Beep. Wally's eyebrows furrowed in his sleep. What was that sound? Beep. A beat passed. Beep. It sounded awfully familiar but no matter how the speedster tried, he couldn't quite place it. He struggled to open his eyes, eyelids feeling like lead. They finally opened a crack and he groaned quietly as he took in his surroundings. He was in the hospital wing. Again. Perfect.
The room was dark and Wally started to shift, wondering whether he would be able to sit up. "Stop moving," he heard someone mutter, successfully halting his movements. He wracked his sleep muddled to put a face to the voice, eyes widening slightly when he realized the owner. "Arty?" he rasped, clearing his throat when the words barely made it out.
The speedster could practically hear Artemis roll her eyes before a small light was turned on. Wally closed his eyes, scrunching up his face. He heard her scoff and slowly but surely, reopened his eyes. Once the blurriness receded he looked over at his teammate. She was sitting by his bedside on one of those plastic chairs that looked super uncomfortable, eyes focused on a textbook marked chemistry.
After a good while of staring her down, Artemis finally sighed and closed her book, gray eyes meeting green. "What?" Wally blinked once, shifting on the hospital bed. "Mind maybe telling me why I'm connected to a heart rate monitor?" he asked, because really, there were no visible signs of injury.
"You headbutted a concrete wall. It was pretty amusing to watch," Artemis replied dryly, the tiny smirk tugging at her lips betraying her annoyance. "Don't laugh at my pain!" Wally exclaimed in offense, only earning a head shake from the archer. "Whatever."
She reopened her book and Wally flopped back onto his back, sighing. Minutes passed in silence, save for the sound of pages being turned, before the speedster spoke up again. "Why are you here, though?" He pushed himself up in bed, watching Artemis internally groan.
"Because I thought I'd enjoy your unconscious state while it lasted," Artemis replied sarcastically, Wally laughing dryly in response. But then she sighed, dogearing the page she was on and placing the book to the side. "Honestly? I couldn't sleep."
Wally's eyebrows furrowed. "Sleep? What time is-" He glanced over at the clock before slowly turning his head back to Artemis. "Arty, why are you in my hospital room at half past 5 in the morning?"
"Because I couldn't sleep and I thought 'hmm, might as well keep the idiot company'," she replied honestly. Wally was slightly taken aback but didn't let it show, his lips instead tugging into a grin. "Aww, Arty, are you going soft on me?"
The archer's eyes narrowed. "Wally, I have no problem with beating a guy even though he's lying on a hospital bed." The speedster's grin simply widened but he decided not to push his luck. Artemis might leave and even though she found him insufferable and the thought was mutual, he didn't really want to spend the rest of the night alone in the hospital wing.
Ten or so minutes past, Artemis once more picking up her school book while Wally stared at the ceiling. "I'm bored," he finally admitted, turning his head on the pillow to look at his teammate. "Congratulations," was the reply he got. "Artemis, you said 'keep the handsome idiot company'. That includes keeping me not bored, right?"
Artemis sighed. "First of all, don't kid yourself. Secondly, how am I supposed to unbore you? We're in a hospital room and all I have is a chemistry notebook."
Wally shrugged as best he could in his lying position. "Fine. Read to me."
Artemis rolled her eyes. "Wally, it's almost 5 in the morning. I am not reading you my chemistry notes." The speedster frowned. "Please? Pretty please? I won't call you Arty for a whole day?"
She mumbled something inaudible under her breath before sighing. "Whatever. You asked for it." And so, she started reading up her messily written notes, Wally staring at the ceiling and listening intently. Somewhere around the quarter past six mark, Artemis dozed off, her chin hitting her chest as her eyes closed. Wally, half asleep, smiled before giving into the sleep pushing at the edges of his mind, the heavy breathing from his right side making the heart rate monitor a little less unnerving than it usually was.