Chapter 6: Dance Tonight

And I came here to make you dance tonight,

I don't care about my guilty pleasure for you.

Guilty Pleasure, Cobra Starship

Day 20

Before the run: Tonight I shall die. That is all.

"I don't get why you're so agonized by this party. She's your best friend, isn't she?" Wally asked me.

"She is. Which means she shouldn't be asking me to go to this thing in the first place, since she knows I hate anything related with partying."

"But it's her birthday!"

"Do not be the voice of reason, Wall-man," Artemis said.

Wally laughed. By then, Artemis had realized how right Dr. Wayne's words were. Wally's laugh was infectuous and warm. It was the feeling it produced inside of her she didn't like; something she'd been feeling more often when she was around him, not only when he laughed. She had yet to discover what it was.

"So what am I supposed to wear to this shindig?"

"Shindig?" a chuckle from Artemis before she continued, "I dunno. Wear something clubby. I don't even know if I own something clubby. If I don't, there's always shorts and a funny t-shirt."

"I hope you're kidding."

"I am, Wally. I'm not that indecent," she said, rolling her eyes.

"Fooled me," Wally muttered under his breath, and Artemis laughed and hit him. He couldn't believe how much he was getting her to laugh these days. He felt like a superhero.

"So I'll pick you up on the way to the place, I asume your apartment is somewhere in between mine and the club. Besides, it's only fair, since you already know where I live."

Wally had to roll his eyes at her paranoia, even though he was starting to suspect there was a dark reason behind it.

"Its not like I'm stalking you and watching you sleep at night, Arty."

"Don't call me that. Are you?" she asked, and ignored him when he stuck out his tongue at her.

And then the sun came up.

"So I'll see you tonight," Wally said.

"Meh," Artemis replied, and she ran off to her apartment.

During the run: Wally is on to me, I think. He must be smarter than he looks.

After the run: All I can think about is how much suffering the night will bring. Christ, I can't believe I agreed to this.

The one good thing about this whole situation was that Artemis got to use her motorcycle again for the first time this month.

And so, when she showed up in it in front of Wally's apartment, with her hair windblown, she couldn't help feeling at least a little happy. She wasn't very materialistic, but if there was one thing she loved, it was her motorcycle.

Wally wasn't waiting outside, which sort of brought her spirits down. With a grunt, she walked up the shabby stairs to his rundown house/apartment and knocked on the door.

When Wally opened it, Artemis was leaning back against the wall next to the door, and he couldn't believe his eyes. She was wearing an incredibly short (so short he thought his knees would give in), tight black dress with long sleaves and black high heels that made her legs look miles long. But most importantly, her long blonde hair was out of the ponytail he was already used to and cascading down her back in soft waves. A clear of her throat brought him out of his full body inspection.

"Eyes up here, carrot top," she said, and she thought how Wally really cleaned up good. He looked great, even though he was only wearing a button down shirt and some dark jeans.

She could see his face flush in the yellow lighting of the small porch they were standing on.

"Wanna come in?" he asked, nodding with his head towards the inside of his humble abode. Artemis peered inside; she really couldn't see much because it was already dark.

"You live alone?" she asked him, not going inside.

"Yup. What about you?"

"Ah, ah, ah. You know my policy about personal questions."

"So I have to answer yours but you don't answer mine?"

"It was up to you if you wanted to answer, I wasn't gonna make you," she said with a challenging smirk, and Wally just shook his head. There was no winning with this girl.

"Anyways, we should get going. We're already late," Artemis continued on.

"Like you didn't do that on purpose," he said, following her down his steps.

She shot him a bright grin before getting on her motorcycle, and Wally pretended not to notice how her already short dress rode up even further showing much more of her tan thighs than anyone should be seeing. No. Instead, he concentrated on the fact that he would be getting on the back of a motorcycle with a girl.

"How 'bout you let me drive?" he suggested, pleading with his eyes.

"No way. This is my baby," Artemis said, her voice almost a purr.

"C'mon! I'll treat her right," Wally said with humor, but Artemis stayed put.

"Get on, or stay here," she said simply, and Wally grumbled but got on the motorcycle.

"This is so emasculating," he said as he put his arms around Artemis's small waist.

On second thought, maybe this wasn't so bad.

"No helmets?" he asked, and Artemis simply looked at him with her brows raised.

"Right," he replied.

"Hold on tight, freckle face," she said, and she whisked them into the night.

As they got off the motorcycle when they arrived, Wally noticed Artemis pulling her dress down, trying to get the tight material to cover more of her legs.

"Don't you think you're showing off too much skin? It's completely unnecessary," he said as he glared at some asshole who was looking at Artemis very intently. What Wally was really thinking was how it was necessary for Artemis to show off her wonderfully tanned legs, maybe more, but only to him.

"I didn't hear you complain back when you gave me a very thourough once over, perv," she said with a coy smile, and started strutting into the club. Wally jogged a little to catch up, wondering what he had gotten himself into, not for the first time.

When they went inside, he almost didn't hear Artemis's groan because of the way too loud music.

The club was completely full of people. There was the side farthers from the speakers, which was where the bar and some fancy sofas rested. Then there was the dancefloor, full of grinding couples and several fist-pumping single guys.

Wally just chuckled and gave Artemis a little push forward, one she did not take kindly because she stepped on his foot with her heels. While Wally tried not to voice his colorful words outloud and did a little jump/dance from the pain that made Artemis laugh, a woman with dark hair and blue eyes approached them.

"Artemis! I can't believe you're here!" she exclaimed, and Wally thought this had to be Zatanna.

"Neither can I," Artemis grumbled, again barely audible over the music.

As they hugged, Zatanna noticed Wally standing there awkwardly.

"And you took my advice. Who's this?" she said loudly, over the music. Advice? Wally thought.

"Just a friend, Zee. This is Wally," Artemis introduced them, and Zatanna squealed and rushed to hug Wally. Artemis suspected Zatanna had already had her fair share of drinks.

"Happy birthday," Wally said simply while returning Zatanna's hug awkwardly, and Artemis fought her urge to laugh.

"I can't believe Artemis finally found herself a boyfriend! It's been too long since the last one. And you're so much better looking. Good enough to eat," Zatanna said to Wally with a wink, and he grinned.

"All right then, Zatanna, we'll see you around," Artemis said a little gruffly, and she took Wally's arm and pulled him away from her flirty friend.

"She's nice," Wally said, his grin still in place.

Artemis just rolled her eyes and pulled them to one of the white sofas near the bar, and they sat next to each other.

"Want me to-" Wally started.

"What!?"

Wally lowered his head a little so his mouth was level with Artemis's ear. Still he had to scream for her to hear him.

"Want me to get you a drink?" he asked, and Artemis pulled away a little from him. His proximity made her feel... weird.

"I'm perfectly capable of getting one for my self, carrot top," she told him defiantly.

"Please? It'll help me get my manhood back," he said with a grin, and Artemis complied.

When he stood up, she yelled "Something dirty!" after him, and he turned around and looked at her directly in the eyes before saying, "Dirty. Got it", shooting her a half-smirk, and continuing. It was stupid. It was nothing. So why did it make her blush?

Back at the bar, when Wally finally got their drinks and turned back to the sofa where Artemis was, his eyes narrowed.

There was a guy with her, obviously hitting on her, and Artemis's face read 'completely pissed off'.

As he approached them, ready to tell the guy to back the fuck off, he heard a bit of their shouted coversation.

"Why won't you dance with me, baby?" the dude asked, and Artemis's eyes formed a glare on the word baby.

"Because fuck you, that's why," she said, and her tone was so menacing even the guy picked up on it, and he gave a stiff nod and practically ran away from her.

Wally sat next to her, still laughing.

"You just made that guy shit his pants," he said to her while handing her her drink.

"Yeah well, I tried being nice at first," she said with a shrug, and Wally raised his brows at her.

"As nice as I can be to an asshole like him," she corrected, and Wally laughed again.

"Soooo... will you dance with me?" Wally asked after a while, and Artemis sure wasn't expecting the question.

"Why?" she asked, completely confused. It was a cute look on her, Wally decided.

"Because," he answered, and he grabbed her hand to pull her to the dance floor.

"I don't want to, Wally," she started backing away but he was stronger, if only by a little.

"Oh no you don't. We are at a club. You will dance, whether you want to or not," and with a wink, he started doing these crazy moves to the techno beat that soon had Artemis chorteling in laughter.

"Oh God, you're terrible!" she said, still laughing.

"Oh yeah? Show me how it's done then," he said, beckoning at her in the universal 'bring it' sign.

"You asked for it," she said with a sexy grin that made Wally's skin boil.

And suddenly it was hot, so hot as Artemis moved around him, and all he could do was stare.

There was no way she knew how sexy she was being, he decided, because her face held only glee as she moved. Everything she did entranced Wally more and more until he almost forgot where he was or that there were other people besides him and this beautiful siren.

She started moving her head, and her waterfall of silky yellow hair moved in such a way that Wally could only think about touching it, running his hands through it.

So that's exactly what he did.

And Artemis stopped her dance, something he didn't like, but this let him have more access to her hair, burying his hands deep into it while she stared at him.

She was also hipnotized, by his eyes, by how she could almost see emotion swimming in them, by how green they were... And so she didn't notice how they were inching closer to each other, stuck in their own bubble of... what was that-

"Artemis? Artemis!"

And just like that, the spell was gone. So were Wally's hands from her hair as she snapped her head to the side to see who had caused the intrusion.

"Barbara!" she said, but for some reason she didn't feel as happy as she should at seeing her friend.

"It's been too long, girl. And I can see why," she said while diverting her gaze to Wally.

"You and Dick are identical. Always jump to the same conclusions," Artemis replied with a roll of her eyes and a shake of her head.

"You look great, Artemis. And the both of you make a gorgeous couple. Gingers all the way," she said with a wink, and with a skill that only she and Dick possessed she vanished into the crowd.

Looking back at Wally, she saw he was grinning.

"You shouldn't let these comments get to your head, Wallace," she said as a matter of factly.

"Oh, I won't," he replied with a grin she didn't fully understand. Before she could ask him about it, more people came to greet her and meet Wally.

Needless to say, it was a long night.

Not exactly as bad as Artemis thought it would be.

I don't know if maybe I should've written more about the party :/ anyways, I'm kind of in a hurry and I wanted to post this before I left. I know there's a reviewer (I'm sorry I don't remember your username D: ) who asked me if anyone was a superhero or if they had powers or something, well, no. They are completely normal irrelevant to the other world society humans haha. Um, what else can I say? Thanks to everyone that reviewed, sorry there are no mentions here but I'll probably post you up on the next chapter as well as those who reviewed here! As always, correct me in anything and suggest anything that could make this story better.

So, review! :)