Disclaimer: DC owns them. Not mine, never will be. No money is being made by this piece of fiction.
Wishful Thinking
By Arlene
Still dressed in her Wonder Girl outfit, Cassandra Sandsmark trudged into the rec room and plopped onto the sofa with a sigh. Zeus, she was bored.
It had been a long, uneventful day for Young Justice. After the meeting, which was always just chock full of excitement (yeah, right), they all went off to fight some baddies. And it wasn't any fun, either! Lots of kicking and punching, but nothing exploding, flashing or even blinking. Okay, so all that usually meant A Really Big Emergency, but at least they would've had a chance to have some sort of adventure. Um, okay, so usually their adventures meant someone on their side might get hurt, but at least they'd, like, do something important, like save the world or something. Well, then again, big world-saving-types of trips usually got pretty intense, and she'd wind up having to rethink her costume…Aw, forget it. Cass groaned in frustration. She was so bored that she'd actually resorted to rambling in her head. How sad was that?
So, anyways, after the big whoop with the bank robbers (Bank robbers? Puh-lease! Those idiots couldn't even rob a blind turtle with a broken leg!), most of the gang left, obviously having something better to do somewhere else. The only reason she'd bothered to stick around was because of him, her man.
Oh, that smile, that body, those eyes…just the whole package. The thought of him made her forget her boredom. Being with him, around him, flying with him. She closed her eyes and felt a grin spread out on her face. They'd flown once, just them, at night. Oh, the stars, the skyline, the lights down below, the wind rushing through her hair, everything was just perfect. Granted, it was more like tagging along, and she'd had some difficulty keeping up, but still… Then she frowned, remembering what had disrupted that moment. There was always something, wasn't there?
She knew she was probably making a fool of herself flirting so openly with him, and she knew that everybody else was probably feeling sorry for her because he seemed so, well, unreceptive? oblivious? to her advances. So far, she'd done practically everything short of throwing herself at him. Okay, so she had actually done that today, but she'd had a totally different reason behind it at the time.
But back to the main problem. He was still hung up on her. Until he could finally move past losing her, it would always be too soon for Cassie to be noticed, or at least for Cassie to be taken seriously. Why couldn't he just accept that he'd done all he could, that she was gone now, past tense, no longer part of his life? She sighed. Geez, Cass, jealous much? It wasn't like he was openly showing how upset he still was about it, he being a guy and acting all "Nope, nothing's wrong here." Of course if you looked closely enough, you could tell it still hurt him deeply, no matter how much time had passed. And Cassie had been looking at him quite closely for some time. For a long time.
But how could she possibly compete with a memory?
She was jostled from her thoughts as the seat cushions suddenly bounced from someone else's weight. She was about to yell at the intruder when she looked up and met those eyes. Those beautiful blue eyes. She quickly swallowed what she'd originally planned to say and settled for a weak smile.
"Hey."
He smiled back. He actually smiled at her! And meant it! "Hey." He looked a little uncertain. "Uh, did I bother you?"
"You? No. No! I was just, uh, thinking. That's all." About you, she added silently.
"Ah," he nodded sagely. "Deep, heavy thoughts."
"Uh, not really. Just, y'know…" About you! "…girl stuff."
"Ah," he nodded again, although he really didn't want to know what she meant by that. Now he looked slightly uncomfortable. He cleared his throat. "About this afternoon, you really didn't have to do, well, *that*. I mean, I coulda shielded myself with my t--"
"Oh no," she broke in, trying to reassure him, "no prob at all. Y'know what 'Fearless Leader' always says about watching each other's backs." She smiled wistfully. 'Cuz I'll always be watching yours. And your front, your sides… Realizing she was still staring at his face, she dropped her eyes to the stylized letter on his chest. Hera, Cass, she scolded herself, like, can you *be* more obvious?
"Uh, well, thanks anyways." An uneasy silence followed. "And, um, could we just, like, forget about the 'Fearless Leader' thing and the meeting an' all? It just…wasn't such a great day to begin with." He ran a hand through his dark hair. "Guess I shouldn't've snapped at him like that. But the look on his face--that was priceless!" He started snickering.
She slapped him lightly on the arm. "Oh, c'mon, you know he meant well." His snickering escalated to chuckling. She hit him again and started giggling. "You're evil!"
"Don't mess with the S, Baby!!" he crowed, which set both of them off into full-blown laughter.
A few more minutes, when they finally calmed down enough to gasp for breath, they settled back on the couch, feeling more comfortable with each other than they had before.
"I'm sorry," he said abruptly.
"Huh?" She looked at him, surprised. He wasn't much of an apologizing kinda guy. "For what?"
"That we don't do this," he indicated the two of them with his hand, "more often. Y'know, kick back and talk. Like friends should. We gotta do this more often."
Cassie's heart beat a little faster. He just said they were friends! Maybe there was a chance for more? She decided to go for it. "You hungry?"
"I could eat." He looked thoughtful. "Burgers?"
Success! "Kewl. I'll buy." At his protest, she added, "Your turn next time, 'kay?"
He smiled. "Fair 'nuff. Lemme get changed first. Wouldn't want any of my fans mobbing me, now would we?" he preened. Cassie merely snorted in reply at his behavior. "Back in a few." He headed towards the guys' locker room.
Satisfied, she got up and was about to change out of uniform herself, when a familiar whine stopped her.
"Hey! Where's the remote? It's almost on!"
She tried to sound as patient as she possibly could. "Try under the couch. You kicked it when you went after Bart, remember?" She flew to the girls' locker room before he could call her again. Honestly, Kon could be so immature sometimes!
End
