Disclaimer: I don't own Young Justice, and beachlover470 gave me permission to use her fic "Comforting Static" as inspiration. Also don't own 's song 'Nobody's Perfect', which is where the odd title is from.
Rated for implications, cursing, kissing and disgustingly fluffy fluff...
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She awoke to the ever-present gentle lull of the waves and the not so gentle bright light of the sun. Artemis flung an arm over her eyes to block out the sunlight that filtered in through the small, circular windows of their bedroom in the cruise ship. She let out a groan at the sore muscles the movement stretched out and she pointedly tried to ignore the rumbling laughter next to her.
"Shut up clone boy." The blonde muttered under her breath.
The mattress shifted as the kryptonian moved closer to her.
"Sore from last night?" He asked, his voice right next to her ear. Artemis shivered slightly and covered it up with a disbelieving snort.
"No. I'm sore from all that stupid hiking you made us do yesterday. If you didn't already know, we don't all have super stamina."
"You didn't seem tired or sore when you practically ripped my clothes off when we got back to the cruise ship."
Artemis moved her hand down to glare at the man leaning over her. She opened her mouth to spout some snappy comment about how he had been more than willing to go along with her, but she stopped. Conner's impossibly blue eyes met her hazel ones and Artemis lost her ability to breathe for a moment. She forced herself to get past the lump in her throat at the tender look Conner was sporting and curved her mouth into a wry smirk.
"I didn't realize I was engaged to the world's biggest tourist until you dragged me and the Team to every temple within a twenty mile radius of the city we docked in. Which surprisingly, is a lot of crumbly old temple ruins. And again, by the way, we don't all have super stamina. So excuse me if I wanted some quality 'alone time' after all that exploring."
Conner looked down at her raised eyebrow and idly smoothed down the sheet covering her bare stomach. Artemis squirmed and Conner gave her a small frown with a hint of shyness that she hadn't seen in ages.
"I just never get tired of it."
"What? Wonderful sex with your fiancée?" Artemis quipped even as she laid a gentle hand over his larger one. Conner's face was stoic and his eyes were a bit distant.
"No." The brunette deadpanned, and boy was Artemis glad that she finally understood Conner's weird ass sense of humor because otherwise she didn't think they would've made it this far-
"I never get tired of-of seeing the world with my own eyes. Or touching and tasting and feeling real, concrete things. I mean, "
His fingers drummed against her abdomen and her already sore muscles twitched-
"It's one thing to know something exists. It's a whole different feeling to experience something for yourself."
Artemis watched him for a moment. This had to be his experience of Cadmus talking. It had been years, ages since the incident that put this whole thing in motion. Since Project Kr became Superboy who became Conner who became Kon El. Since he had helped forge something powerful.
The Team- with all the undercover missions, the breakups, the drama, the fights that came with it. The deaths that accompanied it all, as well as the love, the laughter and the friendships.
She would never forget the night that he had truly made her feel included. She'd had a nightmare and she fell asleep as she did now every night, to Conner's breathing and steady heartbeat and the white noise of static that blocked out every noise, every distraction until it was just the two of them...
It all started with him and sometimes it slipped her mind that even though he looked practically the same as he had back then (and thankfully, he had always looked older than sixteen and there were plenty of tricks to keep him looking older, otherwise there would be more than a few raised eyebrows at the rings on their fingers-) there was a completely different person underneath. He had mentally and emotionally grown in leaps and bounds and she was much more than the conflicted, sarcastic girl she had been back then.
Artemis was so caught up in her thoughts that she didn't notice Conner's eyes sweeping over her bare body, his slight frown turning up into a mischievous smile. She yelped slightly as he yanked the sheet back, the cold air hitting her everywhere.
"Con-" She was cutoff by her own laughter slipping out of her as his strong fingers prodded and tickled her mercilessly.
"Stop, stop! You know I'm fucking ticklish-"
Conner didn't let up and the sounds Artemis was making were not attractive in the least, she was pretty sure she had snorted and squealed multiple times now. But Conner's eyes were bright with amusement and he was laughing almost as hard as she was. Difference was, he still looked gorgeous while she was getting disheveled and could barely breathe. So this was definitely justified...
She rolled over from Conner's terrible fingers and grabbed a pillow and didn't hesitate to whack him over the head with it, pushing him over until she was on top of him. The blonde wiggled her fingers menacingly, and despite her aching arms, started lightly tickling the impossibly muscled chest.
A full on tickle fight ensued.
Artemis lost track of how many times she got thrown on the bed and how every time she thought she couldn't take any more, Conner made her lose it all over again.
When the couple finally separated, they were both breathing heavily, and feathers drifted down to the floor like petals. Then again, maybe that was just the closet romantic in her being wishful.
Artemis reached out a lazy hand and ran it down his cheek.
They were quiet for a moment, both watching the other. Then Conner tilted his head, listening to something.
"The others aren't awake yet-" He started, as Artemis spoke at the same time-
"You know, I'm not that sore..." Artemis' voice came out more gravelly than normal but from the look on Conner's face, he didn't exactly mind. They stared at each other until Artemis raised an eyebrow and Conner was clearly fighting to keep a smile down.
He leaned down to kiss her, his lips touching every inch of her face and Artemis laughed again as he finally, finally moved his lips to hers. Artemis got pushed down into the pillows; her hands held back by Conner's as he poured everything that he rarely said into the contact between them. The blonde's legs wrapped around his waist as she kissed him back fiercely.
As she got swept into the emotion of the kiss, only two coherent thoughts stayed as constant as the waves that lapped against the hull of the boat.
One, her life was unbelievable. Just un-fucking -believable and truly, utterly ridiculous-
And- sometimes she just couldn't believe how lucky she was.
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A/N: I don't know what brought this on. Really. All I know is that I was reading through beachlover470's old fics and talking to her when she mentioned this prompt she never filled for an Artemis/ Conner tickle fight (Prompt was from the guest account ArtemisBAMF1218).
So, I volunteered to use the prompt and I used Beachlover's fic 'Comforting Static' as inspiration. You didn't have to read her fic to get this one (but it'd be nice if you did...) I know this is short and not my usual pairing, but I thought 'why the hell not just go for it'? Not sure if I like how this turned out, but hey, a future fic is bound to be a little OOC, right? Anyway, please review/ favorite if you enjoyed – Rosemary
