Title: As We Grow Older

Rating: T

Genre: Romance/Adventure/Angst

Summary: Artemis through the years.

A/N: So… enjoy? Anyway, I'm changing my page break sign…. Gotta keep things fresh, ya know?

Innocent

When Artemis turned four, her father allowed her to be admitted to Fair Oaks Private Christian Pre-school. It wasn't that Lawrence was religious, no, in fact, quite the opposite, but it was the only pre-school in Gotham that didn't ask too many questions.

Artemis clearly remembered the first day of school. She had started later than the other kids, and her mother had tied her hair tightly into two pigtails. She had worn a special pink dress, a new one, not one that her mother had gotten at the second-hand shop, but one that they had gotten from Artemis' rich aunt.

She had sat in one of the big, blue, plastic chairs that lined outside of the office. Her feet dangled loosely off the ground, the white rubber swinging through the air. A kind, stout lady with poufy brown hair and a big nose greeted her, taking Artemis' small hand in her own hairy one.

Artemis didn't really like the teacher, she was thin and tall, with poufy brown hair and wild green eyes. Artemis thought she smiled too much and her voice was too loud, but Artemis was picky like that. Her only other friend in that class had been a raven-haired boy with blue eyes who was a year younger than her, who introduced himself as, "Dick-not-Richard- Grayson." Dick was abnormally smart, with flashy blue eyes and a crooked smile. Not to mention a laugh that made the other kids shudder. They were the oddballs in the class, the only two who didn't wish to impress the teacher. They both sat in the back, didn't raise their hands, and always played at the back of the playground, far away from the other four-year olds.

Artemis would usually walk home, and when she did get home, nobody was usually waiting for her, and then, her father would get home, bringing some kind of machine or weapon for Jade, who was in third grade to train with.

About half-way through pre-school, however, Dick left school. It was sudden, and no explanation was given as to why, and Artemis no longer had friend.

She felt so alone.

Ambitious

By third grade, she never wanted anything more than the approval of her father. Her mother was in jail, and Jade had left, and Artemis' father had taken to leaving the house for days, coming back drunk and smelling of other women's perfume.

The 'weapons' room, as Artemis liked to call it, had been untouched, and no one had gone in there for ages. Artemis knew what was inside, however, she had been in many times, watching Jade train with Dad.

At first, in an effort to get her Father to stay at home more, she tried getting nothing but perfect grades. 100% on her math tests, first one to be finished with her art projects, first place at the science fair, but it didn't take long to realize that her father didn't care. He already expected perfection at school from her, so she had to find another way.

So then, she tried cooking. She went to the library by herself and looked up recipes, and when her Father got home, a hot meal was always waiting. That didn't impress him, but mainly because Artemis didn't have quite the right ingredients so they ended up tasting slightly… different than they should've.

Then, one day, she had a brilliant idea. It was in the middle of the night, her father was out on an, "errand," and Artemis had stumbled to the weapons room, smiling all the way.

She had flung the doors open, inhaling the familiar scent of gun powder and sweat.

Despite the fact that it was a three-bedroom apartment, Jade and Artemis had been forced to share a room so they could have a weapons room.

Artemis had examined the weapons lining the walls. Guns, knives, swords, but then, her eyes fell on it.

It was white, and slightly archaic, but Artemis' felt drawn to it.

The bow.

She picked it up, the quiver of arrows next to it, and set up a target, the dummy across the room.

It wasn't a particularly long distance, but the bow was heavy in Artemis' nine-year old hands. She hefted it up, and shakily notched an arrow. She had seen it done once, Jade had tried to use the bow, but declared it, "passé" and went back to playing with knives after a day, but Artemis remembered it clearly.

She pulled it back like she had seen Jade, and then, she released.

It didn't quite hit the mark, which was straight for the chest, but landed in the stomach area, but the fact that she had hit it at all was surprising to her.

Jade hadn't even been able to hit the wall.

Then, Artemis got really excited. She would jog straight home, practicing her aim and borrowing books on archery from the library. She felt like one of those stage moms she saw sometimes at school, yelling at their kids about a C- on a spelling test.

She pushed herself, even taking time to jog and get herself in shape, and by sixth grade, she was a master.

It wasn't until seventh grade, however, that she showed her father what she could do.

However, showing him, was a choice that she would regret for the rest of her life.

By eighth grade, she was as accurate as a trained Olympian athlete. Of course, her father would never allow her to compete in the Olympics, it would draw too much attention.

Her father would take her to a dark, shady building, the foundations crumbling and many of the originally red bricks chipped away at and now a light grey. Two of the windows were boarded, thick in dust and the door creaked when it opened.

It wasn't much different on the inside.

Dirty light bulbs hung from the ceiling, only held up by a thin string of wire. The poor lighting made it hard to see in the room, and their bodies would cast strange shadows along the walls.

Artemis's father would make Artemis stand at one end of the room, and then he'd bring in the "guest" for the day.

The "guest" was really one of Artemis's dad's cronies that he brought in.

Artemis usually won, but when she lost, Artemis's dad would slap her across the face, seemingly trying to beat the loser out of Artemis.

He wasn't going to tolerate second-best.

Rebellious

When Artemis went into ninth grade, things changed. For one, Artemis got sick of doing… this.

Running back home to train, hiding bruises with long sleeves.

Crying alone at night.

She was done.

Recovering

She'd never felt better.

The rush of adrenaline that came with saving people was so satisfying, and she felt like a drug addict, except this high was wonderful, was exhilarating.

Her heart would pound, and that happy, nervous feeling would appear would in her stomach, and she'd feel so happy and free, pulling back her bowstring taut over her shoulder, feeling the arrows tickling her shoulder.

When she was happiest was that still moment right after she let the arrow fly, when she'd see the bright, confirming smiles of her team mates, or when she sees the proud smile of Green Arrows's when she hits the target just right.

Its so different then what her father would do when she hit a bulls-eye.

Her father would give a little, low grunt of approval, and then a, "Again."

Her 'Uncle Ollie' would grin, giving Artemis a congratulatory pat on the back.

Oliver Queen was probably the closest thing to a father that Artemis would ever have.

What she probably loved the most about him was how he would be so… compassionate about her mistakes.

"Just lower your arms a bit, sweetie, and you'll be a-okay!"

She also liked to observe her teammates when they trained.

Dick seemed to soar, and fly through the air when he'd jump through the air, his legs and arms flying gracefully in the air in controlled, measured movements.

M'gann was actually quite interesting to watch. She was quite clumsy, but with just a little telepathic push, Artemis would grin as M'gann flew through the air.

Kaldur was much more reserved, he doesn't let out furious battle cries, or emit snide, snarky lines, it was quite funny, actually, watching him let out a flurry of punches, and kicks, silent as night.

Connor was… very loud. He let out loud grunts of frustration when he would lose, or he would let out a grunt of satisfaction when he would win. He wasn't a man of many words.

Wally was like her. Striving for perfection, the only difference was that he strived to impress.

She strived to prove.

The night after the… incident… with Jade and Red Arrow, after hearing Wally say that he didn't care, that she didn't have to prove herself to him, she felt stronger, taller, like she was rising tall.

She didn't have to prove herself anymore.

Strong

Artemis Crock.

Beautiful, independent, thick-headed, snarky, strong.

Her city, her home, her parents, her friends, her family had made her who she was, what she stands for. Made her grow up to fast, made her tough, and untrusting, and strong.

Through the years, she'd grown up much too fast, but she had grown. She changed from an innocent, scared little girl to a strong independent women.

She'd grown up strong.