Heyo.
PLEASE FORGIVE MY ERRORS! Thank yous c:
Enjoy!
Max would have been lying if he said that pitching an idea to a group of decorated scientists and experienced businessmen was easy. I'm fact, it was quite nerve racking. His only comfort was the fact that Batman had shown up himself. As Bruce Wayne of course.
Despite entering the meeting with an incredible amount of confidence, it seemingly vanished the moment he was the center of attention. Luckily, the teen was able to finish the presentation without incident. He highlighted the specifics behind why his design was ideal for this sort of thing and included the prospect of applying it for other tech.
The time that the WayneTech team took consulting each other was relatively short, but it felt like ages for Max. Ultimately, it was a success and they were already working on a prototype to begin testing. There was apparently tons of paperwork and legal procedures involved, but the boy left that kind of stuff to a lawyer.
Needless to say, this was cause for celebration. Seeing as the team was on standby for the time being, Max took the time to visit home. It was almost ritual for the West family to cook homemade burgers and fries for such an occasion.
Currently, Max sat on the porch in his backyard, idly picking at a plate of crispy fries. He stared at the clouds in content, today was good for him. One of the best days he'd had in a long time.
The back door creaked open and none other than his big brother took a seat next to him. "Congrats on the contract with WayneTech! I- uh, what are you making for them?" Wally asked.
Max smiled thinly, "It's an assisted movement device. It's meant for people that don't have full use of their legs. But I'm hoping it evolves in the future and can be adapted for all limbs. Those that have been in accidents, born with degenerative diseases, or even just old age, hopefully they'll be able to move a bit more confidently." He explained.
"That's incredible!" Wally complimented before snickering, "Remember when you asked our neighbor why he was always in a wheelchair?"
Max's face flushed with embarrassment, "Ohhh, yes… I can't believe I was so insensitive!" He hid his face in his palms, "He'll be the first person I fit for one of these." He decided resolutely.
"You were just a wee squirt then, but Mr. Abel was a good sport about it! I remember him saying that it was just 'how he rolls'!" Wally quoted the pun and the siblings laughed together before settling down into an awkward silence.
The seconds ticked by until a full minute passed, "Hey, umm…" Wally broke it first, "Are we… Are we ok? As brothers I mean." It had been a decent amount of time since the mission with Kent Nelson and although they had long since resolved the arguments between them, things just didn't feel the same.
There was a tension between the two that neither sibling really knew how to fix.
Max blinked in surprise, he never thought that Wally would be the one to ask that. The younger brother smiled at that, "So you do care." All the time that they'd gone with minimal interaction, Max had figured Wally was avoiding him. It could also be said that Max was avoiding him. And to an extent they both were, but not out of spite or anything like that.
"To be honest, I'm still a little upset about that whole meeting we had after saving Mr. Nelson." Max spoke and saw a look of guilt befall his big brother, "But, of course we'll be alright. We're brothers after all!" He smiled brightly.
"You're the best brother a superhero could ask for Max!" Wally said dramatically and hugged his smaller brother.
"Speaking of Mr. Nelson, have you heard anything from him? I haven't seen him since a few days after the incident."
Wally disengaged, "Yea, he's been sending letters to the house. Apparently he's traveling the globe looking for a suitable inheritor for the helmet of fate. He's a cool guy, magic aside you know?"
"The globe, huh… sounds fun! I wanna travel one day and study all the different cultures and technology they've come up with! I think I'd go to Japan first… It'd be even better if I could bring someone!"
"Stuff like that is meant to be with your girlfriend or all by yourself. Got someone in mind? Not Miss. M though, she's totally mine!"
Max sweat dropped, "I'm pretty sure M'gann and Conner have something going on… You're like the only one that doesn't see it." He thought before a heated blush crossed his face.
"Uh-Ahem! Well…" He began nervously, "I kind of- I have a crush on Artemis, I think."
Wally blinked before looking at him with a baffled expression, "Artemis?! Yuck, she's too bossy Max, how about… Uhhh." Right, there weren't really any other girls he knew, "Why don't you try to get out more! Meet some other girls?"
Artemis was just Artemis. She was bossy, rude, aggressive, and confrontational. At the same time though, she was passionate, witty, and deceptively smart. Not to mention pretty, even with half a scowl on her face 24/7.
The blonde archer was far from the ideal match for someone like his timid little brother, he thought. She just couldn't be-
Wally stopped himself when he saw how even the ears of his little brother were bright red, "I guess he really likes her… He's never talked to me about girls before." The thought was conflicting for the red haired speedster.
Wally squashed the inner conflict and wrapped his brother in a one armed hug, "Well fine then, the Wal-man will teach you everything you need to know about girls! Artemis will be yours by New Years!" He said with a laugh.
Max nodded silently, still too embarrassed to speak but indescribably happy that things between them seemed so much better.
He hadn't realized it before now, but he'd really missed his brother.
So, Wally's advice was… Not so great. Max had got the feeling that he watched a few too many pick-up artist videos on the internet. What woman was attracted to a man that treated her poorly?
"You two spend a decent amount of time together already, don't you? Ignore her for a little while and she'll come running right back to you."
Max recalled the advice and frowned, it's not like he went out of his way to hang out with Artemis, nor did she. It just kinda happened from time to time. So, would that really do anything?
"If she asks you for something, try saying no! It'll drive her crazy."
The brown haired teen wasn't sure he had that luxury. His job with the team was literally to help the them with whatever they needed. Max wasn't so sure he could actually say no without a proper reason.
"Compliment her, but then also criticize her! It's been scientifically proven that girls react to that!"
Max buried his face in his hands, that went against everything his mother had taught him- them! They were raised by the same woman after all!
"Act aloof! Treat her like a cat!"
What the hell did that even mean?!
"You have to understand Max, girls like to hide it but they're really no different than us guys. They want it too!"
He remembered sputtering when Wally uttered that last piece of advice. That wasn't what he was looking for! They were too young for that!
"H-Hey, everything's ok right? You're kinda freaking me out." M'gann's worried voice brought the young West back to reality.
"O-Oh, yes! Everything's normal! Well-not normal, cause you're a Martian, and that's abnormal. Not that that's bad or anything! Cause, It's not! I like that you're a martian, it's definitely my favorite part about you. Is that offensive? I'm sorry! I just wanted to say everything looks ok… Oh man, I should probably stop talking now."
"Um, thanks?" The green martian girl gave a shaky smile, unsure what to make of the vomit of words that spilled from her friends mouth. "Can I take this helmet off now?" It had taken a few months, but Max had finally been able to get some scans of her martian brain.
It's not that either party was opposed, finding the time was just tough. Between missions, training, and various other duties, the two just hadn't found the time to get together. Well, to be quite honest, there were plenty of opportunities. It just slipped the boys mind so often that the little 'date' had never come to pass.
"Sure, I've got what I need!" Trying to hide himself in work, Max began uploading the brain scans to his computer and pulled up side by side comparisons to a scan of his own brain.
There was a plethora of information before the young genius, things that perhaps no other man had seen before. Most glaringly, M'ganns brain was roughly 11% larger than the average human brain and it seemed to be much more active too. Despite this incredible information, the alien physiology wasn't on his mind.
"M'gann, can I ask you a question?"
The green girl tilted her head before nodding, "Sure!"
"Well, as a girl, what is it that attracts you to boys? If someone wanted to catch your attention, how could they go about it without being weird?"
Megan gaped, "Is this his way of telling me he likes me?! Ohh, I'm sorry! But Superboy-Conner, we're- I'm already spoken for Max!" She didn't have to be an empath to feel his embarrassment.
Megan knew she wasn't supposed to do this, it had been explained to her that it was a major invasion of privacy. BUT, she couldn't just let things go on as they were. Needing to get a clearer picture, the martian girl bit the bullet and took a brief peak in the boy's hyperactive mind.
Her discovery was relieving. He wasn't asking tips on how to win her over, but Artemis. In hindsight, she should have been able to tell that but Megan often misinterpreted things.
"You want my help with Artemis?" She asked in excitement. "Oh! They'll be just adorable together!" She thought.
"A-Artemis?! Who said anything about her? I was just asking for tips in general!" Max defended. Megan just smiled knowingly, giggling to herself. The younger of the two relented, realizing that he'd been read. "You're not supposed to do that, you know…"
Megan had the decency to at least apologize, "Sorry!"
"It's ok, next time you do it I want a scan though. So, any advice? I asked Wally but it was… confusing."
Megan thought for a moment before shrugging, "Artemis is pretty simple minded isn't she? Just be honest with her, I think that would be your best bet!"
Max shook his head and waved his hands, "W-What, no way! What if she doesn't feel the same?! I could make things weird between us and the team! I don't want to ruin everything!"
"Oh… Well, do you want me to see if she likes you?"
"Y-You could do that?!"
"Sure, I'll just read her-!"
"M'gann, no! You can't do that, it's a major invasion of privacy!" Max scolded.
"Well, do you want me to just ask her then?"
"No way! Then she'll know I like her!"
"No she won't."
"But she'll be suspicious!"
Megan frowned, "What's the plan then?"
"T-That's what I thought you would tell me." Max answered.
"I already told you what I thought you should do, but you said that would ruin everything." Megan huffed and crossed her arms at the dismissal of her advice.
"I got it!" Max clapped before explaining, "I'll just wait! I'll wait until I'm absolutely sure that she likes me and then I'll ask her out! Or maybe… I'll wait until she asks me?"
"But what if Artemis is waiting for you to ask her out and then you never do because you're too scared? By the time you do, it'll be too late and she'll already have a boyfriend!"
"Argh! Don't say that! Girls are complicated…"
Megan sweat dropped, "No, I think it's just you complicating it."
The green girl floated over to the downtrodden boy and gave him a pat on the shoulder, "Don't get so worked up. I'm sure things will work out just fine, no matter how you do it."
"Thanks M'gann, I'll be sure to keep what you said in mind."
"Glad I could help," She started to make her way out of the lab before stopping, "Oh! Pizza for dinner by the way!"
"Sweet!"
Red Tornado, Conner, and Max stared at the large TV blankly. Max wasn't quite sure if Red Tornado was even 'awake' with how still he was.
"So…" The smallest of three spoke up. With dinner finished, Megan had opted for a shower and then called it an early night. Seeing as how this was strictly 'guys time', Max felt that if he was asking everyone for advice then he might as well ask the people he lived with.
"So." Superboy repeated.
"There's someone that I'm kinda into… But I'm not sure how to go about telling them. I mean, should I tell her? Should I wait? Wally says if I do nothing then she'll come to me, but M'gann says that I should just be honest. I'm not sure what to do."
"You talking about Artemis?" Conner said as if it were the plainest thing in the world.
"H-Huh? How'd you- Did M'gann tell you?!"
The Superman clone shook his head, "Nope, kryptonian hearing did. Your heart rate skyrockets whenever Artemis is around. And you smile all stupid."
Max was sure that he'd retain a permanent red shade to his cheeks with how often he was blushing today. Why couldn't he have Batman's stoicism?
"I-I see."
"I'm ganna be honest with you, since we're both West's now. I don't think Artemis is interested in you like that." Superboy said bluntly and Max's expression dropped. "But I also had no idea that M'gann was interested in me, so I'm the last person that would know anything about that kinda thing." He continued.
"Seriously…? She's literally been following you around since day one." Max deadpanned.
"Hey, the g-gnomes uploaded textbook things directly into my head but it's not like they installed a 'girls 101' lesson."
"Sure they did, it's your damn muscles…" Max muttered in jealousy, "I bet if I had muscles, all the girls would like me."
Conner snickered, "Sure, a few inches in height would help too."
"Just you wait, one day I'm ganna be taller than you and I'll be the one laughing!"
Red Tornado seemed to finally chime in, "I've observed that human females respond positively to flowers." He offered.
His sudden entry into the conversation startled both Max and Superboy, "W-woah, Red! You scared the hell out of me!"
"Apologies." The droid respond before standing, "If you want to tell Artemis how you feel, Max, I don't see a reason to mince words." The red bot continued as it walked away.
"He's not wrong, what's the worst that can happen?" Superboy followed up.
"She could say no!"
"And? So what, it's not the end of the world. What's that saying, there's plenty of fish in the lake?"
"There's plenty of fish in the sea." Max corrected.
"Yea, that. It's just one girl."
"But it's one that I like…"
Superboy frowned, "That's just a risk you'll have to take then. Whether you say something and get rejected or don't say anything at all, you'll have to move on eventually. Why make it worse and draw it out? Rip the bandaid off quick man."
"I guess that makes sense."
Max focused hard on his own workout. Pushing the weights up slowly, but surely. Conner had offered to workout alongside him citing that it would be safer if he had a spotter. The smaller teen stubbornly refused.
He'd either get the weight up or die trying. He went to war with the plates every rep and that sense of fright he had when he faltered helped him push through.
"You're really working up a sweat there." Max nearly dropped the weights back onto the rack in mild fright.
"A-Artemis, what are you doing here?"
She raised a brow before gesturing to her gym clothes and then their surroundings… Which happened to be the gym, "To workout, doofus."
He oh'ed, "I guess that should've been obvious haha!" Max gulped as he felt his heart beat more intensely, he was beginning to feel nervous.
"Be cool, relax and be cool! Maybe we can workout together or something?"
"So what are you working on today?" Artemis asked as she began doing some stretches.
"Today was back and biceps for me, I just finished though." He said reflexively.
"AHHHH, WHY?! Why do I even talk?!" The younger boy berated himself for instantly contradicting his plan to workout with Artemis. But he supposed it may have been for the better. He was dead tired and any workout he did now would either be half-assed or just bad for his body.
"Oh, so you're trying to build some strength then?" The blond girl had always had a knack for physiology and athletics. Her fit form and skill with the bow and arrow were the results of that particular interest. Well that and some unfavorable lessons with her father… But that was a story for another time.
"And size. I'm a few inches taller than Robin, but he always beats me up when we spar." He admitted much to his chagrin.
"Well, he has been training for years and years and years… With Batman."
The boy let a strained smile cross his lips before it melted and he gained a look of contemplation. "Rip the bandaid off quick and just be honest." He recalled Conner and M'ganns advice.
His heart rate got a bit quicker and his mouth suddenly went dry. Was this the moment? It very well could be, he should just ask her out here. He shook his head, no that'd be weird. Didn't people normally ask girls out more romantically. Like in movies, or on social media, guys would do great big events to ask girls to proms or to be their girlfriends.
No! This wasn't a movie! And he wasn't asking Artemis to prom! Just if she wanted to… Well, now that he was thinking about it, he didn't think that far ahead.
Max wanted to ask Artemis out, but where to? What would they do?
Dinner and a movie sounded good, you couldn't go wrong there. No… that was too cliché. It was annoying to talk during a movie anyway. So just dinner? No, that'd be too short. Mini golfing? Sounded fun, maybe.
Oh! Max had the perfect idea. The little carnival on the pier! There were tons of little games and food stalls! There was even a Farris wheel and a few other rides. It'd be great!
"Say, Artemis would you want to, maybe-!"
"Wow… Superboy really knows how to work it." The blond girl said in appreciation as she watched the kryptonian clone squat a metric fuck ton.
Funny enough, it seemed Artemis was just as oblivious to Conner and M'ganns relationship as Wally was.
Said clone wore personalized headphones that helped him keep his hearing in check. The clanking weights and even sometimes just the bustling of the city was just too much for Superboy to take at times. So Max made him a special headset that would block out certain frequencies and had special noise canceling tech so that he wasn't overwhelmed with all the stimuli.
Conner had the hearing of a normal human at the moment. That said, he couldn't hear the two of them talking and simply carried on with his impressive squats.
The shorter boy frowned slightly as he recognized the attraction that Artemis felt for his cave mate. He stole a glance at Conner and his impressive physique and then looked down to his own lacking one. The differences were like night and day.
Conner was tall, strong, and handsome, ironically an alien clone was the epitome of American muscle. Even worse, he had a bad boy vibe to him. Any girl would be attracted to him, even at just first glance. In contrast, Max was still short and scrawny, he could be described as cute but he still had a kiddish look to him. His mother had always said he was sure to grow into a very handsome young man with his delicate features, but that was years from now.
And it was his mother that said it. She was obligated to say that.
"Sorry, I didn't mean to interrupt you." Artemis said sheepishly, "What were you saying?" She stood up, done with her stretching.
Max let a lopsided smile greet her, "No worries, wasn't important!" He couldn't be as big and strong as Superboy, not yet. But he had his attractive traits too, unfortunately it would be harder to display than pure physical sex appeal.
But he'd get it done. Max West liked Artemis, and he wanted her to like him back. He may have failed to even ask her out here, but failure was a part of the process.
Maybe it'd be a good idea to see what Kaldur and Robin thought? If he was ganna ask for advice, might as well get as large a sample size as possible.
Hey all, no action or anything here but I actually had a pretty good time writing this and exploring the dynamic of character relations. Mostly I wanted to touch on Max's relationship with Wally, that was honestly the main thing I wanted to address. That and setting up a few things for the future.
Anyway, you should only have to deal with one more chapter that doesn't have much action. Once we hit 'Homefront' there's ganna be a hell of a lot more action and you'll notice the larger developments to Max's character.
I know I said previously that writing season 1 felt tedious, but I'm actually pretty excited to get into the action bits and main plot. Hopefully chapters will continue to roll with this feeling.
Take it easy, see yous next time!