BEFORE YOU PROCEED, YES THIS IS BIRDFLASH, BUT A LOT OF THE FOCUS IS ON ARTEMIS AND WALLY WHICH IS WHY IT IS MARKED AS SO. If you are going to get on my case about the lack of Spitfire, please leave. I think I handled the situation well.
The two boys stood nervously as the rest of the team eyed them. Dick fidgeted under Kaldur's cool gaze, M'gann's wide eyes, Conner's impassive glare, Artemis's furtive look, Zatanna's blank stare. He glanced quickly to Wally, clutching the redhead's hand tighter. His own blue eyes were set in steely resolve. He loved Wally-silly speedster Wally, who ate everything and talked too fast and couldn't sit still to save his life but would do anything to save Dick's and loved wholly and lived with passion and energy-his Wally-and nothing could change that. That didn't make the moment any less scary.
A second passed. Two seconds. Dick wondered if this was how Wally felt, like everything was too slow and he was constantly in suspense. Wally drummed his fingers against Dick's hand as much as Dick's fist would allow. The silence echoed, and a buzz settled in their ears. The AC hummed, washing the teens over in a new breeze.
It was Conner who broke the silence. "Okay." Everybody seemed shocked at the sudden noise, Conner's low voice, echoing through the empty halls. Okay... okay...
Artemis turned to him in disbelief. "'Okay'? What do you mean 'Okay'?" Her voice cracked on the last word.
"I don't see the big deal," he replied smoothly with a shrug. "I mean, it's not like it was a huge secret in the first place." Wally's ears burned, and Dick stifled a giggle. Admittedly, their friendship had taken an 'old married couple' attitude long before they became an 'item.' Wally would annoy Dick, Dick would whack him lightly on the back of the head, they'd glare a little before laughing it off. What had Zatanna called it? "Eye fucking"?
"I agree," M'gann admitted. "I mean, about the whole this being a big deal thing. I just...is this a big deal?"
"Yeah," Artemis insisted. "They're both boys!" Conner shrugged again, nonplussed by what he considered to be a non-issue.
"Gender isn't a big deal on Mars. I mean, we are shapeshifters." M'gann avoided Artemis's face, unable to meet the stormy gray eyes. She didn't want to disagree with her friend, but she couldn't see the issue at hand. "Is it a big deal on Earth?"
"On the surface, it may be," Kaldur said, his rich bass voice interrupting the flow of the conversation, "but in Atlantis, a bond like theirs-regardless of gender-is agapera. It's hard to describe-there's no English word that I can think of-but it is a love that is complete. They are two halves of a whole, one perfect union in the same heart. It is more than attraction; it is a bond that goes beyond their friendship and even transcends romantic love. I am actually relieved that you two share this agapera." He stepped forward, putting his hands on both their shoulders.
Dick felt his entire body relax. It was one thing to be accepted by Conner and M'gann; they were a toddler and an alien respectively, both still blissfully unaware of the social stigma. Kaldur may have been Atlantean, but he knew the surface world. Dick could never find the words to explain how he felt, but Kaldur found them perfectly. Agapera. He rolled the word on his tongue, mouthing it. It fit perfectly, like his favorite jacket.
"You...you mean you guys aren't bothered at all?" Artemis's eyes were wide with surprise, desperate like a cornered animal.
"Surprised, yes. Mildly confused, but not really bothered." Kaldur nodded in agreement with the Martian.
"Just concerned," Kaldur voiced. "The usual risks of dating a team mate apply. I don't like the idea of your minds or hearts not being in a mission because your worry for each other overwhelms you." He looked pointedly at Wally and Dick.
"Nothing to worry about, boss," Wally confirmed.
"We'll stay whelmed, don't worry," Dick added. His anxiety was dropping with the passing moments. Save for Artemis, their reactions were better than expected. The archer though...it was expected. There would always be people opposed to a couple like them. It still hurt though.
Artemis shook her head. "How can you guys be so... so whelmed?" Dick winced; he hated when his wordplay was used against him like that. "They're...it's just...it's wrong. Zatanna, back me up here."
The brunette froze as all eyes turned to face her. She had been silent the whole time, rolling around the idea in her head. Wally...and Dick... Conner was right though. She had seen it coming from a mile away, even if she didn't want to admit it to herself. The more she thought about it, the more obvious it seemed. Her New Year's kiss with Dick...it really didn't mean much. It stung her, but it was bound to happen. "It's not my place to judge," she finally said. "Neither is it yours," she added, a slightly icy tone creeping into her voice. Artemis was being unreasonable; high school relationships weren't meant to last forever.
"You're all... you all..." she broke off, bolting down the hallway to her room. The Team stood awkwardly, listening to the tattoo of Artemis's feet as she ran.
Wally and Dick looked at each other. This was bad, way worse than they expected. Wally couldn't blame her though. He had broken her heart, played her like a sucker before he and Dick... He raced after her. It wasn't fair, and if he left things as they were... It wouldn't have felt right.
Her room door was locked. No surprise there. He knocked tentatively. "Artemis?"
"Fuck off." The thick metal muffled her words, but he flinched. Of all their fights, this was their worst. They fought often, even when they were dating, but it was always stupid fights. She never acted like this, sounded like this, sounded so hurt.
He leaned against the door. "I just want to talk." Silence. "Artemis? Arty?" He heard a deadened click. Carefully, he turned the knob. He pushed the door in slowly.
Her room was neat, clean, and silent. She was sitting once more on the bed, face buried into her knees. Her body shook with repressed sobs, barely letting out a sound. Wally could see the oppressed child in her, the scared five-year-old whose nights were spent hiding in a closet as her parents fought, whose eyes were trained not to cry, whose body was trained to hide any sign of weakness.
He stepped past the door frame. "Artemis?"
She looked up. Her eyes were rimmed red, tears giving them a shine that made Wally's stomach turn. Her cheeks bore tear tracks, and the salty liquid itself darkened the knees of her jeans. "Why are you here, you faggot?" He winced at the derogatory term; despite the swear words that comprised of the girl's vocabulary, this one seemed wrong on her lips. Her heart wasn't even in it, and the word seemed to hurt her as much as him.
"I was worried about you." And he was. Artemis was... Artemis. She was his team mate, his friend, his lover for a time. Now, she was mad at him. They were constantly at each other's throat, but this anger was different. He had hurt her, really hurt her.
"Worried about me? Why the hell would you be worried about me? Leave me alone and go on to your little gay wonderland."
He struggled with the words. There weren't any that felt adequate enough to describe how he felt about Artemis, but it certainly wasn't what she was thinking. She wasn't some piece of trash he planned to get rid of. "...I'm sorry."
"Sorry? For what? For falling in love? For being loved in return?" Her voice was bitter to taste, old beyond her seventeen years. She had been abandoned, unloved, forgotten so many times before. This isn't going to be one of those times, he vowed.
"I never meant for this to happen. He just... everything... caught me by surprise. I... I didn't want to break your heart. Honest."
"That doesn't mean you didn't!" she snapped. She got up and went to Wally, invading his personal space. He flinched, half-expecting her to slap him across the face. He would have deserved it. "You played me for a year-a year!-and you expect this to all blow over with a happy ending for everyone?"
"No," he admitted. "I didn't mean to hurt you though. You know that, Artemis. I promise you that the past year was all real. I really did love you, and I still love you, but it's more like a sister-slash-best-friend thing. You're important to me, right up there with my parents and my mentor. Look at me!" He turned her face to him gently but firmly, forcing her to look into his eyes. "I love you. I really do. I don't want you to hate me, and I don't want either of us to walk away with regret."
The two stood in the silence. She turned slightly, freeing herself from his grip. She looked him dead in the eye. "I... I still love you."
"Artemis-"
"Shut up for a minute! I... I know you like Robin, love him even, so... I guess I have let you go." He barely heard her.
"Artemis, I-"
"You deserve to be happy, even if it's without me." She smiled bitterly at him. "Go on, you two deserve each other." She nudged him towards the door, ready to shut it on him. She needed him gone, out of her life for the time being. A wave of tears was rising up, and she wasn't going to let him see.
He held his hands out, catching the door frame. She couldn't get rid of him just yet. He turned, facing her. "That's bullshit, y'know? Artemis, you're one of my best friends; I wouldn't be happy without you in my life." Suddenly, the word came to him. "You're agapera. You are an agapera to me as much as Robin is. I can't imagine life without you, and you are just as important to me as Robin.
"And this isn't just about me or you or Rob or any single one of us. You deserve to be happy too, more so than me. Promise me you'll get over me." He smiled sadly. "I'm not worth pining over."
She didn't respond for a moment, rolling over the words in her head. Agapera. Kaldur had said that it was more than even romantic love, but it was just as prominent in friendship. The more she thought about it, the more it made sense. Wally meant so much to her, as a friend, as a lover, and now as just Wally. Agapera was definitely the word for it. "Wally, you're stupid." She smiled a real smile, shaking her head at the redhead. Her eyes were still wet, but the bitterness was gone, and the anger was fading."I'll get over you... eventually. I'm a big girl; I'll get past it. I know how to recover."
Wally slowly returned her smile. "I know that, babe. That's why you're the best." He started out of her room, moving slowly, even for a non-metahuman. He stopped, calling back to her "You'll make a great girlfriend for some lucky guy."
"What if I'm a lesbian?" she joked without missing a beat.
"Then some gal's gonna be the luckiest gal on Earth," he laughed, his voice fading as he walked further away. "And maybe Mars!"
She flushed at the insinuation. "You- you're such a... a Wally!"
"And you're such an Artemis." And they wouldn't have it any other way.
Yeah, so loads of friendship crap because it's nicer that way. I dunno, did I handle it realistically? I know I strayed from the norm for a lot of fics. Feedback would be nice, kay?