Ages: Cameron is 23 and Artemis is 22.

Big Mom Energy

Late Summer, Team Year 7

Logic.

Artemis knew from her training that in the field that when you were questioning your own reality, logic was king. You needed to establish facts on the ground. Retrace your steps.

Star City.

That's where she'd been last night, leading a late night scouting run with the team. Intended to be an observe and report mission with Blue Beetle and Thirteen, she didn't even blink when it escalated into a full on brawl. That type of thing is expected when you find out Black Mask is personally receiving a shipment of nanotech.

Side note: Really tired of Gotham villains branching out to avoid Batman.

Still, it would have been an easy wrap up save for the inexplicable introduction of Deathstroke into the equation. The man was notorious for leaving more than bruises on some of the league's most seasoned fighters, and after everything that had gone down on Manta's sub, he wasn't exactly fond of Artemis.

So when she left that fight with little more than some nasty bruises and a headache - minor concussion Blue Beetle had concluded - she'd given herself a pat on the back. Not bad for a fight with the cranky bastard.

Except none of that information helped explain the sight she was staring at in her mother's apartment. Deathstroke wasn't known for using hallucinogenic drugs. A quick mental checklist - Rogues? Weird gasses? Chemical sprays? - didn't bring any further explanation from last night. She'd Zeta'd to Gotham, texted morning plans with Cameron, and crashed at her Mom's without incident.

So not last night she concluded. This morning?

Except nothing had happened this morning either. She'd woken up a little later than normal, but she'd slept late because of the concussion. She'd dragged herself out of bed, encouraged by the smell of something good from the kitchen, and splashed some water on her face in the bathroom. Nothing meaningful crossed her sleep addled mind until a few minutes later as she was changing into a vaguely respectable outfit.

The comforting sound of her mother's laugh filtering into her old bedroom contrasted starkly with the sound of a stranger's laughter alongside it. That was what drew her out of the room. If the sound is what had really woken her up, the sight had outright horrified her.

So not this morning either. Then how the he-

"Artemis, are you going to welcome our guest or are you going to stand there staring rudely?" Paula snapped, her crisp tone slicing through Artemis's internal thought process.

"Guest," Artemis repeated slowly, as if physically saying the word would somehow add clarity to the situation.

Because sitting in at her mother's old wooden kitchen table, sipping some tea right across from her mom, was Crystal Frost. With an absolutely humongous, devilish smile on her face.

"It's okay Paula. From what I hear she had a long night. I can't blame her for getting a little bit of extra sleep," Crystal answered.

"You did come in late last night," Paula said, begrudgingly ceding the point to their 'guest'. She gestured towards Crystal. "I assume the two of you have met before."

"Oh yeah, a few times here and there," Crystal said coyly, answering for both of them.

"Yes. We've met," Artemis answered tersely, now satisfied that she wasn't hallucinating. "What is she doing here?"

"Artemis Lian Crock," Paula scolded. "That is no way to speak to a guest under my roof."

"It's okay Paula, I can understand the apprehension," Crystal answered. She put her hands up in a symbol of deference, but her eyes were dripping in malice. "I come in peace, I promise."

Those words didn't do much to comfort Artemis, because it wasn't possible hostility that concerned her. It was the woman's very presence.

While Crystal had Artemis's begrudging respect, if only for what she meant to Cameron, she was from a very different part of her world. Really, she was a part of Cameron's world that Artemis interacted with on rare occasion. She wasn't supposed to be in her mother's kitchen, talking to her, getting along with her.

"Artemis, can you please grab some pastries for us from the oven?" Paula asked, though it was less a question than an order.

Artemis complied, jaw tightly clenched as she strode further into the kitchen. Her irritation grew as she recognized the savory scent of Bánh patê sô, a delicious meat packed pastry that would have made her morning if not for the fact that her mother had cooked it for Crystal of all people. Which meant that she'd been expecting a guest.

And purposefully hadn't mentioned it.

"Thank you," Crystal said sweetly as Artemis returned with their food. For her part, Artemis stopped herself from making a face, not looking to attract more trouble from her mother.

"So, I take it you were more in the picture than I was when my daughter met Cameron for the first time," Paula said as Artemis retreated back into the kitchen to grab some of the pastries for herself. She'd be damned if Crystal robbed her of a good breakfast treat.

"More like on the edges of the picture, in the background. His old man is a real piece of work, but the kid's got a good heart. Even back then, I remember seeing my goofball all excited to get back to playing cops and robbers with your little goofball."

My goofball Artemis thought internally, vowing to hold on to that for later.

"They've developed quite a strong bond," Paula answered.

"Those are hard to come by in our walk of life. Two of 'em are thick as thieves," Crystal paused, before adding: "More or less."

"How is the kid doing by the way?" Crystal asked, looking in Artemis' direction. "I'd love to know, since he seems to have a bad habit of not keeping me in the loop."

"He's a nice young man, but he does make himself scarce too much for my taste," Paula said, also turning to look at her youngest child. "I told you Artemis, you need to bring him around more. He looked rail thin the last time I saw him."

"I told you, he's fine. He just wears baggier clothes," Artemis said, choosing to ignore Crystal's question. The older woman was taking a bite of Paula's cooking, and made a show of reveling in the taste.

"I've been trying for a decade to get that kid to bulk up. I bet this kind of home cooking would help," she said. "This is awesome."

"I try my best to give him food when he is here, but I cannot feed a ghost. Cameron is almost as hard to pin down as my son in law used to be," Paula replied, critically. She turned to Artemis, no doubt to lecture her again about bringing him over more often, when a sharp knock on the door cut her off.

"I'll get it," Artemis said, grabbing hard at the chance to escape whatever this conversation was devolving into. In the few seconds it took to get to the door, her mind was working overtime to manufacture a plausible escape route. If I can just walk out- she thought as she opened the door with an uncharacteristic recklessness for this part of Gotham. Not that safety was really a concern: Anyone looking for trouble mid morning in an apartment housing Tigress, Killer Frost, and Huntress, was due to find plenty of it.

Standing on the other side was Cameron, donning a baggy T-shirt and some jeans, an outfit about 10 degrees too cold for the morning forecast.

Shit, Artemis thought. That's what I forgot. They'd made plans yesterday, and Artemis had insisted that he come over, repeating yet again that her mom wanted to see him in person.

Not for the first or last time of the day, she cursed her luck.

"Look, so I was thinkin' for today: It's never too late to cancel a yoga session," Cameron started, just like he did with every other one of their yoga meet ups.

"Cam, stop," she replied, trying to keep her voice low. If she could keep him at the door maybe she could use this as her exit strategy. There'd be hell to pay later, but that would be a future concern.

"What?" Cameron whined, completely missing her urgent tone. "Come on, we don't have to-"

"Cam," she repeated sharply, trying to get him to lower his voice.

"Is that Cameron?" Paula asked from the kitchen, causing Artemis to wince. "Cameron, come in! I hope you don't plan to walk in and out without saying hello, especially not this morning."

"Wouldn't dream of it!" he called back, posture straightening at the sound of her voice. Another day and Artemis would have rolled her eyes at that. Today she just sighed, accepting defeat as she let him brush past her, completely unaware of his impending doom.

"Good Morning Paula. For the record, I had no thought of, uh, hello?" he said, his cheery voice trailing off into a confused pause.

"Tried to warn you," Artemis muttered behind him, keeping her voice low.

"Hello Cameron," said Crystal, the inflection of her tone sending chills up Cameron's neck. Not exactly an easy feat to accomplish.

"Hello Crystal. What uh, what are you doing here?" he asked nervously, eyes dashing back and forth between the two seated women. A part of him knew that he sounded like an idiot, but a bigger part of him was short circuiting because Crystal was Crystal and Paula was Artemis's mom. Those were two different parts of his life that just didn't intersect.

"Goodness, it seems he has been infected with my daughter's rude morning manners," Paula said, causing her daughter to roll her eyes. She motioned for Cameron to sit down on the living room coach. "Good Morning Cameron, it is good to see you here and in good health."

"I uh, yes. Good to see you too," he replied apprehensively.

"Well don't just stand there like a goofball," Crystal said. "Sit down before you faint or something."

Cameron complied. Or rather, he let Artemis drag him over to the couch, where she was all to happy to put some space between herself and the kitchen. She plopped down besides him like a petulant child sent to the principal's office.

"I. Am. Confused," Cameron said slowly to no one in particular. Artemis put a hand on her face to cover her mouth and, hopefully, the frown that was working it's way onto her face.

"Forgive him, he's not much of a morning person," Crystal told Paula, before looking back towards Cameron and Artemis. "We were just talking about the both of you, so your timing is great."

"You were?" he repeated, turning to Artemis. "They were?"

"You should've ran while it was still an option," Artemis whispered into her hand, low enough that only Cameron could hear.

"It turns we share a keep interest in both of you," Paula added pointedly.

"I'm still a little a confused," Cameron added.

"Don't worry, I understand," Crystal answered. "You know, I was recently confused. As you know, I've been out of country for a while, and while I was gone, I could have sworn I checked in with you and you told me that you were just fine. The 'picture of health' or something like that. Which is very, very different from what the Terror Twins were talking about a few days ago."

At this Artemis raised an eyebrow in Cameron's direction, the reference to his health suddenly piquing her interest. The pale(r than normal) look on Cameron's face was all the confirmation she needed to know he'd just been caught in some lie.

"Okay, I wasn't trying to lie to you. I just didn't want you to worry," Cameron replied, sounding both defensive and apologetic at the same time. He knew that if he told Crystal he'd been injured, she would have cut her trip short to visit. He also know that if she'd seen him wrapped up in enough bandages to cosplay as a mummy...Well, it would have made Artemis's hovering look neglectful. And would have probably involved some violence.

"Besides, it wasn't that bad," he added lamely.

"He was almost blown up," Artemis offered. "Was basically right in front of the bomb." Cameron threw a look of betrayal her way, but the look she shot back was unforgiving. Don't get blown up and I won't have to tell on you for getting blown up.

"See, that's the kind of thing you like to know about when it happens instead of hearing rumors about it," Crystal replied. "Made me have to go and disturb Paula to get information from her."

"Please, it is no hassle," Paula said with a dismissive wave as if the two were old friends. She turned her focus back to Cameron, who withered under her glare. "Young man, I. Am. Disappointed. You have people worrying about you. They deserve to hear the honest truth from you, and not find it out months later. Do you understand that?"

"Yes," Cameron nodded weakly. Besides him, Artemis wisely chose to ignore that her mother's comments were was a less than subtle shot at her.

"Good," Paula said, seemingly satisfied with his level of contrition. "Now apologize."

Cameron paused for a few seconds, contemplating the exact words he wanted to vocalize and still sounding unsure as he spoke. "I'm sorry Crystal. I uh, didn't want to worry you. I shouldn't have lied."

"Just don't let it happen again," Crystal answered. "Just in case though, I'll be checking in with Paula here every once in a while. Keep you on your toes."

She smiled at the comically disturbed expression that crossed Cameron's face.

Artemis clapped her hands together and stood up, deciding to take advantage before the conversation steered into another direction. "Well, this has been great, but Cam & I have a Yoga appointment and if we don't leave now we'll be late."

Cameron nodded in agreement. He had never been so happy to picture the Yoga-licious Studios sign in his mind.

"Yoga, is that what they call it these days?" Crystal asked Paula conspiratorially.

Paula shook her head. "I try not to think too much of the activities of my adult children."

"Yup," Artemis said, grabbing Cameron by the arm and yanking him upwards. "We'll be leaving."

"Mhmm," Paula said dismissively. "Call me if you end up visiting your sister before you come back. I left something there last night. And Cameron, stop back in to pick up some food before you go home."

"I'll be stopping by later this week kiddo. Don't worry, I'll text ahead of time." Crystal winked. "Wouldn't want to catch you in the middle of an appointment."

The two couldn't get out the door fast enough.

...

Neither said anything until they were out and a few blocks away from the apartment.

"Tell me that was as weird for you as it was for me," Artemis finally said.

"Weird?" Cameron shrieked. "That was terrifying. And did you see the look on Crystal's face? She's going to be such a pain about this."

"And you think my mom isn't?" Artemis asked, causing him to groan.

"Please tell me we're not actually going to do yoga," he uttered despondently.

Artemis scoffed. "Please, I don't even have the right. No, we're going to the nearest Batburger so that I can eat breakfast in peace, and then we're going to figure out how to kill whatever the hell this thing between Crystal and my mom is."

"Finally!" Cameron exclaimed. "Something that makes sense this morning."

A/N: Poor kids. Artemis will make the mistake of venting about this to Jade & Will. Will will find it hilarious and remind her what it's like for him when Dinah & Paula get together. Jade will act uninterested and then four hours later add Artemis to a groupchat with Crystal and Paula.