Disclaimer: hold on a sec (checks paperwork) yup, looks like i don't own them. (checks again just in case) uh-huh, still don't.

Just Call Me Cupid

chapter one: Surprise Me

Control.

Beep! Beep! Beep! Beep! Bee–

Artemis groaned loudly as she answered her beeping communicator.

"Artemis! Come quick! We need you at Robinson Park! AHH!" Kid Flash yelled into her ear.

Oh goody just what she wanted to do on her day off. Artemis literally rolled out of bed and crawled to the loose board in her bedroom floor to uncover her hero costume.

Artemis was wary about going to Robinson Park, it was located in a shady part of Gotham full of low life criminals. Turned out that walking through the dirty disgusting scum(of both the human and gross street juice variety) was the least of her problems. She learned a very hard lesson that day.

"Robinson Park sucks!" she cursed as she cut through a live root trying to squeeze the life out of her. She always wondered why people stopped going to this once beautiful park. Then learned that even if Poison Ivy was safely locked in Arkhem Asylum her... "babies" were very much alive and kicking.

A quick look at her wrist GPS revealed that her teams' marker seemed to be set permanently in the middle of the park. She felt a tug at her neck as six or so mutant flying seedlings pulled at her necklace chain. Artemis clapped them dead and quickly tucked her necklace back under her shirt and made sure the chain was hidden well this time. She didn't normally wear jewelry, but this was from someone very special to her.

Too distracted fixing her chain, she, apparently, stepped on the wrong patch of grass and the whole park seemed to want revenge. Growling angrily, she forgot about her medallion and kept her mind solely on getting to her team. They needed her and she wasn't going to allow plants of all things to stop her from getting to them. She blew up three man eating flowers, burned four python like root things, and stumbled through a cloud of suffocating pollen before she saw the green dome where her team would be.

Artemis sprinted toward her GPS marker and sighed in relief when she saw that the dome seemed to repel these blasted plants. She was almost there!

Oh but that would've been too easy, wouldn't it? Only fifty yards away, a two story roaming flower stock leapt in front of her. Having had quite enough of these plant shenanigans she shot an exploading arrow through it, jumped through the hole it left, and rolled into the dome.

She watched in triumph as the hole in the middle of it collapsed and brought down the giant plant. She spat out some of the sap as she smirked at its demise. Sure she was covered head to toe in the gross mutant plant sap, but she brought down that giant thing with one arrow. She focused her triumph to help her team, they still needed her, she turned around and–

"SURPRISE!"

And surprised she was. Her senses were on hyper-alert because of all the plant attacks so she immediately nocked an arrow in her bow and aimed at the mob of people. They were obviously there to attack her. She heard a familiar laugh and finally noticed her surroundings.

"Happy Birthday Artemis!" was strung up in the air and the clearing was decorated in a party like way.

"But it's not my birthday..." Slowly lowering her weapon she saw that Red Tornado, Captain Marvel, Black Canary, Zatanna and all of Young Justice and their mentors were there. All of them. Flash, Superman, Aquaman, Martian Manhunter, Batman, Green Arrow, with bats flashing around them geez Gotham was full of them... Wait... Superman? Strange, he never came to Young Justice stuff.

"Yeah, that's why it's a surprise!" Wally said sarcastically while taking her weapon away from her gently ignoring the plant juice on it. Artemis gazed into his happy green orbs and couldn't help but smile back. He was such a geek.

Someone cleared their throat indignantly and she glared at the person. When she realized who it was, she exclaimed loudly, "Apollo!"

She should have known he would've been here. Apollo, not a "hero" himself, helped design some of Green Arrow's trick arrows so he was in the trusted loop. Even after not seeing him for three years, she knew he hadn't changed. Apollo Crock was five years older than Artemis, but he acted as though he was younger. He had the same shaggy blonde hair, same happy brown eyes, same strong build. Artemis hadn't seen her brother since he left for college on an archery scholarship yet he still looked at her with his same happy smirk like no time passed at all.

"Sissy! I've missed you!" he tackle hugged her mutant plant sap and all. Laughing at his child-like exuberance, Artemis hugged him back. She didn't think about it much, but she missed him too. The apartment didn't feel the same without his laugh and constant crazy antics.

"Did you get the gift I left for you?" he asked pulling away to reveal bright green sap all over him.

Artemis nodded and pulled the necklace out from under her uniform, "Got it yesterday, it's beautiful, anh trai."

Apollo smiled happily at the Vietnamese word for older brother, and she felt as though all was right in the world. He gently took the medallion and traced his thumb over the side with a sun carved into it.

"I'm glad you like it. You know... this medallion has a magical power," he added a hint of a spooky tone.

Artemis raised a brow as she skeptically examined it again; a sun was carved beautifully as though she could feel the warmth coming off it, she flipped it over and could feel the chill of night as she stared at the crescent moon with seven stars to keep it company.

"What kind of power?" she asked suspiciously. She didn't know what kind of metal it was, but it sure looked like it could be enchanted. It wasn't simply a dark iron, the sun side shone with gold flecks and the moon side had some sort of iridescent silver.

Apollo smiled brightly as he shrugged, "I dunno, but it's cool huh?"

Artemis scoffed while punching him playfully. Her brother feigned pain then he wrapped an arm around her to face the rest of her team. "Welp, I shouldn't hog you, sissy, but have fun!" he said happily and she swore he mumbled, "or else."

"'Or else?'" Artemis' eyes shot from the pendant and to her brother. Maybe, hopefully, she didn't hear him right.

"Or else what?" he asked happily, then something caught his eye and he nodded eagerly.

"Anh tr–" she was interrupted by a giant wave of water washing off all the plant sap from both her and her brother. "Urgh! Warn a girl, will you? !"

"Sorry!" Aquaman apologized good-naturedly.

"I'm going to mingle with your fancy hero friends!" Apollo exclaimed excited despite being soaked through, but mutant plant sap free.

Whenever Apollo had something in his head, he went through with it. Artemis knew that whatever it was that her brother had in mind for her wasn't going to be good. Being so concerned about whatever it was that Apollo was planning, she failed to find any joy in the hours that past during the party.

She barely noticed that Conner and Superman had left almost immediately after the party started. That Aquaman was currently talking sharply into his ear piece. She kept an eye on her brother and didn't even complain about her being the prize of whatever it was that Wally had planned. She watched her brother diligently and ignored everything. And then he picked up a bow and a sheath of arrows.

"Drop it!" Artemis scolded like one would a dog.

"But Siiiiis! I wanna be apart of the contest!" he whined like the dog she was treating him as.

"No!" she said firmly as she pointed at him.

"Just let him play Artemis, what harm would it do?" Wally interrupted happily putting an arm around her shoulder.

"Oh no no no, don't talk to me like I'm crazy. He! He's up to something!" she exclaimed sounding very much like the crazy person she was denying to be. Wally paused for a moment then chuckled. Artemis glared at him.

"Sissy... you're not having any fun are you?" Apollo interrupted whatever it was KF was going to say next.

"Of course not! You're driving me crazy. Just, please, tell me what you're going to do."

"'Kay!" he replied happily and she kicked herself for not thinking about doing that sooner. Apollo was always a man-child of action and he loved spoiling her. Quick as lightning Apollo shot a hot pink arrow straight into Wally's chest that exploded in an equally hot pink cloud shaped like a heart.

Instantly, the Flash had Apollo subdued while Martian Manhunter levitated his bow away from him.

"Whoa, relax guys. If my calculations are correct he should wake up in... now," he said happily as if his life wasn't in danger.

On cue, Wally groaned while rubbing his chest. "What... hap- Artemis! Are you okay? !" he asked as if his life meant nothing and looked at her like she were an angel. Artemis could almost see stars in his eyes.

"What did you do?" she asked frantically so that it sounded like it was one word.

"Alright! My thesis project works!" he triumphantly replied as though that answered her question.

"Ahn trai..." she growled turning her head to glare at him.

"Don't worry, the effects should only last for a couple of hours, a day tops," Apollo assured happily.

"Ahn trai... what effects...?" she said like a threat.

Apollo laughed jovially then pointed to himself, "Just call me Cupid, sis!"

"Okay..." she muttered as she looked at Wally staring at her like she was the only thing that would ever make him happy and she pieced the puzzle together. She called out casually, "Hey Cupid,"

"Mmm-hmm?"

"I hate you."

Apollo looked at her with his big brown eyes and said adoringly, "Awww, I love you too!"

Artemis felt her eye twitch, "I said hate!"

"Sissy, sissy, sissy," he scolded casually walking away from the heroes and putting his arm around her, "That's just two sides of the same coin." he gasped as if having an epiphany, "Just like you and me!" he squeezed her, "I love you sissy, have fun at your party 'kay? Bye!"

And just like that Apollo ran off. Artemis hopped he got attacked by mutant plants, as she stood there brother-less, yet still feeling hugged. She glared at the lingering hugger, then tried to push him off her.

"Wally!" she frowned as he stayed glued to her side.

"C'mon babe, your brother can't be the only one who gets to hold you," Wally replied lovingly.

Not wanting to injure him further(who knew what kind of damage Apollo's love arrow did to him) she closed her eyes and took a deep calming breath. She felt the love struck Wally pull back from her.

"What's going on?" Red Arrow's confused yet cynical voice asked and Artemis groaned loudly. Of course! Not only did he get there late, but he had to come at the worse possible time too!

"Artemis?" Wally gently touched her cheek to turn her head to face him. He looked at her with so much love that she felt her heart skip a beat.

Melting under his worried green gaze, forgetting that they were in front of their teammates and mentors(obviously the arrow had a lingering effect that rubbed off on her), she asked, "Yeah?"

Wally smiled a handsome caring smile as he caressed her cheek down to her neck and held his forehead against hers, "Do you not want to be here anymore?"

Artemis said nothing, choosing not to ask herself why she was allowing Wally to be so close to her. Whatever the young speedster saw in her eyes caused him to smile so brightly that she felt as though she were the only girl in the world that mattered. "Alright, I can change that." before she knew it, he was holding her bridal style, "Where do you want to go?"

Artemis thought about it for a moment. She shouldn't be enjoying this, her brother obviously did something to him to make him act this way, but... a small part of her had always liked KF(even if he was an annoying hot head every now and again) maybe a day with him loving her wouldn't be so bad... besides, it was her birthday... sort of.

"Surprise me," was her snarky reply as she held his neck, anticipating his speeding out of there.

"Always," he said warmly as he winked down at her.

Artemis only sped with Wally for short distances, in retrospect, he probably never went full speed during those times. She always knew he was fast, could eun across the country in a matter of hours, but she never experienced it. She thought it was going to feel like she was being sucked into a tube too small for her. With wind going past her far too fast that she'd feel like her face was going to melt off, but it didn't. It felt more like being in an convertible. You could feel the wind in your hair but knew you were safe otherwise, it was surprising. She watched as cities, forests, plains, lakes flew by like she would on a train on jet fuel.

Before she knew it, Wally skidded to a stop. Obviously he was used to the super fast to standing still transition, but Artemis sure as hell wasn't. Sure it felt kind of like a convertible... but she spent the whole ride looking out the windows... reasonably, she got car sick. When her legs touched the ground they felt wobbly and she could feel herself becoming sick.

"I can fix this!" Wally eagerly offered before he flashed away and, without his support, she collapsed onto the springy grass. She focused on her breathing as she tried to ignore that her head was making a loud rushing noise. She got three deep breaths in before he came back and handed her some kind of ginger tea. She sipped it, was shocked by the bitter taste, but felt a little better. Wally crouched panting next to her as he ran a soothing hand up and down her back.

When she was certain she wasn't going to vomit, she glared into his forest green eyes, he smiled lovingly for her trouble. Huffing, she asked, "Where did you take me?"

He smiled that adoring smile again while he stood, motioning with his other hand for her to look straight ahead. Her eyes followed the gesture and widened at the sight. Okay, so it wasn't her head that made the rushing sound.

"Niagara Falls," he said as if he were introducing her to an old friend. It was everything she thought it would be. Huge. Beautiful, and huge. She could see that they were in a hidden bit of forest that was closed off to tourists but offered an amazing view of the falls. Sure they might be considered trespassing, but it was only illegal if you got caught, right?

She turned around and found a comfortable looking blanket with a picnic basket laid out under a shady pine. Artemis chuckled as he did a goofy 'tah-dah' pose. Before she could stand herself up to plop herself onto the blanket, Wally picked her up and gently sat with her.

His was back against the tree, with her sitting on the blanket between his legs with her back against his chest. Though it wasn't necessarily uncomfortable, she frowned at his choice of seating. She was about to move when he distracted her with, what could only be, a sub sandwich wrapped in white paper. She frowned accepting it without thought and he kept a hand at her abdomen as he got another drink from out of the basket.

"You didn't get to eat at the party," he stated before she could ask the question. She looked at the sub in her hand suspiciously, she was very particular about her sandwiches and if it wasn't just right, she probably wouldn't eat it.

She told herself that she was too distracted by the sandwich to move from their close position. She pealed the paper back and looked through the sub. Huh... it was just how she liked it. Pastrami and peperoni to add some kick, avacado to dial it down a little and add freshness, just the right amount of mayo and mustard, tomatoes, lettuce and there was even potato chips just for fun!

Since the sub was adequate, she rewarded him by snuggling a little into him as she set to eat. All that worrying about Apollo gave her an appetite.

Time went by at an easy and relaxed pace. They didn't talk much, it was like he was content to just sit with her, and she was happy being in nature in front of one of the worlds wonders.

"...I always wanted to come here," she confessed during one of their lulls in conversation.

"I know," he answered after taking a swig of his soda.

That surprised her, "How?"

"You may not think it, but I actually pay attention when you talk," he replied playfully nuzzling her. She laughed and actually felt... happy. Her heart dropped when she remembered the reason why they were there in the first place.

"Wow, my brother's arrow sure did something to you," she said on a bittersweet sigh. Wally stiffened behind her and his arms tightened ever so slightly.

"The arrow..." he contemplated as he relaxed slightly then shook his head. He continued with so matter of fact-ly even she thought it might've been true, "You know... It didn't really do anything to me."

Artemis rolled her eyes, and scoffed, "Yeah right."

"What? I swear the only thing that arrow did, was give me a bruise," he laughed and Artemis jabbed her shoulder at the spot she thought it hit. He grunted animatedly then started squeezing her almost too tightly in way of revenge. Almost too seriously he said into her ear, "Really, all it's really done is let me act on how I really feel."

Not liking how close he was to her, she pushed off and turned around, "'How you really feel,'" she mimicked angrily, "Please, like you would ever talk to me like this normally."

"Well I'm doing it now, okay?" he replied sounding upset about it. Artemis rolled her eyes, doubtful yet again. He grabbed her hand as he nearly yelled at her, "I love you okay? I've been in love with you!"

Artemis stared at him, saw the desperation in his eyes, felt him squeezing her hand as if to get her to listen. Then she couldn't take it any more, she laughed. And not just the little chuckles she normally did, but big belly rumbling laughs.

"I'm serious!" he defended clearly frustrated. She paused and looked at how earnest he thought he was then started laughing again, gaining a stitch in her stomach. Wally, even more frustrated now, groaned, "Why don't you believe me?"

"'Why?'" Artemis laughed spitefully. His question sobering her up from the initial shock and feeding off his near anger, she stated the facts, "Oh geez, I don't know, maybe because you flirt and make those annoying suggestive comments with anyone without a Y chromosome, but you never once did-" she stopped herself as she started to feel it get personal, "Oh forget it."

With that she got up and decided she needed a good long hike through the forest. His flirting with everyone, but her didn't bother her. Nope. She didn't care at all... Artemis didn't get very far with her hike, just a few steps in, Wally sped in front of her.

"Art," he said curtly. She resisted covering her eyes as the sun set behind him, "I don't 'flirt' with you because... you're different, you matter," he held her and she could tell he was going to kiss her, "I actually care about you."

Artemis' heart sped in anticipation, she closed her eyes as the sun started to dipped under the horizon.

Beep! Beep! Beep! Beep! Beep!

She could still feel the warmth of Wally's near kiss, but... Opening her eyes, she found that she was in her room in her bed. "What the hell...?"

Confused, she answered the communicator on the eighth beep, "Artemis."

"Hey! We've got a mish-ion! Team's meeting at Robinson Park! Come quick!" was Wally's cheerful voice that hung up before she could question him.

For the second time that day she asked, "What... the hell?"

For Toxic Rain42's Apollo Challenge

AN: okay, so you can probably tell this is a pretty rough version. I'm not the greatest person with grammar, and my current beta's very busy so I'm in need a new one. pm me if you're interested. :D oh and REVIEW! please..?