Chapter 6 Now Me not Then Me
This chapter is really short, but I wanted to show how she felt about everything going on.
Comments, people! I need to know whos reading and what you want from this story!
"So?" Her mother asked as Artemis walked into their small, cramped apartment. "'So', what?" The blonde asked backed, playing dumb as she walked to the fridge. "You know what! How was your date?!" Artemis sighed, drinking milk straight from the cartoon. "It was….fun. Relaxing." Artemis said, choosing her words carefully. She was not open to her mother, Batman, her team, or anyone else. There was one exception, not including Klarion. Black Canary knew about her, as all of the League did. But she liked to ask about it, and continued doing so even when Artemis didn't respond.
Secretly, Artemis loved the questions and would sometimes break down just a little and give Canary a deep, heartbreaking answer. She only did so to make sure the questions didn't stop coming, because if they did, Artemis would be utterly alone.
Her mother pressed her with questions that she gave half-answers to before going and taking a bath. The blonde archer let out a deep sigh as she slid into the water. 'Make sure to scrub your hair really good, got it?' the voice of a memory came to her, and she closed her eyes. 'Brush my hair?' a little Artemis asked, shyly holding out a hairbrush towards the teenager. 'Me? Can't you brush your own hair?' Came a half-surprised answer. 'It's just, Mom use to do it, and she's not here. So I thought you could do it. Sorry for asking.' The little girl began to walk away, her hair dripping down the back of her pajamas. 'Artemis!' her sister called about from behind her, causing her to stop and look over her shoulder. 'I'll brush your hair. But just this once.' The beaming blonde ran back to her older sister, okay with it just being that one time. But Jade soon began to brush her younger sister's hair every night.
"I won't let anyone touch my hair now." Artemis scoffed at herself, though she knew it wasn't true. If she had been anything like the girl she use to be, she would had gone to her mother and ask to have her hair brushed. But she was not. The same sister who brushed her hair every night also tried to kill her every weekend, on their father's orders. The same man, who reminded her to scrub her hair, ordered her to shoot everything from rabbits to men in cold blood.
But, thoughs memories were overridden by today's happy ones. And so, she went to her room smiling, and brushed her own hair. For once, she wasn't scared to go to the cave and see her team. She wasn't worried that they would find out her secret. She wanted tomorrow to come faster so she could play her prank, and laugh.
This wasn't the little Artemis from her childhood; this wasn't the trained Artemis, crafted by her father's orders. This was just Artemis. The person who made a difference and had fun. The now Artemis, with friends and a team. And Klarion.
*Cough, I'm following the episode order, cough* hehe, if you look at the episodes in order, you'll kind of get a hint on were I'm going (this was during Down Time).