Disclaimer: I do not own Young Justice
Author's Note: This chapter was a lot harder to write for some reason. I don't know… just was. But it's done now and I'm finally past this stupid block of a chapter. But here is it and I can move onto a chapter I want to write. On another note, I planned out the rest of this story (finally) and damn it's going to be long. ALSO wow I'm so sorry this took so long to put up. I've been having a weird week and things just piled up, so just sorry. Hopefully chapter five will go up Friday. I probably shouldn't promise things though.
Wally was lying on the couch of his living room, his one leg resting on the back of it while the other hung off the side. He was staring up at the ceiling, thinking about the past days. He lifted his arm to rub his face and grunted, forgetting about the cut on it. He let it fall, wondering how much longer he was going to have to deal with it. It had closed up completely now, but it was sore whenever he moved it. Explaining it to his parents had been a nightmare. While Dick, Kaldur, and he supposed Artemis were open about these 'extra curricular' activities, Wally wasn't. He was not sure his parents would be okay with him risking his life, never knowing for sure if he would be okay or coming home again.
He let his eyes drift closed as his thoughts began to wander. They had successfully kept Dr. Melissa Franks alive for the rest of the night and all somehow made it through the next day of school. Wally could barely remember it, to be perfectly honest. The only thing that stuck with him was his shouting match with Artemis that ended with Dick forcing him into a walk around the school grounds until the end of the lunch period.
Every time Wally felt like Artemis and he were making a step forward in their relationship he somehow managed to take two steps back. It wasn't that he did not want to be her friend, a part of him honestly did, but for some reason the two of them just couldn't manage to say a nice word about the other one. They always had to argue and contradict each other. Whenever they managed an actual conversation, Wally, and everyone else, was shocked.
A knock on the front door of his house made his eyes open. He lifted his head up slightly to look towards the door, and lowered it as he saw his mother moving to answer it.
"Oh, hello Megan, how are you?" his mother's voice rang from the door.
Wally sat up quickly and grinned. "Hey Megs!" he called from the living room.
The ginger girl walked in, holding a small Tupperware in her hands. "Hi Mrs. West, hi Wally. I brought some cookies I baked today. I thought you'd like a couple."
"Babe, you get me perfectly," he said, making room on the couch for her. She walked over to him smiling. She placed the cookies on the coffee table in front of the couch before sitting down. "So, what brings you over? Also, no Conner?"
"No, he's spending some time with his family out at their farm for the weekend. Just me today," she answered, folding her hands neatly in her lap.
"Bummer, I had a book to loan him," Wally said, sighing. He reached over to the Tupperware and opened it, grabbing a cookie.
"I'll let him know. Anyway, how are you doing?" Megan asked, taking a cookie herself.
"Good, you know, just relaxing, enjoying the weekend," he said, swallowing the half of the cookie in his mouth.
"That's good. How's your arm?"
"It's getting better, but it still hurts every now and then," he answered, eyeing his friend. "Megan, not that I mind you being here, but if you're just here to see how I'm doing, you could have just called."
"Oh, no I have an actually reason," she said, smiling. She looked Wally over before glancing around the room. "So, you and Artemis…"
"What about her?" he asked, eyeing his friend as she refused to meet his gaze. He could swear that her 'innocent' smile had turned into a smirk.
"You guys just seem, I don't know, close? You two spend a lot of time together," Megan elaborated.
"Spend a lot of time fighting you mean. She's a pain in my ass, that's all," he said, leaning back into the couch, crossing his arms. "All she does is try to piss me off and she does a fantastic job at it."
"You still do spend a lot of time together," she pointed out, looking back at him.
Wally opened his mouth to argue the point but sighed instead. He couldn't deny that he and Artemis did spend a lot of time together. Normally someone else was there with them, but every now and then it was just the two of them. They had walked home together at the end of the first week since she had shown up. Though they argued most of the walk, it was more of a heated debate about why their favourite classes were as good as they were. By the time they reached her house they were laughing. They also had what could easily have been the most awkward goodbye, which resulted in Wally running down the street away from her. He had a hard time believe that only a week had passed since their walk. In the two weeks he had known her, Wally could say she was the most infuriating and exhilarating person he had ever met.
"What does it matter though?" he asked, looking away from Megan. "She's a pain and she tries to be one. Sure, we've had a couple good moments, but there hasn't been enough for us to even become acquaintances."
"Acquaintances with who, dear?" a gentle voice asked behind him. The two ginger teens looked up and Wally groaned. His mother was standing behind them, a tray with two glass of milk on it and a bowl of grabs alongside them.
"No one, Mom," he muttered, sinking into the couch.
"The new girl at school," Megan piped up. Wally shot her a glare, but it didn't stop the girl from continuing. She shifted on the couch, resting her arms on the back of it to get a better look at his mother. "She just got here last week and she and Wally have been at each other's throats since. I think that they secretly like each other, but Wally denies it."
"What's her name?" Mrs. West asked, a grin spreading across her face as she made her way to set the tray down by the cookies.
"Artemis," Wally muttered, crossing his arms.
"That's a lovely name. Should I expect her to come over one day?"
"Don't hold your breath for it," he replied. "Now if you'll excuse us."
His mothers chuckled slightly, gently squeezing his shoulder as she made her way out of the living room. Wally looked back at Megan, still glaring. The ginger girl just laughed at him before reaching for her milk.
"I'm going to tell Conner you cheated on him with me for this," Wally said.
"Right, because Conner will believe that," she replied bluntly.
Wally grinned back at her response, "Worth a shot. But really, Megan, lay off about Artemis. As charming and loveable as I am, I'm not going to be friends with everyone. Artemis is just that person for me it seems."
"Whatever you say, Wally," Megan replied.
The two of them sat on the couch in silence for a bit, Wally grabbing another cookie. He ate it quickly and grabbed for his glass of milk. It was half gone before Megan started talking again.
"So, do you know if we have any missions coming up?" she asked, bringing her legs up onto the couch. She folded them next to her and smoothed her skirt out.
"No, I don't actually," he said, placing the glass back on the table. "I know that the three of them had something small two nights ago, but Dick said things have been slow lately. Well, slow even for them. They're used to slow nights."
"I guess that makes sense. Happy Harbor isn't the most crime filled place out there."
"And yet we still attract assassins," he joked. Megan laughed in response, her smile wide across her face.
Wally was about to ask her about how her own weekend when his phone started to ring. He stood up to pull it out of his back pocket.
"Sorry, it's Dick," Wally said, looking up from the phone. Megan nodded and took a sip of her milk. "Hey buddy, what's going on?"
"Bit of an emergency, actually," his friend's voice sounded completely calm on the other end of the phone. Wally rolled his eyes as he readied himself for new that would have a normal person sounding frantic. "So, you know how we have tons of agents that have retired and such?"
"Well duh, people age," the ginger replied. He sat back down on the couch as Megan leaned forward to try and listen to the conversation.
"Well, one of the old star agents has gone missing. And by missing I mean-"
"Probably captured or something," Wally said, cutting him off.
"It isn't fully confirmed but after a bit of digging around, yeah, it does seem that way," Dick explained.
"So, you want to go check out if this the old guy has actually gone missing?" the older boy asked, glancing over to Megan.
"Basically, you in?"
"Yeah. Megan's here, by the way, do you want her to join in as well?"
"Perfect, I was going to call her after you," Dick said. "Wait, why is Megan there?"
"We've started a hot affair," Wally said, winking at the girl sitting next to him. She shoved his arm, rolling her eyes.
"Oh, so she wanted to talk about Artemis, got it," the younger boy said, sniggering. "You should listen to her, she's probably right. Anyway, can you guys come over to the warehouse now?"
"Yeah, we can come," Wally muttered. He ended the call and shoved the phone into his pocket. "So, we have a mission now."
"Well, I guess we should head out then," Megan said smiling. She stood up and started to clean up the coffee table. "What are you going to tell your mom?"
"That Dick wants me to beat him at video games," Wally said, smirking. "It's my normal excuse. And we do generally play video games together if the missions end early enough, so it's not the worst lie."
Megan nodded. Wally took the tray from her hands and walked to the kitchen where his mother was cooking. He placed the tray on the counter and tapped his mother's shoulder. She looked up from the carrots she was peeling.
"I'm going over to Dick's house for the night. I promise we'll get a decent amount of sleep for school tomorrow," Wally said, kissing her cheek.
"Is it okay if I don't believe you?" she asked, smiling.
"Mother, are you calling me a liar?"
"I'm calling you a teenaged boy going to spend the night at his best friend's house," she stated, pointing a carrot at his chest.
"Mother, you wound me. Dick and I greatly value a good night's sleep before school!" Wally exclaimed. He grinned, squeezing his mother's shoulder before turning to leave the kitchen.
He walked into his front hall to see Megan waiting for him by the door. He grabbed a red jacket hanging in the hall before opening the door and gesturing for his friend to go first. She smiled and walked out, heading down the walkway from his house. Wally pulled his shoes on quickly and jogged after her.
"Why can't you tell us all these things on route here? Or on route to the mission?" Wally whined, sitting on a chair the warehouse, "Why is this stupid warehouse all the time?"
"Because I don't like explain it multiple times over the phone. Plus, I like this place, it's kind of like our warehome clubhouse thing," Dick replied, smirking. He was sitting in the chair next him. The ginger glared at his friend. "So relax, you'll find out everything once we're all here."
There were only four of them there, Conner and Artemis both missing. They knew Conner wouldn't be joining them, trying to sneak out of a family get together at a farm for a top-secret mission was not actually the easiest thing. Artemis was supposed to be there, but seemed to be running late.
"Where is Artemis, anyway?" the boy demanded, his foot beginning to tap repeatedly against the floor. "I'm tired of waiting."
"She is obviously just running a bit late," Kaldur said. He was standing by one of the computers, staring at the screen. Wally couldn't see what exactly was on it, but knew better than to ask. Kaldur was somewhat secretive about the whole secret agent thing and felt some things were better left alone. Shooting a look at him quickly, Kaldur continued, "And Wally, needless to remind you, but you are generally the one who is late to our gatherings and such. I believe you are the last who should judge Artemis one tardiness."
"I'm sure she'll be here soon, so relax Wally," Megan said, smirking at her friend.
"Whatever," he muttered, avoiding her stare.
They all waited in silence. Wally kept tapping his foot. Dick pulled out his phone and started to text someone. Megan made her way over to Kaldur and the two started to talk about something Wally couldn't hear. The red head closed his eyes, trying to move his thoughts off of Artemis.
He looked over to his texting friend and sighed. Wally knew that if he tried to talk about the girl to him, it would end up with him getting an earful of being told to suck up his pride and talk about his feelings. He shook his head slightly, trying to distract himself from the thoughts.
Then, as if on cue, Artemis came running into the warehouse.
"I'm so sorry," she said, coming to a halt in front of the Wally and Dick. She did not spare them a glance as she continued talking. "My mom need help with groceries, and it's just the two of us at home, and I couldn't convince that this was important enough to leave her with all the housework and then she wanted to know all about my day and I'm so sorry."
"That is all right, Artemis, you are here now," Kaldur said, smiling at her. "But now that you are here, I suggest we get down to business immediately."
Dick stood up and walked over to Kaldur. Wally glanced at Artemis before focusing on his younger friend who was beginning to talk, "So, as I briefly told you all earlier, we're going on a sort of rescue mission. I say 'sort of' because it hasn't been confirmed this guy is missing yet. And I say 'mission' even though technically we aren't supposed to be doing this."
"Dick has discovered that ex-agent Kent Nelson has appeared to have gone missing. He was last seen here in Happy Harbor three days ago, and it is known, through hacking," Kaldur said, glancing at his partner, "that he had a hideout here. Dick and I believe that Kent was tidying up in said hide out when he was potentially abducted."
"So, we're supposed to go find this hide out and save him?" Artemis asked, folding her arms over her chest. "Wasn't Kent like a huge big shot before he retired?"
"Yes."
"So, then how are we supposed to find this hideout? I mean, won't it being really hard to find? Like, it's great knowing it's here in Happy Harbor, but this isn't the smallest town out there," the blonde continued.
"Well, it would have been hard maybe twenty, thirty years ago. Nowadays, not so much," Dick answered, smirking. Wally rolled his eyes at this and noticed Artemis did the same. "Like Kaldur said, I already have the hideout's location, and I mean exact location, through hacking, so we're going to head over there immediately."
"With this mission though, I must stress the urgency of it while also stressing the need for subtlety. We do not know for sure that Kent is missing and we do not want to draw attention to his presence here in Happy Harbor if he is safe," Kaldur said. "We will arrive there in our regular clothing, all together. Megan will be joining us to draw less attention to our group. Wally's presence would not be enough hide that there are multiple agents in the area around Kent's hide out."
Wally and Megan nodded, glancing at each other. They have lost track of the number of times they had been used as a 'disguise' for Dick and Kaldur.
"Let's head out then," Dick said. He grabbed a back at his chair as he walked past Wally.
Wally jumped up from his chair and started to follow. Artemis fell into step beside him, her backpack already on her back. Wally looked the bag over, not really registering what it looked like on their last mission. Now he could see how she managed a bow and most likely a quiver in there, the bag was very long, and fairly wide.
"Have you heard of this Kent guy before?" Artemis asked, glancing over at Wally.
Wally nodded, quickly moving his thought from her bag, "Yeah, some stuff here and there while knowing Dick. Apparently he's a big hotshot, though I'm not convinced."
"Oh, and what's got you all skeptical?"
"Come on, the guy was an agent years ago. I bet Dick, Kaldur, even you, could easily best him now. He probably did one awesome thing in his prime and it was all downhill from there," Wally said, shrugging. "I bet I could even best him, nowadays."
"I agree that the only guy you could best is old," Artemis said, smirking.
"Watch it, blondie," Wally said, "but seriously, I'm sure he was great back in the day, but what can he do now?"
"Wally, I ask myself that about you everyday," the girl said, pushing into Wally's side. Wally smiled and pushed back.
The blonde laughed and looked ahead. Wally watched her as they walked out of the warehouse, making their way down the street with the rest of their group. Maybe today they were going to just take steps forward.