Disclaimer: I own only my OC, the plot, and my computer, so nothing to sue me for.
"Hey, Megan, sorry I'm so late," Zatanna says as she rushes up to Megan, who was waiting outside the stables.
"It's no problem, I only just got here." Megan replied kindly. The two headed towards the stables and their horses. Megan's was named Carina, Cari for short, and Zatanna named hers Hecate (1). As they put the tack on their horses, Zatanna asked Megan why she had only just got there when she arrived. "Oh it's nothing I just got distracted on my way here."
"Distracted? This wouldn't have anything to do with that, and I quote, "hot weightlifter", Conner, would it?" Zatanna asked, looking over her horse to raise her eyebrow at Megan.
Megan blushed, "Maybe…"
"You do realize it's OK if you like him, right? It's not like it's a crime. Trust me I would know." The girls laughed.
"No, I know, it's just kind of embarrassing, we only met last night." 'But he seems so familiar.' She thought as she tightened the saddle on Cari. "Well, I'm done, you ready to head out?"
"Yeah, but don't think you're getting out of this conversation. We'll finish after training." Zatanna said pointing at Megan as the girls led their horses to the jumping arena to start their training. Most people wondered why equestrians always tried to train with a partner or their entire team if they could. The thing with horse riding is that you can't always accurately judge your mistakes, since you're on top of a horse and can't feel the horse's movements accurately, so it helps to have one or more other people to watch you go through a set of jumps or a dressage routine because they can see your mistakes better than you can. Plus, it's not like knowing how another person rides is going to help you beat them in a competition, their performance has no effect on yours unless you let it and, in the case that you are competing together as a team, it can't hurt to help each other out.
The fences were already set up in a common layout when the girls walked into the arena. "Do you want to go first or should I? Megan asked Zatanna from atop Cari.
"You go ahead; I think Hecate needs a warm up lap before she'll be calm enough to jump well." Zatanna replied as she set Hecate to run around to border of the arena.
Megan guided Cari in the direction of the first fence, a simple vertical with three rails. The two cleared it easily and headed to the skinny fence to the right. As they jumped this one as well, Zatanna brought Hecate to a stop and watched Megan and Cari jump. The tow continued on their routine, in whatever order Megan chose to go, and only knocked over two rails, the last in a series of bounce fences and an oxer with a water obstacle underneath it.
"You did really good Megan." Zatanna told her as she rode up.
"Thanks, but could you see what my problem was with those two rails I knocked over?" Megan replied, always quicker to get to a review on her performance than a compliment on it.
"Yeah, for the last bounce fence I think you guys broke your stride, you should work on making sure you can keep her balanced throughout all of the jumps, and with the oxer Cari halted a little, you might want to have her practice jumping water obstacles so when a different kind of that comes up she doesn't get scared." Zatanna recommended.
"Thanks, there were more bounce fences in that series than we're used to doing and I think she's really only seen a couple of different variations of water obstacles, the oxer version must have thrown her off. Well, your turn, Z." Megan replied with a smile.
"Yep and when did you start calling me 'Z'?" Zatanna asked, cocking her head towards Megan.
"I don't know it just sounds more fun than 'Zatanna'," Megan answered as she watched Zatanna steer Hecate towards the same vertical she had started on. 'And it doesn't hurt that 'Z' reminds me less of the magician Zatanna or any of the other sidekicks/ heroes/ vigilantes/ -oh you know what this is just getting too complicated I don't even know what to call all of us anymore, and you'd think I would since I'm one of them.' She thought frustrated that she didn't even know where she stood in rank in the hero world now; not really. She had never been her Uncle J'onn's sidekick, they had helped each other and he had helped her control her powers, but they were never really partners; she understood, her uncle preferred to work alone. She wasn't a member of the Justice League or any kind of mutual partnerships, 'So maybe I'm just a solo hero,' she thought. Then she remembered she was supposed to be watching Z to help her with any mistakes she made, and she was making more than Megan had, 'I guess she's got a lot on her mind too,' she thought as Zatanna rode over.
"So, was it as hard to watch as I think it was?" Zatanna asked, grimacing.
"It wasn't that bad," Megan soothed her, always ready to give compliments, even if she rarely accepted them. "You just weren't focusing enough where you needed to. You're distracted and it affected your riding."
"Yeah, I guess you're right. I'll just have to get my head in the game. Your turn again."
Megan and Zatanna continued to switch off riding the course, sometimes rearranging the fences, until their horses were too tired to continue riding.
As they walked the horses back to the stables to brush them off, Zatanna glanced at Megan and said, "So, Conner, huh?"
"Yes, Z, I like Conner, can we just drop that topic?" Megan asked, hoping her friend would just give up without a fight for once.
"Nope, I told you, you weren't getting out of having this conversation with me so we're having it."
"Ugh, fine, what do you want to know?" Megan asked as they walked their horses to their respective stall and started taking all the tack off.
"Well, how about why you like him." Zatanna said as she set Hecate's saddle on the stand.
"I don't know, he's cute, and quiet, but nice, and fun I guess."
"You got all that from one dinner?" Zatanna looked at her incredulously.
"What can I say; I'm good at reading people." Megan shrugged, she wasn't technically lying, she was good at reading people, she was just better at it if she could read their minds, which she refused to do when she was in civvies. She really had felt that Conner was those things based on how he acted last night.
"Ok then, next question. Do you think he likes you back?"
"I don't know, I mean I want him to, but he doesn't talk much and we haven't-"
"Megan! Calm down, I'm sure he likes you back, he'd be stupid not to." Zatanna said, trying to both calm her down and reassure her. By this time, both girls were done brushing the horses down and went to put the tack away. "If you want to make sure he notices you, we could head down to the gym; he's probably training." Zatanna told Megan with a sly smile over her shoulder.
"Are you crazy?! That's like border line stalking, Z." Megan exclaimed, though she wasn't entirely surprised Zatanna had come up with an idea like that, actually she was surprised it wasn't more devious.
"Oh come on, we can just say we're there to run on treadmills or something because leg strength is important in horse riding."
"I'm so going to regret this but OK, fine let's go." Megan said, hoping Conner wasn't at the gym.
'Wow, so someone out there just likes to make my life complicated, huh?' Megan thought as they walked into the gym and saw not only Conner, but Dick as well. 'Or maybe not,' She thought as Zatanna stopped walking next to her. 'Oh, this is gonna be fun,' "Hey guys, what are you doing?" She called out to the training boys. Zatanna looked like she wanted to gag Megan to keep her from talking, even though this was her idea.
"Just training, there's more to gymnastics than just being able to flip you know." Dick replied, putting the weight her had been lifting down to walk over to the girls. "What are you guys doing here?"
"Working on leg strength, it's sort of necessary for equestrians." Megan replied, nudging Zatanna to get her to join in on the conversation.
"Oh cool, well I was just finishing up so I'll see you guys later." Dick said, waving as he walked out the gym doors. After he left, Zatanna seemed to relax, though she still looked slightly mortified.
"How's it going, Conner?" She asked as they walked past him to the treadmills.
"Fine, you guys?" He grunted as he brought the weight he was lifting up.
"Good." The girls chorused.
"Dick, really, Z?" Megan whispered as they started running.
"Oh shut up Megan, you can't talk." Zatanna said, not trying to be mean, just embarrassed
"OK, OK I was just making sure I understood that situation is all." Megan said, barely containing her laughter.
Zatanna blushed pink and Megan was sure she wasn't the only one with a crush after only one night.
Wow, 11 reviews. Thanks everyone who reviewed and also thanks if you put a suggestion for who Kaldur could fight. Just one thing about that. I meant what villain he could fight and/or where, not hero/ fellow Olympian, although those were good suggestions. So if you have any ideas about that please leave it in a review.
1. Megan's horse is named after a constellation and Zatanna's is named after the Greek goddess of magic.
Reviewers:
thesilverlion: Thank you very much.
princess of unicorns: Megan and Zatanna are both equestrians and Conner is a weight lifter.
Poseidon'sdaughter3: I'm glad it made you feel better, the stopping drug dealing idea is a really good one and I've actually already figured out who hates who most with the heroes, it just all hasn't shown up in the story yet, but thanks for giving me your ideas.
booklover1498: Thank you.
Angelus-v1: Thanks, I wasn't sure about the title. The idea of Kaldur fighting Phelps made me laugh for like five minutes straight, but I don't think Kaldur would be willing to hurt a civilian, but if you have an idea about a villain for him to fight I'd love to hear it.