Artemis: Where Did This Begin?
He's pinned to the floor by the body atop him. One of her long legs knocks against the small of his back as the other shoeless foot looks for purchase on the slippery floor.
Conner traces back to where this all started.
It started from the first time he saw her wearing nothing but an over-sized 'I Heart Gotham' tee as pajamas.
Artemis rolls over and yawns deeply. Her bare feet bump against her bedpost as she scoots to the foot of the bed. She pets the fat tomcat that rest there. He purrs as loud as a motorboat.
"Is there something I can help you with?" Artemis questions the teen in the doorway.
"Uh..." Conner eyes the cat suspiciously. The cat hisses and leaps off the bed; it hides underneath an overstuffed recliner.
"Good job, bucko. You're not only well on your way to being a great public speaker, but you could also have a promising career as an animal whisper."
Conner frowns. He rests his hand on the door-frame and then removes it, as if to step into her room, only to change his mind; his fingers curl around the entryway once more.
Artemis stands up, the end of her tee wrinkling as she does so.
"Why are you here?" she asks Conner while patting out the crease-lines.
Conner doesn't like the way she doesn't look at him when she asks that question; it's almost like she's afraid to see the emotion behind his answer.
"I have no where else to go," Conner replies as evenly as possible. He drops his hand from the door and takes large, confident strides into her room.
Artemis' head snaps up at his reply. She's not qualified to help other people deal with his types of issues. She's never even met someone with Conner's type of issues. She prays to any god who will listen that there is somebody who does understand him. For Conner's sake, that someone has to exist.
The tension in the room ebbs and flows as each teen debates what to say next.
"Woah," Artemis says at last. "I didn't mean here as in your place in the world." She meets his eyes and holds them. "But we could talk about that if you want to?"
Conner balls his fists and backs away, returning to the door.
"Or we would completely avoid the conversation." Artemis pulls him away from the exit. Her hands are engulfed in his significantly larger ones."I'm all for pretending that things don't exist and don't hurt," she says as she they stare at their entwined palms. "It builds up your threshold for pain quite nicely."
Conner removes his hands from her grip and fills his pockets with them. He's not qualified to help other people deal with her type of issues. He's positive that there is nobody with her types of issues among the very limited number of people he knows.
He doesn't believe in a higher power; the Genomorphs said that all gods are normal meta-humans who were made into ultimate beings by the weak as a coping mechanism for our terrible world. Conner knows that gods exist but refuses to believe in any one of them. After all, Superman is close to becoming yet another god in the pantheon of the weak-minded.
Conner hopes for Artemis' sake that she doesn't believe in gods either; he doesn't want to think of her as weak-minded and he doesn't want to see her faith betrayed.
"Conner, why are you here in my room?" she asks finally.
"Wally sent me with a message."
"And why can't he just ask me himself?" the blonde asks.
"He's allergic to the cat."
"Oh..." She stands up and pulls the furry blob out of his hiding place. His claws nick the wood floors. "What was the message?"
"His message is 'I'm allergic to the cat'," he replies.
"Riveting stuff there, Kon. Bet you'd make a fine narrator for documentaries." She strokes the tomcat's back and it rolls over. "You can do a faux British accent, right?"
Superboy frowns.
"No? Never mind me then," Artemis says.
"Do...do you know what you are?" Conner asks with a contemplating squint of his eyes.
Artemis doesn't like the way he stares into her as he asks his question; she's afraid of an emotion which she doesn't even find in his gaze. She's afraid of pity or confusion or even boredom.
"You are just," he gestures to all of her as he looks for the right word, "...funny." She cocks a brow.
"And why's that?"
"You have a big fluffy cat named Figgins that you keep in our glorified clubhouse," Conner says. He tries to pet the aforementioned pet but it hisses whenever he moves his hand near.
"Well, you have a big shiny bowling-ball named Rolly who follows you into the bathroom."
Conner blinks rapidly. He didn't know that any one noticed that problem. Rolly is programmed to be just a tad too clingy.
"Touche." Conner rubs at his neck. "I really wish Rolly would stop following me everywhere."
"Huh. I really wish Figgins would learn how to flush," she says.
They've at last found a way to empathize with each other's brand of pain.
No this wasn't right. This all started before that. The beginning was when he first opened a door for her.
"Yes?" Artemis leans against the door the boy has propped open with his elbow. "I see that," she points from the door to the room it lets out to, "it's open."
"Then?" Conner motions for her to go first already.
"Don't suck up to me unless we're on a date," she orders.
Conner clamps down on his teeth and grinds them hard.
"Why would we," he bites his tongue by accident but likes the metallic taste of his blood, "be on a date?"
"It's a hypothetical, Conner," the blonde dismisses him breezily. She still makes no move to enter first.
"Fine." Conner smirks with an idea. "If your question is hypothetical than so is mine."
Conner has trapped her into answering. Artemis groans and pushes her head back against the door.
"We'd be on a double," she proclaims. "As in not together."
"Why would I try to impress you while I'm on a date with someone else?"
He laughs at her when she doesn't have an answer at hand. He's finally caught her off guard for once.
"I don't know!" she admits, thoroughly exasperated. "You're the one forcing me to make this all up on the fly."
"Answer the question, Artemis."
He won't let her get away with not answering. As Artemis looks for an answer she picks at the 'Must Wear Shoes In This Establishment At All Times' sticker; she reminds herself to never bring Kaldur here.
She tries to toss a speck of sticker from her skin but it only rolls down her hand the more she flicks it. Conner grabs her hand and wipes the sticky piece onto a napkin.
"Why would I try to impress you, Artemis?" Conner asks again.
"...Because I'm just that good," she answers gruffly. She jerks her hand away from his before his hand can stay stuck to hers like the paper which he just removed.
That wasn't the beginning either. Not really. It was before that.
It was when she was willing to tell him secrets instead of half truths.
"It's a mirror. You pretend it's funny because you look even more ridiculous than normal in it," she explains. Her long pony-tail is impossibly longer in the fun-house mirror.
"I don't normally look ridiculous," Conner retorts.
"Tell that," Artemis looks to the mirror in front of Conner, "to your reflection."
"Talking to myself would make me look ridiculous." Conner rolls his eyes.
"I find it cathartic," the blonde replies with a loose tossing of her shoulders.
"What?"
Conner's expression is a mix between confusion and need. Artemis debates how much she should say. She sighs and lets it all out.
"It's like a diary but when you get angry and take your rage out on it...well breaking a mirror into a thousand pieces is a lot more calming than shredding some stupid paper," she admits.
"Oh," Conner says softly as he raps his knuckles against the mirror experimentally. "With paper you can burn it."
"Fire? I like the way you think." Artemis laughs and bites her lip in anticipation. "We're going to have so much fun when you get your heat vision."
Conner agrees wordlessly. He likes the way she says 'when' instead of 'if'.
"There will be bacon frying involved," Artemis adds as their stomachs growl.
"I like the way you think," he tells her, because it's the truth.
No. That still wasn't it. The true beginning was when she explained the girl code.
"Girl code?" he asks the blonde pulling him by the arm. Artemis nods as she directs him to hide with her behind a large potted ficus.
"Yup. It's much better than the bro code."
"Why is that?"
"Because women made it up."
"Oh." He doesn't touch that answer with a ten foot pole. "So...what does the girl code say about this?"
She grabs his pointing finger and pushes it down back into hiding.
"The girl code says don't get caught doing this," she hisses. "Watch where you point that thing, Conner."
"Fine," he growls. "It's not like they haven't noticed that we're following them by now. I've made eye-contact with Roy at least four times."
Conner attempts to wave at the redhead to make his point. Artemis pushes his hand back down forcefully.
"I know that Roy knows...the bird he flipped me was a big clue... but as long as Megan doesn't know then we're in the clear."
"Why hasn't Roy told her?" Conner wants to know.
"Because she wouldn't be mad at you. She'd think it's cute."
"Oh," Conner says mildly confused. Conner doesn't understand how following someone is anything other than an invasion of privacy. Ollie had thought as much before.
"Shit. I lost sight of them."
"Maybe they went in there?" He gestures to a dinner near Megan and Roy's last location. Artemis rolls her eyes.
"You're the one with the super-senses," she reminds. He scans the room with his super-hearing.
"He's not there and neither is Megan."
"Well, I guess," Artemis runs a hand through her hair, "that leaves me and you to our own devices."
Conner folds his hands into his pockets. He shifts feet.
"What should we do?" he asks. His hands push his jacket away from his sides as he shrugs.
"This place is fine," Artemis says motioning to the dinner.
"Okay. I'll get us a table."
"Sure," she says. She yells over to him as he leaves. "This isn't a date!"
"Of course not," he calls back.
"I would never do that to Megan," Artemis says as she jogs to catch up with her friend.
"She's with Roy."
"She still cares about you. Roy...it's a stupid gratitude crush. She'll move on to someone better."
Conner stops dead in his tracks. He frowns and looks at her over his shoulder.
"You... think I'm someone better?"
"Than Roy," she corrects. She opens the door for Conner and motions for him to enter first. He does. "Don't get the wrong idea. You and I can't be like that."
"Why?" Conner questions.
"According to the girl code, girls can't date each other's almost lovers."
She grabs him by the arm and drags him away from the table he was choosing. She picks a booth instead.
"Think of me as strictly off limits. That should help you get me out of your mind," Artemis advises.
She lets go of the boy's limb as they take their seats.
"If...if you say so," Conner replies.
Superboy remembers all these times with her as her body holds him against the floor.
Artemis presses Superboy further into the hold which she's locked him into.
"Just tell me where you put my cat," she says.
"Why would I steal your cat?"
"I don't know!"
He tosses her then and reverses the hold.
"Why would you steal my bowling-ball?"
"I don't know..." She rolls her tongue across her lips. "Because I assumed you'd stolen my cat..."
He unlocks her from the hold. She brushes off the dirt.
"Rolly is teaching Figgins how to flush to toilet in that bathroom attached to the lounge," Conner explains.
"Now, that's something I want to see with my own two eyes."
"Reminds me of you," he says boldly.
He kisses her then, forcefully and desperately; it is the accumulation of wanting and not having for so long.
She pushes him away.
"I'm going to pretend I didn't hear that," she whispers as she backs out of his bedroom. She can't stay in his bedroom of all places right now. "I'm going to pretend you never did that."
She refuses to look him in the eye as she storms out of the room.
Conner bangs his fist against a blotchy purple (and blue and black and green) wall.
Artemis pretends that the things which hurt never happen, so Conner pretends that he truly doesn't feel this way.
He knows how this all happened and now he knows how it all ends.
A/N: This chapter's ship was suggested by the wonderful GrayAreas. Your ship could be next if you just ask! Next ships are KonxRoy and KonxHawkwoman. This story will be told in multiple chapters.