"This was a stupid idea."
"C'mon man, lighten up."
"You lighten up. I don't know what I was thinking with this. It's a waste of time. Do you know how much stuff I could get done instead of-"
"Taking a night off and eating at one of the best restaurants in town? Yeah man, it must really suck to be doing that instead of working on whatever impossible deadline Drake has you on. You must have been out of your mind to think of this."
Heath narrowed his eyes at Rogen, who smirked back in response. "Ha-ha, very funny. I seriously should have just given you guys the reservation. You and Artemis can do your gross date night thingy on your own," he said as he struggled to tie his tie.
"The reservation was for four. And you're the one who scored them. It'd be a waste for you not to go. And who else were you gonna bring? I don't exactly see the other members of the Young Blood coming out for something like this. They're either too busy or just not interested," Rogen said.
Heath grunted. He was right. The rest of the top members were busy with their own things, and even if they weren't he didn't know them well enough to invite them out to someplace like this. He sure as hell wasn't bringing Victor or the triplets here, and Drake was for sure a no go. Alisha would have invited Xiang, and he didn't want to deal with any of whatever drama they had going on. He didn't want to spend any time with those losers in Delta's group or the Battalion either.
Rogen was the only option, and since he and Artemis were a package deal, he figured he might as well invite her too. "Ugh, what is with this stupid thing!" Heath said, looking ready to rip his tie right off.
Rogen reached up and stopped him. "Relax man, here." He reached up and started tying it for him. "Didn't your old man ever teach you how to tie one of these."
"My old man never taught me jack," Heath muttered. "My aunt used to tie these things for me, and I never really paid enough attention to learn how. I hated wearing the stupid things. And getting dressed up like this." This place was supposed to be fancy or something, so they had to get all dressed up. Another reason he had thought about just giving the reservations away and staying home.
Rogen finished tying it and then hummed. "It's not gonna kill you to dress classy for one night. Besides, you could use some actual dating experience. You know, since the last time you two were out it wasn't a date and all that," he said, smirking at him mockingly.
Heath scowled. "This one isn't either! It's just us going to a stupid dinner!" Heath said, crossing his arms. He hadn't even invited Shen Mi. She had just… invited herself. When he had, he knew giving the reservations away was no longer an option. She would have whined and threw a fit over it.
And that was another reason he'd asked Rogen to come along. Just the two of them being at some fancy place like that would be weird. They were supposed to be like… a buffer. "Me and that shrimp dating is the last thing I have on my mind!"
"But it is on your mind?" Rogen asked.
"Shut up!"
Heath turned and began walking out, and Rogen followed him. Once they stepped out into the hall, Rogen looked up towards the clock. "Almost time to get going," he said.
"Well, we'll probably be late. Girls take forever to get ready, right?" Heath asked. That's what he always heard anyway. It wouldn't have shocked him at all if Shen Mi did. She did everything on her own time, no matter how much of a pain in the butt it was for him or anyone else around.
Someone flicked the back of his head, and he turned around to see Artemis, who had her hair down and was wearing a sleek black dress. "Hey there freckles. We're ready to go. Totally didn't sound sexist just not by the way," she said.
Heath huffed as Rogen smiled at his girlfriend. It was rare to see her all dressed up like this. Not that she didn't always look pretty, but seeing in formalwear was a nice change of pace. "You look nice," he said walking towards her.
She smiled back at him. "Thank you. And you cleaned up pretty nicely yourself."
"Gag," Heath said, sticking his tongue out. Usually Rogen and Artemis weren't one of those lovey dovey couples, but the small glimpses they did show of it were no less disgusting to Heath.
"Grow up dude," Rogen said.
Heath was about to say something back, but then he spotted Shen Mi walk out from behind Artemis. She was wearing a red and black dress, and she had her hair tied into a ponytail. Heath looked over at her for a few moments. She looked so... different. Rogen and Artemis both smirked at his reaction.
Shen Mi had noticed him staring, and narrowed her eyes. Was he just going to stand there all night like an idiot? "What are you looking at bucktooth? A girl could really get the impression you being a total creep with you just standing there staring like that," she said crossing his arms.
Heath snapped out of his gazing, and then scowled back at her, a blush on his cheeks. "Shut up! Like I'd be looking at you like that. You just… you look different," he said.
"Well obviously. I'm dressed differently than usual," she said. "But like… you better not mean bad different, because if you do I'll snap you out of existence."
"I didn't say it was good or bad. I just said different."
"Well if you don't mean one, then you mean the other. So which is it?"
"Why do you care?!"
"I don't!"
Artemis decided to cut in before they got into one of their famous shouting matches. "Okay, as adorable as it is watching you two have your little love-hate thing going, we need to leave if we're going to make it on time," she said.
Heath and Shen Mi both huffed, but decided she was right. They had already gone through the trouble to dress up for this, so there was no point in missing out on it now. As they walked out, Rogen leaned closer to Artemis. "I get the feeling we're going to get dinner and a show tonight," he said, causing Artemis to chuckle.
Once they had gotten to the restaurant, they had been amazed at just how expensive the place looked on the inside. Shen Mi was about to fly up to take a better look, but Heath reached out and grabbed her hand, pulling her back down to the ground. "Hey, we're not trying to bring attention to yourselves. Remember?" he asked.
She pouted. She hated that to lay low she had to keep her powers under wraps. It was stupid. "Whatever," she muttered. She then noticed something. "Are you wearing gloves?" she asked, looking down at their hands.
"I… I didn't want the arms sticking out…" he muttered.
Someone greeted them, and had a waiter guide them to their table. When they got there Rogen immediately pulled out Artemis' seat. "Well, aren't you a gentleman," she said.
Rogen looked up towards Heath and then nodded towards Shen Mi. The younger boy looked confused for a moment, but then moved over towards Shen Mi and pulled her seat out for her. At first she looked like she was about to snap at him for taking her seat, but then she realized he was not in fact taking it for himself.
"Uh… thank you," she said before sitting down.
"Yeah, sure."
Once they were all seated, the waiter came by and passed out menus. Everything looked pretty expensive, but it wasn't above what they could afford. "What the heck is smoked pork jowl?" Heath asked, raising an eyebrow. The last word was really putting him off.
"Don't know. But it has pork so it can't be that bad," Artemis said, setting her menu down. "What are you getting?"
"Uh… I guess the scallop sashimi with meyer lemon confit?" Rogen said.
"I want the lamb ragu pasta," Shen Mi said.
The watier nodded and then took all of their menus, promising to be back quickly. When he left, Rogen turned towards Artemis. "Is it weird we can't understand like half of the stuff on the menu?" he asked.
"They think making it impossible to understand makes it sound more fancy I guess," she answered with a shrug of her shoulders.
Heath was about to mention how overpriced some of the food was, but then felt something picking at his hand. Shen Mi was poking at his hand, looking curious. "Is there a reason you're doing that?" he asked.
"Why the glove?" she asked. "Why not just make like… a fake skin or something. You're a nerd, you can do that right?"
Heath scowled, trying and failing to fight off the blush in his cheeks. "Fake skin isn't as easy as you think. I'm an engineer. Something like that would probably be more up Lifen's alley," he said.
"We should ask her about that when we get the chance," Rogen said. "I mean, undercover missions would be a lot easier for you if you could use some kind of synthetic skin. Or maybe if we used that tech from that chameleon bot. Do we have the blueprints for that?"
"I'm pretty sure if I dig around I could find them somewhere. Alisha keeps crap on all types of old stuff. But the chameleon's bots tech could probably be used for more than just camouflage. It's adaptive abilities were insane. We could probably copy other tech if we built a set of arms based off of it."
"Yeah, maybe if we…"
Artemis and Shen Mi watched and the two young men began going back and forth about all of the uses tech could bring to Heath's arms, among other things. "I don't understand any of this," Shen Mi said, shaking her head. "How can they have so much to say about nothing?"
Artemis hummed. "No clue. But just let them go for a while. If we don't let them get it out of their system now they'll just keep losing focus through dinner," she said. "Besides, seeing Rogen all focused on something he's interested in is nice."
Shen Mi looked disgusted. "Your taste in guys is as pathetic as your rank."
Artemis raised an eyebrow. "My taste? Are we really going to start digging into each other's taste in guys? Because your guy is chatting right along with him," she said.
Shen Mi blushed and glared at her. "That's not the-! We're not-! You know that!" she snapped.
Artemis clicked her tongue. "Of course it isn't. Look, no need to get all upset about it. Clearly we have a thing for the dorky types. Nothing to be ashamed of," she said, enjoying the way Shen Mi got flustered.
"I could literally snap you out of existence."
"You could, but then I'd win. And you know that."
Shen Mi growled and then reached down to grab one of the bread sticks. She wanted to tear something apart. "I'll stop by and help you out when I get the chance. Should be a good project to work on. I bet even Drake would approve," Rogen said.
"Thanks. I could use the extra hands."
Shen Mi smirked. "Oh, so you need help huh? Looks like you can't do everything in that dinky little workshop of yours on your own, can you?" she asked mockingly. "You make all types of arms in that lab of yours, but you couldn't make one that looks like regular skin without help?"
He scoffed. "I could make a pair of regular arms, but what's the fun in that? Besides, I can do anything with these that you can with your regular dumb magic hands," he said.
Shen Mi rolled her eyes. "Except feel."
Rogen and Artemis both winced at the comment. Though Heath had never said much about it, they figured his prosthetic arms could be a touchy subject. Especially when phrased like that. Heath narrowed his eyes at her, and for a moment Shen Mi looked like she realized she might have said something wrong.
Heath pulled his glove off and then grabbed her hand. "I can feel," he said sternly. "I put nerve sensors in my arms. So I can feel the same as you," he said before lacing his fingers around hers.
Shen Mi stared back at him, blushing slightly. "How are your hands warm?"
"There's a heater in the palms… usually it's for shooting flames, but you know..."
Rogen and Artemis watched the two younger teens from the other side of the table. The latter leaned over towards her boyfriend looking intrigued. "Wow, this is weird… and sort of adorable. It's like watching two little honey badgers get together or something."
Rogen straightened his glasses up. "Well, I did give him some advice before."
"Really? And it's still working out? Kid's a natural," she quipped.
Before Rogen could say anything back, they heard a commotion up near the front. They looked over towards the door and saw four figures speaking to the greeter. "You've got to be kidding me…" Rogen muttered.
The Xiaolin dragons were all present. Opal was speaking with the greeter, while the other three were all looking around the place. "Shit… maybe they won't see us?" Artemis said. The moment she finished, Levi looked towards them and pointed. "Okay, never mind."
Opal led them over towards the table, smirking at Shen Mi as she did. "Wow, when we got the call I almost couldn't believe it. You really are here on a date," she said. "I thought you two weren't a thing?"
Heath and Shen Mi looked at her then down at their hands. They quickly pulled away from one another. "We're not! It's not a date!" Heath said quickly.
"Not that you would know what a date looks like," Shen Mi spat. "What are you even doing here? Don't tell me you're so lonely you're lurking around with your loser teammates to try and keep from being bored on the weekend."
Opal narrowed her eyes at the redhead. "We're here because we got a call about four criminals showing up in a restaurant like they weren't wanted by the law."
Artemis sighed. "Well, guess it's time to dance." She reached into her purse and then pulled out a gun. She fired towards Opal, who ducked out of the way. The rest of the dragons scattered as she fired at them.
"Do you always keep a gun on you?" Rogen asked, standing up and pulling his jacket off. He was pretty sure they were in for a fight at this point.
"Always," she answered as the other guests all shouted and began to scatter.
Opal looked annoyed as she glanced around for any large sources of water to make use of. Eventually she sighed and just decided to make use of what she could. She raised her hands, pulling water from the cups of all the now empty tables.
She combined them together and then flung her hands, turning them into ice spikes and sending them raining down towards Artemis and the others. Heath stepped forward and raised both of his arms. "Lame…" His arms activated, heating up and incinerating his sleeves and gloves. He shot a steak of flames up and melted the ice spikes, and then took aim towards them. "Get roasted losers!"
Raleigh stepped forward and redirected the flames away from them. This was a lot of firepower, and the heat was intense, but nothing he couldn't handle. "I got it!" Levi said, smirking as he stomped his foot down on the ground. The floor shifted, and a wave of earth moved towards them.
Artemis grabbed Heath and phased them into the ground, while Shen Mi flew up into the air. Rogen ran forward and then jumped over the wave of earth, right towards Levi. He balled his fist up and then swung at him, but Levi raised his arm and blocked it. Rogen followed through with his punch, his strength kicking in and sending Levi flying back.
"Levi!" Ryu rushed in to aid his friend, and Rogen quickly turned around and swung at him as well. Ryu nimbly ducked under the punch and then swung up with one of his own, and Rogen stumbled back to dodge it. Ryu blasted a bust of air from his fist, knocking him back against the wall on the other side of the room.
Ryu rushed at him and prepared to follow up, but suddenly Artemis and Heath appeared in front of him and raised their hands. They both blasted Ryu, knocking him back. Raleigh stepped behind his brother and caught him, and then the two shared a nod before both punching forward.
Fire and air shot out from their fist, swirling together and forming a large spiral of flames that came rushing towards the Young Blood members. "Aw shit…" Rogen muttered. Artemis got ready to grab both her boyfriend and Heath and phase out of the way, and Heath prepared to fire back with flames of his own.
Before they could act however, Shen Mi floated down between them. "Yeah, no." She snapped her fingers, and the spiral of flames suddenly vanished into thin air. Both Ryu and Raleigh looked stunned, and Shen Mi raised her hand into the air. "I'm getting so tired of you losers bugging me every time I'm having a nice time out…"
The table and chairs suddenly in the room all began floating, and swirling around the young xiaolin dragons. "Get lost already, you xiaolin losers." The table and chairs suddenly began rushing and crashing down near them, and the monks were all forced to leap around to dodge and avoid them.
Raleigh and Ryu shot wind and flames to try and ward them off. "Ugh, I can't see them! I can't see anything! We have to-" Everything suddenly dropped to the ground, and they looked around the room to see that, besides themselves, it was empty.
"Well, they're gone," Raleigh said, frowning.
"Dang it!" Opal said angrily. "Every time!"
She was going to finally take down Shen Mi one of these days. She swore it.
"That was actually kind of fun. Not the type of dancing I had in mind tonight, but fun," Artemis said smiling as they made their way down the street. She usually preferred to keep their date nights simple, but a little chaos every now and then didn't hurt. "And we didn't have to pay for anything. So, you know. Bonus."
Rogen clicked his tongue. "Yeah, but we didn't get to eat either. We should grab something on the way back. What's still open this late?" he asked.
"There's a burger joint not too far from here. I don't think anybody would give enough of a damn to call the cops on us either," Heath said. "Of course, that's if burgers aren't too low class for little miss magic over here."
Shen Mi huffed. "If you think you're gonna get out of buying me dinner just because of what happened back there, you're dead wrong. But they better not be some crappy tasting fake stuff," she warned.
"What's it matter. You're probably gonna just eat off my plate anyway."
"You're a lackey. What's yours is mine."
Artemis looked back over her shoulder as they began snipping at one another again. "I guess this is just like… their way of flirting?" she asked.
"Seems like it," Rogen said, shrugging his shoulders. "I mean it works for them so…"
Heath stuck his tongue out at Shen Mi before turning back around to keep walking, but then suddenly felt something grab his hand. He looked back down and saw Shen Mi had laced her fingers around his again. When he looked at her she was staring straight ahead, a blush in her cheeks. "Don't read into it bucktooth. My hands are cold. That's all," she said sternly.
Heath blushed and looked forward. "I'm not your personal heater. Bring hand warmers next time," he said. He didn't try to pull his hand away however. "And by the way… it was good different."
Shen Mi raised an eyebrow. "Huh?"
"When I said you looked different earlier. I meant a good different. I mean, that's not saying much considering you always look like a keebler elf, but still."
She elbowed him in his side. "Shut up. I always look amazing," she said. "And you… well, you look slightly less stupid then usual in a suit I guess. Even if it does look tacky."
Heath cleared his throat. "Uh… thanks I guess. Sleeves are done for though. Wasted money on this damn thing," he muttered.
"Wait, you bought it?" Artemis asked looking back. "I thought you rented it."
"No! Why would you rent a suit?!"
"People rent suits all the time man," Rogen said.
Shen Mi snickered. "Figures, you dummy," she said. "This is why you should leave the decision making up to your boss. Picking a bad suit, constantly going to places that get crashed in on by heroes. When you go on a real date, you're screwed."
Rogen and Artemis both shared a glance. Were they… were they still not counting this as a real date? Maybe they were just in denial. "Well maybe you could ask Alisha if she knows any places we could go to that are cool with… you know, villains," Rogen suggested.
Shen Mi hummed. "Yeah, I guess. She knows how to pick some fun and classy places. Next time you should just ask her," she said.
Heath blinked. Next time? Was she really expecting there to be a next time? He figured after tonight she wouldn't give a damn about tagging along with them anymore. He looked forward towards Rogen who was giving him a thumbs up. What did that mean? What did any of this mean?!
"He looks like he's having a panic attack," Artemis whispered.
"Yeah, he does that sometimes. He'll get over it," Rogen said as he reached down and grabbed Artemis' hand. "I mean I did, so…"
The four of them continued home, Rogen and Artemis finding amusement in watching the two younger teens behind them, and Heath and Shen Mi still holding hands and avoiding looking at one another.
A/N: A fic for Thepaladincosplays of Rogen, Artemis, Shen Mi, and Heath going on a double date! This was really fun to work on and it's making me want to do some more fics on the callyieverse side of things lol. This is another reason I like doing commissions. I'll get one that really gets the creative juices flowing. I needed to do some more fics for Heath (and Hue) anyway. I definitely see Heath as the counter/foil for Hank, and I like his dynamic with both Shen Mi and Rogen so those are worth a couple of fics in themselves.