A/N: Major OT3 shipping going on, this first part is focusing on Cassie and Bart, the next part is gonna be basically Jaime joining the party and basically having to explain the to the team why the hell he has two super powered teens hanging off him like a pair of grabby toy monkeys.
Cuddle fest, yo. Let's do this.
Imperfections (and the people that love yours)
Part I
Against all common sense, she wished she could have acted sooner.
Or later, depending on where exactly you stood in the entirety of space in time. Pesky, last hope, messily cobbled together time traveling chambers aside, she knew for some inexplicable reason that it would have been better. Whatever it was, however, was pretty much up to anyone's guess.
But as irony would have it, it was only in complete inactivity that the thought first struck her at all.
Or rather—his thought.
In the paralyzing hopelessness of the stasis chamber, Cassie wondered why a galaxy conquering alien warrior race would allow their captives free thought while keeping their bodies completely immobile. Torture, probably. She felt horrible like this, wanting to smash her fists into the space-glass or whatever that was in front of her, but unable to even twitch her little pinky finger. Oh, she was going to beat up so many Reach goons after this!
And then kick them. Repeatedly. In the stomach.
Or thorax? They were insect, right?
She humphed internally. Sporadic bug anatomy knowledge aside, she was going to thrash them so good. A familiar wave of irritation sprung forward, coming from the minuscule Bumblebee. Cassie sent a mental groan right back, glad that if anything this weird alien stasis chamber at least had a low level telepathic field. Probably for torture too, or maybe to get information? Well, all they were getting right now was a lot of not very nice imaginative situations involving her fists and some Reach insect-y goon faces.
In the midst of her inaudible grumbling, a quick flicker of a thought shot through the space around them, zinging through the strange red material they were encased in. It was weak, tapering off so fast that Cassie found she could barely even sense it at all, but what it lacked in length it more than made up for in strength.
Grief, hard and terrible.
She wasn't sure if Bumblebee had caught it, but she tenaciously chased after the cruel thought, using what little she remembered from those trippy sessions with Miss Martian to follow the sharp feeling with her mind.
When it finally reached the source, Cassie found she would have given anything to gasp, or even just clench her fists from the helplessness.
Impulse. It wasn't just flickering off of him, it was like it embodied him, a steel center of sorrow in the pit of him stomach that he was clenching down so hard on to make it disappear, unknowing that it was only turning more and more dense. Another thought struck her—her own, a small realization in the midst of confusion.
That whatever it was wasn't new.
Cassie tried to pretend that she wasn't just a little bit miffed at the fact the Reach squadron was already beaten. Judging by the stern look Robin was shooting her that looked half part solemn defender of the night and half part demented bunny rabbit, her bluff wasn't working too well. Making a mental note to practice her poker face later, a question popped into her head, quickly heading out of her mouth through her obviously deficient verbal filter.
"Hey, how long were we captured in there?"
Several eyes shot up to meet hers; Nightwing's looking the most anxious of the bunch. She gulped nervously, realizing that it may have been a loaded question. Holding her hands up like a defense, she quickly added, "I—I mean, I'm not saying anything about how long it took you guys to rescue us, I was just wondering how much homework I'm gonna have to catch up on."
Nightwing smiled slightly, the curve of his lips barely hiding the guilt in his worn face. "You don't have to worry too much, Wonder Girl. I'm sure your teachers will be lenient."
He said this as if it was pure fact and Cassie wondered, not for the first time, whether it was a promise or something. Maybe his secret identity was a principal? A buff principal. He turned back to the controls for the bio-ship, leaving her to pout as she realized that he actually hadn't answered her question. Folding her arms, she muttered under her breath, "Still doesn't mean my mom's not gonna throw a fit."
Cassie squirmed slightly, wondering how long this trip was going to take. It would be better if it just wasn't so silent. It was like everyone was in this weird thoughtful mood in the aftermath of their capture and subsequent release that made her feel all the more guilty about the weird principal fantasies that were currently running through her head. What was with everyone today? Had the Reach infected them all with the mode or something?
Somehow, in the entire ship crammed full of heroes and one sleepy wolf, her gaze landed on Impulse.
He was still quiet from the quick debrief, silent still, like some strange black hole that was sucking the noise from all around him in an effort to fill something that was so, so empty inside. Cassie wished she could still feel what he was thinking. A stupid wish, and probably seriously ill fated, but just seeing him look so blank after spending the last couple of hours—maybe days?—secretly mentally nudging him to unearth the weird sadness behind his every thought made her feel slightly responsible for his current mood.
Even if it was the Reach's fault.
Biting down hard on her bottom lip, Cassie hoped that Jaime was pushed way, way down in the mind of the Blue Beetle. Well, not enough to disappear—no, seriously, please not enough to disappear, that would suck and hurt everyone—but enough so he couldn't remember exactly what he'd done. She was pretty sure that Bart was doing it enough for both of them at this point. Her face fell at the memory.
Everyone knew that the two had gotten close, way close. Bart had practically sworn his life to protecting Jaime from the future, only to have accidentally inadvertently caused it while caring just a little too much about his charge. It was enough to break a super-powered girl's heart.
A thought occurred to her. Cassie grinned and leaned to the side, lightly punching his arm to grab the speedster's attention.
He flinched.
Just for a moment. His smile was on faster than she could even see the change between his blank sorrow to the bright expression he now wore, but the speed only made her wonder more about how long that cringe had really been. "What's up, Cas?"
She stared for a moment, blinking once or twice. Finally regaining control of her mouth, she let her lips stretch into a smile that mirrored his. Speaking in a hushed voice that was anything but, Cassie asked, "Hey, you're a genius, right? When we get back, you wanna help me out with my homework?"
The bio-ship was beginning its landing trajectory, and the low rumble of the organic engines only made his laugh seem faker as he seemed to wave her friendly request away and reply, "Nah, I'm sure you can handle it. I'd probably only be a distraction, what with my attention span and everything. And then your mom would kill both of us. I'm sure you got this on your own." He flashed a winsome smile at her dumbstruck face just before he ran off the ship into the renovated safe house. Everyone else followed slowly, which was a relative term in a speedster's case.
Cassie gaped.
He'd—
That little—
Completely deflected her—
Narrowing her eyes slightly, the demigoddess made a promise to whatever deities happened to be listening. If anybody had been watching, they would have noticed the single minded determination that was radiating off the figure that now held the mantle of Wonder Girl, her face eclipsed by an expression that only came out during intense situation of the butt-kicking variety.
Oh, it was so on.
The next few days marked some of the most trying in the team's history. Not as trying as that April Fools when the first Robin had managed to hoodwink Miss Martian into helping him, but what could possibly top that? Tales of that little episode were still being told during long stakeouts as seriously effective horror stories.
No, this was a more private sort of apocalypse, one that would only have been noticed if you were looking for it. Which no one really was, especially with those whole 'Reach-taking-over-the-world' and 'Oh-crud-Blue-Beetle-has-been-mind-jacked' dilemmas. But if anybody had been paying particular care to the struggle currently between a certain time traveling speedster and his new found demigoddess shadow, they would have found themselves either reluctantly impressed or frightened beyond all belief.
For her part, Cassie quickly learned that Bart was the slipperiest guy in the history of slippery. Like, even counting L'gann, with all his fishy ickiness couldn't match the sheer impossibility-to-keep-in-one-place-for-more-than-two-seconds powers that Impulse was currently flaunting.
It wasn't even like she wanted him to go jump off a cliff or anything for her; all she wanted was to hang out for a bit! A tiny bit. Was that so wrong? Frustration and anger mixed with concern and friendly affection until Cassie found herself chasing down the speedster and body-slamming him to the ground.
"You're not getting away this time!"
She held tight to his ankles, the only part of him she could catch even with her flying element of surprise advantage and a thirty minute head start. He struggled for a moment, trying to wiggle out of her grip, but to avail. Eyebrows raised as far they could possibly go, Impulse rolled over, raised himself up on his elbows, and looked down incredulously at her determined face. "You do know this counts as assault, right?"
Cassie narrowed her eyes and grunted a response, her mouth currently too busy being squished against the marble floor to be of much help. Despite all odds, she managed to garble out, "Weh…hawng…tomorroh…death by lasso!"
The last part came out a sharp hiss as she peeled herself up, still holding on passively tight to his shin. Bart blinked, gaze flickering between her hold and the thinly veiled rage simmering in her eyes. "Sure."
Shock sang through her body, causing her to let go of the boy's expectedly seriously toned leg. Pretty sure she had exploded an eardrum during the tackle, Cassie said lamely, "Huh?"
He smiled, bright and cheerful and so perfect it put her at automatic defense. "We'll hang. Tomorrow. Preferably without the lasso."
"B-but, I, so much planning—"she cut off with a brief whine, her face falling.
"Uh, I guess if you don't feel like it, then that's okay too—"
"NO! I mean. No. Nooooo." Cassie shook her head so fast she could have rivaled his speed.
Impulse stood quickly and brushed off the dust from his uniform. "Crash. Now, if you're all good with the attacking teammates thing, I'm gonna go finish up my part. Y'know. Of the stealth mission we're currently on."
"Hey, I totally knew about the stealth stuff!" she shot back, only to catch a brief flicker of his rolling eyes as he sped away. Sitting cross-legged on the floor and knowing that she should probably move soon before Nightwing chewed her out, Cassie wondered what in Hades had just happened.
The hanging out part of hanging out ended up being pretty good.
Still not convinced of his honestly, Cassie ended up halfway dragging him to the nearest coffee place, watching him like a hawk as he sat down and carefully laid his coat around the chair and looked around the half empty place and told her to stop staring at him like he was going to go intangible at any moment. She'd humphed and grumbled something back about how he probably would vibrate his molecules through the table just for kicks. He'd just smiled in response.
They'd ended up talking for a bit, with him just raising a brow when she asked what kind of coffee he preferred, still grinning when she realized that speedsters and caffeine probably didn't go well together. She'd brought some homework and practically forced him to help her out, and he'd led her through the questions without so much as a flicker of hesitation or gentle ribbing about how a girl who was part god and part anthropology fanatic offspring should probably know her history better.
Overall, it had been pretty nice.
She'd hated it.
As they'd prepared to part, Cassie couldn't look him in the eyes, staring at some point on the floor as she'd fought her growing frown. He was still smiling.
"Yea, I'd better head off before it gets too late. It's been fun crashing the mode with you, we totally have to do this—"
Her voice was small. "You could have just said you didn't want to."
For the first time in the hours he'd been sitting next to her, Bart's carefully detached bright smile froze.
Cassie's hand clamped down on her cup so hard it started to crack slightly, the handle shaking as she hid her expression behind her thick bangs. "Look, I know I'm no Jaime, but I thought that we could be, I don't know, friends or something."
"But we are—"
"Not fake ones."
Finally looking up, she stared him straight in the face, some part of her taking in the sudden distress in his green eyes with a mixture of morbid satisfaction and welling of desperate concern that she'd suddenly been associating with the small peeks of the real him. "It's fine that you just wanna keep your distance from all of us, I get that. But don't try and pretend it, cause that's way worse."
He was silent at this.
Her frown gave away into a brittle smile as Cassie rubbed the back of her neck nervously. "See you at the next mission, I guess. Have fun."
Then she turned and left him standing there, alone and shell-shocked and still in the middle of picking up his jacket from the back of his chair.
True to form, what would have taken other people days or weeks to think through and understand had only taken Bart a couple of minutes before he was standing in her room, looking more upset than Robin when Nightwing had seen him mess up a move in training.
"I'mnotreallysurewhattodonowbut yousortahaveapointandIthinkI wantadoover—"
Cassie hardly let him get through half of his way too sped up speech before she'd tackled him to the floor again, her arms wrapped excitedly around his stomach as she smiled until her cheeks hurt.
"Uh, is this a thing with you?"
She blew a raspberry against his side in response, refusing to let go even to tell him he was the bestest. Or well on his way to being so.
Bart froze for a moment before relaxing with a laugh, one so small it had to be real. She grinned harder against the, again, expectedly toned muscles of his abdomen. A light touch scraped against her head and she wondered whether she'd accidentally knocked out her headband before it happened again, a soft pat that repeated twice before remaining as a subtle pressure against the ticklish edge of her bangs.
Suddenly wanting to giggle with the realization that Impulse was stroking her hair, Cassie buried her head closer against him and sighed happily, glad that she didn't have to suffer through the awkwardness of a failed friendship.
And that was about the moment when her mom suddenly decided to bust into her room and ask what she broke this time.
"It wasn't that bad."
She groaned, burying her face in a pillow.
"C'mon, cheer up. At least it's only a week, right?"
"But I'm grounded! Literally!" Cassie shot back, still clutching her beloved Wonder Woman themed pillowcase close as she buried under her covers like Beast Boy after he'd just discovered a new species of tortoise he could morph into. Bart stared at her bemusedly from his place in the chair that was strategically placed in the farthest corner, having been ordered by her mom to stay right there the entire time until dinner or she swore to Zeus she would tape him down right in it.
He had a strange expression on his face, as he tapped a foreign beat against the wooden chair. " I've never been grounded."
Cassie frowned for a moment, looking confused before it hit her, and then she felt like frowning some more. For his part, he looked slightly panicked he'd said anything, a fake smile impulsively twitching on the corners of his mouth that he seemed to be actively fighting. She let out a sigh and rolled over so she could get a better view of him. Upside down. He looked weird like that, but that just made it easier to reply with, "That sucks. I mean, the whole kablooey civilization thing."
Bart looked mildly uncomfortable at the change in topic, which probably meant he was seriously freaking out and wanting to amscray. She kicked her feet up and said the first thing that came to mind. "Wanna do each other's hair?"
He looked at the crossroads between surprise and realization that this particular demigoddess' powers were both super strength and complete lack of social tact.
Without waiting for an answer, or for him to come to the next conclusion that she didn't really need one, Cassie hefted herself off the bed and dragged the chair with him in it towards the mirror. Bart held on, his small smile almost completely hidden by her vantage point.
"So, I've never really done someone's hair before, so there's gonna be a small learning curve for the both of us," she warned, using both her hands to gather his surprisingly very poofy hair into a Mohawk.
"And I totally trust your judgment," Bart replied in a voice that meant that exact opposite.
Puffing up her cheeks, Cassie ran her hands through his hair again, oblivious to the light shiver that ran through him as she reached the fine hairs on his nape. "Well, shape up and enjoy the ride." She couldn't help a demented laugh from escaping. "This is gonna be so much fun!"
Whatever Cassie thought was going through her mom's head after having walked in to her daughter's bedroom to find her cuddling the living daylights out of another superpowered teen, she was pretty sure it had been all dashed to pieces once she saw the colorful array of clips and bands that were decorated the once proud Impulse's now pretty little head.
Still, at least it made dinner way more fun. Cassie had to keep nudging Bart into quitting the false grins, and while it probably left a bit of a mark on the poor speedster's side, it made her mom smile. And well, that was seriously good because Bart seemed just a tad awkward around the older woman. Really, you'd think he'd never had a formal dinner before.
Thankfully, once the now very smitten Dr. Helena Sandsmark was bought over by the boy's impeccable manners and charming smile and alarmingly pinch-able cheeks, it was easy enough to invite him over the next week. And the one after that. And the one after that.
Hanging out became less an arranged affair and more of an 'ooh-you-don't-have-anything-to-do-and-I'm-ignoring-my-responsibilities-so-let's-race-each-other-up-a-skyscraper-or-two'. Cassie was pretty sure the team was beginning to question why the supposedly depressed Impulse and the violent demigoddess were now dragging each other around everywhere, even if it was usually the latter dragging the former, but she was of the mind that they could think whatever they wanted.
She was having too much fun! Really, once you tore away that perfect exterior, Bart turned out to be this ultra-sass master with a weakness for cuddling. It was kinda bordering on obsessive, but she didn't really have a problem with it. He had really fun poofy hair. And she liked a good old fashioned victory hug the same as the next person and guessed that a guy that had been raised in a desolate wasteland of a world would probably be more touch starved than the average person.
Even if sometimes he needed his space, she was totally cool with giving it to him. For as long as she felt he needed it. There was seriously only so much sulking you could do after another report of your previous best friend-pretty much boyfriend-previous torturer came in. Cassie felt it within reason for her to sock him one on the arm and then pull him to go catch up on all the pop culture he'd missed. Mean Girls had been surprisingly well taken.
And sure, maybe the first time he'd been the one to grab her to go on an random adventure in some tropical forest looking for this gigantic goldfish she'd been a little choked up. A little. Minimal happy tearing up, really. She also may or may not have hugged him extra-long at the end when they were both covered in mud and fish gook until Bart had snorted in her dirty hair something about her being a moded octopus.
Even if it had taken way long for her to explain the mess to her mom later that night, at least he had helped a little as he set up for dinner. Cassie found she tended to break a couple plates when she got too distracted, but Bart was usually fast enough to grab it in time. He'd been iffy about eating over the first couple times, or until her mother had arched a perfect brow, put on the mom look, and told him that she'd once had Hermes over for dinner and as long as he didn't steal some of her silverware on the way out, she didn't care how much he ate.
Bart had hidden his smile at that. Cassie hadn't.
And maybe when she reached her arm over to sock him in the shoulder on sheer instinct for closing himself off again, it was kind of okay when he'd just grabbed her hand instead and held it carefully until her mother turned to place the mashed potatoes down.
Cassie screamed her happiness into the night air as she zoomed up, spiraling in the coolness until she could feel herself getting dizzy. She let herself fall backward, her spine arching before she plummeted with the wind speeding past her in that even more intoxicated feeling of being alive.
The hard desert ground would probably have put a crippling end to that if it hadn't been for a sudden white and red blur that neatly caught her, circling quickly to build momentum before speeding up a sharp incline of cliff. When everything finally went still, Cassie opened her eyes to find a pair of amused green ones sparkling right back at her with something a little like incredulity.
She let her lips curve into a soft smile. "Thanks."
"You are destructive and terrible and going to be the death of me," he replied flatly.
Cassie rolled her eyes. "Stop being such a drama queen!" She slowly broke out of his hold, noting in the back of her mind how his arms lingered around her a second too long. Nothing new.
She rolled her head back until she could get a better glimpse of the sky around her that was just starting to pale with the coming dawn. Knowing that her mom was totally going to kill her for staying out this late, Cassie felt that the saying 'in for a penny, in for a pound' pretty much applied here. Plus, she was enjoying herself too much after finally getting un-grounded.
Bart kicked up some dirt beside her, unable to stay still even long enough to appreciate the sight around them. He'd been like that for a while. She frowned and lightly nudged him on his arm with her fist—or rather, what was actually a godly pound of nerve destruction. Good thing he was used to them. "What's wrong?"
His head snapped up, the word 'nothing' already forming on his lips before he caught the look on her face and gulped nervously. Turning away, Bart answered casually, "I may have been here a while ago. With-you know."
"Oh."
Cassie slid down the rock wall behind her until she fell into a crouch, pulling him with her until they sat shoulder to shoulder, facing the pinking sky. She'd been surprised when he'd suggested another outing with her to such a far place, but with his speed it hadn't really been a hurdle. Not for the first time, Cassie realized that she was probably acting as a substitute for someone else the speedster cared about.
Sighing lightly, she let her head fall on his shoulder, feeling his tense form slowly relax as he tapped foreign code against her knee, his touch more comfortable to her than her own. So what if he was using her a little? At least it was something. At least it was real. At least it was helping him. That made it okay, right?
"Hey," Cassie started, staring off into the sky with a strange thoughtfulness that was uncharacteristic of her usual exuberance, "How's the future like?"
He was quiet, going still all the way to his hyperactive hand, and she took a second to mourn the loss of his senseless rhythm for some reason she didn't know the words to explain. He'd been quiet so often nowadays, even when she was so sure she was getting through to him. He hadn't talked to her for hours after that briefing about Blue Beetle when they'd gone over the first surveillance tapes of Nightwing and her recruiting him, and she hadn't known why. Still didn't know why.
She'd been pretty upset and attempted to chase him down again during a later mission, only to freeze in place when he'd started to run. She hadn't been used to that. Sure, she chased him all the time, but he wasn't supposed to run. Not anymore. She'd gotten a little more upset, backing up a few steps as she clutched her hands against some senseless part of her stomach like she was afraid her everything was going to spill out, feeling stupid, stupid tears start to well up even though she was supposed to be acting professional, and collected, and in control in the middle of this mission.
She hadn't known when he'd come back, didn't register his presence until there was a soft brush against her arm as Bart pulled her away from the main hall of the conference building and into a smaller corridor as he'd held her and stroked her hair and muttered 'sorry' again and again as she sniffled insults and listed of the ways he had to make this up to her into his chest without leaving the comfort of his touch.
Then things had gone back to normal.
But not.
Cassie pressed her cheek against his arm harder, wishing she could squeeze the secrets from him.
"Bad."
She started a little at the sudden noise as well as the resume of his tapping, albeit a tad slower and against the area of her thigh closest to the curve of her knee, the pads of his fingers slower in trailing a tune as they pressed down softly. She didn't know what to say, but when had that ever stopped her? "Oh. Well, I guess alien takeovers kinda tend to be pretty rotten. So no midnight superpowered runs with your friends?" Cassie teased, hoping to relieve the sudden tension in the air.
"No powers. No friends."
It was her turn to tense. Her eyes went wide with understanding. They couldn't use their powers in the future? That was—that was horrible! The latter of the two statements struck her even harder, and combined with the reeling aftermath of the first, she felt breathless. Or maybe that was just because Bart gentle tapping fingers were suddenly gripping her leg at the knee, tight and possessive and like maybe he didn't even know he was doing it.
It was still the most he'd ever revealed about his future. Cassie looked up again, staring at him hard. His usual smile had fallen away into something that wasn't as real or as bright but was real and him—or the him he didn't let himself be around everybody else, the one scarred and tortured by the thought of the horrible future that awaited them and she could feel his heart beating from her closeness as she sensed him waiting for her to say something, anything.
Cassie looked at him for a bit without realizing it was the same look her mother got when she was inspecting some new rare addition to the museum, or one of the deadly weapons from eras before that was no less sharp despite its overwhelming rust. The sky around them was lightening faster now, the sun having been rising for a while now as they had been busy running around and playing super-human games of chase in a fanatical expression of their powers. So when Cassie tilted her head to the side, it was likely just coincidence that the sun seemed to suddenly flash behind her like it knew she was smiling at the figure before her.
She lightly skimmed her elbow against his chest in lieu of her usual hello jab. "Okay, I know I'm not really good with words or anything, but I'm actually really, really glad that you're here. Y'know, in this time. It's probably the best thing ever, like you are, and I wouldn't give it up for anything. Even gigantic man-eating goldfish," she ended with another tease, the corners of her mouth stretching even further.
And in the sudden brightness of the coming day, Cassie wondered why Bart looked like someone had punched him in the gut. She wondered why his eyes were so wide that she could almost see herself entirely and she wondered why it looked like she was glowing in them.
Slowly, and with a tenacious resistance, she reminded herself that Bart barely thought of her as a friend and that everything, if anything, was probably all in her head. For what that helped.
For his part, Bart began to beat himself up yet again—because why couldn't he help from falling for people he knew would leave?
Especially when those people were already in love with each other.