Young Justice is an American animated television series created by Greg Weisman and Brandon Vietti for Cartoon Network. All copyright belongs to them.
...
"Time moves you know."
Artemis paused and looked up from the term paper she was typing. "Yeah."
His physics textbook lays open on the far left side of the desk, temporarily forgotten at the moment. Wally smiles, "But get this - it slows down too."
She nods, not quite following, and upon this his lips parts a bit more.
"Time moves at different rates, always active. It's not a universal thing. It bends." He leans back on his chair, can't help but relish at these sudden thoughts on movement and time, and how he's saved pockets of it. "Time goes by you if you move really slow." He weights the words with emphasis, and can nearly see the gears in her head churning. "So time moves slow..."
"...when you go really fast."
"Einstein's theory of relativity." He states proudly. It's a slow, lazy day. Just now Dick had informed him that they're throwing a grand welcome for the new boy wonder, it's Conner's birthday in about next week, Beastboy can finally shift into a green stripe tiger, and how Kaldur is considerably happy with a Aquagirl joining the ranks. The seconds are ticking by ever so slowly, at least to everybody except him on this day where golden lights are streaming in the library windows, and he finds that he doesn't mind.
...
She doesn't know why she's taking Physics.
It's been three years since she's last been in college, and quite truthfully, she has long since lost the feel of being in a place as normal as school. She muses if an absence form with be enough to cover the fact that she's been underneath oceans and seas for the first two years, and fighting an invasion just last year.
Artemis stares at the test, and bit by bit she pulls herself back to view the letters that stand stationary once more. Six minutes left, she thinks, drumming her pencil. It's boring, crude work - nothing he hadn't taught her yet - and she had easily answered a third of it fifteen minutes in. It would have been better if she had taken another course.
Still. She's on her way to question twenty-two and still yet she's half made her mind to stick with it, at least until the year is over. Something is tying her down on the spot, and above all, she knows that she isn't doing this for him. It's not like Wally's pushing her to it, or even knows. She wonders how Raven and him are keep up - with the current team that is, yes, strictly because of that.
She stares out the window to find that clouds are rolling by.
...
Superboy visits her. She figures there's a first time for everything. And it's quite a sight to see that he looks the same, even after everybody else has changed. He says that he's come to see if she's alright. He's even brought her some take out they can share later.
They share a bit of an update of what's happening. He fills her in more or less what the Teen Titans are doing now, and how the Justice League are really starting to let them take over. She asks if Kaldur knows, and if he has joined them by now. Conner states that he and the rest of the team haven't been able to see Kaldur lately, though he is most likely fine, as Nightwing is still keep tabs with him. School wise, Conner has just about aces everything. She asks if his midterms are done, and if he really is going to study aboard.
Well, he says, that team can manage without him for a good year for so. He isn't worried.
Yeah, well she is. "Are you really okay? Are you sure that it isn't about...other things?"
"I'm good. I just need to be by myself for a while."
"Then why are you here?"
Silence.
She whispers, and it's good that he has super hearing. "We both lost someone, you know. Don't go it alone."
She's lousy at conversations with him, she knows. She just can't put words subtly enough. He can't really seem to speak his mind. They are both inverted towards each other. Perhaps that's why he throws his arms around her, due to lack of a better way to express himself, and they sway like that for a moment or two.
It's the first he's really come to reach only her and care for only her. She hopes it isn't the last.
...
Some days she'll be willing enough to go and visit the tomb to bring flowers. Today she finds it with the company of many others. She sits near it for a while, unsure of where to begin. After all, she still has so many things to say. The problem is, she doesn't know where to start. So she begins with Superboy and how he'll be studying in China starting next month. She throws in trivial topics, at lost with what to say. Considering that she isn't the type to force a conversation, she grows silent and gives up altogether. Today she figures that she'll sit and watch the grass grow. She sits until the sky is looking heavy enough to cry.
Artemis gets up to dust her jeans. She promises to visit soon after her finals. As she exits the gate, there is no response to meet her statement.
Responses are just one of those things M'gann can no longer provide.
...
People still go in and out of her life. Just because she quit the team doesn't mean they quit on her. Roy, Jade and the minors had to leave early, but all the same they made sure to see to it that she was well. Bart, Tim, Garfield and Jaime exit by piling their gifts near the window. She's glad almost everybody manage to come, with the night still young. It's her twenty-third birthday, and despite the fact that she has a term paper due the day after the next, Karen's already handing out the Budweiser.
"Who bought the alcohol?" Mal ask.
Zatanna winked. However, they were careful as to not give any to Raquel, who was three weeks pregnant. Artemis sits herself quite comfortably on the loveseat, and listens as Cassandra tells her of how she's also thinking of studying aboard, at least to see new things. Mal and Karen are swaying to the slow music. Conner is pouring a glass of Budweiser for himself and La'gaan. Dick leans forward towards Barbara, whispering something to her ear.
She sees Wally and Raven in the back. They talk, surrounded by only themselves and the music. Artemis feels something constricting in her chest, perhaps it's been there since the party began. She stares too long - it becomes apparent when he stares back. He smiles, and Raven waves. The heavy feeling loosens considerably; its hold is almost nearly gone. She waves and smiles back, and this time it does not feel hallow.
Around 10:30 pm., Artemis has another feeling wrapping around her. Again, she's not sure if it had started around the beginning of the party - with its presence being muddied, and even more so after a glass of Budweiser - but she finds the need to ask now.
"Well actually, I haven't been seeing Kaldur a lot these days either." Zatanna knits her eyebrows together, deep in thought, and then drops her voice down to a whisper. "The last I've heard was Nightwing trying to recruit him to Teen Titans. Either way, I'm sure he's fine." With that, she disappears to hail Raquel a cab.
Near the breakfast bar, Wally bites his lower lips with concern. Dick heads over to Artemis, just as Zatanna gets up to escort Raquel, and nonchalantly slips something blue, gold, and shining into her pocket. She looks up, befuddled, but he just gives her one of his knowing smiles. She reaches her back pocket to pull a necklace with small, delicate, gold chains and frames. Embedded in it is a dark blue shining gem. Written on it is an Atlantean phrase.
...
The party wanes around midnight. The necklace has moved from Artemis's back pocket to her neck. She doesn't have to heart to tell everybody to get out, and besides, nobody's made a move towards the door. But one by one they file towards the exit around 1:00 am., and each gives Artemis their respect. Nobody says goodbye.
...
Weeks later, she wakes up one morning to find the clouds looking gray, blocking most of the sky. She allows herself, just for a moment, to think of how it covers the sun, how it's like she's almost back under deeper grounds - that is, of oceans and seas. When she looks out the window, she can almost see various fishes gliding along.
Fishes and then tigress. A tigress makes her think of a girl that doesn't look like her, but is identical to her otherwise. Tigress and then gills. Fishes have gills. Certain magical humans who reside in Atlantis do too. Gills and then webbed hands, and strange, dark tattoos.
...
She ask him what he was doing. Overhead, numerous clouds had already taken a menacing hue of gray. Big, round, drops of water came pelting down.
It's been raining for several days now, and as it would have it, Artemis had to step out to restock on food. Rain gets everywhere, including under her umbrella. By the time she made her way back to her apartment, the rain had sprinkled her jacket and gotten her hair wet.
It's hard to describe her reaction when she sees him, standing in the rain, looking at her window (or perhaps through it, to look for her). That and the fact that nobody has seen him for so long, that it becomes unreal to see him here, after five months being gone. As she stumbles forward, he becomes aware of her presence and turns to face her.
It's a rainy Sunday, and she finds Kaldur standing outside the entrance to her apartment flat.
His black jacket is clinging to his skin - he's chilled to the bone. Kaldur doesn't show anything as water continues to slide off his back, his cheekbones, his nose. He hasn't even got an umbrella with him. Funny, she's never took him as the careless type. Perhaps he doesn't need it at all.
He still didn't answer her question; he only looks at her with somber, brilliant grey eyes. His expression was neither grim nor happy. Neutral. At yet, even though he looks onto her steadily, calmly, without any bit of doubt, she still finds it all so incredibly unbearable. It's like he's lost something. It's like he's back on the submarine, tired and weary and restless. He doesn't say anything. He doesn't have to.
She asks him if he's alright. For the longest time they stand, her umbrella forgotten, their clothes taking up moisture until they begin to form puddles.
He's at lost. He opens his mouth, and any words that are about to come out dies. She's never seen him with so little composure before; but she stands still and waits for him. He steadies himself, looks down to meet her face, and takes her cold, numb figures with his own web ones. As his tongue flickers to begin, she finds that she has missed his voice. He parts his lips, tells her that he doesn't know, and proceed to ask her to dance anyway.