"So," Wally said, pointing his spoon at her, mouth full, over a bowl of cheerio's. "What do you like anyway?"
Flamethrower swallowed a mouthful of cereal and leaned back in her chair. "I don't know… I though I told you! Setting off some of Artemis's Explosive Arrows yesterday was pretty fun." She motioned with her spoon and grinned.
"You did what?!" There was a cry of disgust from the hallway.
"Yeah, yeah," Wally took another spoon of his cheerio's. "But that doesn't count. Everyone likes blowing stuff up."
Someone snorted into their orange juice.
It had been over a week since Flamethrower had become part of the YJL. Though everyone had a bit of a rocky start, she was starting really to get accepted by the other members. Conner stopped growling at her and Artemis stopped glaring at her when they passed in the hallway. Flamethrower was even invited by M'Gann to go shopping but denied on the premise that she was severely allergic towards it.
She was the pretty talkative type, but never really talked about herself and so at the moment – over breakfast – Wally was trying to wring her out for information. So far, they had found out that she had absolutely no idea how to play the clarinet, she was good at cooking tv meals and she liked to blow things up.
"I don't know… I don't really have any talents or whatever and I haven't found anything that I really like yet." Flamethrower shrugged and lifted her cereal bowl to her mouth, slurping down the rest of the milk at the bottom of her bowl.
Here at the mountain (with a robotic nanny and a female Jacky Chan who seemed to be only summon-able by the smell of blood) there were few rules and none of them included using manners as a must. Everyone had gotten a little rusty.
"But surely," Kaldur entered the kitchen and perched himself on one of the stools beside the counter. "You can not be serious."
Flamethrower's eyebrows dropped and she wiped her mouth on her arm with a flourish.
"I am serious… And don't call me Shirley."
Flamethrower burst out laughing. Kaldur raised his eyebrows, Robin ignored her for his newspaper and Conner shot her a dark look over his green plastic bowl. It was a while until the laughter subsided and Flamethrower had to wipe her eyes.
"No that," Flamethrower slapped the table, "was a good movie."
"Movie?" M'Gann looked at her quizzically.
"Yeah." Flamethrower nodded. "Yeah, that quote was from the movie Airplanes! Classic." No one showed any reaction, so she continued. "I'm sure you've seen it. No? So, basically – I'm sure you'll all remember it as soon as I describe it – there's this airplane and everyone on the airplane gets sick, including the pilots and so this guy who is afraid of flying has to land the plane and basically, the whole movie is a bunch of one liners." she chuckled. "Who ever wrote it was just trying to stuff as many gags into one piece of literature as possible."
"At this one part there's this doctor – who was on the plane – and the guy who has to land the plane and the doctor asks him 'Can you fly this plane and land it?' and the guy says 'Surely you can't be serious?' and the doctor says 'I am serious…and don't call me Shirley.'" There, Flamethrower paused and look expectantly at the rest of the Young Justice.
Everyone kind of looked at one another and shrugged or shook their heads.
"You haven't seen it? Awww… I thought everyone had seen that one… What about this one." She picked up her glass of orange juice.
"'Here's to lookin' at you, kid.'"
Again, silence.
"Really? But those are like classics! Maybe not Airplanes! but you've got to admit Casablanca is an old classic."
"We don't really have time to watch movies." Artemis shrugged from the doorway. "There always seems to be a bank robbery or a villain destroying a city block. Plus, I don't know about you, but I have better things to do than watch some sappy comedy that a bunch of people though was good."
"What about Star Wars? You must have seen that! That was like the backbone of my childhood!" Flamethrower glanced around at them all, seemingly on the verge of panic.
Wally finally piped up. "Wait, isn't that in, like, space or something?" Flamethrower nodded enthusiastically at him. "And there are like spaceships too…" Flamethrower gave him double thumbs up, face a mask of hope.
"And isn't there like this saying…uh…" Wally scratched his head, then held up his hand with his index finger and middle finger touching and his fourth finger and his pinkie touching. "Oh yeah, like 'Live Long and Prosper?'"
Flamethrower facepalmed.
Kaldur pulled his scarf a little higher, so that it covered his nose as well as his chin and glanced at Flamethrower, who was standing beside him. Seeing her in nothing but shorts and a pullover in this weather just made him feel cold. Flamethrower only wore t-shirts (never long sleeves) and shorts, rarely long pants. Artemis had laid a bet with Wally that she only owned actually one pair of long pants – the jeans she wore on the first day they met her (though they hadn't seen her wear them since). She barely even wore her winter coat, preferring sweatshirts, sweaters and her black fleece vest that had the Harley Davidson insignia sewn on the back.
Robin had actually developed and proven a theory that Flamethrower's core body temperature was actually a few degrees higher than the normal human's of 37.0 0C, based on the fact that her body was designed to cope with being surrounded by fire for a longer period of time than the average human. No one believed him until he dug up a pair of Thermal Imaging goggles that no one knew they had and demonstrated to everyone that Flamethrower glowed yellow through the filter instead of the orange of normal people.
The red stoplight turned to walk and Flamethrower and Kaldur set off across the street. The breath of everyone around then misted, creating clouds that streamed behind them and then dissipated into the cold air. Most of the people wore jackets, others scarves and only a few people wore hats. Flamethrower and Kaldur made a curious couple, one in very little clothing for the type of weather and the other bundled up in a thick coat, scarf, gloves, long pants and a hat.
Kaldur didn't do weather well. Down in Atlantis (which is underwater – just clarifying), the temperature range of the water varied very little from warm-ish in the summer and cool-ish in the winter – occasionally there was a warm current or cold current that passed through the walled city, but only during extreme days. Seasons were one of Kaldur's least favourite things up on the land, next to drunk drivers and washing the dishes (the dirty brown dishwater and waste absorbed by his hands made Kaldur feel yucky and filthy). The temperatures and weather shifted constantly on land – cold one day and hot the next. During the winter, he froze (literally; because Atlanteans have a higher percentage of body fluid, their body fluid also having a higher concentration of water) and during the summer he roasted in the heat and felt bloated all the time (water expands with heat). Spring was Kaldur's favourite season, before Autumn, than Winter and Summer tied for last. But enough of Aqualad's seasonal preferences.
After the terrible discovery that between the six original Young Justice members, there wasn't enough knowledge of the Star Wars series to differentiate it from Star Trek (Flamethrower had described the lot of them as 'disgraces to mankind' and 'un-educated and uncultured' and was gifted a punch from Artemis), she had announced that she was going to take a trip out to the city, to pick up some 'essential education material', even though Robin had been planning for days to use her handprint and voice pattern to rewire the security systems to recognizer her when she came in. Flamethrower waved him off, promising to do it when she returned. Kaldur had some things he needed to pick up in the city and decided to accompany her outside. (Around now, he was starting to regret it.) They had left, leaving a furious Robin shouting after them. He sometimes got mad when things didn't go his way.
Now, Flamethrower and Kaldur walked through West Happy Harbour, looking in windows of shops and entering those that had heaters. The one Flamethrower was looking for was a small store off on a side street, smooshed between a 'culinary arts' store and a corner store. The paint had pealed from the storefront, leaving it mostly wood and the books in the front window were stacked so high, Kaldur couldn't see in unless he stood on his tiptoes. Leaning back, Kaldur could see the name of the bookstore Al and Co. made of copper above the front widow, old and oxadized, streaks of green decorating the lumpy gray bricks below it. At least the inside was heated.
Kaldur entered after Flamethrower, the door jingling, a wave of warm air coming to meet them. Kaldur sighed, happy to be back in warmth and took off his gloves to start getting his cold-stiff hands moving again and looked around. The door was set against the left wall of the shop that was covered in posters for old movies and events that had transpired long ago. Kaldur even spied an old faded one advertising for the opening of some movie more than 20 years ago.
The shop itself was only one open space that was relatively thin and fairly long, extending for shelves and shelves to the back were there was a bead curtain that blocked the way to a back room. The counter was along the left wall, about halfway to the back wall, with an old man sitting behind it, snoring, glasses slipping from his nose.
The walls of the shop were covered in books. Kaldur couldn't even see the yellowing paint between the shelves that lined the whole space, books double and even triple parked on the old wooden bookshelves. There were also shelves in the center of the floor, down the middle of the shop, books piled so tall both in and on top of them that you couldn't see over. Kaldur barely managed to catch a glance of Flamethrower as she made a beeline towards the bead curtain at the back of the shop and disappeared behind it.
Kaldur wandered between the bookshelves, trailing his hand along the spines of the books, breathing in the smell of old paper and leather. He had never been much of a reader (mostly because books were hard to keep in good condition back home in Atlantis) and he preferred being active and doing things with his hands instead of sitting silently and reading. He envied Robin and M'Gann sometimes for being able to sit still and read or surf the web for hours on end.
Some of the books on the shelves were so old that the spines hung off at weird angles and the pages were yellow and stuck together. A couple times, Kaldur pulled one out to look at it, to flip through the pages and stare at the small black letters crowding every page and to smell the musky scent of the old paper near the spine. One time, he pulled a book out, only to find that both covers were stuck to the two books beside it and a whole pile of old books bumped to the floor as he pulled.
The sound of falling books woke the old man at the counter with a start and he sat up quickly, staring around wide-eyed until he spotting the disturbance and muttered something that sounded incredibly similar to 'ducking lids'.
A clatter of wooden beads announced Flamethrower back from her quest in the back room and she quickly hurried over to Kaldur to help him pick up all the books around his feet. Once they shoved the last three back on the shelves, the two teenagers picked their way back to the counter and the grumpy old man wrung up and bagged Flamethrower's stack of DVDs, shooting Kaldur annoyed looks all the while.
Finally, Flamethrower scrunched the receipt into her pocket, grabbed the plastic bag from the counter – thanking the grumpy old man (who mumbled under his breath) – and the two of them stepped back out into the cold air.
Kaldur paused to put on his gloves again and Flamethrower swung her plastic bag full of DVDs around her legs, waiting for him. Just as he was adjusting his second glove, Kaldur felt Flamethrower jerk to a stop beside him. He looked up to see her staring across the street and before he could ask about it, she grabbed his coat sleeve and dragged him in the opposite direction than they should have been going and straight into the corner store. There, she stared out of the front window, a disbelieving look on her face. Kaldur peered through the dirty glass, trying to figure out what or who it was Flamethrower was so enthralled by. His closest guess could only be the two teenage boys leaning against a storefront across the street, watching people as they walked by.
The tall, muscly boy was Hispanic, his long dyed black hair combed neatly. He had a smirk on his face and was flipping something shiny in his big hands. The other boy looked smaller than he actually was, hunched over a PSP. He was well bundled up, his hat pulled low and his collar pulled up to hide his face, his pale hands standing out starkly against his navy blue felt trench coat. The pair of boys wore weird mix-and-match clothes that were riddled with rips and wholes and frayed seams. Both wore dark coloured clothing with some article of dark blue (the PSP boy's coat and the Hispanic boy's fingerless gloves and jeans).
The two Young Justice members stared at them from inside the store for at least two minutes until Kaldur got bored. All they were doing was standing there, watching people go buy, the occasional comment passing between the two.
"Do you know these boys?" Kaldur poked Flamethrower in the shoulder, but she ignored him. "Why must they not see us?" Again, nothing.
Looking around, Kaldur found himself in the corner store. Sighing, he pulled out a list from his pocket. Might as well do some of his shopping here.
The JLA pays for and delivers most of the groceries for the Young Justice hq, but their bill only covers the basics. If the YJ members had specific food preferences, it was up to them so go out and get them on their own.
Wally had just made his was through a large jar of peanut butter in less than 48 hours and M'Gann had used the last of the chocolate chips making muffins the other day, so Kaldur took this opportunity to restock. The corner store didn't have everything on the list, but only Robin really knew where to get his favourite French coffee. It would probably do the teenager some good to take a break from having three cups of coffee every single morning for over a week straight.
Kaldur brought all the things he needed to the counter and still Flamethrower was staring out the window, her face like a thunderhead. He thanked the lady at the cash and came to stand beside her, once again peering out of the dirty front window to get a look at the street. The boys were gone from their storefront, but they had left behind them some dark blue graffiti scribble on the brick wall right beside where they had been standing.
Hoping to shake Flamethrower out of her stupor, he placed a hand on her shoulder. She looked back at him and apologized.
"I have bought all I need. If you wish to leave now, I am ready." he said.
She blinked and shook her head. "Yeah, lets go. Sorry 'bout that."
He nodded and they exited the store together, thanking the cashier lady on the way out.
The rest of the trip back home to Mount Justice was uneventful. Flamethrower spent most of it staring at the ground in concentration, her browns knitted and eyes cloudy. Kaldur chose not to disturb her and they walked home in silence.