to the side of them. "Wally," Kaldur says, speaking loudly so that he's heard above the laughing idiots. "This is Artemis. Our new bodyguard."
"Wally, huh? You're the dumb one, right?"
That gets Dick and Conner laughing all over again.
"Artemis here has been informing us of the role that we fill in the boy band stereotypes," Kaldur explains, smiling slightly.
"Conner is the strong and silent type, Kal is the leader, Dick is the class clown, and that leaves you to be the dumb one." Artemis is smiling, kidding, as they all grin, but Wally isn't the least bit amused from his perspective on the ground.
"Oh please. You're the one that's only been hired for your brawn. Even though I don't see any. Hope you can do your job," Wally replies after he pops up, stung by the fact that he A) fell flat on his face B) is a popstar and shouldn't fall on his face in public and C) that he did all of these things in front of an attractive girl who wouldn't go freaky crazy and stalk them later.
Her eyebrows raise up, the faint look of amusement that was on her face sliding off. "Whatever," she said. "I'll see you guys before you have to get into your Town Car, okay?"
Dick elbows Wally as soon as she walks away. "You know, it's going to be a very long tour if you're going to be a jerk to her the entire time. And I'm pretty sure Gordon wouldn't be happy if you made her quit because you're such a jackass. The press would have a field day with that one."
Wally shrugs, not saying anything even though he knows that his best friend is just telling the truth. "I'll apologize later." Maybe.
"Sure you will," Dick replies, like Wally won't. He's probably right.
.
As they're leaving the San Francisco venue that night, a group of fan comes out the back to greet them. This isn't rare, not by a long shot, and honestly Wally's always been sort of impressed by the creativity that these people have. It's not popping out of dumpsters, but it's something.
"Oh jeez," Wally hears Artemis breathe. "You aren't supposed to be here," Artemis informs them, and the blonde one in the front looks like she's about to cry.
"But we sneaked all the way back here and everything! We just want autographs, pleeeeeeeease? With sugar on top? And a cherry?"
Kaldur sighs, soft enough that if Wally hadn't been standing right next to him he wouldn't have heard it. They have another concert in Seattle tomorrow—no day for recuperation, and out of all of them Kal's always the one that makes sure that he's the most rested. It's part of his yoga angle, or something.
"No, Artemis, it's all right. They're just autographs."
The blonde squeals, too high pitched for even dogs to hear. "Thank you, thank you, thank you!" Wally can hear the exclamation points being turned into ones, and grins at the sound.
The whole group is wearing shirts with their faces on them, along with glitter and enough hair spray to be a fire hazard. The girls hand them their autograph books to be signed, and they pass them to each other like an assembly line, one by one.
All, except for one dark haired girl in the back. "Who are you?" she asks Artemis.
"She's our guard dog," Wally answers for her, finishing his name with a flourish, since Artemis seems extremely taken aback at being addressed at all. "She's rabid," he adds in a stage whisper, which causes the other girls to smile.
"Oh har dee har har." Artemis rolls her eyes, evidently pulling herself together. "I'm their bodyguard."
"What happened to Roy?" the girl asks Wally, and he watches Artemis's eyes get bigger.
"He had to find himself, or something. It's no big deal."
They finish signing, and the girls run off the way that they came, squealing.
"I sure hope security doesn't find them before they go outside," Dick says, watching them go.
"Let's just get out of here before more come." Conner picks up the pace to the town car, and the rest of them follow suit.
Artemis looks thoughtful, walking behind them instead of in front of them the way she had been as they were walking out. Wally is pretty sure that if they were going to be attacked they were more likely to be attacked from the front, but he doesn't say anything.
"They knew Roy?" she asks him finally, frowning. "They...knew who your body guard was?"
Wally shrugs. "Most people don't. But the ones like that, the ones that somehow manage to evade security and find us behind buildings, they usually do know that stuff. They know who writes our songs and the names of our mothers and where we went to school. And last year, on Conner's birthday, some girl tweeted Conner his exact time of birth, which Conner didn't even know."
"...Really? And you don't find that weird, at all?"
"Oh don't get me wrong, it's hella weird. But it's whatever. Now, it's life. Ever since Gordon made us a band on the Factorinstead of just individual contestants, pretty much. It's like that for everyone that gets on Factor. The only difference with us is the fact that there are more of those kinds of fans, instead of less."
"Well that's...interesting. I just couldn't imagine."
"Do you have a Twitter?" Wally asks.
"Yes. Who doesn't?"
"Well that's where they're going to get you first, when they figure out who you are."
"Pleasetell me that I'm not going to get seven million of those little notifications that tell me that someone new is following me."
"Well probably not thatmany. But I know Roy got a couple hundred or so at first. You'll get more if you start tweeting about how superior Young Justice is to everything ever, though."
"Good thing I won't be doing that, then," she replies, and Wally's surprised to find himself laughing.
That's when he knows that he hasto do it, despite the fact that he said that he wouldn't. Artemis actually isn't half bad, or so he's learning. Maybe they can actually be friends, the way that he and Roy once were. Dick wasn't wrong about something, for once. It is going to be a long tour if he and Artemis don't reach a truce, though they're sort of there all ready.
Plus, Wally is a mature adult and not a fifteen year old. He can do this. Really.
"I just want to say that I'm sorry, for earlier. For snapping at you. I think that you'll be able to do your job, really," he apologizes. "Welcome to the team."
"Thanks. I appreciate that. Though I'm not going to say sorry for calling you the dumb one. Someone'sgot to be."
"You're welcome." There's a hint of sarcasm in Wally's voice when he replies, and Artemis just laughs, her eyes scanning their surroundings before letting herself into the bus with the rest of them.
.
Kal is on his phone for almost the entire bus ride to Seattle, talking in a low and fluid language that lets Wally know that he's talking to someone from back home. Despite Kaldur's speech pattern, and the way that he holds himself differently from everyone else in the band, sometimes Wally finds it easy to forget that Kaldur was actually born in a totally different country.
He was brought to America and lived with a friend of the family, having a visa and then eventually citizenship to help give him a "better chance at a better life" so he was American, but it's not something that's brought up often, not even by Kaldur. So when he's taking a call from back home, it means something big is going on.
The mood is completely different when they arrive in Seattle, but everyone gets to work anyway, getting hair and make-up and their stylist come and fix them up. None of them pick out their own clothes anymore, and especially not on tour. That's what the stylist is for.
When Kal's done, Wally goes over to him, trying not to ruin his hair. "Hey, is everything okay back home?"
The lines on Kal's face seem to deepen at Wally's words, and he wishes that he could take them back. He shouldn't have asked so close to a show, but he's got to know so that he can tell the others since they'll want to know too.
"Not really. Mother is telling me not to worry, but a hospital called asking for her insurance, which I take care of now. She needed a treatment for something, and it was not something quick, like a shot or they would have already done it. She could be dying and I wouldn't know, but the doctors cannot tell me and Mother is telling me not to worry about it."
"Maybe it really isnothing, then," Wally tries to reassure him. It's so rare to see Kal crack and show the worry and responsibility that he must feel all the time, for all of them. A reporter once told them that Kal must have been the one that kept them out of jail when they really got going, and they're right. There's no way that they'd all have stayed together this long, through all of the stress, and not ended up in jail and the papers without him.
"Maybe," Kal agrees, but it's clear on his face that he doesn't believe Wally, the same way that Wally doesn't necessarily believe himself.
.
As it usually is, it was Dick's idea to go out after the concert, and the rest of them had reluctantly agreed. They all liked going to clubs—Wally especially liked the pounding music and the fact that he was finally legal in the States—but it was just a hassle.
Most of the time the patrons left them alone, but there were more than a few girls that would come up to him, hoping that he'd take them on the bus and sleep with them. Wally had done it in the beginning, when he hadn't known any better and thought that women throwing themselves at him was just a fun perk, but he'd learned better.
Add that to the fact that they always felt like they were obligated to watch out for Conner—who had admitted that he'd had a drug problem once upon a time—there were times when clubbing didn't seem worth it.
But this one is fun, Wally has to admit. The music is actually good and the drink in his hand tastes decent enough and only a few girls have come up to him and pressed their body on his, as if giving him a preview before he pushed them off.
He finds Artemis sitting at the bar, and slides into the chair next to hers. She doesn't seem surprised to see him there when she looks up from her water. "Do you guys normally do this?" Artemis yells over all the noise.
Wally shrugs. "Sometimes, if we feel like it. It's fun though, right?"
She shakes her head from side to side, noncommittal, before a girl from off the floor wedges her way between them. "Margarita on the rocks, bar keep," the girl says before turning to Wally, completely blocking Artemis from his view. "How you doin'?" she asks, in a voice that's probably supposed to be seductive, but instead manages to flirt with being nasal.
"Great, thanks. But I was talking to my guard dog over here," Wally nods to Artemis, who gives the girl a short, sarcastic wave when she manages to finally turn around and look at her, "and she can totally kick your ass five ways from Sunday. So I'd leave if I was you. Before I let go of her leash."
"Okay," the girl mumbles, taking her drink from the bar. But not before managing to spill some of it on Artemis. "Sorry," she apologizes flatly, in that same nasal voice, before she walking away.
"Oh, honestly," Artemis says, grabbing some napkins from the bar and tapping them on her lap to get rid of the moisture. "I wasn't even doinganything. I didn't even say anything to her, I was just sitting here!"
"But you're up here with me, and that's more than enough reason to spill a drink on you."
Artemis just rolls her eyes. "I'm going to the bathroom. Please try not to get attacked before I get back."
"It's cool, I think we're about to leave soon anyway," Wally tells her before she nods and walks off.
Kal and Conner are leaning on the wall on the other side of the club, and Wally maneuvers his way through the crowd of people to meet them. While Kal is usually the one that keeps the closest eye on Conner when they're out, when the two of them are standing together no drink in hand usually means that they want to get out.
"Where's Dick?" Wally asks. "I'll grab him and then we can get on the bus."
"Please do," Kal nods. "Where is Artemis? We cannot leave without her."
"Bathroom. She's having some girl problems right now."
Conner looks pained at the thought, but still says, "Okay, we'll wait for her while you go get Dick. I think he went off to some corner, or something."
Wally sighs, but goes to find his best friend. Sometimes the boy was more stress than he was worth, honestly. It takes a while, but Wally finds Dick in a darkened corner, just like Conner said he would. Attached to his mouth is a blonde in a short black dress, and wavy blonde hair.
"Come on, Romeo," Wally says, nudging at Dick until the lovely couple looks up. "Time to get back to the bus."
Dick just gives the girl a shit-eating grin before following Wally out of the club, Kal and Conner and Artemis having already gone before them.
The night air's cool on Wally's skin, making the sweat on his shirt and hair stick to his skin. It's a hike to the bus and no one's around, so Wally asks, "Does it make things easier? Pretending like that, I mean."
Dick just looks around, making sure there's no one in the bushes listening, before answering. "No. It's just that..."
"Just that you want dick in your mouth instead of just some girl's tongue," Wally finishes for him, causing Dick to laugh and bump shoulders with him.
"Why would I want to put myself in my own mouth?" Dick asks, before sighing. "Well, whatever. That's not even an option right now anyway, and we all know it."
"I don't get why you even bother to lead them on anyway."
"Because it's something to do, and keeps the rumors mostly at bay." He shrugs. "It's no big deal, really."
As they climb up the steps into the bus, Wally's not sure that he believes that.
Later that night, just as Wally finally manages to almost be asleep, Dick starts talking again. They've talked late at night about the stuff that matters. The dark of the bus is so different than the light, and makes sharing secrets easier.
"You know, some boy tweeted me today. Asking if the rumors that I was gay were true."
"Dude," Wally rolls over, more awake now. "We get stuff like that all the time. It's part of being part of the biggest underground relationship that's not a relationship of all time."
"Yeah, yeah I know that," Dick says, waving the thought away. "But this kid said that he hoped that they were true, because he wanted to feel like he was okay and not alone. That it was okay for someone famous to go down the street with a guy hand in hand."
"You got that all from one tweet?"
Dick kicks the bottom of Wally's bed. "You know what I mean. But anyway, I just thought...that was me at fourteen, wanting to have someone like that too."
"So what, are you think about coming out? You know we'd all be behind you, one hundred percent."
"I know." Dick sighs. "I don't know."
"Well when you figure it out, just tell me when it's not five in the morning, okay?"
"Night, loser," Dick says, and Wally can hear the rustle of sheets underneath him.