I do not own Young Justice, the Hunger Games, or any other mentioned copyright.
They attend a movie theater a few towns over. It tales about forty minutes to get there, but it's totally worth it to see The Hunger Games in surround sound.
And Wally has to admit (not that he'd ever tell Megan) the film exceeded his expectations. Rue's death? A tearjerker. The final battle scene? Pleasantly gruesome. His cell phone ringing during the Feast? A minor distraction. Artemis wasn't angry at all when his Sonic the Hedgehog ringtone sounded during Clove's final moment.
But by the time the movie is over, he's ready to eat.
Artemis feels the same way. "I'm starving. How far away is this restaurant?"
He shrugs. "I don't know," he answers, chomping on the emergency saltines he keeps on his dashboard. "But we'll be there soon, babe."
"You know, Olive Garden has the never-ending pasta bowl," She reminds him with a sly grin on her face. She swipes a cracker from his hand. "Kind of reminds me of your stomach."
"Hey!" He exclaims, feigning offence.
"Let's go, Kid Mouth." She playfully punches his shoulder (although it still hurts). "The sooner we arrive, the better."
When they arrive, it's gaining on nine 'o'clock and the restaurant is practically empty. The hostess gives them a secluded corner booth in the back of the establishment.
"If you need anything, I'm your guy," Their waiter, a guy in his twenties who's name tag reads "Stan" promises, winking at Artemis.
She raises an eyebrow. "Thanks, I think." After he leaves, she wrinkles her nose to Wally. "That was weird."
"You know babe, I'm not surprised," Wally says, his mouth full of the complimentary breadsticks they received as an hors d'oeuvre. "You're hot."
"Thanks," She replies dryly. "I feel so special."
He grins. His teeth are full of bread.
A few minutes later, Stan returns to take their order. Artemis gets a regular plate of ziti and Wally decides on the Tour of Italy.
"Wally, this costs twenty-six dollars," She points out, squinting at the menu. "Are you sure you're going to eat all of this?"
"I'm sure." To the waiter, he adds: "Make it two orders."
Stan retreats to the kitchen.
"When they say the teenager's stomach is a never-ending pit, they aren't kidding," She jokes. "What kind of job must you have to be able to pay for all that?" She muses.
"Easy: my uncle's credit card," he explains, pulling said object out of his jacket.
"The rich uncle," She mutters, sipping her iced tea. The drink gurgles and she moves the straw back and forth. "I should have known."
"Hey, Barry's not rich. More like, well off," Wally defends (although Artemis isn't really sure why he's so offended by this). He shrugs. "Besides, we all have a wealthy uncle. It's like the emo cousin: if you don't have one, you are one."
"I don't have any uncles." After a beat, she admits, "Or cousins. And while we're on the subject, what's the deal with what's-his-name?"
"Bart?"
"That would be the one."
Wally shrugs. "I don't know. That's private."
She scoffs and is about to reply that well, so is the financial state of her extended family however nonexistent he or she might me when their soup arrives and the only sounds between her and her date are spoons clinking porcelain bowls and Wally slurping.
"Oh my God," Artemis groans as she finally leaves the restaurant at about ten. "I didn't know I could eat that much. I didn't know you could eat that much."
"It's not my fault. I have-" he stretches forward and cracks his knuckles, "a very large metabolism."
She raises an eyebrow. "You don't say."
"What was that, babe?"
"Uh, nothing," She says quickly. "So are we going back now? Are we going home? Please tell me we're going home."
"You're in luck, babe," Promises Wally. He pulls out his Flash key chain (Really?) from his pocket and unlocks his truck. "It just so happens that that is where we're headed. We just gotta get on the interstate and then it's smooth sailing from there."
Artemis yawns. "It better be. I have work early in the morning and if I fall asleep on the job one more time I'm going to get my ass fired."
They make it a good ten miles before his car comes to a complete stop.
"'Smooth sailing,'" She quotes. "And how accurate you were, Wall-man."
He frowns deeply and opens his door, storming out. He kicks the tire. "This truck," He pronounces. "is a piece of shit."
"Hey, you said it, not me." She watches as he opens the hood and a puff of smoke drifts out, leaving him coughing. "So, what are you going to do, science genius?"
He pulls out his phone. "I think I can get Alfred to pick us up."
"Alfred?" She furrows her brow. "Isn't that Dick's butler?"
"The one and only." He waits patiently for someone to pick up the phone. Finally, someone does. "Hey, dude," he greets the person on the other end. "Yeah, well, now's not the time to hash out old childhood wounds. We need Alfred to come pick us up. No, not Linda. A girl. Can he do it? We're right outside of the intersection of I-95 and eastbound. Yeah, whatever. Bye." He hangs up, putting his phone in his pocket. Wally takes a deep breath and exhales slowly. He turns his attention to her. "That was Dick. He and Alfred are on their way. They'll be here in twenty.
Artemis steps out of the vehicle. She leans against the truck, next to Wally and gazes up at the sky. "You don't get 'em like that in Gotham," she remarks.
He jumps out of his stupor and looks in surprise at her silhouette. "What, the stars?"
"Yeah. I never get to see them with the whole 'omnipresent ominous cloud' factor there." And it's true; she can count on both hands the amount of time she's been out of the city. "Can you see them in Central?"
He shrugs. "Meh. You can see the major constellations, like Orion or whatever, and this one time the International Space Station crossed the sky and the science club went berserk and-"
"You're rambling," interjects Artemis.
He blushes. "Right. Sorry. My point is that they aren't really that visible in Central. But in Kansas- that's where I'm from- it was perfect every night."
"I could believe that." She lets out a low whistle. "You're from Kansas, huh? Sounds really interesting."
"Hey, not all of Kansas is just flat planes and boredom," he points out. "Keystone wasn't that bad."
She opens a pack of gum and pops a piece in her mouth. She slowly blows a bubble. "I'm sure it wasn't."
She offers him some gum. He shakes his head.
"You don't sound convinced," he says after a few moment's pause.
"That's 'cause I'm not," She retorts, leaning in with a wide smile. He follows suit, closing his eyes.
Their lips barely touch before a gruff voice next to his ear says, "Get on the ground."
"The girl too," The voice continues. He (as it's definitely a man) instructs his partner, "Get their wallets."
The guy's buddy instructs them to hand over any dough they have on them.
"Hey," the first man, the one in the tacky yellow sneakers, barks out. "Check it out. I found the girl's purse. Where'd you put that flashlight?"
"Over there," the guy in muddy white Nikes responds. "Next that the boy's credit card. Aw, man, sneaking off without the boss was the best idea you ever had."
"Ain't surprising," Tacky sneakers brags. "He always takes too much out of the loot for him and that crippled bitch he married."
And then it clicks in Artemis' head as to who it is exactly that is ransacking them.
The thug realizes it too. "Shit," he swears under his breath, throwing her wallet down in front of her. It's open to the flap where her school ID lies. "So, sweetheart. Does your daddy know you're here?" He asks with mock sweetness.
She stands up and dusts herself off, grinning menacingly. Matching his tone, she retorts, "I don't know. Does my father know you're robbing his daughter and her date blind of all their money and aren't going to split it between the gang, like you all agreed?"
His eyes go wide.
"I though not-" She smirks and picks up the discarded item from the dirt. "Joe." She helps her date up. "Come on, Baywatch. I know these goons and they aren't going to do anything."
Dirty Nikes (or Steve, as she knows him) gives Wally his credit card back.
The two felons walk away, muttering about what a bad idea that had been and that they'd kill Artemis if she told the boss and how stupid it was that they couldn't even get away with a few dollars.
"Well," Wally remarks once they can no longer see the offenders. "That was slightly out of the ordinary. Care to explain?" There's a bit of annoyance in his voice, and it makes her cringe.
She's surprised to realize she's crying.
She apologizes and means it. "The thing is," She begins to explain. "In Gotham, you're rich, a cop, or a criminal, however borderline you are. And my dad, he's the head of a mafia of sorts."
"I see," He scratches his head. "And your dad- the dude who those guys were so afraid of- could potentially harm me to the point of no repair?"
She's not going to lie. "Probably." She shrugs. "But he won't. My dad is out of the picture completely, and has been since my mom got out of jail."
"Your mom, is she—"
"She's not bad," Artemis insists, wiping the tears from her eyes. There's an urgency in her tone that scares Wally. "She's a regular person who was, granted, at one point, a petty thief. But that's over, got it?"
"Oh." He gulps. "Okay." He gently pats her hand and is glad when she doesn't jerk back. "It's been a long and weird night. Not that it was bad or anything—"
"I don't know," she interjects. "Being targeted by two of Gotham's signature thugs is not by idea of a nice time."
"That's true," Wally begins slowly. "But we got out okay, right?"
She laughs and sniffs. "I guess you're right."
"Wow," He raises his eyebrows. "I never thought I'd hear that from you."
She playfully punches his shoulder. "Don't let it go to your head."
"I won't," he promises.
"Good," she replies. "So when is Dick-face getting here?"
When the limo finally arrives, Wally's former best friend is surprised to see Artemis there, to say the least.
"You could have at least told me you were going out with one of my closest friends," Dick tells him. "And you, Artemis, lied to Barbara."
"You think that people at school will be thrilled that I'm going out with a guy from our rival school?" She retorts, climbing in the vehicle. "Just take us home, Dick. We're tired."
The thirteen year-old wrinkles his nose. "Tough night?"
"Don't ask," Wally instructs him. "Just don't do it."
"Well okaaay then," He stretches out the syllable. "Next stop, Artemis' house."
Dick waits in the car while Wally walks Artemis up to her house to say goodnight (as by this time it's about eleven thirty and you never know who's out at this time. Not that he's saying Artemis couldn't protect herself if she needed to, but he'd never forgive himself if she got hurt). They walk side by side up her porch. The light flickers on and she tightly embraces him.
"It was fun," she says. "No matter how weird it was."
He squeezes her back. "You know that thing we were doing before those guys came and interrupted us?"
"Yeah."
"Well," he replies in a hushed tone. "What if we continues those… activities?"
She smiles widely at him. "Okay."
And then for the next few minutes, it's just her and Wally and no one else. She can feel his lips on hers and her own lip gloss that she had barely used before today and his hand in her hair and that's all there is and that's all that matters.
[Dick whistles from the limo. She flicks him off.]
A cricket chirps a few feet away.
She doesn't hear it.
Wally tastes like chocolate chip cookies.
The wind blows through her hair.
And then it's over; he's walking back to the vehicle, grinning like an idiot.
Artemis slowly walks back to her house. She doesn't fall asleep until 3 the next morning.
[The next Monday, when Babs asks her how her date went, she responds by shrugging nonchalantly and saying, "It was okay. I don't think I'll be going out with him again anytime soon.
Dick gives her a knowing grin.]
A/N: Ah, Dick, you trolling bastard. This chapter is one of my longest yet as far as content. I hope you liked. Feedback, anyone? No? Okay. I'd like to thank everyone who reviewed. You're all amazing. And 21 follows? I am agog, I am aghast! And if anyone caught my reference there, then you are free to any cookies in the world.
BTW, have any of you heard of Lindsey Sterling? She is the most kick-ass violin player that has ever lived. I totally recommend her. She's really the best.
Anyways, until next time, bye! Remember to follow me on tumblr at benebitchcumberdick, okay?