Disclaimer: Nope.
"So, what's on your mind, beautiful?"
Wally's sweet talk was still taking some getting used to. Hell, all of it was still taking some getting used to. Artemis and Wally hadn't known each other for very long at all, but it was certainly long enough for the roots of contempt to burry themselves deep into the ground, so that when they were forcefully ripped out upon the two 'pulling a Bialya, as Wally called it, only large gaping holes of awkward small talk and forced smiles were left behind for them to work with.
When they had finally gotten over that mess, things seemed to flow easily enough. Some of things that Wally did still got on Artemis' last nerve, such as the way he smiled like he was a freaking ladykiller, or the way he told her she looked sexy in her new jeans, or the way he complimented her perfect aim... but those kinds of little things, as numerous as they may be, were relatively easy enough to overlook for the sake of getting along.
Then there was the talking. It wasn't as though Artemis was a recluse or anything; she was human, and therefore had social needs to be met; but sharing wasn't really her cup of tea. The same couldn't be said for Wally, however. In fact, the very opposite could. Whereas Artemis was a bottle it up type of gal, Wally was keen to bottle poppin', and so Artemis found herself having more heart-to-hearts than she would ever care to have with anyone, fresh start or not.
Artemis took a deep breath and mulled over her words carefully as she dunked a french fry into the puddle of ketchup on her plate. "I totally screwed up the last mission. I left myself open during hand-to-hand like, four times; I lost my footing while scaling that fence in the alley; I even drew the wrong arrow at one point!" Satisfied with the thick coat of ketchup, she tossed the fry in her mouth. "Thank God I didn't fire the damn thing, otherwise the whole building would've come down."
She leaned her head on her hand, propped by her elbow. "It's like... I wasn't focused. Like I wasn't even trying."
Wally took a too-large bite out of his too-large burger. His second too-large burger, at that. "Please, you're just being hard on yourself." His muffled words of reassurance lost their affect thanks in part to the substantial portions of food crammed in his mouth. Charming, Artemis thought, narrowing her eyes crossly, finding the disgusting display in front of her somehow too intriguing to look away from. The ladies must be lining up for you, huh?
"You did great - and you looked hot as hell doing it," he continued after he swallowed and slurped down a large gulp of his soda, complete with an obnoxiously cheesy 'ah' at the end. He smiled that stupid Casanova-wannabe smile of his, and Artemis' fingers twitched with the hankering to rip it right off of his stupid freckled face.
"Would you cut that out?"
Artemis could have sworn she felt an actual something-or-other inside her snap. This - what was going on between the two of them - couldn't go on for a second longer. She couldn't take it. If M'gann (and every other poor girl Wally ever spoke to, for that matter) was cool dealing with Wally's shit, that was all fine and dandy. As for Artemis? There was no way in hell she was going to put up with it anymore.
"What?" Wally lowered his burger. He looked genuinely concerned, and for a moment Artemis almost felt bad that she was about to completely and utterly destroy the progress the two of them had made to get to this point. Aqualad, for one, would be severely disappointed.
"Quit being such a dick!"
She got over it quickly. It wasn't a good point to be at anyway, she told herself. Why that was exactly remained unclear to her, but it was a reassuring thought to think regardless.
"I don't und-"
"Ever since we decided to start over or whatever, you've treating me like I'm a piece of ass - the same way you'd treat any hot girl off the street. And frankly, it's bugging the shit out of me," Artemis snapped, then leaned back and crossed her arms. She didn't appreciate that the squeal from the old vinyl covering the seat took away from the drama of her outburst, but she was beyond caring about something so minute, and therefore continued. "I'd rather you hate me than consider me some random chick whose pants you think you could get into."
"I don't think you're a piece of ass!" Wally held his hands out in protest. "I just..." he struggled to find the words, "how else am I supposed to act? I mean, sure, I could treat you like shit like I did before, but that's not very productive, is it? Haven't you ever heard 'make love, not war'?" he paused, looking at her with confused desperation. "I-I don't mean it like that," he added quickly upon seeing her bitter glower.
"Whatever," Artemis said with a roll of her eyes. Unlike 'babe' and 'gorgeous,' she had no difficulties getting used to Wally's serious case of 'open mouth, insert foot' syndrome. "I just want you to treat me like - I dunno," she sighed, frustrated. God, I don't even know how to explain this. "Like me, and not like any other girl."
Wally quirked an eyebrow, and Artemis felt her stomach drop and her face grow hot with the realization that her words could be taken the wrong way. As in, the complete opposite way of how they should be taken.
Like hell she wanted to be treated specially by Wally. No - she just wanted him to not do or say anything to her that he would do or say to other girls. Was that so hard?
"What do you mean?"
"N-nevermind," she spat quickly. Dammit! What the hell am I saying?
Artemis took a moment to recover, and to convince herself that the diner had suddenly become several degrees warmer in the past few seconds, because there was absolutely no way she was blushing, even just a little.
"Look, friendship doesn't necessarily have to mean 'getting along.' Look at you and Robin - you guys are always dicking around and cock-blocking each other, but you're still heterosexual life partners."
Wally opened his mouth to object, but Artemis pressed on without giving him a chance to get a word in edgewise. "Why should we have to be all buddy-buddy when it's easier to set each other off? It's not like one of use has tried to actually kill the other," she leaned forward again, placing her folded arms on the table. "Besides, don't you miss making my life a living hell?"
Wally seemed to be considering this as he took another enormous bite from his burger, which encouraged Artemis to continue.
"And plus, maybe antagonizing each other is more productive than you think. Take this last mission; we both dragged the team down with all our petty mistakes."
"'We both'? I happened to do perfectly fine on the mission, thank you very much," Wally declared, raising his chin haughtily. Artemis happened to notice he had a sprinkling of faint freckles trickling down his neck, and when she felt a sudden desire to see exactly where they trickled to, she ripped her gaze away with a perfectly executed eye roll.
"Oh please!" she scoffed. "You call tripping on a garbage can lid and bowling over Superboy 'perfectly fine'?" She gave Wally a pointed look, and his face crinkled into a sour pout which spelled out victory for Artemis. As usual, she thought with glee.
"Anyway, the only thing we're doing differently is being nice to each other, so that's obviously the reason why we're screwing up so badly. Think about it - I bet you the entire check that you wiped out in the alleyway because you were trying to resist the urge to point out that I busted my ass falling off the fence."
"Psh! No I wasn't..." Wally said defensively. His gaze shifted to the side. Aaaand there's the pout - that's two for mama, zip for Wally.
"Mhmm, sure. Just face it - we do better on missions because we're trying to prove to each other that we don't suck," Artemis said with a shrug. She began swirling another french fry in ketchup, her appetite returning after it had abruptly vanished. "Last night we were so caught up in playing nice that we lost our focus on getting things done right. What we need to do is go back to how things were before," she waved the dipped fry through the air as if it would help prove her point.
Wally sighed, long and slow. As he thought, he absentmindedly stirred his almost melted strawberry milkshake. "They do say competition breeds excellence," he agreed after a short silence, during which Artemis did not stare at his long, knobby fingers as they grasped his straw.
Artemis sat up straight and snapped her eyes back to Wally's. "Exactly. And who are we to take that away from the team?"
"You raise a good point," Wally nodded. "It's been weird pretending to be nice and junk, anyway. Honestly I think it just made things worse, like I was giving myself the old bait-n-switch. No wonder girls are so catty," he sniggered, using a discreet burst of speed to dodge Artemis' wadded-up straw wrapper. "All right. Then let us toast," he raised his soupy milkshake, "to friendly rivalry."
Artemis smirked and raised her own watered-down soda. "Who said anything about 'friendly?'" she asked coyly. The clink of their glasses punctuated her point marvelously. "I've been dying to call you out on your shit since we first went with your stupid plan."
Artemis took a dainty victory sip and let the joy that came with watching the look of awe pass over Wally's face curb the taste of her water-diluted beverage. Yeah, that's right, Wall-man. Load up the guns - it's open fire now.
Wally set down his now-empty milkshake glass. He blinked once, twice, then ran his tongue over his upper lip to clear away the pink-tinted mustache. His mouth stretched into a devilish smile - one that Artemis had admittedly missed these last few weeks, as dumb as she had always thought it looked.
"Well then, if that's the case - you should've seen your face when you planted it. Damn near the funniest thing I've seen in a long time," he said airily as he casually slung an arm across the back of the booth, passing a glance over his fingernails.
Artemis let the words sink in with relish. The verbal warfares she so dearly missed brought about by Wally's smart-ass remarks were greeted with a warm embrace. Screw sugar-coated sweet nothings - this is the stuff I wanna hear.
"Is that right? What about you, Flash Junior? Giving away your position during a covert operation by burping isn't exactly professional, now is it?" she fired back.
"Oh man..." Wally clapped a hand on his forehead and let out a short, spiteful laugh. "You know, I gotta say, I kind of missed you being a bitch."
"Aw, how sweet," Artemis cooed. She folded her hands under her chin, and Wally did the same. With the unwelcome pressure to be pleasant gone, Artemis now found the air much more breathable, and Wally much more bearable. She didn't have a doubt in her mind that he shared the notion.
"Well, I don't think anyone could have filled the void in my heart made by Wally the Asshole."
They smiled, and Artemis slid her hand across the table top, lifting it to reveal the check for their meal. "I believe this is yours," she practically sang, delighted by how the speed at which Wally's face fell served as a true testament to his rep as the 'fastest kid on earth'. He eyed the bill wearily.
"Damn."
So it wasn't until about thirteen minutes before I submitted this part that I started liking it. While writing this, I really struggled with describing what Artemis was feeling while 1) still keeping her in character and 2) continuing to take this story in the direction I want it to go. I apologize for any instances that do her character wrong haha
On a different note, I'm surprised by how fast I was able to write this, especially amongst studying for midterms. Guess that means this newfangled way of writing works for me. Sweet.
One part to go! I hope you guys enjoyed this enough to stick around!