Two deep breaths. Eight heart beats. Twitch. Deep breath, three heart beats. Twitch. She took a sharper inhale than was normal for her and tried to resettle into her meditation. The green foot next to her twitched again. Artemis grit her teeth and then forced herself to relax. Focusing on each individual muscle, willing them to unwind until she felt herself slipping easily back into the wash of everything and nothing that was her meditative state. Her breathing and heartbeat returned to their steady pattern.
Twitch, tap.
"M'gann" Artemis' voice was a tightly controlled hiss, "I know you know how to properly meditate so I must beg, why aren't you?" M'gann looked sheepishly over at her blond 'earth-sister' whose legs were tucked tightly into a pretzel and whose chest heaved with controlled anger.
"Sorry Artemis. I just can't focus." She blushed brightly, "I'm too distracted wondering what Connor's going to do for our 6 month anniversary on Sunday" a bright, sliver tinged giggle burst from the green Martian's chest. "Any time now he's going to ask me on a spectacular date! I just know it!"
Artemis bit her tongue in annoyance, fighting her instinctive sarcastic response. She remained silent and allowed M'gann to build her elaborate fantasies. Fantasies built from the dark and mysterious cliché of every bad sitcom ever; clichés that Artemis noticed M'gann forced onto Connor constantly. If anything the Martian girl was probably hoping for an expensive shopping trip, continual exclamations of his adoration for her, and a dinner large enough for even Baywatch to feel full after. However, this Sunday, Connor would be eating Pho, drinking tea, and chatting easily in Vietnamese in a ratty little apartment in the Narrows of Gotham, like he did every Sunday. And after dinner he would sit next to a curled up Artemis on the apartments beat up old couch, both nursing glasses of the rice liquor her mother brewed, and listen to stories spun by her mother's expert words and hands. If he was going to do anything special for M'gann on a Sunday, it would be invite her to family dinner.
Artemis hardly thought that a humble dinner with family was the direction M'gann's grandiose imagination was headed as the green girls skin flushed deeper. "Artemis" Connor's baritone broke both the girls from their musings.
"Yes Connor?" Artemis asked, shifting slightly so she could look directly at him in the doorway.
"Is there anything you need me to pick up for Sunday dinner?" his eyes were a shadowed cobalt, and seemed wrong for the rather sweet question he asked.
"No, but if you want to come to the market I'll be going right after I get in a few minutes of meditation." Connor's expression brightened and his lips tilted slightly. "We can even get some sweets and tea" she said with a conspiratorial wink, knowing that these would cheer up her brother more than anything. He rewarded her knowledge with a true smile, one that melted some of the pain in his eyes.
"Yeah, sure. Come get me when you're getting ready to go?" She nodded and closed her eyes, intent on squeezing at least five minutes of meditation from the day. "Oh, M'gann?" Artemis huffed softly, dang it just FIVE MINUTES.
"Yes?" M'gann's voice must have been nearly an octave higher than normal and it grated horribly on the sibling's ears. Connor watched in muted worry as his girlfriend seemed to vibrate in her skin.
"Do you want to go on a date Monday? To celebrate our anniversary?" M'gann deflated like a balloon that had been shot.
"But our anniversary is on Sunday Connor, can't we do something then?"
"And miss Sunday dinner?" he was confused and mildly disgusted (though he couldn't pinpoint why). She looked like someone had slapped her. "I'll pick you up at seven on Monday?" M'gann nodded numbly.
Artemis couldn't bring herself to care that there was trouble in paradise (or more trouble really. She knew Connor was growing more distant from the pretty, green-skinned girl). With a sigh that was half exasperation and half contentment Artemis settled into her five minutes of meditation.