This is basically a fluff chapter, and not worth the extra wait, but I was recovering from chocolate overload Friday night, and we left bright and early Saturday morning and I haven't had internet until basically now.
Disclaimer: I don't own Young Justice or its characters, just Tori and Kate, and any villains specified.
I grab a book and curl up in the chair. The library has to be my favorite place in the cave. It just feels so calm and quiet. Sometimes I'll stay in here for hours in the same position, just reading. I open the book. It's about Atlantis. What can I say? It's an interesting place. Someone puts their hands over my eyes.
"I know it's you Kaldur," I giggle. He pulls his hands away, and I crane my head to look at him. He leans down and kisses me lightly, and I smile up at him. He pulls away but keeps his head close to my face.
"More Atlantis?" Kaldur asks, glancing at the cover of my book. I nod. "How would you like to come on a visit?" I bounce out of my seat, staring at him in both excitement and disbelief.
"Really? When?"
"Would now be an appropriate time?" I'm halfway out the door the moment he finishes his sentence. I turn back around.
"Just give me a minute to find a way to breathe underwater!" I call over my shoulder, dashing to my room. I head to my personal bookshelf, where I keep paperback copies of all my favorites, and my books on magic. "No, that's not it..." I mutter picking up a book from the middle of the shelf and scanning the spine. I move my finger across the other books reading and rereading the titles. A few times I get distracted and start reading parts of certain books.
"Gyah, I don't have time for this," I mutter to myself as I stop procrastinating and put my books back in their respectful places. I continue to shuffle through all of the books again and within a few minutes, I find a technique that separates hydrogen from the oxygen in the water, allowing me to breathe, along with one that will lessen the pressure of the water. And a bonus is a way to waterproof your clothes.
I press the palms of my hands together, fingers spread wide, then perform the spells. I sit for a minute to steady myself before running back to the library, where Kaldur is still waiting.
"Ready!" I tell him. He smiles, and takes my hand as we walk to the zeta tube. He starts punching in the code.
"You may want to take off your shoes," he comments, glancing over at me.
"Oh yeah," I reply. Sitting down, I pull off my boots and socks, setting them neatly aside. The floor is cold against my bare feet, and I have a sudden wave of nervousness. What if I make a total fool of myself?
Kaldur slips his hand into mine again, and I relax a little.
"Ready?" I nod. He walks through, and I wait a few moments before following. I close my eyes against the flash of light, and open them to an entirely different world.
Light filters down from way above, turning the whole area into a multitude of deep blues. I never knew there were so many shades. Spiraling towers stretch up like they're trying to break the surface, lights piercing out from windows. Tall plants wave in the currents, tiny fish darting in and out of the strands. I can't do anything but smile.
"Do you like it?" Kaldur places his hand on my shoulder.
"I just…it's so…thank you," I finally reply. My eyes follow the silvery bubbles up to the surface. A shark glides past, and it feels like the temperature drops ten degrees. It circles us, getting closer and closer. Before I can shrink back, it's between Kaldur and me, its rough skin scraping against me. I squeeze my eyes shut.
"Kaldur," I whimper.
"It's alright. She's just looking at the newcomer," he assures me. After a few more circles, the shark finally swims off. I let out a sigh of relief.
"That was scary."
"Scarier than dangling over a vat of lava?" Kaldur smiles.
"You remember that?" I ask. He nods, and I shake my head in disbelief. "I barely remember that."
"I guess you just stick in my head." He leans down, and I instinctively tilt my head up. Someone clears their throat, and we jump apart. I can tell I'm blushing. I turn around, and my eyes land on a boy and girl my age. The boy is handsome, with dark hair and clothing, and the girl is just as beautiful. Pale, with red hair, light blue eyes, and faint freckles, her yellow crop top and skirt complement her tones perfectly.
"Garth, Tula!" Kaldur exclaims. He rushes forward, pulling the boy into a hug. Then he hugs the girl, although for a slightly shorter time. I tug at the hem of my shirt, suddenly nervous, and a little jealous. "Stop it. Kaldur's dating you, remember?" I step, er, swim, forward. "This is Kate," Kaldur introduces me. I lift my hand shyly. Tula engulfs me in a hug. I stiffen before hesitantly hugging her back.
"You must be Kaldur's girlfriend!" she pulls back and winks at me. I blush.
"Um, yeah…"
"Garth, come say hello!" Tula turns to the boy. He swims over and shakes my hand. "This is my boyfriend, Garth." We smile awkwardly at each other. "Ooh, I have an idea! Come with me!" she says, tugging on my hand. I follow, smiling as she waves the boys off. We swim for a while. I'm almost able to match Tula's pace but in order to I need to use a lot of energy and effort. We swim for a while, stopping at tall building.
"These are the student dorms," Tula informs me.
"Where do you study?" I ask politely.
"The Conservatory of Sorcery. That's where I met Garth and Kaldur."
"I have control over magic as well."
"Maybe we can spar after this," she grins.
"What is 'this,' anyway?" She leads me through the door.
"You'll see." Tula leads me into an atrium. I look up. There are lots of stories above us, wrapping around the edge. There's no staircase, I suppose because you can just swim up. Tula leads the way to a room on the third floor. Brushing aside a blue curtain, we swim inside. I can tell it's her room immediately, because it fits what I know about her. Soft but bright colors, mainly yellow, and a stack of scrolls on a desk.
"How do you keep the ink from running?" I finger the nearest scroll. It's all in Atlantean.
"We have a spell now, but before that, they wrote the scrolls on the surface, let them dry, and then covered them with a special sealant. Now come here." Tula pulls back another curtain, revealing the niche where she keeps her clothes. She grabs a dark blue crop top with purple trim and a matching sarong, and hands them to me.
"What are these for?" I ask.
"For you to wear. You're in Atlantis, might as well dress like you are." With that, she turns around, giving me a little privacy.
"How am I supposed to conceal my knives in this?" I think as I change quickly, shivering a little as the water brushes over my skin. I shuffle them around, managing to place most of them underneath cloth.
"I'm done," I tell Tula. She spins around, smiling.
"You look amazing!" she exclaims.
"Really?" I ask, tugging at the hem of my shirt, which ends a few inches above my belly button. I've never worn something so…revealing.
"Yes, really! Just wait until Kaldur sees you!" I blush deeply at the thought.
"Um, how about that spar now?" I ask, desperate for a change of subject.
"Sure! We can go to the Conservatory. Come on." We swim in a comfortable silence. We end up a huge building with lots of rotundas.
"Wow," I breathe. Tula smiles at my wonder.
"The training area is up on the roof." We swim upwards, coming to a flat spot that stretches almost the entirety of the building. "Whoever is unable to fight the first loses." I nod at the terms. We each scoot back a little. Almost immediately, she releases a cloud of magic shaped like piranhas. I spin out of the way, but just barely. Okay, it's harder to move in the water, so I have to react faster. I raise my hands, and sliver flames dance around Tula. She shoots electricity, breaking the flames apart. I push myself up to avoid the blast. Thinking of Sparrow, I form a large wolf with my magic, sending it charging at her. She envelopes it in something with tentacles, then turns towards me. I shoot myself forward, placing a knife along her neck right before she brings the tentacle-y mass down on my head.
"Tie?" I ask. She nods, and we step back. "You were good, I'm going to have to remember some of those moves."
Tula smiles. "You showed a lot of creativity."
"You both did a good job," a new voice says. A woman in green with red hair is on the sidelines. What catches my attention is the large gold crown.
"Thank you Queen Mera," Tula replies, swimming over to her. I follow hesitatingly. "This is Kate." I bow.
"It's nice to meet you Your Highness."
"And you as well."
"She came here with Kaldur," Tula explains.
"Oh, did you, now?" Queen Mera smiles knowingly, and I blush. "It's nice to meet the girl who's captured Kaldur'ahm's heart." I turn even redder. "Would you like to go into the city with us? I'm sure Tula here wouldn't mind helping me give you a tour." Tula's smile widens and she claps.
"Um, okay," I say. I definitely want to see more of this beautiful city.
"Then it's settled. Let's go." Tula races off to the rest of the city with the queen and me in tow. As we swim by, the nearest Atlanteans greet me with kindness. Luckily, I'm able to understand and respond to them in short phrases I had learned from my books. The buildings still look amazing, each window filled with a soft, warm glow. Just as we were looking at some of the jewelry in the market Garth swims towards us.
"Kaldur wanted me to tell you to meet him back at the zeta tube. Something about your team? Oh, and he said to hurry," Garth reports to me.
"Thank you," I tell him, a small frown appearing on my face.
"I'll take you back," Tula volunteers. We swim away. "What do you think is wrong?" she asks.
"I don't know," I reply, biting my lip. We swim a little faster after that. I shouldn't worry. It's probably just a mission, right?
"Here we are," Tula says, bringing me out of my thoughts.
"You can go back, if you want to," I tell her.
"Can I?" Relief floods her face. "I don't like being away from the queen for too long, not after the attack. It was nice meeting you." She hugs me, then swims away. I don't have to wait long for Kaldur to show up.
"What's wrong?" I ask him.
"I don't know, I just got an emergency call from Robin." Worry spreads through me. Kaldur punches the coordinates in, and we swim through the zeta tube.
Yeah, review. And a cliffie, I'm so evil. Mwahahaha. Ha. And oh my stars, the FEELS from this episode! At first I was like "oh okay, another episode." But then there was sassy Mal and I was busting my cheeks laughing, and then the Reach had to pull out their armada and I was like "spin that off Godfrey! In yo face!" And then I saw Cassie and was like "yay, Wonder Girl, I love you so much!" And then there was the heartfelt scene with Mal and Karen and I was like "guys just cuz you're planning on ending the show doesn't mean your writing has to go down the drain." And then Cassie kissed Arsenal on the cheek and I was like "she's totally doing that to make Jaime jealous." And then Jaime went evil and I got into whimper mode, along with a few insertions of "not my baby!" thrown in there. So then I watched the Runaways episode to cheer myself up, and I realized something important: every time Tye starts a sentence with "dude," it's going to lead to some hilarious saying/facial expression combos. I turned it off after Eduardo teleported with his father, because after that it goes spiraling into sad feelings.