The darkness that follows a sunset is never so dark that it can change the inevitability of a sunrise.

Craig D. Lounsbrough

Every sunset is also a sunrise. It all depends on where you stand.

Karl Schmidt

What the caterpillar calls the end of the world, the master calls a butterfly.

-Richard Bach

Location: Mount Justice

Date: Aug 21st

Time: 04:22

Emmy sighed at the time on her phone. She briefly noticed that Trent had texted her, but she wasn't in the mood to read it. After spending almost 5 years fighting and staying awake for 48 hours each weekend, Emmy still had trouble sleeping Friday and Saturday nights. She sighed and ran a hand down her face. At least she had skipped over PTSD Nightmare Week this year. She usually had a bad time each May around the point her father shot her, and she burned down the house. May had passed without a single nightmare this year though. She was pretty sure that was because she had been on an alien planet learning to play with her magic power ring. Emmy hoped that maybe she had turned a corner and wouldn't have any more nightmares about her father, but she had a gut feeling that they would come back.

Emmy got out of bed. She had been staring at the clock for an hour already. It was time to give up on sleep and start the day. Her picnic hike with the kids last night had been great. They Zeta'd to Colorado and had a beautiful time. Living next to teleportation devices definitely had its perks. She opened her closet. Some fresh ocean air would be nice. She had only been to the beach that one time with the team. Emmy dug around in her closet, eventually finding the navy-blue halter top bikini from the day she returned to Earth from Mars. She sighed. She bought it because it was on sale, but she still didn't like the color. Blue reminded her of her eyes, and her eyes reminded her of her father, and- Emmy cut herself off and threw on the bikini. She slid on some flip flops and grabbed the gigantic towel with bird of paradise flowers on it from the bathroom. Beach insomnia here I come.

She was exiting the cave's beach front door within minutes. It was still dark outside, only a hint of light coming from the horizon. Emmy breathed in the salty air deeply and slowly, letting the peaceful silence coat every inch of her lungs before she exhaled. She frowned when she noticed a tiny hint of red a quarter of the way down the beach. Was that...? Yep. That was him.

Emmy threw the towel under one arm, put her flip flops into her hands, and walked over to her teammate. He was curled into a ball. She kept waiting for him to notice her arrival, but his eyes were unblinking and staring into the inky waxing and waning waves. He looked small. Nothing like the braggadocios pain she had been dealing with for a month and a half. This was a weird turn of events. Emmy dropped her towel and flipflops and sat to Wally's left. He jerked in surprise slightly, lifting his chin off the top of his knees.

"What are you doing here?"

"Couldn't sleep," Emmy admitted. "You?"

Even in the dark, she could see the light purple circles underneath his eyes. "Couldn't sleep," he muttered. "I keep seeing him die."

"Nelson?" Emmy asked softly. He nodded once. So, he had been there when Kent Nelson died. They sat in silence for a few minutes. Wally had returned to blankly gazing at the moving water. Emmy was quietly observing him. She was leaning back on the palms of her hands, legs stretched in front of her. He was still curled into a ball.

The boy beside her looked thoroughly depressed. She understood his pain with an ache that stretched throughout her body like the nerves that spread from her spinal cord and traveled from her head down to the tips of her toes. Seeing death left you feeling like part of you had died as well, and she knew all about replaying devastating moments instead of sleeping. Emmy tried to think of comforting things to say. Her mind wandered to her tattoo, and she started there.

"What the caterpillar calls the end of the world, the master calls a butterfly," she offered as the onyx sky waited for the egg of sunrise to crack upon its horizon so the citrine yolk could coat the clouds in pastel paint.

Wally looked at her out of the corner of his eye unamused. Okay, so not a butterfly quote then. She tried again.

"The darkness that follows a sunset is never so dark that it can change the inevitability of a sunrise."

A quirked red eyebrow. Maybe a different one?

"Every sunset is also a sunrise. It all depends on where you stand."

A small frown from the speedster.

"How strange this fear of death is, we are never frightened by a sunset."

"Are you using me as a sounding board for you next Tumblr post or something?"

"No," she leaned back onto her elbows. "They're quotes. That last one was by George Macdonald. There are a million quotes about the sun and death, but they all seem to agree that the darkness after the sunset is what makes us appreciate the break of dawn."

"I like sunrises best. They're a universal symbol of hope. You?" He was missing the point. Whether on purpose or accidentally she didn't know, but she played along.

"Sunsets all the way."

Wally quirked an eyebrow at the irony of them each preferring the Sun's presence in the other's last name.

"Why?" His eyes were still on the waves as the ocean inhaled and exhaled across the sand.

"The Sun comes up, and you have no idea what you'll have to do to make it to the end of the day. But when the sun sets, you know that you've survived the day. You saw what horrors the world had to offer, you faced them, and now you get to watch the jewel toned sky congratulate you and give you motivation to make it to the next sunset," Emmy explained slowly.

Wally contemplated. "Hope for the new day versus survival of the current one."

Emmy shrugged. "There's a beauty in flowers and light that's obvious. But there's a beauty in thunder and darkness that shouldn't be underestimated. After all, you can't see the stars in the daytime."

Wally tilted his head in agreement at that. He did look forward to his constellation sightings. He had been too wrapped up in his pain to look at the stars today though. The tips of yellow-white sunrays were just beginning to wink their good morning, but it was enough to overpower the light of the stars.

"Look, seeing someone die is horrible. Always. I'm sorry it happened to you. But Kent Nelson knew what he was doing, and he gave himself up for you so that you could live through the darkest part of the night and be there for the next inevitable sunrise in his honor." Emmy should have stopped there, since Wally looked like he perked up a little, but she unfortunately kept going. "At least you only saw one person die, and you're on the older side?" She suggested in an attempt to make him feel better.

He huffed at her implication that the pain shouldn't be a big deal to him since he was a teenager, and he hadn't seen a Martian war. He sneered at her, "Of course. I just needed some kind, compassionate, human interaction without it being a PTSD competition, but I forgot I was dealing with Childhood Trauma Barbie."

The laughter that bubbled out of Emmy was unexpected to both of them. She laughed until she had a tear to wipe from her eye and then sat up next to him. He hated how making the often-stoic girl laugh instantly improved his mood a little.

"Damn." She chuckled again in appreciation. "That was a good one, Kid Forlorn. You win that round."

Wally just shrugged a shoulder and couldn't bring himself to care about the historic moment. He was wallowing, drowning in the memory of Kent's death. Replaying the exact moment he realized that there was nothing he could do for the man over and over and over. His lungs were ornamental, ceramic, and unmoving as air was replaced with painted blue images of the unresponsive corpse.

"Wally," her voice was so gentle that he actually turned to look at her. "When I said, 'Don't let him die'. That was just tongue-in-cheek. You know that, right? It was not your responsibility to keep Kent alive. It was Klarion's responsibility not to murder him. It wasn't your fault."

Wally inhaled shakily. Her eyes were focused on his. She meant it when she said she didn't think any of it was his fault. He still felt like it was, but that was good to hear at least.

"Besides," she nudged his shoulder lightly. "The guy was 106. That's just excessive."

Wally let out a sound between a snort and a sob at that comment. He turned away and quickly wiped the tears coming out of his eyes. He faced Emmy when he finished.

"You know, he really liked you."

"Really?" Emmy's eyebrows furrowed a little. "How do you know?"

"Because he told me," Wally's lip tugged up on one side. "He kept saying that you were a spitfire like his wife Inza."

Emmy swallowed and blinked quickly to make sure no tears formed. She was surprised by the emotion that statement caused. She barely talked to the guy, and now he was gone, and she was learning that he spent some of his last moments on Earth thinking about her.

"That might be the best compliment I've ever gotten," she smiled softly.

Wally snorted a breath. "Really? You have no idea what his wife was even like."

The girl next to him shrugged as she looked at the waves. "I don't know. I just…I think it means a lot when someone compares you to the person they love most in the universe. It's like they see a piece of someone else's starlight in your darkness, and that one flicker is enough to make them love you too."

Wally blinked at her. Maybe Emmy could run a philosophy Tumblr account, he joked to himself. Something popped into his head, and he chuckled.

"What?" Emmy was slightly defensive. She hadn't meant to dump that word vomit on him, and he better not tease her about it.

"When Klarion came after us through the bell, he had a green ice pick in his shoulder. He made a big deal of pulling it out and was whining about the glowing girl his cat," Wally shook his head with a laugh. "Kent told me, 'That girl is something else. Give her a kiss for me sometime, Wally'."

Emmy snorted at the idea with the redhead. Like they'd ever get together.

"Raincheck on that?" She asked jokingly.

"I hope it rains forever," Wally crossed his fingers at her and she rolled her eyes.

She smirked again proudly. "I'm glad the icepick lasted longer. I threw extra willpower into it to make sure."

Wally snorted at her self-satisfaction and turned back to the ocean with a sigh. The edge of the sky was abandoning its midnight hue for a lightened sapphire. Emmy saw the change on his face. He was getting sad again.

Emmy stood up, slowly did a front walkover to stretch her back, and turned to him. "You can swim right?"

"Uhm," the random question startled him. "Yeah?"

"Good," she reached out her hand for him to take. "I want to show you something."

Wally scoffed and stared at her hand like it was one of Medusa's snakes baring its fangs. In the cool light of dawn, he noticed that she had a tattoo on her left rib cage. He looked at it with vaguely hidden interest. Two butterflies? Seemed a little girly for her, he criticized while ignoring the part of his brain cheering at being this close to a tattooed girl in a bikini. He also noticed with a hint of surprise that she had a thin coat of sparkly silver polish on each nail. He hadn't thought she'd be into that kind of thing. "If it's a bottle of sun block you need rubbed on your back, I'll pass."

Emmy looked at the redhead, unimpressed. "Don't worry, I'd rather get a burn than have your Cheeto-encrusted fingers all over me. Come on, Wally. Where's your sense of adventure?" She shook her hand closer to his face, and he leaned away from it slightly.

"Why the butterflies?" Wally asked, trying to distract the girl from her desire to make him stand up.

Emmy sent him an unimpressed look, "What is it with boys and tattoo questions? That's basically the same thing Robin said."

Wally's mouth fell open slightly. "Why-how did Rob see it?" He scowled at the way his voice crack made Emmy smirk.

"I deflowered him a few weeks ago, did he not tell you?"

Wally choked on oxygen for a second before Emmy scoffed at him.

"He saw it when I got back from Mars and we had our partial team beach day. Now will you stop stalling and stand up?"

"Why are you trying to help me anyway?" He frowned suspiciously. He had been alternating between ignoring her and snapping at her all week, and he had spent all yesterday trying to pretend that he wasn't having problems with Kent's death.

"Like you said when you gave me the Santa Prisca pep talk, that's what teammates are for. Besides, I'm not always a heartless asshole," she gave him a look. "Unless it's a Thursday."

"I didn't say you were a heartless asshole," Wally grumbled. He begrudgingly used the offered hand to stand. The sky above the ocean was gradually shifting to aquamarine as the sun yawned and stretched its arms out over its ocean bed. They must have sat in silence together longer than he thought. He had not lost track of time since he got his powers. He frowned. His Kent Nelson trauma must be worse than he realized.

Emmy made a strangled noise when he got up, and he sent her a questioning look as he brushed the sand off his shorts. She was biting the inside of her cheek and staring at his ass. Wally smirked at catching her checking him out.

"My eyes are up here, you know," he crossed his arms haughtily.

"Yeah, but your Rainbow Dash boxers are down here," came the reply.

Wally jerked his arms away immediately and looked down in horror as a nascent ray of sunlight illuminated that what he had thought were black shorts were actually midnight blue My Little Pony boxers with one hundred little Rainbow Dash's on them. His internal scream was so loud he wondered if Megan could hear it.

"I.." he looked up into blue eyes crinkling with joy at his pain. He had slept naked last night and, in his rush to get some post-nightmare fresh air, he hadn't turned on a light or even stopped for food. He had just thrown on the nearest shorts (and some socks so his feet wouldn't get completely destroyed) and raced to the beach. And now he was shirtless, pantsless, and shoeless in front of the most caustic member of his team. "Robin got me these as a joke like a year ago, and I've never even worm them before, and I..."

Emmy chuckled again. "He's a good friend for supporting your brony fetish."

"It's not a fetish!" Wally sputtered offended. "The lights were off, and I was-" he glared at Emmy's growing smile. "I don't have to explain myself to you!" He turned away crossing his arms before a brilliant thought came to mind and he spun around to point a finger in her face. "And you knew exactly which pony it was so maybe you're the brony!" He sent her a challenging look as though he was a criminal defense attorney shredding apart her case with new evidence.

"I have a younger sister, Einstein," she rebutted with an evil smile, knocking his finger away. "Aren't you an only child? You certainly have the "This is my world, and you're just living in it" attitude of one."

Wally didn't know how to get the conversation away from his underwear, so he did the only thing that came to mind: he yanked his socks off, threw Emmy over his shoulder, and chucked her into the ocean. Unfortunately, the bane of his existence had recognized that he was about to attack and clutched on to his right bicep so hard that he had just been tugged into the icy waters along with her. Emmy's head popped up above the water a second after Wally's screaming one, and she sent a stream of water into his face with her hands.

"Ugh!" Wally shrieked indignantly. "This is horrible! I can feel my blood vessels constricting."

"You're the one who threw us in, Kid Vasoconstriction, so don't start blaming me! Just shut up for once and follow." Emmy threw back with a smirk, her almost blue lips quivering slightly with the abrupt exposure to the frigid depths. Wally was surprised that she knew about 'vasoconstriction' for a second, but then she was kicking ice-water into his face and swimming for a small protrusion in the mountain side. Wally grumbled and followed her. He propelled himself underwater to surpass her but then realized he had no idea where she was taking him. He got to the edge of the mountain quickly, after an eternity (six seconds) of waiting for Emmy to catch up, he swam to her, grabbed her, and sped them both to the mountain side. Emmy was shellshocked, coughing water out of her lungs and shaking a little from her first experience with super speed.

Wally smiled at her innocently. Her waterlogged hair was all over her face, her eyes were slightly bloodshot from sea water and coughing, and she was glowering at him while regaining her breath.

"So, what's so special about the outside of the mountain, Cousin It?" He asked when she was finally breathing normally again.

"You'll find out soon," she echoed a line from one of their first conversations knowingly and he ran a wet hand down his face in exasperation. "Hold your breath, take my hand, and swim in the direction I am. We're going down for about twenty seconds and then up at a 25-degree angle for another thirty."

Wally furrowed his eyebrows at her but grabbed her hand, nonetheless. "I know your life is very sad, but I have a ton of prospects, so I'm not really interested in a double suici-"

Emmy rolled her eyes and swam underneath the waves with the mouthy redhead in tow. They made the sharp upward turn with no problem and entered a dark cavern. Heads bursting above the water, they gratefully gulped at the air, and Wally panicked slightly when he couldn't see anything. After a few seconds, his rods adjusted to the darkness and his mouth fell open. They had popped up into a cave that was only accessible from the ocean. The circular pond where they were swimming was only five or six feet in diameter, but the cave was expansive and went on past his eyesight to his left. There was a slight blue glow illuminating the cavern which revealed thousands and maybe even millions of crystals of varying sizes, shapes, and colors. The most common color was light green, but Wally saw some blue, purple, and red shades throughout. He had never seen anything like it before outside of cave diving documentaries.

"What..." the unexpected beauty snatched away his usually expansive vocabulary. "How...?"

Emmy smiled slightly at his gob smacked expression.

"I figured you'd like it since you're a nerd," she swam over to a ledge and used her left hand to gesture at the crystals around them. "This is my favorite place in the mountain and the fifth largest fluorite cave in the world of my estimations are correct. I don't think anyone else knows it's even here, so don't run your mouth like you usually do. I don't want it to be mined."

Wally felt his wits return to him as Emmy began her ramble.

"Fluorite is widely known as the most colorful mineral in the world, which is funny because pure fluorite crystals are actually transparent. The mineral itself is just a simple halide, calcium fluoride, but its allochromatic so each atomic impurity that 'ruins the ideal structure' leads to an entirely different color presentation." Emmy had a small, amazed smile on her face. Wally recognized it as the exact same one he had whenever he passed a reflective surface while talking about a new planet being identified or a new facet of string theory being described.

"The term fluorescence actually came from fluorite because it was the first mineral George Gabriel Stokes found that emitted light in the visible region after being hit with ultraviolet rays. The cool thing here is that the glowing we see isn't actually from the crystals, it's from the bioluminescent dinoflagellates living on and around them! I would have to bring in a UV light to get the crystals themselves to fluoresce, but anyway each color of fluorite is from a different elemental impurity, so the blue is from europium," she pointed toward a few blue crystals, "red is usually from manganese, and they think that the green, which is most common in here, is from yttrium! Purple is from a Frenkel defect. A negative ion leaves the typical CaF2 structure, and the site attracts and traps an electron. The trapped electron makes a color center that absorbs a specific light wavelength to give the fluorite a purple appearance. Purple and green tend to be the most common, which is why it's so awesome that there are bands of blue and red in here," she swam up and pointed at a cluster of small crystals only a couple inches long. "This one has a band of green, purple, then red, and then blue, so that means the impurities in the water have changed gradually over the last-" Emmy turned toward the boy witnessing her rant and halted in her speech the second she saw him.

Wally West was staring at her with wide eyes and a mouth open in a shocked smile.

"What?" Emmy asked defensively, her cheeks heating up a fraction.

"Oh my gosh," Wally was almost gleeful to the point of forgetting to tread water. "You are a total geology nerd! I bet you even have a rock collection."

Emmy splashed the redhead. "Of course, I have a rock collection. What kind of self-respecting geologist and chemist would I be if I didn't?"

"What you name six compounds correctly and you're a chemist all of the sudden?" Wally was laughing.

"What do you think the rocks are made from if not elements, genius?"

Wally frowned and prepared to let her know just how massive his knowledge of chemistry was (it was a few years behind his physics, but still well above average). Sure, she had taught him a couple new things in her rant, but he was a fluorescence expert and could draw the Jablonski diagram in his sleep. And sure, he had been avoiding her in AP Chem, but she still should have noticed his casual mastery of the subject. He was about to start his rampage when he realized the possible magnitude of the situation. He had been suffering, and she had shared something personal with him. This was her favorite spot, and he was the first person she had taken here. In a way, she was helping him, distracting him from his pain, and trusting him as a teammate and maybe even as a friend all at once. Even after he had spent the last week blaming her for something that wasn't her fault. He felt like she was extending an olive branch. He owed it to her to remove one of his layers too.

"My thing is astronomy. I love particle and theoretical physics, of course, but the sky is what really excites me," he blurted out. "Redshift, blueshift, black holes, nebulas, galaxies, stars," he glanced at her and didn't see anything malicious in her face. "I can point out all the constellations with a blindfold on as long as I know my location, date, and time. I love anything space related."

She smirked at him. "Obsessed with giant, flaming balls of gas that always want to be at the center of everything? Yeah, that fits."

He scoffed at her. "Says the girl obsessed with hard and unmoving structures who has a magic ring that only works for stubborn people. Little on the nose, don't you think?"

She shrugged under the water. "Got me there."

He wondered if he was actually having a particularly witty day or if he had just looked so pitiful on the beach that she was taking mercy on him.

"Glad you can finally admit my ring is magic though," she grinned at his pained groan.

He sent her an unamused look and skipped over her comment. "How did you even find this place?"

Emmy swam to the opposite side of the pool and lightly tapped her fingers on an octahedron crystal projection. She hummed to herself for a second. "So... I'm not really sure how to explain it," she trailed off and Wally put his forearms on the rock next to her and raised his eyebrows in encouragement. She continued. "I've always liked the color green, but uhm, ever since I got the ring, I uhh, can kind of," she paused again. "Feel green things?"

He chuckled, "what?"

"It's weird, but I was just drawn to this place. Big green things make an impression, I suppose."

Wally grinned at her. "Well, who can blame you. I'm sure it's a devastating blow not to be genetically blessed with gorgeous green eyes like mine."

Emmy rolled her eyes. "So humble."

"Although your icy blues are nothing to sneeze at," she raised an eyebrow at the partial compliment, but he continued, "Besides it's not exactly your fault that you have the color fixation. I mean, your parents didn't help you out any by naming you three after shades of green."

Emmy snorted.

"You do know that Emerald East isn't my birth name, right?"

"What?" Wally hadn't expected that one.

"I didn't want social services tracking us down after the fire, so I had the three of us choose new names," Emmy was staring intently at a particular crystal cluster and he briefly wondered if she remember that he was there. "I let Sage choose my first name. She picked Emerald. I chose Sage and Hunter because I was a stupid kid and liked the idea of a color theme."

"Where'd East come from?"

Her lips quirked up a bit. "I almost chose West, actually, because that was the direction we headed. But I eventually went with East because I liked the alliteration better and thought it'd be a good reminder of what direction we needed to avoid."

"That is so sad."

Emmy's eyes snapped to his, undoubtedly, about to refute his pity but he kept going.

"You almost had the best last name in the world, Miss I-Love-Sunsets, but you screwed it up at the last minute and missed your shot."

A single breath of laughter left her nose. "Oh please, I could still end up as Emerald West if I wanted to."

Wally's red eyebrows shot up to his forehead and he beamed at the implication, but Emmy's face fell when she heard how that sounded out loud.

"Hey, I know how irresistible I am, but I am going to have to refuse that proposal. I'm young, and I'm not ready to be tied down to the team's resident she-demon."

She glowered at him. "Don't flatter yourself. You know that's not what I meant."

"I don't need to flatter myself when you're doing it for me," he put his hand to his chest. "We only met six weeks ago, and you're already trying to marry me."

He was once again very thankful that the girl across from him didn't have the ability to kill with her eyes. "I liked you better when you were depressed."

Wally laughed at her annoyance. "Honey, we already know you want me. You don't have to specify that you like me too."

Emmy jumped at him without warning and pushed his head underwater. He sputtered to the surface and pouted at her triumphant smirk. It was probably safest for him to change the subject.

"So, what's your real name then? Chelsea? Allyson? Raven?"

Any playfulness left her face at the question. His curiosity was piqued. "I'm not telling you that, and none of the above."

"Why not?"

"Because it's none of your business and as far as I'm concerned, Emerald East is my real name. Whatever I was called before died with my parents."

He looked at her down his nose. "Playing the dead parent card, eh?"

"I find it's very effective against those who still have their parents, yes." Her eyes glistened with mischief and challenge.

M'gann's voice interrupted their conversation. "Hey, Emmy? Wally? Are you guys there? Batman wants us to debrief him about what happened with Kent Nelson at 8, and it's 7:45."

"On our way, Megalicious," thought the redhead as Emmy sighed unimpressed.

"On our way?" Robin's smirk was visible through his voice.

"Oh yeah," Emmy's mental sarcasm was deadly. "We've been getting each other real wet and salty for the last hour."

A pause.

"Ew," came the reply of the bird.

Wally grabbed her hand and speed swam them to shore. Emmy choked on sea water at the unexpected moment. She took a few stumbling steps and cursed at the speedster enjoying her plight.

"How about a warning next time, Kid Fanatic?"

"Now where's the fun in that?"

He watched her towel dry quickly before offering it to him. He was pleasantly surprised and used it to dry his feet so he could put his socks back on. His feet were his greatest asset and weapon. Gotta keep the money-makers safe. He accidentally checked her out when she bent over to dig her flip flops out of the sand. It had been hard to tell in the dark, but her bikini was a royal blue instead of one of her typical greens. She looked good in blue, it made her eyes stand out more. She turned back to him, and he may have used some super speed to make sure his eyes weren't caught anywhere they shouldn't be.

She still had some water droplets sliding down her body. He made yet another note to do an ab workout because he would not let a girl have better abs than him, and he got his first glimpse of the tattoo in solid light. It looked good. Better than he expected. Calm down, Wall-man. You just need to get back to Megalicious in the cave. You're tired and a little sad still. Emmy quirked an eyebrow at his gaze.

"I'm just glad to see you not wear green for once," he teased. "Blue looks much better on you."

She rolled her eyes, but she noticed a touch of sincerity behind his sarcasm. "Not all of us only wear the colors on our uniform."

"I wear more than red and yellow!" He paused. "…Sometimes."

He did like those colors, and he did look good in them. Emmy huffed and he looked away before his eyes became too focused on how the movement made her chest bounce slightly. He mentally groaned at a realization. He felt a lot better than he had this morning. And he felt better specifically because Emmy had taken the time to help him.

"Emmy," he started, and she looked up at him. "You were right."

"I know," she replied lightly. "You'll have to be more specific though."

"You're not making this easy," he sighed. "My friend Brandon is mad at me. It's not your fault, but I took it out on you this week. I'm sorry about that."

She seemed surprised by the apology. "No problem. What happened?"

He explained his Wayne internship cover and Brandon's desire to join. He rushed through the part where his friends could tell that he knew Emmy because of their 'smoothie flirting' and got to the end where Brandon thought he had been lying about the group not taking any more applicants because Wally didn't want to be around him outside of school.

Emmy looked contemplative for a moment. Everyone she cared about knew her secret identity. It was a small group, but it was nice not having to keep secrets about her daily actions from them. It had to be difficult to lie to people you love for their own safety. "Are his parents alive?"

Wally blinked in confusion. "Uhm. Yeah?" She asked the weirdest questions sometimes.

"Then tell him that Wayne made an exception for me because I'm an orphan with crazy math skills and that if he wants in, he'll have to murder his parents and skip three grades." Emmy suggested casually.

Wally chuckled. "You know, up until the parricide, that was actually a good suggestion."

"Hello Wally, I'm smart, remember?"

"Don't get cocky, Brunhilda."

Emmy let out an aggressive bark of laughter. "That was not my name."

Her watch beeped a reminder that the meeting was in five minutes. They started walking toward the mountain entrance.

"Rose?"

"No."

"Penelope?"

"No."

"...Eugenia?"

"No!"

His mouth opened.

"If you say one more name, I'm going to start singing the My Little Pony theme song."

His mouth closed.

They were still drenched and mostly naked by the time they got to the mission room. Emerald cheated at the last minute and called for her ring. Now she was in uniform minus the mask, so the only thing dripping from her was her hair. Wally hadn't had time to change once Batman saw him, the irony of the only speedster not having time was not lost on him, so he was stuck barefoot, in his most shameful pair of boxers, and making a huge puddle while Batman discussed everything they did wrong during the latest mission.

"Hey, guys?" M'gann's voice called through to the minds of her dry teammates. "Should I telekinetically dry Wally and Emmy? Don't worry, I didn't link them."

"Nah," chuckled Robin. "Let the horizon suffer. I'm just thankful that Emmy was being sarcastic about that wet and salty thing." His inner voice shuddered. "It's hard to tell with her."

"That could have had ocean sex," Artemis quipped.

Robin made a horrified noise "Why would you give me that mental picture, 'Mis!?"

"That is a very sweet thought, M'gann," Kaldur ignored the bird and the blonde, "But I believe that they will be fine until the end of the debriefing."

"Especially since Emmy had the forethought to put her uniform on," Robin added. "Hey Supey, can you hear what they're saying?"

The fivesome glanced at the couple to their right in time to see Wally lean over and whisper something into her ear. Emmy made a disgusted face and mouthed "No". A few seconds later she hummed lowly and Wally elbowed her. This process repeated every 30 seconds.

"Wally is listing girl's names, Emmy is saying "No" to them all, and then Emmy hums a song I don't know, and Wally elbows her?" Superboy relayed, confused.

"Oh my gosh! What if they're having a baby girl?" Megan cooed.

Robin snorted. "Definitely not that."

"Do Wally's boxers have ponies on them?" Artemis's voice was amused and biting.

"Megan, I changed my mind you should definitely take the water out of Wally's shorts so we can see the design better."

"Focus on the debrief, Team, it's almost over."

Emmy exhaled sharply, and Wally elbowed her again. The lantern covered her mouth with her gloved hand in an effort to hold back her laughter.

"She just said 'Friendship is magic,'" Supey clarified.

"Ha!" Robin laughed. "Those are totally the pony boxers!"

Hello Loves, this chapter was inspired by the first chapter of Jncera's A Lingering Feeling. I read her Spitfire fic when I was 11, and it was still in the process of being published. Ten years later, it's still my favorite piece of fiction on this website. Shoutout to GirlNextDoor01 for reviewing!

Until next time,

TheDarkAbyss