A/N: Wow! 100 Reviews! I never thought this day would come… *tear* Thank you Kagome-Inu5 . And I'd also like to shout out to Endermoon who was my 101th review, but who was almost my very first. Thanks for coming with me on the journey... And then I went and took forever to update. My intentions were pure, I swear! But whatever went down was something like:
Goal: Update You'd Be North while collabing.
Reality: Write three oneshots and a collab fic before pounding this out. My muse is in sooooo much trouble.
Disclaimer: I wrote this while everyone else was watching Failsafe, which I also do not own. Am I bitter? Psh…noooooo…..
I'd Feel Colder when I Walk Alone
Artemis couldn't believe it. Kid Flash stood before her, in full costume, offering his hand for her to take. She was about to place her smaller one in his, but withdrew at the last moment. The temptation was still present, but something seemed off about the entire situation.
"Something wrong, Babe?" Kid Flash asked. Neither his smile nor his hand faltered for a second.
Babe.
It sounded so casual rolling off his tongue, as though he was accustomed to addressing her like that on a regular basis. Artemis took a step back, her hand ghosting over the thigh holster containing her compact crossbow. Wally never called her that unless he wanted to start a fight or was seriously upset with her. He knew how much she loathed that pet name. And he most certainly did not call her 'babe' while smiling and looking like he expected her to actually go with him. There was something wrong with his smile too. His eyes weren't sparkling with amusement and mischief, nor with the glint of that unknown factor Artemis liked to think was love. These eyes were vacant, dead. Logically, that meant only one thing.
This was not Wally.
"Who are you?" Artemis demanded, one hand at the folded bow hanging from the back of her utility belt, the other moving toward her quiver.
The Wally in front of her let his arm fall to his side. "Calm down, Artemis," he warned, advancing on the archer.
Artemis had an arrow knocked and aimed at his chest before he took another step forward. "WHO ARE YOU?" she screamed.
"It's me, Kid Flash," he told her, holding his hands up as though in surrender, pausing mid-step.
"YOU'RE NOT!" she yelled, blinking back tears. "WHAT HAVE YOU DONE WITH HIM?"
"Artemis!"
Artemis looked up at the source of the voice. Miss Martian landed next to Kid Flash, turning to the archer and asking, "What are you doing? Why are you attacking Wally?" Superboy, Robin, and Aqualad entered the picture, choosing to stand by M'gann.
"That's not Wally," Artemis bit out venomously. "Read his mind if you don't believe me."
"That's not possible," Miss Martain told her, placing a hand on Kid Flash's shoulder. "I personally uploaded all of his memories."
"I—what?" Artemis paused, lowering her bow, not understanding what the martian meant.
"You do remember we had a clone of Kid Flash made, correct?" Kaldur asked, approaching the archer. "We needed a replacement for the one we lost, so we voted to make a copy and sent Cadmus the commission."
The new information stunned Artemis. She turned to Robin. "And you were OKAY with this? Your best friend was replaced with this knock off and you didn't have a problem with it?" Her voice was laced with hysteria.
She turned to the rest of the team, fury in her eyes. "You can't replace someone like that! He's NOT Kid Flash! He will NEVER be Kid Flash! And you all are a bunch of idiots if you think anything otherwise!"
Artemis didn't have time to blink before the fake Kid Flash rushed to her, knocking her weapon down and holding her off the ground by her throat. Artemis tried in vain to pry open the hand that threatened to crush her wind pipes, flailing her legs around in a manner she could only describe as sluggish. She stared the clone down, his artificial green eyes and cold glare looking out of place on Kid Flash's face.
"I don't like what you're implying, Babe." The last word dripped off his tongue with a sneer. He squeezed his fingers tighter around her neck.
Artemis wanted to scream, to breathe, to yell at her teammates who seemed content just to watch, to grab her bow and stick arrows into this clone until he was a corpse. But above all else, she just wanted to get Wally back.
The blackness started invading the corner of her vision and continued to permeate with each passing second until the archer knew no more.
Artemis awoke with a gasp, bolting upright and gulping air like it was going out of style. She could feel her heart rate gradually settle to a trot as she wiped sweat from her forehead.
It was the third time since Wally's departure that she had had that dream. Coincidentally, it was also the third time since he left that she had slept in her own bedroom at Mount Justice and not in Wally's quarters.
Artemis did not want to be the moping girlfriend pining after the wayward boyfriend like some sappy romance movie. So after a week of sleeping in Kid Flash's now-empty room, Artemis decided her mourning period was over and that it was time to return to her own bed. Unfortunately, nightmares had ensnared her dreams every evening since, and she was losing precious sleep time.
Grumbling at Kid Flash as though it was somehow his fault (which it totally was), Artemis trekked out of her room and down the hall to Wally's. She slid the door shut behind her, grabbing one of his many button up shirts off the floor. Carefully, the archer climbed into the still-unmade bed, setting the shirt over the pillow before laying her head on top. She inhaled deeply, and for a moment it smelled like Wally was there beside her. Artemis hoped it would be enough to keep the dream demons at bay.
If anyone thought Artemis spending her nights sleeping in Wally's unoccupied bedroom was odd they didn't voice their opinion. And they especially did not bring up their own individual excursions to the speedster's living quarters.
Sometimes Robin disappeared for several hours at a time, choosing to work on homework or upgrade the Cave's systems from Wally's room instead of his own. Conner and M'gann occasionally went inside together. The martian preferred straightening Kid Flash's clothing piles, eventually breaking down and washing the mound of dirty socks. She knew Artemis liked to sleep with Wally's shirts for as long as his scent lingered, but she was absolutely positive Artemis would NEVER sleep with his smelly socks.
Conner liked to gaze at Kid Flash's souvenir shelf, and he personally took it upon himself to make sure the team continued to add to it.
Kaldur would pop in from time to time, hovering over the speedster's desk, looking down at pages of mathematical puzzles, scientific nomenclature, and the occasional caricature of the team or Artemis's name doodled with little arrows.
Wally's room was never off limits before, and the team knew the last thing Wally would want would be for his room to become an untouchable shrine. So, at the end of each new mission, the team began the tradition of gathering in front of his shelves and adding the latest souvenir.
It was almost a month after Kid Flash's departure before Artemis finally cracked and lashed out in anger. The team had just returned from a tough mission gone south, and Wally's speed without a doubt would have been an incredible asset in making things go smoother.
Artemis couldn't even recall what was said. The emotions she had been suppressing the past thirty days finally breaking free, like soda from a bottle that had been shaken too vigorously. One minute she was about to have a smack down with M'gann, and the next minute she had been tossed over Superboy's shoulder like a sack of flour. He toted her to the sparring ring before dropping her to the ground.
Superboy could sense anger radiating off a person like a bloodhound could smell a raccoon wading in a river miles away. And, being experienced in the ways of rage, he knew that what Artemis needed at that moment was a living punching bag that could hit back.
So Conner let her take her frustration out on him. He let her yell, kick, punch, flip, and attack him until neither of them could hardly stand. When she finally collapsed to the floor, mentally and physically exhausted, Conner sat down next to her, pulled Artemis into his lap, and let her cry herself to sleep into his new shirt. It was a testament to how well he could relate to losing (or almost losing) someone very dear to him.
He was almost positive Artemis was asleep when he laid her down in Wally's bed that night, but his super hearing picked up the faint, "Thanks, Conner," as he left the room, closing the door behind him.
The two team members came to a mutual agreement after that. It only required a glance from the archer before heading to the arena for Superboy to know she needed to blow off some steam. With everyone always working with him to resolve his anger issues, it finally felt good for Conner to be able to return the favor.
And poor Conner. No one really appreciated how much of his popular culture education was taught by Wally until the awkward questions came and everyone stood in stunned silence, unable to utter a syllable. M'gann usually asked Artemis about customs she was unfamiliar with when the two girls were alone, but Superboy had no such qualms and frequently posed strange questions the minute they entered into his brain, creating uncomfortable situations.
Artemis eventually shouldered this responsibility. Most of the time Kaldur knew less about surface customs than the two aliens, and Artemis had no wish for the young, impressionable Robin to field questions with answers that would not have been out of place in a "That's what she said" joke.
So, after the fourth time Conner left his teammates speechless with an unbecoming inquiry, Artemis dragged the clone to the sparring arena by the crook of his arm, wiping the floor with him before calmly explaining that the Karma Sutra wasn't something one broached in polite conversation. He was much more tactful following that encounter.
M'gann's silent mourning of the speedster's absence stemmed mostly from her time spent in the kitchen. Kid Flash was always the first to taste test any new recipe she cared to try her hand at, no matter how deformed and burned it was. He never turned down food, and he always offered her encouraging words to give a difficult dish another go. For him, food never had to look like the magazine picture to still be delicious.
The magnitude of Wally's appetite was also something none of his teammates (especially not the amiable martian) really, truly appreciated until their shopping trips for food became fewer, and the kitchen and dining room were stocked full of M'gann's baked goods. The team did their best to consume the Martian's desserts (Artemis swore she had to up her exercise routine to keep off the extra weight, glaring at her male teammates as they didn't have to put in any additional reps with their metabolism).
Eventually Black Canary took pity on the martian girl and would haul platters full of cookies, brownies, cake, and crème brulee back to the Watchtower so they wouldn't spoil. M'gann often suspected Wally's mentor, the Flash, ate most of the delicatessens. But despite the persisting presence of sweet snacks, the team ALWAYS kept a gallon of Rocky Road ice cream stashed in the back of the freezer—just in case.
Robin, on a particularly bad day, could be found eating a bowl of said ice cream, deep in pensive musings. It opened the team's eyes to how important Kid Flash's friendship was to him. Without the speedster teasing, laughing, and hanging out with the Boy Wonder, it became apparent that the resident techie was almost as reclusive as Batman. It took a combined effort of the other four original members as well as several visits from Zatanna to snap Robin out of his melancholy stupor at his best friend's departure.
It was nearly three months after Wally's absence before Robin would even touch a video game, and he wouldn't have even picked up the controller had his high score not been endangered of being replaced by Artemis's. Push led to taunt which further led to a five hour brawl of Super Smash Brothers. That night, Robin found out just how well Artemis knew her way around a game consul, and he was further surprised when M'gann joined the fray, having been tutored in the art by none other than Miss Blonde and Bad All by Myself.
That following weekend, Robin had no reservations about bringing the new Undead Destroyers II game to the Cave. If their skills in the art of laying banana peels and shooting him off the screen were any indication, Robin knew slaughtering a couple hundred zombies would be cake for his female teammates.
Kaldur was the best at showing emotional detachment at the departure of Kid Flash, taking the entire situation in stride. Perhaps he felt it his duty as leader to be strong and set an example for his teammates. If he moved on and coped with being down a member, then maybe they would follow suit.
No one dared mistake his calm façade for apathy, though. Sometimes, if they paid close attention, the team would find the Atlantian gazing at the empty spot on the souvenir shelf that housed the Helmet of Fate, or sitting on the beach after a mission that would have required Wally's nerdage, apparently lost in thought. He missed Kid Flash just as much as the others did.
Red Arrow was positively livid upon finding out about Wally's departure and even more furious that the team just let him waltz off while possessed by the helmet. Such was his anger that he staged the one and ONLY attempt at retrieving Kid Flash from the clutches of Dr. Fate. The young justice team had no idea of this harebrained scheme until Red Arrow was mysteriously deposited on the coffee table in the living in the middle of a Friday movie night.
Robin was more dumbfounded that their security wasn't impenetrable to Fate's magic than the fact that Red Arrow just appeared out of nowhere, and he promptly began running scans of the Cave's systems. Artemis laughed at the fact that Red Arrow was still tied up with the golden chains characteristic of Dr. Fate's attacks. M'gann and Conner looked like they were forcing back smiles, and Kaldur was the one who took pity on his older friend and promptly sent for Zatanna to remove said magical chains.
Zatanna, for her part, did her best to sneak out and visit the team, bringing with her a light-heartedness that substantially lifted the team's mood on even the dullest of days. More often than not, the sorceress-in-training provided a much needed distraction for Robin, but she could occasionally be found tag-teaming with M'gann to drag Artemis out for a mall crawl or a girls' night.
And the magician's daughter did try to track Dr. Fate on the digital globe like her father had done for Wotan, but she only succeeded in tracking Zatara who felt his daughter's magic and arrived at the Cave in record time, having thought she was in danger. The grounding after that particular incident was severe enough that the team never asked Zatanna to attempt it again.
As it turned out, Wally would find his own way to inform his friends of his whereabouts.
It had been over four months since the speedster's departure, and everyone had almost settled in their coping routines when they heard from him. Postcards began to randomly turn up on the kitchen table. There was never any postage, and no one ever saw them appear— it was almost like magic. The team was incredibly suspicious until it was confirmed that the handwriting on the back matched Wally's own messy scrawl perfectly.
And the cards were always addressed to a specific team member. Several from India appeared first, addressed to Kaldur, M'gann, and Captain Marvel. The back portion said things like, "Dude, the sea life here is incredible!" on the back of an oceanscape, and "This statue reminded me of you on the mission with the Monqis." under a picture of the Hindu goddess Durga, and "Mr. Tawny says hello!" behind a picture of a yellow tiger. They were all signed the same: "Wish you were here—Wally."
There were postcards from China to Robin and Superboy and cards from Japan to Artemis and Zatanna. Artemis blushed when she realized he'd signed hers differently. "Wish I was there. Love, Wally."
Sometimes, the cards reflected the season. There was a whole stack on Christmas day from Russia, each one depicting a different scene of Moscow's decorations for the holiday. And of course, Artemis, Zatanna, and M'gann each received one from Paris on Valentine's day. Artemis was tempted to roll her eyes when she saw the cards for her two friends on the kitchen table, but her heart nearly stopped when she trudged to her room and found hers among a vase of red roses.
Kaldur began the tradition of putting the postcards on the Cave's refrigerator, and it was only natural that the others follow suit. More magnets were purchased, and the cards eventually overlapped every available surface. It was a challenge, putting the new photos on top of the old without causing a massive cascade of cards falling off the fridge. Like a warped game of Jenga. It wasn't much, but it gave his friends newfound hope that he was alive, he was well, and he would be returning.
Often, Artemis longed for something more than a card and the lingering promise that he would come back. She wanted to touch him, to feel him, solid and real in her arms, and to hear him say he loved her out loud.
Her wish was granted on her seventeenth birthday.
Artemis always thought there was supposed to be something magical about turning sixteen. It signaled a rite of passage into the driving world, the world of summer jobs, and the world of first loves that were supposed to last forever. Her sixteenth birthday had been nothing of the sort. She had been driving since she could reach the gas pedal and her job wasn't something she could jot down on a resume under the experience portion. But she had hope that maybe the love thing might turn out okay. And surprisingly, it did—just not in the way she expected.
After the craziness of her sixteenth birthday, Artemis didn't think anything could really top it. And she most certainly did NOT expect anything exciting to happen the minute she turned a year older.
So, on the night she turned seventeen, she did NOT expect to wake up at midnight, in the middle of a sunflower field, with Wally staring adoringly at her.
Her mind was groggily trying to process that something back in the land of the living had altered, and that it was probably in her best interest to open her eyes. So she did, slowly allowing them to flutter open, only to be met with a pair of brilliant green ones gazing right back at her.
"Wally?" she whispered, sitting up, looking at her boyfriend who lay next to her, head propped up on one arm. She took note of the endless sea of flowers before looking back down at him. "Am I dreaming?"
"Sort of," Wally shrugged. "It's kind of hard to e—Mmph!" Artemis didn't wait for an explanation. She attacked his mouth with her own, running her fingers through his already disheveled hair. He felt solid enough beneath her that she was willing to indulge this moment, dream or not.
Wally, having recovered almost instantaneously from the shock of Artemis launching herself at him, responded to her with just as much fervor, running his hands through her golden locks down her shoulder, stopping at her waist. He ran out of oxygen before she did and broke off the kiss, panting heavily, touching his forehead to hers.
"Still think you're dreaming, Beautiful?" His voice was breathy against her ear, and she could hear the smirk in his voice.
"Nope," she popped the 'p' at the end for emphasis, meeting his gaze with a snarky grin of her own. "You're usually shirtless in my dreams. And you feed me strawberries."
"That can be arranged." He looked past her for a moment, face contorting into an expression of deep concentration. Not a second later, his eyes met hers, and he winked. "This better?"
She gasped. Her palms now had direct access to the naked toned planes of his shoulders, which had become broader during his absence. Next to the duo stood a bowl filled with strawberries, small green box perched precariously on top of the fruit.
"What's this?" she asked, rolling off Wally to take the box and admire the emerald foil.
"Your birthday present. Sweet seventeen and all," he grinned.
Artemis rolled her eyes. "Sixteen is the sweet one, Kid Confused," she informed him, happy to be bantering with him again.
"Naw, I think seventeen will be a million times sweeter. Open it," he urged her, monitoring her facial expressions closely.
Artemis peeled back the shiny foil, finding a velvet black box underneath. She opened the clasp and gasped.
It was a silver heart-shaped locket suspended on a matching metallic chain. The front had been engraved with a Flash symbol. She looked at Kid Flash who merely sent her a mysterious smile. Gently, Artemis pried open the locket to find a compass, needle swirling freely about. Instead of an "N" for north, there was a green arrow, like the one displayed on her uniform. Etched on the underside of the lid was a note that read: If my heart was a compass, you'd be north. Love, Yogurt.
She let out an unladylike snort at that last part, trying her best not to laugh, because he would think that he was being clever. And he totally was NOT being clever! He stole her idea from the dog tags.
But she couldn't stop her happiness from showing. She smiled, leaning in for a kiss, but not before catching the look of relief that flashed across his face.
"I love it," she murmured against his lips. "Help me put it on?"
He did so slowly, fastening the clasp behind her slender neck, allowing his hands to brush through her soft hair before leaning back to admire her.
She glanced down, beaming at the locket before looking back at Wally. Her smile faded slightly at the look he was giving her, like he was trying to memorize everything about her before she simply vanished and he was left alone in the vast field. It brought her lurching back to reality like falling into an icy ocean, and the archer reached out her hand, tracing his jawline.
"Wally," she whispered as he leaned into her palm, bringing his hand to cover hers, never breaking eye contact. "It's going to be okay."
He smiled slightly. "I know." He leaned in to kiss her, slowly at first, but rapidly increasing the intensity. He kissed her like the world would end if he stopped, like a a man on fire looking for something, anything to quench the burning, like Tantalus discovering ambrosia and drinking it, never to be fully satiated.
Artemis, sensing his borrowed time on Nabu's watch was fast approaching an end, gently pulled her lips away from his, trying not to moan as her bottom lip was grazed by his teeth. Their eyes were still closed when he spoke.
"I love you."
Her eyes snapped open. His face held no trace of humor or smugness, just pure, unadulterated, raw emotion. And she believed him.
Artemis smiled, mirth sparkling in her gray eyes, like stars in the sky after a storm. "I know, but you still have to say it when I'm not dreaming."
Wally's smile matched the archer's, the freckles in his eyes aligning perfectly with hers. "Deal," he told her before stealing one last goodbye kiss…
The first thing that assaulted Artemis that moment was the surrounding smell. She was positive she had spent the night in Wally's room, which was a mixture of his deodorant and cologne, detergent from the clothes M'gann laundered, and now a faint fragrance that smelled distinctly like the blonde archer.
This scent was strong and flowery—
Artemis bolted upright, gazing around the room, covering her mouth and trying not to scream in surprise. Covering every available surface of Kid Flash's room were hundreds and hundreds of sunflowers.
She placed a hand above her heart only to come in contact with a cool metallic object. The look of wonder was still splashed across her face when M'gann and her teammates marched in moments later.
"Happy Birthday Artemis!" the martain chorused, preparing to present the muffin with a lone candle to her friend before stopping dead in her tracks. The rest of the team poked their heads around the door, eyes widening in shock.
"Redecorating?" Robin quipped, sliding inside the room behind M'gann. Superboy and Aqualad followed, wading through the sea of sunflowers until everyone finally reached Artemis. They each brushed aside a clear spot on the bed, still gazing in disbelief at the sudden greenhouse effect.
M'gann handed her the muffin with the candle still flickering brightly. "Make a wish," she told Artemis, winking.
Artemis glanced around at the happy faces of her friends, from the gentle smile of Aqualad to the knowing smirk of Robin. She was pretty sure they all knew what she was going to wish for, but she blew out the candle anyway.
A/N: Wow. This story is winding down more quickly than I would have thought! Only one more chapter to go! And then a prologue... :D But first, I would like to share my reaction to watching Failsafe. Ahem. AOWIERDJOIQ23RUESJFHIEURHN! RAOIWJSDIAWFHI UHW OSIHF~! *faints*
