(4) cross my heart and hope to die.

Artemis revved the engine, uncharacteristically not caring about the condition of her car.

"Get in or get out, Grayson," she snarled, lasering her focus straight ahead. Her mouth was taut and her forward gaze unnerving. Dick hesitated only a second, but jumped in and dumped his bag on the floor, quickly settling in and trying to make himself small.

After maybe, 20 minutes of silence, Dick had had enough. "What's with you?"

Artemis glared at him. The little punk had quite the nerve, after making her wait for an hour. He knows she hates leaving Gotham during rush hour, as she hates city traffic so much anyways, but it's sno much worse during rush hour. He just had to go and make her life impossible.

On top of that, when she went to go find him, she found him talking to a girl. She was really pretty, too, which didn't sit well with Artemis. (She was the type who didn't try at all and still was exceedingly gorgeous, which automatically put her on Artemis' watch list. That kind of stuff just wasn't natural) In addition to making her uncomfortable, she felt gross in comparison- the shabby old flip phone next to the iPhone 6. But it was whatever.

She shouldn't be feeling this way anyway. She shouldn't care. Dick was just a teammate, a younger one at that. It was dumb for this to evoke this kind of reaction from her, any kind of reaction, but she couldn't help it. It was a deep gut thing, and deep down, Artemis didn't really want to stop it.

Shrinking under his teammate's gaze, Dick made his hands busy fiddling with his seatbelt. "Uh, Artemis?" he asked unsurely, peering up at her as if he weren't the guilty party. (And, uh, he totally was. Jerk.)

She scoffed. "Do you really not expect me to be mad for you being an HOUR late and making me drive during rush hour? For a boy genius, you sure are dense."

Artemis ran her hand through her hair, exhaling slowly through her nose. "You're lucky you can ride with me at all, kid."

He flinched at the term kid, but she could care less at the moment. Ditching responsibilities to flirt was the action of a kid, and she was not giving up on this one. Artemis was known for a lot of things, and one of them was never backing down. She was too far in at this point and there was no way she was letting this slip by (especially since it personally involved her feelings, which no one messes with. Ever.)

"Look, I'm sorry," Dick cringed. "I was-"

"Yeah? You were what, exactly? Flirting?" she snapped, cheeks growing redder, her body admitting what she could not.

Dick sighed, turning to face her. "Why does that even matter? That's-"

Artemis quickly cut him off, her tone changing from enraged to cool and calculated which was worse. Nothing was more infuriating than arguing with a calm person. She knew from experience, she had had loads of practice with jade. "It MATTERS because I don't have to freaking take you anywhere, and you don't even have a good reason for being late, other than hitting on hot girls-"

Dick's facial expression morphed from sheepish to a knowing smirk in a second. "Wait, how do you know I was flirting?"

This time it was Artemis' turn to look embarrassed, although her skin had still retained a bit of the blush she had picked up earlier. "Um, just a guess. The way I see you at school would make me think that-"

"You were watching me," he sang, enjoying her discomfort. It wasn't often that anyone could make Artemis squirm, and the boy wonder certainly seemed to be relishing the moment. Taking her lack of response as a sign to plow forward, he tested further uncharted waters.

"Why were you watching me, huh, Arty?" probing further for both his curiosity and a deep hope within, he continued. "Maybe a certain archer likes a certain-"

"No," Artemis said flatly.

"Well?" Dick rested his chin in his hands. "Why were you watching me, then?" he cocked his head to the side, a knowing grin plastered on his face.

Artemis was furious that he could keep his calm like this, better than her, but two could play this game.

"You know," she shrugged. "Doing some extra surveillance. I wasn't supposed to tell you," she leaned in conspiratorially. "But the Bat asked me to keep an eye on you."

Dick looked a little hurt. (Again, screw this. Screw YOU, Dick Grayson. That's for being adorable when she wanted to be mad at him.) "He did not," he adamantly defended himself, chin pert in the air.

Artemis dismissed him casually with a wave of her hand. "You believe what you want, Grayson. I only do what I'm told."

He cackled. "Yeah, right."

"Yeah, well, at least I'm not rude enough to make good friends late and hurt their feelings-" Artemis retorted, but faltered as she realized what had come out of her mouth.

Casting sidelong glances at Dick, she was worried when her passenger had gone silent, looking straight ahead.

"Hurt your feelings?" he finally asked quietly. "I was gonna make a joke about how you didn't have those, but I'm genuinely concerned."

"Then get cerned," she said drily. "I'm fine."

"I'm sorry," he said gravely, the air of mischief leaving him for the first moment since she had known him.

"I know. " she shrugged. "It's fine. Just-just don't be late next time, okay?"

Dick nodded and dragged his finger across the left side of his chest. "Cross my heart and hope to die."

Artemis shoved him. "Weirdo."

"But I'm your weirdo," he teased, and for the first time that day, she couldn't help but agree with him.