Consider it disclaimed.
enjoy.
.
night in
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"I'll be back around ten, Artemis," Paula Crock glanced over her shoulder at her daughter as she spoke. "You and Wally be good. If you need anything just call."
"I know, Mom. It's not like play bridge every Friday night or anything." Artemis rolled her eyes, but stood to give her mother a kiss on the cheek before her departure.
Paula just ignored her, giving her a quick wave as she let herself out of the apartment, "I'll see you later tonight, Artemis. Have fun."
"Bye, Mom," Artemis calls after her, even though the door was already closed. She looks at the clock and figures that Wally will be there in the next ten minutes or so. She really needed to start di-
A quick knock on the door stopped her thought process.
Artemis pulled herself from the couch and glanced through the peephole to find her boyfriend pulling a face deliberately so she would see. She opened the door with an unamused face and Wally quickly dropped the goofy expression.
"Uh, hey babe," Wally greeted, a grin spreading across his face. Artemis was happy to note that he was far more attractive that way.
"God, I am glad to see you," Artemis grinned back and stepped aside to let him into the apartment. The door was shut and locked behind him and she was immediately pulled into a kiss.
"I really need to get started on dinner, this can wait," she mumbled trying to will herself into pulling away. Wally let her go with another grin.
"Whatever you say, babe. Food is just as good."
"Hey!" Artemis punched him in the arm playfully and Wally feigned pain.
"I'm joking, but I will need the energy for later!" he protested as he followed her into the kitchen. "So what time's your mom supposed to get home?"
"She said around ten, but you know how she is about her bridge games," Artemis replied as she began pulling what she needed out of the cabinets.
"From what you tell me, I'd be scared to play bridge with your mom." Wally hopped up onto the counter, watching Artemis fill a pot with water for the pasta.
"I'd be pretty scared myself," Artemis admitted. "So how was your day?"
"Pretty standard Friday. We had a sub in advance chem when we were supposed to do a lab. He ended up losing an eyebrow, but it was okay. One of the cheerleaders managed to draw a pretty convincing one back on for him before the next period started," Wally chuckled. Artemis shook her head as she dropped the uncooked noodles into the boiling water and moved on to heating up the sauce.
"And for some reason you decided not to tell him that he was probably going to blow his eyebrow off?" Artemis paused to raise an eyebrow at her boyfriend and moved on to the salad. "Isn't that kind of mean?"
"Hey, I didn't say I didn't warn him," Wally protested, holding his hands up as if innocent.
"Did you warn him?" Artemis didn't look up from chopping the tomato.
"Well...I thought about it?" He offered weakly and Artemis rolled her eyes. "So how about you? How was your day?"
"I've had better," she replied dryly.
"What? That freshman still trolling you every chance he gets?" Wally asked with a smirk. "Do you want me to go have a talk with him?"
"Grayson is a sophomore now, Wally, and I can take care of him." Artemis tossed the tomatoes into the salad and went back to check on the pasta. Almost done.
"So what's wrong? You seem out of it." This time when he asked, he seem genuinely concerned.
"It was just some seniors giving me a hard time. Couldn't take rejection and decided that harassing the scholarship student would just be easier." Artemis sighed and moved to hug Wally. He wrapped his arms around her and shook his head.
"Hey, don't worry about it. You could kick their butts any day."
"Except I can't. And that is by far the worst part. I just have to stand there and take it," Artemis pointed out, bitterness showing through in her voice. She pulled away to turn off the the heat source under the pasta and moved to drain the water. She went on to pull two sets of dinnerware from the cabinet and began making their plates (one with a noticeably larger portion).
"So you had a bad day and I neglected to save an innocent substitute's eyebrow. What we need is a rom-com." Artemis groaned at the suggestion. "Oh come on, I brought 500 Days of Summer and I know you're going to love it."
"Mom made me sit and watch that with her. It was awful," Artemis said over her shoulder. "How about Memento, I know you haven't seen it and the premise of the movie is really interesting.
"Man, I can't believe you want to watch a psychological thriller, babe. After attending Gotham Academy all day, I would think that you'd wanna take a break from thinking," Wally said from his perch on the counter beside the stove.
Artemis sighed as she pulled a bottle of water from the fridge for herself and tossing another one in Wally's direction. "You're the one that wants to watch 500 Days of Summer. It's supposed to be a rom-com, but seriously Wally, there is seriously nothing funny or romantic about that movie."
"And you're the one that wants to watch Memento. Doesn't that have, like, the guy from The Matrix in it? Who would want to watch him? He acts the same way in every movie!" Wally hopped off the counter and took the proffered plate and followed Artemis back into the living room. They each took a seat on the couch, paying no mind to the television playing in the background.
"Memento doesn't have Keanu Reeves in it! It's Guy Pearce and have you even seen it? It's about a guy that suffers from short term memory loss. He's left himself clues and notes to help him find the guy that murdered his wide. It's really a great movie, you know," Artemis huffed, taking a small bite of her pasta. It was still far too hot for consumption by normal people so she placed her plate down on the coffee table to cool while Wally shoveled his in, making a face at the first mouthful before swallowing.
"I can't believe you like stuff like that," he commented after taking a large gulp of water.
"Is there something wrong with liking that kind of stuff?" Artemis crossed her arms.
"Well it's sadistic really. You're supposed to watch movies to relax and get away. Movies like Memento - and what was the other one you suggested?" Wally looked towards her eagerly as he posed the question
"Rear Window, it's classic Hitchcock!"
"Yeah, that one. Well you're being counterproductive when you watch movies like that! Instead of enjoying a story beginning to end, you have to think the entire time about how the story is going end or how something happened or why there was focus on a particular detail. It's just dumb," Wally finished with triumphant grin.
"I like thinking, thank you very much," Artemis shot back, glaring at her boyfriend. "Sorry that my psych-thrillers aren't nearly as brainless as your stupid, cliche rom-coms, but there is absolutely nothing wrong with thought provoking plot lines."
"Hey, don't hate on romantic comedies. They're the backbone of modern romance." Wally glared back as he took another forkful of pasta.
"Are you serious, Wally? None of the stuff in those silly movies ever happens in real life," Artemis claimed in disbelief.
"Says the girl that doesn't have a single romantic bone in her body. Just because you don't like rom-coms doesn't mean you can put them down," Wally countered, sitting his now empty plate down.
"Well since I don't have a romantic bone, you obviously don't have a brain! And somehow that makes it perfectly okay to thrash psychological thrillers if you don't like them. Excuse me for living in the real world, hypocrite." Artemis was getting seriously annoyed now and the glower on her face was proof.
"The real world? So nothing romantic has ever happened to you in the real world?
Oh, like I don't know. Maybe me sending you a bouquet of hibiscus just because you commented on how pretty they were while we were on a mission in the Tropics the week before? Or how about me coming to Gotham everyday on my Spring Break just to walk you home from school? Are those the kind of things that aren't supposed to happen in real life?" Wally gestured towards her as his voice rose slightly in volume. He looked to her with expectant eyes waiting for her answer.
"Hey, I never asked you to do either of those things, Wally!" Artemis pointed out in her defense. She knew that it was weak, but he didn't use to act like that.
"That's what a boyfriend is supposed to do, Artemis! Be spontaneous and romantic!" He was now practically yelling and Artemis was feeling like the day couldn't get any worse.
"Well I'm sorry that my idea of romantic isn't the same as yours," she muttered, grabbing both of their plate with the intent of retreating to the kitchen. She stopped in her tracks at his next question.
"Oh, this is going to be a riot. So what do you, of all people, find romantic, Artemis?" The tone was mocking and did nothing less than infuriate her even further.
"Unlike what romantic comedies have brainwashed you into thinking, I don't need the grand gestures or expensive flowers out of the blue," Artemis spat out as she willed her feet to move once again.
"You could have saved me fifty bucks if you had told me that a few months ago, you know," Wally commented nastily.
"You didn't ask. In fact, you didn't even try this romance crap in the first few months of our relationship," Artemis added, stopping in the entryway to the kitchen.
"You know what? I give up then! I was just doing what girls are supposed to like!"
"You want to know what girls like? They like to spend time with their boyfriends. It doesn't matter if they're going to a movie or sitting at home. You can ask a girl to go to the park and watch the clouds and it would make them happy! What I, the person with absolutely no romantic bone in their body, finds romantic is just being with the person that I love. It doesn't matter what the situation is or what we're doing as long as we're together," Artemis spoke in a matter-of-fact tone, before turning on her heel and continuing into the kitchen.
"Oh."
Wally West sat for a long moment just processing what had been said or at least what he had gotten from her statement. When she returned from the kitchen, sitting at the opposite end of the couch seeming quite a bit calmer.
"Happy now?" Her voice was even and lacked the anger that it had held before.
"I have one question." His throat was dry and it seems like his heart was beating faster than it was supposed to as he waited for her to speak.
"What now?"
"I know that you said I didn't have a brain earlier, so I think I'm allowed to ask, but...did you just say that you...loved me?" Wally carefully avoided looking at her as he asked, feeling his cheeks heat up with every passing second.
Artemis fared no better, looking the perfect imitation of a deer caught in the headlights. She had been caught off guard with the question. Her mouth moved wordlessly as she repeated what she had said and once she had finished she fidgeted with the hem of her shirt before answering slowly, "I guess I did."
"Did you mean it?" Another question asked with hesitance.
She half laughed, feeling a little hysterical and a little light headed as she answered, "Yeah, I did."
Wally gave a little chuckle himself, argument forgotten as he reaches over and grasp her hand in his. Looking like a cat that ate the canary, he grinned widely and squeezed her hand. "Well I guess I love you too, babe."
He thinks that he could get used to her idea of romantic.
I need to stop writing things out of order. As soon as I finish something, I want to edit and then upload it. Only then to remember that it wouldn't be in order and that would bother me.
I have the next two to finish working on and the entire set will be finished and then this plot bunny can be laid to rest and I can get back to working on my cosplays and other projects.
Hopefully, you've enjoyed this.
**The repeated paragraphs at the beginning of the chapter have been fix. Sorry, I didn't even check the formatting before I went to bed last night. That was completely my fault. Thanks for pointing it out to me, BlAcKoNiX.