Chapter 6

Artemis felt a warmth behind her. She snuggled into it without turning around. A heavy arm snaked its way around her torso. She felt chapped lips kiss at her neck and sighed. Seemingly encouraged, the hand at her waist snuck upwards until it cupped her naked breast. Still kissing her neck, the mystery boy squeezed her breast. Artemis bit her lip but couldn't help but squirm backwards against the growing hardness making itself known against her ass.

She felt a groan on her neck, and the emboldened hand pinched at her nipple. Artemis returned the groan, turning suddenly. She wanted to touch whoever it was with her, to kiss him and make him feel what she was feeling. She opened her eyes to see deep red hair. Wally.

Artemis sat up with a gasp. Her bed was empty and cold. She groaned laying back down. Okay, this is getting ridiculous. Sex dreams about Wally West? I need to get laid and soon.

She stood up and realized she hadn't washed her face the night before. She felt sticky and greasy. I also desperately need a shower.

As she walked towards the bathroom, she saw something on her desk. Her Tigress mask lay there, even though Artemis knew it was in the gym bag last night, and beside it, a note: I was hoping I was wrong.

Fuck. No no no no, fuck. Anybody else would have found that and thought it was a Halloween costume or a joke. The one person in the entire world that she didn't want to see the mask found it of course. Of course.

Two hours later and Artemis was no closer to figuring out what to do. She had taken a long shower, she had tried doing her homework, nothing. Now she was lying on her back, staring at the ceiling, praying for some sort of divine help.

Should I text? Should I ignore him?

Ignoring seemed like the best plan, but it was harder when he was everywhere. She laid on her bed, staring at the ceiling. What would I even say?

"Knock, knock," Zatanna called, walking in. She jumped on Artemis' bed without waiting for an invitation. "Hey, sorry about ditching you last night. Dick and I just needed some alone time." She winked at Artemis, who just nodded. "Anyway, I noticed Wally didn't come home until this morning, so I figured you were fine, too." She nudged at Artemis who just rolled over to lie on her stomach. "Sooo… what happened?" Artemis just groaned. "Okay, Artemis, I know you're not exactly the "sharing type," but you can't just leave a girl hanging."

"Nothing happened," Artemis mumbled into her mattress.

"What?"

Artemis sighed and turned back over. "Nothing happened."

Zatanna narrowed her eyes, "What do you mean, 'nothing happened'? Didn't Wally stay here last night?"

Artemis sat up. "Yeah, but nothing happened. I was drunk, and he's, well, not an awful person."

"So, you guys just hung out?"

"I mean, we mainly fought, but yeah, pretty much. We watched Jurassic Park until we fell asleep."

"Hm, well, that's no sex romp, but still sounds nice." Zatanna examined Artemis' face. "So, why do you look like someone stole your puppy?"

"We just…" Artemis put her head and her hands. "Ugh."

"Artemis," Zatanna tugged at her hands. "Use your words."

Artemis sighed again, and let it out. She laid back to stare at the ceiling. "Listen, Wally found out something about me, and it shouldn't be a big deal, but apparently it was a big deal, and I knew he would think it's a big deal even though it's totally not, so I didn't tell him, but now he found out."

"Oh."

Okay, this is why Zatanna had so much potential as a friend. She didn't even blink following along with Artemis' rambling speech. "Yeah."

Zatanna laid beside Artemis on her side, so she was facing Artemis, who continued to stare at the ceiling.

"And this thing…is it bad?" Zatanna questioned.

"Not inherently. But he's mad because I didn't tell him, but like, why do I need to tell him everything?"

"Uh huh." They sat in silence for a while. Artemis finally turned to Zatanna.

"Did he really not say anything when you saw him?" Artemis questioned. I mean, what could he say? Artemis has a secret identity and I do too, and they hate each other?

"He did seem…irritated. But the thing is Artemis…"

"Yeah?"

"Well, Artemis, I have something to tell you."

Zatanna sat up, and Artemis followed her cue. "What's up?"

Zatanna stood up and took a deep breath. "Emit ot yrt tuo a wen kool." Smoke swirled around Zatanna, and when it disappeared, she was wearing a very feminine magician's outfit.

"Holy shit." Artemis whispered, pulling herself off her bed. Holy shit.

"Surprise?" Zatanna answered weakly.

Artemis walked around Zatanna in a circle.

"Artemis? Say something." Zatanna pleaded.

A beat passed.

"Your uniform is hot."

Zatanna threw her head back and laughed. She hugged Artemis close. "So, you're not mad?"

"Mad? I don't think so. Are you on the team?" Artemis hugged her back.

"No, not yet." Zatanna made a face. "I'm still training with my dad, but I think soon!"

"Oh my god, I can't believe this. Wait, so does Wally know? Does Dick know? Wait," Artemis stopped hugging, pulling back to hold Zatanna by the shoulders, "how long have you known about me?"

It had taken a second, but suddenly all the implications came rushing at Artemis. What did this all mean?

Zatanna sighed and sat back on the bed, pulling Artemis with her. "Yeah, I thought we'd get there." She interweaved her fingers into Artemis'. "Okay, don't be mad, but I've known since we met."

"Since we met?!" Artemis stood up, disconnecting her hand from Zatanna's. "How? I'm guessing it's no coincidence that we're roommates." She paused then growled. "Nightwing."

"He was only trying to help." Zatanna assured her.

"Or he doesn't trust me."

"He trusts you!" Zatanna disagreed.

"So much that he has me living with a babysitter." Artemis snapped. God, I told GA that Batman and Nightwing would never trust a Crock even if I have known them for years. Not that I blame them, she thought bitterly.

"So much that he has you living with…" Zatanna seemed to hesitate, "with his girlfriend."

Oh. Oh, damn.

When Wally had gotten home in the morning, he had heard Zatanna and Dick in the kitchen.

"Hey," Zatanna had poked her head out, and when she saw it was him, she walked into the living room, Dick following her.

"Hey," he answered, looking at Dick hard.

"So, where have you been?" Zatanna asked smugly, but Dick seemed to sense something was wrong, giving Wally a questioning look.

"At your place." Zatanna squealed and stepped forward as though to hug him, and Dick started to grin, but quickly Wally added, "with Tigress."

Zatanna and Dick both grimaced, but it was Dick who answered. "Oh."

Wally thought they knew, but their reaction was confirmation. How could they keep this from me? "Yeah, oh." He took a step forward. "I'm guessing that was you, Dick, moving her in with Zatanna?"

"Wait," Zatanna held her hand up. "I get that you're irritated that Dick didn't tell you, but didn't Artemis explain any of this to you? She didn't know about any of it either."

"No, Tigress," he emphasized her name, "didn't explain anything to me."

Dick and Zatanna exchanged confused looks. "Slow down, KF. What happened?" Dick asked, moving to the couch.

Wally paced, pulling at his hair occasionally, telling them how he started to suspect when she was calling him the same nicknames as Tigress, and then when he saw her bruises (that was a little awkward to explain and Zatanna's eyes got very large while he tried to push past the seeing Artemis in her bra thing).

But the kicker? They'd fallen asleep halfway through Jurassic Park. When Wally woke up in the morning, he tried to sneak out of bed to make them breakfast, but he had tripped over a gym bag. Artemis was out hard (Tigress, he reminded himself), luckily, and as he gathered everything that had fallen out of her bag, he realized what he was holding. Tigress' gear.

He shoved everything back in, except the mask. He left that on her desk with a note.

"A note," Dick groaned.

That's what he took from this? Wally thought defensively.

"Well, what did the note say?" Zatanna asked.

"Ah, well…" he shuffled, "something like… 'I was hoping I was wrong.'" Okay, it sounds bad, Wally thought to himself, but he wasn't the liar.

"Are you serious?" Zatanna cried as Dick yelled, "Come on, man!" at the same time.

"What? She lied to me." Suddenly, Wally remembered he was mad at them too. "In fact, you've all lied to me."

"Dude," Dick stood up and clapped him on the shoulder, "did you tell her I was Nightwing?"

"What? No, of course not!" Wally was shocked that Dick would even ask.

Dick spread his hands, "But you think I should have told you her secret identity?"

"That…that was different." Wally was angry and if he couldn't take it out on her, he needed to at least take it out on somebody, and Dick seemed as good a target as any.

"How?"

Wally flailed for a moment, before remembering how he met Artemis in the first place. "You manipulated us." Wally poked him in the chest.

"I didn't manipulate you. I thought that it would be good for our new teammate to be in class with someone she knew. How could I know that you too would take to each other like that?"

"Like nothing" Wally hissed. "I want nothing to do with that harpy. And what about Zatanna? She knew; you clearly told her."

"Listen, Wally, I've known Artemis for years. And Zatanna was living with her. We both thought it would be nice. And that it would help Artemis open up. She, well, she hasn't had it easiest."

Wally narrowed his eyes. "What does that mean?"

"It means you should cut her a break."

Wally snorted. Yeah, right, like she's ever cut me a break. "Whatever, man. I'm the only one who stands up to her, but I should cut her a break?"

"You're the only one who ever flirts with her, you mean," Zatanna corrected. Wally bristled again.

"I never flirt with Tigress."

"You never flirt with Artemis?" Zatanna deadpanned.

"That was different! I didn't know she was so...ugh, this is not about me!" Wally retorts. They both just stare at him, almost like they're amused. Frustrated, Wally turns around. "Forget it!" he shouts, stomping to his bedroom.

Wally laid on his bed, listening to the murmurs of Zatanna and Dick, trying to tune them out. He could still feel her body against his, the way she pushed at him, both physically and emotionally. He thought of the way she had moved as Tigress. I can't believe I didn't see it before, he thought to himself. Wally turned and punched his pillow. Dammit, and he was still hungry.

Over the next few days, Artemis and Wally ignored each other. In the cave, during training, in class. Artemis kept expecting him to confront her, to tell her off, but instead he just pretended like she didn't exist. She tried to bait him during training, but Wally just walked off to flirt with M'gann. That hurt, but Artemis told herself she just missed having a verbal sparring partner.

Zatanna kept pressuring Artemis to approach him, but what was there to really say? She was who she was, and he was who he was. Besides, there was more than Zatanna knew to her secret identity, a part that Artemis had tried to leave behind. Artemis knew that if anyone on the team found out, it wouldn't be just Wally icing her out.

"So, what you're just gonna ignore him forever?" Zatanna asked one morning, as they sat in the living room, taking a break from their respective studies.

"No," Artemis shrugged. "But you saw the note. He doesn't want to talk about it. And there's nothing to talk about."

"He's in shock." Zatanna replied. "Weren't you shocked when I told you about me and Dick?"

"Shocked about your secret identities or shocked that you called yourself his girlfriend?" Artemis teased.

Zatanna threw a pillow from the couch at her. "That was just dramatics. I'm a show woman! But seriously, give Wally a chance."

"Yeah, yeah, I'll give him one when he gives me one." Besides, if he's this mad about finding out I'm a superhero, how mad would he be if he found out who I really am?

Her phone beeped with a text from GA. "Artemis, come to Star City. Batman and I have a mission for you."

Artemis stood up, buzzing automatically the way she always did before a mission.

Zatanna stood up and hugged her. "You've got this." We'll see, Artemis thought with a deep breath.

It was a rough couple of weeks for Artemis. Class had officially kicked into gear, and she'd either been at the gym or at the library. It may have been more convenient just to train at the cave, but then she'd risk running into Wally, and she was really trying to avoid that.

There was something about him. Artemis thought that once he found out about her, that after a clean break, it would be over. But instead, she was thinking more about him. It didn't help that he was everywhere.

She wanted to tell herself that that was why, but she hadn't seen him in days, not even in class, since she'd had to miss class for her mission (Oliver's notes were good as gold to professors). That thing at the club had been stupid, and she had been avoiding him ever since. He texted her at one point, a simple Where are you? but she didn't feel up to telling him.

Artemis had been in prison. With Cameron, again. Pretending to forgive him. Or maybe she had forgiven him. She didn't know anymore. She knew that she was moving forward in her life, and he was stuck trying to be his dad. Well, he is choosing to be a criminal. Just like he chose to cheat on me. But Artemis knew what it was like to see no choices in front of you. If Paula hadn't come home when she did, Artemis may have been in the same place. Or worse, she may have been dead. She couldn't see Sportsmaster being too happy with a vigilante daughter. So while it still hurt to see Cameron, the way he had made her feel when she'd finally caught him red-handed with another girl, one, she knew, of many, she also felt bad for the way he was caught up in his father's game. There were too many complex feelings tangled up in this whole situation, and Artemis felt like she hadn't signed up for that. What she had signed up for was some straightforward punching bad guys, and all she wanted was to get back to that.
So when Wally texted her, she really didn't see the need to answer, to tell him that she had been snitching on her ex, and that she was the only one who could do it, because her whole family and everyone she knew were criminals and everyone thought she was a criminal too. Yeah, that would go well. But if Wally didn't like one thing, it was being ignored. The next day, she got a follow-up,

"You know, we could really have used your help yesterday, but I guess you had something more important going on. Thanks so much, from the team."

Artemis contemplated a reply, but would he ever ask Nightwing where he was? Blame Aqualad for not being there? Certainly, not his precious M'gann. She'd always be proving herself to him, and she'd always be failing. I get enough of that from my Dad.

She sent him a two-word reply, and he seemed to get the message.

After another long night at the library, she got home to find Dick in her living room sitting in front of a laptop.

"Hey," she said, surprised. "Where's Zatanna?"

"She went to bed." He answered simply. "I just had some work to do. Where have you been?"

"Library." She yawned. "Well, I'm gonna grab a snack and head to bed myself."

"Wait, Artemis."

"Yeah, Dick?"

He hesitated. "What's going on with you and Wally?"

Her eyes widened. "I don't think that there's any of your business," she replied tightly.

"Hey, I don't want it to be." He held his hands up. "But…just, don't mess him around. Okay?"

Me, mess him around? Alright, that was it. Dick wanted to get into this, she'd get into this. "You don't want me to mess with him?" She whisper-yelled, trying not to wake Zatanna, stepping closer to him. "Why don't you ask him how Clayface lured him into a trap the other day. You know I can read a briefing report, right?" Dick swore under his breath, but Artemis didn't let him speak. "Yeah, I'm not an idiot. I know he's in love with M'gann, and fine, if you think I'm a 'distraction' or whatever, don't worry about it. You want to know what's going on with me and Wally? Nothing. Strictly teammates. Not friends. He gets it, and now you get it too."

Forgetting her snack, she turned around and stomped to her room.