XX. Did You Forget?

Artemis/Wally/Roy/Conner/Kaldur/Megan

Laurence and Paula Crock were overjoyed to see their youngest daughter return. They thanked Wally, Roy, Conner, Kaldur, and Megan for aiding their daughter's journey home. Mostly they were grateful that Wally found her in the tower in the first place, and they would have thanked Richard if he were there.

It was a little bit hard to believe the crazy tales of their journey that the kids told, each telling their own part of the story to form a whole big picture. Mostly Jade was amused how uncomfortable Roy looked when she told her parents he was her boyfriend.

But nevertheless, the teens told every detail of the story to Artemis's parents, leaving out the part where the two kissed on the ship.

Paula and Jade started to prepare a feast for the night, with the help of Megan. Roy, Conner, and Kaldur went to the town to buy some food and supplies, and Laurence went to tend to the farm.

Artemis would have helped cook, but her mother insisted that she needed rest.

She went to her room, Wally following behind her. She shared her room with her sister, so of course it wasn't completely the way she'd left it.

She plopped onto her bed and began to think about what this meant. She was finally home. So why did she feel sad? Was it because Wally and the others were departing for the castle tomorrow and she had to stay here?

"I'm going to miss you," she finally admits.

Wally forces a smile, "You could always come visit at the castle."

She knows she probably wouldn't be able to. It was a long journey and she didn't expect for there to ever be a reason she needed to go there. At least not a reason her parents would accept.

She threw her arms around him and he kissed her.

"Dinner's-" a cheerful voice started, but stopped upon entering the room.

It was Megan. She looked startled, and the couple was more or less as startled as she was. "I'm- I… you… her… what?" she stuttered. She took a deep breath and spoke coherently, "Wally, did you forget you're engaged to my princess? Linda's still waiting for you at the castle."

Artemis gaped at Megan. Linda? Who was Linda? And Wally was engaged? How did she not know about this? She knew he was a prince, but she didn't know he was engaged to a princess already! And she couldn't believe she'd actually liked him.

Wally's face drained of all color. He actually had forgotten about Linda. And the whole journey thing was supposed to impress Linda, but he'd ended up forgetting about Linda! That was so stupid of him! And now Artemis probably hated him.

She got up and walked out of the room, not even glancing at him or Megan.

Bruce/Oliver/Clark/Richard/Brooke

As the group continued their journey to the castle, they also continued singing. Except for Bruce of course, who sat on his horse with a blank expression on his face.

And then the improbable happened. Bruce sang. In a resonating bass voice he sang.

Everyone stopped singing, too shocked to say anything.

He didn't stop until he was satisfied that the two knights and two kids weren't going to try annoying him again.

Wally/Roy/Kaldur/Conner/Megan/Jade

After a lengthy discussion the other knight with Mr. Crock, Roy and Jade had decided to get married. Which meant that she was going to journey with them to the castle to make preparations. Conner and Megan were also getting married when they got back to the castle, and of course, Wally was going to marry Linda.

On the journey to the castle, everyone was jovial and in high spirits, excited to get back to the castle. Everyone except Wally.

He was riding his horse a little farther away from the rest of the group, occupying himself with his thoughts.

He didn't love Linda. He loved Artemis. He knew that now, after they'd spent so much time together fighting dragons, sea monsters, evil kings… And Linda, she was a wonderful girl, but she wasn't Artemis.

He had to go back, he had to find Artemis and tell her. But she hadn't spoken to him since she told him she would miss him before Megan had reminded him of his engagement. He was powerless now. He wasn't going to force Artemis to return his feelings if she didn't want to.

As he rode into the castle town, the faces of the people and the stores he passed were a blur. It wasn't that the others didn't notice how downcast he was, they just didn't know what to tell him. After all, "It'll be okay" wasn't exactly a sufficient phrase for someone who was in such a bad mood. He'd probably just send a death glare towards the person who told him that and go back to staring at the back of his horse's head.

People were cheering for the return of the prince, and children were pointing at Megan's Pegasus.

But Wally kept riding towards the castle; towards the goal he'd had for the past two months.

"Hey Wallace, had a nice journey?" Richard smirked upon noticing his friend. Wally glanced at him, but didn't say anything. It bothered Richard not to be acknowledged, so he continued to stalk Wally and his horse.

Wally got off his horse and put it in the stable, unsaddling it and telling one of the stableboys to feed it.

He walked inside the castle, towards his bedchamber.

"Stop being all depressive and stuff and tell me what's going on," Richard prodded.

Wally slammed the door in his friend's face. Then he suddenly felt really bad and opened it up to see an angry Richard standing there.

"I'm really sorry, I didn't mean to do that," he apologized quickly. Richard didn't get any less mad, "Yeah it's a total accident that you're completely ignoring me and slammed a door in my face."

"Look, I'm having a bad day. Come inside and I'll tell you about it."

So Richard sighed and entered Wally's room, shutting the door behind him.

Artemis

She was so stupid. The one boy she decided to fall in love with was engaged.

Maybe overprotection factored in. After all, he was the only boy she'd even spent time with besides Conner, Roy, Kaldur, and Richard. She'd spent the most time with Wally too, and he'd rescued her.

But still.

Why was she still thinking about him?

She glared at nothing in particular and finally got out of bed, walking to the kitchen where he mom was cooking.

"When's Jade's wedding?" she asked.

"In two weeks, why?"

"I was thinking I could go to the castle and help her get ready?" Artemis suggested.

Her mom frowned. She didn't want Artemis wandering off by herself. What if she got captured again?

"No Artemis, we'll go there in two weeks for her wedding, okay?"

That was too late. Wally would be married by then.

Artemis nodded and went back to her room, and back to glaring at nothing in particular.

Yeah, not my best chapter.

I just wanted to upload this before I left for camp. I know I'm not consistent with my updating, but I won't be able to update anytime this week since I'm going on a church retreat thing with Youth Group. It's going to be fun, but no electronics! Which means no laptop and no writing! Unless I go old school and use a journal and a pen... I probably won't have time anyway.

So I know this isn't exactly as funny as my past chapters, but it'll get better in the next chapter.

Love,

-Safirel

(Before I go...)

arbrick: That's awesome! I'm really glad you like it and it makes me happy this might be your favorite story! I hope you continue to enjoy it :D

wallyxartemisyjlover: My second favorite pair of all time? Either Zutara (The Last Airbender) or CelesxLocke (Final Fantasy 6)! Oh wait... you probably meant from Young Justice... Hm... I'm pretty indifferent towards Supermartian, and I think RobinxZatanna is like an adorable middle school crush type of thing. I don't ship either one, but I don't dislike either one either. So my second favorite pair in YJ would be Green Arrow and Black Canary :D Didn't see that coming, did you? :P Yeah Spitfire tends to be the focus of my stories, but I'll diversify my stuff soon enough. And I can tell by your pen name that you must be a Spitfire shipper too! Maybe you'll like some of my other work :) And I love that you love my story! That makes me so happy!

YJ-Lover: I think I'll have to save some of those ideas for the next chapter :)

Rowanfall: Now I'm going to be constantly checking for new Valiant chapters :P

afterfake13: Haha yeah, I tried to research trolls but I got bored and decided to write about magical trolls anyway.

ilovejesus14: Thank you :D and I like your pen name

DxS4ever: Oh thank you :3 I guess I didn't completely answer all of those questions, but the answers shall be revealed soon enough!

Dextra2: Yeah I need to work on my consistency... But here's another chapter :D

cary99: Thanks :D