A/N: And now I can't listen to the song without crying. I'm sorry.
Disclaimer: I do not own Young Justice.
Stereo Heart: Epilogue
Make me your radio, turn me up when you feel low, this melody was meant for you, sing along to my stereo..
Genre: Romance/Angst
It seemed almost brutally ironic that they would "start" in the desert, and also "end" in the desert.
Artemis had tried everything, but the blood would not stop flowing. There was no dam for Wally's wound, as there was none for her tears.
Twenty years was a good number, right? Twenty years together… but as Artemis pressed down on the lukewarm laceration, she couldn't help but be angry at being cheated of thirty years, or even just… twenty-one.
She felt—rather than saw—Wally weakly wrap his hand around her wrist, pulling her palm away from the gash on his side. She refused to wipe away her tears to make the image clearer. She didn't want to see anything in those green eyes and freckled face except happiness, and love, and that disbelieving adoring way he had winked at her through her wedding veil.
She choked, and grasped his hand to her chest, squeezing them tighter—squeezing to hold onto him for just a little longer; or wistfully forever. She lowered her head to his chest, and strained to hear the notes of his heartbeat. Suddenly, a distant song dimly echoed through her memories, and she began to softly sing the words through raspy breaths.
"I only pray you'll never leave me behind…"
She felt the faintest exhale of laughter float through Wally, and he responded in the tiniest wisp of melodic whispers: "Because good music can be so hard to find…"
A racking shudder shot through Artemis's shoulders, and she squeezed her eyes and her hold on Wally's slipping fingers—and life.
"I'll take your hand and hold it closer to mine," she continued between shaking sobs, "thought love was dead, but now…you're changing my mind…"
The deep thuds in Wally's chest gradually began to slow, and finally Artemis sighed with him.
When the others found them hours later, Artemis was still in the same position, listening to Wally's stereo heart that only beat for her—even if now only in her memories.
My heart's a stereo,
It beats for you, so listen close,
Hear my thoughts in every note o-oh…