New chapter, everyone! I still don't own YJ, and I'm still taking requests. Actually, I'm begging for requests. If you've ever had an idea you wanted to suggest, speak up now!
Okay, so she had kicked his butt. So what? So what if the score stood at 26-0? So what if Robin had laughed about it all day? So what if, every time she knocked him over, he was secretly amazed?
Wally knew that he was in denial about her, exactly as Black Canary had said. He knew that his flirting with Canary, M'gann, and everyone else was just his way of coping. What he hadn't realized was just how far in over his head he was.
He didn't want to be enemies with her anymore. Sure, they weren't always fighting. They smiled, laughed, joked (at his expense), and usually gave the outward impression that they were nothing more than friends. But there was always tension beneath the surface, and one day it would break through and they would argue long into the night. Then they would go to bed angry and hurt and unable to remember what they had been fighting about in the first place.
He didn't want this. He never had. But it had been there from her first day on the team, when his stubbornness and her need to prove herself had created the awkward first impression that still loomed over them both. First impressions are the most important, a lesson that Wally was only beginning to learn. Perhaps if he had been less tired and embarrassed, or she had been less nervous, their relationship would be different now. He remembered their mission in Bialya, when their memories had been wiped and they had been given a second chance for a first impression. He had called her beautiful. This was something he couldn't forget, no matter how hard he tried. Frankly, he wasn't trying.
Yes, first impressions were important.
Find your own little spitfire. Wally had deliberately misunderstood Kent Nelson's words. As Kent had not been able to finish his sentence, Wally had been fairly able to convince himself that he wouldn't have said Artemis's name. But now, just as he was no longer able to deny the existence of magic, he could not logically prove to himself that Kent had been talking about anyone else. One who won't let you get away with nothin'. That was Artemis, all right. But what could he do? His stubbornness had not diminished since he had met her, nor had hers. Wally would most likely deny thinking any of these things the next day, anyway.
And if he tried to ask her out, he would most certainly take an arrow through the heart, and Little Miss Spitfire would be the last one to care.