Location: Mount Justice
Date: Aug 27th
Time: 17:56
Emerald East prided herself on a lot of things. She had escaped abusive parents, found a way to support herself and her siblings, taught them all a new language, managed to become a math expert without so much as a calculator to help her, and, oh yeah, was chosen to wield one of the most powerful and selective weapons in the universe. On most days, she felt pretty okay about herself, but, right now, sitting alone in the library with her blank physics homework staring back at her innocently, she wondered if she was, in fact, a moron.
She had been self-taught since the fire took her house, and in her efforts to survive she hadn't realized how much basic knowledge and information had slipped through the cracks. Sure, if the homework was on geology or chemistry, she would be fine 8 times out of 10. And if it were in any math up to differential equations, then she would be fine 10 times out of 10. But this, this was just horrible. It was only the end of her second week, and only the end of the third week of the school semester. How the hell was she supposed to know how long it took a ball to hit the ground after throwing it up at a certain velocity without actually throwing a ball up and timing it? How the fuck was she supposed to figure out how far an arrow would travel at a certain velocity and launch angle on paper? It was ridiculous.
Wally had popped into the mountain for a snack. His mom was making Jay's birthday dinner and wouldn't let Wally have any early, so he had been forced to retreat to the team's kitchen for reinforcements. He had four granola bars in his pocket and was happily munching on the fifth one when he heard a loud thud and a string of curses vile enough to make a pirate blush. Sounds like Emmy's in the library. He smirked to himself and trotted over to bask in her pain.
When he arrived, he saw his occasional nemesis looking down her nose at a piece of paper like it had personally been the one to orphan her, and she was going to shred it apart millimeter by millimeter in revenge. He flashed into the chair next to her and looked over her shoulder.
"What's up, Doc?" He quipped.
She didn't look up at him as she deadpanned, "That only works if you're eating a carrot, Bugs."
He recognized the honors physics problems on her page immediately and smiled at it. "Aw man, you're doing kinematics and projectile motion?" He looked away wistfully thinking about how his current AP Physics teacher just didn't understand his jokes the way Mrs. Duncan did. "Jealous! I miss that class. Mrs. Duncan is so cool."
"Mrs. Duncan thinks I'm the biggest idiot in her class," Emmy slumped back in her chair and put the heel of her palms in her eyes. "And she might be right."
Wally scoffed at his teammate's uncharacteristic lack of confidence. "Nah, my buddy Michael Heinz is in that class with you, so at worst you're the second dumbest."
Emmy dropped her hands to the table and rolled her head along the back of her chair to stare at him vacantly.
"Thank you for the vote of confidence."
Wally met her half-lidded eyes and instantly recognized the look of an emotionally dead student who was ready to take an "F" instead of spending one more picosecond staring at the assignment before them. He checked his watch. He didn't have to be home for another two hours.
"Well, you're in luck," he threw the wrapper from the first completed granola bar into a nearby wastebin and thanked his lucky stars that it went in since a girl was watching. Even if that girl was just Emmy. "Because you just so happen to have a teammate who's an expert in all thing physics."
"Yeah, but where am I going to find Artemis and her amazing projectile knowledge at this hour on a Friday?" A tiny flicker of fire returned to the blue eyes as she subtly insulted him.
Wally clutched his chest dramatically. "You wound me, Emmy. Truly."
Emmy's left elbow hit the table, and she shoved her cheek onto a defeated fist with a sigh as she took another look at the empty page.
"Seriously, though," Wally leaned toward her a little. "I aced this class last year."
She quirked a begrudgingly impressed eyebrow at him, fist still smooshing her cheek comically. "Isn't this a senior-level physics class?"
He fought the urge to brag about how after this year he will have completely tapped out their school's physics resources and start taking Physics 2 online at a local college for dual credit and shrugged instead. "You're taking it as a sophomore."
"Yeah, but that's because Batman hates me and not because I actually understand any of it." Emmy grumbled.
Wally chuckled at her misery and opened another granola bar. The schadenfreude is strong with this one. "Batman doesn't hate you. He can just see that you're smarter than you think you are."
Emmy squinted at him suspiciously while waiting for an incoming insult to null the compliment. When the awaited insult didn't come, she crossed her arms on the table and turned toward the redhead. He had been more civil since their beach morning, but they still weren't exactly friends.
"So, you're offering what exactly? Homework help in exchange for my firstborn?"
"No, I'll let you go all Kronos and devour your kids yourself," he threw the second granola wrapper at the bin and frowned when it hit the floor to the right of its target. He took a breath before admitting something untoward to the infuriating girl beside him.
"Look I owe you one, okay?"
Emmy crinkled her eyebrows in confusion.
"You helped me with my Kent Nelson problem," his voice had lowered to an unexpectedly sincere tone. "The least I can do is help you with some physics homework. And since I'm a gentleman, my help won't involve subzero oceanic temperatures."
"You're the one who threw me in," Emmy countered, but her eyes softened, and she sat up straight, scooching her chair to the left a few inches. He smiled at her submission and dragged his seat closer to get a better look at her paper.
Half an hour later, and they had made exactly zero progress. Wally had used every analogy in his arsenal from previous tutoring to try to help her get a mental picture of what the question was asking, but nothing was working. He had half a mind to just zip through the problems for her and go home because he had clearly bitten off more than he could chew. Emmy wasn't complaining, and she wasn't snapping at him, but there was an angry glint in her eyes and a muscle twitching in her jaw that made him wish he had just stayed home and been hungry instead of coming to the mountain. It also didn't help that her knuckles had been split and bruised since Tuesday. He knew it hadn't happened during a mission, but he was scared to ask her how it happened because maybe she had killed someone who tried to help her with physics homework with her bare hands and- Wally cut off his train of thought and wiped at the corner of one of his eyes. He could do this. Just try one more time, Wall-man.
"Alright, so…" he trailed off, trying to think of an example he hadn't used yet. "Imagine that Superboy gets pissed off because Robin kissed Artemis, who is Supey's girlfriend in this example, so he throws Rob with an initial velocity of 42.1 m/s at an angle of 38 degrees. Rob flies through the air for 5 seconds before crashing into the ground and crying out for Batman; how would you go about finding how far our favorite bird traveled?" Emmy snorted at the scenario but was surprised to realize that she could actually picture the question in her head for the first time.
"Uhmm," she sketched out the problem. "So, it's how far which is distance, so I only care about the x-component of the velocity," Wally nodded encouragingly. "So, velocity x-direction is 42.1 times cosine 38 which is 33.175 m/s," Emmy bit her lip at the paper and thought for a second. "The distance would just be 33.175 m/s times the 5 seconds…so Rob goes 165.9 meters?"
"Exactly!" Wally beamed at her with pride and raised his hand for a high-five which Emmy met enthusiastically.
Once he realized that she responded to vivid imagery, they started churning through the problems pretty quickly. She was slow getting started, but she did well once she had some momentum. They rapidly finished the half-way mark question which had Megan being launched over a castle's wall as punishment for kissing Robin who was Red Arrow's husband. Emmy snickered and commended him for his inclusion of the gay community. She was boxing the answer when Wally got another look at her knuckles. The bruises were at the end stage where they were a vile green and yellow color, and there was still one scab between her right pointer and middle finger knuckles. He had heard rumors around school all week, but Emmy was still disappearing at lunch every day, so he figured she hadn't heard anything.
"You know," he opened his last granola bar. "There's a rumor going around school that you busted your hands keeping a mugger away from some first graders."
Emmy snorted at him, "Haven't seen any muggers this week."
"How did you hurt them then?"
"I got into a fight with Sage on Monday and-"
"Oh, my goodness," he called out theatrically and stood up from his chair. "You've killed her! Poor Sage. Our most middling spice."
Emmy rolled her eyes and tugged him back into his seat. "I didn't hit her, moron. I hit the punching bag in the gym. I just forgot to wrap my hands first."
He quirked an eyebrow at her. "Didn't that hurt?"
She shrugged. "I was already bleeding by the time I realized I wasn't wrapped, so I figured I might as well finish."
"What, never hear of the pull-out method?" Wally joked, but he was a tiny bit disconcerted that she let herself get hurt just because she was angry.
"No, I have. If only your parents had heard of it," she replied, smirking when he narrowed his eyes at her.
"Who started the mugger rumor anyway? I don't talk to anyone." She asked, putting more lead in her pencil.
"The rumor was initially that you got into a fight with your pimp, but some basketball guy said he heard you were being a good Samaritan," Wally shrugged.
"Trent?" Emmy asked with slightly raised eyebrows.
"Uh, yeah," Wally squinted at her. "Do you know him?" He was a junior and a hotshot on the basketball team. Wally didn't really know the guy, but he had heard that Trent was a player in more ways than one.
Emmy shrugged. "Met him my first day. We've texted once or twice."
Wally frowned at the information, but Emmy was already moving onto the next question. He made the scenarios increasingly ridiculous and the pairings more scandalous. The penultimate question involved Black Canary, pregnant with Batman's lovechild, brutally shooting Green Arrow with one of his own arrows as she dumped him.
"I have always thought Canary could do better than GA," Wally admitted in a staged whisper.
Emmy huffed a laugh as she finished the problem, "No kidding. Who likes blonde guys anyway? That's so 1940's Germany."
"Exactly," Wally drawled out. "You get it. She needs to be with someone a little spicier. Like a slightly younger, handsome redhead with a perfect physique she has trained with, for instance."
Emmy quirked a bemused eyebrow. "Well, we already know she likes archers, so it would probably be pretty easy for her to switch over to Red Arrow."
Wally shoved her shoulder with a pout and grumbled while she snickered at him.
"Moving on," he tried to think of a pairing he hadn't done yet, "I, the illustrious Kid Flash, have just discovered Aqualad kissing my wife, the pitiful Green Lantern. I am enraged to the point of kicking him off a cliff while the Green Glowstick sobs over our broken marriage and abandoned children."
Emmy's laughter returned, and she looked at him askance. "I'm your wife in this one?"
"Yep. I heard your cave plea and wanted to give you a chance to live out that fantasy. Even if just for a single physics problem." She elbowed his side, and he struggled to pretend it didn't hurt.
"Anyway," Wally temporarily adopted an agonized tone. "We've been together for eight years and have four children, and I am completely devastated that you threw it all away for one aquatic kiss with our team leader."
"Well, I do like sushi," Emmy smirked. "And he does always smell like sashimi."
"Thank you!" Wally yelled and threw his hands up in the air. Emmy raised her eyebrows at his outburst.
"It's an old argument," Wally waved it off. "But if Robin ever asks you, I need you to say that exact same thing."
Emmy ignored him. "So, the temptation of Aqualad's kiss made me want to throw my life away, huh? My poor speedy green children, but hey, at least I chose a guy with a smooth voice and magic hands." She grinned impishly.
Wally smoldered down at her. "I may not believe in magic as an institution, but trust me, my hands, and kisses, are nothing short of magical."
She quirked an eyebrow at him. "I don't think reviews count when they're from your mommy."
"What about when they're from yours?" He winked.
"Well, if you can get a review from her without a séance then your kisses really must be enchanted," her lip tilted upward on the right side.
"Why do you think Kent told me to kiss you in the first place?" Wally wiggled his eyebrows at her. "He could feel the magical power emanating from my lips and wanted his favorite new spitfire to experience the best kiss of her life."
Emmy looked up at him with a smirk he could only describe as electrifyingly devious, and for a second he wondered if she was going to say, "Prove it". He had gradually pulled their chairs closer together each time she got stuck on a problem, and at some point, he had thrown his left arm around the back of her chair and opened his body toward her. Her right shoulder was a hair's breadth from grazing his chest, and their faces were only a few inches from each other.
"Typical Wally," she taunted, about to quote his earlier complaint about Kadabra. "All show, no biz."
Her eyes glinted with a silent challenge. He leaned toward her infinitesimally. His phone rang.
"Oh, hey Mom," he sent an apologetic look to Emmy as they backed away from each other uncomfortably. "Oh right. I'll be right there. Sorry, I was helping a…teammate with homework. Okay, be home in a sec." He hung up and got out of the chair. "Sorry about that. It's my honorary granddad's birthday, so I need to run. Do you have this last one?"
"Definitely," Emmy nodded at him. "Thank you, by the way."
"No problem," he beamed at her thanks. "See you later."
He didn't say it to her face, but he had been surprised with how quickly and accurately she did the math involved. She was slow figuring out how to approach a problem, but once she knew what steps to take, she could crack through it in 40 seconds. She wasn't in his AP Calc AB class, so maybe she was in Pre-Calc or something? She just needed practice with the projectile question types, and she'd be fine. Why was that a little attractive? He imagined her in a more sexualized version of the school's mathlete uniform. Nope, nope, bad Wally. Imagine someone safe like Megan or, hell, even Artemis. His thoughts trailed back to the end of their conversation. It had been a little…flirty? He scoffed at himself. Definitely not. She was still a total pain most of the time. He would never stoop so low.
He had successfully kept Emmy off his mind throughout Jay's birthday dinner when his phone dinged with an incoming message. He opened it to find a very crude drawing of himself as angry Kid Flash in weird shorts on a cliff with an unconscious Aqualad splatted on the ground and a tiny Green Lantern sobbing next to the Atlantean. A few lines of work were underneath the sketch, and the correct answer was boxed in a thick black line. The text read:
'If only you'd spent less time ironing your pony boxers and more time keeping your woman interested.'
His eyes shot back to the drawing, and he zoomed in on the mini version of himself. Sure enough, the weird shorts he was wearing were covered in tiny horses. Damn, she's thorough. He chuckled at his phone, too amused to be annoyed, and missed his parents shooting each other a look while getting ready for the dessert section of the night.
'And that's how you can tell it's an artist's rendition. If you were really my wife, I wouldn't be able to keep your hands off me. Thank God that will never happen.'
'I certainly dodged a spastic 5'10 bullet there.'
Another beep from her.
"Also, if I get any of these wrong, I'm kicking your ass ;)"
"Good thing they're all correct because it would be so embarrassing for you to kick the dust where I was just standing."
"Don't you have some cake to eat, Kid Feeble?"
Why yes, yes, he did.
-"My goodness, children. Was that flirting I detected?" She asked, as though she had not written it herself and intentionally made it borderline.
Until next time,
TheDarkAbyss
