When Fever came out for breakfast the next morning, she and Kaldur shared look that baffled the team. The two had gotten closer in the two months since there first mission together had taken place. Since it had been a Friday, everyone had stayed at the Mountain over night after a small Intel gathering mission the night before. It had been two o'clock in the morning when they got back. Fever stumbled toward the cupboard to get some food, nearly knocking into the counter in the process. Side effect of fighting crime; you are not very useful in the morning.
"Where's the food?" Fever turned around and glared sleepily at everyone before settling her gaze on Wally. He had a spoon sticking out of his mouth as he looked around sheepishly.
"Wally! You ate all the food?" Wally nodded. Fever growled and stomped out of the room. She came back moments later, dressed.
"Get dressed everyone; we are going out for breakfast,"
"Thanks for the offer, but I think I will go home for breakfast." Everyone had gone to get dressed but Artemis hadn't moved.
"I'm buying Artemis. Don't worry about it."
"No, really I…"
"We can either have a battle of stubborn wills or you can come before I drug and drag you there."
Artemis looked shocked.
"Yeah, Fever takes no shit in the morning."
"Swear again Robin and you will be in shit."
Artemis rolled her eyes at the sibling like antics of the pair and shuffled off to get dressed. She didn't feel like arguing and could pay Fever back later.
"How are you going to pay without being recognized?" Robin was now slouched on the couch.
"I will put it on Bruce's account and pay him back later."
"What about the servers?"
"In Happy Harbour? I won't be recognized."
"This is risky," Robin smirked. "I like it!"
"I will deal with Bruce if I need to."
"He told you why he doesn't want to tell people our identities."
Fever turned her back on Robin, arms crossed. "And you know why I think we should. I want to at least tell Barbara and Clare. They are my best friends and stayed with me when no one else would."
Robin hid his shock; Fever rarely, if ever, talked about her kidnapping. Robin knew that Barbara and Clare had protected Fever from the bastards who had dared make fun of her. Barbara had almost got expelled several times but Bruce helped keep her in Gotham Academy as a favor to Jim Gordon. Robin opened his mouth to continue but the team piled in, all dressed. Kaldur noticed the hard line that Fever's mouth had become in the few moments it had taken everyone to get dressed. Everyone could feel the tension in the room. Fever uncrossed her arms and plastered a smile on her face.
"Everyone ready?" She moved toward the Zeta tube before anyone could answer. "Great!"
Recognized, Fever B-109
Robin got up and made his way toward the Zeta's with everyone else. Kaldur grabbed his arm on the way out.
"Have you and Fever fought?"
"No, Kaldur. We're fine," Robin yanked his arm out of Kaldur's grasp and slipped into the Zeta tube.
"… with extra ketchup. I will also have the shepherd's pie." After Wally finished his order, the waitress looked shocked. The team was in a small diner in downtown Happy Harbour. The waitress was one of those people who didn't write down the order and just remembered it.
"If you can remember all of that plus our orders, I will very impressed." The waitress looked at Fever helplessly before turning to Wally. "Could…could you repeat that please, sir."
Robin slapped his hand over Wally's mouth as Fever grabbed the menu out of his hands. "He will have one of everything on the menu. I will have the entire entrée section and a coffee with lots of sugar please."
"How…how are you going to eat all that?" She looked between Wally and Fever with a look of utter disbelieve on her face.
"We have severely high metabolisms." Fever had made everyone else order first so they wouldn't be forgotten in the food ordering frenzy that is Wally West. Throw a half Demon in there who burns off her food faster than an incinerator and you're in for a confused waitress.
"I will be back with your orders."
"Bring out the single meals first," Fever gestured to the rest of the team. "and bring out ours as they are made."
The waitress nodded and shuffled away. Fever giggled.
"Why do you have to eat so much?" Artemis understood Wally's need for food but she couldn't understand why Fever needed so much.
"Put your hand on my forehead,"
"No thanks. I'm good."
Fever rolled her eyes and grabbed Artemis' hand and placed it on her forehead. Artemis' eyes widened in shock.
"You're burning up!"
Fever laughed at her panic as everyone took a turn feeling her forehead, other than Robin and Wally; this was old news to them. "Because my biological father is a fire demon, my average temperature is an average human fever."
Everyone's eyes light up in understanding as to why her superhero name was what it was.
"Since my internal body temperature is so hot, I burn food off faster than you just by sitting here. I have to eat a lot because I use most of the energy to maintain my body temperature."
"I get it now."
At that moment Artemis, Kaldur, Megan, Robin and Conner's food came out along with three of Fever's and two of Wally's. The team ate quite peacefully and laughed and joked like other teenagers. It was about noon when they finished. Fever got up to go to the bathroom and Artemis followed.
"I still don't feel comfortable letting you pay for the whole thing."
"Artemis the bill is going to be over $500. Do you really want to pay for that?"
Artemis shook her head but opened her moth to speck again.
"Look," Fever cut her off. "Get everyone to chip in for the tip okay?"
Artemis looked pleased with the compromise and the two girls walked out to the table. The bill was lying there and everyone was looking guilty now. Artemis told them the plan.
"The tip is gonna be 98.70."
"How much is the bill?" Robin was trying to looked over Fever's shoulder.
"$658, I gave her a 15% tip. She has had a rough morning." It was true, the waitress looked exhausted. The team had come in around nine o'clock and hadn't stopped ordering until 11:30. Well, Wally and Fever hadn't stopped ordering until 11:30. The team pooled their money and Fever went up to the front to deal with the check. The waitress had a slight look of dread on her face.
"Don't worry, just paying the bill. Charge it Bruce Wayne please."
"I thought that was Dick Grayson! I didn't want to say anything though."
"Thank you for keeping quiet. He's trying to keep a low profile. Here's your tip. Have a nice day!"
Fever quickly moved back to the table. "Alright, let's go!"
When the team got back Batman was standing there with a boy. He looked about 17-18 and had brownish -red hair. He had no mask or uniform so you could see his deep brown eyes that rested on Fever as soon as she came in. Batman didn't look happy.
"Where were you?" He growled. The rest of the team looked slightly terrified but Fever and Robin ignored him.
"Went out for breakfast. Wally ate all the food."
"We will talk about this later." Fever rolled her eyes again. She hadn't done anything wrong and the team were closer friends because of it.
"This is James. He will be joining the team. I will be back later to see how you're getting along." Batman wasted no time and swooped out of the room after.
Recognized, Batman 02
"He is quite the conversationalist isn't he, hot stuff." James smirked at Fever. Her eyes narrowed behind her sunglasses. She didn't answer.
"Who wants to train with me? I need to work off breakfast." Fever turned to the team.
"I would be happy to help, sweet heart." Another sly smile. All this time Wally had been fuming in the corner, at this point he stepped in.
"Fever needs someone she can actually train with newbie." Wally brushed past him. "I'll train with you Fever."
"Thanks Wally." Fever stalked off to change into her costume and Wally sped off, changed, sped back, blew a raspberry at James and sped off again.
"What did I say? And what's his problem?" James gestured toward Wally and turned to see the rest of the team. Artemis was glaring at James, Kaldur looked scandalized at James' treatment of a girl he had just met, Megan looked confused, Conner looked at James with a look that clearly said he should watch out and Robin was laughing.
"What? Why are you laughing?"
"I have seen guys like you before," Robin composed himself slightly. "And they always try to get with Fever and it ends with them….well, you can find yourself." He laughed again and disappeared.
"Well, that was totally Robin wasn't it?" James looked around, expecting an answer. "I am right aren't I?"
Good old Megan decided to break the awkward silence. "Yes, I am Miss Martian; this is Aqualad, Superboy and Artemis. The girl you just spoke to was Fever and the boy was Kid Flash."
"Nice to meet you," James shook Megan's hand and looked at Artemis' cold glare.
"Okay, Artemis I apologize for that," He gestured behind him. "I can be a jerk sometimes and I will go apologize right now. Truce? Please don't hate me."
Artemis rolled her eyes but her face softened. "Fine. But don't expect Fever to forgive you so easily."
"It was very nice to meet you guys and lovely girls but I must go clear the air with another gorgeous girl." He waved and made his way toward the training room.
"Wally, stop it. I think I am going to pee!" Fever was literally rolling on the floor in absolute hysterics. James stood in the door way looking at the scene, neither teen hero noticed him.
"Okay, jeez. You can't hold your jokes can you?" Wally laughed at Fever.
"You're gonna regret that Flash boy." Fever lunged at him in mock fight.
"You wish I was Flash boy." Wally winked at Fever and she was rolling on the floor again.
"Okay, I need to train and you are distracting me. Go." Fever got up and started punching a bag.
"Okay, before I go." Wally took a deep breath. "You wanna go see a movie or something tonight?"
James noticed the shock and excitement on Fever's face. "I would love to Wally."
"Awesome! I will pick you up at like 6:00,"
"Perfect,"
When Wally turned around he saw James. He went up to him, a hard glare on his face. "What do you want?"
"I came to apologize to Fever and you. Sorry dude, if I knew you had your eye on her I wouldn't have pissed her off. Sorry." Wally looked wary but shook James's offered hand anyway.
"She may not forgive you. She always has guys hitting on her."
"You don't count?"
"Well, my approach is different. I treat her like a human being, not an object." With that Wally sped off. James took a deep breath and walked into the gym. Fever had music blaring and as soon as she saw him she gave the bag a huge punch. It was so hard she tore the bag a bit and a small stream of sand started to pour out. James went wide eyed and decided to try not to piss her off, too much.
"Hey, so I came to…" He was cut off when Fever turned the music so that the Florence + the Machine album she was listening to was at an ear drum exploding level. Well, to anyone that wasn't James, who listened to his music so loud he had gotten noise complaints from the neighbours.
"I love this band." Fever swung around to stare at him. She turned down the music.
"What do you want?" She resumed punching the bag, with slightly more force than necessary.
"I want to apologize for before. I saw a pretty girl and tried to tell her that and it came out wrong."
Fever looked at him incredulously. "Really? You know what; I have met guys like you before. You offend girls, treat them like dirt and then apologize only to do the same things as before an hour later. Your only redeeming quality at this point is your taste in music, if you're not lying about that."
"I'm not, I love Florence Welsh. Her voice is so haunting and passionate."
"Fine, thank you for the apology but could you can piss off now." Fever resumed punching the bag until she heard James leave. Suddenly the bag burst into flames.
Everyone in the mountain winced at the loud profanity Fever screeched and then yelped when the sprinklers came on. James stood in the center of the commotion.
"This is going to be interesting,"
"BATMAN IS GONNA KILL ME!"
A/N- Okay so, I have jumped a forward a few months. I will do that periodically to keep the story moving. James is supposed to be that suave ladies man that every girl says they hate but secretly wants to date. He will have more depth then that later, don't worry. Also, before you all hunt me down and kill me, I have a plan for Wally and Cassidy. Don't worry, this will end in the same Wally and Artemis relationship we all know and love. This is temporary relationship. I have a master plan that I am following, so don't panic.
~Kasei