Title: Can't Catch Me
Rating: T
Genre: Humor, Angst, Romance
Fandom: Young Justice
Couple: Artemis/Cameron, Article Jr., Frostbite, CamArt, Winterwonderland

A/N: it feels like someone stole my mojo.

"You are going to break your promise. I understand.
And I hold my hands over the ears of my heart,
so that I will not hate you."

—Catherynne M. Valente, Deathless

6 months later

Cameron breaths free air for the first time in months. Batman and Robin are standing behind him, taking notice that Cameron had already changed into a regular pair of jeans and a G-Force tee shirt. He felt a nostalgic at first sight of the clothes the warden had brought him—sweats and a wife beater, the clothes he had been wearing when he was taken in. They were still bloodstained and torn from the struggle he had put up.

If he closed his eyes he could see the darkness him and Artemis had lain in, shoulders brushing and whispering about tomorrow's plans when the door exploded inward, pouring a sickly yellow light into the room. Cameron's initial reaction was to push Artemis behind him, but the officer—he could make out that much—had him up by his shirt and tried to shove him against the wall. Then Artemis had pulled her knife, and they had gone for her, and Cameron had iced up and—it had been a mess from there.

He can't very well keep them, he knew that, but with the rest of his clothes and belongs AWOL these were the last things he had.

Robin had shown up earlier with a bag of clothes—all new with the price tags still on them. Cameron had stripped out of his jumpsuit and into his new clothes.

"Everything fit alright?" Robin asks.

"Yeah," Cameron shoves his other clothes in the trash. "Their perfect. Thanks. And I want to thank you, both of you, for everything. Really," he smiles a little. "I'd be barbeque without you." Robin grins at him, in his civvies—as he calls them—and dark aviators to conceal his identity. Batman is still in cowl and costume, nodding.

"I don't want you talk to any reporters so I've arranged for you to be privately transported from here by another League member." Martian Manhunter is standing a few steps behind them, his slanted red eyes are fixed on him like he's trying to solve some puzzle, but the corners of his lips are turned up kindly.

"Cool," Cam grins. He and Robin are taken to a back entrance, in camouflage-mode, and packed up into a ship. "Wow . . ."

"What? No one on your end have one of these?" Robin teases and Cameron smirks.

"Nope."

.

.

.

Tittering on her own two legs, Artemis had tracked her way back to her Gotham apartment without causing so much as a stir. It was amazing what the general public missed when they were so wrapped up in their own lives. Artemis had been able to hitch a ride on two dump trucks and a semi and turned her head so to not be noticed.

She had slipped through this concrete jungle like a stealthy cat.

Artemis swung herself into the apartment window she jimmied open and presses her foot down firmly on the shag carpet to muffle the noise. Her breathing is shallow, low, and with doing so she manages to quell her hummingbird heart.

She steps quickly through the house and into the bedroom her sister and her share.

She steps through and it feels like a portal to another universe, time-travel back to months from now. Everything on her side of the room is precisely as she left it the morning of Cameron's transfer. Blankets, clothes, shoes, books: all strewed about like she had simply evaporated.

Before she can take another step a cool blade presses against her throat, which she was expecting and stands dormant and waits for her sister's cool drawl that had been ringing through her mind like a mantra.

"Artemis . . .?"

"Hello Jade." Artemis turns to face her—look the same as always wearing her mini green kimono and wild hair saying she'd just gotten in, or had been sleeping—and gathers the remains of her strength and satiability before snapping back her fist, and punching her sister square in the nose.

.

.

.

Although he had made quick friends with the Boy Wonder, his 'friends' are a tad more cautious towards him—Speedy, mostly.

They all call each other by their hero names, except Aqualad/Kaldur'rahm who's mask-less and Atalantian. And Cameron knew for a fact that Robin hasn't relinquished his real name to anyone—as Kid Flash has told him, but he suspects the speedster was in the know after the smirk the two shared afterward.

They had invited him to quietly celebrate his release, and Cameron is wondering—not for the first time—why he's here.

"So, why are you so conflicted with this?" Robin asks again, making an ass out of himself by showing-off his one-armed handstand. Speedy suddenly takes interest and looks up from his arrows to listen.

Cam glances up at him from the TV and shrugs like his father would have—icy cool, nothings a big deal, fire within. "I know people who'd sooner cut my throat than anything else, but I also have others in the Life I genuinely care about."

Though his father would never say that, he was too guarded.

"Yeah, and some of those people genuinely don't care for others." Robin grunts and rolls back to his feet before stomping over to his suitcase.

He returns with a bent piece of charred metal that was a weapon at one point.

"That cop," Robin says. "The one that assassin stabbed with this. He lived but he can't talk or walk anymore." Cameron's eyes set on the Sai—silver metal coated thickly black from the explosion and the hilt melted—and thinks of Jade and then Artemis again. "Are these the people your loyal to?"

"Cheshire . . . she was only looking out for that girl."

"Girlfriend?" Robin asks yet again.

"Will you stop with that?" Cameron snaps, but smiles, all sincerity aside. "Seriously, it's not my liberty to say. You know too much already, the world does my dad and every ice villain and all of Cheshire's allies must be out to get me."

"We can protect you."

"And I know all the holes in the system." Cameron sighs. "And I know that my options are limited, but I still want to think it out."

"You want to return to your old life?" Kaldur questions.

Cameron chews the inside of his cheek guiltily. "It wasn't all bad. I hav . . . had a family, friends, some colorful places to live—" He remembers Crystal, cold and beautiful, teaching him how to wield his powers and telling him lame jokes. Be as hot as ice.

"So, you would go back?"

It doesn't matter who said it, Cameron could still feel his chest concave with desire to run. Go back, go back, go back to what? The Shadows, the Life, his friends and family? In all honesty, who in their right mind would leave their family? The people who had taken care of him his entire life, who trained and raised him.

Trained and raised, he bites his tongue. They had raised him to be a weapon, yes. A weapon, but—he nearly felt disgusted with how much his chest ached with longing. He still wanted to go back. It not for the life than for his friends, for Artemis. She had to be worried . . .

Realizing he waited too long to answer, he says, "There's no way anyone's gonna welcome me back."

"What about that girl?" Speedy asks and raises an arrow for emphasis. "The one with the arrows, how does she work into all of this?"

Artemis hasn't been in contact, not in a crowd, no smoke signal, no anything to let him know she's thinking of him. And that scares him. Churns his heart in the cage of his ribs and withers it away. "I don't know . . . I haven't heard from her. Every—everyone must be trying to keeping her away for her own good after last time."

Unless she thinks I already betrayed her.

"So, you're still loyal to them?" Wally asks, chewing on another piece of jerky.

"They're my family."

"Who tried to kill you last month," Robin intones, and gives a guilty smile last minute.

"My dad's trying to keep face—that's important. I can forgive him for that. My mom's dead. It's not like she can be much help. All my friends are on the 'bad side'. My friends are my family. I'm stuck with you guys." He feigns a chuckle and twirls the Sai around his fingers, like Jade had taught him when they were younger.

It's off-kilter and he's out of practice, but the others watch in fascination. "They raised me, nursed me when sick, and trained me." He tosses the Sai back onto the couch with a silent thump.

"And they tried to kill you."

Cameron locks eyes with Robin. "You have to understand how my family works. We are the Shadows—at least, some of us are—and in order to operate around well, you guys, we have to be flawless. No liabilities in the system. No endangerments, no muss, no fuss." He glances around and turns his body to face the little table set up behind them, removing the pointless glass bowl he tugs the beige cloth lain over it to make it lay smooth. "It's like this," he gestures to it. "And I," he pinches the tablecloth in the middle so it creates a hill. "Was a wrinkle. A big one. My arrest put everyone in danger; so, obviously, I had to be taken out."

And if it took them this long to try anything, that meant they either had bigger fish to fry or someone from his old life was helping him out.

Being born into the life was hard. In his opinion, he never had much choice he was born with the abilities, so he took after his old man. Training day in and day out, was torture, and it was training by the best. And once his father and Sportsmaster met, it had become like a game. Take your kids to work day. Eric left him behind in field training with a broken leg once, but Artemis shimmied out of a tree to aid him and they were both punished.

Wally, Speedy, and Robin are staring at him silently and Cam looks back at them.

"Hey, seriously, if they wanted me dead, I would be. I know that." He coughs into his fist. "And the girl, she's got powerful allies of her own, so their probably vouching to keep me alive, or vouching to kill other wrinkles. Either way, she's alright, I'm alright. Everything will be fine."

"How do you say that?" Wally asks.

He smiles confident and cool, and doesn't say it's just a hope. It's his only wish on the stars, or his final prayer to help him sleep at night.

.

.

.

Artemis's nose twitches and her head turns into the smell of fabric softener and plush fluff; a pillow, her pillow. Someone's in the room with her, someone who's been there since she fell asleep: Jade. Her body makes a dark outline in the room.

"Jade . . ." her voice his rough and husky from lack of use.

Her sister turns to her and Artemis can just make out the traces of blood lingering above her lip.

Artemis feigns a smile and sighs. "I was almost afraid to sleep. I didn't know where I'd wake up."

Jade snorts and touches the side of her face and then her forehead, like the time when she caught West Nile Virus in Alaska after various mosquito bites. Jade had always dedicated herself to keep Artemis healthy.

"How did you get back to Gotham?" Jade whispers.

Artemis sighs into her pillow again and her head is spinning from the lack of sleep and the drugs Jade probably shoved down her throat while she was sleeping. Her shoulder's ache, so does her back. "I stayed on the island and trained with the other Shadows." Even as she says this Artemis cannot find the words to sum up what had happened on the island and, in truth, did not want to.

"Go on," Jade orders, almost impatient.

"I knew the trial must have been dragging on, so I began to explore and . . . well the wild life isn't so friendly." Artemis laughs and it hurts to do so. "I found a ship in the harbor of the island—some weird tourists looking for a vacation spot—I escaped on there and hid in an air vent until they got to Australia and switched onto an American ship. The rest was a truck ride with some circus animals through Georgia."

Jade nods, as if she'll accept the story for now and looks back to her vintage Alice in Wonderland poster on her side of the room.

"Jade . . . you owe me." Artemis whispers. "Cameron . . . is he dead?"

Jade glares at her sharply and continues to do so until she can speak. "Worse." She whispers and Artemis notes her sister is gripping the bedding next to her, digging her fingers into the purple duvet. "He's gone straight."

She stares at her sister, wondering what that meant. "Wha—?"

"He swapped sides, he went good, jumped ship, betrayed all of us. He joined them. The Justice League."

.

.

.

Cameron had not told anyone this, but a month ago, he broke out of the hotel and ran through Gotham in the dead of the night. He had run far and purposeful, ducking into shadows to not be seen and keep his eyes peeled for familiar faces. Fear spiking his every step because he knew, he knew, that if he was caught he could kiss all chances of a clean slate away.

He went to the apartment he had been staying at for the last year and a half, where all his stuff was and his father's belongs were still packed away into boxes. The place where he and Artemis had been staying the night he was taken.

He's never had much finesse for picking locks, but with shaking hands managed it.

When he opened the door the apartment was empty and everything—even the guns under the floorboards—were gone.

All that remained was a shoebox full of jigsaw pieces, and a note with his name on it.

.

.

.

Eric arrives a week later with a case and a grim smile. "Hello Art, I brought something for you." He seats himself at the edge of her bed. Artemis had always seen Eric as a brother with laughter in his eyes and cruel jokes to play. Even now, in his full Black Spider regal and his hair slicked back, he looked like the golden haired boy who beat up the bullies who picked on her in grade school.

"Hey Eric," Artemis sits up, getting her strength back after a few days rest felt like magic on her bones, but her body still felt stiff from sleeping on such a soft surface. She would often wander out of the room and sleep on the kitchen floor for the first few nights, but Jade's skeptical brow exiled her to her room. She shifts as the bed did.

"So, your sister tells me you became a full member of the Shadows." His eyes lock with hers and he seems to find her answer there because he speaks again. "And you wanted to see Cameron?"

"I need to say goodbye." She says and doesn't let the emotion touch her voice, and Eric—for all he's worth, he isn't immune to her tricks—grins.

"That's what I wanted to hear." He turns the case over and sets it on her lap. "Get dressed we're going to stretch out your new muscles."

.

.

.

Cameron stands on the balcony of his bedroom at the swankest Gotham hotel feeling the breeze against his skin. He knows he probably shouldn't be out in the open, and knows that hotel security—even at a hotel as nice as this—is laughable at best, but he feels a waning sense of security with a few chosen members of the Justice League next door.

Also, after months on incarceration, he wants to breathe the fresh air.

His arms are iced from the elbows down and its cool and warm and so natural with his skin he had missed his ability.

He almost wants to laugh because Batman really is giving him some leash here. No collar, minimal security. There has to be a catch or a 'thank you for cooperating over these past months and asking to join the team since you're now so changed' shebang here. Batman seems too paranoid to trust this much.

Yeah, there's probably a hidden camera around here somewhere.

Cameron's eye catches a flick of some movement below him, on the next balcony, and his assassin training kicks in. His shoulder lax and he rolls his head into his chin, pretending to inspect the smoggy city skyline while looking for that dark shape.

"Hey Cameron." A liquid black shape lunges into his peripheral and Cameron has a blade out and at its throat. "Whoa, is that any way to greet an old friend?"

"Eric?" Cameron growls and his eyes narrow. "What are you doing here?"

"Just chaperoning, you detestable son of a bitch," Eric chirps cheerily, but Cameron can hear the venom in it. Eric kneels on the stone balustrade, head tilting like a puppy. "Planning a little jump?"

"What, no? Eric," Cameron is at a loss for words.

"And may I just say, I didn't believe them when they told me what you did."

Cameron lowers his arm, pulling back the ice until he's pale and human again. He knows it's stupid, at a time like this, but Eric was his friend. "I didn't do anything."

"So you didn't kill that old lady or you didn't betray us?" Eric's back arches up like a cat's. Eric always had a way of expressing how he felt even when his face was covered. "Because it looks like you did both, but—whatever. This isn't my visit. Mine will be hella more personal."

Cameron suddenly has a headache. Between Eric and Jade, their twin Wonderland babble could out-annoy even the Riddler. "Eric what the holy hell are you talking about?"

"Just pay the fuck attention, listen well and use small words. She's had quite a trip." And with that Eric lunges backward and down the face of the building to a much lower balcony.

"So, I heard you went straight."

Cameron whirls around to find yet another figure emerging from the shadows on the balcony across from his. The shadow crosses the gape with a light footed leap and holds her pose on the stone balustrade for a moment before touching toe down on his balcony with ease.

"I almost didn't believe it." The voice is deep and throaty like one of those wannabe seductresses, but this actually works for her. Inching further from the shadows Cameron falls into a fight stance, ready to take on whoever comes at him.

For a moment he thinks it's Jade in her Cheshire persona, ready to beat him within an inch of his life and drag him back to the Shadows, but the mask is different. The elaborate design of tiger stripes cover further of her cheekbones and redefined the upward tilt of her eyes is not the flashing white grin, but full pink lips. Her steely grey eyes peer at him through the eyeholes.

The woman is small and lithe, wearing an orange and black second skin body suit that cuts off to show off her midriff and 'give her flexibility' and comes up all the way to her neck. The sleeves are cut off at her shoulders and thick bi-fabric elbow length fingerless gloves make up for the lack of padding on her arm. Aside from how dreamy the cat suit is, Cameron takes a moment to assess her visible weaponry: black utility belt, hunting knife strapped to her left thigh, collapsible bow, quiver full of arrows . . .

Arrows.

"Artemis?" he whispers and the girl touches her mask in regard, but quickly slips it off. Her long golden braid that swung between her shoulder blades like a pendulum swishes over her shoulder with the motion and with black matte nails she tucks a loose golden strand behind her ear.

"Hey, Cam."

"Artemis . . ." he hasn't seen her in months, but not much has changed aside from her unusual blasé veneer and a cool chill runs down his back to mingle with his icy bones. Artemis is an enemy now, a bred and trained assassin and ghost from his old life he was asked to ignore. If Jade had not come for him . . . then had she? "What are you doing here? Are you working for the Shadows? What—?"

She smiles a little and presses a leather clad finger to his lips. He recognizes the look in her eyes brimming with such love and his heart wrenches remembering all the nights he had slept soundly without thinking of her. "One question at a time, Cam."

She sounds out of breath. Her cheeks are flushed pink for the chill of the night, but under that her skin is golden tan. She hasn't been in Gotham.

"Where've you been?" he whispers and Artemis's steel eyes turn sad.

"I . . . Shadows, they kept me locked up."

"Oh,"

She's warm, like the night and the suit is probably making her sweat like crazy but she seems cool as well. Her position is relaxed and her shoulders are rolled back in a lax demeanor, very much like the big cat she resembles and he knows she's really wound like a spring.

"I came to wish you congrats."

He cocks a brow at her.

"You managed to get away, I'm proud of you." She nods and her face is illuminated by the moonlight. High cheekbones, slanted eyes and golden blonde hair; her Vietnamese features blend well with her French ones making her look like some mystic creature from the pages of some fairytale.

"You're not here to kill me?" He whispers, but he knows he has to ask, and Artemis's cold steel eyes narrow.

"I'm not going to let that happen to you, Cameron. Don't worry."

"Artemis why are you—?"

She shushes him and he hears the gentle sound of footsteps. Quickly, the two jump to hide wedged between the door and railing with feather light steps they were taught since childhood.

The footsteps pass hurriedly down the hall and disappear into another room.

After a second the two glance at each other for a moment, Artemis sitting on the railing and Cameron flat against the door. They're use to being in close proximity to each other, but it had been a long time and as Cameron moves to correct it Artemis lays a hand on his shoulder.

"I need to be brief—there's something's," she pauses for moment and exhales. "But you just need to know, we need to forget about each other. Don't act like our paths won't cross because you know they will. You don't know me, I don't know you. Just like everyone else." She pauses and withdraws her arm like it's a bad thing for her to even be touching him. "It's for the best for you—and me." She slips her mask back on and flickers her braid over her shoulder.

Cameron's breath caught in his throat and Artemis isn't even looking at him. "But, Artemis—"

"Cam, you gave up on the Life, you know as well as I do that they'll come after you." She interjects sharply; her eyes were like smooth cuts of steel. "When you gave up on the Life; you gave up on me and everyone else." There's a bitterness in her voice when she says this and Cameron can see it in her eyes.

His hand catches her wrist and she tries to yank it away. His hold is stronger. "I went back; I went back a few months ago. I went back to the apartment looking for you. You weren't there, nothing's there. What's going on?"

Artemis gives a final tug to her arm and Cameron's fingers loosen, each like a weight tethering him back to his old life.

"I was detained." She growls this and then her voice softens, "Listen to me; this is for your protection and mine. Stay away from the Shadows."

And like that, his best friend slips into the night.

He watches her descend, quick footed and so sure of herself like she always was during a jump. Eric lunges to meet her and they disappear down the face of the building. He can't see them after that, but he keeps watching, hoping for another glimpse of liquid black or blonde. So this is our forever, huh?

Cameron puts his back to the balcony, head heavy with thought. He steps into the hotel again, drawling the doors shut behind him.

"Friend of yours?" He whirls around to find Speedy, rising from his place on the couch, bow and arrow in hand.

I'm very, very sorry about the wait on this. I meant to update sooner . . . but I didn't? Leave me a review, pretty, pretty please? I'll update at this rate with few supporters and for those of you who have reviewed: THANK YOU VERY MUCH FOR JOINING THE INSANITY, YOU ARE MINE NOW.

I swear its just the editing that's killin' me.

Next update soon.