Disclaimer: Because I'm steadily becoming tired with the few Aqualad/Speedy fanfics out there, I decided to make my own! This couple is one of my favorite of the Titans Universe, coming up right after Robin/Starfire (though I have read scary fanfics for that... I should definately write one. X3). The warnings for this are slightly graphic sex scenes and minor swearing. Other than that, nothing much of anything else except some good ol' humor! Please review:D

Night of Fireworks
By Pixie Ayanami

It all started with one small firework. Ok, maybe not small. So it was a large firework. That Speedy managed to get in the not so legal fashion. But it was just a firework! Who knew a firework could do so much harm?

"How could you blow up your own room!" blabbed Bumblebeen into Speedy's ear. She's been ragging on him for the past twenty minutes over a little explosion. Ok, so maybe the explosion wasn't so little, and his room was now in shambles. Whatever.

"Accident?" Speedy replied rehetorically.

"Are you stupid or something, boy? Your damn lucky that you keep all your gadgets and weapons in a seperate room, because if THOSE things exploded a good half of the tower would be missing! Don't you ever think! I'd expect that you of all people would know how dangerous explosives are!" Bumble rambled on, but Speedy wasn't exactly listening.

Here's what happened; since it's the summer, and since Speedy is an all American kind of boy, our little archer decided to go and get some fireworks for the Fourth of July. There was a whole nice box of them for the five members of Titan East to share, filled with sparklers, bottle rockets, and some small fireworks, the kind that stayed on the ground and made pretty lights. Nothing big, though there was supposed to be a big one. Speedy bought one large firework for the heck of it, and he was supposed to use that as the finale. Course, this was the firework that he obtained very illegally, as the northeastern part of the USA does not even allow such fireworks. He somehow obtained it, though, and that's what counted. However, he lost the large firework somewhere in the void of his room, so there was no large firework to be seen that night.

So a coulple weeks later, while Mas, Menos, and himself were cleaning his bedroom, they found the large firework. They set it down on the work table Speedy has in his room and stared at it. It was like a wonderful gift, ready to be unwrapped.

"AND another thing, those large bombs aren't even LEGAL in this part of America! Do you want to get thrown in jail when WE'RE the good guys? Did you ever think about that?" Bumblebee persisted, her voice somehow elevating in volume.

Cleaning out one of his ears, Speedy said, "No, I don't think." That's what he did when the woman got angry. Nod and say yes. Vaguely he wondered if Titans West's own Robin could ever yell like this.

Going on with the story, Mas y Menos, like the geniuses they are, wanted to see what would happen if the firework was set on fire. Faster than what Speedy could object to, Mas y Menos grabbed a set of matches and pulled out one match. They managed to light up the tip, and just before they could set the fire on the wick, Speedy snatched the match away, halting the possibility of blowing up his room. But, wouldn't you know it, during the retreiving end of Speedy's swipe, the flame passed over the cord anyways, initiating a countdown to boom time. The three boys began to panic. Mas shoved the firework in Speedy's hands so that he would take care of it. Speedy threw it back at the two twins hurridly, and so the game of hot potato began. Speedy, unfortunately, had the explosive in his hands as it was about to run out of wick, so in a desperate attempt to save his room, the archer flung the firework out his window. That didn't stop it from exploding, and from its short distance outside Speedy's window the explosive still could do a lot of damage. The firework exploded in a torrent of bright, gold sparkles, taking Speedy's room with it, and singing both the archer and twins. Once the dust settled, a the charred ruins of Speedy's room was all that remained.

Needless to say, as leader of Titans East, Bumblebee was furious.

"Is any of this getting through your stupid and thick head, Speedy!" Bumblebee asked once more, tone of voice bordering screeching.

"I heard ya, Mom," the ever sardonic Speedy said. He glared at the two Spanish twins who stood complacently behind their leader. This is what he gets for taking the blame for two pipsqueeks.

"And for your crappy attitude, you're gonna have all the chores for a good few months, as well as extra training! Shape up that attitude of yours and I MIGHT reconsider," the ever so authoritarian leader said as she left the room, meaning that the conversation was over.

Mas y Menos was left behind. "¿Ululación, él realmente atornilló para arriba, no él? (Wow, he really screwed up, didn't he?)" Mas asked his twin.

Menos laughed in agreement. "¡Sí, sí¡Ahora que es grande el idiota está en muchos de apuro! (Yes, yes! Now that big idiot is in a lot of trouble!)" The two twins ran off at hyper speed before the archer could object to their cruel Spanish words.

"I really need to get myself an English to Spanish dictionary or something," Speedy grumbled as he looked around the common room of the Titans East Tower. "Where the heck am I supposed to sleep now!" he complained, realizing that the only place he'd actually have a bed was the couch.

Unbeknownst to Speedy, the last Titan East member was standing at the door of the meeting room. Aqualad placed a small smile on his face. That was cruel of the three other members. He knew that the archer was much more intelligent than as to light a firework inside his own room, as he told the Atlantian on the Fourth of July.

'Fireworks are dangerous,' he remembered Speedy saying, 'And they should only be used in an open area. You better leave the lighting to me, I know how to deal with explosives.'

Plopping down on the couch next to the unsuspecting Speedy, the ocean boy said, "Hey Speedy, I heard what happened. Why'd you lie to Bumblebee about the firework?"

Though surprised by Aqualad's arrival, the archer answered calmly, "I did it because I didn't want those two kids getting in trouble. Though next time they won't be so lucky. They would have found a way out of it anyways..."

Aqualad placed a hand on Speedy's shoulder. "Well, that was a very brave thing of you to do," he complimented the archer. Speedy seemed a tad uncomfotrable under the ocean boy's touch, and the Atlantian hesitantly recoiled. Things hadn't bee the same between the two Titan East members since that holiday, not after what Speedy told Aqualad.

"Well, like I thought, my good deed comes to bite me in the ass anyways," Speedy complained, "I'm out of a room for a while and I have to sleep on the couch."

"Sleep in my room," Aqualad offered, "There's plenty of room down there for the both of us. You seen it before."

"Are you... sure?" Speedy asked tentatively, trying to make his blush go away.

"Yeah. We can head down after dinner. Let's play that racing game you like so much right now," Aqualad suggested, picking up a controller to the Gamestation 2 the Titans owned. Aqualad sucked at the racing game, and he was no better this time around. But making his friend happy was worth the constant losses.

The dinner air was filled with animosity that night. On one side, Bumblebee, Mas, and Menos ate in silence, giving cold stares at the other side, which consisted of Speedy and Aqualad. Three against two. Bad odds. Though technically, Mas y Menos added up to one person, or at least in Speedy's mind they did.

Bumblebee fanned herself with her hand as she ate the steak Speedy cooked up. Even though all of the Titans East were out of uniform and in more comfortable summer wear, it was still extremely hot in the Tower. All of the windows of the meeting area were even opened to let some cooler air in, and the fans were even going. Unfortunately, when building the Tower, Cyborg forgot to install an air conditioning unit, since it was winter at that point. Apparently, the northeastern area of America could be a LOT hotter than what they anticipated. Now the Titans East members, spending their money on crime fighting, had no money for such a convenience.

Aqualad, though he rarely does it, was even sweating at the table as he chewed his steak. Steak was good, steak came from the land animals, there was no problem with eating steak. Both Aqualad and Speedy finished around the same time, so Speedy took their dishes and set them in the dishwasher.

"Remember, you gotta do the chores," Bumblebee said, waving a piece of steak in Speedy's direction.

"Yeah, yeah," Speedy responded, heading towards the elevator, "I'll do them after you guys have your snack. No use in doing the same chore twice..."

"Whatever, they just better get done," Speedy heard the leader's voice say as he followed Aqualad into the elevator. Aqualad pressed the lowest button, for his room was down at the base of the tower. Speedy was always a little nervous about going down there, but he had to admit; Aqualad had one hell of a pad. The Atlantian forced everyone to agree to letting him have his bedroom down there. He claimed that the closer he was to the ocean waters, the more comfortable he felt. The problem was the time it would take him to arrive back at the meeting room when there was an alert. Cyborg fixed this problem easily; with a button on the elevator that lead to the Atlantian's room, Aqualad could control the elevator's speed. So if it was urgent, Aqualad could run into the elevator, set the speed to high, and shoot up to the common room just as quickly as everyone else.

This wasn't the only neat thing about Aqualad's room. The ocean boy had a door that lead to a seperate and smaller room. This room allowed him to access the ocean from his bedroom instead of having to travel back upstairs. The windows gave a beautiful scene to the ocean depths, and to complete the water theme, he had a fish tank filled with exotic creatures not found in the Atlantic ocean and also a water bed.

Once the two boys reached the room, they stepped out of the elevator and walked down the stairs Aqualad had leading to his floor. The change from an extremely humid environment to a suddenly cold one made Speedy shiver. He rubbed his hands over his bare arms to warm up.

Aqualad noticed and nodded in his direction. "Yeah, the ocean water gives a naturally cool temperature down here. Cyborg installed a heater for during the winter months, though." Speedy nodded as he sat down on Aqualad's bed. Well, it was eight o'clock in the evening, so what are two boys, who are trying to avoid a bitchy girl and a menacing pair of boys, supposed to do with their time? Speedy's mind was full of ideas, but he wasn't sure if Aqualad would consent to any of them.

"Um... Speedy. Remember what you told me... on the Fourth of July?" Aqualad asked, taking a spot on the floor. Speedy nodded once more. How could he forget? "Well, I've been thinking a lot about your words lately, and I'm sorry... for the way I acted that night. I just kind of got scared, that's all."

Speedy's ears perked up. "Oh well, that's ok. I didn't think that you'd be rather accepting of it, but I had to let my feelings out... that's all," he said simply, slumping onto the bed.

"No, no, it's because, well... I was shocked to know that you felt the same way," Aqualad said as he stood up and turned his back to Speedy so that the archer couldn't see his embarrassed face. "See, in Atlantis, there's so few of my people that... that kind of relationship is highly frowned upon. And after learning it sort of is here, too, I was kind of scared when I found out my feelings--"

"I got it, Aqualad," Speedy said, standing up from the bed. Even with the horrible event that happened today, all of Speedy's anger was washed away with Aqualad's stuttering. With a kind smile, the archer snuck up behind Aqualad and circled his arms around him. Aqualad was tense at first but then relaxed into Speedy's embrace, a tentative look still on the ocean boy's face.

"A-are you sure we can..."

"Calm down, Aqualad," Speedy cooed, taking the other boy's left hand his his own, bringing it to his lips. Aqualad gasped softly, and he was so concerned with how Speedy was kissing his hand he failed to realize the other one going up his shirt. "Everything'll be alright, just trust me. You're not in Atlantis anymore. It's ok to do this."

Aqualad turned around to face Speedy (the hand still staying inside Aqualad's shirt), and Speedy leaned in for a small kiss on the lips, but Aqualad pulled back. Lifting his hands up to Speedy's face, Aqualad placed his fingers aroud the edges of Speedy's mask and pulled forward. Speedy closed his eyes at first; it was so long since anyone has seen him with his mask off. But when the fluttery feeling was placed upon his lips, his eyes shot open to look into Aqualad's dark purple ones. 'Everything'll be alright.'

Slowly the kissed deepened and the boys entangled themselves in each other; fingers in strands of hair, hands up shirts, legs buckling underneath, skin sliding agianst skin. Speedy pushed Aqualad onto his water bed, riding the small waves that produced when they landed. He sat on the latter's waist and dived down for more of Aqualad's lips, entreating entrance into his mouth with his tongue. Aqualad had a mind of his own, however, and pulled off Speedy's red shirt, tossing it aside. Speedy was shocked, but smiled slyly as he began to unbutton Aqualad's kaki shorts. Moments later, an assortment of clothes were scattered along the floor until the boys' heated skin snaked along one another.

Aqualad would convulse when Speedy would grind against him. In turn, Speedy would moan from the work of wrestling the other's tongue. At one point, Speedy had entered Aqualad. Neither had the faintest idea of what they were doing, but instead let their natural instincts take over. They danced together in a rhythmic and fluid motion, rocking back and forth like the ocean waves. Both of their energies pented up into one large firework, spreading its glory into the cool air of the chamber. And afterwards they marved at each other's beauty. Speedy spontaniously licked Aqualad's cheek, tasting his salty sweat, and grinned down at his ocean lover. Aqualad panted from the activity they just encountered in, but still he said, "I want.. more... Speedy..."

"No, that's enough for today," Speedy said as he bent down for another kiss and then collasped on the spot next to Aqualad. Holding Aqualad's hip and staring into the ocean boy's lethargic, purple eyes, Speedy smiled contently. Before his ocean lover's eyes closed for sleep, Speedy had to know, "How did you know I didn't blow up my room?"

"You're not stupid..." Aqualad said, nuzzling up towards Speedy's body and resting his head in the crook of Speedy's neck. Speedy smiled and silently thanked those two Spanish twins. Maybe blowing up his room wasn't such a bad idea afterall.

---Fin