So Black Canary thought he was in denial, huh? Artemis had made it very clear that she didn't want the League to know about their little…arrangement, so it's not like Wally could talk to Canary, even if he wanted to. And anyway, if he told Canary, then probably Green Arrow would find out, and ugh. That was one conversation he was trying to avoid if possible. So Wally had done what he did best, deflect. This whole situation was getting complicated.

That didn't mean he was completely heartless. He waited for Artemis to get through her own therapy session, playing video games with Kaldur (who, to be honest, was fine at video games, but who was not great at trash talk, so it lost a bit of the entertainment value), but she stalked past them without a word.

He hit pause and sped in front of Artemis before she jumped in the zeta.

"Move," she growled.

"What's wrong, beautiful?" Wally knew he was playing with fire. If Artemis wanted to talk, she would have talked, but he couldn't just let her leave without saying anything. After all, he rationalized, they were friends.

She narrowed her eyes, and Wally flinched. "Listen, Flashy. I didn't want to talk to Dinah," she poked him in the chest, stepping forward, "and I sure as hell don't want to talk to you."

"Okay, okay," He stepped back. "Do you want to play video games?"

She rolled her eyes but dropped her finger. "No, I don't want to play video games."

"Alright…" He studied her as she tapped the toe of her boot. "Are you…mad at me?"

Artemis sighed, and her foot finally stopped. "No, I'm not mad at you, Wally. I'm just having a bad day, and I want to go home and relax."

Wally stepped forward again, and taking her hands in his, raised an eyebrow, "Need any help relaxing?"

Artemis glanced over her shoulder at Kal, who wasn't paying them any attention. "Aren't you busy?"

"I don't think Kal will mind." To be honest, Wally had already forgotten Kal the moment Artemis had walked in the room. He wasn't proud of it, but there it was. And besides, Kal wasn't really enjoying the game so much anyway.

Just then, Meg floated in. Artemis drew her hands back like they'd been burnt.

"You're not leaving, are you Artemis?" She asked, not noticing the tension between them.

"Yeah, I'm just a little tired."

"If you're tired, why don't you take a nap or get in the hot tub?" Megan clasped her hands together in front of her.

Wally remembered Artemis' bikini look and nodded, "Yeah, what about the hot tub?"

She frowned at him. "I think I just want to go home."

"I was hoping maybe we could all have dinner?" Meg had such an effect on Artemis. Wally could see her wavering. Wait, he thought suddenly, Was Artemis jealous of me, not Megan? That didn't sit well with him. He watched as Artemis rolled her eyes to the ceiling and nodded. Megan reached forward and hugged her tightly. When she let go, Artemis had a small resigned smile on her face.

"Great!" Megan clapped her hands, "And you're staying, of course, Wally?"

"With you cooking, Megalicious? How could I resist?" Wally confirmed, watching Artemis' face. Artemis frowned at him again.

Megan beamed and then turned to float towards Kal to convince him, and Wally decided this was a good time to confront Artemis. Trying to get a straight answer from her was like wrestling an oiled-up cat, but damn if anyone could say that Wally was taking the easy way out.

"So, why do you hang out with Meg when she asks and not me?"

Artemis looked at him like he was missing something obvious. "Really? You're the one who's complaining about how I interact with Megan?"

So, she was jealous of someone. But which one of us? He quickly tried to read her face, but he couldn't gather anything. Ugh, the perils of talking to a ninja. She was so skilled and smart. But he knew it was more than that that attracted him to her. Artemis didn't just tease him, she put him in his place, she watched out for him, and for their friends. Okay, okay, maybe she wasn't the jealous one.

It seemed like just asking wasn't going to work with Artemis, so Wally was gonna have to try a different method. Wally grabbed her hands again, trying to tease it out of her. "Ah, babe, your jealousy is really out of control."

She grabbed her hands back again. "Your imagination is the only thing out of control here," she snapped. Wally grinned. She didn't deny it. Feeling triumphant, he didn't even chase her as she turned and stomped towards the training room. Wally jogged back to the couch to sit by Kal, Meg having retreated to the kitchen to plan dinner. Learning to read Artemis was definitely more art than science, but he had been feeling more at home in the arts lately.

"Is that wise, antagonizing Artemis?" Kal asked, nodding towards the hallway.

"How do you know she wasn't the one antagonizing me?" Wally argued. Kal gave him a look, like a knowing father, the look that he had somehow perfected in such a short time. "Fine, fine. But I was just trying to talk to her. I wasn't trying to bug her." Much, he added to himself.

"Well, you should apologize."

Wally hesitated. "She went to the training room, I think."

Kaldur nodded. "You should still apologize. Later, though perhaps."

"When she's not around so many weapons?" Wally offered.

At that, Kal smiled at him and picked up his game remote. "I was going to say when she was less irritated, but yes, her proximity to weapons is dangerous as well." Wally grinned back at him and picked up his own remote.

Artemis found Dick in the training room. He nodded but continued his exercises, jumping from bar to bar, flipping. She quickly stripped her jacket and shirt off so she was in a tank top for more movement and moved to the archery range to let go of some of her frustration. Jealous, she scoffed to herself. And this was the second time he'd accused her of as much! As if she would ever have useless feelings of jealousy over Kid Nerd, all hair and mouth. If her time with Cam had taught her anything, it was not to get attached to boys who were all talk. Because one day, that talk turned out to be true. Charmers are snakes. Her dad had always told her that, her sister had always told her that, and though she wouldn't trust either of them with any kind of emotional intelligence, it had proved to be true. Dinah wanted her to reveal herself to him? No, fucking-thank-you, ma'am.

Artemis finished her first round of arrows and pulled them out of the targets. Lining up again, she started pulling two arrows at a time. She had almost emptied her quiver again when Wally zipped in.

He gave a low whistle. "Woah, babe, you are looking good."

She knew she was sweaty and red-faced, and she refused to be charmed by him. "Yeah, I'm a real model here."

Wally looked at her quizzically like he didn't understand why she was being sarcastic about that.

"What do you want, Wally?" She walked towards the targets to gather her arrows. Before she could grab any, Wally zipped around and collected them. He stood in front of her, grinning. He held out the arrows, but when Artemis reached out to grab them, he held them out of her reach.

"What will you give me for them?" He asked playfully, but Artemis was not in the mood for his games. Not today, Kid Playboy.

"How about I don't break your fingers?" She asked, crossing her arms.

"I thought you liked my fingers." He stepped closer.

Artemis tightened her own fingers on her arm, then shrugged. "I've had better."

Wally's eyes widened. "What?" he squeaked out.

She shrugged again and took advantage of his shock to snatch her arrows.

"You lie," he narrowed his eyes.

Artemis carefully started restocking the quiver, examining the arrows to make sure he hadn't damaged any. They seemed fine. "If that's what you want to believe," she answered coolly.

"You said you liked it." He raised his voice accusingly. Artemis cringed and looked over to where Dick had been swinging just moments before, but he seemed to have disappeared discreetly.

"And now I'm saying I've had better." She put her hands on her hips, "Despite your oversized ego, Speedy, you aren't the god's gift to women that you think you are."

"Yeah?" He stepped closer to her, but she refused to back down. Wally really thought that he was going to come in here and flirt with her as though it would make her feel special. She knew that if he even got a hint of the truth about her, she would finally see him break the sound barrier as he tried to get away from her. She wasn't anything like his precious Megan, and she wasn't someone for him to use and toss away. Well, she wasn't going to give him the satisfaction. This game that they were playing was on her rules, and she wouldn't let him forget it. A line from her favorite poem by June Jordan, the one she kept tacked up on her mirror at home came to mind, I will be nobody's fool.

She raised her chin to look him in the eyes. "Yeah."

He stared at her, his green eyes smoldering into hers. Artemis tried to ignore the flame that was in her belly, refused to glance at his lips, but she couldn't stop herself from swallowing. Damn, why is he so hot when he's mad? It had to be in part because it wasn't hard to bug or irritate him, but to make him actually angry was pretty difficult, something only she seemed to have an affinity for. And then there was the way his jaw set. But damn if she was going to let him see how he was affecting her.

Just then, Wally reached up suddenly to ruffle his hair, clearly out of frustration, and that's when everything changed.

Artemis flinched.

She didn't know where that came from- she knew Wally would never hurt her, and she hadn't even felt afraid, but when he moved, she flinched so involuntarily that she couldn't even process it in time to stop herself. She hoped against hope that Wally hadn't noticed, but from the way he was frozen, with his eyes wide and stuck on her face, his hand still in his hair, she knew he had.

Artemis swallowed again, this time for a very different reason. Wally opened his mouth, his brow furrowing No, no no, I can't talk about this, Artemis panicked. Luckily, just then Kal walked into the room.

They both whipped their heads towards him. "Is everything okay in here?" He questioned them slowly, clearly taking in the tension.

Artemis took the opportunity to back away from Wally. "It's fine. I'm just not," She swallowed for the third time. "I'm just not feeling well. Tell Meg I had to go. Sorry," She hurriedly left the gym, almost running towards the zeta tubes. She didn't dare look behind her in case Wally was following. It wasn't until she was walking out of the broken elevator at Wayne Tech that she realized she'd never even put down her arrows.