Ch.3: Joy, Joy, Roy, Roy

September 7

Usually, I spent my days at the Cave sparring with Conner, only because he doesn't always listen to Dinah, and either burning or making semi-decent baked goods with Megan. At least every other day we'd get a visit from the other members of the Team. Though, we'd get the every so often mission.

"Hey, Kaldur," I greeted from the couch as I attempted at a game Wally had dropped off and challenged me to play. It was for the PS3 and I only had one because Dinah had gotten tired of me begging for something to do besides read and watch television. It was some game where you played as one of the heroes from the Justice League. Corny and way too obsessive for Wally to have, I know.

"Still playing that game, I see," he said glancing over my shoulder as I slumped on the couch.

"Yea, give me another hour and I'll be done. The attacks are totally not accurate on this. I have no idea what Wally-boy was thinking when he bought this."

"When did he give that to you?"

"The last time you guys were here; which was like two days ago, right?"

"Yes," he said heading, then the zeta tube acted up again, and Roy appeared. I didn't even have to look up because the damned computer had called out "Recognize, Red Arrow: B106." I hated that thing sometimes. "Roy," Kaldur greeted, "it's good to see you."

"Same here, Aqualad," Roy said as I rolled my eyes, "but I'm not here to chat. Can I speak with you, privately?" Kaldur nodded and they were off to discuss whatever. Meanwhile, I had played the game as Black Canary, only because Dinah had been there the day Wally gave it to me and I could tell she wanted me to play as her. Within twenty minutes, I had beaten the game.

"Oh yea," I shouted jumping on the couch, "Who's awesome at beating lame-ass, inaccurate games? Reine Lance, bitches, that's who!" Conner glanced at me and then back at the television. He was so used to my outbursts by now. Kaldur cleared his throat catching my attention. "What?" I said jumping over the back of the couch, "I beat the game. Oh, Megs, I lost the game and won the anti-game!" I could hear her let out a cry of frustration in the kitchen. Roy stared at me, not surprised by my behavior.

"All right then," Kaldur said, "Reine, you're coming with us to a peace conference concerning North and South Rhelasia." I gave him a look.

"Define "us", Kaldur."

"You, Roy, and I are going to the peace conference."

"Oh, no I'm not."

"Yes, you are."

"It's not good to disobey orders, Reine," Conner said smirking at me. I glared at him as he went to watching whatever was on MTV; seriously not good for him that's for sure.

"Hey, don't you give me lip about that lesson!" I growled. Roy chuckled to himself, and I shot him a much more intense glare.

"Come on, Reine," Kaldur sighed, "this is serious." I tossed my PS3 to Conner as he caught it. I did promise him that he could try the game after I beat it.

"Whatever," I said folding my arms following the two boys to the hanger, "Great, I'm the only girl. This is going to be boring!"

Once we were in the Bio-ship, which I had to ask Megan if we could use, there was complete silence. I refused to talk to Roy, or even look at him. (Aren't I mature?) Kaldur was the only one able to hold a conversation with us. It was the longest flight ever, by the way. There was nothing to do for me unless you counted staring out the window to only see puffy clouds. I should seriously have asked Megan if there was any music played in this thing, but that never crossed my mind.

"So… what are we doing?" I asked getting a little antsy. Sitting in a seat for hours is boring, really boring.

Aqualad sighed, "I told you before, Ricochet." I stared at him trying to remember.

"Something about… a peace summit and…"

"We're protecting the delegates of North and South Rhelasia," Roy stated, "and Lex Luthor." I scowled at him. Why did I have to work with Ego Arrow? (I really shouldn't hang around Wally that much)

So, my little mission with Aqualad and Red Arrow… was somewhat successful. We were attacked by that Cheshire chick again and she even brought Sportsmaster. It was so not whelming, ugh great I sound like Dick. Anyway, Roy had his ass handed to him, which was funny, by Sportsmaster and Aqualad and I were able to hold off Cheshire. But, then Luthor just had to take the spotlight with his "chauffer" (wink, wink, nudge, nudge), Mercy, and her bionic arm and blast the two baddies. Though the peace conference went well, so that was a plus, right?

"That… obnoxious jerk face!" I growled as we headed back to the Bio-ship. Aqualad and Red Arrow were right behind me.

"Calm down, Ricochet, we still completed our mission," Aqualad stated.

"I can't. I had some of that brown cake; I think it had coffee in it. And what that baldy and robot lady did… they are so lucky that there were cameras!"

Red Arrow was silent, eyes trained on me as I went on my caffeinated tirade. If I wasn't turning around as if flailing my arms, I wouldn't have noticed. He was just staring at me and he'd been doing it the entire night. Though, he hadn't said a word to me. The intense staring made me squirm as we walked up the ramp of the Bio-ship. Aqualad took the pilot's seat and Red Arrow and I sat behind him.

We sat in silence not sure what to say. I was still fuming about the whole thing. "So, are you living on your own, Roy?" Kaldur asked sick of the tension.

Roy looked over to the younger boy. "Yea, I bought my own apartment in Star City," he replied glancing at me. I looked away not wanting to interact with him. "It's pretty nice and all, but I'm never really home to enjoy it," he stated, "Going solo has been pretty great though." I let out a tiny noise of discontent. He was hinting at having so many women falling in "love" with him. I had never minded the girls flirting with him before, but now it just bothered me. Maybe it was because it felt like he was rubbing the attention he was getting in my face. I hated it when Roy did that, and he would do it just because he knew it would irk me. Roy had done that to me on numerous occasions. Ugh, he was so irritating! And, now he's smirking at me!

I ended up blocking out their conversation watching the dark clouds rolled by. The sky was pretty and I really could stare at them all day, er, night. I was so immersed in my own thoughts that I hadn't noticed Kaldur calling my name. "Huh?" I asked looking back over to them. They were getting ready to leave; I guess I hadn't noticed that we had reached Mount Justice.

"We're home," Kaldur said looking down at me. I nodded and unstrapped myself from the chair. As I stood up, I could feel Roy's gaze as I followed Kaldur out of the Bio-ship. The hangar, as usual was empty and it was pretty late. "You know the invitation is still open," he said shaking hands with Roy. I rolled my eyes, what a conceited ass.

"I still work alone," he stated, "I'm not working under the League."

"Because Roy's too "grown-up" to play with the "kiddies"," I snorted about to walk away. Then I felt a hand grab hold of my wrist. My head snapped to my right to catch Roy's eye hidden behind his mask. He then recoiled quickly as I turned to face him, "What?"

"Nothing, I'll… get going."

He then headed in and for one of the zeta tubes leaving me a little confused. What was that gesture? Kaldur walked over and put a hand on my shoulder. We then left the hangar to join Megan and Conner in our little room that Wally ended up calling the "crib". Dick and Wally had left, and Aqualad had to leave too.

"So… did you beat it yet?" I asked looking over Conner's shoulder. Megan was sitting next to him watching intently as he played as Superman, of course.

"This isn't accurate," was all he said. I had to hand it to him; he was halfway done with the game.

"I know Wally-boy sucks at picking games."